Chapter 25

Ryker

A thrill shot through me as Silvar's words reached that tiny part of me that dares to hope for vengeance. I took a step forward toward the cave to ask one more question when everything started to shift, distort, then ultimately fade to black. An instant later, I felt the sensation that I was falling, and I could see a tiny light below me. As I fell towards the light, it quickly grew until it took up every inch of my vision. Then, I slammed back into myself and was ankle-deep into the tank of liquid being slowly lowered.

The disorientation was jarring, and I nearly lost my balance. I refocused my mind on the task before me, knowing that Silvar was in this tank with me and depending on me as much as I was depending on him. The liquid continued to rise up my body as I was lowered, and it took more comforting self-talk than I expected to combat the anxiety of possibly drowning. I assured myself that I had seen others complete this same process, and if they could do it, so could I.

The wet sensation finished its journey up my chest and over my head. I held my breath for a few seconds before, all at once, I forced all the air out of me and inhaled the fluid as fast as I could. My body spasmed as it attempted to acclimate to the foreign substance I introduced it to before it relaxed. I took a moment to bask in the odd feeling of breathing underwater. A flash of memory assaulted me of the man exploding in this very spot hours earlier, chilling my blood. I remembered that this was not water I breathed.

The Vren could be seen swimming lazy circles above my head, but no song could be heard. This continued for the next minute or so, and I could see Ruby patiently waiting by the glass. Then all of the Vren in front of me dispersed and took refuge behind me as a larger dark figure could be seen descending from above. As the Vren came closer into view, I was shocked by the contrast from the soft-featured, kind-looking Vren to this combative-looking beast.

Silvar was similar to the others in the sense he was a worm-shaped entity, but all comparisons stopped there. He was all sharp angles, completely black outside his blood-red eyes and two jagged red stripes. The closer he got, the more intimidating his presence was. It wasn't just his physical form that gave me pause, but more the psychic aura that radiated off him, promising pain and death to his enemies. Quite the imposing presence to feel coming from a 5-inch-long monk worm.

As the thought finished forming in my mind, Silvar stiffened momentarily, and his vertical pupils could be seen constricting. I immediately regretted the thought and knew I would be paying for it if I survived the encounter.

As Silvar continued to close the distance, I saw Ruby animatedly looking through the glass and then raised her arm above her head. I immediately recognized the gesture and snapped my gaze upward to see the mechanical arms begin to separate from the wall of the tank. I knew Ruby had no idea what was happening and was going to try and stop Silvar from reaching me, so I urgently thought in Silvar's direction, “Hurry! Ruby is going to stop us if you don’t finish now!”

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Silvar must have been tuned in because the little guy took off like a bullet and closed the distance in under 2 seconds. I lurched forward with my mouth open as I could see the metallic arm coming down into my peripheral vision from above. Silvar shot inside my mouth, and the blur of the arm passing right in front of my face, where Silvar had been moments ago, sent me flailing backward.

Ruby had a concerned and confused look on her face as she lowered her arm from above her head and retracted the metal one back to its cradle above me. I tried to give her a reassuring nod, but the feeling of Silvar resting on my tongue was quite unsettling. A connection formed in the back of my mind and I heard the same deep voice from the cave echo out. “Brace yourself, young one… I will try not to kill you, but I promise this will hurt.”

While I tried to ignore the tickle on the back of my tongue and how odd it was to make a promise like that, Silvar started to crawl down the back of my throat. He continued downwards and when I felt his body nearly reach my stomach, a tremendous amount of pain blossomed. Silvar used his lamprey mouth to chew a shortcut to wherever he was going. My stomach started to fill, and the nausea became too much. My entire vision went red as I began vomiting blood. The pain did not abate, and Silvar continued to dig and burrow his way through me. I was tearing at my chest, but all of his work was behind my sternum, and out of my reach. He pushed onward and I could sense him arrive next to my heart.

Throughout this process I felt my sanity slipping and my vision kept fading in and out of focus. I could have sworn Ruby was in the tank with me at one point during the fever dream. The sick bastard must have changed his mind on his destination because now my head felt as though it was going to burst and I could feel lightning running the length of my spine. The pain was enough that I begged for death but it never came.

Then I felt one last puncture and a prick of pain before a thrum of white-hot power started to flow into me. Anywhere the heat touched, energy and strength like I had never known before suddenly existed. As the sensation reached the area that Silvar had savaged, the pain intensified before ebbing away, and relief washed over me. The power continued to spread until it saturated my whole body, and every little ache, pain, or old injury I had in my life faded away as if they had never existed. I felt as if I had been reborn in a freshly minted body that had never experienced any pain or discomfort before.

Slowly, the sensation lessened, and the power returned to my blood and flowed back to Silvar. I could feel his presence there. Wrapped around my heart. Silvar gave the tissue there a tiny squeeze that made it skip a beat before returning to normal. The sound of him laughing could be heard in my head before he said, “That was for calling me a monk worm. Next time I'll take a trip to your reproductive organs and halve your chances at producing offspring.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I thought the words, “No, no, no… that won't be necessary!”

A smug feeling came across our connection, and a more serious tone entered Silvar's voice. “Very good. The forging of the bond went much better than I had expected. I was able to flood your body with more than enough vital energy to heal your wounds and reconstruct the parts of you that were worn down or improperly healed. Even your neuro implants should work more seamlessly now that they are fully healed. You should be as optimal as I can make you in your current state, but there is much work to be done, and I have spent nearly all of the energy that I have. As soon as I cut the flow, you will fall into a minor coma like the rest. I expect you to be up in a few days, ready to work, but for now, rest. Power awaits you when you wake."

As the last of the power that Silvar provided me stopped flowing from my heart, my thoughts grew fuzzy. Just before I let the darkness claim me, a question crossed my mind: 'What implants?