Dreadwire

I grabbed the man by his collar and activated Insight, giving me passage into his body's every subconscious thought realized as action. "Do you know the name: Soul Killer?"

"N-no!" His fear and hesitation was honest. I let go, my claws had torn through the armor of his shoddy suit.

"You're not even a soldier, are you?"

"I-I-I'm not! I'm just a damn veterinarian, then all of a sudden they told everyone to grab a gun and armor vest! There might still be some alive down! But… captain Winslow is fighting deep below, he- he'll need your help! The lower ones are… wrong." The man panicked, freely spilling the information off his Bioshard.

"Listen, Gareth." He pinched his throat when I mentioned his name. "Here's what you're going to do, get up there and contact your headquarters… tell them that The Revenant is free. Post on the Net about it if you have to. But don't mention my name, or I'll kill you."

"O-okay, okay!" Gareth dropped free from my grasp, his breath choking and tears running down his cheeks. "I'll do whatever you need to, just… just don't hurt me."

I turned back, looking at Dryder. "Escort him to safety. Make sure he does what I ask him to. We're going to clear these things floor-by-floor, but they could get past us and breach the quarantine. Once he's secure, follow after our path and ensure there's nothing left alive. If even one of them kills a human, it could spread to the surface."

Dryder turned an ugly sneer at me. "Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?"

"The merc you trusted to get this job done," I said firmly, shoving Gareth into his arms. "And I will get it done. When I call for you, join us, and take out any stragglers left behind. You have the firepower for what lurks below. Considering how you are now, you'll waste it on these weaker MALformed."

"MAL?" Gareth gulped behind me, I didn't pay him any attention.

Lilian strode ahead, shooting me a gaze but focusing on Dryder. "He's right, just check up on the quarantine and see if you can gather any information."

Grumbling, Dryder picked up Gareth by the neck and patted his back and walked further from us. "Yeah, yeah… you'll be alright, get over it, Garefh. Killer bunnies, so what? I've dealt with worsh… don't even know why Lilian hired that guy… sun'ova'bitch… that's what he is… swear to god I'll put a bullet between his eyes one day. Y'know, we were chattin' about dicks earlier. Now I'm thinkin' he is one… oh Dryder… escort this guy… just yappin… hate people like him. Reminds me of a guy called Diamante… he's a dick too…"

We could still hear him when he disappeared off our sights. Lilian pulled me aside, quick with her words. "What was up with threatening that guy?! He was innocent?"

"Are you Lilian Rose right now, or her?" I left my meaning clear. "Skeleton conned us, we weren't just here to exterminate Soul Killer, we're here to win him a favor from SynTec. That bargains a higher price, and he'll pay the cost when I kill the reinforcements they'll send from headquarters to shut Gareth up about what was happening here."

"So you're using him as a sacrifice?!" She hissed at me, pushing away. "We'll see about that, later. We're killing the Nexus first!"

"Before that… we'll have to take down all the beasts on each floor. I lied to Dryder, we'll leave nothing for him. I don't trust him right now with distractions."

"And how are we going to do that?" She barked.

I looked at Quartz, our Warp Energy lighthouse, and he already sighed with a dourness. "I was expectin' it at some point. Tell Topaz when to let go."

"Now," I ordered.

Topaz blinked. "Now?"

"Let. Go." I tightened my finger on my gun, the empty threat enough for him to cut contact with Quartz. In an instant, a sensation like the sun's heat in a blistering summer engulfed me as it became difficult to concentrate on anything but him. The effect on Lilian was more pronounced, but if she was smart she'd rely on Soul Resonance to burn her attention to the upcoming siege of monsters.

In seconds, the floor rumbled and Lilian bent her knees, ready to pounce. I held her by the shoulder, forcing Warp Energy to steady her nerves. "Together."

I had experience with Shard Adapters most, Mutants and Espers less so, a recent bout with MALware and a singular encounter with a MALignant. But none with MALformed. In terms of prior knowledge, I was lacking, but digging through her archives of her time with Soul Killer gave me enough.

Synchronize with me, Starlight.

Thoughts took a second, unconflicting voice in my head, a mere whisper guiding my actions. Just in time as a horde of squelching rabbits approached, maggot-infested spots hardened around their deformed bodies. An inhuman screech tore into the air between us, and when I let go off Lilian, she shot in a spray of black-and-red.

I had still reached quicker, a burst of kinetic energy zipping me through the air till I was above the horde of semi-connected rabbits. Then I aimed my hand down and channeled Warp Energy through my palms, the central disks squeezing air and releasing it forth as a wave that splashed blood into the air.

They flattened without me touching them, still weak. Only Iron. As Lilian reached, she razed her Shatterclaws through them and erupted a wave of blood and guts, tearing out chunks of hardened insects that served as armor over the mutated rabbits.

Despite the massacre of wildlife, the MALs ran past us, their hunger yearning for Quartz who took potshots along with his brother. Diana's shatterclaw launched a spray of metal that solidified and dug through their molten pelts, while I launched a web of ten claw-tips, sinking them into the viny network of tentacles binding the horde together and keeping them in place as my Arachnodyne dug into the floor.

Lilain's Magna Gresault aimed and shot at the leashed horde. A burst of a Blue Phosphorus round cast a spark that ripped into a bright orange flame that devoured flesh into ash. Topaz lifted his rifle up and unleashed a steady stream that I ran into, unimpeded as bullets sparked off my armor and limbs, and a whip-blade chained down my left arm that I spun into a circle amidst the blazing blood and fur.

A shockwave burst through the end-tip's core of Shriekstone — flattening the flame.

The walls were splattered with charred remains and gooey flesh, SIMs dropping down as the product. Turning to Quartz, I nodded at him as Topaz held him by the shoulder once more.

And deeper we went. I sensed we would do this many times.

———

Diana (Lilian Rose)

Bunnies, they were bad. But they were bigger than our current targets.

Hamsters. At least they lacked the insect-hardened plating on the higher-up MALformed, but a part of me struggled to believe that people were eating these.

Have I eaten one? Cold blood splashed a rising wave, the heat feeding me electrical strength under my insulated suit — I could afford to be a little reckless with how well Ripley made it. But looking at him now, you wouldn't even know it was him under that mask.

Each of his limbs did something different all at once. One Arachne limb was a blade that vibrated like a chainsaw, bone misting into the air. A second turned into a taser, electrocuting them on my behalf where I could just about nudge their bodies to clump together for easier killing with the bullets shot by the smg in his right hand.

Then for his left, a long whip arched back and forth like a serpent lashing out at everything all at once, a thick crack ending each snap which splashed blood around like a kid jumping into a puddle. As for his lower two Arachne, they danced him into the air, while his legs clipped and glided the walls much like that monkey MALware had done.

It had been eleven days, and he wasn't just back — but stronger. He damn well knew how to build tools of ruin, an architect in delivering death.

That was Dreadwire.

Sabrina was so fucking dead.

———

Dreadwire

I couldn't deny the fatigue running through me. These MALformed were weak, but constant. Overwhelming. I sensed that them being born from animals rather than through natural MAL reproduction or by corrupting human Adapters had a part to do with it. I let Diana burn them, the fire dancing in her gaze in a myriad of colors, like a sunset born of blood and infernal fury.

There was a light coursing within those once-silver — now crimson — eyes, a sense of belonging. Purpose. I knew, because I felt the same, as animal remains shattered with every minute hook and swing of my whip. Hundreds of them must have died during these last twenty minutes, and we'd gotten half-way through the second floor.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Birds were next. As for the dead human bodies around, now I realized what they all had in common. They were Shard Adapters. Those who were Mutants and Espers must have been infected and moved towards the Nexus to protect them, or worse…

MALs feasted on human death. It empowered them and let them raise the Tiers and Grades. Feeding a Silver human to an Iron MAL would result in their evolution. Some of them had to guard this place with the prisoners they kept.

MALformed Carrion, in this particular case, were massive piles of flesh and guts constantly regenerating and moving their Core about. Severing one half just caused a new Core to form, albeit weakening both. Quartz' light illusions weren't effective on these beasts, with their Warp-enhanced primal senses, they abandoned sight to move as a pile of meat only sniffing out his Warp Energy.

Topaz consistently stood on bodyguard duty for Quartz, but he would be eaten to the bone in a second if we let a sizable chunk of the Carrion past us. So Diana and I had no effort left to spare ourselves, but she was remarkable even while limiting herself to the capabilities of Lilian Rose. Expertly switching between close-range and firearms as the need required, running only on instinct as she single-handedly cleared swaths of them with punches and kicks that froze their lifeless husks.

And then she did something that surprised me, to my senses, it was like she spread her presence past herself. Like she was in two places at one time, her physical body… and the tide of the Carrion rising to submerge her. They all breathed their fury out in a wave of blood and agony.

Tendrils of flesh and bone snapped her joints, picked apart her armor, and gouged flesh… and then they exploded as something within them broke. She was left a gasping mess afterwards, Iron fumes rippling from the dead MAL as they filled her breath with less than what she had given.

But what she had given was an instant kill to all of them at once.

She picked herself up, bones wrenching into place and blood bubbling to reseal wounds. Lilian Rose was as much a monster as these creatures.

And I couldn't ask for better.

———

Diana (Lilian Rose)

I wasn't sure if using Soul Resonance on them was a mistake or not, it was like dipping my foot into a magmous mouth of boiling and mindless wrath, but my Gold was so easily able to pierce it. And burn even that.

I'd done it before on a Chimera, but these things were far more… chaotic. I had to be careful not to lose myself, or let that bridge between me and those monsters consume me. That was difficult.

In place of Energy, instead, I was filled with a ravenous rage. A hunger, their hunger. A terrible scream tore from my lungs as weapons and limbs all became precursors of spilled viscera.

As they died, I replenished myself, taking from them Warp Energy… and their Mutations.

[Iron] Tier II Mutagen: Mass Regeneration has been-

[Iron] Tier II Mutagen: Beast Senses has be-

[Iron] Tier I Mutagen: Beastly Hunger has bee-

[Iron] Tier I Mutagen: Hair Growth has be-

[Iron] Tier II Mutagen: Primal Instinct has-

And of course…

[Silver] Tier I Mutagen: Soul-Forfeit has been absorbed.

It was only Silver. It was only weak. I relished having this strength over Soul Killer.

[Iron] Tier II Mutagen: Blood sense has be-

[Iron] Tier II Mutagen: Hunger Frenzy has b-

[Bronze] Tier II Mutagen: Beast Body has be-

Bronze… it was tougher than the rest. Meatier, chunkier, it had latched vine-like appendages of blood and flesh around my throat and tossed me into a wall as Ripley's Arachne unleashed a kick of rippling blood through it, but as one spiked tendril aimed for my mouth…

I refused to end up like Jacob Grazhe. I bit down, my teeth piercing the flesh as I tore a chunk of it down and swallowed.

[Bronze] Tier II Mutagen: Bone Spikes has been absorbed.

Of course… how had I forgotten my five-star meal by Simon Jugosla. MAL-flesh.

The original source of Mutagen before all those fancy techniques for extraction were developed. My fangs sharpened. Something had changed in Limited Morphology Manipulation… it wasn't so limited any more.

I felt my jaws unhinge like a serpent's opening wide as I dove into that bloodbath and ripped flesh from bone with my bare teeth. It tasted horrible, like rotten meat and rusted iron, like flies had been born in it, like I'd just taken a bite from a piece of shit.

But I loved it. The fire within me burned brighter than ever.

Fire Tendency has reached Bronze VII

———

Ripley

The small mammals had been dealt with, thanks to Lilian's sudden ravenous showing of pure bloodlust. I was the one with two blades on my back, yet she was soaked with more blood than I was. Where I took a careful and precise approach, she dove forth into that maddened pile of living flesh and ripped it with her own hands. And teeth now. Her shapeshifting appeared to allow her to unhinge her jaw and turn all teeth into canines.

Now, was the time for the avians. Approaching the lower floor, we saw our first living human. Our first living Soul Killer thrall, his crimson eyes with white pupils turned to us, a crazed agony in their face. It was broken, twisted… and being eaten by packs of ravenous birds bent so out of shape I didn't know what breed they were.

"Quails. Flightless birds but apparently quite nutritious." Starlight put a picture of them on my visuals, I swiped it away and transitioned that movement to hold onto Diana's shoulder.

"Hey, careful with that touch! You're getting too comfortable with her!" Midnight hissed, but I ignored it, sending a calming dribble down to Diana.

Water Tendency is now Bronze V

"Y-oouuhhh." The broken man wheezed, the birds unmoving as long as Topaz' hand was on Quartz. "Did youuuuh doooh thisss to uuhhsss?"

Diana's breath was a haze of mist seething from her mouth. "What?"

"Sevvveerrr… ussss… from… brilliance… from… Gold. From Titanium." The broken man lurched forward, one of his legs snapping from the lack of bone on it. "Orrr… ittt wasss Skele'on…"

The light disappeared from those eyes, as tens of birds turned their attention to us… then more of their crimson eyes opened amidst the darkness behind. They were Silver… had to be. A crunching sound appeared, tentacles spiraling down their beaks to form piercing needles as bursts of blood and wings sent them down the warpath to us.

Diana lurched, but I pushed her back as time slowed.

Hypermind Prime activated, she wouldn't be quick enough.

———

Diana (Lilian Rose)

Before my foot was an inch off the ground, Ripley pushed me down to my ass. Before my ass touched the ground, blood splashed on my face, violent and hot.

I felt wind whipping around me so hard I couldn't keep my eyes open, the Arachne on his back moving as blurs, the birds' streaks of shadows vanished in the space between Ripley and the dead man. They moved nearly as fast as bullets, but Ripley stood still, his only movement coming from the four limbs sprouting off his back.

Each strike was violent and fluid, the blood raining down on my awaiting tongue for that sweet Silver. He stood like a man made from death, incarnating the scythes of a reaper against the gattling gun of birds aiming to pierce through us. His blades formed a dome of blurring black steel that created a crimson sphere with torn black feathers around us.

It was so alluring… mesmerizing… and tasty.

In between all of that, he even found the time to whack Topaz' hand off Quartz, the man flinching and complaining as he did so while Ripley only gave a three word answer. "I'll handle it."

I wanted to see him do all that and more.

The onslaught magnified, black was all I could see rushing towards us and that was when his Arachne cast upon a haze of gray and electricity, beautiful shocks of thunder and lightning casting a storm of blood-rain that didn't leave an inch of their solid bodies getting past us.

I wouldn't survive this, the thought ached — then boiled me down to the bone. In the ravaged breath of my instict, my hand caught his calf… and it felt so… incredible. I thought the R0N1N was impressive, Dreadwire matched that.

Dreadwire… may have even exceeded that… for just a moment. His movement suddenly slowed, and his hand reached for a grenade that tore out from his belt and tossed into the middle of the bird-swarm. It's rich explosion was a disappointment to me, for none of the blood came down upon my body.

My hand clenched his calf a little tighter, my Shatterclaws denting as they did.

{Uh, Diana, do you mind? You're kinda distracting him.}

Hearing that name broke me out temporarily, my head shaking to realize the violent storm of Mutagen and Energy brewing within me… likely, I was going to get a new Mutation today. I had to pray it was something good and useful…

Withdrawing my arm, the reluctance within the motion felt foreign, as Ripley's right arm extended and shot from its forearm a thick stream of molten red that shredded the birds to a standstill… Then they stopped.

His voice, indomitable and not once fearless or enraged this entire trip, broke through the stunned silence. "Are all of them dead on this level, Lilian?"

A sadistic smile ripped from my mouth, a wide grin with more fangs than usual for a human. "Yes."

His hand reached for mine, calm and resolute, like a stairway of promise. I took it and felt everything in his Soul that was purposeful, I craved it. That type of power was… phenomenal. He turned his head back to the hallway, his mechanical steps the only noise for a brief moment before he spoke. "The Aquarium is next."

Hurrying behind him, I couldn't wait to see what he would do next. A smile parted on my face, and my voice flowed to him like a song. "Lead the way, Dreadwire."

———

Dreadwire

I was not doing anything comparable to that during this operation again, Hypermind Beta had the weakness of severing the connection between my Shardware and my organics. I couldn't breathe during that whole minute, Starlight had to do it manually for me.

Then there was Lilian, draining my Energy even more. What was in her mind?

Perhaps it was punishment for pushing her down, but she should know better than to compromise me. Hypermind Beta was now burnt out, dust left where it should be, and the Bronze Shards located in my triceps' storage vanished to restore me with strength and mindfulness.

Lilian was in her element, absorbing Energy as she went into an unlimited supply. I was done, I wouldn't be getting any more Energy unless I happened upon an alive Shard Adapter and took their Implant… even then, if it wasn't Silver, it wasn't meaningful.

The aquarium, in contrast to the other rooms, was a wide space filled with open circles that led to deep basins of water that no doubt housed MALs within them. I couldn't feel them, but Lilian hesitated and I took that for warning. The only odd sign was the lack of bodies, but the clear presentation of blood stains across the room.

"Fish farms." She said… smacking her lips. "It's been a while since I've eaten fish."

Was that why she stopped?

———

Diana (Lilian Rose)

What did they grow here? Catfish were the easiest, but maybe even tuna? Looking at the signs, there were oysters too in some of these…? What type of MALformed would spawn from them? Strangely, I detected barely any Warp Energy on this floor. Maybe Soul Killer didn't bother with infecting underwater creatures, but I felt an instinctual wariness with the lack of any marine life in the waters.

As we walked further, the pools only grew larger and deeper, until I happened across a sign that said 'octopus' and unmistakably felt the Soul-Forfeit Mutation within… but it was off… it was… Iron?

"There might be Iron MAL down there." I pointed.

"Leave it to Dryder, he can have one of them to fight, just hope his Shardware is waterproof." Dreadwire walked on, but I lingered. Something was off.

Octopus… no other marine life… Iron… I'd taken a step closer so I wouldn't be left behind, but my senses still clung to that Iron… burning past it. Right, right… Octopuses… they were good at camouflaging.

Underneath that veil of Iron, was a rich breath of Silver. And I realized it only when it came into contact with me. An inconspicuous tentacle had merged in with the ceramic flooring's texture. "Oh, fuck! Guys-!"

I could only say so much before my footing was lifted off the floor, and I was dragged into the basin to bear witness at what lay at the depths of this abyss.

A Silver… Tier III MALformed.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.