Chapter 42: Cassandra.

Tristan wondered through the early morning town passing from street to street. Everything was dimly lit by a few amber and red street lights. The area was dead silent with almost everyone having long gone to sleep. Like many rural towns the roads were mostly dirt and cobblestone with wild weeds and vines growing along the building walls. The main road led to a single platform dead end railway station with a relatively extravagant station building. There was even a steam engine parked in a siding likely waiting to head to one of the larger cities in a few hours.

Tristan couldn’t help but suddenly notice a giant mansion just off to the side of the train station. Due to none of its lights being on he had not seen it until now as it crept up on him. He quickly wondered down a narrow cobblestone path that separated the mansion grounds from the railway tracks. He then left the path and circled around to the back of the mansion looking to break in and steal a few things. But as he turned the corner he saw something truly spectacular.

*snore*

*snore*

A relatively small pale coloured dragon slept peacefully with its huge wings folded over and around itself like a thick scaly blanket. It lay alone in a vast field behind the mansion as its scales glistened in the moon light. The term “relatively small” meant just that, this beast was easily the same size and weight as the steam engine parked not too far away. Tristan quickly began to rummage through the bushes looking for a certain insect.

Elsewhere Lyon, Butchy and Veronica who had regained consciousness slowly made their way towards Corone. All three of them were virtually out of proto atoms leaving them with no choice but to run along the train tracks at a limited speed.

Veronica’s arm which had grown contorted and disfigured as a side effect of proto atom exhaustion was wrapped up in bandages made from Butchy’s torn clothes.

“What a pain.” Lyon sighed heavily before smiling bitterly at his two colleagues.

Veronica gave him a pat on the back and said. “Just think about the pay. The moneyyy!”

“Can’t you just drink our blood to strengthen yourself and carry us there.” Lyon snickered as he nudged Veronica with his shoulder.

Veronica gave him an offended look. “I’m not a slut! Drinking blood is something done between two bonded lovers not for convenience.”

“Suit yourself.” Lyon rolled his eyes. “Looks like where-“

At the next moment Veronica suddenly pounced on him before sinking her long fangs into his neck. Lyon couldn’t help but turn bright red at this sudden occurrence and even Butchy broke his characteristic silence with a gasp. She then let Lyon go and quickly moved on to Butchy drinking his blood without encountering resistance.

Once she was done she wiped her mouth clean and laughed before saying. “Don’t tell anyone I did that okay. My proto atoms should replenish a little quicker now. I still won’t be able to run super fast for a while though.”

Lyon’s mind was completely empty. In truth he had been head over heels for the half vampire ever since he first met her. She was in many ways the perfect girl for him. She was out of the ordinary and had a sense of humour more similar to a guy. She had gone out of her way multiple times to let him stay over at her place whenever he had been fighting with his exes. During these times he and her had done the deed many times casually. He wondered how long it would be until he finally took his shot.

Veronica smiled before walking ahead.

“She is one amazing girl isn’t she…” Lyon smiled like a complete buffoon.

Butchy rolled his eyes before responding. “A true gentlewoman.” He then leaned in towards Lyon and continued to say. “Just in case you didn’t know I’m also hitting that.”

“What!” Lyon was distraught as a deep frown cut across his face.

Butchy gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m not even slightly interested in her, it’s just a casual thing you know. I just thought it would be best for you to know since you really like her and all.”

At the next moment a thundering blur blasted past Veronica from behind carrying with it an explosion of blood with it as it went. Whatever it was crashed into a bunch of trees off to the side of the railway before emerging from the dust to face her with a deep guttural growl.

Her mind went completely blank as she had no idea what had just happened. Before her now stood a juvenile dragon with none other than Tristan on its back. Her mind quickly snapped its attention back to the blood and red mush all over the ground. She followed the blood with her eyes until it went behind her and that’s when her entire world shattered.

The bloody clothes and torn body parts of Butchy and Lyon were scattered across the railway tracks. They were killed right under her nose. For a second reality didn’t seem to make sense. How could her two friends have been alive just a few seconds prior only to be dead now. It didn’t make sense to her rapidly breaking mind at all.

She suddenly turned to face the dragon and charged blindly activating several of the most destructive resonance abilities she had in her arsenal.

Several beams of golden light shot towards the dragon that quickly dashed to the side at neck breaking speeds stirring up a hurricane of wind and dust. On its back Tristan laughed maniacally as a wingless butterfly dangled in his mouth.

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Veronica’s golden beams vaporised everything they encountered as they sliced across the green landscape and hills in various directions.

Immediately Her proto atoms hit rock bottom again but that didn’t stop her from still trying. Blood poured from her eyes and mouth as she begged herself. “Please just one more attack, let me kill this bastard.”

Unfortunately for her she was now completely unable to use any resonance abilities. She couldn’t even contact her sister as that also required proto atoms. Her right leg soon began to twist and snap as it tried to pull itself inside out. Blood curdling pain assaulted Veronica and completely stripped her mind of its strength. She quickly blacked out and fell to the ground, now sporting two mangled limbs.

Wasting no time at all Tristan manipulated the wingless butterfly to make the dragon see the unconscious Veronica as food. Due to the dragon being only a juvenile it’s intelligence was only equivalent to a ten year old child. This made the creature easy to control with the wingless butterfly.

The dragon picked up the unconscious Veronica and held her upside down before swallowing her whole. It then flapped its powerful wings lifting itself into the air before blasting off with a sonic boom. On its back Tristan laughed uncontrollably as he had ultimately proven victorious in the end. By scheming and taking advantage of the opportunity that was presented to him he was now able to chase after Benjamin again and receive his delicious reward money.

Okimodo, Hiro and June all descended towards the hospital that was essentially a series of four extremely tall and ornate buildings. The architecture was off the same grandiose style as Buchai central station with large complicated window shapes and stone gargoyles mounting every edge. They landed on the roof of the tallest of the four buildings which was crowded with trees and herbal farms. Unlike most other buildings in the area almost all of the lights were on in all of the four wards.

“So where exactly is Benjamin’s wife being kept?” Okimodo looked around at the three other buildings.

Hiro then pointed towards the shortest of the buildings and said. “If I’m not mistaken she’s in there. I believe it’s the tenth floor.”

“Let’s get going then.” Okimodo said as he prepared to descend.

“Wait!” June spoke up. “Don’t you find it strange how there aren’t any super resonators around here?”

“There are.” Hiro said returning to her human form. “When we first arrived we met a woman who told us how many there were. It’s likely that they are all gathered inside of the hospital awaiting the chance to kill Benjamin.”

“How many are there exactly…” June asked, his tone becoming increasingly uneasy.

“The lady said it was around fifty or sixty.” Okimodo answered honestly.

“Shit.” June cursed.

“Tell me about it.” Okimodo laughed before suddenly diving down.

“Hey wait up!” Hiro yelled as she dove after him.

“Here goes nothing.” June closed his eyes and dove as well.

As the three descended amongst the various overgrown intersecting multi story bridges, rain began to fall down alongside them.

With three heavy thuds they landed on the roof of the smallest building before quickly breaking in through an emergency exit to get to shelter. Surprisingly there was no alarm which only seemed to make everything seem even more suspicious.

Okimodo was the deepest into the building, he looked down the rusty staircase infront of him that went down a single story leading to another emergency door. He looked back at the other two and nodded before quickly hopping down and kicking the second door open. Immediately he was assaulted by the stench of fresh blood. The lights were on and a corpse was disgustingly squished into the opposite wall, staining its immaculate pink tiles red. Okimodo was soon joined by Hiro and June who both remained behind him as he slowly stepped forward.

They entered into a wide and spacious corridor with several other mangled corpses lying around.

Okimodo slowly got close to the dead body and observed its characteristics. It had been so brutally smashed against the wall that Okimodo simply couldn’t tell anything about its identity by looking at what remained of the face. Its clothes however told a different story. Okimodo wasn’t familiar with how doctors and nurses dressed in Corone but he was pretty sure that they didn’t wear concealment robes which was what the corpse had on.

Hiro observed another dead body that had been disgustingly compressed into a trash can. It appeared to be the remains of a woman with various fleshy appendages indicative of the formless flesh school.

June walked a little further down the corridor before encountering a room marked out as the woman’s restroom. He didn’t exactly know why but he felt a strong impulse to enter which he promptly obeyed.

Upon entering he was met with an even stronger stench of blood coming from one stall in particular. For a moment he contemplated on just calling it a day and going back home before morbid curiosity overcame him.

He slowly approached the stall that radiated the blood stench and opened it up to see ten freshly killed corpses crammed into the toilet seat.

All of them were glaring at him with the terror of their last moments still visible on their faces.

For a moment, June simply stood still with a paused expressionbefore quickly suppressing his urge to scream. The last thing he wanted was for whatever or whoever did this to potentially hear him. To kill super resonators so effortlessly this existence must have been a class six at the very least.

Outside the bathroom Okimodo knocked on the door. “Hey man are you good? What did you see in there?”

June slowly opened the door before saying. “I think I’ll be leaving.”

“What!” Okimodo frowned deeply. “Come on man we actually really could use your help when we fight whoever did this.”

“I… I don’t know.” June gritted his teeth after he spoke.

Okimodo put his hand on his shoulder. “Think about how satisfying it’s going to be when you hang Benjamin for the world to see.”

June tensed his brows before responding. “Fine I’ll stay just a bit more.”

“I’m honestly stumped.” Hiro said as she got closer to the two. “Why kill people in such a bizarre manner. It’s almost ritualistic.”

“It’s likely a demonic super resonator.” Okimodo answered. “I can’t exactly think of anything else that would be interested in doing this. Why kill people in a disgusting manner? Why not just kill them efficiently like a civilised person?”

“Azurai… Batari Okimodo…”

A chilling female voice called out Okimodo’s full name. At first it seemed like it came from all around them before a figure suddenly manifested at the end of the corridor.

Hiro immediately recognised this person as the woman she had thoroughly dismembered.

“Okimodo.” Cassandra said coldly. “I don’t know why, but the puppet king wants you dead. Naturally it’s not in my place to ask why my god wants someone dead, only when and where.”

“Shit.” Hiro immediately stepped infront of Okimodo to guard him. “She’s not human anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” Okimodo immediately looked at Hiro while raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t sense any life or death energy coming from her, yet her divinity has increased sharply.” Hiro explained very slowly to make sure they both understood her every word. “It’s also very unlikely for her to have been brought back from the dead. She’s most certainly been transformed into a divine spirit by her archetype of worship.”

“A divine spirit?” Junes heart sank.

End of chapter 42.