The wind died down as they descended deeper into the Bronchial Maze.
The howling gale of the upper airways was replaced by a heavy, humid stillness. The air here was thick, tasting of copper and rotten eggs. Droplets of condensation fell from the rusted pipes above, sizzling when they hit the metal grating of the walkway.
"It is getting hot again," Elara whispered. She wiped sweat from her forehead. The frost that usually clung to her skin was melting, dripping onto her poncho.
"We are close to the stomach lining," Thalos replied. He checked the map on his wrist unit, but the screen was filled with static. The interference from the Titan's biology was getting stronger. "The map is useless. We have to follow the flow."
They walked for another twenty minutes until the narrow catwalk ended abruptly.
Thalos stopped. He held up a hand to halt Elara.
"Dead end?" she asked, peering around his bulky frame.
"No," Thalos said grimly. "A washout."
The walkway did not just end. It had been dissolved.
Ahead of them, the metal grating twisted and melted into nothingness. Beyond the edge lay a cavernous chamber. It was a massive junction where a ruptured gastric vein had leaked into the respiratory system.
The floor of the chamber was a lake.
It was not water. It was a bubbling, translucent green liquid that emitted noxious yellow fumes. The "Acid Lake" stretched for fifty meters, blocking the path to the ventilation shaft on the other side.
Thalos picked up a loose bolt from the floor and tossed it into the liquid.
HISS.
The steel bolt dissolved in seconds, vanishing into a puff of grey smoke.
"Hydrochloric acid," Thalos muttered. "Concentrated. If we touch that, we melt."
Elara stepped back, pulling her scarf over her nose. "There is no bridge. How do we cross?"
Thalos looked at the walls. They were slick with slime and too smooth to climb. He looked at the ceiling. The pipes were too high to reach without his piston spear, which he had lost in the fight with the spiders.
He looked at the lake again. He looked at his own hand, encased in the grey, chitinous armor of the [Dermal Plating].
"I can cross it," Thalos said.
Elara looked at him like he was insane. "Thalos, that bolt disintegrated. You are tough, but you are not invincible."
"The Beetle lived in this," Thalos argued. "Its shell was immune to acid. I ate the shell. I have the shell."
He walked to the edge of the platform. He needed to test it.
He lowered his left boot into the bubbling green sludge.
SSSS.
Smoke rose from his leg. Thalos gritted his teeth, expecting agony.
He felt heat. Intense, prickly heat, like stepping into a scalding bath. But he did not feel his skin melting.
He pulled his boot out. The leather of his mining boot was gone, eaten away instantly. But the grey skin underneath was intact. It was red and irritated, but it held.
[Passive Skill: Dermal Plating active.]
[Resistance Check: Acid Damage mitigated by 80%.]
[Warning: Prolonged exposure will degrade armor.]
"It holds," Thalos said. He turned to Elara. "But only for a few minutes. And only for me. You can't touch it."
"So I stay here?" Elara asked, her voice rising in panic.
"No," Thalos said. He crouched down, presenting his broad back to her. "Get on. Do not let your feet dangle. If you touch the liquid, you lose a foot."
Elara hesitated. She looked at the bubbling lake, then at her brother's back.
"This is a bad idea," she whispered.
But she climbed on. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hooked her legs around his waist, hiking her knees up as high as she could.
"Hold tight," Thalos ordered.
He stepped off the platform.
He sank into the acid up to his waist.
HISS.
The sound was deafening. Yellow smoke billowed around them. Thalos roared in pain. It was not burning his skin yet, but the heat was cooking him inside the armor. It felt like wading through lava.
[Health: 98%]
[Health: 97%]
The damage was slow, ticking down one percent at a time.
"Thalos!" Elara cried, coughing in the fumes.
"I am fine!" Thalos lied. He pushed forward. The liquid was thick and viscous, fighting his every movement. "Keep your head up!"
He waded toward the center of the lake. The level rose to his chest. He held his arms up high to keep Elara's legs clear of the surface.
Twenty meters. Thirty meters.
His skin was screaming. The red warning lights in his vision were blinking faster. The acid was eating through the first layer of the plating.
[Armor Integrity: 60%.]
"We are halfway," Thalos grunted. Sweat poured down his face, mixing with the condensation inside his mask.
Suddenly, Elara went rigid on his back.
"Thalos," she whispered. "Stop."
"I can't stop!"
"Something is moving," she hissed. "Under us. In the acid."
Thalos froze. He felt it too. A displacement in the heavy liquid. A current swirling around his legs.
"I thought nothing could live in here," Thalos muttered.
"The Titan makes monsters for every environment," Elara replied. "It is big. And it is circling."
A shape broke the surface five meters to their left.
It looked like a worm, but it was the size of a subway train. It had no eyes, just a circular maw filled with rows of spinning, translucent teeth. Its skin was pale and coated in a thick, clear mucus that protected it from the acid.
[Target Detected: Gastric Tapeworm (Adult).]
[Level: 5.]
[Threat: Extreme.]
The worm reared up, towering over them. It screeched, a wet, gurgling sound.
"It wants to knock us over," Thalos realized. "If I fall, Elara dies."
The worm slammed its body down, creating a wave of acid.
Thalos braced himself. He dug his feet into the slippery floor of the chamber.
"Hold on!"
The wave hit them. The acid splashed over Thalos's shoulders, sizzling against his neck. Elara screamed as a droplet hit her boot, burning a hole through the rubber.
Thalos did not budge. He was an anchor.
The worm lunged. It aimed for Thalos's head.
Thalos could not dodge. He could not use his hands to fight because he was holding Elara's legs.
"Elara!" Thalos shouted. "Freeze it!"
Elara didn't need to be told twice. She released her hold on his neck with one hand. She pointed her palm at the lunging monster.
Her eyes glowed blue.
"Ice Lance!"
She didn't use mist this time. She focused all her fear and adrenaline into a single point.
A jagged spear of ice, three feet long, materialized in the air.
THWACK.
The ice spear fired. It hit the Tapeworm right in its open maw.
The creature gagged. The ice shattered inside its throat, freezing the soft tissue instantly. The worm thrashed, throwing its head back in agony.
"Go!" Elara screamed. "Run!"
Thalos churned his legs. He fought against the sludge. He ignored the burning. He ignored the System warnings screaming about armor failure.
[Armor Integrity: 30%.]
The worm recovered. It shook the ice shards from its mouth and dived under the surface.
"It is coming from below!" Elara warned. "It is going to bite your legs!"
Thalos felt the water pressure change. The monster was rushing up from the depths, aiming to swallow him whole.
Thalos saw the ventilation shaft. Ten meters away.
"I can't outrun it," Thalos growled.
He made a choice.
"Jump!" Thalos roared.
He stopped wading. He crouched down, submerging himself to his chin, and then exploded upward. He threw Elara.
He launched her through the air with all his strength.
Elara flew across the remaining ten meters. She landed hard on the metal grating of the exit platform, rolling to a stop.
She scrambled to her knees. "Thalos!"
Thalos was alone in the lake.
The Tapeworm erupted from the acid beneath him. Its jaws clamped around his waist.
CRUNCH.
The teeth ground against his [Dermal Plating]. Thalos roared as he was dragged under the surface.
The green sludge closed over his head.
Elara watched in horror. The lake bubbled violently. She could hear the muffled sounds of a struggle beneath the surface.
"Thalos!" she screamed, raising her hands to fire more ice, but she couldn't see a target. If she froze the lake, she would freeze him too.
Underwater, Thalos was in hell.
The acid was everywhere. It filled his ears. It burned his eyes. The worm was thrashing, trying to grind him into paste.
But the worm had made a mistake.
It had swallowed a Titan Eater.
Thalos grabbed the inside of the worm's throat. His claws sank into the soft flesh. He didn't try to escape. He pulled himself deeper.
[Skill Activated: DEVOUR.]
[Range: Contact.]
[Target: Gastric Tapeworm.]
Thalos bit the inside of the monster.
He tore a chunk of meat from the worm's esophagus. He swallowed it, acid and all.
[Consumed: Gastric Tapeworm.]
[Healing Activated.]
The worm shrieked underwater. It could feel its life force being drained from the inside. It tried to spit him out.
Thalos refused to leave. He clawed his way down the gullet, eating as he went. He was a virus. He was a cancer.
He tore through the muscle wall. He ripped through the cartilage.
The worm stopped thrashing. It went limp.
On the surface, Elara watched the bubbles stop. The lake went still.
"No..." she whispered. Tears froze on her cheeks. "Please no."
A hand broke the surface.
It was grey. It was smoking. And it was holding a massive, pulsating gland torn from the monster.
Thalos dragged himself out of the acid. He climbed onto the platform, collapsing onto the cold metal. His armor was pitted and scarred. Smoke rose from his entire body.
He coughed, spitting out green slime.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[XP: 150.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[New Trait Acquired: Acid Resistance (Intermediate).]
[New Mutation: Mucus Membrane.]
Thalos rolled onto his back. He looked at Elara. His skin was already healing, a thin layer of clear slime coating his wounds, soothing the burns.
"That..." Thalos wheezed, holding up the gland. "...was spicy."
Elara stared at him. Then she started laughing. It was a hysterical, terrified laugh. She crawled over and hugged his smoking, slimy chest.
"You idiot," she sobbed. "You absolute tank."
Thalos patted her head with his heavy hand.
"I told you," he said. "I eat anything."
He sat up. He looked at the gland in his hand. It was the worm's acid sack.
"Doc Silas would pay a fortune for this," Thalos mused. "But I think I will keep it."
He stowed the gland in his pouch. He stood up, shaking the acid from his legs.
"Let's go," Thalos said. "Before his mother shows up."
[Status Update]
[Name: Thalos]
[Level: 4]
[Armor: Damaged (Regenerating)]
[Resistances: Toxic (High), Acid (Med), Impact (Med)]
They turned to the ventilation shaft. The air coming from it was cooler. Cleaner.
They had survived the gut. Now, they were entering the Heart.