Chapter 107: Disorder

Special Intelligence Operation’s Staff Sergeant Omen’s message to Brian Ulrich regarding Soul Killer.

All the necessary details are here, Ulrich. If your daughter really was taken, she’s likely in one of these facilities. I’ve spoken to Anabelle and the thing inside of her, she needs more medication since her father isn’t around to stabilize the infection to her mind. I’ll see to it personally that she’s more… controllable.

Otherwise, I’ve been in contact with Skeleton. He has plans for The Revenant, I’m unsure of their nature but it’s likely he seeks to terminate whatever alliance is present between them. I don’t know why everything is happening now, but these people… The Uncaged are without a doubt intending to make use of the proposal we’ve been given from NeoCore. Of all of them, The Revenant is possibly the worst to be given free reigns — but Jacob Grazhe made sure that thing spread through our District and beyond. It will be difficult to deal with it.

I suggest we wait for further details from the mayor before we take any conclusive action, according to Skeleton… Soul Killer is far greater a threat than we ever imagined.

Diana

I leaped down the terrace, Dryder’s heavy sniper shifting into an assault rifle above me. The Magna Gresalt was a heavy handcannon that lacked a recoil due to it’s railgun-like mechanism but it was heavier in more ways than just mass.

It was a Silver Grade Weapon, like the Pheonix Rifle I’d used against the MALignant which birthed my Implant. Back then, every use of the weapon left me nauseous and shaky, even on it’s weakest strength, but now…

My electricity flowed through the chamber and swirled around the coils of it’s magnetic cannon, strengthening the inner round which exited in a thunderless bang. It shot straight at a man whose body took the texture of wood, I’d heard from rumors and whispers around the lounge that he could launch thorns that poisoned your body and drained it slowly and terribly. In a battle of attrition, he was going to be dangerous.

He went by the name Ivy. And I left his head as a chasm, the bullet unleashing a wave of force at the moment of impact to leave red mist where a human brain was, his body dropped lifelessly. I kept my guilt suffocated, the storm of emotions only igniting me into action.

Many of those crowding me had bone enhancements, no thanks to the Mutagen Soul Killer was extracting from those fangtooths. For the man with spines extending through his back like a spiky fish, there was a woman with fangs that shot out her corrosive blood.

Saurus and Cobra were the next two to go down as I slit their throats with my claws and drained out the strength of their Implants. From what I heard, they were a married couple Soul Killer brought here in return for bringing their child back to life.

Stormspinner had shown me what that meant.

Dryder was positioned on the terrace, practically hobbling across the rails like a drunken mess, but his shots were each deadly and accurate. If anything, his inebriated state only made him more unpredictable, what looked like a stumble led into a full-body tackle as his sonic blade pierced the skull of one golden-haired woman and a shockwave blew out to decimate her.

Bliss. Marigold. Luca. He’d killed those three. While I wouldn’t call him particularly skilled, he seemed hardy and — most importantly — experienced with combatting Soul Killer. If what he said was true… then his war againt The Revenant had been longgoing.

The remaining nine were tough and fast, three of them were Espers who played from afar with the exception of one whose nails extended bright lights that could melt flesh.

Enhanced by Soul Killer, they left me with few openings for the rest of the Mutants who bolstered intense strength and durability. I’d shot at them with both guns to no end. Only one, known as Big Tim, went down once his brains were blown out an under the chin shot of the Gresalt.

Dryder meanwhile, dealt with two MALformed that Soul Killer had transformed from these souls, one bat-winged horror whipped trails of acid out of their elongated tongue while the other was a ghostly snake-like man who could bend and twist across the railings above to strike with his claws at odd angles.

Nosfer and Bale, respectively.

The remaining six who were attacking me were relentless, my body would have been killed five times over if it wasn't for my ability to regenerate my slashed tendons and gouged flesh back. They trapped me in a corner, each Mutant pounding their twisted arms, legs, tails, horns or tongues at me.

It was good then, that they were just where I needed them to be. My electricity had discharged into all sorts of the lounge’s furniture, including one steel table that I called for towards me.

I leaped above it in time, but the three Mutants and singular Esper were not so lucky. One of them was impaled by the legs and died instantly — Ursula — while the other three had crushed chests and electrified muscles to heal.

Only after using my field of sensations to whirl a legion of metal scraps at the two ranged Espers did I go to finish the job. My hands reached the first healing Soulless, the Esper whose nails extended light, and wrapped around her head.

She convulsed as my Energy reached for the corruption within her, for a moment I saw clarity in her eyes, but then the darkness within her swelled. One eye turned entirely red, and so I made the difficult choice and blew her head apart the moment she began to transform…

It had been done quick enough, she stayed dead — Claudia. The other two Mutants now retaliated with their semi-healed forms, but the numbers had gravely lessened, I could afford a little more leniency with my experimentation.

We engaged in a pure brawl of strength, of which I was the overwhelming force as whatever kinetic force they struck onto me was transferred back into them with the bonus of my own natural strength. When one’s jaw came clean off, I searched through that wound and drained, my Energy expertly finding the corruption of Titanium within. It was already rejecting me.

This time, Soul Killer was ready when I prepared the Gresalt. One Esper sent a wall of wind my way while the other screeched a sonic ripple that tore away my balance. The man once known as Mino grew large as his horns curled into his eyes, painfully digging deep so he cried tears of scarlet.

Mino’s twisted self healed from the wounds and grew in size and grotesqueness, while the Esper known as Banshee also let herself go to the madness. Her neck elongated as her jaw widened, until each scream was a terrible thrash that sent me flying back.

Two Parasytes and two Soulless struck me at the same time, there must have been a reason why Soul Killer wasn’t just turning them all into Parasytes from the get go, and it only struck me once I saw that Dryder was just left with the snake-like Parasyte.

Nosfer’s wings were tied up in steel bolas, his head nonexistant.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Soul Killer had a limit on how many Parasytes they could control, and it was three. Armed with that knowledge, I ignored the larger threat of the two Parasytes knowing I could try to drain one of the other’s of their influence.

Mino’s arm blew up as Dryder launched an explosive grenade at the beast-like Parasyte, leaving me free to duck and roll under the shattered limb. I whipped my hand, a series of electrified shards swinging with it to score a long gash across Banshee’s throat, muting her terrible vocals for a moment that would confirm it all.

I shot a pulse of blue into Hilly’s back, burning a deep hole into the spine before I reached for the higher portion of his nervous system. My nails cracked and jabbed through the back of his skull, brain fluid leaking along with his Warp Energy.

I didn’t waste a moment, I let my flames lick free as they cradled deep into his skull demanding that the insidious Mutation come out from hiding. Slowly, it creeped out, it’s grasping tendrils within the sea of Warp Energy burned out by Soul Resoanance Mutation to-

My eyes widened, but not because Mino had just whipped his club of an arm though Hilly to get to me, but because I had mitigated Soul Killer’s Mutation within his body. Not mine, I’d reduced the development without needing to absorb it myself…

So if I… a terrible idea came to me, one that I shouldn’t have considered.

With Hilly dead, there was only one human remaining so there wasn’t any risk for Soul Killer. Sophia’s Parasyte form was a tall skinless woman whose head was a ring, through which spears of sharpened wind blew out to impale me.

Dryder had dealt with his bunch up top, and was now providing covering fire from the terrace. His shots were vital in disrupting their assault from getting overwhelming, enough for me to engage Mino’s body in combat.

With one well-aimed strike, I overwhelmed his brute strength to tear up to the lower left rib where I could feel the pulsing of the MAL’s core. Then, instead of absorbing it’s energy, I slashed my own hand and reversed the sensation draining Mutagen.

I sent the tiniest flutter into the MAL, and my mind exploded with awareness as it felt the fluctuating and draining ebbs of Energy sear his wounds tight. I leaped away from the crushing drive of his hands, still fastening my hold over my Energy within his body…

And constricted it into his core. The greedy MAL gobbled my Gold up, but that had unintended consequences as my Mutagenic Material rejected that which was born of Soul Killer. The slow weakening of the Parasyte quickened, until it was like a wave of deterioration had spread across the beast-like man.

It wasn’t anything too powerful, Mino was practically running on fumes to keep the combat going, so the Bronze wisps easily caved in to the will of Gold.

Understanding it now, I screamed at Dryder. “Your sickle!”

The curved metal hook jabbed into Mino as I turned my sights onto the Espers.

As blood exploded on my back from a sonic shriek, I charged myself with a shot from my gun. It was too late to save them.

Quick, explosive attacks. The Esper Parasytes lacked the heavy platitude of Integrity and Alteration Mutations available to the Mutants, so once I’d braved the tearing wind and got in close, there was little to stop me from grasping my hands around Sophia’s ring-like head and tear it open. Revealing the core nested in her neck for me to crush.

Dryder had shot down the last Esper, Banshee rendering her full of holes as her inhuman body collapsed and melted away like all the others.

Hastily, I recovered myself by absorbing whatever Mutagenic material I felt was strongest, before eying the hallway to the cells in which I’d stayed in. There was a slow sense of movement in the electric currents, smaller Neuroframes than normal and all huddled up close.

The children.

Dryder and I made our way there, opening up the jailcell to find five of the six children all staring at us through the window with Soulless eyes.

”Congratulations for advancing, by the way-“

Dryder blew a hole in the hefty steel door of the cell, and tossed in a grenade he told me earlier about for the plan. It rolled in, spewing a noxious purple gas that brought all of the kids into a coughing fit.

Their eyes turned sleepy.

A nerve toxin… it was brutal, but these kids could take it due to their Mutations. That’s what Dryder told me. If their brains were inactive then Soul Killer couldn’t activate the kill switch and turn them into Parasytes, at least not too quickly.

I hobbled into the jail cell as Dryder handed me a mask that shifted to fit over my nose and mouth. I crouched near the kids, hoping that this would work…

I cut a small sliver under my fingernail, before scraping it to slice into Olivia’s cheek. She… she had been the first person here to actually speak to me, it had grounded me in a way, whenver I thought about what fate awaited these children it became easier to push through to get myself out of here.

Our blood intertwined, and I sent my flaming Gold out into her skull. She felt so small, so fragile, like with one careless tear I could rip her future away… it was that fear that strengthened my resolve.

She began to quiver, but I felt the strands of black Titanium, drunk on the toxin in her brain. The swarm of gold I’d sent into Olivia hunted each stray wisp of the nefarious Mutagen down, several seconds of me… manipulating that Gold with care turned into a minute but…

This was taking too long. Once enough had been burnt away, I decided to excise the Mutation out, yanking it through the pathways between our bodies, slipping the shadow into my fingernail.

Scanning her over, I was sure of it… I’d cured her.

Not wanting to waste a moment more, I nodded to Dryder who helped carry her out before-

“So you can do it.” A voice whispered from the hallway, the small mouse-like voice of a child. It was Kimbley, his red curls still as childish as ever and his cheeks rosy… He couldn’t have been more than six years old. “How intriguing, I’m not sure whether to be leaping in joy or pulling my hair out.”

I didn’t let the Soulless child’s taunting get to me as I prepared to cure the next child, but the sheer pressure from him was… staggering. It was Silver, nurtured to the strength that I nearly thought it was Gold like me… was I really that loud? It was comparable to some of the MAL I’d fought with how rambunctious their Energy had been.

Or maybe, no… as I let the humming Silver of the child whisper into me, I realized just how all encompassing it was… what it’s purpose was. To whom it was going to.

The child I was curing awoke with Soulless eyes. His teeth sharpened to fangs as he bit into my hand, and chipped his teeth. Still, I was startled and so I bounced back, instinctively charging my hand up with sparks before… the child had tears, the fractured hold I’d made over Soul Killer’s influence twisting them between worlds.

I saw Anthony, I saw Yvette. I saw… my hands stained in blood I could never wash away.

I leaped in ready to seize the Titanium by force when all of the children awoke, their various powers bared at me with wrath. Retreating my electricity inwards, they crashed into me, their voices unified and malicious. “Come on, Diana! Kill us like you always do!”

“Rip us to shreds!”

”Tear our hearts out!”

”Use that new gun of yours!”

”Do it! Or-“

A loud bang erupted from out the cell, and the falling body was too light to be anything but a child… Not just any child, the Nexus. Kimbley. The one coordinating these Soullless under one stream of thought.

The children continued screaming, but their harmony shattered into a discordant cacophany.

“I’ll turn them into Parasytes!”

“I’ll make them kill eachother!”

“I’ll have them become MALs!”

”I’ll… hey! You all are supposed to listen to me!” One of them stopped their assault on me, a short child with snot in his nose.

“How foolish of you!” A squeaky girl shouted back, her eyes soulless like the rest, but now their gaze was diverted to one another. “You should know best that this girl possesses the most potential!”

“Well I’m the host of someone who doesn’t need potential! I can dissect you right now!” The tallest of the children grabbed her, but she showed no fear.

“You’re all making a fool of yourselves, can’t you see that Diana is right there!” One of the girls pointed at me.

”What’s… I don’t…” The child I’d tried to heal spoke, Remi had his eyes flickering between normality and Soulless. They shifted to the latter as tears bled from his eyes, his voice strained and mad. “I’ve gotten tired of this playpen anyhow, I’ll see all of you on the other side!”

I couldn’t stop what happened next, as I sensed the black threads within the child’s brain fester and corrupt his very identity. The other Soul Killers… they too shrugged or chuckled as a wave of death spread from each and every tiny body.

I wish I could have done something, but my already tormented heart was just tired of all of this as the sillhoutes of their bodies danced into twisted shapes devoid of humanity. Devoid of a future.

Tears rubbed across my eyes as I let lightning soothe down my arm, it’s warmth as inviting as always. Because Founders knew I was cold right now.

Dryder pulled me away as he shot the first bullet, turning me away so I couldn’t see the outcome… but I heard the soft thud.

“Get out, Diana.” His voice was heavy with burden. “This isn’t your fight… You’ve done enough.”

I didn’t fight this time, I walked out, careful not to look down. Instead, I just strolled back to my jail cell where Dryder had rest Olivia… her breathing calm and steady.

That was enough for me. It was the only thing for me as I heard gunshots end lives that had never been allowed to live.