Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Into the Crimson Verge (5)
The light turned while the sky was still arguing about color.Red bled to darker red. The drums changed tempo—three short, one long. Marching time.
Varga’s voice cut through the heat. "Move."
We did.
Elise whispered and the ash listened. Her spell pulled the gray into a loose funnel around us, a slow-spinning corridor that bent the light and muted sound.It smelled like burnt salt and fear.
[Environmental Status — Ash Density ↑]
[Detection Risk — Reduced (Temporary)]
The ridge sloped down into the basin. Below, the rivers of magma pulsed in time with the drums—arteries under skin.
Every pulse pushed heat through my boots and into my bones.
"Thirty meters to the first node," Varga murmured. "Stay inside the lane."
"Inside the lane," I echoed, trying not to think about how the lane was made of murder-fog.
We hugged the cliff’s curve until the bridge came into view again.
Up close, it looked worse.
The span wasn’t built—it had grown. Chains fused into slabs, slabs into an unbroken sheet of black iron that breathed under its own weight. Each exhale sent ripples through the air like a heartbeat too big for its cage.
[Warning — Structural Mana Flux ↑ 15 %]
[Source : Active Forge Node]
"Looks alive," Elise muttered.
"It is," I said.
Varga crouched, scanning the supports. "Anchor ropes here, here, and here. Lucien, lock the return line."
Lucien drove the hooks in—one sound, clean, controlled.
Elise’s ash shroud thickened until even the glow from the rivers below dulled to a ghost light.
"Cross," Varga ordered. "Be quiet as you breathe."
"Breathing optional," I said, and went first.
The bridge greeted me with a hum I felt in my teeth.Each step pressed back, like walking on the diaphragm of something trying not to wake up.
[Lightning Step — Ready 1/3]
[Agility Output : 208 % Baseline]
[Body Temp : 41.8 °C]
The blind sentries stood halfway across.
Armor like poured night. No eye-slits. Spears held vertical, tips pulsing faint red in rhythm with the drums. Listening, not looking.
Between them loomed the doorman—the golem I’d seen before.
Half metal, half meat, face a furnace crack. Its chest glowed dull orange, each breath sending heat ripples across the span.
Varga whispered in my ear through comms, voice flattened by static. "Positions?"
"Two sentries mid-bridge, one big ugly center mass. Still dormant."
"Copy. Don’t wake it."
"Wasn’t on my bucket list."
I moved, slow as erosion. The others followed at staggered intervals, using the ash veil like a moving shadow.Lucien’s rune tether thrummed against my wrist—heartbeat to heartbeat. Elise’s breathing clicked over comms, tight, counting seconds.
Halfway across, the hum under my boots shifted pitch.
[Warning — Power Loop Fluctuation Detected]
[Forge Grid Integrity : 84 %]
I knelt, pretending to check footing. The metal beneath my palm pulsed—hot, then cold, then something stranger.The system whispered before I could think.
[Hidden Path : Forgewalker Resonance Sync 56 %]
[Forge Node Detected]
[Option : Overload / Drain / Copy Pattern]
"Not now," I muttered.
A drop of sweat—or blood, maybe both—hit the plate.
The bridge shivered.
Red light spider-webbed outward. The hum climbed an octave.
"Cross," Varga hissed. "Now."
[Detection Risk → High]
I pushed to move—and the golem breathed.
Metal groaned like tectonic plates. Its head turned with a sound like stone cracking. The blind sentries snapped to attention, spears angling toward the noise.
"Fuck me," I whispered.
[Detection : Confirmed]
[Hostile Activation — Forge Sentinel (A-Rank)]
[Absolute Regeneration — Suppressed (27 %)]
[Power Loop Surge + 12 %]
The golem’s chest split along the glow line, exhaling molten air.The bridge flexed.Lucien’s calm broke. "Varga—temperature spike! Pull him!"
Varga’s voice: steel. "Negative. Get across. Cross, cut the link!"
The bridge under us started to sing—deep, metallic, wrong.The red veins along the walls flared in response.
"Ethan!" Elise shouted. "I can mute one node!"
"Then do it before it writes us into the scenery!"
She slammed both palms down. The ash around us thickened to tar, sucking the light out of the air. The first of the sentries stepped forward and vanished into it with a hiss like quenched steel.
[Environmental Distortion — Active (Elise Weave)]
[Detection ↓ 12 %]
Not enough.The golem raised its hammer.
[Lightning Step — Step 1/3 Active]
I blinked twenty meters sideways. The hammer hit where I’d been—iron buckled, fire exploded upward.
[Damage Avoided : Lethal Impact]
[Heat Exposure : Severe]
[Hydration ↓ 13 %]
My inner voice, distant. "Heart rate one-fifty-eight, Ethan! Cool down or you’ll—"
The rest drowned in the forge’s roar.
I grabbed the node seam, jammed Fangpiercer into it, and prayed to any god with a sense of humor.
The blade sank an inch, met resistance, then bit.
[Fangpiercer Critical]
[Armor Penetration 30 %]
[Forge Loop Efficiency ↓ → 76 %]
The hum staggered. Light along the walls flickered like a dying pulse.
The golem froze mid-swing.
Everything went quiet except the crackle of molten metal dripping off its hammer.
Varga’s voice came through the static. "That did it. We move!"
"Glad you like my sabotage package," I said, and jumped.
[Lightning Step — Step 2/3 Active]
[Cooldown → 2 s]
I landed beside Elise, grabbed her wrist, and hauled her toward the ridge line. Lucien and Varga were already covering the retreat, shields flaring pale against stray shards of light.
The bridge behind us screamed—metal bending against itself. One of the red veins ruptured, sending a fountain of molten spray into the air.
We hit solid stone just as the shockwave reached us. It rolled across the ridge like thunder trapped in a jar.
[Absolute Regeneration — Triggered (Limb Stress)]
[Cooldown : 10 s]
[Recovery : Partial]
Pain flared, then dulled. Good enough.
Varga hauled me upright by the collar. "Report."
"I poked the wrong wire," I coughed. "Bridge threw a tantrum."
Lucien ran a scanner over my ribs. "Pulse normalizing. Hydration borderline. Regen still throttled."
"Story of my life," I said.
Elise looked back over her shoulder. The bridge was a silhouette against the forge’s glow—broken, but not dead. Red light crawled along the cracks, stitching itself back together.
"They’re repairing it," she said. "Already."
"Yeah," I said. "Figures the city’s got better self-care than I do."
[Power Loop Stabilizing → 76 %]
[Hidden Path Progress + 3 %]
[Quest Progress : Reach Inner Ring 63 %]
Selene’s voice crackled in, distant but sharp. "I felt that surge from here. What the hell did you touch?"
"Everything," I said. "By accident."
"You compromised the grid?"
"Accidentally on purpose."
A long pause, then: "Good work. Now get clear before it notices."
"Too late," I said.
Because the drums had changed again.
No longer work rhythm—this was war tempo.Every beat hit like a cannon underfoot.From the far side of the basin, the forge exhaled a column of fire straight into the clouds.
Thousands of voices rose under it—low, unified, angry.
Lucien whispered, "That’s not just noise. They’re calling something."
Varga drew his sword; the blade hummed against the heat. "Move. North ridge, now."
We ran.
The slope pitched upward, slick with ash that turned to glass under our boots.Elise’s ash-lane spell unraveled behind us—couldn’t hold against the wind from the forge. Lucien’s healing field flickered in and out, each pulse weaker than the last. My ribs throbbed like they were keeping time with the drums.
[Absolute Regeneration — Suppressed 27 %]
[Lightning Step — Chain Reset → Ready]
A line of molten debris crashed beside us—chunks of bridge, thrown by the blast. One skidded past my ankle, spraying sparks.
"Reminder!" I shouted. "Next time we plan, maybe don’t cross the angry god’s aorta!"
"Duly noted," Varga barked.
Lucien’s voice shook with static. "Cross, your core temp’s climbing again."
"Tell it to stop!"
Elise snapped her fingers; ash surged, forming a rough wall that turned a spray of molten shards into harmless dust. She staggered after. "That’s all I’ve got!"
"Good enough!" Varga grabbed her arm and pulled her forward.
We dove into a shallow ravine carved by cooling lava. The air down there tasted like rust and regret, but at least it wasn’t on fire.
The drums echoed overhead. For a heartbeat, I thought they’d lost the rhythm. Then I realized they hadn’t—they’d changed keys.
[New Signal Detected — Harmonic Shift]
[Forge Node Recalibration → Countermeasure Protocol Initializing]
"Oh good," I said. "Now it’s updating."
The ground under us pulsed once.
A ring of light rippled outward through the slag field.
"Detection grid," Lucien said. "They’re mapping for us."
"Can we outrun it?" Elise asked.
"Not if you ask politely," I said.
[Lightning Step — Step 1/3 Active]
I grabbed Lucien’s shoulder, blinked us twenty meters uphill, grabbed Elise next, blinked again.Each Step burned like swallowing electricity.
[Cooldown : 2 s]
[Musculoskeletal Stress Accumulating]
[Heart Rate : 163 bpm]
"Ethan!" Lucien yelled. "You’ll tear something—"
"Already did!"
Third Step—too fast. Vision tunneled. I almost over-shot the ridge.
We collapsed behind a slab of slag-stone as the ring of light passed underneath, scanning the valley like a radar beam. It faded into the distance, unsatisfied—for now.
Silence came back in pieces. My chest felt like someone had swapped my lungs for hot bricks.
[Lightning Step Chain Exhausted — Reset after 5 s Idle]
[Absolute Regeneration Cooling Period Active]
[Status : Functional / In Pain]
Varga crouched beside me. "You good?"
"Define good," I rasped. "If breathing’s optional, yeah. I’m amazing."
He almost smiled. "You bought us time. We use it."
Elise leaned against the rock, eyes reflecting the forge’s light. "They’ll seal the bridge. We lost the easy route."
"Easy?" I said. "That was the easy one?"
Lucien looked at the horizon. "If they’re sealing it, the next entry is underground."
Varga nodded once. "Then we go under."
"Sure," I said. "Deeper into the hell-furnace. What could possibly go wrong?"
Nobody answered.The forge’s glow pulsed again, slower this time, like a creature settling back to wait.
The system chimed, too cheerful for the scene.
[Quest Update : Reach Inner Ring → Progress 68 %]
[Hidden Path Resonance Achieved : Stage 2 Unlocked]
We stayed in the ravine until the drums eased back into their work rhythm.Above us, the city glowed—angry, alive, watching.
I lay on the warm stone, chest rising slow, and said the only thing that fit.
"So, yeah. We knocked."I looked at the forge lighting the sky."The city answered. Loudly."