Chapter 52: "Schemes Beneath Tentacles and Silk"
There's a sacred kind of bliss that comes from walking again after a week spent suspended in humming nutrient fluid and psionic overstimulation. So there I was—new legs beneath me, twitching like freshly installed machinery—striding with absolute reverence toward the training chamber I'd designed for my rebirth.
Even just walking, I could feel the kinetic madness in my limbs. The fibers—rebuilt, rethreaded, reborn—were thrumming with stored violence. Every slow step felt sacrilegious, like driving a starfighter through a school zone. But I knew this giddy volatility was temporary; the nervous system just needed time to calibrate to its new throne.
I arrived at the training hall. It was exactly how I left it—clean, dangerous, quietly waiting to destroy me.
