Chapter 86: Humanity’s predator
August?
Diana
What exactly was I going to fight? I said yes because the bitterness in me from reviewing all of those old memories I’d pushed down left me raw and aching, but the more I thought about it…
”Am I going to fight with these cuffs on?” I stared at Soul Killer manipulating Dr. Kaisel’s body.
”No, I’ll remove their Warp Limiting feature once you’re in our little arena.” They smirked at me, an arena, what was that for… I was going to figure it out soon anyway.
We traveled through the halls of this place, it must be ancient… most of the infrastructure wasn’t anything I was used to, old and a little too gray, but it had resemblance to something I studied back in the day.
This place was a MAL-fallout bunker. Back in the Third Swarm, these were built around New California in specific locations because at the time our defense against the MAL didn’t include our barrier arrangement system to shield us.
There were quite a few in Westcrook since we were expected to face the brunt of New California’s MALswarm attack, but if this was one that was once dysfunctional or put off the system… then that narrowed it down significantly. If I could find a way to communicate to the outside, then Anthony or Ripley could help me out.
I just so far didn’t have the time to familiarize myself with the facility, the exits or any outside communications were hidden somewhere deep in the complex. It was possible, I figured that since Soul Killer as Simon had contacted Dogwhistler, but… how would I even go about finding it. Everyone here was watching me, and their eyes fed into Soul Killer.
My gaze settled on Emily Kaisel. A psionic Esper. That had to be how, if Soul Killer was an Esper capable of manipulating those who ingested his Mutation, then having a psychic power fit for it was the only way possible.
“So what am I fighting?”
”Hmmm… should I spoil the surprise? It’s something you haven’t seen in a long while.” We stopped somewhere deep and down in the facility’s underground hold, my eyes opening to a wide circular ground with various scorch marks and claws rending across the walls. It fits the description of an arena.
They stopped just shy of the arena, Soul Killer raising his hand to direct me inside. I scanned my surroundings carefully, it was incredibly tall — the roof so high it could easily fit an apartment building inside of it, maybe seven or eight stories tall? There was a circular seam running along the roof, quite large too.
Then, the seams steamed as the circular platform began to descend. An elevator… so this place must be a cargo depot? Explained why it was so large for storage, and if items were being transferred into the bunker then they needed a way to move down quickly. Which meant that… where the elevator was descending from, it should be close to the surface.
It was just way too high up, even with my current maximum output I wasn’t jumping more than a third of that. My best bet would be to catch the elevator halfway and hope it’s enough for me to close the gap…
My eyes widened once I saw what was on the elevator. A cage that was thrashing about wildly, a beast locked within it frothing at the mouth. It was like a half-gestated wolf, a snout cut halfway but it’s mouth extended past the neck and even into the abdomen where sharp fangs contested with each other for space to grow.
This was no beast. It was one of the scourges of humanity.
A MAL. A MALformed.
I heard Soul Killer cackling in Emily Kaisel’s body through the speaker. “Oh your face! The look on your face! What do you think, Diana? An Iron MALformed chimera your type? I bet you were expecting some poor gang member or for me to have you kill a child or something? I don’t deal that way.”
I didn’t know what to say, as the beast drew it’s eyes on me while it descended, its mindless thrashing ceased to instead focus all of the trouncing in my direction. A pure, unadulterated need to kill whatever specks of humanity it could see.
“You want me to fight that?” It wasn’t too big, the wolf-like chimera was around as large as me. If I were fully powered, I could do it, but I didn’t have a weapon to charge myself with, nor were my Warp Energy stores anywhere large enough for me to produce enough energy to compensate. With the recent Mutation, I was recovering barely any Energy.
My cuffs blinked, and at once it was like an anvil had been lifted off my shoulders. My energy surged to my control, ran to me like it had been agony to spend even a second away. I welcomed it, drenched in it, powered by it.
That boon from my Energy stat reaching Bronze I must have done something right, because the power supplied to my muscles and skin was far more than my stores should have allowed. But I kept some of it free, never knowing how much I could be injured by the beast.
It was easy to feel its Grade, it was like a cesspool of infectious energy screaming at me. Iron… maybe Tier I, Tier II? I couldn’t tell that much.
”What Tier is it?”
Soul Killer happily obliged my question. ”Tier I. We call it a Stalker, they normally don’t outwardly attack us, instead they follow the commands of their superiors — sneaking in attacks or scouting ahead for their brethren.”
MALs were that smart? It made sense for the higher Grade MALs to have intelligence, I’d seen one create a weapon after all. As for the lower Grades, I’d always heard that they were beast-like individually, but the more of them concentrated in one spot lended a sort of… resonance that combined their instincts to twist into some form of intelligence.
The MAL stared at me, a sticky drool that was a mix of orange and red slobbering over the cage.
The doors opened, and it pounced. MALs were fast, ferocious, and deadly. That was proven right in a blink. I could barely react before one of the weakest MAL types possible was inches away from me, it’s fangs enlarging until they were so large it forced the beast’s mouth open all the way to the middle of its body.
I slipped back, claws swiping and fangs snapping at every moment. This wasn’t a normal wolf, it was a predator with humans as its prey. Millions of these would be coordinated and attacking in three years time, and we were all expected to put in our efforts to stop them.
I found a purchase to strike back when it snapped its fangs to my right. Drawing out all of my strength to strike its snubbed snout, slamming it down to fracture those teeth. Dozens of splintered bones fell to the ground like ivory shards, their structure breaking apart into mineral dust upon disconnecting from the creature.
This thing clearly didn’t feel pain, because it ignored the broken teeth to slam its body into me, sending me rolling back and bruising. It was as though every muscle, every neuron in its body was designed for combat against us… and my aching bones quickly faded the pain away as my Warp Energy filled in the cracks with Mutagenic Drain’s regenerative properties.
I was now extremely low on Energy, my reality-bending stamina flickering and fading. I needed to get more… I needed to devour…
It attacked again, those teeth already regenerated and enlarged. I tensed my muscles, using the aching throb under my skin to release the kinetic springs that had been charged to launch myself under it’s smashing mouth.
I felt the Mutation of Compact Tissues drain my Energy into a candlefire, but nails sharpened and with my momentum in the right place… I struck at its throat. Blood too viscous or putrid to be a human’s spilled over me, steaming and curdling over my body.
Instinctively, my new Mutagenic Drain Mutation burned to life.
The sensation of it’s Warp Energy was intense, a whole snarling beast of Iron against my flickering candle. Yet, I leaned into the color of mine — Gold. The Iron Warp Energy was meager in comparison to the nobility I held, threads and coils of dull gray growing over my arm until they submerged beneath my skin like an aching infection.
I charged my body with that energy, it’s effect miniscule to what I normally wielded, but it leaned me just the edge to dive my second hand into its throat to drag it’s leverage off balance. The beast tried to paw me away, but for the first time it registered to a pain of sorts, MALs were Warp Energy personified. I was quite literally draining it’s life away…
Something darker sunk into my arms, it was a painful warmth as veins of Iron Mutagen from the MAL crawled and spread deep into my being… changing me.
Absorbing Mutagenic Material…
I ignored the pop-up, deep in the viscera of my plunged arms was an actual liquid of dull gray sinking into my skin, the veins that grew looked too much like what happened when you absorbed a SIM.
The chimera’s actual body began to crumble and fester, joints buckling and bones breaking as it’s very life force began to wither. I found in me the strength to push it’s weight off me, to siphon all the excess strength I’d ingested into physical manifestation.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Dragging from the flesh I gripped, I tore it’s throat apart, nearly ripping it in two. Organs of no particular design spilled out, I couldn’t tell if they were lungs or intestines… but deep in the wound I’d left was a large gray orb of flesh, it pulsed with power. What remained of it.
The wolf’s remaining jaw slammed onto me, sword-like bones seeping into the flesh of my forearm. I yelled at the pain, my hardened bones sturdy enough to not completely falter against the weakened beast’s last-ditch attempts to kill me.
But why wasn’t it dead? Or at the very least knocked out from having it’s guts ripped out? I braced my knee on the ground as it pressed all of it’s weight on me, my bones groaning as the teeth grew larger through the flesh of my arm.
”The core.” Soul Killer said through the speakers like it was something obvious. “The MAL don’t die unless you kill their core.”
The core? That flesh orb… I clutched my free hand around it, yanking it out with all the strength I could wean out. A disgusting spray of blood came with it. The body of the MAL fell apart at once, most of it bursting into goo while other bits remained as fleshy lumps.
I stared at the beating gray flesh in my hands, flesh was already bubbling out. I spiked my Gold Energy into it, drawing submission from it, then draining it. The gray liquid returned again, carried on channels of my gold that invited it up my forearm. Right until it warmed my heart in a painful, frictional rubbing as though to build a static charge.
Mutagen Absorbed…
Tier 1 [Iron] Mutation: Bone Enlargement [Alteration] is being absorbed…
Mutation: Compact Tissues has received a Meta-Mutation. Increased Warp-influenced density of all bony tissues in the Adapter. Development: 69%
Mutation: Mineral Assimilation has received a Meta-Mutation. Increased base-line density of your bones. Development: 47%
Mutation: Mutagenic Drain has received Meta-Mutations. Slightly reduced consumption of the Adapter’s Warp Energy; Slight permanent increase to physical strength and endurance after absorbing Mutagenic Material. Development: 17%
My whole body ached and throbbed, like it had miniature slices made all over my muscles and bones, but the pain underwent cyclings of reduction and empowerment until it faded enough for me to realize that my cuffs had become active again. My Warp Energy locked to me.
”Well done!” Soul Killer delighted. “Oh, look at the readings I’m getting? This sort of growth from Iron-Grade Mutagenic samples? You’re a delight, Diana Ulrich! I can do so much testing with you I couldn’t even have dreamed about! Ah, the wonders of a Deviant Mutation… I wonder which Shard you touched?”
I was missing my Warp Energy already, if I could… I would be punching their head in right this moment. “Why not just give me some Mutagen then?!”
”Oh Diana… you should know why. As Adapter’s… well, we adapt! Why force your growth in controlled conditions when I could have you push yourself to your limits! What do you take me for? Some corporate lab-monkey?” Dr. Kaisel’s voice was so frantic I couldn’t tell if it was hers or Soul Killer’s.
”Why work to get me stronger?” I may be shooting myself in the foot, but this guy confused me with every word that came out from his mouth.
”Because the SIM inside of you is so very interesting. It’s resistant to my soul-stealing, absorbs highly toxic Mutagen like candy, reinvents your own Mutations so you don’t have to be highly selective with what you take? I couldn’t care less about you. However… that SIM can unlock so… so many secrets of the Implants. I’ve never in my century long life seen someone with a 99.9% Compatibility — why, you make me wonder what would happen if that 0.1% was to be added!” Dr. Kaisel’s voice, even though it came from someone else, festered on insanity as her soulless gaze looked at me. “But first, I need you under my control… your body should still be adjusting to that Mutagen you absorbed, your Integrity has to be stressed.”
”What?” I took a step back as Soul Killer took out a gas mask from behind them, two vials of dense red mist attached to it. “Oh fuck this, not this again!”
Then Kaisel’s soulless eyes drew me into their depths, the white void engulfing me as my memories drew over all I could see.
No.
My tinier-self was bust scrubbing the floor of the Cradle, bleaching it clean… Yvette whispered to me how boring this was.
I wasn’t such a goody two-shoes this time. “Tell me about it.”
No…
…My father, Yorrick Jones, played some old opera song, dancing and singing along to it merrily while I stayed in my corner. I was doing what the Cradle had taught me, to be respectful and reserved.
”Come on!” He motioned his big arms. “Don’t tell me the Cradle didn’t teach you any dance moves!”
”They did.” My counterpart whispered. “Quite many in fact.”
”Well then, don’t leave me waiting!”
Scenes vanished and rearranged, I heaved heavily on my bed in the cabin as my thoughts dwelled on Yvette. Would she get out in time? If she didn’t… she would just become some common soldier for the corporate nations.
”Diana?” My dad knocked on the door, that was something he did compared to the officers of my Cradle. “What do you want for dinner?”
”I’m not hungry?”
”Diana?”
”Yes…”
”Everything alright?”
”Yes.” I had to say that. That’s what I learnt to say in the Cradle.
”Can I come in…?”
I hesitated, I wasn’t allowed to not let them in… they never even asked. “…yes.”
The lights turned on, my tears visible to him. “So… everything’s not alright.”
”It is.” My counterpart said. “I’m just worried about my friend.”
”I didn’t know you were allowed to make friends in a Cradle.” He joked, to which I managed a smile.
”Her name’s Yvette.”
”Do you want to talk about her…?”
”…yes.”
The wooden floor vanished to that of my Squad’s floor, my head resting on Anthony’s shoulder as I grieved Yvette. He just kept me close, let me feel some real warmth after her death.
Ripley’s mother made me a nice meal, and seeing him so nervous at our second meeting was strange considering who he’d become now. When he helped me out of Metal Heavens while I was at my lowest, the sadness and understanding in his eyes had really struck a chord with me.
Indra laughed as we talked about our taste in men, comparing and mocking how we both had really bad ones. Our driving turned to desk gossip, then to desk mocking as we quietly drew caricatures of Choirmen and Anthony.
Yvette introduced me to a senior cadet who she said had a thing for for me, eying my every word as I awkwardly forced myself to flirt with him. It turned out girls didn’t need to be very good at flirting.
I consoled Yvette after her breakup with Mel. I'd… sort of been the reason for it since Mel got jealous of me when Yvette had picked me off the streets to live with her, but Yvette refused to let me feel that way.
”You’re worth a thousand of her.” Yvette said while crying. “It’s her own fucking problem.”
”Stop.” The real me, the one seeing these memories shook. “Stop showing me memories of when I had people around me…”
My father held me close, it had been a year since I moved in with him. “You’re a strong girl, Diana.”
”They made me like that.” I buried my face in his shoulder, I’d been crying about Yvette again.
”No… you made yourself like-“
”STOP!” I yelled with the ferocity of my Gold, the world cracking away as my eyes opened to the sight of Dr. Kaisel standing there with soulless eyes, but the way those eyebrows raised let me know I’d surprised Soul Killer.
”Again? I’ve already got Gold-Grade cuffs on you, you think those were cheap?”
I tried to shout something back, but my body refused to listen to me. My mouth was- fastened shut by a mask.
I breathed in, the red mist drilling directly into my lungs.
78%…
77%…
79%…
78%…
80%…
”You don’t have to try any more.” Soul Killer held up their hands, my own attempts to raise my arms up silenced as they became inert. “I’ve got enough of my pollen running in your lungs to consume a hundred Irons. Slow acting but… very powerful.”
I wanted to belch into my mask, but my panic only took sharper breaths in.
84%…
83%…
84%…
85%…
84%…
86%…
85%…
The number flicked up and down, never settling for less than a moment. I tried to burn it out but my Gold refused to budge, it was so heavy and cumbersome under these cuffs. The suffocation of the Titanium-Grade Mutagen broke apart and delved into my body, replacing my sense of self with every percentage…
89%…
88%…
90%…
Grade is now Gold III
88%…
87%…
85%…
83%…
”Any moment…” Soul Killer then saw the message in my eyes. “Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!”
I wanted to laugh as the number slowly descended down. The scraps of Titanium-Grade Energy had strengthened my own Gold.
64%…
61%…
58%…
54%…
Until finally…
3%…
0%…
Hostile Mutagen has been cleansed.
Mutagenic Drain has received Meta-Mutations. Improved ability to cleanse hostile Mutagen; improved Warp Energy recovery when absorbing Mutagenic Material. Development: 29%
”Oh!” Soul Killer groaned in exasperation. “Oh great! So you’re getting stronger by me doing this to you!”
I thought you wanted me to get stronger?
”And no, I mean your stats. I don’t give a shit about them! I just want to see what Mutations you end up getting!” They stuck their thumb into their mouth, chewing on it until I saw blood trickle down as they paced back and forth. “Maybe I could… the Revenant Serum? Never used it on a living human…”
They turned to me, a confident smile on their face as they unlatched the mask off me. “Congratulations, you’re the first person to be… sort of immune to my powers! This is troubling… so I’m going to take samples off your body!”
Those eyes sucked me in again, but this time I was rea-
I was swallowed up whole by the time I blinked. Something had changed in that recent pulse of activity, a swelling of power I could innately feel. Soul Killer was Titanium Grade but those they controlled were lower… as I blankly stared at the memories playing out in front of me, I gritted as the realization brewed in me.
Soul Killer was empowering those he controlled.