Year 708 of the New World.

"...They're dead... By Ibelir, Garbe, they've been dismembered."

Upon hearing that, Garbe's heart, a corporal in the National Defense Corps of Ibelir, clenched in his chest.

"It can't be... Intruders? The alarm hasn't gone off," he thought, feeling a knot form in his stomach.

"Michael, zoom in on A-5," Garbe ordered through the communicator in his helmet. The vapor produced by his words climbed through the air before disappearing. "Do you see any openings in the fence?"

The control room operator focused the camera on the indicated area. The fence was intact.

"There are no openings..." murmured Michael, his voice tinged with uncertainty.

"It's okay. Calm down," said Garbe. Although he didn't know if he was saying it to his friend or to himself. "Check A-8 and A-9."

A sound of intermittent beeps was softly heard through the communicator. The corporal of the National Defense Corps of Ibelir looked down at the cyber tablet on his left forearm. On the screen, the icon of the general channel was blinking. Someone was talking.

"Michael, one second," he said and switched channels. The sound of gunfire and growls like those of a beast filled Garbe's helmet.

"What the hell is that!?" shouted a terrified soldier, as the gunfire continued. "It's not going down, damn it, that thing won't fall! Keep shooting, damn it!" A chill ran down the corporal's body.

A chill ran down the corporal's body.

"Renton, this is Corporal Garbe. What's happening?" The sound of heavy footsteps approached the transmission's origin as the sounds of gunfire and screams attempting to face the fear continued.

And then, a chilling roar overlaid all other sounds, and then... everything went silent.

"Renton?" His heart was hammering in his chest. "Renton, do you hear me? For Ibelir's sake, answer!"

 "Your end has come, pathetic mortals," said a sinister voice, followed by the sound of a helmet being crushed.

Garbe was paralyzed. What could have such strength as to destroy a helmet? Perhaps an Odrox from the Savages? But it was impossible for such a creature to have entered the premises without triggering the alarms. Had a soldier or operator mutated? But that didn't fit either. Even if there had been a source of corrupt magic large enough to mutate someone so much and in such a short time, it was impossible for a mutant to have said that...

The intermittent beeping again. On the cyber tablet screen, Michael's icon blinked. He tapped it. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," Michael's repeated word came out of his mouth faster than bullets from a machine gun.

The alarm resounded throughout the plant, and the light beam from the guard tower began to search for intruders. However, Garbe had many years of experience working at that auxiliary plant and knew exactly where each of the soldiers guarding that night was located; The intruder was heading to the machine room. There was no time to waste. If the power went out, they would be defenseless against the dangers that inhabited the darkness outside.

He switched channels.

"This is Corporal Garbe." He felt panic take over his body. "We have intruders in the machine room... Whatever that is, we have to stop it before..." The power was abruptly cut off, leaving the complex only with emergency lights and the fence unpowered. They were screwed. "Does anyone copy?" asked Garbe.

The only response he got was the sound of interference accompanied by the echo of gunfire from different points.

He switched channels again. "Michael, do you copy?" Nothing. Just static. Garbe cursed. The corporal was on the other side of the auxiliary plant, but he couldn't risk leaving the situation in the hands of his soldiers. He had to reach the machine room and restore the power... Even if that meant facing whatever... that was.

"Joel," Garbe said to the soldier next to him. "Let's go." But just as they were about to move, a loud guttural sound came from the darkness of the parking lot.

"Were the Savages waiting outside? Or are our companions really mutating?" Garbe signaled to Joel, and they approached slowly, pointing with the flashlight attached to their HK52 assault rifle.

The sound intensified until behind some cars, three humans with various mutations appeared. One of them had an arm full of tentacles, and his elongated, flaccid head seemed an extension of his corrupt arm. Another had goat legs, nails like claws, and a huge mouth lined with teeth that looked like blades. The third had a disproportionately large head, and numerous bones from his body had pierced the flesh, forming horn-like projections.

"Fire!" shouted Garbe as he pulled the trigger of his rifle. A burst of bullets shot from his weapon, hitting the tentacled mutant in the head.

Without worrying about his companion's reaction, Garbe twisted his waist slightly and tried to take down the one with goat legs, but it was quicker and dodged to the side to avoid the bullets. The mutant leaped to pounce on him, and Garbe was thankful when his nerves allowed him to shoot again. The impact of the bullets in the creature's chest made it fall lifelessly to the ground.

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However, Joel's nerves weren't as steady as his superior's, and as soon as he saw the monster approaching him with its mouth wide open, he didn't hesitate to empty the magazine. By the time Garbe aimed with his rifle, the mutant had become a sieve. In any other situation, the corporal would have reprimanded him for emptying a whole magazine like that, but given the circumstances, he was just thankful Joel hadn't run away.

"It's over, soldier, calm down," he told him, placing his hand on the shoulder protector. "Come on, we have to hurry."

"Yes... yes," the soldier replied, his finger still on the trigger.

Garbe approached the mutants and gave them a quick look. None of them wore any of the uniforms seen around the plant. That meant the mutants had been waiting outside, hidden in the darkness. He swallowed hard.

"What the hell is going on here?" he thought before leaving.

Upon reaching one of the auxiliary buildings, Garbe and Joel saw two soldiers from the National Defense Corps firing, sheltered on the stairs leading to the building's entrance door. They slowed down, bent their knees, and tried to control their breathing. They advanced on the flank and joined the shootout. The combined fire of the four soldiers quickly finished off the bloodthirsty mutants.

"Lairi, Teik, are you okay?" asked the Corporal.

"Thanks to you, we only have some wounds. Most of the blood isn't ours," Lairi answered.

 "Where did all those mutants come from?" Teik said, trying to regain his composure.

"No idea, but we don't have time to think about that. We need to restore the generators as soon as possible."

The soldiers nodded and advanced in formation through the chiaroscuro created by a few emergency lights distributed around the complex, giving it an even more disturbing appearance. Garbe tried to speak again on the private channel with Michael but couldn't. He wished it was just because of the interference and not something worse.

Along the way, they took down a couple more mutants and saw some type of flying creature enter the watchtower and tear apart the soldiers inside. Their bodies fell into the void, leaving a crimson trail in the air.

"Fuck, what the hell was that?" Joel asked, without stopping running.

"I have no idea. I just hope it doesn't come after us," Garbe replied.

Shortly after, the soldiers reached the runic towers. These converted magical currents into electrical discharges which, through graphene plates, runic transformers, and mega batteries, turned into electrical energy that was then distributed throughout the state along with the other plants. From there, they saw two other soldiers from the National Defense Corps coming out of the parallel path leading to the entrance of the rectangular machine room building, and starting to shoot.

"Let's go, quick, we have to help them," said the soldier Lairi, and the others followed her.

But before they could reach a safe position to shoot, a mutant with tattered skin pierced the neck of one of the shooting soldiers with its arm shaped like a sharp bone, and another gaunt-looking mutant with teeth like razors tore out the throat of the other with a bite.

"Sons of bitches!" Lairi shouted, firing as she advanced.

"Die!" yelled Teik, following his companion.

"Die!" repeated Joel.

Garbe cursed and followed his comrades.

Joel took down several mutants that approached him as he opened fire indiscriminately, but just as a new mutant with claws and a mouth in its stomach appeared on his right, the bullets stopped coming out of the barrel of his gun. Joel managed to react when the mutant pounced on him, and he stabbed it in the neck with the bayonet of his rifle. However, another mutant with a sort of pincer instead of a hand, came out from his left and violently decapitated him.

Garbe pulled the bayonet out of a mutant's head, and while reloading, saw Joel's head brutally torn off, leaving a red trail, while Lairi was impaled over and over by a mutant that had a spike for a fist and a single eye that nearly covered its whole head. Garbe fired a burst at the one with the pincer, hitting where a normal human's heart would be, and then finished off the absurdly fat mutant. Teik, with rage, gunned down the single-eyed mutant that had killed his companion.

When they finally finished them all off, they had barely any bullets left, and the ground was littered with bodies and blood. Both had numerous wounds, and their bodies hurt and weighed them down. They were out of breath and all they wanted was to get out of there, but still, they headed to the door of the machine room building. Duty came first.

"Are you ready?" Garbe asked, gasping for air as he leaned against the wall.

"No sir, and you?" Teik asked.

"How could I be?" Garbe tried to catch his breath and looked up before returning his gaze to the soldier. "Damn, if I had known, I would have gone back to fucking Jasmina last night."

This was no longer a conversation between a superior and his subordinate, but between two brothers in arms standing at death's door.

"I would have preferred to have the day off today..."

"True..." Garbe said with a smile. "Shall we go in?"

"I just hope whatever it was, it's not there anymore," Teik answered.

"Yes... me too..."

Upon entering the building, an unpleasant aroma composed of the smell of copper mixed with urine, feces, and a hint of scorched machinery filled their noses. The floor was covered with the bodies of dismembered operators and soldiers, intestines, and blood. The machines and devices responsible for the operation of the rune-electric plant were turned off and bathed in red. They bore numerous marks, and there were cut high-tension cables. Sparks flew from one side to the other.

Teik vomited.

Garbe had to muster all his willpower not to do the same. After a few seconds, the corporal made some signs to his subordinate and cautiously moved forward through one of the corridors flanking the huge batteries. His heart pounded fiercely as he avoided the limbs and scattered intestines.

A scream of terror echoed through the room.

"Teik!"

Garbe turned and headed towards the origin of the terrifying sound with his weapon aimed. When he arrived, he found the body of the soldier cut into several pieces.

"Get out of here!" his mind screamed at him.

Heavy, thudding footsteps were heard behind him. He was dead. He knew it. But he forced himself to turn around.

It was then when he saw something only mentioned in ancient stories, horror movies, and by some madmen. Instinctively, his brain immediately transmitted the order to press the trigger with his index finger. But no matter how much he tried while his head moved away from the crimson source his body had become, he couldn't do it. After crashing into a machine and rolling a couple of times on the floor, he understood why his finger wasn't moving. Fortunately for him, by the time his head was crushed, he had already lost consciousness.

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This chapter is a translation done with chat GPT from my original work in Spanish "Anlova en Llamas" (Anlova In Flames).

 Any correction for something mistranslated would be appreciated.

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Novel written by Javier Martinez Soliva. All rights reserved.

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