Cereo and Blank arrived at Frace Village, and it was strangely quiet.

"What the.." Blank began. "While the village is usually calm, I'm normally at least able to see people. Something must be off. Come now, let's investigate."

Both men exited the vehicle while in the middle of the village. They explored, attempting to find some sort of clue as to what occurred. Cereo searched through many buildings and houses. While looking through where it was obvious a blacksmith once worked, he found the mangled, bloodied corpse of the store owner.

"Things.. must be catastrophic." He said.

"What was that?" Blank had entered from behind. "Tch, what a disgusting stench."

"What you smell is sickening, because it is none other than the body of a dead man. The blacksmith who once ran this place, has been killed in quite the disturbing fashion."

Arriving next to Cereo, Blank looked at the body with a hand over his nose. "And my suspicions are confirmed.. dammit. If the town has been slaughtered, then they must have failed to notify us of an infected citizen. It must have slipped by them somehow. Most likely because it was someone who wasn't that well known."

Cereo crossed his arms. "Another factor may be that due to the overwhelming number of cases, noticing a change in everyone became rather difficult."

"That's certainly another possibility." Blank answered.

Just then, they both heard a noise from another building. Confident in their abilities, they went to seek out the source without hesitation.

Inside, a disgusting, long creature was hunched over, grabbing at the flesh of another deceased villager.

"If I'm not mistaken, that must be what becomes of a five year infectee." Cereo claimed, preparing his blade for combat.

Blank nodded. "You are in fact correct. However, these things, which we call Awakened Parasites, are far stronger than you may think. I warn you to prevent yourself from engaging unless a beat down sounds pleasant."

"A beat down? Hah. From the likes of that? No need to fear, Blank my friend. While I wouldn't lose to it either way, for now all I need is a wing. It'll allow me to research and create an antidote rather quickly. Just watch, and maybe you'll retract your claims of being so superior."

Pushing off the back foot, Cereo sped forward toward the beast. If it could even be called that. He was only a second away from removing its wing, before the creature spun around, connected its fist with Cereo's chest, and sent him spiraling through the wall, into another building.

"Tch, idiot." Blank scoffed. Under his lab coat, he took out a small bottle, and an equally sized knife. "Don't go getting your hopes up now, you disgusting filth. That man was simply a moron, one such as myself won't get hit so easily."

Unsurprisingly, the awakened parasite ignored Blank, and attempted to knock him away as well.

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With the bottle grasped in his left hand, Blank popped open the lid, and poured an amount of its liquid contents onto the ground in front of him. Once the awakened parasite's hand was inches away from Blanks face, it connected with an invisible forcefield created by the liquid.

"A disgraceful attempt." Blank shook his head. "But that was expected. You've had your fun, but now it's time for you to be the one that's attacked for once."

Cereo slammed through the wall before Blank had a chance to attack, and was completely decked out in new gear. He seemed to have created an entirely new set of armor, weapons, and tools with things found around the village. Smoke filled the room, as a direct result of something Cereo had made. Using dual wield blades, he cut off both of the awakened parasite's wings.

The smoke cleared, and Blank used his seventy kicks within a second move on the awakened parasite's left leg. It screeched and screamed, then proceeded to lunge forward at Blank.

Blank jumped back, smashing out of the building they were in, and threw some of the liquid forcefield he had into the air to block the parasite's attacks. The parasite's speed however, made it necessary for Blank to block with his knife as well.

The exchanges between the parasite and Blank were so fast, than any normal human would have only barely been able to comprehend what was going on if at all. For Cereo though, it was easy. While the two went at it, he positioned himself behind the parasite, and used both blades to this time immobilize the creature by turning its arms and remaining leg into a pile of flesh pieces.

Blank wiped a hint of blood off of his face with his thumb. His breathing had increased slightly. "It's unable to move, so make the antidote already. You made all of that new stuff in around a minute or so, right? So I'm assuming the same goes for everything you do. Now hurry up."

With a nod, Cereo retrieved the wings he had removed, and swiftly analyzed them, concocting a medicine with nearby items that could cure anyone that was under the influence of a parasite. After a few more minutes, he had created over fifty of them. "It's creation is complete." he said.

Walking over to the struggling body of the awakened parasite, he stared at the antidote.

"If it works, this will be a huge step for us all." Blank stated, leaning against a pillar. "I don't mean to sound sentimental or anything, but once someone is infected with a parasite, that's it. They're dead, no question about it. But.. if a cure for a disease like that was actually just developed by you, then you will have drawn closer to your goal of earning my trust, even if only by a small amount."

"I'll accept any form of progress." Continuing to stare, Cereo began to tip the antidote over the limbless awakened parasite.

"What's the matter? You're not hesitating, are you?" Blank interrupted him. "If you doubt its effectiveness that much, then don't do it."

"Well you see, the one we're experimenting on is absent of any limbs. If we were to return them to their human form, they would regain their senses, laying upon the ground unable to do anything other than sit there."

"Yeah.. I do see. Fine then, once we confirm it works, we'll put whoever this is out of their misery. You may consider this their final gift to society."

"Is that your idea of a joke, Blank?"

"Unless you can develop another antidote that regenerates limbs, then it's either that, or allow them to remain as an awakened parasite."

"Grr.." Cereo tightened his fists, then lifted the antidote into the air. "Allow them to remain as a parasite? Not an option.. I apologize to whoever this is, but I must do this for the sake of the rest of this endangered world!" His hand tilted slightly, only a fraction of a second away from releasing the antidote's contents, when it was smashed by a kick.

The kick came from a young women, looking to be in her late teens or early twenties. "Are you trying to turn this world into more of a hellhole than it already is?" she asked. Her leg was still in the air, foot pushed against the broken container held in Cereo's hand.

"Not at all. I was attempting to revert this here awakened parasite back to their human form. We were testing an antidot-.." Cereo's response was cut off when Blank tackled the girl to the ground.

"Damn runt.. just who exactly do you think you are aggressively interfering with business you have no involvement in? An explanation for someone as irrelevant as yourself is unneeded. Leave now or the dagger I wield will be inserted into your throat."

Cereo looked on. "This girl isn't a threat Blank, do you truly need to use this much force?"

"I do, as a matter of fact. A variety of things annoy me, but interruption from an irrelevant source nears the top of the list."

The unknown girl glared. "Contact between an awakened parasite and any form of liquid causes it to multiply by the thousands."

This caught the attention of both men.

Blank looked down at her. "And where did that tidbit of information come from?"

"Get off me and maybe I'll tell you."

"Tch.. runt.." Clearly against his best wishes, Blank stood himself up. The girl followed suit, and patted herself off.

"I also advise you to get rid of those." she pointed to the pile of antidotes Cereo had created.

Not seeming to agree, Cereo picked one of them up. "What the.. are you saying we're unable to use these on those who have yet to awaken?"

"That's right, drinking a liquid other than pure water causes them to awaken. It's a clear sign that someone's been taken over by a parasite."

"Incorrect." Another stranger, this time an older looking man, approached from the door.

Blank leaned back up against the pillar. "Just who I wanted to see, the girl's grandpa."

The girl though.. seemed frightened. She shook, not saying a word to the man who had entered.

Cereo put a hand on the hilts of his blades. "My apologies Blank, but when I was young, that was not the reaction I normally had when visited by either of my grandparents."

Her head.. was crushed against a wall by the man's fist shortly after what Cereo claimed.