The Scrap-Venture was screaming. Not the engines, but the hull the Recursive Iron was vibrating so violently it sounded like a thousand dying bells. Outside, the Sunless Depths were imploding. The Central Siphon, stripped of its core, was collapsing into a bio-mechanical grave, pulling the tectonic plates of the trench along with it.
"Full thrusters! Now!" Commander Kael roared, her hands locked onto the manual override.
Inside the hold, Kenji stood at the center of the room. He wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing. The fourth Star the Scrap of Eternal Hunger had merged with his chest, and his skin was covered in pulsing, obsidian-purple veins that seemed to writhe beneath the surface.
[WARNING: CORE INSTABILITY - 400% CAPACITY]
[STATUS: CONSUMING...]
"Kenji?" Elara stepped forward, her hand reaching out.
The moment her fingers brushed his sleeve, a wave of dark energy surged from Kenji. It wasn't an attack; it was a vacuum. Elara's breath was literally sucked out of her lungs, and the frost-mana in her core began to drain into Kenji's arm.
"Elara, get back!" Bjorn lunged, pulling her away.
Kenji's eyes snapped open. They weren't iridescent gray anymore. They were two pits of endless, devouring violet. He looked at his friends, and for a terrifying second, he didn't see people. He saw Resources. He saw the Rank 6 mana in Bjorn's axe and the Rank 5 essence in Priya's healing light.
"I... I can't turn it off," Kenji rasped, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together. "The Star... it's looking for a connection. It wants to feed."
[SKILL TRIGGERED: PASSIVE HUNGER]
[RADIUS: 15 METERS]
[EFFECT: MANA-DRAIN (CONSTANT)]
"He's acting like a localized black hole!" Mateo shouted, frantically typing on a tablet that was already starting to spark. "If we don't insulate him, he's going to drain the ship's engine and we'll drop like a stone!"
"Priya, use the Stasis-Diamond resonance!" Kenji groaned, falling to his knees as the floor beneath him began to liquefy, the metal being "consumed" by his mere presence. "Lock me down! Use the Second Star to freeze the Fourth!"
Priya didn't hesitate. She channeled her light into the Stasis Diamond floating in the center of the room. A pillar of frozen, silver light struck Kenji.
The violet veins on his skin slowed their pulsing. The vacuum effect dimmed. Kenji let out a ragged breath, his eyes returning to their normal hue, though a ring of dark purple remained around his pupils.
"Is he... stable?" Zola asked, her geomancy-shield still raised.
"Temporarily," Priya panted, sweat dripping from her forehead. "But the Stasis isn't a cure. It's a bandage. The Hunger is still there, Kenji. It's just waiting for the shield to flicker."
The Scrap-Venture breached the surface of the ocean three hours later, leaping out of the water like a flying fish as the trench below finally sealed shut. They were thousands of miles away from the Iron Graveyard, in the middle of the Shimmering Sea.
The sky was a pale, pre-dawn blue, but the peace was an illusion.
"The System's global broadcast is going haywire," Mateo said, pointing to the ship's main monitor.
Across the world, the sky-displays that usually showed Rank-Leaderboards and Council propaganda were flickering with a single image: the Scrap-Venture's silhouette.
[WORLDWIDE ALERT: THE ANOMALY HAS ASCENDED]
[BOUNTY ISSUED: 10,000,000 GLOBAL CREDITS / RANK 9 UPGRADE TOKEN]
[STATUS: KILL ON SIGHT]
"Ten million credits and a Rank 9 token?" Bjorn whistled. "Every mercenary, bounty hunter, and 'Hero' from here to the Spire is going to be hunting us."
"It's not just the hunters I'm worried about," Kenji said, standing by the viewport. He looked at his hands; they were still trembling. "Malos said I've fed the Hunger. He was right. I don't just feel stronger... I feel empty."
"We need a plan, Kenji," Kael said, walking over. "We have four Stars. The Central Authority has three. The balance is in our favor, but we're out of hiding places."
"The Fifth Star," Kenji said, his voice cold. "The Scrap of Blinding Truth. It's not in a dungeon. It's in the Library of Silences, at the heart of the Authority's capital."
"You want to go to the capital?" Mateo stammered. "Now? While the whole world has a hit out on us?"
"They expect us to run to the fringes," Kenji said. "They expect us to hide in the junk again. But the Hunger doesn't want to hide. It wants to go to the source."
Kenji turned to the team. "I won't lie to you. The more Stars I take, the less 'Kenji' there is left. If I lose control... if I start to see you as scrap..."
"Then we'll hit you over the head and drag you back," Elara said, her eyes firm. She stepped closer, ignoring the faint chill of the Hunger still radiating from him. "We didn't come this far to let a purple rock win."
Kenji looked at them his team, his family. The Hunger in his chest hissed in disappointment, but for the first time since the Depths, he felt a spark of his own will push back.
"Then we set a course for the Aethelgard Spire," Kenji commanded. "We're going to give the Architect exactly what he wants. We're bringing the anomaly home."
[NEW QUEST: THE HEART OF THE LIE]
Objective: Infiltrate the Library of Silences.
Current Rank: 6 (Master)
Hunger Level: 12% (Rising)