Knox was only able to maintain his composure and loyalties for another fifteen minutes. Which was fortunate for Domison, because the man doubted his target of interrogation would have lasted for much longer. The once almost monstrously large man was now a shadow of his former self. His rippling muscles had been reduced to an emaciated state, so much so that the cybernetic prosthetic had dislodged itself from his shoulder, no longer able to maintain its intricate fitting. Knox was now practically a ghost, eyelids fluttering and skin ghastly pale. Shredded lips whispered a single term over and over, “MB-01… MB-01…”
“What does that mean…?” Mel asked Domison hesitantly. For a moment he didn’t answer, collecting his thoughts and formulating his next steps before responding. He would have to go back to their makeshift compound and regain his strength, but then… Then he could go tear down that abhorrent organization, they didn’t deserve to see the end of this tutorial.
“It means they’re in the prototype MegaBuilding just outside of Aurora.” Domison finally glanced over at Mel, the skinny girl with stick-straight, black hair practically trembling in fright, “Honestly, it's probably been their base of operations since before the end of the world. I just never expected they would be ballsy enough to use a condemned space still technically owned by ProtoElectrica.” He only shrugged at his own speculation and turned his attention back to the half-dead man before him.
“Your cooperation is appreciated, as is the energy you have given me. You won’t understand what that means, but…” Domison shrugged again and raised his hand above the man's head. His arm had indeed filled out a bit in the approximately twenty minutes since their interrogation began. The formerly larger Knox below him having seemingly transferred some of his mass unwillingly to Domison. “I’ll make your death quick and painless as a show of gratitude.”
“Dom, wait!” Mel screamed and ran towards Domison, throwing her hands up in protest. While he did not lower his hand, Domison still paused and glanced over at his companion with a steely gaze. Feeling the air cool as she came closer and feeling a menacing weight in the air around him, she faltered when she came within several paces of him. After a moment of hesitation, Mel spoke again, “I know he’s not a great person but…” She waved her hand to indicate Knox’s broken and emaciated form, “Haven’t you punished him enough? Can’t we just leave?”
For several seconds Domison held her gaze, staring deep into her eyes. The cold fire of hate was still pumping through his veins like an accelerant. Though he was doing his best to maintain his composure, his fingers were trembling with the need to tear this man limb from limb. He would do Mel the mercy of at least granting him a quick death and as much as he wanted to be able to explain everything succinctly, he currently did not have the patience.
“No.”
As Domison made the proclamation with an air of finality, his hand began to descend. The hilt of a sword, seemingly pulled together from the shadows at his feet, appeared in his empty hand. Domison did not break eye contact with Mel the entire time, he could tell that she had started to gamify this new world. She hadn’t known the extent of how awful the people of Terra could be before the system came, there is no way she would realize the depths to which people would sink now.
In the blink of an eye, the fully formed blade slid into Knox’s neck, right below his Adam's apple. It split the skin on the man’s throat with such ease that his emaciated body barely even trembled. Before the broken man beneath him even had the time to attempt to wheeze a breath from around the blade piercing his trachea, Domison ran mana into his blade and twisted it. This smoothly severed the remaining organic material with a flash of mana and popped it off with a snap.
Without another word or a second glance at his victim, Domison unsheathed his blade from the man’s body, letting it dissipate back into nothing. “We can’t allow the Twilight Market to find us. They were searching for a poor family they lost for weeks, they won’t stop if they find out about us.” Domison brushed past Mel as he started to make his way back to their home, “Let's go.”.
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She stood, staring at the two headless corpses, the iron tang of blood filling her nostrils and causing bile to rise at the back of her throat. She had seen death, sure. She had even killed quite a few herself at this point. But those were monsters, and up until this point in her life… she had only seen monsters kill people. An unpleasant memory flashed behind her eyelids and she shook herself from a momentary stupor. After taking a long look at the two dead men on the street, she turned and followed Domison silently.
The quiet continued for several hours, Domison marching ever forward several paces ahead of Mel. He was flanked by Pabu, who would periodically shoulder into his owner to elicit more scratches behind his ear. Finally, the sun had fallen completely and the moon was high in the sky, so they stopped inside a building for the night. They were still at least a mile away from the warehouse where Domison had battled with Grimfur, but they should be able to make it back to their home base the first few hours of the next morning.
Domison settled into the little abandoned pizzeria while Mel stood glumly in the corner, the events of the day still weighing on her. A small auto-camp machine was plucked from a small black void that opened up from above Domison’s right hand and he set it up in the middle of the floor. He had always wanted one of these little auto-camps, a small metal box that when turned on would create a holographic fire that projected light and a griddle beneath the illusion of flames. Clicking the machine on flooded the room with flickering light, and warmth began to chase away the frosty night air.
After warming his uninjured hand for a moment, another black rift opened up, and several slabs of meat fell from it. Domison promptly placed the slabs of meat on the auto-camp, along with several spices that also came from the rift and ten minutes later the building was filled with a savory scent. Once the meal was completed, Domison placed the cooked and seasoned meat onto two plates and proffered one to Mel. She hesitated for only a heartbeat until the last dregs of trepidation left her heart and she joined Domison to eat.
Before digging into his meal, Domison tossed the largest slab of cooked meat to Pabu, who snatched the steaming slab out of the air. Mel gave him a confused look, as she assumed the other piece of meat, equally as seasoned as her own, was extra he prepared for himself, “He likes prepared meat?”
Pabu stared at the woman and pinned her in place with an eerily intelligent gaze. Licking his chops with a long tongue, his jaw snapped shut with a click. After a few moments, the massive dog let out a snort before wrapping his large body in a semi-circle around Domison and beginning to groom his paws. The man chuckled lightly and patted Pabu’s head, “He’s always been quite the picky eater. He was never one for dog food, and it seems to be even worse now.”
Domison smiled at his dog for a second longer before he let out a long sigh, “I can’t let the Twilight Market find out where our home is before I have the chance to take them out.” He shifted his gaze to Mel and locked eyes with her. “They’re very, very bad people Mel.” He tried to impress on her with his tone of voice about how serious he was, “ And they were planning on doing terrible things to me, but I knew I would be able to get out once I found out where they were…” Domison trailed off for a moment, eyes lost in thought before he snapped back to the present, “Once they saw you though… I couldn’t have you be subjected to what they do to their slaves at that market… Not even for a day. And I couldn’t risk them following”
Mel licked the grease from her fingers and really looked at him for the first time since she had stumbled around that corner. He looked tired and haggard. There were dark circles under his eyes and the fearsome burns still worked their way across most of the left side of his upper body. “Okay, Dom.” She smiled slightly as she said it, inclining her head, “I trust you it was… it was just a lot.”
Domison returned her smile and nodded, “I get that. I don’t enjoy killing either, but… Some stories aren’t made out for a happy ending.” She gave him an odd look and he just chuckled again, “By the way, did you come looking for me all alone?”
Mel’s eyes went wide with alarm, “Shit.” She balled up her fists in her hair and groaned, “Craig is probably so worried.”
“We’ll get there bright and early tomorrow, and you can apologize. I think I need to share a bit more with you all about the Twilight Market too… I can’t keep you in the dark about it anymore, I don’t know how bad this will all get.” Domison said, balling up his injured fist in steely determination.
Pabu incessantly nudged his owner back down onto the ground with his snout when the man suggested taking first watch, so he finally gave up and retrieved his bedroll. As the two prepared to sleep, a blinking red light floated in the sky across the street from the building they took safe harbor. The little drone wasn’t fairing well, dropping in altitude and stuttering instead of gliding through the air, indicating it was on the very edges of its service range. After another few moments, the little drone shifted in the air and began its journey back to its home. Back toward the Twilight Market.