Chapter 295: The Gauntlet
It was still hungry.
A slow, dangerous smile tugged at his lips.
"... Feed then. Plunder until you’re full."
He drove it back into the monster without hesitation.
The gauntlet responded instantly. A deep, wet thrum resonated up his arm as it drank, or rather, outright devoured. The Heart’s flesh caved inward, blood vanishing faster than its body could even replenish the damage sustained. But instead of releasing it, the gauntlet kept going, pulling impossible volumes of crimson essence and somehow storing it.
The surface of the gauntlet began to change. The dull, battle-worn iron split along hairline seams, retracting in slow movements, as if the metal itself was bowing out of the way for something older and far more dangerous. In its place, a deep arterial red flowed outward, molten at first, then cooling into the armor, making it appear as fresh-forged steel.
Veins of black threaded through it, pulsing, each beat synchronized with the pounding of the Heart, and then, with Kaiden’s own. The sensation was immediate and unmistakable. It didn’t just look alive. It was alive.
The talon-like fingers twitched, testing their own movement without his command. Etched sigils flared with crimson light on his fingertips, then sank beneath the surface, like ink vanishing under skin.
And then the merging began.
The inner lining of the gauntlet softened, warping into something fleshy and warm. Thin tendrils of living metal unfurled from it, sliding into his skin. He gritted his teeth as they pierced deep, threading themselves through muscle and bone, knitting around tendons. It was like being stitched together from the inside, every nerve ending flaring under the contact.