A cluster of Flak-Crabs scuttled across the rusted floorplate. Their metallic legs blurred as they fled from the blue streak that pursued them. Aidro, a sleek lizard composed of sapphire liquid and chrome, snapped at their heels.
The group reached a pile of debris and scattered. Some climbed the vertical walls while others darted into the shadows.
One particular crab panicked. It spotted a rusted pipe lying on the ground and scrambled inside. It curled into its explosive shell and trembled, believing it had escaped the predator.
Click-clack.
Aidro entered the pipe after it.
The crab squealed and uncurled to dash toward the opposite end. It burst from the opening into the dim light.
Swoosh.
A heavy canvas bag swooped down and captured it.
"Gotcha."
Sophie cinched the bag tight and slung it over her shoulder.
"That's the last one."
She wiped a smudge of grease from her brow. Something about her was different, she was much taller than before, more mature.
Three years had passed since the girl fell into the abyss. The small, frightened child was gone. In her place stood a nine-and-a-half-year-old survivor who had adapted to the dark. She was taller now, lean and wiry from a diet of rust-worms and constant movement. Her hair had grown long and wild, though she kept it tamed with numerous rusted spikes and bolts that acted as deadly hair clips.
She wore a tattered coat she had scavenged from a dead Decomposer, and a belt around her waist held glowing blue spheres; her collection of purified Rust Cores. A pair of thick, scratched goggles rested on her forehead.
Aidro emerged from the pipe a moment later. He climbed up her leg and settled on her shoulder.
Sophie patted his cold, metallic head.
"We have what we need to finally execute Operation Rescue Mom. I just need to grab my Driver and prep the ammo."
She walked away. Her stride was confident, and she hummed a low, martial tune she had learned from the archives.
Sophie had spent the last three years in a state of lucid delusion. To her, this was still a long, vivid dream. But within that dream, she had become a scholar of the Rust. She studied the patterns of the monsters. She learned their weaknesses. She became a self-taught engineer, thanks to the PCT she had discovered.
The device, which looked like a toolbox, was a treasure trove of data. Sophie spent countless "days" tinkering with wiring and circuitry. She broke a thousand things to make one work, but materials were infinite here. And her ability to manipulate Rust—her Dream Touch—made her a natural mechanic.
She arrived at her base. It was a hollowed-out shipping container reinforced with welded scrap.
Inside, a meager bed sat tucked in a corner. A workbench overflowed with gears and wires. A fan made from a drone propeller circulated the stale air. A set of welded steps led upward into a second container she used for storage.
Sophie dumped the sack onto the floor. Seven Flak-Crabs spilled out and tried to scuttle away.
"Attention!"
Sophie barked the order, though the crabs ignored her.
She looked at Aidro.
"Officer Aidro, bring them in line."
Aidro flashed a blue pulse. The crabs froze. Their chaotic movements synchronized, and they lined up in a neat row.
"Excellent."
Sophie walked to the workbench. The PCT sat open amidst the clutter. She tapped a sequence on the taped-up keyboard.
Holographic light spilled into the room. The stern face of General Bjorn materialized.
Sophie stood at attention. She saluted the hologram.
The recording played. Bjorn stood before a legion of fresh cadets.
"You are not here because you are strong. You are here because you are willing. The enemy we face is a tide of iron and hate. It does not feel pity. It does not feel fear. But it has a flaw."
He paced back and forth in the projection.
"It lacks a soul. It lacks the fire that burns in your gut right now. Strategy is the weapon of the thinking man. Brute force is the tool of the beast. Today, you will use your minds to break their bodies. You will strike where they are weak. You will move when they are still. And you will win."
Sophie absorbed every word. Her eyes burned with reflected blue light.
"We will win."
She whispered and closed the lid of the PCT.
She walked to the corner where a long object stood wrapped in oil-stained cloth. She untied the strings and let the fabric fall away.
It was the "Driver."
The massive screwdriver she had found years ago was unrecognizable. She had modified the handle to house a cluster of energized cores. A complex motor system sat at the base of the shaft. A spiral of serrated chains, scavenged from tiny drill bits, wrapped from the base to the tip.
She slung the heavy weapon onto her back. She picked up the sack of Flak-Crabs.
She faced the exit.
"Time to eliminate that spider once and for all. Mom is coming home."
...
The Corroder's nest had changed over the years. The beast had been busy. Fresh metallic webs spanned the vast cavern like bridges. Old containers hung suspended at odd angles, creating a vertical maze.
At the far back, above the churning orange bath of liquid Rust, the Corroder sat on its throne of web. The Adamantine sword still hung from its back, a prisoner of magnetism.
Sophie stood on a high container overlooking the nest. She pulled her goggles down over her eyes.
She didn't sneak. She didn't hide.
She leaped into the air and landed on a central platform with a resounding clang.
"Hey! Ugly!"
Her voice echoed through the cavern.
"Wakey wakey!"
The lesser spiders awoke instantly. Hundreds of red eyes opened in the gloom. They glared at the intruder but did not attack. They waited for their master.
The Corroder snapped its eyes open. It shifted its massive bulk on the webs. It recognized the scent of the pest that had escaped it years ago.
SCREEEE!
It released a roar that shook dust from the ceiling.
Sophie pushed her hand forward.
"Stop screeching! You're going to burst my eardrums!"
The spider fell silent, surprised by the audacity.
Sophie pointed a finger at the beast.
"Today is the last day you draw breath. I will kill you, and I will take your core. Resistance is futile. Surrender is not an option. Only your total annihilation will satisfy my battle thirst."
She smirked.
"Oh, and if you think I came alone... think again."
She put two fingers to her lips and whistled.
Specific shadows in the cavern began to shift.
Blue eyes ignited in the darkness. They appeared on the lower levels. They appeared on the high gantries.
Dozens of Rusters with blue cores stepped into the light. Dogs, rats, and even a few reprogrammed Cactupines revealed themselves.
Sophie spread her arms.
"My army is over a hundred strong. Together, we will obliterate you."
She reached behind her back and grabbed the handle of the Driver.
"Start your engines."
She flipped the switch on the hilt.
WHIRRRR.
The motor screamed to life. The spiral chain on the shaft spun until it was a blur. It became a drill-sword capable of tearing through tank armor.
A Spider-Decayer swung down from a web to intercept her.
Sophie didn't swing the weapon with her hands. She used Dream Touch.
"Go."
The Driver shot forward from her grip, propelled by her mind. It flew through the air like a guided missile.
ZZZZZT.
It drilled straight through the spider's armored chest. The core shattered instantly.
Sophie recalled the weapon. It flew back to her side and hovered there, spinning menacingly.
"Now it's your turn."
The Corroder glared. It began to vibrate. Its core jerked spasmodically, and red electricity sparked along its legs.
Sophie recognized the buildup.
"Repulsion pulse! Don't let it fire!"
She shouted to her troops.
"Charge! Interrupt it!"
Her army surged forward.
The dogs leaped over the gaps and engaged the spider minions on the ground. The rats scurried up the walls and chewed through the web supports. The Cactupines set up firing positions and launched volleys of spikes at the Corroder's face.
The Corroder was forced to break its concentration. It swiped at the Cactupine spikes and crushed a blue-core rat that got too close.
"Keep the pressure on!" Sophie yelled.
She stood on her vantage point like General Bjorn.
"Alpha Group, target the left legs! Beta, suppress the minions! Don't let them regroup!"
It was a chaotic war of metal. Sophie lost soldiers. She watched a tamed dog get ripped in half by the Corroder's mandibles, but for every loss, they inflicted damage.
The Corroder realized it was being overwhelmed. It cut the cables holding it aloft.
SNAP.
It dropped toward the liquid Rust pool below.
Sophie knew the tactic.
"Retreat! Pull back from the edge!"
The army scrambled away from the pit.
SPLASH.
The Corroder submerged. It soaked in the liquid hate, repairing its armor and supercharging its core.
It surfaced seconds later. It climbed the wall, glowing with intense heat. It prepared to unleash an almighty repulsion wave that would clear the entire room.
But it paused. The area was littered with dead spiders and the platform where the enemy army had stood was empty.
Sophie and her forces were already gone. They were dashing toward the large tunnel exit in the wall.
Sophie stopped at the mouth of the tunnel and looked back. She was well out of range.
"Hey! Stupid!"
She waved her arms.
"You call yourself an overlord? You sat there and watched my troops dismantle your house! You are a fat, stupid hunk of metal with not a single shred of wisdom in your circuits!"
The taunt struck home. The Corroder's pride cracked.
ROAAAR!
It burst out of the pool. It ignored strategy. It ignored the trap. It wanted the girl dead.
It charged across the web and scrambled into the tunnel after her.
Sophie smirked and turned to run.
"Stage one complete. Target is enraged and in pursuit. Commencing Stage two."
She ran through the drilled tunnel. The sound of massive, scraping legs echoed behind her.
She glanced back. The Corroder filled the passage. It crawled in a spiral motion, using all surfaces. It crushed a few straggling blue-core rats without slowing down.
"Cactupine Unit! Rear guard!"
Sophie barked the order.
Three of her tamed Cactupines stopped in the tunnel. They turned and unleashed a wall of spikes at the pursuing monster.
Thwip-thwip-thwip.
The needles bounced off the Corroder's supercharged armor. The beast didn't even slow down. It sliced the Cactupines to ribbons with its forelegs and kept coming.
"Okay, it's fast."
Sophie saw the exit ahead and increased her speed.
"Aidro, the package!"
She grabbed the sack of Flak-Crabs from her back.
She reached the edge of the tunnel and leaped out into the open air.
While in mid-air, she spun around.
"Eat this!"
She tossed the sack back into the tunnel mouth.
The Corroder lunged forward. Its jaws snapped at the sack.
BOOM.
Seven Flak-Crabs detonated simultaneously.
The force of the explosion shot out of the tunnel like a cannon. The blast wave caught Sophie and propelled her further across the gap.
She tumbled through the air and landed on a suspended platform. She rolled to her feet and looked back.
Smoke billowed from the hole.
Thump. Thump.
The Corroder walked through the smoke. Its armor was scorched, but it was unharmed.
"As expected. It survived the blast. Tough brute. But I'm just getting started."
Sophie waved at it.
"Is that all you got? Your face stinks like my butt! You are slow and stinky!"
The Corroder shrieked. It made a wild, blind leap from the tunnel. It aimed for the platform she stood on.
"Too slow!"
Sophie turned and jumped over the ledge. She fell toward the lower level.
She hopped from beam to beam, descending rapidly.
Above her, the Corroder crashed through the platform and plummeted after her. It smashed through pipes and walkways in a blind rage.
Sophie navigated the descent perfectly. She aimed for a specific chute she had scouted months ago.
She slid down the chute and crashed into a stack of old mattresses she had prepared for this exact moment. Here entry was soft and inconspicuous.
She scrambled out of the pile and hid behind a reinforced pillar.
CRASH.
The Corroder made its entry. It exploded through the dense wall of the chamber with the force of a tank.
It landed in the center of a new territory.
This was the domain of the Golden Buddha.
Sophie peeked from her hiding spot.
The area was a shrine of scrap. Torii gates made of red-painted iron surrounded a massive central plaza. In the center sat the Buddha Decomposer. It was a colossal, humanoid machine with a mossy golden frame. Multiple mechanical arms were intertwined at its back in a pose of meditation.
The Corroder screeched, looking for the girl. It slashed a nearby container in frustration.
SCREEE!
It destroyed a stone lantern and cut a part a dozen Decomposers who resided in this area.
The noise and destruction awoke the master of the house.
The giant Golden Buddha roused to life. Its beady optic sensors flickered on. It lowered its hand gesture.
The Corroder was trespassing. The Corroder was breaking things.
The Buddha's core relinquished its dormancy. It glowed with a demonic, red light.
It unfurled its many arms. Each hand held a different weapon of scrap; a saw, a hammer, a blade.
It attacked.
CLANG.
The Buddha struck the Corroder with a massive hammer-fist.
Sophie crouched low behind the shattered remains of a stone lantern and watched the titans clash with wide, fascinated eyes.
"Stage two complete. Let them fight."
She had successfully baited the Corroder into the Golden Buddha's domain. Over the last three years of survival, she had mapped the political geography of this hellscape. She knew that the Rust Bucket was not a unified hive but a collection of fractured kingdoms. Each sector belonged to an Overlord, and those rulers guarded their borders with jealous rage.
Under normal circumstances, these titans ignored one another. They stayed in their dark corners to preserve their energy. But when boundaries were crossed, diplomacy did not exist. There was only violence to determine the apex predator.
The Corroder had done more than just trespass. It had smashed the shrines, crushed the Buddha's subjects, and desecrated the golden sanctuary. It was a grave insult to the idol's sovereignty. Sophie knew the mighty Decomposer would not suffer such disrespect without blood.
Boom! Boom! Swish!
The smaller humanoid Rusters in the territory rallied to their master. They swarmed the Corroder.
The battle was titans clashing. The Corroder lashed out with its legs, impaling the lesser Decomposers. The Buddha spun its multiple arms like a blender.
Sparks showered the arena. The sound was deafening. Sophie had to cover her ears.
The spider was outnumbered, but its rage gave it power. It bit off one of the Buddha's arms. It melted another with acid drool.
But the Buddha was relentless. It pummeled the spider's carapace. The armor began to crack.
However, the spider was faster. It dodged a hammer blow and drove its fangs into the Buddha's chest plate.
CRACK.
The golden armor shattered. The Buddha's core was exposed.
"It's winning. The spider is going to win."
She saw the crack in the Buddha's core. The golden giant faltered.
"Now."
Sophie decided to make her move while the spider was distracted with the kill.
She dashed over several obstacles. She leaped and landed on top of a container that overlooked the fight.
The Adamantine sword was right there, clinging to the spider's back.
"Mom, I'm coming for you."
She activated Dream Touch. Her Driver floated before her.
"Maximum spin."
The motor whined to a pitch only dogs could hear. The chain blurred.
Sophie aimed. She waited until the spider's core was exposed between its shifting plates.
"Fire!"
She thrust her hand.
ZOOM.
The drill-sword shot through the air.
SHUNK.
It went right through the spider's tough back armor and stabbed directly into its red core.
The Corroder stiffened. The pain was absolute.
The Buddha seized the moment. It grabbed the spider's legs with its remaining hands and pulled.
RIP.
It tore the spider apart.
Sophie dashed down to the carnage. She reached for the Adamantine sword that was sliding off the dying spider's back.
She grabbed the handle.
"Got it!"
HUMMMMM.
A sudden pulse blasted her.
The spider, in its final death throe, detonated its core energy.
BOOM.
Sophie was blasted backward. She tumbled wildly through the air, but she never let go of the sword.
She saw the wall rushing toward her. A sharp, rusty protrusion stuck out, aimed right at her spine.
"Dream Touch!"
She commanded the spikes in her hair.
The rusted metals shot upward and forward, pulling her hair and her head away from the impact. They acted like thrusters, stabilizing her flight just enough.
She missed the spike by inches.
Thud.
She landed on a lower platform. She looked out at the destruction.
The spider was dead. A heap of smoking slag.
The Buddha was slumped against a Torii gate, clinging to life.
Sophie looked down at the sword in her hand. It felt warm in her embrace.
"Finally."
Tears fell from her eyes and tracked through the grime on her face.
"Finally. I have you."
A groan distracted her.
She wiped her tears and looked at the Buddha.
A group of lesser Decomposers gathered around their fallen master. They were ripping out their own cores. They fed the energy to the Buddha, sacrificing themselves to heal its broken heart.
The Buddha's core began to glow brighter. The crack began to seal.
Sophie's eyes narrowed.
"Huh? I didn't know they could mend their cores like that."
She gripped the Adamantine sword.
"This is new. But I can't allow that Ruster to regenerate. It's too dangerous."
She leaped from the platform.
"Sorry, big guy."
She landed on the Buddha's chest and drove the Adamantine sword into the crimson core.
CRACK-FIZZ.
The core was massive, 1.5 meters in diameter. It discharged red electricity violently. It blasted the sacrificing Rusters away.
Sophie tried to pull the sword out, but she was stuck. Her Dream Armor activated against her will. Chrome spread up her arms.
The sword acted as a conduit.
"AAHH!"
Sophie screamed.
The immense energy of the red core flowed up the blade and into her body. She tried to let go, but her hands were fused to the hilt.
"AAHH!"
She suffered repeated shocks. Her hair smoked. Her eyes glowed with blinding white light.
The absorption went on for an agonizing minute. Then, the core turned grey. It cracked apart into rocks and dust.
The Buddha crumbled.
Sophie fell to the ground and gasped for air.
Aidro climbed onto her chest and looked at her with concern.
Sophie lay there. She had absorbed the power of an overlord, but she didn't feel energized. Instead, she felt bloated. Heavy. Like she had eaten a stone.
"Ugh..."
She looked at Aidro.
"I feel sick, Aidro. I think I ate too much."