CHAPTER 189: CHAPTER 189: THE ABYSS DEMANDS

The chamber convulsed. The floor shook so violently that Min-joon toppled to his knees, clutching the rail as dust and fragments of metal rained down. The crimson eye in the depths dilated, then contracted, like some massive lung drawing in breath. The sound was worse than any roar—it was the grinding of entire walls shifting, gears the size of buildings turning, as if the abyss itself had awakened fully to Lin’s defiance.

The broken sentinels at his feet should have been dead machines. Sparks hissed from their torn torsos, hydraulic fluid pooled like dark blood on the steel. But the abyss pulsed once more, and their pieces twitched. Limbs jerked. Cores flickered weakly. Lin’s gaze snapped to them, fists tightening.

Keller’s voice came sharp: "Lin—look out!"

The carcasses moved together, dragged as if by invisible strings, wires snaking like veins to reconnect them. One sentinel’s torso snapped onto another’s legs. A third’s head sank into the mass, its slit-eye burning brighter as it fused. Metal ground against metal, flesh stitched into machinery, until what rose before them was not six separate soldiers but one towering amalgamation.

It was grotesque—four arms, too many joints, a spine that bent at unnatural angles. Its face was a mess of overlapping masks, the single red slit expanded into a wide burning visor. The sound it made was not mechanical, nor entirely alive. It screamed.

Min-joon screamed with it, curling tighter against the platform rail, tears streaking across his dirt-smeared face. "No more, no more!"

Keller planted himself between Min-joon and the abomination, pistol raised though he knew it was like aiming at a mountain. "Lin!"

Lin’s jaw locked. His veins burned with the crimson light of the abyss, his muscles trembling as if his own body wasn’t sure whose side it belonged to anymore. Yet his voice came low, steady. "Stay back. This one’s mine."

The abomination lunged.

Its four arms came down like guillotines, blades whistling through the air. Lin dodged sideways, aura exploding outward in a shockwave that staggered the thing for a breath. He slammed his fist into its midsection. The impact echoed like a cannonshot, denting steel, snapping pipes, spraying sparks. But the creature didn’t falter. It bent around his strike, adapting, arms twisting unnaturally to encircle him.

Lin roared, breaking free with a burst of raw force. His aura shredded one of its limbs clean off. The severed arm hit the floor, twitching violently before it began crawling back toward the mass.

Keller’s eyes widened. "They’re not just fighting—they’re rebuilding."

The abyss pulsed brighter, crimson light flashing like thunderbolts across the chamber. In Lin’s skull, voices rose again—dozens, hundreds, layered over one another until he couldn’t tell where Jin ended and the abyss began.

Lin. Lin. Accept. Submit.

Jin’s laughter cracked through, fragmented, warped by static. "Look at you. Fighting shadows of yourself. Every strike you make only proves it—you’re ours. You can’t fight blood with blood."

Lin gritted his teeth. His vision flickered, crimson flooding, then dimming, then flooding again. "I’m not yours."

The abomination came again, faster this time. It learned. Every clash taught it his rhythm. Its arms blurred, blades clashing from every angle, forcing Lin backward. Sparks burned his skin, cuts tore across his arms, his aura flared violently. He was holding—but barely.

Keller fired, bullets sparking uselessly against its armor. "Damn it, Lin, you can’t keep this up! It’s feeding off the abyss—just like you are!"

The words cut sharp. Lin faltered for half a second, and in that half-second, the abomination’s clawed hand closed around his throat.

Min-joon’s scream tore the air.

Lin choked, slammed against the railing, metal groaning under their combined weight. The creature lifted him high, red visor burning, its mouthless face pressed close. Crimson light poured from it into Lin’s skin, searing veins that already glowed with the same fire.

Keller’s voice roared behind him. "Fight it! Don’t let it take you!"

But Lin’s vision blurred. The abyss wasn’t just attacking him—it was merging with him, trying to pull him into its network of steel and flesh. He felt it crawling under his skin, whispering in his blood.

You are mine. Return to the source. Return to us.

His arms twitched involuntarily, aura faltering. His own fists trembled against the creature’s grip, not resisting, but reaching—as if his body wanted to embrace it.

Min-joon’s voice cracked through the chaos, high, desperate, shaking: "Lin! You’re not them! You saved me—you saved Keller! Machines don’t save people! Only you do!"

The words pierced deeper than the abyss’s command.

Lin’s chest heaved. His fists clenched again, not in surrender, but in rage. He roared, a primal, human sound, and his aura detonated outward like a hurricane. The abomination’s grip shattered, its arm ripped clean from its socket. Lin dropped, landing hard on the steel platform, then surged forward with crimson fury burning in his veins.

"I am not yours!"

He struck. Once, twice, a dozen times. Every blow caved steel, shattered bone, ripped wires from sockets. The abomination screamed, twisting, trying to rebuild itself faster than he could tear it apart. But Lin was faster, fiercer. His strikes blurred into a storm until the creature collapsed into a heap of sparking wreckage, its red visor sputtering dim.

For a breath, silence.

Then the abyss pulsed again.

The wreckage twitched. The fragments pulled toward each other. The red slit glowed faintly.

Lin staggered, panting, his aura flaring uncontrolled, crimson fire spilling from his skin. His eyes burned, half human, half abyss. His breath rasped. The whispers rose louder, not in triumph, but in command.

You are incomplete. Come home. Merge. Become.

Lin dropped to his knees. His hands shook violently, his veins glowing as if the abyss was tearing him apart from the inside. The eye below widened, and for the first time it wasn’t just watching him—it was pulling him. The platform tilted, metal screeching, dragging Lin toward the abyss’s edge.

Keller lunged, grabbing his arm. "Lin! Hold on!" His boots scraped against the steel, muscles straining, but Lin’s body jerked forward, pulled by an unseen gravity.

Min-joon scrambled to Keller’s side, clutching Lin’s other arm, sobbing. "Don’t go! Please—don’t go!"

Lin’s head dropped forward, crimson light flooding his eyes. The abyss’s whispers became a scream inside his skull. His lips moved, and for a moment the voice that came out wasn’t entirely his.

"We... belong."

Keller’s face twisted in panic. "No! That’s not you!"

But Lin’s body lurched forward again, the abyss pulling harder, chains of crimson light wrapping around his torso, dragging him down.

The colossal eye dilated, and its voice boomed one final command.

"Assimilate."

And Lin’s body fell limp in their grip—half pulled toward the abyss, half held back by his allies.

The cliff edge crumbled beneath his feet.