Replaced by His First Love
The heavy lead slug punched a fist-sized hole straight through the corroded underbelly of the ventilation duct.
Rusted metal groaned as the pressurized seam tore open. A torrential waterfall of thick, gray ash and silver-salt soot vomited from the ceiling, billowing outward in a suffocating cloud that blanketed the loading bay. The air turned opaque. The Unlearned coughed, pressing their snouts into the wet floor.
Through my frozen quartz eyes, I watched the dust settle like heavy gray snow, coating the concrete and the rusted pumps.
The active camouflage bent light, but it couldn't repel matter. As the thick silver-salt ash fell, it clung to the void-black armor of the Silence-Weavers. Five