Chapter 196: Sinking

The creature continued to drop.

The rise of flesh under their feet sank in uneven stages, sometimes slowing, sometimes falling several meters at once. Fog rose around them in thick waves, cutting visibility to almost nothing. Dark fluid still leaked from the ruptured wound far below, staining the mist as the massive body retreated deeper.

Lian kept his stance low and ready. The surface under him flexed with every movement of the creature. It was no longer thrashing as violently as before, but it was far from dead. Long limbs still swept through the fog at irregular intervals, slower now, less accurate, yet still strong enough to kill if one connected cleanly.

“It’s not finished,” Elara said. She stood a short distance to his right, blade held ready, eyes moving through the limited space the fog allowed. “It’s just trying to get away from the damage.”

Ryzek wiped fluid from his face with the back of one arm. The crystalline ridges along his forearm were chipped and stained.

“Then we do not let it recover,” he said. “If it goes much deeper, we lose it in this fog and we are left standing on nothing.”

The rise under them dropped again. The movement forced all three to adjust. A hatchling that had somehow clung on this far lost its grip and vanished into the mist without a sound. Fewer of the small ones remained. Most had been thrown off or crushed during the earlier convulsions. The ones still present stayed close to the damaged sections of the body, as if drawn to the wound.

Lian moved to the edge of their current platform of flesh and looked down. The fog was too dense to show how far the rest of the body extended, but the sense of mass beneath them remained clear. The creature was vast. The damage they had done to the core structure had hurt it, but it still had size and strength on its side.

“We need another opening,” Lian said. “Same place as before. If we can reach the wound again while it’s still focused on sinking, we might finish what we started.”

Elara glanced at the shifting fog below.

“The wound is lower now. We’ll have to climb down the body to get there.”

“Then we climb,” Ryzek said.

They started down.

The descent was slow and unstable. The membrane under their boots was slick with fluid and still moving as the creature adjusted its bulk. Lian took the lead, testing each section before putting his full weight on it. Elara followed close enough to cover him. Ryzek stayed at the rear, dealing with the occasional limb or remaining hatchling that came too close.

A thick adult limb rose out of the fog to their left and swept across the slope of flesh. Lian dropped flat against the membrane. The limb passed over him close enough that the displaced air pulled at his clothes. Elara cut a shallow line across it as it withdrew, drawing another spray of colorless fluid. The creature did not turn to retaliate. It seemed more focused on putting distance between itself and the damaged section of its back.

They continued downward.

The fog grew thicker the lower they went. Sound became muffled. The blue embers that still drifted somewhere far above gave almost no useful light here. They moved by feel and by the limited shapes the mist allowed them to see.

After a long, careful descent, the ruptured wound came back into view.

Dark fluid still poured from it in a steady flow. The edges of the membrane around the opening had begun to thicken, as if the creature was already trying to seal the damage. The firmer structure Lian had cut into earlier was partially visible inside the wound, still split, still leaking.

“There,” Lian said.

They closed the remaining distance as quickly as the unstable surface allowed. A pair of hatchlings tried to block the final approach. Ryzek blasted one apart. Elara killed the other with a single thrust. Lian reached the wound first and dropped to one knee beside it, examining the partially sealed edges.

“It’s already trying to close,” he said. “We reopen it and go deeper this time.”

Elara took position on the opposite side of the wound. Ryzek stood over them both, eyes moving through the fog for the next attack.

Lian drove his blade back into the split core structure and began forcing the opening wider again. Elara cut at the thickening membrane to keep it from closing around the weapon. The creature under them shuddered, but the response was weaker than before. The earlier damage had taken something out of it.

A low, heavy vibration rolled through the body.

Ryzek’s voice came sharp from above them.

“Limb. Large one. Right side.”

Lian did not look up. He kept working the blade deeper into the core. Elara shifted her stance but stayed committed to the wound. Ryzek stepped into the path of the incoming attack and met it with a full burst of amber energy. The impact lit the fog for a moment and pushed the limb off course, though the force of the exchange drove Ryzek back several steps.

Lian felt the core structure give another fraction under his blade.

“Almost,” he said through clenched teeth.

Elara added her full strength to the edge of the opening, tearing the membrane farther apart. More dark fluid poured out. The smell became nearly overwhelming at this range. The firmer structure inside split wider under the continued pressure.

The creature’s body seized once more.

This time the movement was different. Instead of a violent thrash or a rolling attempt to throw them off, the entire mass under them seemed to lock in place for a moment, as if the damage had finally reached a point the adult could no longer ignore or compensate for.

Lian shoved the blade in to the hilt.

The core structure ruptured fully.

A heavy surge of dark fluid and internal matter erupted from the wound. The vibration that followed was deep and final. Limbs still present in the surrounding fog dropped or thrashed without control. The remaining hatchlings went still or fled into the mist. The great body under them began to lose cohesion in the damaged section, the membrane sagging as support structures failed.

The rise of flesh they stood on started to collapse inward toward the ruptured wound.

“Back!” Lian shouted.

He pulled his blade free and moved. Elara stayed with him. Ryzek covered the withdrawal as the surface under them gave way in sections, folding toward the massive injury they had forced open. Fog and dark fluid rose together as the creature’s body settled lower, no longer able to maintain the same height or structure in this part of its form.

They climbed toward the nearest section that still held firm, leaving the ruptured wound behind them as the massive pale body continued to sink and weaken in the fog.

Power Scale / Cultivation Realms (Quick Reminder)

Foundation Realm (Layers 1–9): Body forging, no external Qi.

Circuit Awakening Realm (Early–Peak): First Qi loop, internal bursts.

Core Condensation Realm (Early–Peak): External Qi release, short flight.

Stellar Circuit Realm (1–9 Stars): True flight, Qi armor, energy projection.

Nebula Dominion Realm and higher: Domain control, galaxy-level power, etc

Power Scale Reminder

Lian Yu: Stellar Circuit Star 1.

Elara Voss: Core Condensation Peak

Keep it as reminders