“What to do, what to do?” Gira mumbled to himself as he stared at the cold metal bars above.
Bzzzt. His crystalcomm buzzed.
“Hmm?”
Gira grabbed the little crystal device and inspected it. He had received a notification from an unknown mess of numbers. Shrugging, he replicated what Lisk’Pier had done and accessed his home screen. There he spotted a little message bubble icon with a couple of notifications.
“I wonder who this number is?”
Tapping in, he read the oldest message first.
“yo im aria your new sister! lucas told me u wanted to go exploring krreat unfortunately we can figure something but im currently on a spiritual quest so if I dont die we can figure something out!”
Ohh, right, I almost forgot about this… Gira thought as he continued reading.
“YO! did u really try and eat alice?! LMAO. good that stupid lil brat deserved a good scare glad u didn't kill her! also we might not be able to climb krreat for a while. I heard my uncle got you good”
“That’s not the reaction I was expecting but I’m glad she’s not mad at me. Hopefully that means she's still willing to help me explore Krreat!”
The next message read.
“your in deep shit bud! I heard they were thinking of killing u bet ur happy my uncles got ur back or else youd be getting cremated. lol. ill try an stop by Mory plu sometime this month to meet up. hope we can meet each other soon. hang in there and avoid Xizus calls at all cost because when uncle Morray was training me she would constantly call to bitch at me for leaving. So hang in there bud.”
Wow! Her grammar is atrocious. K’s voice resounded within.
“Oh hi, K!” Gira said, “I mean, I understood everything she wrote. She seems like fun! How should I respond?”
Perhaps with a polite and concise answer. K suggested.
Nuh uh! Savagrios jumped in. We must show her our good nature and wit!
No, you dork, just be casual! Berserkrios added.
“Hmmm…” Gira pondered, “How about this!”
He began to type.
“Hello! Nice to meet you Aria. Sorry for trying to eat Alice I didn’t mean to, but im glad u thought it was funny. Thank you for the warning about Xizu she scares me. It’ll be awesome to meet you!!!”
“How about this, guys?” Gira asked.
You have some grammar errors…
You make us sound lame!
Great job! Although it feels too eager.
“Ehh, I think its fine.” Gira retorted and then sent the message.
And with that, Gira’s life in Môry’Plu officially began. His first few days were spent exploring the vast alabaster halls of the manor where the Voltasaxx squad resided. The complex was enormous, filled with an assortment of seemingly pointless decorative rooms that stretched deep into the cliffside. The floors descended in tiers, following the natural curve of the rock face, leading down to a white beach and a secluded cove. This was where Gira had spent the past four days—swimming in the pristine waters, playing with the strange little creatures that lived there, and basking in the sun.
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Meanwhile, his crystalcomm had been bombarded with an onslaught of calls and increasingly aggressive messages from Xizu. Which he chose to ignore out of sheer, primal fear. He also found it odd that he’d been allowed to just exist with no real consequence, but he was kind of okay with this turn of events.
He’d also barely interacted with the local rangers since most of them were nocturnal, spending their nights hunting abyssal anomalies or dealing with the ever-irritating Servinae parties. That left Gira with a comfortable solitude, which he fully embraced as he idled in the waters, waiting for the designated day when he could finally transform into his new Coarseblood form.
During this time, he also started messaging Aria more often, learning not just about her but also the history of the Voltasaxx squad, which he had now become a part of. He had come to know that before the abyssal leak, this ranger station’s primary job had been keeping the Servinae’s parties and projects in check—something that, as Gira learned more about them, made perfect sense.
The people of Môry’Plu were strange. He didn’t fully understand them, but he knew damn well he hated them. They were obsessed with maintaining a constant emotional, physical, and chemical high, which led to endless nights of blaring music that he had come to absolutely loathe. Because if there was one thing Gira had grown to cherish, it was the sweet release of sleep, and the incessant blast of what could barely register as music made it borderline impossible to pass onto the fading scapes of his cozy dreams.
Still, the days made up for the nights. Between the wonders of the beach, the random games within the entertainment halls, and his beloved midday naps, Gira found himself genuinely enjoying his time.
But his placid little existence had not gone unchallenged.
Above Gira, Morray and Borren were leaning against the stone railing of one of the terraces.
Borren stared down at the listless Gira, a foul grimace plastered across his face. The old ranger anxiously caressed his beard as he glanced between Gira and Morray, who was seemingly lost in the endless blue of the horizon.
“Captain, why the hell is that little twit gettin’ away with doin’ fuck all? All I’ve seen him do is eat, shite, and mess about?” he asked, annoyed, as he watched Gira cartwheel around the beach while blabbering to himself.
Morray looked down at the energetic Gira messing around, his eyes dull but gentle as they swept across before turning to Borren. He sighed, “Think of it this way, Borren.According to his file, the boy was found just over a year ago—no memory, nothing. That same night, the attacks on Trant occurred, which led to him wasting his body and going into a coma. And when he finally woke up a whole 17 months later, he lost control and was unfortunately brutalized by me. The kid’s barely had a chance to live, and now command wants him either dead or turned into a weapon.”
Borren lowered his head, watching Gira fool around by the water. “Look at ya, gone all soft…” he paused—“but just maybe, that’s what’s best fer once.”
Morray looked back up at the blue horizon. “The Penthestat is in a couple of weeks; we must quell the abyssal condensation near the city as much as possible before more Servinae show up.”
Borren let out an exasperated sigh. “Those dirty perverts are a right pain. Cryin’ shame the Tarantula so bloody fond of ‘em.”
“Really is.” Morray said as he turned away from the terrace balcony.
Back in Krreat, Bern had been poring over everything he could find—not just on Coarsebloods, but on Calamity Entities as a whole. The so-called fractalization of Gira didn’t sit right with him. He compared the scant records on Coarsebloods with the reports on the victims from the pool room incident, focusing on one unsettling detail: the rangers who had suffered blood loss despite never coming into direct contact with the creature.
There were 24 such victims. Some hadn’t even been inside the facility. So why had they been bleeding?
Of the 24, nine were men. Each had suffered major bleeding—one from the mouth, another from a faint cut on his hand, and the last from internal hemorrhaging caused by an ulcer. The remaining 15 were women. Thirteen of them had experienced heavy vaginal bleeding, while the other two had bled from the mouth.
Bern frowned. Somehow, Morray had known to warn the nursing staff ahead of time, advising them to evacuate wounded personnel—including any women who were menstruating. But how did he know?
And more troublingly, this grotesque phenomenon wasn’t something ever documented in Coarsebloods. He scoured the archives for anything similar, but only two events bore any resemblance: the fall of Corborrat-3 and the destruction of the Monstrom Research Station.
But what he uncovered only deepened his fear.
The creatures responsible for those disasters weren’t Coarsebloods.
They were pure-blooded Calamity Entities.
But that didn’t make sense.
The blood samples Xizu had retrieved, along with the Coarseblood mass taken from the pool rooms, were definitively Coarseblood genetic matter. Gira’s profile was bizarre—Bern knew that much—but the lack of congruent evidence gnawed at him.
Where had he come from?
What was the deal with his eyes?
The personality shifts, the strange behavior recorded in the interrogation room.
What was he?
Perhaps an echo… something mirroring? Copying? Emulating?
And how did Morray know?
Morray was well-versed in the sensibilities of Kyyr, but was that truly enough?
Bern exhaled sharply and cleared his desk, stretching his arms before leaning back. His gaze drifted upward, settling on the simulated night sky above him—a vast, black expanse, free of the vile red crack.
For a moment, he let himself sink into the illusion of peace. Then, with a sigh, he returned to his research.