Just as they regained their footing and prepared to find a way through based on Lucius's assessment, the entire space station shook violently again!
This tremor was far more violent and unnatural than any before it. It was not the shock of an explosion, but more like the spasm of an enormous creature wounded or enraged.
The piercing shriek of twisting metal came from every direction, as though this steel construct were howling in agony.
Then something incomprehensible happened. The floor beneath their feet, the walls around them, and even the ceiling overhead seemed to become flowing illusions as space itself twisted and folded!
Amid the visible distortion of light, Lucius, Chelast, and the warriors beside them felt a powerful rush of weightlessness and vertigo.
In an instant, the scene changed!
When they could sense their surroundings again, they found themselves in a completely unfamiliar sealed compartment.
This was no longer the junction where they had just fought for their lives. There was no energy core, nor any passages branching in every direction.
It was a larger but featureless metal Hall. Thick, unknown organic tubes covered the walls, pulsing slowly like blood vessels or vines. The cloyingly sweet smell in the air was so intense that it made them nauseous.
"What happened?!" a Word Bearers Warriors warrior asked, looking around.
Lucius's crimson gaze swept swiftly across the bizarre chamber. His earlier suspicion had been brutally confirmed.
His handsome face twisted with utter fury, and his voice was as cold as an ice pit.
"No... the enemy isn't hiding in some corner of the space station..."
He practically forced the words through clenched teeth, each one filled with rage at having been made a fool of.
"The space station itself... is the enemy in disguise! This steel tomb... it's alive!"
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