The void-slime congealed like clotted blood as Raine crushed a combusted dragonkin's skull. Infantile wails resonated from glacial depths: "Trade the tin girl for your soul... better than mommy's prescriptions..."
Ellen's mechanical spine quantumized, starlit scales falling like cherry blossoms into magma. She pried off a code-embedded skull fragment, stuffing it into Raine's scale fissure: "Proposal... accept..." Her voice glitched with Elaina's lullaby remnants. "My eternity... was always your coffin..."
Global infernos dyed the night bloody. Garret's ice-claw scraped burning ash from glaciers—each pile containing thumbnail-sized crown shards arranging into holy sigils. Tar oozed from his wolf ears: "Fuck... they're counting suicides?"
Serena's coffin surged from magma matrices, dented from within. Her charred fingertips pierced metal: "Cease... cycles by..." Magma flooded the coffin, boiling her words into froth.
Raine's scar split, void-slime hands lifting Ellen's fading form. The demon's whisper rippled through palm lines: "Rebuild her... stay cocooned in 298 sweet cycles..." The new body opened eyes—Elaina's hazel irises framed by Ellen's starlit lashes.
"Lies!" Serena's coffin exploded, draconic claws shredding slime hands. Her新生 skin bore Dracula's sigil burns, fangs clamped on half a mechanical spine. "It's mimicking your deadbeat dad..."
Ellen's quantumization paused. Her metal fingers gouged out Elaina-eyed orbs: "Memory corrupted... transaction validity uncertain..." Scales reformed a micro-crown in the socket. "Sign... soul contract..."
Garret's claw impaled Raine's shoulder, ooze projecting global pyres. A Tokyo elder嵌入 crown shard into his granddaughter's forehead before burning: "Vessel must..."
"They're recasting the crown!" Serena's tail smashed projections, asphalt wings stirring magma. "Each shard's your DNA backup... puppet parts..."
The demon's whisper sharpened. Slime formed Elaina's phantom embracing Raine. Her fingers extracted 298 memory reels from his skull: "See your greed... 298 worlds over her..." Films burned showing Ellen's final smiles.
Serena bit off her tongue, black blood writing Dracula's glyphs. Garret's claws sparked at the second character: "Fucking... gene-editing charts?"
"Sign..." The demon gurgled as Ellen's new body guided Raine's hand. Global shards converged into Crown 2.0 as contract runes materialized.
Serena's fangs pierced Raine's palm pre-signature. Her split pupils—dragon and bat—glowed: "Clause 299..." Black blood seeped into his DNA "...requires host's..."
The void quaked. Ellen's new form stabbed Serena. Elaina's voice glitched: "Interference... purge..."
Garret's claw intercepted, ooze forming the First Dragon's embryo. Global shards homed on his brow: "Variable... eliminated..."
Serena drew a half-cross in ash with dying breath: "...correct way... let vessel..." Her eyes froze on Elaina's death memory.
Raine's pupils bled stardust, signing the contract backwards. Millions of Ellen clones rose from magma: "Host confirmed... genetic rewrite..."
As slime consumed him, Raine saw Serena shove Dracula's fang into Ellen's core. The signature combusted. The demon shrieked with Elaina's dying tones.
Garret's final grasp caught a new crown shard in Raine's scales—etched with Serena's "298.5" in blood.
Submerged Currents
Beneath magma matrices, Citadel labs reformed dragonkin ash into humanoids. Elaina clones in slime tanks awoke, foreheads glowing with Ellen's contract runes...