Chapter 9 - The Sculptor's Wrath
"Elias! Do you read me?" Elena's voice was frantic, crackling through the static.
"I'm here," Elias groaned, pushing a heavy chunk of ice off his chest plate. His suit was badly battered, warning lights flashing across his HUD.
"We have a massive problem," Elena said, her voice tight with panic. "The destruction of the Titan... their nuclear reactor ruptured when the ice crushed it. It's venting raw, super-heated radiation directly into the cavern."
Elias looked at the mountain of ice burying the submarine. The water was boiling around it, bubbles rushing toward the surface.
"It's feeding the organism," Elias realized, the true horror dawning on him.
The Sculptor wasn't just surviving anymore; it was thriving. Fed by the massive thermal and radioactive energy of the breached nuclear reactor, the biological ice began to grow at an exponential, terrifying rate. The glowing blue veins expanded rapidly across the ocean floor, crystallizing everything in their path. The water temperature plummeted so violently that the ocean itself was freezing under the immense pressure.
"It's a chain reaction," Elena said, pulling herself out of the rubble. "If we don't destroy the reactor right now, the organism will use the energy to breach the surface. It will freeze the entire Pacific."
"How do we stop a nuclear meltdown at the bottom of the ocean?" Elias yelled, watching the ice creep toward them like a living, ravenous beast.
"We don't stop it," Elena said, her scientific mind calculating the absolute finality of their situation. "We accelerate it. We overload the reactor's core limits. The resulting thermonuclear explosion will be hot enough to vaporize the organism entirely before it can consume the heat."
"You want to set off a nuke in the trench?"
"It's the only way to sterilize the contagion!"
Elias looked at the Abyss Walker, parked a hundred yards away. "Get to the sub, Elena. Start the engines. I'll overload the reactor."
"No, Elias! You can't outrun a nuclear blast in that suit!"
"I don't plan on outrunning it in the suit," Elias said, his voice deadly calm. He detached the heavy, hydraulic tether cable from his waist. "I'll ride the shockwave up to you. Now go!"
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Elena hesitated for a fraction of a second, then turned and engaged her thrusters, rocketing toward their escape vessel.
Elias turned back to the mountain of glowing, spreading ice. He had one job left.
