Famu swam toward the burning fortress.
Ross's bony protrusions lit up.
The Furnace Core had been pushed to its limit.
With the armored body he prided himself on rendered useless, Ross could rely only on this little light.
The incandescent glow barely held open a pocket of steam underwater, but it was no longer hot enough. The chill of the floodwaters surged in from every direction, snuffing out the last bit of heat.
Famu charged into the steam, braving the fading light.
His tile-like scales sizzled under the heat, their edges curling.
Black Typhon and Dead Sun Armor collided, unleashing a violent torrent underwater. Mud and sand were churned up as the torrent burst through the surface in a spray, then crashed back into the river.
Raindrops hissed against the boiling surface. This was one corner of the rainforest's thousand-year war.
Ross had waited a long time for this moment. He was a devotee of war, one who had sacrificed living beings in the blazing Soligini Crater and received baptism under the gaze of the ash priests. He would not accept a cowardly, humiliating death.
Before death came for him, Ross, devotee of war, would stain the shadow of the marsh red with blood and let ancient Nia know his resolve!
Red God Nia, take me away.
Ross roared underwater.
He would die.
But there was no death in Dead Sun Armor's dictionary.
They advanced through war, and when they reached the end, Red God Nia would reclaim the flames in their hearts.
"Boom—!"
Dead Sun Armor's bony protrusions burst open, and all the protection covering their surfaces fell away. Those thick scales were vital protection for Dead Sun Armor's body. Now the nerves had been severed, and the cartilage had all been destroyed by the heat around the protrusions.
Ross's blood was boiling.
The heat of the Furnace Core had been turned on his own body.
Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core was the exact opposite of Typhon's.
Child of the Earth acted upon Typhon from birth, then exerted force on other things once it matured.
Dead Sun's released heat outward from birth, then applied flames to its own body once it matured.
Fighting, biting, striking, roaring.
This child of war fought with all his might, his entire body seemingly ablaze.
Famu bit down on Ross and slammed him into the mud at the bottom of the river. The sensation against his snout told Famu that his bite had missed its mark: he had caught the hard bony armor.
"Hummm—"
Child of the Earth's Furnace Core roared.
Famu wrapped himself around Dead Sun Armor's body, his serpentine coils winding upward.
He clamped down on Ross's throat from behind and to the side. Blood spurted out, scalding blood, hot as flame, pouring into Famu's throat.
Famu swallowed the flowing fire.
Ross's massive body twisted as he roared again and again. The heavy claws on his four limbs dug into Famu's scales, carving gash after gash. Blood seeped from Famu's scales into the water, but more blood came from Ross; when his blood fell into the river, it turned the water boiling hot.
He was out of options. His Furnace Core was exhausted, and he could not turn his head to use his deadliest weapon, that mouthful of bone-crushing teeth, to tear into the Typhon coiled around him.
He could feel the thing tightening.
Famu's head and neck were like an arm, while his body served as the base from which he exerted force.
He began to twist Ross's neck.
Power burst from his muscles and traveled up his spine, vertebra by vertebra, passing through the anchor point behind his skull before pouring into that row of unusually shaped teeth. Black Typhon's body slowly tightened, coil after coil.
Ross heard his bones cracking. The sound was deafening in his mind, as if the entire sky were collapsing inside his skull.
Dead Sun's Furnace Core fell silent.
Child of the Earth's Furnace Core thundered.
"Crack!"
The giant crocodile's massive head was twisted all the way around to his back.
The flesh at his neck tore open, his muscles and tendons snapped, and his own spine pierced his windpipe. His body convulsed violently, his four limbs scraping at the riverbed and tearing at Famu's scales one last time, but they no longer had any strength.
Then his eyes lost focus.
The rain poured down.
The floodwaters surged.
Black Typhon lay atop Dead Sun Armor's remains, scalding blood lingering in his throat, as if he had swallowed an entire setting sun.
The mighty Mara River swept every trace downstream.
Famu dragged Dead Sun Armor's corpse downstream with the flood.
Headscar followed at a distance along the bank, treading on rain-soaked ferns as he watched the black shadow bob up and down in the muddy water. He followed along the bank for a long time, until the shadow sank into a secluded bend in the river and never resurfaced.
Famu found a place far from the battlefield.
He needed to avoid the river's true master.
The floodwaters turned here, carving out a half-submerged shoal. Overhead, the roots of Giant-Scale Fruit Palms intertwined, forming a natural roof. It was a natural shelter.
He dragged Dead Sun Armor into the cove and coiled up beside the corpse.
The feeding began.
This behemoth was the most terrifying creature Famu had ever hunted, and the largest as well.
He opened his mouth and sank his sharp teeth into the flesh, taking the giant beast apart bit by bit. The downpour would carry the bloody scent away as Famu swallowed the mottled crocodile meat.
But things were very different from before.
Dead Sun Armor's body had already grown cold under the pounding rain.
Ordinarily, the corpse of such a huge beast could not have turned cold so quickly after death. Famu could think of only one explanation: the burning of Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core had carried away the last of the beast's warmth. Even if Famu had not killed him, the giant crocodile would have died once he burned himself out.
Famu cut into Dead Sun Armor's body. As Black Typhon fed, the massive carcass rapidly diminished, exposing stark white ribs.
Beneath those bony protrusions, at the point where they all joined, Famu found the Furnace Core.
It was protected beneath the spine, a dark, clotted red. It was completely still, without even the faintest pulse to be felt.
But this was Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core organ.
Famu tore the Furnace Core free with one bite and swallowed it.
Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core touched the wall of Famu's stomach, like a piece of firewood that had not burned out meeting a spark.
The Furnace Core burned.
"Hummm—"
Child of the Earth vibrated.
Abundant Earth Vein Energy spread from his stomach wall throughout his body like a sun detonating.
Famu felt his own Furnace Core pulsing.
The heat rose sharply. Rain hammered his scales, rising from them in wisps of white steam.
Then Famu heard a voice from an unknown number of years ago, from the distant age of human civilization.
It was the mechanical female voice of the login terminal.
"Dead Sun Armor biological Furnace Core identified. Verification code 'Tonatyw'-4789. Data stream cleared. Initiator identity verification will now begin."
"Energy sufficient. Beginning verification."
"Verifying—"
A long time passed.
The voice was so unfamiliar, as if something had gone wrong with space and time.
Famu remained in a daze, coiled in the river bend that the downpour had turned to mud. His swollen body rose and fell slightly as his digestive system worked at full force to digest Dead Sun Armor. The heat rose until the rain hammering his scales rose in wisps of white steam.
"Identity verification complete. Welcome back, Your Excellency Old Merit."