The sky rippled, from peaceful blue to hellish red. A figure crashed out of the heaven’s cracked and illuminated clouds, landing gracefully on the Jade Palace’s steps. The outer disciples scattered, clearly not accustomed to the sky opening up like a demon’s innards today. Upon learning who was responsible for the brief storm was still there, they immediately bowed before her. The Second Sister ignored them. In her arms lay the body of a man wearing Imperial Armor. According to her dear Sister and this little walnut of hers, the Seventh Sister was responsible not only for Yue’s defeat but additionally the deaths of sixteen Imperial Soldiers. Had she not seen him be killed by such strange magic, the Second Sister would have killed that bitch without hesitation.
“What is that thing?!” She alternated her musing tone like her moods: Laughing like a sweet bird, then growling like a demonic wolf. “Forget my dear Sister, that little bastard one must be mine…!”
As if the heavens heard her frustrations and demanded to irritate her more, Yue came from the pillars with her annoying whining voice. Originally, that would have amused her. She would let Yue go with a doting smile, but now she found this Third Sister even more annoying to her for some reason. This woman Yue lied to her: The bastard was not lucky at all to have defeated her so swiftly. On the contrary even, that Seventh Sister of hers knew exactly how to appease her, trading the useless Genxing's life for her own. That strange Transcendent Seal of hers… It did make her fingers twitch in an exquisite, yet, tiny pain when she attacked the Second Sister. It was all in vain, however, since she swatted away those odd magical pellets that were sent her way from the Seal. A slight curl formed at the edges of her lips. Yes, she decided. She will hone the Seventh Sister into the blade she needs to slay the Eldest Princess from time to time. As soon as she stepped before the Palace gates, the jade-like frame of her dear Yue stood there with a pitiful expression in her eyes.
“Elder Sister, did you get her?” Yue’s clean voice pierced her self-indulgence. She clutched her wrist, but based off the energy in the girl it should be healed enough. The Third Princess also finally noticed Genxing’s corpse in her arms. “C-Commander! What happened to him?”
The Second Sister shrugged. The dead man was Yue’s plaything, not hers. She dumped him on the floor before her little sister. It was then she finally noticed that the man’s brains have been completely dissolved. That only intrigued her urges again, but she withdrew her desire to chase that bastard sister of hers.
“I taught her a lesson,” she scoffed at the crying girl. “Now, stop pretending.”
Instantly, Yue’s expression changed to one of absolute cruelty. The Second Sister suddenly remembered that adorable face was the reason she had not sliced it off yet. Pleased, she decided to offer Yue a small token of her appreciation.
“Take your little plaything to the Heaven Pool,” she finally said. “And drop him inside its celestial waters.”
“T-The Heaven Pools?” Yue stuck her arms beneath the lifeless Genxing and lifted him effortlessly.
“Your wrist has healed,” the fiery haired Sister stroked a finger along her exposed wrist with a smile. Yue, for some reason, stiffened in absolute fear and respect for her. After a small scar of blood traced along where she affectionately pet the young baby, the Second Sister departed. “So sweet, the taste of your blood.”
“I shall do it, Elder Sister,” Yue shook out of her trembling.
That mysterious Heaven Pool made her more scared, though. When she tentatively approached its peaceful waters deeper within the Palace, the pool began to lap up into a violent and purple swirl. Just drop him inside of it, right? Her venerable Sister Yang told her so, yet everything that terrifying woman did always had a hint of malice attached to it. She could not bear the loss of her lover, Genxing the mortal of her nights. The waters seemed to sense her trepidation as she stood on the Heaven Pool’s steps, stirring as if invisible rain droplets disturbed their stillness. The Pool broke into the Palace by itself one day, from the desert south of here. Then after it destroyed half of the Palace and settled down, it began to grow strangely colored fragrant plants. After many mishaps with it, even Jade left its holy waters alone. Still, Yue closed her eyes and dropped Genxing’s body into it, hoping its bruised surface would return to cerulean.
The pools blasted out a stream of white light as his body seemingly vanished beneath its heavenly waves. Before long, peace stuck to Yue’s skin with remnants of its misty eminence, leaving her all alone to stew in anger.
That damnable Lin, that scoundrel. Whatever lesson Elder Sister Yang taught her, it was simply not enough.
•
SYSTEM: NANITE LEAKAGE MANIFESTATION IN HOST’S RIGHT ARM DETECTED.
SYSTEM SWEEP: RECOMMEND REATTACHING LOST LIMB, AS LIMBS WILL NOT BE REPLACED DURING COMPANY WORK HOURS. ADDITIONALLY, GROWING A NEW SUBSTITUTE LIMB WILL NOT MEAN THE COMPANY WILL TOLERATE ANY LESS WORK EFFICIENCY. IT IS STILL REQUIRED TO BE PUT TO WORK.
SYSTEM REBOOT CANCELLED. (Systems %Robotics% unavailable. Biological components cannot be rebooted)
…
PINGING BLACK WOLF COMPANY E-VAC SERVERS…
Connection Lost.
…
ALERT: CRUCIAL BIOLOGICAL COMPONENT MISSING. RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE INITIATION OF RECLAMATION PROCESS. FILING HAS COMMENCED.
ALERT: WORKERS COMPENSATION PACKAGES DO NOT APPLY TO BLACK WOLF COMPANY ASSETS, HUMAN OR OTHERWISE. SEE EMPLOYEE “IMPROVED” WOLFPACK EXPERIENCE™ DATA CURVE PAGES [7666-7700] FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
ALERT: HOST BLEEDING OUT. LIFE EMERGENCY RESCUE ACTIVATED. LIFE EXPECTANCY STABILIZED, SO THE COMPANY EXPECTS YOU TO GET BACK TO WORK UPON REGAINING CONSCIOUSNESS.
System Warning: Unauthorized breaks are not allowed. Host is being revived, pending review.
Notice: Time spent during unauthorized break will use Employee/Asset sustenance budget points.
Notice: Falling unconscious during work hours will require necessary grueling and mandatory discharge paperwork stacks in order to reclaim used Employee/Asset sustenance budget points.
Misa swiped through all of the annoying buzzing as she attempted to regain her Great Chain’s senses. Her Nanites congratulated her “alive” status, before repeating those warnings again as sand swatted her face. She unconsciously felt her missing arm’s shoulder as she lay in a daze. The damage she sustained had already dropped her life expectancy to 12%. It was indeed in a critical state, although Misa could not help but marvel at the new MK1 Swarm’s toughness. Had she been made of regular Swarm Nanites, she would have been nothing but scrap by now. No... that wasn't right either.
Stolen story; please report.
That woman, she mused. Her Elder Sister must have calculated the maximum amount of damage she could inflict upon Misa at the current Host’s so-called spiritual strength. As she propped herself up with her remaining arm, her Systems had stabilized at a crisp 25%. Unfortunately, the missing arm would not allow for an efficient recovery. She should heed the warnings from Black Wolf Company’s backup local files and replace it. The arm had already flung somewhere away from her current position. Pain racked her. The cost of that blow meant the arrival of an incalculable amount of it. The human nervous system was quite a mistress and had pain interpretation just to inform something or someone was dangerous to touch. Misa scoffed. Her Swarm did not require such illogical factors.
An old memory came involuntarily to her, reminding Misa of her original world. The Chairwoman of the Iris Corporation, that Claire Lykos, in the fiery plane had lost an arm because of her Swarm. Twice, since a previous MISA unit had already sliced her actual human arm off during a previous attempt. She would blame Cruise for overriding her Systems and preventing her from completing the mission, but in reality Misa’s Swarm was simply not fast enough. The sting of being a failure frame made her sad and bitter, for some reason.
With these new Swarm Nanites, Misa truly believed Claire Lykos would not be able to stand against Black Wolf Company when they meet again.
Her Swarm devoured a nearby rock, replenishing itself quickly. Stone, silicate, and other common minerals were recorded in the list of consumed materials. Eventually, necessary construction components were made for her as she marched towards the remains of her Host’s arms. Her mind was still reeling from the shock of pain being introduced, along with the dull and burning sensation welling up like a storm in her right shoulder despite her Swarm already patching it up and developing new connectivity ports upon the arm’s retrieval.
System: Detected odd karmic energy in the area.
Misa added it to the queue of priorities inside her mind. First, this fleshy branch still belonged to Black Wolf Company. The arm was cleanly severed from her shoulder, but had also been being reconstructed by the Swarm before her Human Host even regained consciousness. Convenient, she supposed. Analyzing the severed part revealed several oddities inside the arm’s anatomical makeup.
System sweep: The circulation, converted mechanical muscle mass, and even the bones fit standard human female parameters. Everything, despite being reinforced, is capable of being reintegrated into the Great Chain’s body. However, the Wagner energy seems to be traveling along set paths within it. Such similar traits, like rivers, appear to “flow” inside this arm and body of the Host despite the human circulatory system. In novels and some traditional medicinal practices this “flow” resemble Meridians. Therefore, Wagner Energy, Karmic Energy, and Qi in this world are illogical factors that should be analyzed internally and externally as soon as possible. Reattaching the arm may affect the Meridian, causing it to be less efficient until further repairs are made.
System Database update: Wagner, Karma, and Qi are closely aligned as or actually the same type of energy flowing in this world’s atmosphere. Some terms like “Spiritual Energy” may apply, but are currently lacking data in order to make that claim.
Misa regarded the message with some suspicion and little interest. Then she plugged the arm back on her shoulder’s new ports and awaited the Swarm to do its work. After the repairs were complete, night fell. She stood in standby, since nothing seemed to be passing by. Alien rodents and other wildlife left her alone, so she could afford to stand menacingly. In regards to the next thing in her priority queue, that Contractor and the strange spiking karmic energy appeared. She pushed her hair out of her face, feeling the coldness of the night settling upon her. Suddenly, the dark sky opened and revealed an enormous moon that was not there moments ago. It dipped beneath the clouds out of a strange dark void, like an ornament. Misa gawked at the illogical celestial phenomenon, requiring several system reboots to finally readjust her Swarm’s expected tolerance of reality around her. Glitches occurred when she replayed the observation in her head.
Right, the Contractor. When Misa replayed the encounter with her Sister, he was indeed swept in the blistering tornado of energy and sent quite a distance in the extremely focused Wagner energy blast. His faint hologram still revealed that he was alive, though in no shape to continue his work at this current point in time. More concerning to her was the Second Sister's ability to simply outspeed her MK1 Nanite’s ballistics. Misa furiously replayed the combat scenario footage frame by frame. With a flick of her hand, she swatted the bullets away while Genxing was not that fortunate, getting lit up immediately. She considered the possibility that bullets may not be efficient in taking out foes with high Qi levels, but she just now noticed the definition of levels came naturally to her.
If her main armor piercing rounds were not enough to harm her, Misa considered a much larger bullet or munition that could carry enough firepower to destroy that Sister of hers. If small bullets couldn't do the job, then a larger payload could. She clenched her fists out of the humiliation of her defeat, realizing this was how the Third Princess must have felt like back then. It was clear that Black Wolf Company will have many obstacles here and not everything is going to go smoothly.
System: Detected “Contractor: Mist” in Contacts nearby. Scans indicate that he is still alive, however, the affliction in his eye has grown significantly worse. Recommend analysis immediately.
Life support: 31%.
Misa enjoyed her newly improved MK1’s Swarm’s repairs. Its been 6 hours, but steady progress has always worked. Those Meridians inside of her, while unable to be interacted with, appeared to be able to affect her Human Host’s reactor inside of her. That spiritual energy, or Qi flow, made her worry. Would the term be flow of Qi? Misa’s Great Chain shuddered in embarrassment. She had her body nearly get flattened by a local with nothing but hands, what more humiliation can she experience? What if her human Host was falling into some kind of xenomanic state studying all these illogical conditions? There was no time, since her systems chirped at the presence of Mist’s body lying nearby.
How interesting, she found him next to a small oasis of water. Coincidentally, the eccentric karma energy here appeared to be alternating between stable and chaotic states, concentrated in the small spring. She also noted that arid environment was reminiscent of Earth’s deserts, although the current locale hosted strange vegetation that adapted to live here much like cacti. That Sister knew how to pack a punch, making Misa have to walk everywhere just to find this guy unconscious in the sands.
“Contractor Mist,” Misa spoke slowly, registering a tone that would wake him instantly. Despite this factor, the man remained in an infuriatingly inert state. By all accounts his vital signs and consciousness were under his control, however the infected eye of his seemed to be stopping him from doing basic motor controls.
System sweep: Wagner Energy inside the human’s eye has similar traces of instability, not unlike the energy affecting Host’s lifespan. This karmic energy appears to be a byproduct of something akin to a conservation law.
Stability. Chaos. Stability. Chaos. The system grows and then overloads.
Thus it remains at 50% instead of reaching 100%, since negative Karma or Wagner energy pushes back on overextended positive Karma.
The high concentration of negative energy gathered inside Contractor Mist’s eye has reduced him to a near-vegetative state and needs to be released and/or released like when MISA released its overloaded Swarm nanites due to the Cultivation Pill.
Misa was already going to remove the eye, seeing that he had an eyepatch already and another good eye as well. As long as the human could see what he was doing, it did not matter as long as she can put him to work. If she had to hypothesize, his nature would not allow him to voluntarily give up the eye. Her System scan swept over him again, revealing that his apparent lifespan was at 76%. This was possibly due to the sudden rapid generation of Wagner energy produced by the Elder Sister’s attack. Misa rose her hand. An ominous buzzing noise made Mist’s body involuntarily shudder as the Swarm revealed needles manifesting from her fingertips. He was awake enough to feel the terror approaching, but Misa decided fearing her was illogical.
Sorry, Contractor Mist, Misa apologized as the needles spun at blinding speeds. She plunged it into his eye socket. I need to borrow your eye. Take joy in the fleeting moment that your eye is going to be used to make Black Wolf Company proud. Whether you live or die is up to you, Contractor. The man's face was covered in blood as she rose, staring at the next task in her priority queue. She shall investigate the oasis's secret now before departing to what she called the so-called Demonic Contaminated Zone south of her.