Alex lead the team across the floor area of the warehouse, weaving between the rows of pods. He had finally spotted where he was headed; a heavily fortified box of a room that was wedged into the corner of the warehouse. From the outside, it appeared to be made from an even stronger Fros-steel alloy than the entrance door had been.

With Alex running point, the rest of the team fanned out loosely behind him in a wedge so that each of the 14 soldiers accompanying him had a clear line of sight on the door. Alex made sure everyone was ready before he approached the door, gingerly unwrapping the strange key as he did so.

Placing the key into place, lines of dark blue spread from the area until they spiderwebbed their way over the entire front wall of the room. After a few seconds, the lines solidified around the impression of the door and it slowly slid away into the surrounding wall.

For a few moments, there was complete silence. Then a low hum could be heard inside. Inching forward, Alex slowly entered the room, his hands ready to draw his weapons in an instant.

Along the opposite wall was a huge array of control panels, and directly in the center was another pod. This pod was significantly larger than the ones outside, and had a number of huge cables running from it. These cables split off in 2 directions and led to two tables that looked similar to the ones Alex had seen Nieve and Iclyn on in the chamber under the Council compound. Where those had been bare, these tables had a strange helmet looking thing at the head end. Alex took in all of this in moments as he moved slowly further into the space to make room for the rest of his team to enter.

Before Alex had time to say anything the hum emitted by the pod began to ramp up in pitch, drawing Alex’s attention back. Alex had time to see ‘Primaris’ stamped into the front of the pod before it was ripped free and forcibly thrown in his direction.

Alex attempted to get out of the way but was clipped on the arm and sent spinning off his feet. He heard some muffled cries as those behind him took the brunt of the projectile, carving a little swathe through their ranks. Pushing past the dull ache in his limb, Alex got to his feet and looked back at the pod just in time to see a hulking figure climbing out.

“Welllll noooowwww… Whattt do wwwwe haaaave heeeere…” The figure’s voice almost seemed to stumble over the words, as if unused to forming the sounds required. As more of it emerged from the wreckage of the pod Alex saw what looked to have once been a Fridigian. It was probably 10 foot tall, and rippling with more musculature than Alex could fully comprehend. It stretched, and cracks like gunshots sounded throughout the space.

“Aaaaah, that’s betttterrr. Now. You aren’t my siblings, and I appear to have been woken far too early for this cycle.”

Alex looked at the hulking figure and tried to call up its information.

???? (p) lvl 328

Alex had never seen anything fail to get named by the connection before. Whatever this thing was, apparently the Veil itself was unable to tell. “What ARE you?” Alex winced at his choice of opening line, cursing himself for allowing that to slip out.

The figure gave a gutteral chuckle. “Straight to the point. Seeing as how you’re all going to be dead momentarily, let’s not bother wasting my breath.”

As Alex was registering the thing’s words he suddenly found himself flying backward, his entire torso on fire. The last thing he saw was a figure blurring towards the rest of his team as he slammed into something and everything went dark.

Whittaker watched the creature climb free of the pod and felt a small tremble of fear run the length of their spine. It had just launched the solid pod door away as if it weighed nothing, plowing straight into the midst of their lines. Already they could hear the sounds of those struck moaning from the pain of the impact, but found themselves unable to tear their eyes off of the figure in front of them. The thing’s voice was terrifying, mangling its words as it spoke. And then Alex was suddenly flying past them, impacting on the wall and coming to rest in a crumpled heap.

“FALL BACK!!” Whitt roared, grabbing onto the nearest bodies and pulling them with them as they activated Jump Charge and fled the room. Retreating back into the open was the only thing Whitt could pull from their brain in its state of shock. Whatever this thing was, it had laid Alex low in a single moment and they couldn’t even see what it had done. As Whitt’s skill ended and they spun back to monitor the doorway, a body flew through it and came crashing to a halt at their feet. It was the Sergeant.

“Sergeant, stay with me! C’mon wakey wakey!” Whittaker gently shook the body in front of them, relief flooding through them as a groan escaped from blood-soaked lips.

One by one, the creature threw the rest of the team out of the room before finally emerging with Alex over its shoulder.

“Alex!” Whittaker shouted upon seeing this.

The figure cracked a crooked grin. “Ahh so this is Alex. I am so glad to put a name to a face.” Alex was then grasped around the middle and slammed into the floor, letting out a garbled scream as consciousness came rushing back to him in a flood of pain.

Unsure of what to do against such a monumental threat, Whitt looked around briefly to check on the status of those that were thrown in their direction. They were heartened to see that most were already back on their feet, albeit swaying slightly. The Sergeant had gotten up and was stood beside Whitt watching the figure throwing Alex around like a ragdoll.

“Whittaker, we need to save Alex. That thing is going to kill him before he has a chance to fight back.”

“I know Sergeant, but I don’t know what we can do against it. Alex is at least on par, if not surpassing my strength and its using him as a plaything…” Whitt agonised, unable to see any way forward.

“We do what we have trained to do. Fight dammit!” Raising their voice the Sergeant yelled, “Soldiers, on me!” before drawing their sword and running directly at the figure. The rest of the team all roared their agreement and charged in behind their leader.

Whitt held back for a moment, waiting for the perfect opportunity to run in and grab Alex. They knew that likely some, if not all, of the soldiers were likely to get hurt or killed in their attack, and Whittaker wasn’t willing to waste their potential sacrifice. As the Sergeant and their men neared the figure they unleashed all of their collective skills, unconsciously pairing into their patrol pairs.

The Sergeant hacked furiously at the closest limb, which happened to be one the the things misproportioned arms, causing the creature to pull back momentarily. Whitt seized the chance and Charge Jumped straight at Alex, wrapping an arm around his midriff and then activating the skill again to just narrowly avoid the creature’s strike.

Alex couldn’t think. The pain was just too much for his mind to move past. Even against Gaet he hadn’t felt this outmatched. Every few seconds another wave of pain crashed over him as the ‘Primaris’ landed another blow on his already battered body. He vaguely heard someone call his name, but in his current pain-state time seemed to stretch cruelly, prolonging his agony.

He felt something grab him around the middle and prepared for yet more pain, but was surprised when a second later he found the expected pain didn’t manifest. Mustering every ounce of willpower he had left, Alex forced his eyes open. He found himself lying on his back staring up at Whittaker.

“Alex… Thank fuck I managed to get you out of there. Rest up, your passive healing should get to work faster now you’re not under direct attack.”

And then they were gone. Alex blearily made out the sight of Whittaker activating Frigid Wastes before launching themselves into the melee. Alex felt the rush of cold air given off by the skill and shivered, sending a fresh spike of pain through his body.

Unable to help in his current state, Alex focused on slowly reactivating all of his passive skills which had turned off when he was knocked out. As soon as he activated Infusion he could both feel and visibly watch as his injuries knitted back together before his eyes. 200hp/s meant that in under 30 seconds Alex was again stood completely healed.

Having spent a few seconds watching his team get slowly whittled down by the ‘Primaris’ Alex realised that this thing was beyond even the possessed form of Gaet in terms of raw power, but it lacked true coordination. It moved fast and hit hard, but there was no technique behind the blows. This was what had allowed the highly trained Fridigian soldiers to even remotely hold their own for as long as they had.

Alex withdrew his BucklAxes and willed Rockflesh to extend over their form. He held his hands together and proceeded to fuse them into a massive 2-handed axe with a serrated cutting edge.

Timing his entrance to coincide with Whitt landing a solid blow on the creatures opposite side, Alex did something he prayed would work. Activating Jump Charge, Alex felt for the skill to take effect and then dropped his weight and pushed off into the air as hard as he could. The ground under his feet cracked from the pressure even with him reducing his own weight, and he shot into the air like a rocket.

Following the trajectory in his mind, Alex waited until the apex of his jump before adding as much gravity to himself as possible. This, combined with the damage bonus from his charge skill would hopefully be enough to cause the creature at least some damage.

Alex had aimed his blow to hit mid-target, but even at the speed he was travelling the damned thing managed to move partially out of the way of his attack. Instead of landing a clean blow on the monster's chest, Alex instead cleaved its left arm clean from it’s body.

The creature reared back away from the attack and let out a harrowing howl of agony. Alex felt a similar effect as to what Gaet had used on him start to settle over his mind. But instead of rage, this feeling made him want to curl into a ball and hide away.

Gritting his teeth, Alex fought off the wave of terror. “Not this fucking time you piece of shit. That trick won’t work on me!” Around him the rest of his team didn’t fare so well. Alex saw Cyia grab the sides of their head with both hands and drop to their knees, Gul just stood staring wordlessly into the distance with a silent howl on their lips. Whitt and the Sergeant had fared only a little better as some of their ingrained conditioning helped them begin to combat the mind altering skill.

Realising that for the time being he was on his own Alex quickly raised a low wall and used it to corral the suffering members of his team and remove them from immediate danger. Looking over at the ‘Primaris’, he saw he had but a few scant seconds left before it regained it’s wits and renewed its attack.

Unsure of how best to proceed against the creature, Alex decided to see if he could reuse a similar tactic as to when he and Whitt had picked off the attacking Ursu horde back in the caverns. With his much greater control over his earth powers thanks to Adareth, Alex rapidly formed a set of narrow walls on either side of the ‘Primaris’ to limit its movement, as well as various heights of walls between himself and it.

Just in time, as it shook its head clear and looked up directly into Alex’s eyes.

“I was just going to kill you all, but now I’m going to take my time and slowly take you apart!” It snarled.

“Yeah yeah… What is it about you Neth pricks that makes you want to keep talking all the time?” Alex spat back, keeping the thing distracted and talking whilst he formed hundreds of ultra-compacted stone bullets behind his back.

The creature blinked in shock. “You know of our names? How is this?”

Still vying for time, Alex waited a few moments before replying. “Well… I killed Gaet, or whatever was wearing them like a suit. I then proceeded to kill 3… no 4 of the parasites that were trying to possess my friends. Their names were helpfully displayed in the moments before I ended their pitiful existence in this realm.”

“You… Killed one of my siblings? And our conversion parasites?” It stammered, unable to comprehend how such a weak specimen could have possibly bested one of their elites.

“That's what I said. Not sure how you’re related, as you don't seem as… black and blobby as Gaet did when I destroyed them, but once I kill you as well I’m sure my friends and I will find out from those machines in the room.” Alex had finally managed to create as many rock bullets as his control level would allow. He jumped back over his creations and began to fire them one after the other directly at the creature.

The first few were swatted from the air easily enough, but as Alex continued to blast an ever growing number at the creature he also made the ones he had already fired continue to whip around in an ever increasing cloud of stone chips and dust.

The ‘Primaris’, already weakened by the loss of it’s arm found itself besieged. Alex maintained his relentless assault, focusing on the existing gaping would and slowly worming the rock further and further into the creature’s exposed flesh.

Whittaker and Sergeant had finally managed to shake off the mind altering effect and were both stood watching the fight in awe. Neither had ever seen a level of control over an element like Alex was currently displaying. To them it looked like the creature was slowly being eroded away at the edges, the wound left by its missing arm slowly widening as more and more flesh sloughed away. They shared a look of both horror and respect at what Alex was managing to achieve by himself.

Alex could feel himself finally beginning to tire, but still he kept up his attack, unwilling to stop before the creature had ceased to be a threat. Using the rock and dust almost like a grindstone he systematically tore away at the creature. After another 30 seconds or so he finally had to release his skill, drained almost entirely. Before him, lying in a smooth-edged crater in the floor were the remains of the ‘Primaris’. It had been reduced to nothing more than a sludgy black pile of flesh, almost entirely unrecognisable as the creature that had attacked them so viciously.

Alex slowly approached the crater, intent on making 100 percent sure that the thing was dead. As he got nearer a lance of black goo speared directly towards him. Unwilling to touch the vile substance Alex dove to the side. It sent another couple of tendrils soaring towards his new location.

“Your fleshhhh shall make an abssssolutely perfect new hosssst to enrich with my being.” The creature bubbled as it began its fresh assault.

Despite his best efforts, Alex’s leg got caught by one of the tendrils and he found himself being slowly drawn towards the mass. He scrabbled furiously to try and gain purchase and halt himself, even going so far as to try and shape rocks and handholds, but the creature had him entirely in its grasp now.

Whittaker watched on in horror as Alex was slowly engulfed by the being. They and the soldiers had all tried numerous times to rush to Alex’s rescue, but had had their efforts rebuffed by the thrashing tentacles of the creature. They were all forced to watch on helplessly as Alex slowly vanished into the center of its being. As soon as Alex was absorbed the black substance of the creature began to harden, and even with all of them attacking it, nothing seemed to penetrate this shell.

Alex felt as the substance slowly enveloped him entirely. He scrunched his eyes closed and held his breath, pinching his nose shut as well, but he knew it was useless. Eventually he would need to take a breath.

“I can feel your fear Alex. Just give in. Let me in willingly and I will make sure you feel no pain during the process.”

Alex heard the thing talking all around him, the flesh quivering with each word it spoke. He could feel it probing around every inch of his flesh to find a way inside his body. He had never felt more glad of his bodysuit under his gear, as the image of the being entering from… that… area suddenly filled his mind.

His lungs were burning now, the urge to take a breath rising, a reflex he knew he couldn’t fully stop. He had stopped thrashing a little while ago, trying to conserve as much of his dwindling air as he could. He could no longer hear Whitt and the others trying to get him free, and he hated that he even considered that they had abandoned him, but the fear was tainting his every thought and emotion now.

Finally he could hold on no longer, his pulse pounding loudly in his ears, and throbbing in his chest. His body demanded oxygen and even knowing what was coming he was powerless to stop himself. His mouth opened and he tried to take a deep breath, immediately filling his mouth and throat with the creatures gooey black flesh.

“Finally you relent. I was growing tired of waiting.”