Viewtube comments on Muramasa's video: Declaration of independence.

You gotta be kidding me, a criminal group just can't decide to own our city?!

A part of your city. Besides, maybe they'd actually get shit done compared to the police.

Hail Muramasa! They're the only ones with real noble causes!

They just killed over 100 cops? What part of that is noble to you?

Recent info says all of them were corrupt.

Yeah, but did they kill any of the corrupt cops who were loyal to them?

What's the process of applying for citizenship?

You act like Yuzhou would even allow them to stay standing.

At least it would be an actual Free City. SynTec and Yuzhou are already gangbanging NC.

This can't be real.

Damn, NC's a real shitshow.

Tell me about it, we can't catch a break.

LMAO, this is how I discover Muramasa has a Viewtube channel?

Wait until you find their Buzzer account.

A Free City within a Free City?

Cityception.

So what, are their apartments a fucking jail cell?

It's called a shared community living space.

What the fuck is the police doing? How'd they even let this happen?

Useless as always, especially that Silvereye. Does she even do anything except look pretty in front of the cameras?

I bet she's swallowed a lot of dick to get where she's at.

Can we just drop a bomb on NC already?

Fr.

I hope those pigs get slaughtered inside.

You're talking about Muramasa, right?

December 19th

Diana

At the instant of the order, my tension released in a zap of electricity as one drone scorched instantly to a fork of blue energy. Dreadwire was already among them, a spider weaving his web as he caught each one and dragged them to destroy one another.

SI Kipper's own shielding drones were a lifesaver alongside Archangel, who fired up her shield instantly as a storm of bulletfire crashed down upon us from all sides. Everyone was under duress, but none cracked from the pressure. SI Rachfeld triggered one drone to explode after another with his plasma rifle, commanding the heat to spread like an infection as they fell as molten rain, while SI Miles Fernandez finally showed off what made him special.

Each bullet he shot curved and split apart multiple drones from his assault rifle, but he turned his sights as a new force sprang up.

From above us dangled ropes upon which legions of Muramasa guards grappled down as they crowded ahead and behind us, each of them lifting up a firearm that smashed bullets into our shielding. Two of them wore Black Dragon masks and had a blade by their side.

They both dissolved into shadows, and I heard Kim laugh. "Oh, so he's the one I've been feeling."

A green aura spread around Kim as she dashed forward, augmenting her strength and speed with ectoplasm. Finally, the lieutenant spoke her magic words as she sent an order for us to cancel out our hearing. "Kill yourself."

These assailants refused her order, they'd likely also erased their sense of hearing — acting entirely on visual sight. The Lieutenant clicked her tongue, before snapping her finger and erasing sound, and for whatever reason, they all one-by-one began to stumble in their steps. Even Ripley momentarily faltered in the air, rendering him to receive one good tackle from a drone before his Arachnodyne pieced it into two.

My bullets, alongside Sabrina's and Kim's, shot through Archangel's shielding and easily expanded that puddle of blood forming beneath us. Just as quickly as Muramasa arrived, they were dead. Our weaponry and skills were superior, but each attack was a drain on our energy.

"The black dragons disappeared," I said, quickly searching for Kim's gaze since she had a reaction when they first appeared. She nodded, flexing her hand and tightening her fist. Immediately, a man groaned from within the darkness of the hallway we were about to pass through, a second woman trying to claw at her throat.

I saw ectoplasm creeping into their mouths and filling their lungs.

"They're from Shadow Son's sect." Kim explained, Shadow Son, according to my research, was Muramasa's best infiltration agent and commanded a whole entourage of stealthy Black Dragons.

Anabelle Grazhe's tongue moved quickly alongside her ringing palm as the green goo within their mouths disappeared. "How many of you are there in this prison?"

"I… I think 1,000? More?!" One of them squealed, before covering their mouths.

"Was it just you two sent for us?"

"N-No, more waiting… beneath!"

Beneath? As though on cue, the ground beneath us crumbled. A third Black Dragon with burly arms covered in black steel launched at Sabrina and nearly snapped her neck before she could process anything. I shot out a fray of electricity that only tickled him, but Dreadwire arrived with a more decisive answer an instant after. His blades pierced into the man's eyes, the other Arachne swiping off the fingers holding Sabrina by the throat.

But by then, a whole new group of Muramsa came after us. Archangel and Kipper's shielding were our lifeline once more, while Rachfeld and Fernandez quickly dismantled the new group with precise headshots and burning their guns.

Before we could move again, the ground crumbled once more, this time I was prepared as I levitated myself up alongside Ripley, Kim, and Archangel. Each of us grabbed one other individual and, in Ripley's case, he held onto three.

We tossed ourselves beyond the chasm and towards the hallway deeper into the ward, but couldn't take a breath before the door kicked in as flames spewed out towards us. Sabrina was quick, throwing a frost grenade and commanding the mist to counter the flame while I dove in — unbiased to either spectrum of temperature.

My palm slapped against a chest, and a flash of light pierced their heart as they stumbled back and fell. My senses searched around, feeling for anything… but I couldn't. I'd known something felt wrong from the moment I stepped in, even the presence of my allies had grown thin since we moved deeper in.

"Shadow Son." Kim moved ahead of us. "He can erase the signatures of Warp Energy from even his allies, make them imperceptible — but its range is limited. He's here, in the North Ward... but likely hidden."

"Shadow Son…" SI Pouler, a bald officer with arms of thick chitin-like material muttered. "He's the one whose skin can absorb light, right?"

"It's not skin, it's his hair." Kim closed her eyes as a green aura engulfed her, before snatching up a robe from one of the dead Muramasa guards. "It's so thick and grows from every part of his body that you'd think he's a living shadow. Beyond that, his hair can be woven into clothing that impairs an Adapter's signature. As long as he's here, we'll be bombarded with surprise attacks."

She tossed the robe over at me, and I ran my Energy through it. It almost felt like a normal material until I called for Spark to illuminate the truth. It was faint, but there was a mass threading of the Shadow Tendency within, at a high enough Grade where I could just about squint its squirming presence.

Starlight, Synchronize me with your dad.

"Got it!"

At once, my mind shuddered as I felt my conciousness melt in with Ripley's, I felt his confusion before my reasoning melted into him and his Shadow Tendency freely merged with my Spark.

Together, they became something more.

Temporary Tendency forming… Contagion Tendency.

Contagion, to reach without being known. Pulling that miasmic Gold into my Soul Resonance, I spread my Energy through the robe like an infection. It slipped right in, before overpowering it as my mind began to search for the true origin of the robe. It was brief, but I could feel a weak resonance in symphony with the cloth, a dull hum that was more felt than heard.

Starlight pointed it out on the map of the prison flooring, much to the mild surprise of the Lieutenant who just offered me a stare. "You're certainly full of surprises, Ulrich."

"Better to surprise, than be surprised." Kim said at my defence, her eyes honing in on Dreadwire. "He's at the bottom of the prison within their maintenance hallways. Dreadwire, separate from us and take Sabrina with you, eliminate him, then regroup."

Sabrina looked at her ex with mild apprehension at the task. "Alright with you, Lieutenant?"

"Diana, can you continue trying to detect their traps for us? And do you trust Sabrina in his hands?" The lieutenant cast her gaze between me and Dreadwire, before I nodded. Seeing my affirmation, she gave an okay to Sabrina.

Dreadwire began walking back to the ledge and looked down the many floors past the railing of the prison as Sabrina joined him. He offered her his hand, and she dramatically cooed. "What a gentleman."

Helping her into his grip, they jumped off and down towards the Shadow Son.

———

Dreadwire

Sabrina Thraum. She was the Investigator tasked with researching me, and now I was partnered up with her to eliminate Prince Shadow Son. According to Mirage's intel, he wasn't part of Bladedaughter's faction… then again, those who were had been kept highly secret from us. It seemed like it didn't matter who we killed as long as she got out alive. The remnants of Muramasa Dynasty would have no choice but to join her.

She gripped on tight, her body felt cold as ice, yet light. It would be so easy to break her, to come up with any number of excuses as to why she died.

A voice inside of me was telling me to do it. To leave no loose ends, but then what, Diana would suspect me for the rest of her life, and my identity was already in precarious trouble. Dreadwire would either have to disappear soon... or live in public as Ripley Donovick. That was a fact, even Mirage didn't care about her face being known, because she had multiple to wear at any time. And was enough of a threat to stop others from revealing her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"So…" Sabrina whispered as we descended, carefully searching for any traps, "…are you Ripley Donovick?"

"You act like I would answer that." I said calmly.

"So you are?" Her grip got tighter. "Want to do me a favor?"

"What?"

She took a deep breath. "I need an Investigator killed."

Now that surprised me, from Diana's explanation of Sabrina, she was kind and free-spirited, yet always shied away from killing unless necessary. Today, I had only seen a cold assassin who hid and took lives by draining the heat from their hearts. "Who? And what's the pay?"

As I scanned and cut the floor to delve into the lower catacomb, she wrestled out ten Bronze Shards from her pockets and handed them over to me. "This is down payment for Rachfeld's death."

"The Flame Esper on the Lieutenant's squad?" Everyone had their personal motives with this operation, it seemed.

"He killed my brother, that's all you need to know… the rest of the payment, I've left it in my will under my mother as a package she'll be told a man will come to collect. 150,000 Shardyne." Sabrina said dryly.

"Your will?"

"Don't tell Diana, but I don't intend to survive today." Sabrina gave a sad laugh before shrugging. "I-I've thought about it for a while, and… it's what I've decided."

She looked down at the ground, and I thought she would begin to cry, instead she lifted up the rifle in her hands and nodded in the direction of Shadow Son. "Let's go."

"Very well." I followed along; it was just a small task in the grand scheme of things. Once the infiltration team readied the major assault groups to act from the north and south, there would be so much chaos that no one would fault a stray bullet full of flesh-eating nanites.

And if I could take out the Lieutenant at the same time…

Mirage said she'd handle that, but the issue was that we still didn't have a clear entry into their systems. Once she could freely spread her Titanium within, she'd be free to take control of any police Shard Adapter to enact her will. Tier Is at least, Tier IIs and IIIs would require more intensive preparation.

And the Lieutenant would only surround herself with Tier IIs and IIIs until the raid ended and the Bladefather was dead. We had to choose our moment wisely, towards the end of the operation or amidst the chaos… otherwise, I would be hunted as both Dreadwire and Ripley.

Diana would ensure it.

As we sank deeper into the labyrinthine lungs of this place, it became clear that our senses were being subdued, my vision got weaker and Sabrina's steps got slower as though she couldn't feel anything, she even began sniffing around. "Can't smell the blood any more."

As we entered the maintenance tunnels, darkness consumed us. The metal beneath us was rusted and coated with an oily substance. I waxed it over my finger, an algorithm coded by Starlight analyzing the chemical composition.

It was explosive.

Fuck. I grabbed Sabrina as my Arachnodyne pulsed into motion, seconds later a shadow-like tendril of hair pulled from the darkness… with a lighter sparking out from i's hair-thin grip. Such a simple method, yet it worked.

As soon as it dropped, Sabrina threw one of her grenades and let the icy mist consume the spark before it could ignite with us inside of these metal intesinal death traps. She sighed from relief. "Close one."

Then we heard an explosion behind us as wind tore to feed it, in seconds a flaming abyss spewed through the tunnel and only grew more rageful. I was ready to drop Sabrina when she did something unexpected.

She pushed her hand into the fire and what was once light and an all-consuming blaze flattened against the broken walls to become a wreckage of ice, metal and stone. She coughed, as I saw the exertion from her make her skin pale, her right hand was slightly burnt and now had frosted markings over it.

"Your Mutation… it doesn't just affect the temperature of your carbon dioxide, but all carbon dioxide." And fire produced heaps of it. "You've been limiting yourself."

"When it's so easy to kill, you have to." She broke free of my grip, reaching again into the wall of fire hungrily waiting for us beyond her range as she stepped into the icy catacombs. "But tonight, I don't intend to hold back."

The fire flattened and died down as Sabrina turned it's waste into a weapon to snuff it out, she stepped ahead as we descended deeper into the confines of Shadow Son's whereabouts.

———

From what we could tell, this network of underground tunnels spanned the entirety of the North Wing. If it was connected to the others, I didn't know; it was a maze we navigated using drones and Sabrina's sense of smell. Shadow Son's hairy tendrils wrapped around every corner, hiding deep in the crevices like roots spanning this entire Wing.

From them, he likely received sensory information and transmitted that info to War-Watcher. If we could eliminate him early on, we'd be gaining a significant advantage. So far, the tendrils hadn't been used offensively, but they liked to snag around my Shardware and impair us to slow us down.

As we delved deeper in, one of my drones abruptly went silent. I grimaced, but followed in that direction — hoping whoever killed it was a BUG Adapter. Even if it was a trap, at least then I'd be able to read their memories and figure out Shadow Son's location.

The tunnels weren't the best location for my Arachnodyne, but there was little choice. This far down we'd lost contact with Starlight, Diana and the others…

"So, what put you on your path to being… Dreadwire?" Sabrina asked.

I stayed silent.

"I'm not trying to investigate you, I'm just… curious. You already know my plan is to-"

"I have someone I need to protect." I said.

"Ah, but don't we all?" She retorted like it was a smart answer.

"It needs money. This pays well."

"How much?"

"I've received a million as a down-payment." I stopped, scanning the next few branches… the tendrils got thicker down to my left. It was also where my drone died.

"A million?" She whistled. "And they're going to call of my case on you once you're done. You planning to disappear?"

"With that money, I'd have no reason to continue being Dreadwire for the near future." I hummed, an itch in my voice.

"Ah, you'd be able to get the rest through your other revenue streams, is that it?"

"Being Dreadwire costs a lot of money." Almost every Shardyne I made was spent recovering and upgrading my own capabilities. "Like the cost of this destroyed drone."

I stopped, picking up the remnants of a shattered spider-like drone. My eyes scanned around me, not picking up anything within the dim tunnels… Sabrina sniffed the air, before exchanging a silent glance with me as she readied her weapon.

She shot into a nearly imperceptible bulge in the wall, masked in shadows it unravelled like a coccoon as a Black Dragon slashed towards us. The man was coated in an inky substance, difficult to observe as he melted in and out with the darkness around us.

Then I felt a thread wrap around my throat and pull as a Mutant with spider-like eyes and four arms shot out webs from an organ that bulged from her throat and mouth. The threads hissed at my armor, melting it as more of the sticky green substance wrapped and impaired the movement of my Arachnodyne.

"A duel between spiders, isn't that funny?" The mutant laughed as its thick, chitin-covered arms descended on my limbs, each grabbing one of my Arachne, and had the strength to wrestle them down as it sprayed more acidic webs over them. Meanwhile, the ink-covered man from before seemingly shot out of a wall towards me. Sabrina's eyes turned a lighter blue as she reached out, not with her weapon but her arm.

From both of their mouths, mist grew and they began to cough and sputter. It leveraged me a moment where I smacked my elbow into the chitin-plated Mutant behind me, their exoskeleton crumpled and the inky man's blade scratched my right arm. My hand launched and gripped his throat, but he slipped right out, a tar-like substance sticking over my palm and solidifying it in place.

They were impairing my mobility, my greatest advantage.

Sabrina shot from her rifle, striking the man who grunted as blood mixed in with the subtance he secreted while the mutant continued wrestling my Arachne into submission, threatening to tear it off with the acid melting it's plating down.

So I jumped, full strength with the Shriekstone's kinetic-burst engaged, and smashed her body into the roof while it only cushioned mine. Exoskeleton and inner skeleton crumpled as they were squished like the insect they were, close enough to death that I tossed them right off and ended their life with a few bullets.

The inky man, on the other hand, was posied to strike Sabrina with his blade, but was stuck standing still. I registered what happened to him as his tar-like substance dripped off his body, veins and arteries a deep purple under his skin. My voice reached for Sabrina. "Carbon Dioxide dissolves inside blood, so you aren't just limited to the gas."

"Like I said, it's easy to kill people." Sabrina walked past the man, not even bothering to glance as his Implant slithered out of him. "It's difficult to do the opposite."

I didn't waste the opportunity to steal a SIM from both dead dragons, even Mutagen was now a resource I was looking into. Walking forward, the substances of both Mutants significantly hindered my body, and it seemed to be according to design, as a man bathed in light appeared ahead of us.

His Black Dragon mask had three horns, and the light was a rich Bronze that peered from the joints of his Shardware. Sabrina took cover behind me as he charged forward, his two arms splitting into three on both sides with a blade in each hand. "Shall we see which of our six arms are superior!"

"No." I engaged my Claws and shot them out into his chest, before a thin zap of electricity flowed through them and ignited the explosive liquid I'd coated the claws with. He reeled back as a fire burned over his torso, and Sabrina squeezed her fist and that blaze became a thick chunk of frosted metal and muscle. He gripped his chest, yelling out. "Such dishonor!"

This bastard spoke of honor when my limbs are tangled up, for that… he deserves to be an experiment. My gun switched cartridges and as he charged again, I shot into his chest with a nanite-filled bullet. He was Tier III, lending him some resistance to my nanites, but in combat, his ability to control that would be hindered.

The bullet had low penetrative capability, but it would lodge inside of him where it was needed. Where 100 miligrams, or one billion Goliath Nanomachines were free to seize control over his organs. Instead of forcing them to eat his flesh, however, I reached into the Databreak Module, now upgraded to Silver.

Databreak Module selected: [2B/1S] [Datajammer/Dataweaving/Network]

A link of Gold was born through the fresh Network Feature installed, bridging between us a lethal poison to his Shardware that I sent a subtle whisper to in the woman waiting in my head for some action. Twilight.

"Oh, you don't know how tiring it is trying to break through their Datashields!" She pulsed into motion, his weapons, which had been inches from my head, suddenly swerved as they curved down where they jabbed into stone.

My hips twisted, and my leg straightened with a burst of Shriekstone to kick his bowing head.

His neck snapped and bent. His spine bulged out, and the flesh around it tore. I grabbed at that loosely held skull, and merely pulled to illicit the satisfying detachment of a head and a spine from the body it lived in.

"Oh fuck… that was quick." Sabrina gasped, her face pale. "He was Tier III right? Based on his horns?"

"Only Bronze," I muttered with dissatisfaction. From the head I held emerged a Bronze BUG, one I eagerly took in my hands to begin reading the memory. My gaze cast a slash towards Sabrina. "You stay quiet about this, or I'll kill you."

She took a look at the semi-decapitated Tier III and nodded.

Memories swam through me, blending in with the darkness.

I saw my lord sitting within a web of his own hair, above him dangling a cocoon containing his actual body. My prince, who had saved my life 15 years ago. Back when you could see his gentle face and hear the warmth in his voice. But like a cancer, the shadows had grown from his own body's pores to constrict every organ.

A curse, one that his father had cultivated.

We sat in a chamber, my head bowed low to the Prince of Shadows, a mechanical speaker in this avatar's hands. "Sire, I request a duel with Dreadwire. He is fit to match the skill of my six-mantis arms — I shall prove my worth to you."

The Shadow Son took a look at the remaining dragons who had pledged their allegiance to him, each of them were discarded for their appearance, too inhuman to ever be accepted by society. The Prince's speaker said the thoughts he did not have the organs for. "Hiriko, you have nothing to prove."

"But I must protect you."

"Dreadwire is tasked to combat my sister, she has been most eager to face off a Gold like him and Silvereye. The last thing I wish is for you to draw the eyre of the future Blademother." The Prince rose a thin tendril to stroke my cheek, it was a tender and soft touch. "But, I will protect you. Take among my Dragons two who will support you."

"Sire, I wish an honorable duel."

"And I wish you to come back alive, that is an order from your prince. Serving me is the greatest honor you could have." The Shadow Son's many tendrils extended towards the other Dragons, some were mutated beyond humanity and took animalistic shapes, others were so disfigured by their Shardware they'd made Metal Heavens look like saints. "If I fall today, my sister promised to carry on my legacy. But what worth is a legacy, without the people who cherish it…"

The Shadow Son unraveled from the hair that had formed him, sinking into the ground as the other stewards had a look of acceptance fall upon them as the shadowy threads dangled towards their bodies, hoisting them into the air.

I was not fit to serve that purpose, what flesh did I have to sustain him? To keep him from succumbing to the sins of his father?

Memories of the long walks and the constant switching of communication channels, as the need arose, until I received word that Kora and Pinyan had met Dreadwire. I hurried, only to find their corpses, and the masked killer standing unfazed beside a female Investigator.

A thought came to me. To run. Instead, I was foolish and sought the fight I desired most.

As my mantis blades jabbed into the ground, all I could think of was failure to abide by my master's wish. It had been the most difficult of them all.

To live as I am.

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