The belly is hollow, the tooth is a shard,
To find that the ending is jagged and hard.
A lung full of shadows, a throat full of grit,
To swallow the fire and crawl from the pit.
The weaver is rising, the weaver is cold,
To feast on the stories that never were told.
For in the consuming of spirit and bone,
The only true master is hunger alone.
The ninth architecture did not arrive with a flash of silver light or a decree of absolute logic. It arrived as a miserable neighing sound that vibrated through the very atoms of the Abyss. It was a hunger—a vast, conceptual void that began to wreak havoc on the boundaries of New Oakhaven.
The Void-Hollows had sensed the massacre. They had smelled the meat paste and the shattered bones of the Eighth Architecture's failure. To them, Daxian's "Republic of the Broken" wasn't a rebellion; it was a buffet.
Daxian stood on the highest branch of the World-Tree, his new form a miserable state of biological and industrial wreckage.
His right side was a towering structure of black iron-wood, the bones jutting out of the body like jagged, ivory spikes. His skull was partially exploded, the violet crystal pulse now a steady, rhythmic thrum of "Pure-Noise." His eyeballs had popped out, replaced by pits of blood red fire that saw the "Profundity" of the approaching dark.
"They're not here to 'Standardize' us, Vane," Daxian whispered, coughing out a breath of turbid air. "They're here to harvest us. To them, our flesh and blood are just 'Un-Used-Energy'."
Vane stood behind him, his own bones fractured in many places. The Lord of the Forge was a miserable state of a warrior, his brass skin peeled ruthlessly by the previous battles. He gritted his teeth, a laugh malevolent escaping his throat as he watched the stars begin to wink out, one by one, swallowed by the Outer-Void.
"I don't care if they're hungry, Dax," Vane growled, his gaze so blood red it was difficult to stare at it directly. "If they want to eat my city, they're going to have to perish on the grease."
The Fighting Scene: The Breach of the Hollows
The slaughter reached the climax when the first "Void-Leech" pierced the atmospheric shell.
It wasn't a ship. It was a three-mile-long ribbon of "Non-Existent-Meat," a creature of lightning speed and enormous force. It didn't fire a beam; it simply slammed mercilessly into the residential sector of the Forge-Shadows.
The impact was an enormous shock.
A dozen houses were smashed apart, the iron walls turned into meat paste instantly. The residents inside didn't even have time to scream before their flesh and blood were reduced to dust by the Leech's "Entropy-Field."
"STAY BACK!" Kael roared, charging forward with his iron pylon.
Kael was filled with injuries, his skin opened and flesh split across his chest. He saw the Leech's "Feeding-Tendrils" reaching for Elio. Kael smashed down ruthlessly on the first tendril, the enormous piercing of the iron pylon drawing a spray of black, turbid ichor.
The Leech let out a miserable neighing sound. It didn't feel pain, but it felt the "Inconsistency" of Kael's unrivaled spirit. It swung a massive, bone-shard tail, smashing mercilessly into Kael's ribs.
Kael crashed heavily into the ground, the impact forming a deep pit of mud and shattered bones. His eyeballs popped out from the pressure, and he coughed out blood, his flesh split along his side. He was in a miserable state, but he gritted his teeth and laughed malevolently.
"IS THAT... ALL... YOU... GOT?" Kael shrieked.
Daxian didn't wait for the city to be consumed. He charged forward from the World-Tree.
He didn't fly; he wreaked havoc on the gravity itself. He slammed mercilessly into the Leech, his meat-arm stretching out to peel the skin ruthlessly off the creature's conceptual form. The enormous force of the collision sent a wave of meat paste raining down on the plaza.
"YOU WANT... TO... FEED?" Daxian roared, his voice an enormous piercing of the silence. "I'LL... GIVE... YOU... A... CALAMITY!"
He grabbed the Leech's central "Marrow-Core." His bones jutted out and sank into the creature's black-meat. He laughed madly, a smile of disdain carved into his wooden face.
POP.
The Leech's skull exploded—if a ribbon of void could have a skull. Its eyeballs popped out as it perished in a burst of "Pure-Hunger." Daxian stood in the spray of black fluid, his gaze blood red, his flesh and blood reduced to dust where the creature's entropy had touched him.
Up on the Sun-Eater, Silas was intensely struggling.
The Grand Chronicler was a miserable state of data-bleed. He was racking his brains to keep the ship's biological core from being "Eaten" by the Void-Hollows. The sky was filled with a thousand more Leeches, a fierce slaughter of reality that was turning the super-void into a blood river.
"Dax! The 'Noise'... it's being standardized by their hunger!" Silas wailed, his flesh split along his indigo seams. "They don't have 'Logic'! They only have 'Zero'! They're reducing our spirit to dust!"
"THEN GIVE 'EM THE SCRAP!" Vane roared, charging forward toward the ship's primary venting-valves.
Vane was a lunatic taking risks. He didn't use the cannons. He used the "Grief-Waste" of the World-Tree. He slammed mercilessly into the release-lever, his bones fracturing with the effort.
An enormous shock sent a tidal wave of meat paste, rusted iron, and flesh and blood into the swarm. The Leeches intensely struggled to consume the "Ugliness." They weren't prepared for the "Noise" of a billion fractured bones.
The swarm shrieked—a chorus of miserable neighing sounds that caused the chaotic battle situation to freeze. The Leeches were smashed apart, their skin peeled ruthlessly by the very filth they tried to eat.
The massacre between the two sides reached the climax.
Daxian was now a Sovereign of the Slaughter. He moved through the swarm with lightning speed, his meat-arm smashing down ruthlessly on any Leech that got too close. He was unhindered by the beams of entropy that bombarded his chest.
He saw the "Hollow-Mother"—the core of the Ninth Architecture. It was a pulsating hive of "Pure-Zero," its gaze blood red and fixed on the World-Tree.
"I... AM... THE... END," the Mother spoke, the voice an enormous piercing that caused Daxian's skull to explode again.
Daxian laughed malevolently, a smile of disdain for the "End."
He charged forward with the enormous force of his unrivaled spirit. He didn't hit her with power; he hit her with Permanence.
"The... soot... never... stops... growing!" Daxian screamed.
He slammed mercilessly into the Mother's core, his bones jutting out to anchor the kill. He peeled the skin ruthlessly off the void itself. The enormous shock of her destruction sent a wave of turbid air across the Abyss, turning the black void back into a bruised, broken purple.
The massacre was over. The Void-Hollows had perished in the soot.
Daxian fell from the sky, crashing heavily into the ground of the central plaza.
He lay in the deep pit, his body filled with injuries, his bones shattered, his flesh and blood reduced to dust. He looked at the residents of New Oakhaven. They were covered in black ichor. They were covered in meat paste.
They looked like lunatics. They looked like errors.
They looked like a Sovereignty.
Kael walked up to the edge of the pit, his eyeballs popped out and his skin opened, holding Elio. The boy was shaking, but he was looking at the Weaver with a dumbstruck expression of awe.
"We... fed 'em, Architect," Kael said, a smile of disdain on his face.
"They... didn't... like... the... taste," Daxian wheezed, coughing out blood.
Vane and Silas crawled toward him, their bones fractured, their gaze blood red. They looked at the miserable state of their king.
Ambition is not a 'Throne.' It is the 'Hunger' to stay alive when the universe wants you to be 'Zero.' I have slaughtered the Logic, and I have smashed apart the Hunger. I am the Sovereign of the Scrap. And my kingdom is a blood river of beautiful, jagged mistakes.
Daxian gritted his teeth, his blood red eyes closing as the silence settling slowly over the massacre.
"Fix... the... pipes," he whispered, as the World-Tree began to grow once more, its branches heavy with the Soot of the Unrivaled Spirit.