Chapter 5

William had no idea what Walkers could do, or what the world had to endure for them. He wasn't pampered. Quite contrary to that, he had some struggles behind him, forgotten, or he didn't think much of them anymore.

Like a sunflower that was calling for the sun, William appeared like a treasure before this Dark. Tendrils felt strong, pushy, and wet. He felt sick and Carnijaw was unwilling to deal the killing blow, even though it was laboring to do so.

Perhaps it couldn't do it, or something in it couldn't step against that fact or instinct.

Something broke at that moment. The buzzing noises in William's mind crashed with such force that it caused the tendril to flicker away, jolted as if shocked, or fearful. Half sizzling to ashes and dust when something visibly changed and audibly echoed, the tendrils and Carnijaw shook. It was like a sharp noise; like a whip clashing against the air.

Carnijaw hissed, smiling in delight as it felt something extremely gratifying and satisfying.

Then, all of a sudden, half in the air, and half falling while feeling a few remaining tendrils, William heard the buzzing disappear, leaving a hot feeling all over his right arm, moving as if aflame. Around him moved a dull crimson line, cracking between the physical realm and the fearful softness of the air.

William yelled, feeling so much pain that he began to shake as if he was truly aflame when this line came from his hand, wrapped closely to him, or itching to snap even closer. It drilled. It hurt. The voice didn't disappear forever. It turned into distorted noise next.

At first, it was a mash of voices, raspy, savage, deep. They weren't fit for any language, grunts, or tones. But William swore it was a voice speaking of some words. It was foreign, alien, or straight-up gibberish spoken by babies.

Then, it turned crisper, until one single voice clearer up and spoke in some manners of long forced wisdom.

[Target’s beginner phase is fulfilled]

[The energy and range is met]

[Invalid... targets?]

[Individuality seized. Age restrictions are not met. Reprocessing...]

[Code...]

[The Anarchy Code has been initiated!]

[Time: 164,096,150 ticks]

[Fulfilled Marks: none]

[Danger of going rampant: Grade D]

[Code Zero is accepted]

[The restrictions are temporarily lifted. Timer and flow revolved]

Then, the voice kept repeating zero and zero, continuing shouting and increasing the pain and heat and beats, until it was repeating Rs, Es, and Os.

Stop... Stop... Mom! William huffed and wept, watching the sight before him in a new light as he fell. The pain, clutter of something foreign mixed with crimson and shook his vision and mind.

The pain subsided, and the world was suddenly completely red. There was no darkness. There was no light. All hues, all colors changed. He saw a mix of crimson and felt sick. Even the Dark Fog seemed like regular fog, looking like morning sunshine over the mist or clouds that looked red. He didn't like it. It was the kind that he had seen, yet it didn't feel right.

It wasn't right.

Carnijaw was looking the same, and its crimson features were even more menacing. Its eyes, mouth, and remaining blood around it were like glowing velvety gold.

The few tendrils that kept him from reaching the ground were around his body, leaving his head free and Emblem crazy. His right arm hung down, bleeding in cracks between flesh, bones, and skin. A crimson line was around it, shining and looking like a crazy snake rampaging around his skin.

Right where his Emblem was, that line and crimson hues around him snapped.

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He didn't float for long. Crimson snapped at tendrils, penetrating and sizzling them to smoke. William's body was free. It wasn't flame, but eradication, annihilation, and complete disintegration. Tendrils turned into tiny particles until the wind pushed them to dust, or to the void of nothingness. It was hard to tell what was right even with William's crimson-looking eyesight.

As he began falling, Carnijaw was no longer clear and happy. It howled in terror and anger as if the boy mindlessly killed its entire clan.

William fell to blood and gore from dozens of feet, ending in a bunch of trashcans that softened his fall.

Fortune within misfortune, his fall was better thanks to gore that was kind of soft, and the remains were in a small radius of his landing.

William felt wrong and right at the same time. He couldn't decide which was more.. right. He was still dreading that tone, but that voice and buzzing, and that... redness. What was he watching? What was the sizzling and pushing force that drove his right arm? He couldn't see his head or eyes, nor the throbbing acts of his Emblem that was visibly changing.

It was searing, making veins around his right arm pop, snap, and stretch. He had no time to see it, let alone think too much about it.

Right upon his landing, he looked around and finally noticed the crimson end of a strange line pointing to his face. It was no snake. There was no light. It was more like a flickering finger consisting of soft mist, but strangely resembling lines and rays going mad inside of it. It was more like four feet long and a quarter-inch thick storm.

His hand felt heavy and scorching, hurting more than ever before, yet moving as if it were normal. It was illogical.

When the pain spreads, a person's mind and body fight back and try to rest, fix it, or pass it as a danger by going to sleep. Here? The pain was coming from his mind, yet he could distinguish it from the hand as something else. He had no time to see more of it. The nightmare was right there, growling above him.

Run.

Hide.

Two words from his mother jolted his mind and he did the first since it was the first one that came to his mind. It was a rather easy and simple decision, as expected of a child. He was no longer hesitant, although he was lacking in heart and experience.

Darks didn't care for such a thing. Meat and hunt were the same.

They weren't prideful, though some could be strange and think of battles, hunting, and some bare-bone pride as an interesting topic that came from predatory, clever, or unnatural instincts. It was great either because of the Corruption or because there was something very wrong about Darks that made them nothing natural.

William's journey became worse right from the start. He stumbled to the ground because of some organ or whatnot in the way, while ahead of him were trashed corpses and sizzled Darks that left a mash of oddly shaped crimson dots behind. He crawled to his feet, bloody like raw gold, while the crimson was everywhere. Then, he ran. Ran like he had never moved his legs in his life.

Heat spread and gave him strength. Red colors felt as if he was in a different picture, while the sizzling notes from his Emblem seized his flesh when the line passed through the air and seized every change and second. It snapped at the red dots which were nothing but dark blobs in the normal sight. Like in a book or some heroic comic William had read a few times due to his father, he watched the world in a new light. Foreign light.

Just as he moved about a dozen feet towards the end of this alleyway, Carnijaw's jaw, the real jaw, attacked, swallowing half of the trashcans, concrete, bones, and gore into its enlarged mouth. It spat most of it out afterward, enraged, and hardly happy because of this tight corridor. Carnijaw cried in annoyance; losing even a portion of its tendrils to a weak prey felt humiliating and its instincts felt not only sad but cracking in utter shock. It felt it.

The change of order. A new threat was born and its instincts were no longer so nice to let some curiosity hinder its path.

Its frustration turned even worse when it realized it hadn't bit any of its expected bliss. William dodged the jaw within a few steps with a simple run.

Carnijaw stomped, angling and forcing its arms for legs against the walls aside, obliterating them to pieces by turning them to rubble. Crashing the buildings was easy as it moved limbs onwards in this tight corridor, followed by its head that had a hideous smile and glowing eyes. Its tendrils flickered, helping with destruction and looking for its target. Dust and its anger made it harder; it failed to see William in all regards.

It was just too big, but it didn't care. It looked like a weird spider, but all that William saw was the end of this bloody glowing corridor ahead.

Stomping rapidly, the noises that Carnijaw made were worse than any animal. It thought it had eaten him, and soon, it realized its blunder.

Just in time for William to turn around, disappearing into the streets of this camp.

There were many streets in this large historical trial and successful long-term camp. Thousands of people lived here, even if numbers were a great way to provoke some Rifts. Required Walkers for these kinds of camps weren't small either, so that was also one reason to give notes on dangers. However, Rifts alone were a far cry from Incursions.

In numbers, there was some strength. Darks knew it by heart. Walkers tried the same. Some were present, fighting for this camp and the fate of humanity.

The reality was so much worse.

Carnage was everywhere when William stepped into the street and looked around. His sight made it much more vivid, albeit dull in one surprising fact. When everything looked similar, be it corpses, deaths, or Darks, he wasn't as frightened when he thought about it.

When he didn't, it appeared as if he was dreaming and everything moved much more smoothly, his body included.

More blood followed, growing and becoming one with the soil. Corpses and gnawing beast-like Darks were everywhere, looking like wolves, humans, tigers, or nothing alike. So many ominous and grotesque things were in the Corruption that changed the natural hierarchy, evolutions, and nature. Numerous eyes, tendrils, and bizarre edges were some of the most common Dark Aspects, which was a valuable danger evaluation that humanity and Walkers gave to most Darks. Some Aspects were better than others, similar to how some Walkers held their advantages and talents about their Emblems.