Server 9-Chapter 32: THE MEAT GRINDER

The streets of Sector 4 were beautiful, But they were a maze designed to kill us.

We sprinted down the Avenue of Stars—a wide boulevard lined with holographic statues of the Corporate Board Members. The pavement was full of seamless white stone, polished to a mirror shine. The trees were genetically modified to glow with soft bioluminescent green, casting long, eerie shadows as we ran.

Glitch caught up with us at the first intersection. "Broadcast is on auto-loop," he panted. "ARES can handle it. You need me more."

From Behind us, drones filled the sky

WHIRRR-WHIRRR.

"Incoming!" Glitch screamed.

He dove behind a statue of the CFO just as a hail of sonic rounds chewed up the pristine stone.

"They’re herding us!" Sarah yelled, firing her pistol blindly over her shoulder. "They’re pushing us away from the Harvester Hub! They know where we’re going!"

"We need a shortcut!" I shouted.

The adrenaline from the Titan crash was wearing off fast, replaced by a deep, aching bruise that seemed to cover my entire body.

I looked around.

[Skill: Network Sense]

The world lit up in lines of data.

To the left: Shopping mall. Locked.

To the right: Residential tower. Guarded.

Below: Mag-Lev train tunnels.

"The subway!" I pointed to a glowing glass pyramid entrance fifty meters ahead. "We go under!"

We scrambled for the entrance. Maya took point, raising her Enforcer rifle. With no hesitation. She fired a three-round, that bursted into the glass doors.

CRASH.

The safety glass shattered. We slid down the frozen escalators, ignoring the screaming civilians huddled in corners—terrified by the sudden violence in their perfect world.

The subway station was massive, With Vaulted ceilings like a cathedral.

A sleek silver bullet train waited at the platform, hovering silently on magnetic rails.

"Get on!" I ordered, shoving Glitch toward the open doors.

We piled into the lead car. It was empty, smelling of expensive perfume and ozone.

"Glitch—drive!"

Glitch sprinted to the control panel at the front. He jacked his deck into the console, fingers flying across the interface.

"I’m locked out!" Panic crept into his voice. "The train is on a remote loop! Central Command has disabled local control!"

The doors hissed shut behind us.

"Warning," a smooth female voice announced over the intercom. "Express train to Sector 1: Corporate Headquarters. Departure in three... two..."

"Sector 1?" Sarah’s face went pale. "That’s Malachi’s office. We’re being delivered directly to the executioner."

The train lurched forward.

The acceleration was instant. We were pinned to the back wall as the train shot into the dark tunnel. It was moving at three hundred miles per hour in seconds. Making The lights of the station blurred into a single white line behind us.

"We have to stop it!" Maya yelled, struggling to stand against the G-force.

"I can’t!" Glitch typed furiously, with sweat pouring down his face. "The brakes are hard-coded! The firewall is Level 10!"

I forced myself to stand.

My knees shook. My muscles screamed. But I pushed forward, one step at a time.

"I’ll stop it."

I walked to the front of the car. Through the windshield, the tunnel was a kaleidoscope of rushing lights.

I knelt down and ripped the floor panel open, exposing the engine access beneath.

"Elias, don’t!" Sarah warned. "That’s a direct line to the Magnetic Drive. It’s carrying gigawatts of power!"

"either we stop here, or we die in Sector 1." I said.

I placed my hand on the pulsing magnetic coil.

[Skill: Energy Siphon]

I reached for the power.

But this wasn’t a battery. This wasn’t a droid. This was a live magnetic rail connected directly to the city’s main reactor.

The moment I touched it—

It touched back.

ZAP.

Blue lightning arced up my arm.

It wasn’t a flow. It was a tsunami. The energy was too much—too fast—too raw. It burned through my nerves like a molten glass filling my veins. My skin began to smoke.

"Elias!" Sarah screamed, rushing forward—but the static electricity pushed her back before she could reach me.

"I... can’t... let... go!" I roared.

My back arched. My vision turned white. The numbers in my HUD glitched wildly, flickering between impossible values.

[WARNING: ENERGY CAPACITY EXCEEDED — 200%]

[WARNING: TISSUE DAMAGE DETECTED]

[SKILL EVOLUTION IMMINENT]

The train began to slow.

The lights in the car flickered and died. The magnetic field was collapsing—I was eating it faster than the reactor could supply.

SCREEEEECH.

Sparks flew from the undercarriage as emergency friction brakes kicked in. We were thrown forward.

The train skidded to a halt in the middle of a pitch-black tunnel.

I collapsed to the floor.

Smoke rose from my right shoulder. My arm was black—skin charred and cracking. I couldn’t feel my fingers.

"Elias!" Maya dropped beside me, ripping a med-patch from her kit. She slapped it onto my shoulder. "You’re burning up! Your Heart rate is one-eighty!"

"I stopped it," I wheezed, staring at the ceiling. "We aren’t... going to... Sector 1."

"No," Sarah said quietly.

She was staring out the window into the pitch-black tunnel.

"We’re somewhere worse."

She pointed.

In the darkness, red eyes were glowing.

Hundreds of them.

These weren’t drones. They were organic. Deformed. Twisted shapes clinging to the walls like insects.

"Mutants?" Glitch whispered, voice trembling. "Here? In the Upper Levels?"

"Failed experiments," Sarah realized. Horror dawned across her face. "Malachi didn’t just dump bodies in the Rust Sea. He kept the useful ones—the ones that survived Aether rejection but lost their minds." Her voice dropped. "He keeps them in the tunnels as... security."

The doors of the train groaned.

Metal claws tore through the alloy from outside.

SCRUNCH.

A creature stepped in.

It was humanoid—but wrong. Four arms. No skin, just raw muscle and exposed cybernetics fused together in a nightmare of flesh and metal. Its eyes were sewn shut, but it sniffed the air with a massive, wet nose.

It roared. A sound of wet gurgling that echoed through the car.

"Fresh meat," it hissed.

"Maya," I groaned, trying to stand, but failed to.

"Gun."

Maya stepped in front of me.

She raised the Enforcer rifle. Her cybernetic arm whirred, servos locking into a firing stance to handle the powerful kick from the shot.

"Get back," she said.

Her voice was steady.

The mutant lunged.

BANG.

Maya put a round through its skull.

It dropped.

But ten more poured in through the broken windows. They were fast—scurrying on the walls like lizards, claws scraping against metal.

"We’re trapped!" Glitch yelled, pulling his small pistol and firing wildly into the swarm.

"The roof!" I gasped. "Go... to the roof!"

We scrambled up the emergency ladder to the top of the train car. Sarah hauled me up.

The tunnel was crawling with them.

Mutants clung to the walls. The ceiling. The tracks. A swarm of flesh and metal, with red eyes blinking in the darkness.

"We can’t fight this many!" Sarah shouted, firing her pistol until it clicked dry.

I looked up at the power lines running above the train. The third rail. It’s was Dead now, thanks to me.

"Glitch." I leaned heavily on Maya. "How much explosive do we have left?"

"Two charges!"

"Throw them at the ceiling. Blow the tunnel."

"That will crush us!"

"No," I said, studying the structural supports. "It will drop the street on top of us. We need an exit ramp."

Glitch didn’t argue.

He primed the charges and threw them upward.

BOOM.

The ceiling of the tunnel collapsed. Concrete, rebar, and asphalt rained down, crushing the mutants below.

A shaft of light appeared above us.

Streetlight.

"Climb!" I yelled.

We scrambled up the rubble pile, clawing out of the dark, the mutant-filled the hole.

We out burst onto the street level, we were covered in dust and blood, gasping for air.

But we weren’t safe.

We were standing in a wide, circular plaza. Not the sparkling Avenue of Stars.

We were standing in front of a massive black building with no windows.

It hummed with a low, terrifying frequency that vibrated in my teeth. In my bones. And In my soul.

The sign above the door read:

SECTOR 4 DATA-HUB

"We made it," Sarah breathed, staring at the monolith. "The Harvester Hub."

"We fell right onto the doorstep," I said, wiping blood from my mouth.

But the doorstep was guarded.

Two figures stood in front of the Hub.

They looked like the Warden we’d fought in the Sky-Prison—but painted ivory white. They didn’t carry hammers. They held twin energy blades that glowed with pure, white light.

[BOSS: IVORY GUARD — ALPHA]

[BOSS: IVORY GUARD — BETA]

[LEVEL: 25]

They crossed their blades in perfect synchronization.

"Access Denied," they said in unison. Their voices were identical. Mechanical. And Cold.

I checked my energy.

[ENERGY: 10%]

And my right arm hung useless at my side.

"Maya and glitch," I said quietly. "Can you handle the left one?"

Maya looked at the massive guard. She looked at her rifle. She looked at Glitch, who was reloading his pistol with shaking hands.

"We can hold him," she said. "We can buy you time."

"Sarah." I turned to her. "You get the door. Once it’s open, you run inside and Stop the Harvest. I will take on the right guard"

"With one arm?" she asked, staring at my charred skin. "Elias, you’re dying."

I looked at the Ivory Guard.

The pain in my arm was fading now—not because it was healing, but because something else was taking over. The cold void of the Devourer rose up from somewhere deep inside me, swallowing the agony. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The hunger was back.

"I don’t need arms," I whispered.

My eyes flared with dangerous, unstable blue light.

"I have teeth."

I took a step forward.

"Open the gate," I snarled at the guards.

My voice echoed with something inhuman.

"Or I’ll eat the key."