Chapter 106: Parasytes of a kind
Diana
Even now, the transformation was still ongoing as the Soulless devolved ever faster, his skin breaking down into fluid only to harden like scabs in disproportionate arrangements. For just a moment, I let my focus drain on the rest of the Soulless.
Of the six, two were killed by Dryder, despite the fact that his cybernetics lent him an organic look, he was a wraith as he weaved between bodies and struck his cannon-like gun’s ammunition into their bodies. Blood and guts went flying with each shot, but notably those that remained dead had their heads blown off.
The brain was a complex organ, regenerating it would be many times more difficult compared to the others, and it was where Soul Killer’s infestation hibernated. Their weak point.
If only the same was true for the MALformed charging me — whose death would only come from destroying its Core — their arms were hideous and broad like a tree trunk made of muscle and broken bones, swinging wide to crush me. Compared to the normal crop of Tier II MALformed, this one had explosive strength that made the Fangtooth’s pale in comparison.
With a blinding flash originating from my own body, I vaulted above the smashing limbs, my soul on fire as I concentrated my field of electricity to constrict like a cage. More than any of my other Mutations, Electromagnetic Domain one had the most notable effect.
It was like being able to read the intentions of the MALformed as it’s irregular nervous system conducted across muscles and skin. Some even originated from multiple concentrated organs within it’s body, and they were where I felt the Titanium hum most.
My fists slammed into it’s steel-like body, blowing it back with each punch before it walloped it’s strength back towards me. While not as fast as the Fangtooths, if even one lumbersome strike hit me I’d suffer from broken bones or worse. Wounds that I wouldn’t be able to heal from in time.
With my concentration split across the metallic shrapnel of Dryder’s grenades, I weaved them across the battle, shredding into muscles and other tissues which hadn’t been granted the Parasyte’s unique physiology. I could feel it, there wasn’t any other words to use, but I had a strange hazy intuitive premonition about the flow of Warp Energy across it’s body.
Was it because I’d already ‘connected’ to it when I tried to remove Soul Killer’s influence, or was it just that loud to Soul Resonance? Without being able to experiment, my legs carried me low as one thick appendage whipped above me, my shin hardening to strike against it’s swollen kneecap.
“Don’t even bother trying to go for a lethal blow! It’ll run out of steam soon enough!” Dryder shot a thick pellet that burst a wave of blood and fragmented bone off it’s back at the same time, bodies littered across him.
I nodded, sparking a trail of electrical burns across it’s body as I ducked, rolled and flew around it’s attacks. The longer I fought, the more dense I felt my domain become, like whatever energy I’d scattered away was absorbed into the air as a reservoir. It heightened my senses, calling my body into action as I lightened in motion.
Even my attacks hit harder than ever, with enough Energy put into Kinetic-Thermal Catalyst, I felt like I could possibly match the Parasyte’s strength. Not with every strike, but those of which I’d enhanced once more with telekinetic prowess were enough to send the MALformed stumbling back.
Dryder continued his assault from afar, launching his attacks without ever endangering me in the slightest, each bullet exploding chunks of melting flesh out from the MAL.
Until finally, I felt the waves of Warp Energy radiating across it’s body wither away into a faded call. It grew slower, it’s strikes weaker and body more brittle.
“Get away now!” Dryder called, his arm splitting apart to reveal a jagged metallic blade protruding from it’s forearm. I headed his warning, moving away like a bolt of lightning.
The jagged blade shot forth with a thick weave of metallic rope still connected to Dryder’s forearm, then I felt waves of thick Siver Energy coalesce into the blade, a rhythmic humming as the MAL convulsed and ached under the dense vibrations.
Then, thunder boomed from the centre of the blade’s impalement, it echoed through the walls and rattled my bones before the MAL’s body exploded.
Dryder heaved out, the blade pulling back into his arm like a pet serpent, before adressing me. “Work on your Energy conservation, don’t take meaningless strikes. Hit hard, hit fast. Make it costly for The Revenant.”
“Revenant…?” I rested my hands on my knees, my recovery was quick but small wounds across my body emptied my stores quickly.
“Just another name for the bastard. Soul Killer, The Plague, Revenant, The Maddest Scientist… they’re nothing but a pest that’s lived for too long in this city.” The spite in Dryder’s voice was tangible.
“Hey, Dryder…” I honed in on him, unable to hide the fleeting anger that had built up in me across these weeks. “Why’d you wait so long to come and save Anthony anyway?… I mean… didn’t you say that he was your… godson?”
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Dryder took a deep breath, turning away from me. “I… It wasn’t an easy choice. When you deal with a monster like SK, you can’t rush in… that’s how… it’s how his mother died. It’s how his aunt is now nothing more than a puppet. I needed the bastard to slip up, but mostly… it was you. I wasn’t sure if you were corrupted or not. I’m confident in myself and my power, but understand this… Soul Killer would turn you into a MAL if it meant killing me. The MAL your Implant came from was able to fight back against a NeoCore Inquisitor, I’m not that good.”
I stared down at my hands, remembering where this power came from… it was so far out of my head with my 99.9… no, my 99.99% compatibility that Soul Killer could force it to drop into the threat of returning this Implant into that form. If I were to lose myself, embracing an insatiable wrath towards humanity… just how much death would I cause?
With my Tier II Mutations, probably more than there were at The Toxin Club. Soul Killer could just pose in my body, have me work like I always had, then one day kill my soul around those who I’d spent months and years with…
“Well, I’m not infected.” I clenched my fists.
Dryder nodded, it was easy to see in his eyes that he believed me. “Yeah, heard one of the K-Puppets say that you needed a Revenant Serum, that’s a first. The exact life-cycle and method in which they infect people is complicated, it’s not as easy as just breathing in the pollen. But for you to require the Serum means your tolerance is better than even BUG Adapters at your Tier.”
I stared down across the bodies, by now each of them had let out Bronze or Iron orbs of flesh, each of them riddled with red veins. The Parasyte didn’t leave any, as far as I could see.
“Mind if I take the SIMs?” I picked one up, blood still clinging to it.
“My research didn’t peg you for a crooked cop.” Dryder held one himself. “But I do use them for research into his Mutation, not the most efficient but…”
I wasn’t sure if I trusted Dryder, but by now, it was clear I could trust in his hate for Soul Killer. “I have… a unique tolerance to all Mutagenic Material, I can absorb the SIM, even replenish my Warp Energy through physical contact… you know that, what was it… the Mutation that heals Soul Killer’s puppets. It’s a derivative of that which allows me to take from others.”
Dryder’s eyes opened up, then he began to chuckle before it devolved into cackling. “Oh… oh he hates you, then! To take one of his prized Mutations and improve upon it?! Oh, that bastard is getting all of his karma through you! Yeah, yeah, take all the SIMs you want, I already got something better today.”
Saying that, he lifted his arm and tapped his bicep muscle, which steamed open to reveal a hidden compartment. It contained what Dryder called a Revenant Serum, the same one Soul Killer had told me to inject myself with.
Dryder continued to laugh, swishing a flask deep into his mouth as he spoke while gulping. “Oh this is already fantastic! You might have been the best thing to happen to me in decades!”
“You shouldn’t go that far.” I warned.
“Yeah, okay…” He finally calmed himself down, staring deeper into the complex. “You ready to kill more Soulless?”
“I told you… I’m here to cure them.” I broke down one of the SIMs in my hand, feeling it’s warm Energy bathe my arm.
Hostile Mu-
Hostile Mutagen Cleansed.
Dryder clicked his tongue… “How many other people were there?”
“Not counting me…” I knew the facts, I’d planned this breakout from the moment I was trapped. “Twenty-three others… but now we’re down to fifteen.”
“How many children?” Dryder met my eyes evenly, but the pain radiating behind them was clear.
I stared down that hallway, their faces clear in my eyes. “Six.”
———
As we maneuvered deeper into the complex, nearing that big lounge which I’d been able to find moments of peace in, my heart was as heavy as it was burning. I wasn’t the most ethical person, but even I knew where I drew my lines…
But when your enemy is willing to…
“Don’t worry about it.” Dryder nodded behind to me. “I already told you we’ll try and save them.”
“I know… it’s just…” A child was already underdeveloped anatomically, it was a known fact that Implant usage in children was a terrible idea. That didn’t stop it from happening, but the issues that developed into adulthood were devastating… Indra had been an example of that.
Mutations went deep, and… removing a Titanium Mutation that dwelled in the brain? I wasn’t sure what state I’d left Anthony in, and now I was out to tear a piece of it from chil-
“Don’t focus on it, that’s how they get you.” Dryder continued, his gun cocking heavily. “Be prepared…”
I nodded, lightning coursing up my body under a veil of blue. Dryder stopped, before rummaging across his holsters and coat pockets. “Right, these were stored upstairs, Soul Killer is a notoriously bad shot but… these are yours, right?”
He handed me two pistols, one was still in the shape of a bracelet while the other one was heavier and radiated strength. I took both, fastening the Braceshocker and feeling the comfortable weight of my Shandian firearm in my left hand.
“The Braceshocker won’t do today.” Dryder shook his head, handing me a third gun, it wasn’t exactly a pistol — it’s barrel was far longer and heavier than any of my other two pistols. It was more of a handcannon. “A Magna Gresalt, manufactured 2408, uses railgun tech that I modified to be adjustable in wattage through external absorption… I won’t lie. I knew you would be a good ally to have, I was just waiting. This was going to be my peace offering, all you need to know is that you can charge it up… and use this.”
Then he picked out ammunition clips, highly — extremely — illegal ammunition. They were known as Burst-Point bullets, effectively, the moment they came into contact with any solid, the bullet had the ability to burst to turn all of it’s forward momentum into an explosive force. Chemical-based explosive bullets existed before them, but this was a method to transfer pure kinetic force… It was the equivalent of a shotgun in the accuracy of a pistol.
I took the clip and stared at it, for all of my life I’d only ever taken non-lethal weaponry. But I didn’t have to think twice about locking the magazine in, not with Soul Killer and the MALs they produced.
Accustoming to the much more different balance of the weapon, I followed down, before finally opening a door that unveiled a much more massive space situated beneath our terrace.
All fifteen adult Soulless were lounging about, their eyes flicking to us as soon as we entered. It was the third Kaisel I’d seen today who spoke, her eyes Soulless as the others joined her. “It’s disrespectful to keep your host waiting.”
Dryder responded by shooting at her with what amounted to a semi-automatic sniper rifle. Her headless body flung backwards.
“How’s that for disrespectful!” He spat down at the terrace, as their eyes turned red-and-white.
The Soulless began their assault.