**Bonus Chapter 71: Lone Wanderer**
*Flesh? Blood?*
*That rueful stench is everywhere, lingering in the air like a never-ending curse.*
*It's almost unbearable.*
*At least, that's what I think.*
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Thor's boots echoed against the cold, tallic floors of the alien spaceship. His strides were strong and steady, an unyielding march through the haunting silence. Days without food had taken little toll on him. His stamina was impressive, even after battling and killing every Fatek he encountered.
He was a force of nature, resilient, and determined, cutting through the depths of this massive, labyrinthine ship like a predator on the prowl.
This spaceship was far larger than he had anticipated. Its corridors stretched endlessly, with chambers hidden behind walls, traps rigged in inner compartnts, and secret reserves filled with bizarre, alien contraptions. The place was a tomb of horrors, stained with purple, dried blood—the signature of the Fatek.
Thor scanned the blood-splattered halls. He had been here days ago, and nothing had changed, save for the eerie stillness. A grim mory stirred in his mind: the hall had led to a group of survivors. Their fate had been sealed when he had accidentally triggered a trap, unleashing a stampede of alien beasts that had trampled them like mindless oxen.
Their screams still echoed in his mind.
*I was too late.*
Yet, Thor had learned a great deal during his lonely wander through this forsaken ship. The Fatek weren't rely war-hungry invaders; they were more calculated, more twisted than that. They weren't just gathering resources or trying to harness the raw power of Earth's fauna. No, they were experinting—on animals, on creatures, and on people.
Thor's fists clenched at the thought. He had co across their ghastly laboratories, filled with tubes and grotesque amalgamations of flesh. They were mixing DNA, creating...sothing. It wasn't an attempt to make themselves stronger, not exactly. The Fatek were far too advanced to fall for the dangers of genetic manipulation without calculating the risks.
No, they were after sothing far worse. They sought perfection.
*Perfect cells.*
The words echoed in Thor's mind. That was the only conclusion he could draw from what he had seen. The hybrid monstrosities he had encountered barely survived long enough to fight back. The experints were grotesque, cruel failures. But they were trying. Relentlessly.
Thor exhaled slowly as he turned into a wide, half-destroyed hall. His gaze swept across the ruins of machinery and broken glass. He had been here before. It led nowhere. For days now, he had wandered in circles, uncovering hidden rooms, but no survivors remained.
"This wasn't a trap," Thor muttered to himself, his deep voice barely a whisper. "It's all a distraction."
With a surge of frustration, Thor lifted his boot and slamd it hard against the floor. The force of the impact cracked the tal surface beneath him, and with a sharp *snap*, the ground gave way. He plumted through the collapsing floor, landing with a thud in a dark, enclosed room below.
Dust and debris swirled around him as Thor straightened up, brushing dirt off his shoulders. He glanced around, noting the small, secretive nature of the chamber. His eyes quickly locked onto the figure of a woman sitting before several computers, her fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard.
Sothing about her was...wrong.
Thor narrowed his eyes, taking in every detail. Her lab coat, her unkempt hair, her shallow breathing—it all pointed to the sa conclusion. She wasn't a hunter. No, she was a scientist, taken by the Fatek long before Thor and his crew arrived.
"Two months... maybe more," Thor murmured, calculating her tiline. She had been here far longer than any of the human prisoners. This confird his growing suspicion: the Fatek weren't rely invading through portals. There was another way. A backdoor.
A hidden path between Earth and wherever these vile creatures called ho.
Thor took a step forward. "You don't have to work anymore—"
Before he could finish, the woman's body went limp. Her face slamd into the keyboard with a sickening thud. The room fell eerily silent.
*Sothing is wrong.*
Thor didn't move. He remained rooted to the spot, his warrior's instincts screaming at him to wait. Then, from the corner of the room, he heard it: a faint slithering noise. A slide, slick and fast, coming towards him.
In a flash, Thor's hand shot up, his fingers closing around sothing cold and wet. He brought it into view, his gaze narrowing as he examined it.
An earthworm? No... It was thicker, its body covered in a grotesque shell. Its movents were frantic, twisting and writhing as it tried to escape his grip, blood oozing from its body.
"Disgusting." Thor's voice was low, controlled. "You're not from Earth. But your energy..." He paused, recalling a similar creature from a portal mission months ago—a bug, fast and deadly, barely defeated by his team. This worm was no different. Discover more stories at m,v l'e-
Suddenly, everything clicked into place.
The woman's death. The blood seeping from her ears.
"Mind control," Thor muttered, his voice filled with disdain. These worms weren't just pests. They were capable of controlling their hosts, bending humans to their will. He growled in anger, squeezing the creature until it burst apart in his hand, its vile innards splattering against his fingers.
Thor wiped the gore from his palm and looked around the room, his sharp eyes catching the faint outline of a door in the corner. A hidden passage.
With a determined stride, Thor approached. The door slid open, revealing a large glass wall beyond it. Thor's breath caught in his throat.
"Dear God..." he whispered.
Behind the glass was a vast aquarium, but it wasn't filled with water or fish. No, it was swarming with thousands of the very sa worm-like creatures he had just crushed. They writhed and twisted, filling the tank like a pulsating mass of flesh.
Thor's mind raced. If this many were here, and they had only found one on Earth after a portal mission...
His eyes widened in horror.
*Earth has been invaded.*
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