VESSEL - Extinction Countdown 978: Heart Demon of Flesh

Moonlit night, starry sky, Black Mountain.

Ye Shisan woke with a start.

Grandpa, back hunched, held an oil lamp two steps ahead.

“Grandpa!”

“Shisan, your sickness… I’ll cure it. It’ll just… take time.”

A complex emotion surged in Ye Shisan’s chest. He rushed forward to see Grandpa’s face but grabbed only air.

Grandpa stayed two steps ahead, walking slowly.

“Shisan, don’t stop your medicine… If that thing takes root, it’ll stay with you forever.”

“Grandpa!”

Ye Shisan couldn’t hold back. He lunged, crashing into something soft, fragrant, warm, with a heartbeat.

Now he truly woke.

In the dark closet, Yi Qing’s single eye glinted. Her voice hissed through gritted teeth. “Ye Shisan, touch me again, and you’re finished!”

He realized they lay in an intimate pose—him flat on the floor, Yi Qing atop him. The close quarters heated the small space.

“What—”

Yi Qing’s hand covered his mouth, her breath warm on his face. “Quiet. Someone’s here.”

Heavy footsteps thudded down the basement stairs.

A man, dragging an injured leg, moved with the faint tremor of heavy gear.

The basement echoed with rough breaths and steps. He was on a call.

“Cough… I’ve reached the spot…”

“Yes, fewer people here than the last coordinates. If things go wrong, it won’t hurt many civilians… Cough…”

“Right, I’m in the basement… The safe house’s walls are sixty centimeters of reinforced concrete. If the mission fails… I’ll blow it up!”

“Cough… Tell Officer A I’ll finish the job!”

His voice stopped. Rustling followed, like he was checking gear—then silence, even his breathing gone.

He’d smelled the instant noodles.

“Who’s hiding? Three seconds to come out!”

Silence. Yi Qing and Ye Shisan held their breath. Her hair fell over his face, tickling him with stray strands and her scent.

The man softened his tone. “I don’t care if you’re a vagrant or scavenger. Get out now, or I can’t keep you safe!”

Ye Shisan felt no fear, but Yi Qing knew the Fireseed’ rules. Exposure meant death.

Worse, the man was on a mission. Getting caught could put them on the Corps’ kill list, ending any hope of policing or baking—or even living.

The thought of the Fireseed made Yi Qing tremble.

Her shivers reached Ye Shisan’s chest.

He placed a hand on her back, tapping gently with his finger, as Grandpa always did for his childhood nightmares.

A calm spread through Yi Qing. She looked at Ye Shisan’s face.

She’d never studied a man so closely. In the dim closet, his sharp features glowed faintly, clear and striking.

Her heart beat faster.

Outside, a shout rang out. “Damn it, get out! Picking a bad place to die!”

The man, impatient, knocked over debris, searching.

“Come out! Damn it! One more second, and I shoot!”

He racked his gun’s bolt, the sound a final warning.

Yi Qing tensed.

She’d used this safe house before retiring. The hidden closet, added later, wasn’t on the blueprints and looked like the wall. But bullets would tear through, turning them to mush.

As the man grew frantic, shoving debris, he reached the closet, shouting, “You fool, I’m saving you! Stay hidden, and you’re dead!”

His words cut off. A low hum filled the room.

He froze, breathless.

A strange buzz stirred the air. Dust on debris danced like fleas.

Crack… crack-crack—a guttural, beastly sound came from nearby.

In the silence, the man pulled his gun’s bolt and fired a burst. “611 calling! Engaging! Engaging—”

A sharp, hollow snap stopped him. Gunfire ceased. Something struck him, slamming him against the closet door.

His throat gurgled, blood and air choking him as he fought.

Two thuds shook Ye Shisan and Yi Qing. The closet door split with narrow gashes, blood pouring through.

The cuts weren’t from bullets—they looked like claw marks.

Yi Qing felt the claws’ presence but couldn’t see them, as if they blended into the air.

Ye Shisan froze, blood splashing his face.

His eyes rolled back, whites showing, body shaking.

Before Yi Qing could react, in a flash, the closet groaned from Ye Shisan’s back, then shattered. A terrifying force spread to the concrete wall, crushing it like a flower’s petals, slicing.

The closet and wall crumbled with a roar.

A force threw Yi Qing onto the sofa. Then, a shocking sight: Ye Shisan, head down, floated midair, as if held. Before him, a white, six-legged creature raised two long arms, stopped near his face.

Not stopped—its arms were held, as if by an unseen hand.

The creature, caught off guard, screeched, “Scree—”

The armed man slumped, his weapon cut to pieces, chest with two holes. He shouted with his last strength, “Hit its brain!”

The six-legged creature stood over four meters tall, its thin legs nearly touching the ceiling. Its body, no bigger than a basin, was covered in writhing white tendril-like fuzz, strange and deadly.

A hiss filled the air. The creature’s legs were cut into thirty-six pieces.

Black liquid sprayed from the stumps. The tendril-covered body fell to the floor, shrieking frantically.

Ye Shisan didn’t move his feet but slid forward. A squelch followed—the creature’s body shattered under crushing force, splattering red and yellow gore across the floor.

Blood covered half of Yi Qing’s face; the other half dripped with the creature’s gore.

In that moment, she understood YiQueen’s words.

The Heart Demon was real.