Accounts of The Bladefather by various witnesses, collected by Staff Sergeant Omen.

Special Investigator Kim Liyung:

He… he's a man who lives by his rules. That makes him ruthless. It also makes him merciful. I might have been his child, but he wasn't around us often… the longest conversation I've had with him was when he gave me my Implants and the [REDACTED]. I've heard stories from my siblings about him, that he's older than a century, that he only needs to think to have you dead.... That's a lie. Killing is something that comes to him without thinking, otherwise… I'd have had a lot more siblings.

Captain Ishram Krishav:

First time I met him, it was as fellow soldiers. He'd come over from his station at [REDACTED], didn't know at the time that he had defected from Yuzhou and was only pretending to be a refugee. Certainly didn't know he was Tier IV. After the Earthquake, he was known as The Bladefather… and my greatest regret is that I didn't fight for him harder.

Crimson Queen:

What, cunt? Only askin' cus you think we're chums since we got a common goal? Bastard's responsible for you-know-what, ruined my life and countless others. I built myself up for the task of killin' him, you want his secrets… ask my darlin' instead.

Crimson Heart:

Kensuke is a complicated man. With a long history of multiple tragedies, betrayals and deception… I find his agreement to work with [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] is truly disagreeable. But I do not blame him. One was the fault of a negligence not his own, the other is a debt to a friend. I may be known as the strongest Esper in this City, but without a doubt… he is the strongest Mutant.

Missy:

Sorry this message took a while, I ain't exactly in the borders right now. Kensuke… The Bladefather… is a man who won't change his ways. He's the same as the enemy he fights against, though… I'm no different. If you're really doing this, Omen, then you're playing into Mikail's hands.

Mr. Skeleton:

He is the man who betrothed me his daughter. Although allies… that is a term very loosely applied to us. I do not ally with someone so weak they'd let their family imprison them. But that is the extent of his weakness, as for his strengths… he's a man with the Fragment of Yuzhou's own Founder. Capable of influencing Implants, of creating weapons, of becoming one. As for that blade he wields the name of, pray he doesn't unsheathe it… unlike the one the R0N1N uses, it's a blade crafted by his own hands. Or well, [REDACTED]'s.

R0N1N:

Missy believed my input may be valuable. I only have one thing to say: he is the only one I have ever fought to have shown me mercy, to have beaten me. Any other connection between us… is only make-belief.

2:06 PM

Diana

My eyes weren't lying to me, the man standing ahead of us was undoubtedly the man we were here to kill. Dressed in all white robes that fell across him like oversized rags, his frail skin was discolored with spots and nearly see-through to the green-purple veins worming through his body.

You'd expect to see a man like that on a hospital bed.

If we were lucky, that was where we would end up.

This was The Bladefather. Kensuke Muramasa.

And we… I… was helpless. I had Warp Burns, was low on Energy, wounded and…

…afraid.

I'd remembered seeing him at the auction, how dignified his presence was then. Like the air was so sharp, a single step towards him would cut us.

Right now, I felt like breathing would sever my throat.

"My children…" The Bladefather turned to Azure Phoenix, pulling the spear out of her throat — tossing it back to the unconscious form of Archangel — before he caressed her head with both care and possessiveness. "…never would I have established either of you so desperate as to do this."

With an air of casual grace, he grabbed Azure Phoenix's remaining arm and tore it off her like she'd been held together with cotton. She didn't even scream. Before I could even process him dismembering his own daughter, the limb bubbled and twisted. Ropes of muscles condensed and tightened, crunching the bone into the shape of a sword. Some of his own blood sank into the weapon, crimson roots swelling underneath the sharp edge.

In a blink, he stood before me; that blade of flesh and bone held within his aged grip like an executioner's blade. With a simple flick of his finger, my mask parted so my silver eyes had no barrier to stare into that white dragon mask of his. "You must be Diana Jones. I apologize for not doing more at the auction against that mistake of a creature."

He then stabbed my head.

———

Dreadwire

Diana's eyes were wide open even as a forearm-length blade struck into her forehead… then it sank inside of her, flesh tendrils pulling it deeper in a way not dissimilar to a SIM's implantation. Had the Bladefather…

I blinked, and he was beside me, looking down towards Steel Vanguard as he clicked his tongue. "I had greater hopes for you, my Vanguard."

Swiping his hand down, Vanguard's shell split apart like it had only needed a feather to be broken in two. Reaching into that cavity, the Bladefather pulled out a lone brain that was secure in a box-like mechanism… and pierced through with his bare fingers.

The moment his hand met brain matter, it curved according to his whim and shaped down — even the BUG within it visibly twisted accordingly. It hardened into a thin dagger upon which Silver veins pulsing with blood sank in from the Bladefather's fingertips… and then my mask fell down.

Before my Alter Ego even switched over to Ripley, a dagger had pierced my endoskeletal skull.

Diana

The pressure registered to me, like my eyes would pop out, but no pain came. It was like an anesthetic had bored its way into my skull, leaving only simple, dull, aimless thoughts.

I should be panicking right now. The Bladefather just stabbed me.

Yet, right now, there was no blade sticking out of my head. My answer came when I looked at Ripley, his mask was fallen and a shining Silver-veined dagger was lodged perfectly in between his eyebrows. His eyes dilated, as though to absorb the shine of the weapon that should be killing him.

Instead, it sank deeper into him like he was a scabbard, a vessel.

No fucking wonder my eyes were glitching with lines of text.

ERROR: UNSTABLE MUTAGENIC MATERIAL IDENTIFIED.

ERROR: ERROR: ERROR

Mu-taaaaati-

Irregular Mutagenic activity identified.

Deviant Mutation Soul Resonance is showing heightened levels of activity.

-

Error: Massive Mutagenic Activity is occurring

Error: Mutations are forming.

Error: Mutational Capacity will be overloaded, please contact your nearest Gene-Clinic for emergency Mutagenic Removal. Insurance not accepted.

Error: Unstable Mutagen identified as… Soul-Forfeit, Soul Death, Soul Shape, Morphogenesis, Biothermal Ignition, Biothermal Metabolism, Avian Morph, Flame Augmentation-

Error: Please contact your nearest-

Despite the overwhelming alerts, my body felt remarkably… fine. Stable, even.

"Diana…" Starlight's voice echoed in my head, her form pulsing into being. "Um, I'm analyzing what's happening to my dad, right now. But if I'm right… The Bladefather gave you a piece of his Fragment of a Source Shard."

Which one?

"Stability. The Shard in possession of Yuzhou's Founder." Starlight gulped.

That makes me touched by… Change, Release, Division… Becoming and Stability. More than a fourth of the Shards, only Fragments… would I be getting another Deviant Mutation? Or…

What did that mean? Why did the Bladefather…

"What the hell is this?" Ripley groaned out, not even caring about his identity being revealed at this moment. "Why… first Himiko, now you? What's up with giving us-"

"I will not be compared to that unholy being." The Bladefather whispered out, but his tone was sharp enough that I felt goosebumps rise over me. "Consider this a gift if you survive my daughter, you will both be trialed like any who have received a Catalyst."

That word irked me, Catalyst.

It also urged Anabelle, or if I was right, those soulless eyes hidden behind her visor. "You gave them a-!"

Her visor fell apart as the Bladefather twitched his finger, an invisible slash precisely revealing the red-and-white eyes to everyone. Reaction was limited, mainly because everyone was either dead, or too scared to utter a gulp as the Bladefather strode around with slow, dignified steps towards our Lieutenant.

"Does this fallen piece of you remember what we did?" The Bladefather reached for his own mask. A single touch turned it into powder.

His face was aged and wrinkled, but remained profound and wise. His lips pursed tight, and his eyelids tilted in a way that resonated with loss and betrayal. The only sense of vitality was the color of his eyes, a bright jade like an evergreen forest that had never once touched decay.

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"You know I possess that ability which your greater self has not. To rekindle that lost spark and return you into their hivemind, yet… I sense within you a fear of doing so. Tell me, creature, would returning to many kill the individuality born of your union with Anabelle?" A crimson blade peeled out of The Bladefather's arm, like his flesh was a scabbard. "Your kind was the last I would assume to fear death."

It settled on the lieutenant's neck, ready.

Anabelle… no, Anomaly looked over that blade, a twitch in her gaze betraying something to the Bladefather who pulled the blade away and sank it back into his forearm. "Which one of you bares hostlitly towards me? Come, face me."

None of us moved as he turned around, daring to meet each of us in our gaze.

He sighed. "I thought one of you would give me that which I desire…"

Then he flicked his finger towards Heart Seeker. Her form as Jacob Grazhe split apart as she was dismantled into two, flesh surging from one half to melt into the other. "F-father, I-"

"Silence, hollow one. This was your brother's plan, was it not? If you want me dead, do it yourself." He flicked his finger again, but Azure Phoenix leaped into the path between Bladefather and Heart Seeker.

She split in two halves as intestines spilled out, but blue flame kindled from the halves of her torn abdomen… and they continued to burn with brightening intensity.

The air rent as both halves detonated, Azure Flames overtaking everything in a flash. Just as quickly as it appeared, it dimmed.

A wall of flesh pulsed where the Bladefather had been, in a dome-like shape that had engulfed that flame before even a lick could touch anyone else. It was grotesque, eyes and ropes of blood-like vines tangling over one another that remained unscathe from the agonzing heat of Azure Pheonix's flames.

Only a charred skeleton remained of her… but the skull cracked.

And out flew a blue-streaked bird.

Bladefather swiped his hand again, not caring in the slightest, but the slash hit something other than the bird. Kim Liyung was bathed in a jade glow, her sword condensed with Ectoplasm that rippled and nearly flung out of her grasp as the pure kinetic force slammed her against the wall.

Rubble and dust lifted in the air, as a jade storm rose to Kim's will. It all vanished into powder as the Bladefather stepped through the convergence of shrapnel… his fingernails bleeding.

"I figured it out." Ripley's voice came quietly to me. "He's shooting out parts of his fingernails every time he slashes something, a thin micron-layer of keratin he can manipulate in shape depending on how he moves his fingers. Invisible to the naked eye… but he's effectively shooting out thousands of bullets in an arc that are close enough to sever anything they touch…"

Ripley stood up, his breath shaky as his thoughts resounded in my head. "I don't have a good feeling about this. We have to run."

"Forsaken daughter." Bladefather stretched his hand out to Kim, almost invitingly. "I expected you to one day trade blows with me, instead… you crumble at the lightest touch."

Kim's teeth were covered in blood, only adding to her crazed grin. "I'll stake this blade into your chest, maybe then you'll finally open your heart to your children!"

The green haze condensed into a liquid-like substance over her suit, melting into hollow channels spreading throughout it before turning glassy as armor-like segments constructed out of it. She resembled a warrior of jade armor, her steps cracking the ruined stone beneath her as she vanished and clashed her blade with her father.

He caught it, but she charged through, screaming as the wind around her turned razor sharp under her green flow. A whirlwind of jade erupted, clouding each blow as the Bladefather merely swept past them with gentle, almost whimsical, turns of his arm. Her blade glided past his skin, like leaves floating atop water.

The exchange only heightened in ferocity, until multiple strikes blurred each second like an avalanche of sharpened blades against flesh. Until finally, blood swept into the air, a finger flung down to the ground — aged and wrinkled.

"You're getting old, even I can see that." Kim swept the thin trail of blood off her blade, as though too disgusted to even hold it.

"Old." The Bladefather gave a humorous chuckle as he examined his missing index finger. "That may be true. Death has been chasing me from the moment I brought you and your sister in as my children. In that trail it stalks, I leave offerings, a pittance to that beggar for its futile chase."

Kim swiped her blade down, but only hit the air. She stumbled forward, blood dripping down her face. From her eyes.

Where there should have been two flesh orbs were now gouged wounds, empty black holes, and gushing crimson. The Bladefather was standing several meters away from where I last saw him, holding two pale spheres in his hand. He squeezed his hand, but no blood spilled. When he opened it again, there was now a small needle of white and red. "Blind. You always have been blind, Jade Storm."

The Bladefather's arm rippled with red veins, scarlet… and I panicked.

That was Titanium… that was Soul Killer…

Yet his eyes remained green, gentle even. Anomaly yelled, her voice burning with urgency. "What are you doing?!"

"Your kind attacked me, you chose to be with Anabelle. The same side as Jade Storm, when one attacks me… you all have." Those red needles extended thin crimson threads that stitched onto his missing finger, until both formed an almost Shardware-like skeletal phalanx. Blood and muscle crowded over the needles, until a new finger was formed.

But this fingernail was soaked red, and ached with Soul Killer's power.

"Don't." I whispered, staring at Kim with her missing eyes… at Sabrina with her severed hand, at Archangel who was knocked unconscious, at Ripley with that strange gaze in him, at Anabelle with those soulless eyes.

The Bladefather met my sweeping silver eyes, his lips thin and betraying none of his inner thoughts. "I understand the pain you have gone through. child, under that Revenant. This is… a necessary act. You will thank me for it, one day."

He pointed his finger towards one of the men Anabelle had brought with her, and a crimson thread speared through his head. He reeled backwards, groaning as he tore his mask off, soulless eyes eroding his once thoughtful gaze.

Anomaly screamed. "This- if you do this, it'll lead to war!"

"Do not teach me about war, lost Revenant." That crimson thread swiped and stitched through the police force like a sweeping dagger. Each of them a SIM Adapter — one of whom was Pouler and he was gone before I could blink. "It is I… who taught you… and I wish for you to stay, to witness the future I am here to create. Whether that is with you alive, or as a blade of mine, is your choosing."

"R-ripley…" My thoughts staggered into the Neuralink. "The cure… the Soul Anchors."

"I know." He said, but his hesitation to move was clear.

Ripley

I wanted to move, but I'd never felt Preservation Matrix so… palpable. A pressure planted every mechanical fiber of my body in place, kept me focus on survival against this monster.

And the knowledge he'd given me.

Error: Hostile Warpcode identified.

Error: Hostile Warpcode has assimilated with the Adapter's Implant…

Error: Okay… this Hostile Warpcode isn't that bad. It's foreign, and it's working it's way through your mind but… it's knowledge, Dad. Somehow… The Bladefather put knowledge inside of you? About… Mutations from what I'm seeing.

I could feel it, instinctively.

For all this time, I'd assumed Yuzhou's specialty was in electromagnetic applications and pushing the boundary of physics. That was just a cover.

I should have seen it sooner, from Goliath to the Bladefather… their current tech was focused on manipulating Mutations and making them malleable with Shardware. A contestation to Imperium's hold over Bioware tech… but far more…

Harvesting. It served to make use of every living cell, to make it into a machine, and the Bladefather had just poured volatile data into my head. A Catalyst, he called it.

Catalysts were defined as a substance that increases the rate of the reaction, making it easier so that energy-intensive processes happen more efficiently.

Defragmentation was enough to let me guess that whatever he put inside me, while it may not have massively boosted my Development… it would quicken it. Like so many others, he intended to mold me for his use.

And I could already feel its effects as I pulled out the Soul Anchors and fed Gold into the nanites within them. Starlight piloted my subconscious, making sense of that instinctive understanding of Mutations and applying the vast swaths of data she'd absorbed from Juliet Grazhe's notes.

Shardweave V.3.03 has updated to V.3.06

Effects:

Increased effect of nanomachinery modification of Mutagenic material

Increased assimilation of nanomachinery with organic material.

Slight increase to Warp Energy effectiveness on Warp Material characteristics.

With a tilt of my head towards Diana, I pulled out the strap of vials and tossed it into the air as I leaped for her hand. As my Gold melted with hers, she waved her hand as the control of Water seeped into her telekinesis.

———

Diana

Thin bolts snapped from my fingers into the needle of each vial, and with a stretch of my mind, I shot them out like each was a bullet from a pistol.

It would have usually been more challenging to control them with such precision, but combined with Ripley's Energy and the mysterious effects of the… Catalyst… they met the flesh of the infected.

Mid-trajectory, a notification blurred in my vision.

Mutation: Electromagnetic Domain has had 2 Meta-Mutations. Greatly increased link to Mutation: Soul Trigger; Increased precision with telkinetic control, increased force of telekinesis. Development is now 61%

It had jumped about 15% in just a few minutes. Some of it was linked to Soul Trigger, but I doubt I would have had anywhere near this much enhanced control without the Catalyst.

Bladefather was helping us develop. Why?

He even apologized to me about the auction, so then it was safe to say he was no friend of Soul Killer's. Was he empowering me to eliminate them?

Even if he was, the fact remained that right now, this bastard was no different from the Revenant. Shots fired from the rifles of those controlled by the Bladefather, aimed at the Lieutenant — or more precisely, at Anomoly. The air thickened around her, growing blurry as the bullets curved inches off path, some stopping entirely.

Then the needles I'd shot lodged into their soft tissues, mostly their faces. In seconds, those red eyes began to fade away. Ripley had done it.

"Not quite." He hissed, taking cover as more bullets continued firing. "I need a Spark."

At that, I grabbed his shoulder and fed him my power.

Ripley

First things first, I got my mask back into shape. Cut in two, it was easy to repair everything with my claws, but my bout with Vanguard significantly damaged the Arachnodyne. Whose Implant now rested within me as a Catalyst.

And the Bladefather's blood…

Mutagenic material had entered me, but I was still completely fine. Why?

As both halves soldered together, Diana's hand gripped my shoulder just as I slipped it on.

Dreadwire

The Spark Tendency reacted immediately to my Shadows, pushing its creeping clutches to grip harder and firmer. Through Droneforge, I reached into the nanites flooding these Soulless thralls and propelled them into acting. My Soul Anchors were effective, Sabrina's clearance from a Silver-Graded Soul-Forfeit was proof.

But against Titanium or Gold? I needed more. And I had the perfect live test subjects. Some began slowing down, others dropped their weapons entirely while an agonizing few remained unaffected.

But the Contagion Tendency was a powerful tool. It may not have enhanced my control the way Thread did, but it strengthened the effectiveness of my Nanites even as their presence was concealed.

"How curious. I underestimated you." The Bladefather appeared in front of us, his green eyes slitting down like a serpent's as though a second of safety was all that remained for both me and Diana. Yet, he didn't move, he only observed.

"A cure…" He clicked his tongue, one of the vials in his hand. He must have caught it. "I thought I'd never see one. Mikail's been talking about it for years, but here… you have a working specimen. For that, I'd nearly tell you to abandon your mission to eliminate my daughter and retreat… but I won't. Unseal them, or I'll have to kill the grandson of an old friend."

He pointed his finger at me, and it would only mean a twitch to spear through my head. Diana moved ahead of me, covering me as she stretched her arms out. "Please… don't. Why?"

"Very few even have the chance to ask for mercy from me." The Bladefather registered no pity in his gaze. "Even fewer receive it."

"Wait!" I yelled. "I have one question to ask…"

He tilted his head, taking my request as a curiosity. "Speak, Hammer's kin."

"Amaterasu…" I laid my words out clearly. "The Uncaged, The Founders, my Grandfather… Missy… which one of them do you intend for me… for us… to go against? That Catalyst, it was to leave us prepared for them, wasn't it?!"

He thought about it for a second, but his fingers remained honed and still. "Neither."

"Then who?"

"The enemy we ignored." All five of his digits began to curdle with red marks, vine-like overgrowths that budded into thin red spider lilies around his fingertips. "The Sin of The Founders. But you have not released your cure, so sever along the blade of a fractured destiny."

"Stop!" A harrowing scream caused all manner of activity in the room to pause, the Lieutenant's soulless gaze looking right into the Bladefather. "Ken! We don't need to end up like this. If we do this, nothing will remain! You've already forced my other into the public, but... We had a plan! You had a plan!"

"And so does that MALTitan." The Bladefather pulled the trajectory of his crimson claw off our bodies, instead aiming it at the ground beside us. With a clean swipe, concrete severed and the earth shifted as his forearm exploded and took the ground with it. A ravine's gaping maw stretched under his feet, multiple layers of the building dissected until a metallic tunnel was visible at the very bottom.

His jade eyes turned to me and Diana, a moment's warning in them. "That is the path to your crossroads, my daughter. Her blade's edge decides the twin fates of death and life, determining which destiny shall be severed. If you are not gone by the time I eliminate all these... distractions, then I will take your last breath."

I grabbed Diana to leap underway, but she clung onto the metal rubble with every remaining shred of sparks in her body. "Sabrina… Kim… the Lieutenant."

"We can't." I warned. "Diana, he's…"

I paused. My thoughts turning to a certain possibility, clicking a command into place, I contacted my best weapon as I tuned Starlight out of my thoughts.

{Mirage?}

{Yes?} She responded, her voice terrified yet knowing.

{Let your whistle awaken the dogs.}

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