Chapter 88: Drained

Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Drained

Chapter 88: Drained

Lionel Cosgrove gradually stopped paying attention to everything around him as he sank deeper into the sensation coming from the flesh-and-metal core. "This is incredible," he murmured, staring at the twitching mass with growing fascination. "It feels like I’ve gained another arm—no, more like another entire body."

As his thoughts shifted, several surviving metal conduits and fleshy tendrils extending from the core began to move. They curled, straightened, and changed direction according to Lionel’s intention, confirming that the connection was far more direct than any ordinary mechanical control system. Lionel’s initial fear rapidly gave way to excitement as he experimented with increasingly precise movements.

Dr. Seth Brundle watched with shining eyes. "Direct biological control without a conventional interface," he said, almost talking to himself. "If that connection is translating intent straight into movement, this is decades ahead of anything normal engineering should be capable of."

Only Axel Vance was not staring at the core.

His attention was fixed entirely on Lionel.

"Lionel!"

Axel’s voice cracked through the night like thunder.

Lionel jolted violently and finally broke free from the strange sense of symbiosis. He turned toward Axel in confusion, then followed Axel’s gaze down to his own arm.

His expression changed instantly.

The arm attached to the biological conduit had become almost skeletal. Gray, shriveled skin clung tightly to the bone, while dark blue-black veins stood out beneath the surface as though decades of life had been drained from it within seconds.

Before Lionel could fully react, Axel moved.

The enchanted chainsaw flashed through the connection.

The conduit was severed cleanly.

A burst of dark fluid sprayed from the broken end as the fleshy tube writhed violently and snapped backward toward the core. Lionel stumbled several steps away, clutching the ruined-looking arm while the remaining color drained from his face.

He could feel what had happened now.

The core had not merely taken spiritual power.

It had consumed vitality too.

In only a short period, Lionel’s supernatural reserve had been nearly emptied, while enough life force had been stripped away to physically wither part of his body. He stared at the core with an expression much closer to fear than fascination.

"Are you okay?" Carrie White asked.

Her voice trembled as she looked at Lionel’s arm.

The sight clearly horrified her.

Lionel forced a grin that looked far worse than simply admitting he was frightened. "Small problem. Nothing worth panicking about."

Carrie did not look convinced.

Neither did Seth.

Lionel glanced toward the corpse of the black-eyed operative lying beside the opened core. After a moment of hesitation, he walked over, took hold of one of the dead man’s arms, and rested it against his own damaged limb.

He closed his eyes.

A faint trace of Spirit Binding moved through him.

Axel watched carefully but did not interfere.

The supernatural reaction was immediate.

The dead operative’s arm began collapsing inward as the last traces of vitality remaining in the corpse were drawn away. Flesh shrank against bone, color vanished from the skin, and the limb became visibly more desiccated with every passing second.

At the same time, Lionel’s own arm recovered.

The gray skin filled out again.

Healthy color slowly returned.

The dark veins receded beneath the surface.

Within moments, the arm looked almost normal.

Lionel flexed his fingers several times and released a relieved breath. His face remained pale from the overall drain, but the immediate danger had passed.

Seth stepped closer the instant he saw Lionel was stable. "How did it feel?" His concern lasted only long enough to confirm Lionel was alive before scientific curiosity reclaimed him. "What exactly was the core doing to you?"

Lionel looked toward the pulsing mass and shook his restored hand. "That thing is a bottomless pit. It drains spiritual power and life at the same time, then turns both into fuel."

His expression became serious.

"My connection wasn’t the way it was supposed to be used."

Seth looked toward the dead operative.

Lionel followed his gaze. "That guy was fused into it almost completely. Maybe spreading the connection through his entire body made the drain manageable instead of dumping everything through one arm."

"That would make sense," Seth said thoughtfully. "A broader interface could distribute the load."

Axel gave him a look.

Seth immediately added, "Purely theoretical."

Lionel snorted.

Seth crouched near the core and studied it again from a safer distance. "If we could bring this back and examine it properly, the implications would be enormous." His eyes shifted over the fused biological and mechanical structures. "Energy conversion, neural control, living machinery—this thing could completely change how we think about interfaces."

He started considering the practical problem of moving the massive core.

Axel stopped him.

"Wait."

Seth turned. "What?"

Axel did not answer immediately.

He stared at the flesh mass, which had stopped moving once Lionel disconnected.

His brows tightened.

"When Lionel activated it, I felt something."

Lionel’s expression changed.

Seth immediately became more attentive. "What kind of something?"

"A signal."

The word killed Seth’s enthusiasm almost instantly.

Axel continued, "Very weak. I almost missed it. But the moment Lionel started controlling the core, it released some kind of unfamiliar fluctuation."

Lionel looked toward the ruined highway.

"You think it called someone?"

"I don’t know."

Axel’s voice remained flat.

"And that’s the problem."

He walked slowly around the core, studying it from several angles. "Maybe it called another unit. Maybe it transmitted its position. Maybe it just reported that somebody else had connected to it."

Seth sighed.

Axel looked back at him. "Whatever it did, I’m not putting it in our truck and carrying it all the way to Miami."

Lionel immediately nodded.

For once, he did not need convincing.

"I’m with Axel."

Seth glanced toward him.

Lionel rubbed his newly restored arm. "That thing felt wrong. Not just dangerous—hungry."

He looked toward the core again.

"Like bait."

Axel gave a small nod. "Exactly."

Seth’s expression went through several stages of grief.

Scientific fascination.

Denial.

Calculation.

Then reluctant acceptance.

Finally, he sat down heavily on a piece of wreckage and waved one hand. "Fine. Fine. You two supernatural experts win."

He pointed toward the core. "How do we destroy it?"

Lionel looked toward Axel.

Axel walked back to Seth’s damaged utility truck and retrieved several bottles from their remaining supplies.

Seth leaned forward.

"Holy Water?"

"Worth trying."

Axel returned to the pulsing mass and poured the clear liquid across the exposed flesh and metal.

Blood washed away.

Dark residue ran down the side.

Nothing else happened.

The core did not burn.

It did not smoke.

It did not even twitch.

Axel’s expression became more serious.

Lionel frowned. "No reaction?"

"None."

Axel put the empty bottle aside and reached into his coat.

He removed the Blessed Bible.

Carrie straightened slightly when she saw it.

Seth crossed his arms and watched.

Axel opened to a familiar passage and began Holy Reading.

His voice carried the weight of Holy Reading Lv.3 — MAX, while Righteous Words naturally reinforced every line with a calm, oppressive authority. The sound rolled across the empty highway, pushing back some of the lingering unease left behind by the living truck.

Lionel unconsciously stood straighter.

Carrie’s nausea eased slightly.

Even Seth’s restless expression settled.

The flesh-and-metal core remained completely unaffected.

No smoke.

No movement.

No purification.

Nothing.

Axel eventually stopped.

He closed the Bible and stared at the core for several seconds.

Then he sighed.

"All right."

Seth raised an eyebrow.

Axel scratched the side of his head. "I admit defeat."

Lionel looked amused despite himself.

Axel gestured toward the wreckage. "No ghost. No demon. No curse I recognize. Whatever this thing is, it doesn’t care about Holy Water or Holy Reading."

Seth gave a faint smile. "So it’s outside your department?"

"Apparently."

Axel looked over the battlefield again.

The black-eyed operative.

The living truck.

The fused biological machinery.

Then he shook his head.

"Sometimes people manage to build things worse than the monsters."

Nobody argued with him.

After a moment, Axel turned toward Lionel.

"Your turn."

Lionel’s eyes immediately brightened. "Oh?"

Seth looked between them.

Axel stepped closer to the core and studied the surviving conduits. "It can transmit spiritual force. That means it reacts to supernatural energy, even if Holy Reading can’t purify it."

Lionel understood almost immediately.

"You’re thinking Spirit Binding."

"Exactly."

Seth stared at both of them. "You just spent ten minutes convincing me we shouldn’t take this thing home."

"We’re not taking it home like this," Axel replied.

He rested the enchanted chainsaw against one shoulder and looked over the massive core.

"If it qualifies as usable spiritual material, we convert it into something safer before whatever sent that signal finds us."

Lionel grinned.

Axel’s expression remained cautious.

"You and me."

He nodded toward the still-living mass.

"We turn it into a Spirit Binding artifact."

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