Thal, Isak
Marcellus and Neil moved to the center of the inner city. A low growl rumbled across the now-ruined streets. The weather shifted suddenly, clouds rolling across the sky. Lightning carved through the black clouds, illuminating the city for a heartbeat. The center of the city was still relatively untouched, and the streets were eerily quiet.
Neil adjusted his visor as static whispered in his ear. The suit hugged him like a second skin, the vein-like lines that carried the power of the Conspiracy pulsing faintly with each heartbeat.
Behind him, Marcellus spun his twin axes once. The weapons hummed like restless predators, the edges reflecting the flash of lightning.
"They are almost here," Marcellus murmured.
Neil took a deep breath, and he heard the system's voice brushing against his ears.
[System notice: Enemy approaching.]
From the alleyways, black mist seeped into the open streets. Shapes began to crawl. At first, they looked like shadows—amorphous, shifting, wrong. Then lightning flashed again, and Neil saw them clearly.
The creatures were born of darkness, the Conspiracy. No two were alike. Some had too many limbs, some none at all. One slithered across the cracked asphalt with a torso stitched from different bodies, its mouth opening where its chest should be.
Another hung upside down from invisible strands, its head splitting into four jaws that clacked in rhythm. The air reeked of rot and old metal.
Sixty-six of them.
The world screamed as they moved. Neil's pistols slid into his hands like old friends. "Here goes nothing."
He pulled the triggers.
Twin beams of black energy lanced out, slicing through the mist. The first creature exploded into black mist, its body folding in on itself like paper burned too fast. Drake lunged forward at the same instant, his axes carving a wide arc.
Two horrors went down. One's spine was cleaved in half, another's limbs spun away in a blur of gore.
But for every one that fell, two more rose from the darkness.
The street erupted in motion.
Neil twisted and fired again, each shot searing through the air with a hiss. The creatures screamed, their voices overlapping like a chorus of the damned. They swarmed in waves, claws scraping concrete, eyes glowing with the darkness.
Drake became a blur of steel and blood. His axes howled as they collided with flesh. Each strike shattered bone. Each swing left a trail of afterimages glowing faintly red.
"Left flank!" Neil shouted.
Drake did not answer. He turned, ducked under a lunging beast, and split it from jaw to belly in one move. Black ichor sprayed across his armor. The smell hit like acid.
Neil backpedaled, firing into the mass. The guns overheated, the vibration thrumming through his gloves.
Switching to his short sword, he slashed a charging creature that had sprouted wings made of bone. The blade bit deep, flaring with light, and the thing disintegrated in a silent scream.
Then the ground cracked.
Something massive rose from below—a hulking creature with arms too long for its body, its head split open vertically like a blooming flower. Inside its maw, rows of human faces screamed silently.
[Mid Aberrant-Class Conspirer detected.] the Framework whispered. Neil's eyes widened.
"Big one!" Neil barked.
Drake snarled. "I see it!"
He charged. The giant swung, claws the size of cars smashing through rubble. Drake slid under the blow, rolled, and brought both axes up in a cross.
The impact sent a shockwave through the street, sparks scattering like fireflies.
Neil jumped onto a collapsed carriage, leaping from roof to roof. He aimed both pistols down at the creature's head and opened fire. The twin beams hit the center of its split skull, burning through the layers of flesh.
It shrieked, not from pain but from rage. The air vibrated.
Drake used the opening. His axes buried deep into its neck. He pulled, tearing the creature open. A flood of black mist and glowing worms spilled out, dissolving before they touched the ground.
The beast fell. Silence lasted two seconds. Then the swarm screamed.
Neil landed beside Drake, panting, his suit slick with black slime. His visor flickered with warnings—heart rate spiking, power cells draining.
"They keep on coming," Neil said. His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it.
Marcellus swung his axe. "The suits won't last long. We have to quickly end this."
[System notice: Enemy numbers increasing.]
[110 and counting.]
Neil almost choked on his breath. How were their numbers increasing?
"They are multiplying. We might have to evacuate the survivors and abandon the city while we call for backup," Neil suggested.
Marcellus shook his head. "We shall terminate these pests ourselves." The man had a crazed smile on his face. Neil inwardly shuddered and sighed, readying his weapons.
They charged again.
The fight became chaos, a symphony of screams, gunfire, and steel.
Neil moved like liquid lightning, ducking, rolling, firing. Each shot tore holes in the mist. His sword flashed out whenever they got too close, cutting through flesh that bled smoke.
Drake fought like something born for this world. His axes spun in wide arcs, sometimes clashing together to unleash a concussive blast of kinetic energy. The closer he got, the wilder he became, his movements merging rage and precision.
A flying creature dived from above, its wings shrieking. Drake caught it midair, slammed it into the ground, and drove both axes into its chest. The impact cracked the pavement.
Neil noticed the horde shifting. The Conspiracy were circling them.
"Drake!" he shouted. "They're circling us!"
A dozen shapes emerged from the rooftops, crawling on walls like spiders. Eyes glimmered, maws opened, ready to devour them.
Neil dropped to one knee, aimed skyward, and let loose a hail of laser fire. The air burned with black light. The creatures fell in molten pieces.
Then something hit him from the side—a long, tendriled horror that slammed him into a cart on the sidewalk. He crashed through the cart, his vision blurred.
It loomed over him, drooling black fluid that hissed where it fell.
Neil reached for his sword, but his body hurt where he had been hit.
A flash, and the creature's head rolled away.
Drake stood above him, blood running down his arm. "You're welcome, kiddo."
Neil grinned weakly. "I think something might be broken."
"Yeah, well too bad. We still have swarms of dreadful creatures ready to tear us apart, limb from limb," Marcellus responded.
Another tremor shook the ground, cracking it deeper this time. A pulse of darkness surged from below the city, like a heartbeat echoing from the earth's core.
The creatures stopped. Their bodies twitched, faces turning toward the fissure splitting the street.
Something enormous was emerging.
The fissure widened, glowing red. From its depths rose a shape too vast to comprehend—a towering abomination with a body of molten shadow and a crown of writhing tendrils. Its voice was a whisper in their minds.
Neil's vision blurred, static flooding his visor. "What the hell is that…"
Drake spat black blood. "Doesn't matter. We end it."
He lifted his axes. Veins along their handles ignited in crimson fire. Neil's overheating guns recharged with a scream of energy, the barrels glowing white-hot.
The titan gazed at them. The city quaked.
[RUN!!!] The Framework screamed in his ear.
Neil froze. His body refused to move. Drake gritted his teeth. The creature struck, an arm like a tidal wave smashing between them. Neil was blown away and crashed into a nearby building. The blow left him half-conscious, his mind reeling from the pain.
[Everything is broken.] he thought to himself as he struggled to stay awake.
Drake leapt before the impact, spinning midair. His axes crossed in an arc of red flame. They struck the creature's arm, cutting through the thick mass. It howled, the sound tearing the sky apart.
Before he could remove his axe, the wound had already begun to regenerate.
"Fucking hell!" Marcellus bellowed.
He let the axe go and landed with devastating impact on the ground, dust kicked up and a small tremor shook the earth. He got up slowly, spat out blood, then cracked his neck.
"Are you sure this suit will handle my flames?" he asked slowly as he dismissed the mask.
(Please be reminded that the suit is still a prototype, but I am positive it can handle at least fifty percent of your true power.) Noctalis responded from the suit.
Marcellus grinned, and then he looked over at Neil, who was down, and nodded. "You did good, kid. Let me handle this."
A fiery aura surrounded him. The temperature spiked.
"System unlock status level three." A dense fiery aura burst from his body, the nearby Conspiracy igniting in flames.
He took a step forward, his boots leaving scorched marks on the ground. The towering creature gazed at him with hollow eyes. Marcellus met the creature's gaze head-on, flames dancing in his eyes.
The creature moved to attack. He threw a punch, and flames erupted.
The air burned, and the Conspiracy caught in the way burned to ash. He then jumped and sprinted up a collapsed building, boots gripping the cracked surface. At the top, he jumped, diving toward the creature's head. His axe now burned with crimson flames. He was about to plunge it down into the thing's crown.
The world became silent.
Neil slowly opened his eyes. His body hurt like hell, and he doubted if he could move. He was in a car different from the SC. Trying to look around, he noticed he was on a stretcher. Sitting beside him was Sister Elowen.
She noticed him and smiled.
"You are up?"
Neil tried to smile, but the pain was too much. He ended up scowling. The sister looked away, her face betraying her emotions.
"You idiots should have evacuated the city and called for backup," she whispered.
Neil did not hear her. His attention was on the floating panels etched into his vision.
[Minor Stitch:
Temporarily binds simple concepts, e.g., seal a bleeding wound, link a flame to a touch. Duration: seven hours. The duration has been changed as a reward to host for slaying unnamed entity.]
[Would the host like to name the entity, Y/N?]
"Yes," he whispered, catching Sister Elowen's attention.
Neil stared at the text and contemplated deeply.
[The Cocooned One.]