Whispers of the Clay Doll

Silver Blood Resonance

Selene's lab nestled deep within ice rose roots, where the blue glow of incubation pods wove with petals' cold radiance. Kain stared at clay doll fragments spinning in the resonator, silver blood surging through tubes. Leah's sighs pulsed from speakers every seven seconds.

"When Cinder repaired the doll with your blood, he embedded fragments of her consciousness," Selene adjusted the oscilloscope with her mechanical arm. Brainwave patterns matching the clones flickered onscreen. "Collect all shards, and we might reconstruct her core."

Alys' scepter carved ice trails as a hologram marked three church ruins: "Cinder's journal says 'birthday gifts' are scattered in the Old World's carcasses—always with his damned riddles."

Kain's scaled hand rippled, silver blood crystallizing. Since New Eden, suppressing mutations grew harder. Selene's inhibitors maintained his form, but each injection felt like molten lead in his veins.

Cathedral of Bones

The first ruin was the sunken Cathedral of Bones, its spire piercing icy seas, coral growing through ribcage windows. As the submersible descended, Alys saw fish darting among confession booth skeletons—devotees' finger bones still clutching rosaries.

"Radiation levels critical." Selene tapped gauges, her mechanical eye scanning Kain. "Sure you're diving?"

He tore open his suit's collar, scales glinting in azure depths: "Only my blood triggers Cinder's traps." He plunged in, silver trails attracting mutated eels with rusted cross-shaped teeth.

The basement lock bore Leah's birthdate. When Kain bloodied his palm on it, clay shards seeped out, forming Cinder's specter: "First riddle—what grows stronger when shattered?"

Alys' ice blade impaled a lunging eel, frost crystallizing seawater: "His shitty jokes."

"Hope." The specter laughed, dissolving as the shard fell into Kain's grasp. "P.S. Beware the choir."

The organ roared. Skeletal parishioners rose, anglerfish glowing in their sockets. Their hymns churned currents, dragging Kain toward pipework gears. Alys froze the vortex, shattered keys with her scepter, ice sealing singers into eternal silence.

Cog Graveyard

The second ruin was a steampunk necropolis of gears, tombstones engraved with Godslayer execution dates. Selene's hack disabled patrol crows—their cores housing human hyoid bones.

"Cinder trained me here," Alys crushed a crow carcass. "Taught me to overload the church's pain grids."

Kain's blood dripped on the central tomb, activating gear arrays. Cinder's specter coalesced from rusted steam: "Second riddle—what fire consumes gods?"

Selene's flamethrower whirred, but Alys stayed her: "Shame."

The specter whistled. The tomb split, revealing another shard: "Bingo. Check tomb three east for goodies."

Kain unearthed a corroded box—inside, a photo of young Cinder and Ilana. The back scrawled: "We could've remade the world."

Flesh Foundry

The third ruin maxed Selene's geiger counter. Chimneys spewed bone ash; assembly lines rolled cyborg Godslayer embryos. Alys froze guards as Kain tore through vents.

Embryos with Leah's face and chainsaw spines made Kain retch. Selene's terminal blared: "Core consciousness detected!"

Cinder's specter rose at the conveyor's end, a judgment sword through his chest: "Final riddle—how kill deathless?"

Kain's blood boiled, mutations shredding inhibitors. Bone wings flipped machinery as he snarled: "Something worse than death!"

"Like hope." The specter smiled tenderly before vanishing.

Clay shards rose from embryonic fluid. Kain's silver flower seared his palm. All embryos awoke, chainsaws shredding pods. Alys' scepter birthed ice roses that clashed with whirring blades, icy shrapnel raining down.

Consciousness Tide

The resonator blazed. As the final shard clicked in, Kain plunged into the memory torrent.

Leah carving "Don't fear" in lab walls. Cinder closing eyes at the pyre. Five-year-old Alys hidden in a closet. Fragments swirled toward Leah's fetal curl at the vortex center.

"Brother, take me home." Her voice echoed with millions.

Kain's claw disintegrated in the tide, revealing a human hand. When he touched Leah, every clone's scream shattered Selene's lab glass.

The Awakened

Alys' ice shield held as the girl in Kain's arms blinked awake. Gears lingered in her pupils, but her smirk was pure Leah: "You're late... but the gift rocks."

Selene's screen showed clones fading. Ice roses suddenly pivoted north, forming an arrow—the church's last fortress glowing blood-red in blizzards.

Cinder's casket burst open, ashes mapping new coordinates: "Surprises come in layers, rookies."

Kain hoisted Leah onto his shoulder, his silver flower blooming into a sword hilt. Alys wiped frost from her scepter, painting a crimson X over the fortress hologram: "Time to end this funeral."

Outside, surviving clones reforged church weapons into plows. They hummed Leah's pottery tune, lyrics warped by wind into Cinder's verse:

"Brew altars into wine,To drown the gods' design."