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Chapter 22: The Breath Between Shadows

Penulis: The Story Teller
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-01-08 22:42:59

The island of Erebus-Prime was no longer a tropical paradise; it was a jagged graveyard of volcanic obsidian and glowing violet flora. The Aether-Spores had already begun to terraform the landscape, turning the green ferns into translucent, glass-like structures that chimed when the wind touched them.

"Stay low," Kazimir whispered.

He moved with the silence of a predatory cat, his eyes scanning the ridgeline. Every few seconds, a Lidar-Sweep (a laser-based detection pulse) from the overhead alien craft painted the jungle in a grid of red light. To be caught in the red was to be vaporized.

Elara followed his lead, her boots crunching softly on the volcanic ash. She was still weak, her balance tethered to the rhythmic movement of Kazimir’s broad shoulders in front of her. She found herself watching the way the damp fabric of his shirt clung to him, the way his hand instinctively moved to his hip whenever he sensed a sound.

The "Yearning" was a slow poison in her veins. Every time he
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  • The Last Station Standing   Chapter 23: The Ghost in the Machine

    The server room was a symphony of electronic screams. The AetherCorp Relay Hub was struggling to process the sheer volume of data being pumped from the Aether-Spires now erupting in cities across the globe. "Victor, look at me!" Elara shouted, her voice echoing off the sterile white walls. Victor’s hand was shaking, the jagged shard of Isotope glass pressed so hard against Mina’s neck that a thin bead of blood was beginning to trail down her collar. His face was a mask of agony—one eye human and weeping, the other a solid, terrifying violet. "I... I can't... hold it..." Victor gasped. His body lurched with a mechanical stiffness. The shard in his neck—the Neural Spike—was glowing with such intensity it was beginning to smoke. Kazimir had his rifle leveled at Victor’s head. His finger was steady on the trigger, but his eyes were darting to Elara. He was waiting for the word. He didn't want to kill a friend, a fellow survivor of the ISS, but he wouldn't let Mina die. The tension in

  • The Last Station Standing   Chapter 22: The Breath Between Shadows

    The island of Erebus-Prime was no longer a tropical paradise; it was a jagged graveyard of volcanic obsidian and glowing violet flora. The Aether-Spores had already begun to terraform the landscape, turning the green ferns into translucent, glass-like structures that chimed when the wind touched them. "Stay low," Kazimir whispered. He moved with the silence of a predatory cat, his eyes scanning the ridgeline. Every few seconds, a Lidar-Sweep (a laser-based detection pulse) from the overhead alien craft painted the jungle in a grid of red light. To be caught in the red was to be vaporized. Elara followed his lead, her boots crunching softly on the volcanic ash. She was still weak, her balance tethered to the rhythmic movement of Kazimir’s broad shoulders in front of her. She found herself watching the way the damp fabric of his shirt clung to him, the way his hand instinctively moved to his hip whenever he sensed a sound. The "Yearning" was a slow poison in her veins. Every time he

  • The Last Station Standing   Chapter 21: The Seven-Minute Sunset

    The world was white, then violet, then a fading, dusty gold. Inside Jun’s mind, the roar of the Helios Station’s collapse vanished. He was no longer a mutated "Harvester" at the bottom of the sea. He was back in a small, sun-drenched kitchen in Seoul. The smell of toasted sesame oil was thick in the air. “Appa! Look!” His daughter, Min-hee, was wobbling toward him, her tiny hands outstretched. His wife, Sook, was laughing by the stove, her eyes crinkling in the way that always made Jun feel like he was finally home. “I’ll be back before her third birthday,” Jun heard himself say—a memory of the day he signed the AetherCorp contract. “The money... it will change everything for us.” The memory flickered. Suddenly, he was on the Nautilus-7, months ago. It was late. Elara was staring at the sonar, her shoulders tight with the weight of leadership. Jun had slipped a cup of synthesized coffee onto her console. “You can’t carry the whole ocean, Captain,” he had whispered. “Sometimes you

  • The Last Station Standing   Chapter 20: The Threshold of Gods

    The wreckage of the Helios Station was a jagged mountain of burning titanium, hissing as the cold Pacific tried to swallow its white-hot remains. Steam rose in thick, sulfurous clouds, creating a ghostly veil around the Aegis Portal—the open doorway where the Architect stood waiting. On the recovery platform, the air was thick with the scent of ozone and the heartbreaking sound of Jun’s transformation. Jun was no longer screaming. He was vibrating. His skin had become a mosaic of iridescent scales, and the violet light in his eyes had turned a deep, obsidian purple. He was experiencing Cellular Dissolution (the process where human cells break down to be replaced by a different biological structure). "Jun, look at me!" Mina sobbed, holding his hand. Her skin was blistering from the heat radiating off him. "Stay in there, Jun! Stay with us!" Jun’s head tilted at an angle that wasn't human. "The... the air is too loud, Mina," he whispered, his voice now a chorus of overlapping tones.

  • The Last Station Standing   Chapter 19: The Baptism of Fire and Salt

    The horizon had vanished. In its place was a wall of absolute shadow, a vertical cliff of water that blotted out the burning streaks of the Helios Station. The Megatsunami—a wave of such immense scale that it moved with the speed of a jet engine—was no longer coming; it was here. "Get to the Central Derrick (the main support tower of the platform)!" Kazimir’s roar was nearly swallowed by the sound of the ocean being torn apart. He didn't let go of Elara. He couldn't. Her body was still twitching from the Neural Surge (the electrical overload of her nervous system after sending the global warning). He wrapped a heavy-duty Safety Tether (a high-strength nylon cable used by offshore workers) around her waist and snapped the Carabiner (a spring-loaded metal ring used to lock ropes together) into the steel railing of the derrick. "Mina! Jun! Clip in! Now!" The water hit. It wasn't like a wave hitting a swimmer; it was like being struck by a mountain. The Impact Force (the sheer physic

  • The Last Station Standing   Chapter 18: The Falling Star

    The cargo drone was never meant for human transit. It was a metal box, cramped and freezing, designed to carry Isotope cylinders through the Bathypelagic Zone (the "midnight zone" of the ocean, where no sunlight ever reaches). Inside, the four of them were a tangle of exhausted limbs and ragged breathing. Kazimir sat with his back against the vibrating hull, his legs spread to provide a steady cradle for Elara. She was awake now, though her body felt like it had been hollowed out and filled with static. "The pressure is dropping," Jun whispered, tapping a glowing gauge on the wall. "We’re passing five hundred meters. We’ll break the surface in three minutes." Kazimir didn't look at the gauge. He was looking at Elara. His hand was resting on her shoulder, his thumb tracing the line of her collarbone—a rhythmic, grounding touch. He could feel the fine tremors still shaking her frame. "You did it, Elara," he murmured, his voice so low it was almost lost to the hum of the drone. "You

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