Prometheus and Giuseppe returned to the base, slower than last time, because of the captives Theo had captured. As soon as he had left the city of Golden Lake, a massive amount of notifications from the Hacker had annoyed him, so he swept them away with a thought. His traveling companion was silent throughout the entire walk, and the Numbers woke up and screamed at him, but they couldn’t do anything with a broken Soul and a broken body. As he walked inside the fortress, where a single mushroom worker was guarding it, he walked past two of the Flytrap Majors, but not the General. He was nowhere to be seen.

Perfect. I’ll interrogate them for now, and then I’ll see what to do.

Inside the training room, where the only object inside was the training golem, he dropped the three captives on the ground, ignoring their grunts of pain. Giuseppe was frowning as he looked at the three Numbers on the ground.

“Anything bothering you?” Prometheus asked.

“These people. What exactly did they do to deserve this?”

Shifting into the Golden Ant form, which Theo found most comfortable, he clicked his mandibles aggressively and tapped the ground.

“For a start, they kidnapped my family. They kept them in a small, cold, dark, and empty cell for weeks. They were barely fed. And that’s on top of torturing them for whatever reason. One of those tortures could have been…”

As his thoughts wandered back to his first raid on the base, when he had rescued Arthur and the children, his Soul began stirring more and more, resembling a storm in the ocean. His mandibles began clicking harder and harder, and Theo’s eyes wandered to the paralyzed Number Four, the woman who had presumably tortured the children the most. Before he could control himself, a foreleg pierced straight through her calf, eliciting a scream of pain from her.

Giuseppe moved his eyes to Theo and said, “They hurt and tortured… children?”

“Correct. They did the most gruesome and vile actions a human could ever take. For that, I’ve planned and designed something very special for them.”

Giuseppe frowned deeper, looking at the ground, and said “You can’t fight fire with fire, Theo.”

Theo dashed in front of the immortal man, his insectoid eyes just centimeters from his face, “And who are you to tell me what to do?”

Giuseppe raised his hands and backed away, “I’m no one, I’m sorry. I’ll go…over there. And, do something.”

The young man walked to the back of the room, on the opposite side from where the shapeshifter rested, and took out two sticks from his pocket and began hitting them together to make a rhythm.

Back to us, now. Before going on torturing them, I should see what abilities they have. Just in case they have something useful.

Sending a mental communication above, he asked a mushroom worker to bring him three human-sized chairs and a table. Shortly after, a rope dropped from the ceiling entrance, and four mushroom workers brought him what he had requested, climbing back out.

Theo sat each captive on a chair, and set them in front of the table, while he stood opposite them. Number Three, with his large build and short, brown hair had a stoic face. Two was hyperventilating, furiously looking around the room with rapid eye movements. Number Four, the woman he had stabbed a minute ago on the leg, snarled at him with her upper teeth, as she didn’t have a jaw, breathing just as hard as the higher-ranked priest.

“Very well. We may start now. First of all, would you like to introduce yourselves?” The shapeshifter began, in English as they all knew that language.

None of them spoke. Four somehow spat at him, even without a jaw.

“Do that one more time and it won’t be the calf that I’ll be stabbing,” Theo said as he looked at the woman. Number Three looked at her, to which she closed her eyes and breathed slower.

“I don’t want to make this hard. I need to know-“

His Soul spoke up mentally, interrupting Theo’s speech, “Dude, don’t tell them what you want. That’ll make them less receptive and they might take their abilities to the grave with them.”

Prometheus blinked, with custom ant eyelids, and replied to his Soul, “So what do I do?”

“You can try this. I tried breaking their Souls in a way that would remove most of their Influence, but the structure inside for their ability should still be standing, so I’ll bet they’ll try using it if they haven’t already. You can either observe it directly or try to understand it just by how they’re trying to use their Influence, although that’s probably much harder.”

His Soul had access to all of Theo’s thoughts, so it immediately sighed and remarked one of them, “Or you could torture them until they talk, sure. If you want to go that route, you could tell them that you can replicate Soul abilities without killing them, so they’ll be more open to talking.”

“That’s… a good idea. Thanks.”

“Heh… what would you do without me?”

Prometheus dismissed his Soul and focused on the three captives, who were all narrowing their eyes at him. Actually, I should see what those notifications from the Hacker are about, there were many of them.

Congratulations! For succeeding in your vow to obliterate the criminal group that kidnapped your family, you have been generously rewarded!

Body +5

Mind+4

Soul+7

New item: Soul-Devouring Multi-Weapon

Skill rank-up tokens x5

Congratulations! For successfully capturing and containing an entity born out of the Behind, you have obtained a new Trait and a Title!

Trait: Anomalous Resistance.

Title(Upgradeable): Collector of the Unknown(Novice). For each Anomaly you safely contain, either in your Inventory or in a physical containment unit, you’ll receive an additional point for each of your Stats. Current bonus: (+1 to all stats). Anomalies captured for next upgrade:(1/5).

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The Administrator is sending a request to have an audience with you! Accept?

Wow. That’s a lot. Capturing that brick gave me both a trait and a title? Guess I’ll stay up during the Unsafe Hours more often, then. I’ll accept that ‘audience request’ later, when I’m done with these people here. Also, a weird cube made of…red metal appeared in my inventory.

Moving back his focus to the three captives, he thought about his next words.

“I want one thing from you. Your abilities. My Soul ability lets me replicate the abilities of others, as long as I understand them fully.” He let his Acting skill guide his words, “Naturally, if you tell me, I’ll heal your Souls and bodies, and set you free. After all, my ability only works if the original owner of the ability is still alive. What do you say?”

Number Three scoffed, and looked straight at Theo, “Right. After we give you what you want, you’ll just conveniently release us, on top of healing us?”

Fuck. Theo lamented his bad talent at lying. It feels like shit to lie, but being good at it would really help now.

“Try to threaten them with torture. See how they react.” His Soul suggested.

Theo nodded internally and raised an ant foreleg on top of the table, where drops of acid were dripping from its tip.

“I can also torture you until you tell me what I want to know. I would prefer to not do that, but if you don’t leave me other choices, I won’t hesitate to.”

Only Number Two had any reaction. His eyes flew to Theo’s face, and his breathing sped up considerably. His heart began pumping much more rapidly, as well.

“Bingo. Theo, take Two to a corner.”

Prometheus tilred his head, asking, “Why?”

“I’ll bet that he’s the only one that will talk if we torture him. Plus…” His Soul then went on to explain the plan to get the abilities out of the three Numbers.

- - -

Number Two looked around the room, looking for something, anything that might help. A small part of his mind was hoping that their boss, Number One, would come and save them. Yes, yes, if that happens, not even that weird tree monster could stop him! Even then, Lidia will surely send someone to rescue us, as per our deal!

Either way, he couldn’t feel safe. The weird shapeshifting monster had grabbed him and had moved him to another corner of the large room, where the other Numbers wouldn’t be able to hear him.

Shit, is he gonna finish me off?! This worthless insect?!

The Ant dropped him on the ground, and initiated a mental communication, “I’ll be honest. I have ways of causing pain that you’ve never felt before in your life, and I also have ways to prevent you from passing out from the pain.”

Two gulped and held the monster’s gaze.

“My ability actually needs to kill the original user to steal their ability, but I need to learn how it works, first. And I have a way to check if you’re lying. So, if you say anything that’s not purely the truth, I’ll torture you and then kill you.”

Two replied, “You…you won’t kill me! You need to understand my ability first!”

The monster seemed to shrug and continued, “No big deal. Your clones of darkness aren’t interesting enough for me to want it that much. So, I have another proposition for you. Tell me the abilities of the other two, who I’ll kill, and I’ll let you live.”

Number Two’s mind began spinning up thousands of possibilities, but he concluded that the monster was being truthful. Yes, of course, he’ll let me live if I just sacrifice them, naturally. But can I do that, to my brother and sister?

“I won’t tell you anything.”

“Shame.”

The monster moved closer to Two’s remaining leg and swiftly cut it off with a sharpened limb. He grunted at the dull pain, which was lower than expected. Heh, this monster thinks he can torture me? All of the Chosen ones are trained in pain tolerance!

The same thing happened to his arm, which was another wave of dull pain. The monster then ate the two limbs and stabbed Two in the chest. No pain came.

“You’ll see now why I didn’t want to torture you.”

Then, a slight, cold itch spread from where he had been stabbed. It wasn’t unbearable. After a minute, it increased to a throbbing pain, but it still wasn’t too intense. Two could handle it. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop increasing in intensity. The pain went from cold to hot, and he felt like his veins were burning. That made him groan in pain.

He opened his mouth, and he felt like magma was flowing through his body, but before he could scream, a hand formed on the tip of the monster’s limb and clasped around Number Two’s mouth.

“I’ve heard enough screaming these days. Are you ready to talk now?”

As tears formed in his eyes, pain, and hopelessness were the only thing motivating his next action. He nodded.

“Wise choice.”

The monster stabbed in the same place once again, and the pain slowly went away, after which Number Two began explaining the abilities of the two other Chosen Ones…

- - -

Prometheus walked back to the two other Numbers, smiling internally. His mandibles clicked gently, and he had a certain spring in his step. Theo moved in front of the two priests, who looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Look at these idiots, looking at us like they have any power against us.” His Soul remarked while scoffing.

Theo ignored it and said, “It seems that Number Two has betrayed you, and he told me exactly how your abilities work. Ah, forgot to tell you. My ability works by killing the original owner.”

Theo could see the blood drain off of Number Four’s face. Number Three kept that calm and collected look throughout.

“Since your abilities hold no interest to me, I’ll tell you this. Tell me exactly how his ability works, which is the one I want, and I’ll let you free. How does it sound?”

Number Three scoffed and said, “Just kill us already, you damn bug.”

Number Four nodded in agreement, although with less confidence.

Should I give up on Two’s ability? Shadow clones aren’t bad, but they aren’t the best either.

Prometheus spent the next hour torturing and using any tactic he knew to get the information out of the two, but they didn’t utter a single word, unlike Number Two, who broke almost immediately. Deciding to end it, he activated his ability and confirmed that what Two had told him was true, after which he killed the two Numbers, absorbing their abilities. Two USB sticks appeared in front of the two priests, one with a bunch of weapons flying around drawn on it and the other having a coil-like object drawn on its casing.

“So, Four’s ability is just telekinesis for weapons, and Three’s ability is controlling a spiral of metal? How are those more useful than shadow clones?” His Soul asked.

“Simple. They have straightforward conditions. The first one just needs me to have mastery over a weapon to use the ability on it, while the other works on metallic spirals. It is very situational, but that makes the ability stronger, and it doesn’t have other conditions.”

“So what are you going to do about Number Two?”

Prometheus shrugged, “I’ll just give him to the General as a gift. I’m sure that he’ll know what to do with him. If I need his ability in the future, I know where to find him. I’ll ask for him not to be killed. Anyway, I need to tier up now, I need other abilities. You said that I get an ability slot per tier, correct?”

“That’s right. You’re tier three, so that’s three abilities you can have in total.”

Theo nodded.

Grabbing Number Two, who began snickering saying how he would finally be free, Prometheus found Major Vine, one of the three Venus Flytrap Majors, and offered the captive to him. The shapeshifter was sure the priest wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

He returned back to the training room, where Giuseppe was looking at the ground, unmoving. Prometheus shook him, trying to get a response, “Giuseppe, are you alright?”

The immortal man gave no response once again.

Prometheus left him alone and finally accepted the request by the ‘administrator’, hoping it wouldn’t take too much time.

- - -

Void. Black. Cold. That’s what Theo felt from his surroundings. That’s until a modern-looking office appeared around him. Theo had no body at the moment, he felt like he was a mind drifting in the weird space. He was on top of a comfortable-looking chair, and in front of him was an elegant desk of wood, empty except for a book on top of it. The wall behind the desk was occupied entirely by a window, which showed a city from Earth on the other side, as the office seemed to be in a tall building.

I think that’s New Tokyo.

A door behind Prometheus opened, and he turned his ‘vision’ to see a Japanese-looking man in his late thirties move to the other side of the desk and sit down on the reclinable chair. He had black, slicked-back hair and a goatee beard, while he was wearing a simple, all-black suit with square glasses.

When the man kept looking at Theo with no words, the shapeshifter said, “Hello? I don’t have all day to waste here. Tell me what you want and make it brief.”

The other man put his elbows on the desk and leaned closer, his eyes as black as the abyss. Prometheus held the gaze, hoping he could get back soon.

“Why are you so neutral about this?” The man said, his mouth moving too little for the words he spoke.

“Huh? What kind of question is that? Am I supposed to cry like a baby, or start praying on my legs, or even shake in fear?”

The man blinked once, and continued, “As the Administrator, in charge of the Salvation System present on Eventum, I would expect more of a reaction from mortals, yes.”

“Listen, I have important business back home. What do you need?” Theo said.

“Very well. I will be brief. We need your assistance.”

Theo sighed. Of course. They wouldn’t do all this just to give me a present.

“Who even is ‘we’? The other Gods? And what’s even the ‘Salvation System’?”

The Administrator nodded, and continued, “Yes, me and the other Gods. For the second question, the Salvation System is what I designed to find suitable individuals that could help us in our endeavor.”

“Okay, and what is it that you need help with?”

The man, instead of replying, got up and picked up the book that was on the desk, holding it up for Theo to see.

“This. Does your Supernality sense detect it?”

Prometheus narrowed his eyes but used his Supernality sense either way, finding a good amount of wrongness coming from the book. He assumed the ‘wrongness’ he felt was proof of something anomalous.

“Yeah, it’s a book with weird properties, if I had to guess. What about it?”

The Administrator opened up a page and moved the book to Theo. “Please read that.”

Theo lowered his vision to the book and started reading,

“Amongst the void's shifting embrace, a four-legged wanderer roams, Seeking solace in the communion of its elusive kindred. In its wake, chaos ensues, as flesh is molded to suit the will, Those bereft of their harboring vessel, meet a fate most dire.”

“Beware the nomad's journey, for it knows no bounds, Its quest eternal, driven by a desire shrouded in obscurity. Within the interplay of light and shadow, destiny awaits, For where the wanderer finds its elusive match, salvation beckons.”

Theo mentally tilted his head. “This is jibberish. It doesn’t mean anything to me.”

The Administrator sat back down, and fixed his tie before continuing, “Do you recollect the event of that ‘table’ that assaulted you, some time past?”

“Of course, how could I forget that?”

The man nodded, “That is what the Tome is referring to. These entities come from the Behind, a place that we have no information of. The only thing we do know is that they are gradually tearing everything we know apart. Stars are drifting ever more distant, and space itself is growing larger and more rapidly every day. Before we know it, only black holes will remain. Even they won’t survive long. Most stars have already been gutted and murdered by the Behind.”

“Sounds like you’re talking about the heat death of the universe. What do you even want me to do? I know I’m amazing and all but some things are beyond even my control.”

The Administrator fixed the glasses on his face and replied, “We need you to prevent the death of the universe, at any cost.”