Chapter 117: Seeds of war
The morning after the vow ceremony dawned heavy, the sky over the Forgotten Atlanta Expanse a pale wash of gray.
A tense quiet settled over the Rootsite, broken only by the occasional murmur of civilians waking to their new life and the distant creak of Verdant biomass stretching its roots deeper into the ruined city.
Clayton stood alone at the northern perimeter of his domain, overlooking a stretch of shattered freeway now swallowed by thick vines.
The air was different today; taut, restless, carrying a faint metallic tang that made his instincts prickle.
Hive-Sigh pulsed in the back of his mind, every insect and subordinate Behemorph feeding him fragments of motion and sound. Nothing approached the Rootsite yet... but something lingered at the edges. Watching.
"Something’s wrong," Clayton murmured to himself.
He could not pinpoint what. But he could feel it.
...
Korrath’s Mechanosite.
Miles away, deep in the Verdant City of New Chicago, Korrath loomed in his Nexus chamber, a cathedral of biomechanical roots and molten steel.
The Verdant Lord’s body was a fusion of flesh and machine, chrome tendrils weaving through his obsidian armor. His eyes burned crimson as he stared into a projection of Atlanta; a green dominion glowing brightly against the wasteland.
Before, it was the Forgotten Atlanta Expanse. But now, it was Atlanta.