Interstellar Beast Master

Chapter 71: Fallout I

WAP!

Lyra Veyrin and Serena were hurled from the portal as the latter dragged the former out, Lyra immediately laying down the bloodied bodies they carried before trying to dart back in.

"We have to help him!"

And yet,

PAH!

Serena slapped Lyra so hard, her body was knocked backward alongside her bouncing Blue Slime.

Lyra stared at her in shock, fury burning in her eyes. But Serena, her Trial Guardian flames simmering black, stood firm, her face shadowed with tension.

"Help him how? Are you a Symbiotic Resonance Interstellar Beast Master? Do you even understand what’s happening in there? The only thing we can do is wait for reinforcements... which shouldn’t be long."

In the distance, the sound of Medic Drones and emergency vessels echoed, racing through the underground expanse toward them.

Lyra understood the logic. She did. But still...

"Therion..."

Tears traced silent lines down her cheeks as Serena exhaled shakily and sat cross-legged before the pulsing purple portal, eyes falling on the broken forms of Ariana, Becca, and Guardian Flameborn.

The others hadn’t been as lucky.

This was a nightmare.

Less than a minute later,

[We are here to help.]

[We are here to help...]

Robotic voices rang out from the distance as specialized ZENTHRA Medic Drones zoomed toward the motionless bodies. And just behind them,

SAA!

Blue tentacles flicked through the air, snapping with sickening grace as a figure astride a massive Frog Interstellar Beast came into view.

Serena and Lyra both turned sharply, recognition igniting in their wide eyes.

A Guardian had arrived, one feared for both his brutal effectiveness and lack of mercy.

Guardian Sludgeborn.

He loomed like a murky warden of the underworld, clad in armor that dripped like tar, viscous, bio-synthetic, forged in swamp-tech. His skin was a diseased green-gray, wide yellow eyes glowing with amphibious intensity. A rebreather pulsed at his throat, filtering toxins from the Beast’s oozing aura.

His Beast was a horror to behold.

The Abyssal Tongue, a grotesque, awe-inducing Frog Interstellar Beast. Bloated yet agile, semi-transparent flesh glowed with veins of bioluminescence. Five meters tall, it spawned multiple retractable tentacles slick with slime, each lined with sensory nodes and sucker pads.

Revolting to look at, but Lyra didn’t hesitate. She stepped forward as the Medic Drones swarmed Flameborn.

"One of our own is still inside! Please!"

Her voice cracked with desperation.

Sludgeborn turned his synthetic gaze to her, then down to the mangled body of Guardian Flameborn.

His voice grated like rusted metal scraping across bone.

"I see... Flameborn, and two injured Trial Guardians. The one still inside, is he another Trial Guardian?"

His words physically hurt to hear. Lyra’s fists clenched, furious at his apathy, but she swallowed it and explained.

"Yes! He stayed behind to hold off the Entropic Beasts so we could get out. Please! We don’t have time—"

And still, Guardian Sludgeborn didn’t move.

...!

Behind him, more vessels arrived. ZENTHRA employees spilled out, carrying high-tech instruments and containment units, flanked by Initiate Interstellar Beast Masters.

Sludgeborn’s glowing eyes narrowed, finality ringing in his voice.

"No. No further action will be taken until this anomaly is measured and deemed safe."

...!

"What?!"

Lyra’s words died in her throat.

Serena stepped in front of the Rift, her own voice rising in disbelief.

But Sludgeborn didn’t flinch. Around him, ZENTHRA employees began setting up scanners, containment shields, and resonance analyzers.

"I said no. A Guardian has already been retrieved. Barely alive, but retrieved. That’s all that matters. Your plea is... noted. Irrelevant, but noted."

His tone was surgical.

"I will not jeopardize protocol, or my existence, over emotion. That Rift is an anomaly. It defies rules and swallows logic. Flameborn’s last transmission confirmed it wasn’t even letting you all leave."

...!

"You want to rush in after one man?" he scoffed. "Then you’re fools. ZENTHRA doesn’t bleed for emotion. It calculates. I won’t sacrifice lives for your sentiment. If I step in and that Rift seals again, what then?"

His voice dipped lower.

"Stand aside. Wait. Once the instability clears, whether in minutes or hours, we’ll act."

BOOM!

His words hit like thunder.

Lyra and Serena were left stunned.

All around them, Ariana, Becca, and Flameborn were placed onto floating stretchers, already hooked up to tubing filled with a glowing, unknown liquid. They were being raced away to high-level care.

But here?

Only the cold hum of drones and the deafening silence of two desperate girls remained.

Lyra’s expression changed, grief crystallizing into cold rage. She said nothing. Just turned toward the Rift and began walking.

Behind her,

"Stand down, Trial Guardian."

...!

Sludgeborn’s command sliced through the air.

She was being ordered to stop, but her feet didn’t obey. The Blue Slime on her head bounced with a determined glare.

It wanted to go back in.

So did she.

Ahead, Serena stood too, inner turmoil flashing behind her eyes, until it burned into conviction.

"Trial Guardians, you are ordered to stand down," Sludgeborn warned again, voice sharp as the sound of cracking bone. "You cannot jeopardize the Rift, or your own lives. If you disobey..."

BZZT!

Tentacles lashed out around them, curling through the air like serpents. Viscous slime shimmered from their tips, venomous and vile.

A terrifying stillness descended.

Tension hung like a blade suspended above them.

Then,

BZZT!

The portal flared.

From its violet depths, a figure stepped through, calmly, powerfully.

Damian.

His upper suit was torn, glistening muscles bare to the air. On his shoulder, a nine-tailed silver fox perched, her curious eyes scanning the room, completely calm. No threat in her stance. No fear in her eyes.

He looked... untouched.

Unbothered.

Everyone froze, staring in disbelief as if he’d just walked out of a dream.

Lyra couldn’t take it anymore.

She broke into a run and threw herself into his arms, wrapping around him in a hug so fierce it knocked the breath from them both.

She didn’t care who was watching.

He was alive.

And that was all that mattered.