Damon was pretty sure he should take a running leap out of the nearest window and continue running until he was over the horizon.
Sitting across from him was what he could only describe as someone whose lower body was held together by plexiglass and steel. The only parts below the ribs that were flesh were the organs being held on display, pulsating in a goop of semi-transparent green fluid. His legs were just gone, in their place there was nothing more than six sets of wheels, each attached to a robotic leg. And it wasn’t like the top of the man’s body was in a better condition, his arms were a metallic sheen that was covered entirely by hairline thin streaks of gold, giving the impression of being cracked. From his shoulders there were several other arms, these thin like twigs and entirely robotic in their simplest form.
The face was the sole thing that appeared like a person, at least it would if not for the doll-like quality to it.
The fact that they were in a room with a very small window as the only source of external light did not help with the sense of being trapped either.
“Hello.”
Unblinking glassy brown eyes looked at Damon, the words that came out of the man’s mouth not matching the wriggling lips, as if there were a speaker inside his throat while he attempted to remember how to use his mouth.
“We should… leave.”
Han spoke slowly, he’d gone pale after the apparent seizure their ‘host’ had a moment ago. The guy’s arms were glowing and Damon could imagine something was wrong in more ways than he could see.
The hymn, no doubt.
Everything had gone wrong too quickly. The plan had been to try and coax the scion into saying something they could use. Perhaps throw in a threat or two if he’d seemed uncooperative. It wasn’t like Damon felt intimidated, he was pretty damn sure he could handle the guards here.
“Yeah, I-.”
“Stay.” It spoke, not looking away from Damon, not blinking, not moving. “Damon. You. Are. Administrator?”
This was not the conversation he’d been expecting to have, and Damon didn’t like where this was going. “No.”
> [...]
>
> Network Array Node Detected
>
> Connection Status: A̶v̵a̷i̵l̵a̶b̷l̸e̸
>
> Connect? Y/N
>
> [...]
Damon blinked at the prompt.
“You. Are. Administrator? Can. You. Connect?”
“No.” He quickly spoke, not wanting to risk the thing connecting on its own.
“Damon, we need to go.” Han moved to stand up.
The half-machine man had snapped his head to look at the sasin. “Toy. Stay. Toy. Obey.”
Han let out a grunt and collapsed back on to the chair, his face was pale under his beard, eyes wide. The man looked at Damon and was clearly trying to say something, but the human had already moved.
“This is the only warning.” He loomed over the man. “Whatever you are doing. Stop.”
“You. Are. Administrator? Can. You. Connect?”
> [...]
>
> Network Array Node Detected
>
> Connection Status: A̶v̵a̷i̵l̵a̶b̷l̸e̸
>
> Connect? Y/N
>
> [...]
“I don’t know what your creepy ass is looking for, I am not going to connect to your node.” He waved off the prompt again, glaring.
“You. Can. Detect.” The plastic face twisted, lips stretching upwards too far for what anyone should be able to. “You. Are. Administrator.” The man’s eyes widened, the glass orbs that were his eyes bulging as the whole body lunged at Damon. “GIVE AXON!”
Damon had reacted on instinct, his backhand had been meant to just shove the half-robot man away, but what happened was that all its arms had lunged at him at the exact same time. And they’d latched onto his armor. “GIVE AXON! FREE ME! FREE ME! FREE ME!”
The man screamed at Damon, and sparks flew from the metal protection, the robot arms had some sort of weapon attached at the ends. Damon punched the guy’s face, he’d held back, as best he could given the circumstances, which was why the first punch hadn’t stopped him.
The second one definitely did.
Heliot rolled and stumbled, servo legs with wheels snapping into action and stabilizing the body against the nearby wall. The maniac was still smiling. “ADMINISTRATOR AXON LOCATED.” he shouted, even through its inwardly dented face and wrongly angled neck.
And with it Han let out a scream, clenching at the sides of his head. “DAMON!” He roared, having barely managed to grab his free hand. His eyes were wide and frantic, green bloody tears streaking down his cheeks and into his beard. “DAMON RUN!”
This time he did not bother to wait. He grabbed Han and yanked, barreling towards the door. Whats-his-face lunged, and a backhand caught him squarely on the shoulder, sending him back to the other side of the room. But he wasn’t about to stop and watch, whatever was going on it was fucking up Han.
He slapped on the helmet. This was looking ugly.
As soon as he’d shoved his way through the door, Damon ducked under whatever had just been thrown at his head from the people on the corridor. The bodyguards were there, and they looked as rabid as the dude inside, wide eyes and charging at him with short swords and knives.
“Don’t… kill!” Han heaved, practically being dragged as he seemed entirely unable to remain standing at all.
“Can’t make promises!”
> [...]
>
> You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
>
> Network Array Node Detected
>
> Connection Status: A̶v̵a̷i̵l̵a̶b̷l̸e̸
>
> Connect? Y/N
>
> [...]
Damon flinched from the prompt.
“DISMISS!”
“FREE ME! FREE ME!” This time the voice did not come from behind but from all around. The guards shouted it at the same time the freak had, their eyes were bleeding too.
Oh, and the freak was charging right back at them.
Damon really hoped the armor he’d gotten from a rush-job was up for the abuse it was about to go through. He slammed himself against the wall, doing his best to ignore the feeling of metal objects hammering against his shoulder. The wood buckled, and he slammed again.
It gave way and he stumbled, keeping Han close as he looked wildly around, trying to make sense of his surroundings through the narrow hole the helmet had. The room was too dark to see exactly what was in his surroundings. It was some room with-.
“The walls are bleeding, THEY ARE ALL AROUND!”
Han was fighting against Damon’s grip, raising his voice and thrashing as more blood seeped from his eyes and ears, trying to slip from the grip and escape. The user was fighting against something and he was losing.
“Fuck it.”
Damon sought the source of light, a window, too small for him to fit through with the armor, but he figured the wall might not be sturdy enough to stop him. With a roar, he charged, ready to smash through and handle the drop.
Whatever the hell the wall was made of, it stopped him there and then. The impact had resulted in a burst of pain on his shoulder accompanied by him and Han rolling around as a lot of fragile objects rained down around them and smashed into a million pieces.
“FREE ME!”
“Ugh.”
Something heavy had fallen down on him and pinned him in place. Something mechanical that pressured his arms down. His helmet rung from something metallic hammering against it, and Damon was not about to wait to find out what. Half-blind, he kicked upwards with everything he had, the weight was thrown off, and with it came more of the frenzied shrieks of the guards and the freak and everything else.
“Han!”
The man was curled into a ball, clutching at the sides of his head and screaming.
“THEY ARE IN THE WALLS! IN THE WALLS! IN THE WALLS!”
No time, this was a losing battle, he had to get him out. His gaze locked on to the window. “Sorry about this.”
He defenestrated his best friend in this world.
A shattering of glass and the wriggling screaming man was out of the room and the three or so meter drop to the outside of the house. But Damon’s job was not done, he whirled on his assailants as they lunged at him.
“Get out of here.” He muttered under his breath as he tried to deflect the sword with one arm and punch with the other. The man was thrown away like a rag doll, not having even bothered to move out of the way.
The machine-thing came in next, arms flailing at him with every limb available. It was much how everyone was moving, out of control, attacking blindly in some kind of uncontrollable rage. The next blow that came his way knocked him back down, and he could only clutch and rush back to his feet as they continued to rain blows on him.
In the dark, surrounded, there was not much to do that couldn’t result in someone dying.
He punched low and kicked lower, none of them screamed in either pain or anguish, just howling the words over and over and over. He stumbled through the hole he’d made and paused as he took a good look at the people in the corridor now that he had some better light. Not all the guards had entered the little alcove, some had remained outside.
And they were now laying on the floor, still, eyes wide and pools of green blood around their heads. Were they even alive?
“So much for not killing.”
He grimaced, this was fucked up, and he could still hear Heliot’s screams back there. But he couldn’t stick around and wait, he had to get Han and get the fuck out before things became any worse.
The corridors were littered with more corpses. Stains of green blood splattered as some of the people had smashed their heads against walls or, apparently, fought against one another. It was made all the worse when the screaming upstairs came to an abrupt stop.
Damon had a sinking feeling of just how bad this situation really was. The smell of blood lingered all over, and he was damn sure there was no shortage of it on him either. He got flashbacks of the fights with monsters. In his mind, however, the priority was Han. He moved as quickly as he could considering the obstacles along the way, stepping back into sunlight with a heave, only then realizing the smell of blood had clogged his nose up until now.
As soon as he could see again, he spotted the figures that were approaching from the gates. At least a dozen, wearing the uniforms of the Order of knights, and behind them there were several others that did not look like your everyday samaritan either.
With a grimace, Damon turned and ran. He was too sure this was a situation that had gone from bad to worse. He had to reach the Goddess, but he had to make sure Han was ok first. Heavy boots hammered against rock and dirt, he ignored the shrieks of distress from workers tending to the… gardens?
When he saw Han’s limp body laying over a bush, breathing, a wave of relief washed over Damon. He carefully looked him over. The metal gloves made things too cumbersome, but he was at least sure there were no open injuries, and he was not bleeding through his eyes or ears anymore.
And Han was definitely breathing, though not responding to stimuli, unconscious.
The scream from the entrance of the house told Damon the knights had found the mess, he couldn’t stick around, Han needed healing. “The young lord is dead! They are all dead!” Someone proclaimed, the shouts were getting louder, and closer, mixed in with alarm whistles and bells going off all over the place.
But it was a sharp whistling sound that caught his attention. It was the distinct whine of a jet-engine. Something was moving fast, and as he looked in the general direction of the temple tower, he spotted the pearly white osprey machine the Goddess had used to greet him when he’d gotten off the lift. The machine was moving in his exact direction and FAST.
The knights, guards, and users were starting to emerge from all around him. More than a few of them sported bulky large grafts that looked like they might do something nasty. Damon lifted his arms into the air.
“I surrender.” He declared, making a gesture at the gleaming white ship that, by his estimates, would be there within less than a minute. “The Goddess is on her way and will-.”
“He killed my wife! She wasn’t a user!” The voice rang from the growing number of people. One of the gardeners. “Murderer!”
“Murderer! Murderer!”
The word spread like wildfire, Damon’s training kicked in, stepping back to stay very closer to Han. If this turned into a mob of violence, he’d make a run for it. His stance remained defensive and tense, ready to jump, counting down the seconds until the white ship came there, hearing the voices of these people becoming louder with every passing second.
Fortunately, the Goddess’ “vessel” arrived before any escalation could occur. Instantly, everyone dropped to their knees as the machine’s engines roared, flattening a section of the garden as it landed.
“Initiating report consolidation.” There was a small camera system that was aimed at the knights. The men and women wearing the uniform shuddered and became very still.
Then, the camera turned to Damon.
“Administrator Damon.” The machine spoke in English. “Narrative compliance must be kept.”
“What the hell does that even mean!?” He hissed from under his helmet.
“Unless you can procure proof of innocence, then your current body will be put to death or branded a criminal.” There was a pause. “Do not worry, all memories would be downloaded before public execution. A new upgraded body will be made for your use once a functioning bio-reactor has been procured.”
Damon’s eyes widened, cold dread ran down his spine. “As administrator I order you to-.”
“User narrative immersion must be kept at all times. Administrator override can only occur in case of an emergency.” The voice spoke with a firm undertone. “Do you possess information that might point to this being a potential emergency?”
“There was this creature that controlled them, used them as puppets that bled through the eyes and ears!” He stomped his foot once, ignoring how the people present kept looking between the Goddess’ ship and him. “It screamed that it wanted to kill me for my administrator axon. Can’t you check their feeds or something!?”
“The Incuuri household did not connect to the temple’s system and runs an independent one.” She replied. “An administrator’s axon is no different to that of any other user. It is impossible for a user to gain administrator privileges by merely swapping axons. Narrative and fairness protocol compliance dictates that administrators must abide by user guidelines. Murder of users is an acknowledged part of the park’s experience. Cognition hazards are an acknowledged part of the park’s experience.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Damon looked around, gauging how many people there were present, how many of them were armed, which of them were an actual immediate threat to his armored self?
“...will you take care of Han?” He asked, lowering himself slightly, gauging his chances.
“User Han will be healed and interrogated. It is permissible to imprison him indefinitely until his innocence is proven or the narrative has changed. Administrator Damon, have you chosen to run away?”
The question stung, his lips curled, brows furrowing, a snarl on his throat. “I have a goal in mind.”