Chapter 2 — The Gorgon Awakens
Pain came first.
Not the tearing, devouring agony of the void
But something heavier.
Cole inhaled sharply.
Air...hot, metallic—burned through his lungs as if they had never been used before. His chest rose, massive, powerful, unfamiliar.
He felt weight.
Gravity, a real body, then heat.
A violent, suffocating heat pressed against his skin.
Cole's eyes snapped open.
The world returned in fire.
Rivers of molten lava carved through blackened rock, glowing like veins across a dead land. Smoke choked the sky, thick and endless. The ground beneath him trembled with distant, mechanical groans.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Only breathed.
"…I'm alive?"
His voice came out deeper than expected, layered.
Memory surged.
The void.
The fragments.
The system.
Cole pushed himself up.
The motion felt effortless.
Too effortless.
Muscles responded with terrifying power—no hesitation, no weakness. His body moved like a weapon that had always known its purpose.
He froze.
"…This isn't normal."
Then he saw it.
His hand.
It wasn't flesh.
Blackened metal fingers flexed slowly, reflecting the glow of the lava. Smooth. Seamless. Alive in a way metal should never be.
Cole stared.
"…No way…"
He clenched it.
The strength was absolute.
Unyielding.
[Material Analysis: Living Metal — Unknown Origin]
[Integration: Perfect]
Cole's breath slowed.
"…holly shit…"
The words felt heavy.
"...Seems like I reincarnated into the body of the 10th Primarch"
His gaze shifted.
Not far from where he stood—half-submerged in cooling magma—was the remains of something enormous drowning, a massive dragon-like creature known as the Great Silver Wyrm in molten lava.
Broken.
Twisted.
Its body was forged from the same living metal as his hands—but warped, jagged, as if it had been fighting against itself. Cracks of dim green light flickered across its ruined frame.
Even inactive…
Cole stepped closer.
Each movement sent tremors through the ground.
"…That thing…"
Memory clicked.
The battle.
Not his—but this body's.
Violent, relentless, drowning a massive dragon-like creature in hot-red flowing lava, a clash of will and metal against something ancient.
[Entity Identified: Autonomous Machine Construct]
[Classification: Void Dragon Fragment Host]
"…So that wasn't just in my head."
He looked down at his hands again.
Then at the corpse.
Then at the world.
Slowly, the truth settled in.
"…haa!..Medusa…"
The word left his lips before he could stop it.
His mind raced.
Iron Hands.
Living metal. Industrial world deathscape.
And then—
Silence followed.
Only the sound of lava shifting in the distance.
[Genetic Profile Confirmed]
[Designation: Primarch — Ferrus Manus]
Cole laughed, once, disbelieving.
"You're kidding me…"
"…I didn't just reincarnate…"
He flexed his iron hand again, watching the molten glow reflect across its surface.
"I became the Primarch of the Xth legion "
Cole frowned, remembered something from his past. In the Warhammer 40k lore, the Xth legion ending was not good, especially the Primarch. Ferrus Manus, was beheaded by his brother Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children during the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V. After his death, his legion was massacred with most of his followers trying to protect his dead body. Regardless, his body was torn apart by traitors for trophies, his skull was silvered and brought to Horus. The loss of their Primarch caused the Iron Hands to become fanatically devoted to bionics and despise weakness, with some attempting to create a cyborg version of him, which was subsequently destroyed.
He exhaled slowly.
"Yeah… what a mess."
The wind howled across the volcanic plains.
Ash drifted through the air like falling snow.
Cole stood there—between fire and ruin.
Not imagined.
Real.
Every breath felt like control.
But beneath it all—
Something colder remained.
Understanding.
Cole turned back to the ruined automaton.
A pause.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Well... since I am now the 10th Primarch, I am going to change their fate."
"With the system as my support, control my destiny".
[Correction: Assimilation Completed by Current Consciousness]
Primarch body.
Machine-empowered will.
He looked toward the horizon of Medusa.
Harsh. Unforgiving.
New beginnings. I thought to myself.
"…Alright."
His voice steadied.
Focused.
[Recommendation: Acquire Technological Assets]
[Priority: Establish Dominance]
A faint smirk touched his lips.
"Let's see what kind of world I've been reborn into." he tried remembering.
Medusa IV is the harsh, volcanic feral world located near the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus. It is a world of perpetual gloom, characterized by tectonic instability, frozen mountain ranges, and boiling geysers, where industrial pollutants keep the sky dark. A Waste World with constantly shifting geography, forcing its inhabitants to be hardy, tech-inclined scavengers who view weak flesh with contempt.The planet is populated by nomadic tribes and industrial clans who fought to survive in its brutal landscape. Below the icy surface lies ancient, buried machine-works and techno-archaeology, which the natives salvage and explore.
The ground shook.
Not subtly, violently.
A deep, grinding roar tore through the volcanic plains as the earth beneath Cole's feet shifted. Cracks split open across the black rock, bleeding molten light.
Cole's head snapped up.
"…That's not good."
[Seismic Activity Detected]
[Tectonic Instability: Escalating]
The lava stream beside him surged, overflowing its banks as the terrain tilted.
Cole moved, very fast.
The sheer power of his new body became immediately clear, thanks to his Primarch physique.
Each step covered meters. Each leap carried him across broken ground as if gravity had loosened its hold on him. Heat washed over him—but it didn't slow him.
It barely registered.
His eyes scanned the horizon,...Ruins.
Half-buried structures jutted from the landscape—old, metallic, and corroded. Not natural. Not recent.
"…There."
A jagged ridge collapsed behind him.
Cole didn't look back.
The structure revealed itself as he approached.
Not a building.
A buried complex of sorts.
Metallic plating fused with stone, partially swallowed by time and volcanic ash. Strange symbols...eroded but visibly...lined what looked like an entrance.
Or what used to be one.
The ground trembled again.
Harder.
[Warning: Surface Collapse Imminent]
Cole stepped forward and drove his iron hand into the debris blocking the entrance.
The impact was explosive.
Stone shattered. Metal screamed.
He tore it open.
Inside was dark, cold, but stable.
Without hesitation, he stepped in.
Descent
The world above collapsed the moment he crossed the threshold.
A thunderous crash echoed behind him as the entrance sealed itself under falling rock and molten debris.
Silence followed.
Cole stood still.
Listening.
"…I'm not buried alive, am I?"
[Environmental Scan: Stable]
[Structural Integrity: Holding]
"…Good."
A faint glow flickered to life along the walls.
Not light.
Residual energy.
Ancient systems, long dormant.
Cole moved deeper.
Every step revealed more:
Broken conduits, rusted mechanical limbs
Fragments of unknown devices embedded into the walls
This wasn't just a shelter. As Cole looked around, the place appears to be a graveyard of machines.
[Technology Detected]
[Status: Degraded]
[Recommendation: Begin Analysis]
Cole knelt beside a half-buried device.
A simple construct—cylindrical, with fractured internal wiring.
Nothing like Titan tech.
Primitive.
"…Let's test this."
He reached out.
Not physically.
He initiated the system scanning.
[Scan Initiated]
The system first Analysis, the world shifted.
Data flooded in...but controlled this time.
Precise.
[Object Identified: Energy Conduit Regulator]
[Function: Power Distribution]
[Efficiency: 42%]
Cole blinked.
"…That was fast?"
More data followed.
[Flaws Detected:]
– Energy leakage
– Structural degradation
– Inefficient routing
[Suggested Improvements Generated]
Schematics formed in his mind.
Clean. Refined.
Better.
Cole exhaled slowly.
"…I see it."
Not just what it was—
But what it could be. The improved blueprint was automatically saved in the systems archive.
clang!, clank!
A sound cut through the silence.
Ping!, metal scraping against stone.
Cole turned.
From the shadows...Something moved.
Although not as large as the automaton from before.
But still harmful. Cole immediately took a defensive stance.
A scavenger construct, half-functional.
Its limbs twitched erratically as dim light flickered in its core.
It lunged.
Cole reacted instantly.
No system guidance.
Only instinct.
He stepped forward.
The construct's blade-arm slashed—
Cole caught it with his metallic hands, metal collided with metal.
The impact rang through the chamber.
"…Too slow."
He twisted.
The limb tore free.
The construct staggered—
Cole drove his fist through its core.
Silence.
The machine collapsed.
Dead.
Cole stood there for a moment.
Watching.
"…So I don't need help fighting."
"… I figured. It should be fighting techniques from my awakened gene-seed."
"I wonder what the emperor implanted". Cole thought curiously, then shook his head - not important
He looked back at the device in his hand.
Then at the ruins around him.
"…So this is how the system works." No OP main character, not instant power, not free knowledge, study, understand, improve.
The system didn't make him stronger.
It made him… dangerous.
"Alright... System, how do I get out of here?"
[Structural Mapping Complete]
[Alternate Exit Located]
A path appeared in his mind.
Hidden corridors. Collapsed passages.
A way out.
Cole stood.
"…Good."
Hours later...
He stepped out from a hidden opening on the far side of the mountain range.
Behind him—
The land he had awakened in collapsed completely.
Lava consumed everything.
Cole didn't look back.
Instead, he raised his iron hand slightly.
Watching it.
Thinking.
"... First step to changing my destiny".