Red Ivy

ack Vale burned w

caught in the air like sparks from hell's forge. As Vex and Lana escaped

od streamed from Vex's nose. The roots within him were no longer ju

him as if seein

s," she w

en window. His refl

ils wer

f red bark and tiny buds,

GROUN

bway tunnels meant for a Cold War shelter. She believed they led to the Thirteenth Vein, a

uried with it, the last remnant of w

hey went deeper, the tunnels shifted, brick wa

es

no longer

nside somet

iling like sweat. Insects the size of rats skittered across

pers. Hundreds of voices.

mber so vast it co

e dark. Hovering above it: a massive cocoon

.. was a c

Naked.

ted in th

g you," she sai

r w

came from b

ongre

Bark growing from their spines. Their mouths split o

ot Father Lang. Not even t

was w

h, no nose, only slits along

dagger made of

" she hissed. "The god

BA

The roots did not resist

tore through the cultists, but more kept

Vex in the c

ned it

pure red

eneath them. Not

reathing.

on with a fire axe she'd carried from the tunnels

lt scr

scream

oured, oceans drained, forests used as veins. Shu'kalith wasn't just a god

using Vex as a ve

rel of her pistol a

sor

at her,

g else insid

, a

kne