Chapter 5: Fatal Decoding
The roar of the Sonic Disintegrator reverberated through the skeletal energy well. High-frequency pulses tore through the geometric shadows, while the control system's icy mechanical voice resonated in Leah's skull:
SYNCH RATE 41%—SACRIFICE REMAINING LIFE TO MAINTAIN SEAL FOR 59 MINUTES
Bronze metal patterns had spread to Leah's shoulder blade, each pulse devouring her neural pain receptors. She looked up at the altar—her father's pocket watch hovered within a gear-shaped halo, its face reflecting the nanogray mist surging from the well's depths. The "Door" sealed by her father's lifeblood was tearing through spacetime.
"Use my blood!" Renée ripped open her abdominal bandages and pressed the amber-studded bone pendant into the control slot. Her blood soaked the amber in the ancient skull's eye sockets, boosting the disintegrator's power by 30%. Shadows vaporized with a screech. "The energy well recognizes bloodlines… My family are the tomb guardians of its builders!"
I. Star Chart Imprint: The Decryption Key of Triple Visions
Agony erupted! Leah's mechanical arm quantum-entangled with the ancient bones. The blood-soaked star chart exploded into three spacetime visions:
Stellar Trails in the Water Abyss: Twenty years ago, Dr. Castro knelt in the same swamp. Laser engravings inside his watch case pierced the darkness—"When Three Stars Sink into the Eye, the Door Appears in the Abyss of Reflections." His star chart fused with an underwater metal platform; Orion's Belt shattered into bronze gears on the leaf-choked water. Truth of Blood Sacrifice: A Mayan priest slit his wrist. Blood seeped into the bark-paper star chart, dissolving mineral pigments to reveal metal grooves—a miniature prototype of the Sonic Disintegrator! The priest's skeleton gradually overlapped with Leah's mechanical arm. Displaced Spacetime: Present-day Renée plunged a dagger into a caiman's eye. As black blood sprayed, the swamp's waterline abruptly dropped by 9.8 meters—the dry season had desiccated the anchor point, weakening her father's life-forged seal!
"The anchor is dynamic…" Leah coughed up blood flecked with metal shards. "Water levels! The dry season drained the swamp… destabilizing the star chart's anchor!"
II. Rainforest Equation: The Deadly Game of Ecology vs. Machinery
"54 minutes left!" Chief Kukuma's arrow pointed upward. Simulated "sunlight" morphed into blue-purple radiation—vines crushed bronze pipes like pythons; carnivorous flowers devoured metal, spitting alloy scraps. Vegetation was digesting alien tech!
"The system is rebuilding the food chain…" Leah gasped, grasping her father's notes. "'The Door cannot open' because the ancients anchored the city to the swamp's waterways—water is both barrier and coordinate!"
She jammed her mechanical arm into the console, hacking the data stream. Alien symbols gnawed at her optic nerves, reassembling into legible commands:
COORD LOCK: 4°11'N, 60°12'W (CURRENT WATER LEVEL: -9.8m/CRITICAL) KEY VERIFICATION: ORION'S BELT → TEMPLE EYE OPTICAL REFRACTION PROTOCOL CONFLICT: ANCHOR FAILURE → ACTIVATING "ARK" ECO-RESTRUCTURING
"Eco-restructuring…" Leah trembled, watching the voracious vines. "This hellhole is turning the rainforest into a power farm!"
Laser grids flickered out. Surviving shadows fused into a prismatic spike, hurtling toward the energy well's core. Kukuma blew a bone whistle; warriors raised poison-arrow barricades, but arrows vaporized on contact.
"Take her to the anchor!" Renée hurled her shattered bow at the spike, carving a blood-soaked path. "Reset the Three Stars' alignment—I'll hold them!"
Leah was yanked into a lift. As cables snapped, she saw Renée leap into the well, her amber pendant embedding into a skull. The disintegrator's overloaded blast fused shadows and Renée into blue light.
III. Crocodile Eye Star Trails: The Parasitized Swamp Sentinels
The lift crashed into an underground river. Murky water swirled with fluorescent jellyfish, illuminating Mayan hydrological calendars carved into rock—the ancients transformed the Amazon Basin into a living stellar calibrator! A warrior groaned, collapsing—his pupils glowed red; metal worms bulged in his carotid artery.
"The gray scourge parasitizes through water!" Leah pressed her mechanical arm to his wound. Metal veins devoured the parasites. Agony flashed data:BIOPARASITIC PROTOCOL ACTIVATED COMPATIBLE HOST DETECTED: SYNC RATE 53% → UNLOCKED AQUATIC MICROBE CONTROL
Blue specks gathered at her fingertips. Microbes marched like soldiers, forming Orion's reflection—it pointed to a fork where three caiman corpses floated, bronze spears jammed in their eye sockets.
"Father's markers…" Leah dove into the fetid riverbed, groping for a raised bronze ring. As her arm slotted into the base groove—
The river split! Left whirlpools reversed into a vortex; right currents stilled into a mirror, reflecting true stars: Orion aligned with the riverbed groove. Deep inside… her father's diving goggles were wedged between gears, lens cracks spelling "SOS" in Morse code.
"He left this warning alive…" Leah clutched the goggles. Her right fingertips fully metallic, sync rate surging to 67%.
IV. Inverted Water Mirror: Recalibrating Stars and Hydrology
The cavern ceiling collapsed. Parasitized warriors' eyes burst with metal tentacles. Leah plunged into the left vortex, slamming against a bronze mirror. Instead of her reflection, Dr. Castro bled on the other side!
Shadows closed in behind him. The vision froze—his finger pierced the mirror, pressing Leah's mechanical arm.
"Leah… listen…" His voice crossed spacetime. "Anchor calibration needs starlight refracted through the Temple Eye—but the dry season's low water skews the angle by 0.78 degrees…"
He ripped his shirt, blood-scribing an equation on the mirror:
sinθ = n·λ / (h + Δh)
θ=refraction angle | n=water purity index | λ=Orion α-star wavelength
h=baseline water depth | Δh=dry season deficit
"The ancients used monsoon floods to offset Δh… Now we must raise the water manually!" A shadow impaled his chest; blood drowned the formula.
In reality, Leah whirled. Three bronze spears levitated via microbe control, aimed at weak bedrock. "Help me… one last time…" Her arm jammed into the riverbed base. Spears missile-slammed the wall—a subterranean lake burst through!
Water levels surged. Orion's reflection trembled, inching toward the groove's center.
V. The Door Ajar: Container or Annihilation
Methane boiled. Parasitized caimans charged, eyes blazing red. Leah rode rising currents toward the groove—her arm locked in.
The swamp floor lit with blue grids—a neural network awakening. The riverbed cracked open, stairs descending to a seething silver mire. At its heart stood the true anchor: a half-buried Mayan pillar piercing alien alloy, its turquoise eye refracting moonlight skyward.
Leah fell into the anchor chamber. Her father's holographic watch materialized, its lid flipping open to project a miniature star chart. The console blared red:FINAL PROTOCOL ENGAGED CHOOSE: A. REPLACE FATHER AS CONTAINER (SYNC RATE 100%) B. RELEASE GRAY SCOURGE (EARTH BIOSPHERE DEGRADATION EST.: 97.3%)
The watch's second hand rewound to the moment her father vanished. In its ticking, his final words vibrated in her metal marrow:
"The true Door lies between stars and abyss—don't become the container. Become the Keymaster!"
Metal veins now crept toward her heart. With the countdown near zero, Leah's choice would tear the rainforest apart.
Key Translation Notes
Technical Terminology
Sonic Disintegrator (emphasizing destructive resonance) 纳米灰蛊 → nanogray scourge (combining "nano" + "gray goo" apocalypse concept) 同步率 → Sync Rate (standard sci-fi localization)
Cultural & Mythological References
Mayan Star Chart (retaining cultural specificity) Temple Eye (capitalized as sacred artifact Truth of Blood Sacrifice (reflecting Mesoamerican rituals)
Scientific Concepts
Refraction equation (sinθ formula preserved with variables explained) Hydrological Stellar Calendar (fusing astronomy/hydrology)
Action Sequences
Dynamic verbs: shattered, vaporized, quantum-entangled, surged Sensory details: fetid riverbed, fluorescent jellyfish, seething silver mire
Emotional Nuances
Father's sacrifice: "sealed by her father's lifeblood" Renée's last stand: "fused shadows and Renée into blue light" Leah's transformation: "Metal veins now crept toward her heart"
The translation maintains the novel's blend of archaeological mystery, body horror (mechanical assimilation), and cosmic stakes while ensuring fluid readability for English audiences. The dual-timeline revelations and hydrological sci-fi concepts are anchored in clear, visceral prose.