I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that the elevator out of the Orphanage had deposited me near the Otherside Market. Luck seemed to be on my side. In my current state, if the elevator took me to the Onyx Track Clan’s territory, I wasn’t sure I would make it out of there alive. But it hadn’t, and I should make use of the opportunity. Sure, I was on a timer for the mission, and I had what seemed to be a prototype of a Priest Gem lodged inside of me, but… Surely I had five minutes to do some shopping, right?
Without running, I walked as fast as I could towards the market. Running in the Otherside usually meant that you were in trouble or running towards trouble, so people tended to avoid it. Even my pace got me a few sideways glances. I found the stall I was looking for, the one with the honeyed dough and explosive rubber balls, and bought a dozen of each. I headed to the nearest elevator, munching on my snacks.
Stepping out onto the Topside near Thoron’s place, I looked around at the abandoned night-time street, and I put in a request for my bike to be reassembled. A few minutes later, I was driving towards my place. Distraction and a hearty snack alleviated some of my anxiety about the situation. However, my thoughts kept returning to the small stone in my chest, its glow invisible under my clothes. The one and only time Hob managed to successfully extract a Priest Stone from that Magdriver’s arm, Yorathan was there to help him through the entire procedure. I prayed he’d retained the information and could help me despite his degraded state, or we were both in deep shit.
About halfway through the drive, I went through a one-way shortcut Flon had shown me years ago. As I turned the corner through some familiar backstreets, I thought I saw a flash of red from the corner of my vision, but when I turned my head, it was gone.
Then, the entire world turned white as fire and pain engulfed me.
The next thing I knew, my back slammed painfully against a brick wall, the impact driving the breath out of me even through all of my protections. I fell on my side as I struggled to get my breath back. With a thought, I dismissed the notification that helpfully let my concussed self know I was concussed. My head was swimming too much to pay attention to that. I needed to get my bearings.
As my vision cleared up, I saw that the black lump on fire in front of me was, in fact, my poor bike. Or, rather, what remained of my poor bike. The sound of steps to my left, slow and calm, spurred me to act, and I managed to scramble up on all fours. I stared at the ground as the movements made my stomach want to empty itself. A moment later, a shadow fell on me, and the edge of a singed, red robe entered my cone of vision.
“I found you.” A terrifyingly familiar, raspy voice said. “You thought you could steal the gem and get away with it?” One of the priests from the warehouse. Shit.
I managed to raise my head, my vision still blurry, but I could see well enough to recognize the dust-covered and scorched robes of one of the Priests from the warehouse. His familiar voice meant that he was one of those patrolling the outside. The one that spoke with authority.
“Fuck you,” I managed to gasp out.
He let out something similar to a manic giggle at my words. “I am truly blessed for the gem’s tracking signature to appear in the area I was sent to. Before my brothers and sisters have time to get here, I will take back the gem and watch their faces crumble as I show myself as the most competent of my cloister. You might even get me a promotion to Bishop. Glory be to the rotations! I will be one step closer to perfection. One step closer to true death.”
As he was ranting, I caught my breath and covertly pulled out two small spheres from my pocket.
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[Boris’ Bouncing Boom Ball]
Rank: Common
An explosive bouncing ball crafted by Boris Lanlove. When thrown, the balls will rebound against the first surface struck and explode upon the second impact. Low-yield.
“It goes boing, then it goes boom!”
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The priest’s soliloquy seemed to be winding down, but before he had time to do anything else, I threw the balls against the wall behind me. They ricocheted off the surface and straight into the priest’s chest. They exploded with enough force to make the priest stumble back, singing what was left of my eyebrows.
Sensing the opening, I scrambled up to my feet and started running, hearing the sound of murmurs and shutters closing from the top windows of the buildings around me. The priest let out a grunt and started chasing me. The sound of his footsteps rapidly got closer, but just before the priest was upon me, I threw one more ball to the floor behind me and turned the corner.
The explosion and grunt I heard probably meant that the small explosive had hit the priest somewhere. I didn’t have time to stop and think about it, though, as I aimed my arms toward the nearest rooftop, activated my [Spider’s Ascent] subroutine, and silently shot out the grappling hooks. They landed on the roof without a sound and caught on something. With a quick pull to ensure they would support my weight, I activated the motor in my gauntlets and shot straight up.
In my haste, I set the motor to a stronger setting than I ought to have in the mental activation command and flew up past the lip of the flat roof. But alas, gravity was not to be denied, and soon enough, I started descending. My instinct was to start screaming as I saw the ground approaching rapidly, but I knew that the moment I did, I would be spotted and shot out of the sky, turning me into a charred corpse before I could even hit the ground. So I kept my damn mouth shut.
As I was about to fall past the roof, I shot my hand out, and fortunately, I managed to catch and hold onto the roof. Unfortunately, my momentum and the sudden introduction of a pivot point caused the rest of my body to slam into the wall, again driving my breath out of me. My [Hunter’s Ward] prevented the impact from doing any real damage, but the experience was thoroughly unpleasant nonetheless. I gritted my teeth and used the hand that wasn’t holding on for dear life to bring out a [Full Restore Injector] and slammed the needle into my thigh, relief flooding me immediately. It felt like I had just woken up from the best sleep of my life. I rolled my eyes as an obligatory advertisement window opened before me.
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“Feeling better, sinner?” I heard the priest ask from directly below me. I looked down in trepidation and saw him looking up at me, his hood still obscuring his face, but the flash of red light from within that hood, which I expected to be the last thing I ever saw, never came.
Experimentally, I threw another one of the explosive balls, this time straight down, but before it even came close to hitting the ground and bouncing toward the priest, he swatted it aside, the motion almost too fast to see. The ball flew towards a nearby lamppost, which it hit. The explosion was strong enough to break the metal post and cause the lamp to go out, bathing a small part of the street in darkness.
“Nice try, but you’re not getting away.” the priest said, chuckling. He reached for something inside his robe, but I angled myself before he could act and threw another explosive ball. My aim was true, and it bounced off the wall and right into the priest’s darkened hood. The explosion only caused him to stumble back with an angry growl, but once the smoke cleared, my blood ran cold.
The explosion had knocked the priest’s hood back, exposing his head. The sight was disgusting. His eyes had been replaced with clusters of sparkling gems, the rest of his face a patchwork of sparkling gems, pitted metal, writhing wires, and putrid flesh. He looked up at me, and rivulets of blood started pouring out of his “eyes.”
The priest was weeping.
“Such a shame,” he said, sounding brokenhearted. I saw, to my horror, that his lower jaw split open as he spoke, giving him an even more monstrous look. “Why did you have to look at my face? I wanted to keep you alive until I could present you to Father.”
To look upon a priest’s face was one of the highest sins you could commit. It called for instant excommunication. Not that it made my situation any worse. It probably improved it since I would be given a quick and clean death instead of whatever he and his “Father” intended to do to me.
But I had no intentions of dying, either quickly or slowly. A plan hatched in my mind. I glanced to the corner of my vision, where the timer for my boosting ability showed it was safe to use.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I grunted, activating [Blood Boost] and letting go of the roof. As I slowly fell, I pulled [Overdrive] out of its holster and swung the gun so I would crank the lever with my right hand. I held four of the remaining seven explosive balls in my left hand.
Falling ten meters was never the most pleasant thing, but thankfully, my boots absorbed most of the shock as I landed on my feet, my gun aimed straight at the Priest’s sneering face. I pulled the trigger, and the EMP bullets exploded out of the barrel, engulfing him in a localized storm of electricity and electromagnetic energy.
But I wasn’t done. While the stunned priest shrieked in pain, I threw the explosives toward the nearest four lamp posts, hitting them and engulfing the area in darkness. I ran behind the priest and threw one of the distraction disks down the street, curving it so that it would turn the corner. I backed up and raised both [Overdrive] and [Rail-Revolver], activating my mask's [Locked Eyes] subroutine to highlight the Priest, allowing me to see him even in the dark. I hoped that the darkness, distraction disk, and berzerk state that Priests entered after getting hit with an EMP would convince him that I ran away. If he followed the disk past the corner, it would give me enough time and space to get away.
I held my breath as the priest’s screeching died down, and he stood there panting. His head turned towards the direction the disk had taken, and he paused for a moment. I could see his entire body shaking with pent-up aggression. He took a step towards the disk, and hope bloomed in my chest. Then, he turned to stare at me.
“You thought you could fool me again?” He screamed, leaping at me.
Before his outstretched, claw-like hands reached me, I pulled the trigger of my shotgun. The blast from [Overdrive] hit him straight in the face, whipping his head backward and sending him flying into a brick wall.
Before he had landed, the bullet from my [Rail-Revolver] hit him in the chest. The bullet didn’t penetrate whatever defenses he had but had enough force to smash him against the wall once more. At the same time, I used the opportunity to anchor myself, engaged [Overdrive Shot] once more, and sent a hail of ultra-impact slugs his way.
The kickback shot a jolt of pain up my right arm, but the effect on the priest was more than worth it. He slammed against the wall hard enough to send a large plume of dust flying as bricks cracked from the impact.
I didn’t relent. As soon as my shotgun was fired, I shot my revolver again, more bricks cracking and more dust getting thrown up. I engaged my shotgun’s subroutine again and fired out incendiary bullets. Thanks to [Overdrive Shot], the expected fiery projectiles transformed into burning blobs of molten metal, flying at incredible speeds. They shot into the priest, and finally, I appeared to do some damage as he started shrieking and thrashing madly.
But I wasn’t done. I continued the rhythm, shooting out another bullet from my revolver, using that moment to crank the lever for the final Overdrive shot. I gave a mental command and pulled the trigger as my gun spat out a torrent of spiked, lacerating bullets, the projectiles exploding into smaller, sharper pieces when impacting the priest. Some made it through his defenses, while others failed to pierce the monster, as evidenced by a shallow cut on my cheek from one of the reflected projectiles.
The screeching got a little quieter. It was working. I kept shooting the priest, each bullet from the Rail-Revolver followed by a shotgun blast. If I gave him a chance to recover, I was done for. I just hoped I had enough bullets to finish him off. After thirty continuous blasts, the barrel of [Overdrive] started glowing faintly red. But I couldn’t stop. If I stopped, I was dead. Thank Terra that my revolver showed no signs of stress.
I aimed [Overdrive] at the head of the priest and shot off the last of my Ultra-Impact bullets. It felt like the world slowed to a crawl as I watched an energy blast split the barrel of [Overdrive] from tip to base. The weapon exploded.
I was sent flying and landed hard near the burning wreckage of my bike. I tried to scramble up to my feet, but as soon as I tried to lean on my right hand, I fell to the ground. Confused, I looked at my right arm.
Or rather, what remained of my right arm. My hand was gone, and so was most of my forearm. In its place was the molten and malformed remains of [Overdrive], fused to my flesh. As soon as I became aware of the pain, it flooded my brain, causing me to blank out for a moment before I screamed.
The priest, who I hoped had died in that final blast, stood up and calmly dusted the tatters of his robe off, looking at me with absolute sorrow as he slowly approached.
“Why do you reject us so? What we seek is not to subjugate you. We offer you protection. Evolution. Ascension.” He said between sobs.
It was over. I knew it. Nothing had worked. I was done. Finally.
Then, a hot flash of rage at the injustice of it all, at his simpering tone, and all the things I would never get to do pulsed in my chest, and I somehow found the strength to sit up. If I were going to die, I would not die lying down. I aimed my [Rail-Revolver] straight at his chest and snarled. “Because fuck you, that’s why.” I pulled the trigger one final time.
Then everything stopped. It was like time stood still as a bright red window opened before me.
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[ANSWER ACCEPTED]
[TRACKING MARKER DISABLED]
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Before I could blink, the window disappeared, and everything lurched back into motion. My revolver shone with blinding crimson light and fired a bullet. At least, I thought it had fired a bullet. There was no recoil, and I could see no projectile, but suddenly, there was a massive hole through the priest’s chest and abdomen, exposing a grotesque mixture of twisted metal and gore.
The priest looked down in disbelief and then back up at me. “Father, why?” he said with a wheeze, a fountain of blood erupting from his mouth. He collapsed to the ground, dead.
I started crawling away. The other priests would be on their way. I had to escape. I had to hide. I had to-.
Another bright red window opened up in front of me.
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[REQUIREMENTS MET. INITIALIZING NEXT STAGE OF INTEGRATION.]
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A wave of pain crashed against my entire being, and my mind gave up as I lost consciousness.