Chase and Everest continued on in the journey, following the instructions the mystery voice had provided them. They slipped through tunnels and moved in the shadows, speaking only idle gestures or nods to one another. The passage narrowed down into a small corridor, there was a noticeable line in the floor where the bloodied flesh suddenly transformed into solid bone. It wasn't at all a clean transition; a literal jagged jump into a completely new terrain without anything to blend them together.
"That's odd," Everest approached the new floor, hesitating to stand on it.
Chase walked after her, "out of all things we've seen, this is the most confusing you?"
"Well not really, but this feels weirdly artificial, it doesn't line up with the rest of the environment," the husky noted, putting a paw forward.
The Omnihive instantly reacted, swelling its flesh with a pained hiss. Everest jumped back as the corridor tightly closed itself up, denying her entry. Bewildered at the scene, the husky backed away from the seal, only for it to open up again. Both dogs stared with disbelief at the sudden moment, slowly looking at one another.
"I think we've found the Nexus," Chase said with a nod. "They clearly don't want anything getting through here."
"I'll say," Everest held out a paw, bringing it close to the passage. The fleshy gate immediately reacted, sealing itself up again upon detecting her presence.
"Motion-activated blockades," the shepherd shrugged. "Weirdly advanced for a place like this. We'll have to get around this somehow."
Everest turned to walk away, the passage opening behind her as she left its radius. "It could be by smell, maybe we have to mask ourselves with something."
"Clearly the feroxes go through here, we could probably utilize that somehow." Chase held out his own paw, reaching out to trigger the gate. He held his arm in position, waiting for the Omnihive to react.
It didn't close.
A note of confusion hit him, suddenly ignoring Everest's words and holding his arm out further. Still nothing, the passage was completely open. His arm was well past the distance Everest's had been in, he was practically reaching directly on the other side.
"Uh, Everest?"
"What?"
"It doesn't... it doesn't close for me."
The husky turned back around, unease in her expression upon seeing him. "What do you mean?"
Backing up, Chase gestured for her. "Uh... come here for a second. Reach out again."
Puzzled at the experiment, the husky gave him an odd look before nervously walking back over, approaching the dripping tunnel. The minute she got within two feet of the line, it instantly shut with harsh rebuttal.
"The hell?" Chase narrowed his eyes, gently pulling Everest back from its vicinity. The passage graciously opened at her leave and stayed open even as Chase carefully crept through it.
"Why is it opening for just you?" Everest stepped back, not wanting to trigger its mechanism with Chase inside it.
"I... don't know," he closely inspected the inner walls, hunting for any devices or technology Archline could've installed, but there was nothing there. The Omnihive Nexus fiercely shut away all unwelcome visitors, but for some reason neither of them could possibly think of, it happily allowed access to Chase as if he were a ferox himself.
"I'm not entirely sure what's going on here," he said, bewilderment clouding his thoughts. "I'll probably be here for hours if I try thinking about it."
"So what do you want me to do then?" Everest asked him, awkwardly kneading her paws.
"I don't want to split up..."
"I mean, I don't either but," she wearily looked around. "We still have a mission to complete, and if it's through there, then you should go."
"But what about you?"
"I'll find my own way in. I'm sure it's possible, don't worry for me."
"I do worry for you, though," Chase insisted, his voice falling on edge. "I really don't want to split up with you at a time like this, what if something finds you?"
"Well... I'll just do what I always do," the husky shrugged with a faint smirk. "Improvise out of it."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"It'll be fine, Chase," she sighed, frowning that they were leaving each other. "Just... be careful in there, I'd honestly like to see you walk out of there alive." A small laugh punctuated her joke, but notable sorrow hid underneath it.
"Don't worry," Chase gave her a reassuring smile, gripped by a sting in his heart. "You be safe now, alright?"
Everest gave a slight, although hesitant nod. They exchanged final looks between one another, before going their separate ways, leaving trails of grief behind them. Everest sadly walked back the way she came, and Chase vanished down the bone tunnel into the Omnihive Nexus.
He immediately felt alone, the empty spaces around him echoed with longing. He couldn't afford to be distracted; there was a mission that needed completing and Everest was going to be fine. The husky refused to leave his head, a fierce worry for her safety encompassing his thoughts almost entirely. She'll be fine, he told himself, there was no need to fret over her. So then why was his heart filled with such panic over the separation?
Hiking down the narrow path, Chase was filled with awe as he stepped out of the tunnel, entering a massive cavern even larger than the one crawling with ferox infants. The sheer splendor of the area froze him, its appearance drastically different from the rest of the Omnihive. The interior of the Nexus was constructed with a bone-like frame, stretching around the far walls like groping hands holding up the area. The gore and bloodied meat remained, but it was constructed in ways that felt deliberate, weaving into flowing patterns and decorations. It was almost artistic, like someone purposely collected the gore and crafted it into beautiful designs. He may as well have walked into a church with how everything was constructed, how in the world were such feral creatures capable of producing such beautiful designs?
The uneven floor was made entirely out of bone, unlike the fleshy component the rest of the realm stood on. His paws left damp tracks as he walked, the ground being entirely dry compared to the conditions he was used to. Distant sounds of wind whistled around the expansive corridor, dancing with the faint songs of breathing emanating from the walls. There was not a single egg, mangled body, or overlooked shred of meat anywhere, the entire place radiating an almost regal feeling, and Chase wondered what exactly he had entered the presence of. This was a place to be respected, even to the vicious ferox warriors.
"Wow," he breathed. "Wish I had a camera..."
The dark hall continued; Chase felt like an ant compared to its expansive size. He could already see the end, coming before a massive structure that nearly took his breath away. It looked like a shield, dark and reflective, the kind a knight would hold. Only it was absolutely colossal, nearly a hundred times Chase's size. It had no emblem, no definitive marking, no semblance of a normal shield, just a horned crest that gave it a rather ferocious design. It was layered with armor, forming an impenetrable plating that beautifully reflected in the unnatural glow.
It looked embedded into the wall, hanging idly with no feasible meaning to attach to it. Chase stared up at the titan-sized object for a while, starstruck by its size.
"You're finally here," the voice came to his ear.
The shepherd instantly grimaced, twisting his expression. "You again,"
"I'm quite excited to meet you."
"Enough games!" he barked angrily, his voice traveling down the echoing chamber. "Who the fuck are you, and how are you in my head!? You can't just-"
The entire hall rumbled, vibrating with intense movement and making Chase stumble. The shield began to fidget, twitching slightly as layered echoes swarmed through the corridor. Under the shield, a massive arm stretched out, nearly ten feet in length and slamming down onto the ground with a forceful shockwave. Overcome with his own terror, Chase scrambled backward at the powerful display, his heart, mind, and breathing all overlapping one another.
The second arm appeared, birthing near the other and placing its claws on the ground. Pulling itself forward, the gigantic creature freed its chest and shoulders, tearing itself free with splattering blood and meat. Its body was almost identical to a ferox warrior, but more compressed and solidified. The warriors were known for their skeletal, gore-strewn bodies that made them horrifying creatures to witness, but this new one was different. The gore was tightly packed and held together by muscle and vein, giving the monster actually normal proportions instead of a thin, mangled body. Pulling the rest of its body free, the shield began to turn, tilting down slightly as if it were looking straight into the shepherd's soul.
Chase's heart skipped a beat; it wasn't a shield at all, it was the creature's face.
In a beautifully dramatic reveal, the gigantic animal strutted out of the wall, the heavy footsteps making the Nexus shake with fear. Its body was quadruped, two back legs appearing from the darkness as it emerged. Ridged armored bone gave it a breathtaking exoskeleton, coating around its shoulders, chest, and spine. The creature's long tail flowed behind it, so massive and long it had to curve around the interior of the Nexus, unable to fully uncoil its entire length. Several tendrils danced off its back, each one ending in snapping canine jaws, blindly biting at the air with mindless savagery.
Paralyzed at the titan standing before him, Chase felt unable to move, his horrified gaze locked forward on the creature before him.
"Do not be afraid, I am not going to hurt you," the creature said, no longer projecting its voice directly into Chase's mind. It now spoke directly from itself, singing its soft, heavenly voice from a hidden mouth. "You should be happy that we are reunited."
"Wha-" Chase quivered, shaking with terror. "What... what are you!?"
"I have many names, in many languages," replied the colossal terror, its voice prancing in hall's echo. "But you may refer to me as... Mother Genesis."
"M-mother?"
"Indeed," Genesis cooed, her tail gently moving in the darkness. "I spent so long trying to reach you, for years my voice has failed to connect us, but now that time is no longer. I'm so overjoyed you stand before me."
"Stand... before you?" Chase stepped back.
Several ferox warriors appeared from the darkness, stalking up to Chase from behind and surrounding him. The shepherd flinched at their presence, expecting an incoming attack, but the creatures weren't moving. They stood obediently, teeth and claws still but blocking Chase from fleeing.
"Do not fear, they are not going to hurt you," Genesis could easily read his panicked feeling. "You are above them now, they have no desire to prey upon you."
Shaking over his own breaths, the shepherd was unable to believe anything he was seeing. The very warriors who massacred everything he loved, the animals he'd seen shred apart the innocent, were aimlessly standing in front of him with no intentions of shedding blood. They watched him closely, but barely even snarled or growled at his movements, as if he wasn't prey at all.
Genesis lowered herself, resting on her stomach and crossing her legs. "Your altercations with Feroxmalis were very entertaining to watch, even if that fool didn't properly carry out my orders."
"Fero-" Chase stuttered, staring up at her. "You... saw all that?"
"Saw it? My sweet little baby, I saw and heard every little thing that went down in your tower. Did you forget that we are a hivemind?"
"Hive... mind?"
"You're so very confused, I can tell," Genesis tilted her armored head. "Why don't you sit down, and I start from the beginning?"
Chase didn't respond at first, still nervously pacing in the presence of monstrous creatures. A ferox warrior stalked up next to him, snarling its breath directly into his ear; a wordless warning to not disobey the mother. Flinching at the gesture, Chase gulped and shakily lowered himself onto the bone ground, unable to cease his own shivering.
Genesis began, "I have existed here for so long even my memory cannot place the beginning. Everything you see around you, the Omnihive, the ferox warriors, the dogtrees, the entire realm... it's all my creation, nay, an extension of my very being. The very perfection of this world, it is my design, and my design alone."
She moved slightly, relaxing on her side. "When Feroxmalis -a silly name to give her, might I add- slipped through the cracks and got captured, through her eyes I was able to see an entirely new world, one that sat above me just out of reach. A world laced with disgusting creatures and their wretched flaws, trying to own a world that did not belong to them. I was... reviled at the discovery."
Chase fidgeted, making uneasy glances at the ferox warriors behind him.
"This was not an opportunity I planned to pass up, my perfection deserved to cleanse this new world of its... infestation. I told Feroxmalis to lie in wait for a long time, and -when she saw the opportunity- to spread my gift where it would flourish. But it had to be in secret, I could clearly see that the dominant race above me was gifted in attack and advanced weaponry unknown to me. My rise had to be in silence."
"It infected my friend," Chase muttered.
"Alas, poor Rubble," Genesis said. "But unfortunately, she infected the wrong dog."
Her words caught Chase's attention, making him prick his ears with a puzzled look. "The... wrong dog?"
"I needed a way to fight against these two-legged animals. My warriors are strong, but against a prepared army, they would surely fall. I needed something stronger, something more capable than anything I had ever created: A ferox messiah," She breathed, awe emitting from her featureless face. "I spent a long time designing its build, painstakingly crafting a brand-new genetic code to power this unstoppable creature. When I finished; I sent the code to Feroxmalis and instructed her to assimilate with a capable dog, and she would rise as a dormant ferox messiah. She would then have to return to the nest, as messiahs cannot emerge from their hosts on their own. A normal warrior can rip out of their hosts anywhere and whenever they please, but messiahs require too much mindpower to birth outside the nest. The egg would forever remain dormant until making contact with the hive."
"But..." Genesis emitted a low growl, agitation in her floating tail. "Feroxmalis was so defiled by Archline's experiments, my connection to her was slightly hindered, and she could not clearly receive my later instructions. That fool infected the wrong dog, some... apathetic bulldog with an imperfect body and genes. It... was extremely aggravating."
"That bulldog was one of my best friends," Chase said, his body tense.
Genesis ignored his comment, "I thought it was too late. Feroxmalis would be discovered and destroyed, and attempting to return her to the nest would be ineffective. Until... a thought struck me; if Feroxmalis could not properly become a messiah, then perhaps she was not intended to be one at all. With little connection we still had, I told her to find a suitable host and assimilate them with an ferox infant containing the messiah's genetic code. The only problem was..." she looked off to the side. "I needed to lure the host into my realm so it could be fertilized, otherwise they'd live out their entire lives with the hibernating infant inside them and never realize it."
"Did you... find one?" the shepherd dared to ask. "The host, I mean. Did you find one?"
The mother paused, tilting her crested head down at the small dog. She emitted a low chuckle, faint but booming due to her size. The ferox warriors curled the lips of their skin masks, bellowing sporadic rasps that sounded akin to twisted laughter. The monsters shared their amused moment, leaving Chase in the center unable to form any thoughts.
"Oh, we did," Genesis giggled. "Feroxmalis, despite its pattern of failures, truly succeeded in what mattered most: She found the perfect host for the ferox messiah."
Chase flattened his ears, nervous in what he was about to ask. "So... who is it?"
Tilting her armored head, Genesis leaned forward slightly, eyeing down the terrified dog. "Chase, sweetie, why do you think I've been talking to you all this time? Why do you think I'm so happy to see you?" She watched with glee as horror spread across the shepherd's face. "Do you remember all that... static, you heard? Such an annoying noise, was it not? Did it make you go a little... loopy? Crazy? Where do you think that static came from? It was me, Chase, that static was me trying to contact you. And why do you think I was trying to contact you?" A sadistic note of excitement dripped from her voice.
Standing up slowly, Chase stared up at her with labored breaths. A horrible feeling was rising in his gut, dread his climbing his spine like a stalking parasite. He felt wrong, horribly wrong, unbalanced in his distress.
"Because it's you, Chase," Genesis said, her voice grinning with glee. "The messiah. It is within you."
Everything stopped. The world was deafened in Chase's ears as he processed the information, his legs on the verge of buckling. He could only stand terrified for a few seconds, the shepherd collapsing to the ground while the hot urge to vomit rose in his throat.
"No-" he cracked.
"It is true, Chase."
"No!" he barked, jumping into frenzied panic. "You're lying!"
"You have seen and heard everything for yourself. You already know it's the truth."
In a helpless attempt to flee, Chase rapidly backed up without any direction and crashed directly into a ferox warrior. The feral creature hissed from the impact but merely stepped back, making no effort to attack Chase for the contact. Overcome in a fit of panic and confusion, the dog ran in circles, fighting to pull his composure together while his whole world shattered around him. Splayed horror had locked into his face, fur spiking and head flattening, he screamed with constant denial while the ferox only watched with mild interest.
"Rubble came into your kennel at night," said the mother. "Luckily you were sleeping, otherwise it would've been a... very degrading experience. The messiah was planted, and the rest is history."
"No! I'm not one of you!" Chase shouted, baring the full view of his teeth at the queen. "I'll never be one of you, I'm not a monster and I'll never let that happen!"
"It's too late for that," Genesis said, making a noise that sounded like a sigh. "The messiah has lied dormant within you for years, and now that you have stepped into the Omnihive... it is only a matter of time. Why are you so afraid, Chase? You are about to become something truly amazing... absolute perfection above all other worthless insects in this world. You will be the first messiah and will multiply your kind into a brand-new generation of flawless life. You should be smiling."
"No! No no no no no!" the shepherd collapsed into a frenzied rage, punching into the ground. "No! No no!"
Mother Genesis pressed her massive legs into the ground, standing up again. "Return to your... husky friend, for now. I will keep in touch, you are part of the hivemind, after all."
The queen began walking backward, fitting herself back into the wall where she had emerged. Her tail and legs tucked in behind her armored face, and the Nexus gently swelled around her, encasing the mother back into sleep. The ferox warriors also turned around to leave, some glancing back at Chase with curious expressions. They all scampered off, vanishing into the darkness where they had birthed from. Chase was left alone in a broken mess, sobbing in a puddle of denial. It took him a long time to pull himself together, spending at least an hour under the echoing cathedral of the Nexus. After a while he wiped his eyes and began the journey back to Everest, terrified of the future.