The Soul Eaters Nest
1493 Words
The flyer for the Stadium felt heavy in Xin’s pocket. It promised safety, but the closer they got to the massive sports arena, the more it felt like a graveyard.
The Jiangnan Stadium used to be a place for soccer games and concerts. Now, it was a dark mountain rising out of the fog. Giant alien vines, thick as tree trunks, wrapped around the concrete pillars. The air here was freezing cold.
"We can't walk in the front door," Captain Han whispered. He pointed his rifle at the main gates. "Look."
Xin squinted through the gray mist. The gates were guarded. But not by aliens. They were guarded by humans.
Men and women in ragged clothes stood perfectly still by the entrance. They wore metal masks that covered their mouths. They held makeshift spears and clubs. They didn't look like the zombie "Husks" from earlier. They looked alert. They looked... devoted.
"Collaborators," Mei spat the word out like poison. "They joined the aliens to survive."
"Or they were brainwashed," Xin said. He looked at the strange masks. "Why cover their mouths?"
"Hypothesis," the Engine hummed softly. "The Sound-Eaters hunt by hearing. These humans are keeping themselves quiet to live among the beasts."
"If we fight them, we make noise," Han said grimly. "If we make noise, every monster in a five-mile radius comes for dinner. We need a quiet way in."
Mei pulled up a map on her wrist computer. "There’s a subway station directly underneath the Stadium. It was closed for repairs before the meteor hit. If we can get into the tunnels, we can pop up inside the locker rooms."
"Lead the way," Xin said.
They crept away from the main gate, moving through a dark alley filled with wet trash. They found the subway entrance. The escalator was broken, leading down into pitch-black darkness.
Xin tapped his chest. "Engine, night vision."
[Visual Mode: Low-Light Amplification.]
Xin’s eyes turned a soft, glowing silver. To him, the dark tunnel lit up in shades of green and gray.
"Stay close," Xin whispered to the others. "I’ll be your eyes."
They walked down the broken steps. The air down here smelled sour, like old milk and ozone. The deeper they went, the warmer it got. The walls were covered in a thick, sticky slime that looked like melted plastic.
When they reached the platform, Xin stopped dead. He threw his arm out to stop Han and Mei.
"Don't. Move," Xin breathed.
"What is it?" Mei whispered, trembling.
"Look up."
Mei and Han looked up. They couldn't see in the dark, so Xin grabbed a chemical light stick from his belt. He didn't c***k it fully; he just let it glow faintly.
The ceiling of the subway station was moving.
Hundreds of creatures were hanging upside down, clinging to the slime. They looked like the monster Xin had kicked off the roof, but smaller. Their pale skin was translucent, showing purple veins underneath. Their massive ears twitched in their sleep.
This was the Nest.
"Sound-Eaters," Han mouthed silently. His face went pale. "There’s an army of them."
"They’re dormant," Xin whispered, barely making a sound. "They’re sleeping during the day. We have to walk right under them. If anyone makes a sound louder than a heartbeat... we die."
They stepped onto the platform. The floor was covered in trash—crunchy plastic bottles and dry leaves. Every step was a gamble.
Crunch.
Han stepped on a piece of glass.
Above them, fifty pairs of ears twitched at once. A low hiss rippled through the ceiling.
Xin froze. He looked up. One of the creatures opened a milky-white eye. It stared down, sniffing the air.
Xin slowly raised his hand. He didn't charge up a blast. He focused on the air around the creature.
[Gravity Muffle.]
He created a tiny bubble of zero-gravity around the creature’s head. It confused the beast. It couldn't smell or hear anything inside the bubble. Thinking it was safe, the creature closed its eye and went back to sleep.
Xin let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He signaled for the team to keep moving.
They made it halfway across the platform. They were almost at the maintenance door that led to the Stadium.
Then, they saw the Priest.
Standing in front of the door was a human. He was wearing a long purple robe made from a curtain. He had a metal mask locked onto his face, just like the guards outside. But in his hand, he held a heavy brass bell.
He saw them.
The Priest’s eyes went wide. He didn't attack. He didn't run. He raised the bell.
"No," Xin thought.
If that bell rang, the echo in this tunnel would wake up every monster on the ceiling. They would be torn apart in seconds.
The Priest’s arm started to swing down.
Xin didn't run; running was too loud. He used Chrono-Step, but he kept it short.
Zip.
He appeared right in front of the Priest. The bell was inches away from hitting the man’s other hand.
Xin didn't punch the man; the impact would make a thud. instead, Xin caught the clapper of the bell—the metal ball inside—with his fingers.
He stopped the sound before it was born.
The Priest looked at Xin in shock. He tried to scream behind his mask, but only a muffled grunt came out.
Xin looked into the man’s eyes. He saw madness there. This man wanted to ring the bell. He wanted to wake the monsters. He worshipped them.
Xin grabbed the man’s mask. He used a tiny pulse of gravity to crush the lock. The mask fell off.
"Sleep," Xin whispered.
He pressed two fingers against the man’s neck. A small jolt of bio-electricity—a trick he learned from the Engine’s medical files—sent the man into a deep unconsciousness. The Priest slumped into Xin’s arms.
Xin lowered him gently to the floor. Silence remained.
"That was close," Mei mouthed, her face sweating.
Han pointed to the door. "Go."
They slipped through the maintenance door and closed it softly behind them. The sound of the lock clicking shut felt like a gunshot, but no screams followed. They were safe.
They found themselves in a long concrete hallway. The slime was gone. This was the basement of the Stadium.
"You’re getting scary good at that," Han whispered, wiping slime off his shoulder. "In the old days, you would have blown that guy through the wall."
"Power isn't about how hard you hit," Xin said, looking at his hand. "It’s about control. Level 5 taught me that."
"We’re under the locker rooms," Mei said, looking at her map. "The signal from the Void-Leech... it’s coming from the center of the arena. Directly above us."
"And so are the people," Xin added.
He walked to a metal staircase that spiraled up. He could hear something now. It wasn't monsters. It was chanting. Hundreds of human voices, chanting in a low, rhythmic drone.
"The Architect provides... The Architect cleans..."
Xin crept up the stairs and peeked through a grate in the floor.
What he saw made his blood run cold.
The Stadium was packed. Thousands of survivors sat in the stands. But they weren't cheering. They were sitting perfectly still, their eyes glazed over. In the center of the soccer field, a massive structure had been built. It looked like a throne made of twisted purple crystal and human bones.
And sitting on the throne was a small girl. She looked no older than ten. She was eating an apple.
"Is that...?" Mei whispered, peeking over Xin’s shoulder.
"The Architect’s Daughter," Xin said. "But she looks different. Younger."
"Analysis," the Engine warned. "That is not a biological child. That is a Pure Energy Construct. The entity you fought at the Spire was a projection. This... this is her real body."
The girl on the throne took a bite of her apple. Then, she looked directly at the grate where Xin was hiding. She smiled.
"Come on out, window boy," her voice echoed through the entire stadium, loud and clear. "I saved you a seat."
The chanting stopped. Five thousand heads turned and looked right at the floor grate.
Xin stood up. There was no point in hiding. The stealth mission was over.
"Han, get ready," Xin said, his fists glowing with silver light. "We’re not sneaking anymore."
He kicked the grate open and jumped onto the field.
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