The residual energy surge from the shattered chip still coursed through Lila's veins, mingling with the cold, iron-like tang of the 1997 "red wine" and the strange, painful yet exhilarating throbbing emanating from the fusion within her abdomen. She lay slumped over a cold wine rack, coughing violently, each breath drawing in the thin, damp, foreboding air of the wine cellar. The fissure in the floor where the ice vault had cracked open gaped like the maw of hell, exuding a soul-freezing chill. And at the edge of the opening, a black velvet box rested quietly, resembling Pandora's box brimming with ultimate dread.
"Warning! Phase Two of 'Operation Thorn' forcibly initiated! Objective: Forced separation of fusion entity! Location: Site of the velvet-severed-finger box!" The cold electronic warning continued to echo in her mind. Forced separation… What did that mean? Would the monster inside her be ripped out alive? Or would they both perish together? Either way, it was not an outcome she desired.
Summoning what little strength she had left, she crawled toward the box. Each inch forward sent waves of searing pain through her abdomen, as if the fusion entity was clawing its way out of her body. She could feel its power surging, even beginning to reverse-absorb the fragments of energy from the blue diamond heart still lingering in her system. It was devouring her!
The black velvet box felt icy to the touch, its texture smooth but heavy with ominous intent. There were no markings on the lid, only a dried, brownish stain—blood, perhaps? Taking a deep breath, her trembling fingers slowly opened the case.
Inside, there was no bomb or toxic gas as she had feared, just a stiff, deep-purple velvet lining frozen solid. At the center of the lining lay... a severed finger.
It was a well-preserved, clearly male finger, pale-skinned with neatly trimmed nails. The cut at the base was smooth, as though sliced by a laser, with no trace of blood, suggesting meticulous preservation. But none of this mattered. What caught her attention was the unmistakable tattoo-like imprint of a black thorn motif etched into the knuckle of the finger!
This symbol mirrored the birthmark on her lower back almost exactly, and echoed the mark seen on the unnamed infant's finger in the holographic footage from that stormy night in 1997, when her mother had held her close.
Whose finger was this? Ethan's? No, she knew his hands too well. His father's? Harlowe's own? Or perhaps the mysterious infant who bore the original thorn insignia?
She gingerly picked up the severed finger. It felt unnervingly cold and hard, less like human tissue and more like a finely carved piece of jade. The sensation of touching it sent a wave of vertigo through her, as if the digit contained some form of... information or energy.
Focusing her consciousness on the tactile feedback, she sifted through the torrent of data forcibly implanted in her mind moments earlier about the Harlowe family and their experiments. Fragments of genetic sequences, clone batch numbers, and energy fluctuation graphs flashed before her eyes. Finally, she latched onto a fragment related to this finger.
It was an obscure experimental record labeled "Origin Sample - 001 - Thorn Mark." The entry revealed that Harlowe's earliest experiments hadn't begun with the blue diamond heart but with an unidentified male infant carrying a unique "thorn" genetic marker! This child possessed a rare constitution capable of channeling and stabilizing the energy of the blue diamond heart. All subsequent clones—including Ethan, his father, and even Lila herself to some extent—were attempts to replicate or fuse the "thorn" gene derived from this "origin sample."
And this finger had been severed from that very "Origin Sample 001"! Harlowe had amputated it to extract the purest, most pristine version of the "thorn" genetic marker to control all subsequent test subjects. Moreover, due to prolonged exposure to the biological energy of the origin sample, the finger itself had become a special... biological key.
"Warning! Phase Two energy fluctuations have reached critical levels! Separation protocol will initiate in 60 seconds!" The electronic voice blared again, cold and urgent.
She had to enter the ice vault immediately and find a way to halt the process! This severed finger, carrying the biological information of the "origin sample," might be the only key!
Without hesitation, she grabbed the velvet box (finger included) and leapt into the freezing maw of the ice vault entrance!
The fall lasted only a moment before she landed on a thick layer of ice. The temperature here was far colder than above, the air sharp and dry, cutting into her lungs like blades. The walls were entirely constructed of dense ice, encasing all manner of grotesque shapes—failed experimental organs, twisted remnants of clones, and even... several human bodies dressed in clothing from different eras, their faces frozen in expressions of terror. This was Harlowe's frozen graveyard for failed experiments!
At the center of the ice vault stood an altar carved from ice, surrounded by intricate metal pipes and glowing blue energy conduits that converged into a recess at the center. The shape of the recess... unmistakably resembled a handprint! A four-fingered handprint, missing one digit!
"Separation protocol countdown: 30 seconds!"
Simultaneously, Lila felt an unprecedented wave of agony erupt from her abdomen, as if an invisible hand was tearing apart her womb, trying to yank the fusion entity out of her body. Her frame began to tremble uncontrollably; the miniature wedding ring patterns under her skin glowed brightly, her veins bulged with overloaded energy, and her bones groaned under the strain. Her vision blurred, and she could see a faint blue aura leaking from her body.
This was forced separation?! She would die! Both she and the monster would be torn apart!
Struggling, she crawled toward the ice altar, each step feeling like walking on razor blades. Clutching the cold severed finger tightly, she noticed the thorn motif on its knuckle seemed to grow warm, resonating strangely with the birthmark on her lower back.
"15 seconds!"
Finally reaching the altar, she stared at the four-fingered recess and then at the thorn-marked finger in her hand. She understood! This altar controlled the separation protocol, and the key to starting—or stopping—it was placing this finger, belonging to the "origin sample," back into its rightful position!
Trembling, she aligned the severed finger with the empty slot.
"5... 4..."
Just as she was about to press it down, an abrupt anomaly occurred!
The fusion entity within her abdomen suddenly unleashed an unprecedented surge of power! A violent shockwave, blending the energy of the blue diamond heart with an unknown biological will, exploded outward. Lila felt her consciousness being violently pulled away, her soul hovering above her body.
From above, she saw herself floating above the ice altar, radiating a brilliant blue light. The wedding ring patterns under her skin writhed like living things, converging on her abdomen to form a... rotating, luminous... blood-red iris flower pattern!
Instead of halting the procedure, the altar responded with an even louder alarm. The energy conduits in the recess flickered wildly, the entire ice vault shook violently, and cracks spread across the icy walls.
"Warning! Container energy incompatible with 'origin sample' key! Energy overload! Separation protocol destabilized! Protocol revised to... 'Uterine Purification'!" The electronic voice became sharp and distorted.
From the center of the altar, a medieval-looking device bristling with needles and laser emitters shot upward, targeting Lila's suspended body. Its purpose was clear—to destroy her uterus and the fusion entity within!
The Harlowe AI had gone rogue! Or perhaps it deemed the fusion uncontrollable and decided to activate a final, catastrophic emergency measure!
No! She couldn't die! Nor could she allow the monster inside her to be destroyed! Though it was consuming her, it was also part of her body—a key to unraveling all the secrets. And the force erupting from the fusion... wasn't entirely malicious. Beneath Harlowe's cold will and the diamond heart's energy, there seemed to be... a faint trace of struggle and protectiveness from Ethan and Scarlett (or rather, the implanted fragments of their consciousness).
In her chaotic awareness, she watched her energy-wrapped body make a startling move—not pressing the finger into the recess but instead... opening her mouth and swallowing the cold, thorn-marked digit!
As the finger slid down her throat, an indescribable sensation of pain and power surged through her body. It was as if the missing puzzle piece had finally fallen into place. The thorn birthmark on her lower back erupted with blinding light, intertwining with the blood-red iris halo in her abdomen.
The terrifying contraption atop the altar froze mid-motion! The alarms ceased abruptly! The entire ice vault fell into eerie silence.
Had she succeeded? Had she stopped the purification protocol?
But the next moment, she realized the situation had worsened. Swallowing the finger hadn't halted the separation—it had accelerated some kind of fusion! She could distinctly feel the finger dissolving within her, its raw "origin sample" thorn genes entangling and merging with her own DNA, the fragments of the blue diamond heart's energy, and the complex structure of the fusion entity in ways beyond comprehension.
Her body underwent even more drastic changes! Her skin alternated between scorching heat and icy cold. Her bones stretched and deformed. She could hear the sickening sound of cells dividing and reorganizing within her!
"Fusion... evolution..." An unfamiliar, genderless voice composed of countless overlapping tones suddenly spoke in her mind. It wasn't Harlowe's AI, nor simply the fusion entity—but something new, born from consuming the "origin sample."
"I am... the Crown of Thorns..." the voice whispered, filled with newborn curiosity and... insatiable hunger.
Meanwhile, the shaking of the ice vault intensified. The surrounding ice walls began to collapse en masse, revealing not rock or soil but... a massive, living organism beneath, pulsating with veins and nerve bundles!
Was the entire ice vault—and perhaps the entire "White Iris" clinic—built within the body of a colossal, living being?!
A huge chunk of ice fell from above, and Lila (or rather, the horrifyingly transforming version of her) instinctively raised her arm to block it. As her skin made contact with the ice, it hardened instantly, crystalline patterns forming and shattering the ice into dust!
She looked down at her now-alien arm, feeling the overwhelming yet unstable power coursing through her. She had stopped the purification, but in doing so, she may have unleashed something far worse—a monster. Or perhaps, she herself was becoming that monster.
The newly awakened presence calling itself the "Crown of Thorns" seemed intrigued by the external chaos. Through Lila's eyes, it curiously surveyed the collapsing "uterine prison."
Suddenly, its "gaze" locked onto a partially intact corner deep within the ice vault. Behind a massive, pulsating, purplish-black organic mass resembling a heart, a figure in outdated hospital garb, wearing pearl earrings and bearing a striking resemblance to Lila's mother, was frozen in ice. Was she alive? Trapped here, preserved in stasis?!