The macabre sight at the power plant's security post made the entire platoon shudder.

The barrier with the stop sign at the entrance of the auxiliary rune-electric plant was shattered, splintered, and stained with blood. The two guard booths that flanked the entrance had their windows broken with bullet marks on the walls and casings scattered on the ground. One of the soldiers from the booths lay across one of the windows with several holes caused by some type of stabbing weapon, and in parts, his flesh had been torn as if bitten by some kind of animal. The other, sitting on his knees, had stumps for hands and a cut across his neck from which a now-dried red cascade had flowed. His weapon lay a few inches further and had been cut into two irregular pieces. Around and behind the control post, numerous corpses of mutants, National Defense Corps soldiers, and Savages were scattered. The first had numerous gunshot wounds and injuries from bladed or blunt weapons, while the latter two seemed to have been torn apart by beasts. What they all shared were the dismemberments they had suffered.

This confirmed the sergeant's suspicions. The group of savages they had encountered had not been a squad sent to meet them or in search of victims, but the remnants of the group that had tried to assault the rune-electric plant. The presence of the drum truck and the ravaged appearance of the soldiers and the savages at the entrance also reinforced Sergeant Raed's theory that the savages had not been the first to attack the plant, but the mutants had.

But how many of them had there been? No matter how small the plant was, it was not easy to take it with all those soldiers and electrified fences, and even less so by a group of unintelligent, uncoordinated mutants. To that, one had to add the fact that they had killed most of the savages who had tried to storm the plant and had made the rest flee. Raed did not know exactly how many mutants it took to do something like that, but he was sure that at least more than a hundred were needed. The question was, where had so many come from? Had they been guided somehow to the plant? Or had it been a coincidence?

And then, another more disturbing question assaulted his mind. If the first to attack had been the mutants instead of the savages, why had they used the word "demon," instead of "mutant"?

Suddenly, a distant memory he thought he had forgotten formed in his head. In it, his father repeated the word "demon" over and over as he stabbed the lifeless body of a human in a dark street formed inside a building. A chill ran through his body, and something deep inside him said they should get away from there as fast as possible. But Raed did not know if it was the innocent child from that scene or his adult self who had fought in so many battles who had spoken.

***

"Sergeant, I detect corrupt magic," said Isen with his expressionless face. Unlike the rest of the platoon, what concerned him was not the carnage that had occurred there, but the alteration of the essence of the magic itself.

"Damn, just what we needed." Raed rubbed his worried face. "There weren't supposed to be any sources of corruption in this area."

"What do you mean by corrupt magic, sir?" asked Soldier Burmac.

"Didn't they teach you this at the academy?" the mage retorted. His cold eyes fixed on the soldier's: "Among other things, it's what creates mutants... Think of it like radiation. Except it doesn't enter our bodies by breathing."

That response made Burmac turn even paler than he already was.

"Magic had to be involved..." muttered André.

"Is it a lot?" the sergeant wanted to know. "Where does it come from?"

"Huge," replied Isen. "The source is coming from the center of the plant."

"Damn... It had to be the central building," lamented the sergeant. "Do you think the workers might have turned into mutants?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question, sergeant."

"Shit..." Raed ran his finger over the pack of cigarettes in his pocket. He tapped it a few times and stopped. "Is it very widespread?"

"Not much. I'd say within a radius of fifteen to twenty meters."

"Alright..." Raed rubbed his temple again. He clearly hated being in command in such a situation. "If we were to enter the central building, how long would we have before we start to suffer mutations?"

"I wouldn't be able to tell you until I was closer to the source of the corrupt magic. But, I doubt it would be long, and even if you don't develop mutations, it doesn't mean that..."

"I know, Combat Mage Isen, I know," Raed interrupted him.

Isen took out some small cylindrical vials from his belt, inside which was a yellow liquid.

"I have four protectors against corrupt magic. They aren't as effective or durable as the anti-corruption suits, but it should be more than enough to figure out what happened and get back."

***

"Attention everyone," announced the sergeant over the communicator. "Here's the situation." Raed tapped his cibertab, then raised his fingers to make the map from his device appear in 3D. "We don't know exactly what we'll encounter in there, but we need to access the central building to determine the source of the corruption and find out what the hell has happened exactly." The image of the building enlarged and changed color. The soldiers stationed at the machine guns continued their vigilance. "We don’t have anti-corruption suits, but Isen has four protectors, so I need three people to accompany the combat mage in addition to soldiers Dragen and Bargu into the central building. Any volunteers?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Sir, you said there are four protectors and you need three volunteers, but if you include the combat mage, Corporal Dragen, and Bargu, that makes six people, doesn’t it?" asked Burmac.

"Drauos are practically immune to corruption, so unfortunately for them, they won’t have the liberty to volunteer this time," Raed responded, looking at the soldier. "But now that you've volunteered to accompany them, you'll be able to learn more about them."

Laughter was heard.

"I, no…" said Burmac.

"Good, we have our first volunteer," Raed replied. "Anyone else?" No one responded.

"Alright. Neisa and André, you will be the other volunteers. Once inside, see if anything can be done about the corruption and try to get hold of the camera recordings and anything else that might help us clarify what has happened," Raed announced unsympathetically. He then minimized the image and touched another point on the three-dimensional map. "Ramón, once we've cleared the entrance, you and your squad will stay to make sure we don't have any unexpected visitors." The image changed again. "Chelne, you will take Ordwulf to the machine room to see if the plant can be restarted. The rest of us will escort the mage's squad to a safe point, and then we will establish a defense perimeter, preferably between the buildings of the machine room, the central and the auxiliary building of the National Defense Corps. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," everyone replied in unison.

"Good. There are likely still mutants inside. So, I want everyone to keep their eyes wide open. Move out."

***

"Miriam, Dragen, Kaltar, Ricty, clear the bodies that are blocking the entrance. The rest of you, keep watch."

The sergeant's order snapped Miriam back to reality. She didn't know what her face showed, but inside she was terrified. It wasn't the first time they had come to a place that had been attacked by savages or mutants, but it was the first time she had seen such a disturbing scene.

"Yes, sir," the soldiers replied in turn. She wasn't the only one who had been stunned.

The soldier looked at the young Aehul, Ricty, and they both nodded. They approached the body of a National Defense Corps member who was missing an arm and had a disfigured face, and together they moved it aside. The next body they moved was that of a pregnant mutant woman. Something inside Miriam broke when she realized that the mutant was pregnant and something resembling a deformed baby was protruding from her. She dropped the body and felt tears begin to stream down her face as Ricty looked on in confusion.

Soldier Kaltar, who was nearby dragging a legless body of a scrawny mutant with tattered skin and a blade protruding from his arm, stopped what she was doing, and seeing what Miriam had seen, simply hugged her. It was something no woman wanted to witness. Miriam returned the hug, and suddenly Kaltar shuddered in pain.

Miriam felt her companion's body slip from her arms, and someone shouted a warning. She quickly turned her head from side to side to try to figure out what was happening and then saw the mutant that Kaltar had left on the ground approaching her companion and stabbing her in the neck with the blade. Blood began to spurt, and everything around her went silent, except for her breathing. She was paralyzed. So was Ricty.

"Fire!" The sergeant's shout sounded muffled in their heads.

Drops of dark blood hit the helmets of Miriam and Ricty. Suddenly, as if earplugs had been removed, the sound around them began to gradually return until it became gunshots and screams.

Both soldiers looked up and saw Dragen chopping off a mutant's head in front of them. Behind him, coming from the auxiliary building of the National Defense Corps about forty meters away, several mutants were running towards them in disarray.

"Wake up! Damn it!" shouted the Drauo corporal, turning around and beginning to fire.

"Fire!" someone repeated.

And then, everything around them became clear. Both soldiers raised their rifles and aimed.

"Die!" shouted Miriam and Ricty as they pulled the triggers.

***

Neisa injected the protector into her neck and felt the substance spread through her body, causing slight pain. Fortunately for her, the hangover had already passed. Although she undoubtedly would have preferred to suffer the headache rather than enter a building filled with something akin to radiation, or perhaps worse, since no effective treatment was known once infected. And, to make matters worse, the rune-electric power plant looked like something out of a horror movie.

She looked at her childhood friend André, knowing he felt the same as her, or even worse. He had always disliked magic, but since the brief insurrection in Tarefor, it seemed he hated it. He never told her what he had seen there, but Neisa was sure it had traumatized him. In fact, she knew he wore a glove on his right hand to cover a burn, not out of shame or complexity, but to avoid remembering what happened there. At times like these, she regretted that André had enlisted because of something she had said in a moment of excitement.

Neisa attached the silencer to her rifle and shifted her gaze to the combat mage. He returned her look, and the soldier shuddered when she felt his ice-blue eyes piercing her.

"Alright, let's get moving," said the mage, not waiting for any comment.

"We'll cover your backs from here," said the sergeant. "But once you enter, you're on your own, so be careful and avoid unnecessary fights. You might not be heard with the silencers, but remember, mutants can sense the energy inside you."

"You've heard the combat mage, let's go," declared Corporal Dragen in his deep voice.

The mage's squad left the rest of the platoon behind and crept down the street between the security building and the central one, dodging lifeless bodies and scanning the surroundings for potential enemies. Most of the buildings bore shrapnel marks and had shattered glass; some, like the watchtower, looked demolished due to explosive projectile impacts. They knew the sergeant and their comrades were watching their backs, but any lapse could be fatal. Neisa had learned this long ago, but the unexpected mutant attack from the National Defense Corps' auxiliary building was a cruel reminder.

They continued walking, and Neisa felt a slight relief as they turned right in formation toward the entrance of the central building. However, upon arrival, the facade of the central building sent chills down her spine. Numerous black stems filled with yellowish eruptions covered and penetrated much of the wall and windows of the building. From their limbs hung twisted leaves with tiny teeth, and something akin to eyes devoured small chunks of humanoid flesh. In one window, hanging from his own guts which had grown to an enormous size, was a mutant human with ten fingers on each hand. His face was all mouth, and his eyes had elongated and bent to align parallel to it. He was still alive and desperately trying to shove something into his mouth.

"The corruption is worse than I thought..." said the mage slowly. He then pulled out his runic pistol, and from the barrel of the weapon, a white magical projectile shot out, partially disintegrating the mutant's head, spreading a black fluid like a water bottle cut in half. "Let's continue."

Just then, the distant sound of machine guns firing and the groans of pain from mutants being repeatedly pierced by bullets were heard. Neisa sighed and followed her companions into the eerie building, wondering if they would all make it out alive