The Last Dainv

Chapter 236

The team walked through the corridor at a pace which would've been a jog for a mundane. Flesh creep squelched under boots as the flesh all over the walls and floor swelled up.

Gale didn't even wanna know what the hell it was trying to do. It had suddenly started pumping more blood through its veins, letting the whole mass of flesh swell up after Kyle had killed those two flesh warriors.

Continuing to walk through the corridor, the walls widened. A junction appeared up ahead, causing Lily to slow down and raise her fist to signal a stop.

She glanced back at Gale, and he knew what to do.

Breath of the Void expanded outwards. Tendrils spread through the junction to the right. It was a straight path for at least 300 metres or more.

A tug at his senses from the path. The familiar scene and appearance of flesh warriors appeared through the tendrils' vision. Dozens of them. Their arm blades spun in a whirr. Each of their steps slightly shook the corridor and splattered blood all over from bursting veins.

"Run," Gale said.

No one questioned it. Lily broke into a run, and the team followed.

Gale kept his tendrils spread behind them, monitoring the approaching horde. The flesh warriors also broke into a run as if they knew that the group had started to flee.

A couple of the flesh warriors tripped on a rather large vein. Their heads and bodies crushed by the feet of those behind the ones that fell. The sight of it getting pummeled on the floor by its comrades made Gale's stomach sick.

Looking back at the team, they were running fast, but not a full on sprint. That would tire them out too fast. They only needed to maintain distance from the horde behind. That's all they had to do.

Through the straight of the corridor, more pods appeared latched onto the walls. One of them burst open, and a flesh warrior stood in their way, though smaller. Probably young.

Kyle didn't slow down. Dagger out. One swipe of his blade, and its head detached from its body.

No one paid attention to it. Everyone kept running.

A sharp left bend appeared ahead. Lily leapt and jumped onto the wall, taking the turn without slowing down. Everyone followed except Erin who just floated sharply to take the bend.

Behind them, the tendrils showed the flesh warriors reaching the junction they'd just passed. They stopped at the intersection. Held position. Didn't pursue down the straight path.

Why?

Another junction appeared up ahead. Left and right paths split off from where the corridor ended.

Lily stopped at the junction's threshold, weapon raised, then looked again back at Gale.

Tendrils were already spreading to the right. The view of the horde came to him immediately.

This time, it wasn't just flesh warriors. There were a bunch of other abominations mixed in their. Blade runners, crawlers, and other things he had no time to analyze. Although the flesh warriors' march looked like they were walking, with their massive heights, it was the same as a mundane running.

At the back of the horde was something larger that took up the whole corridor, another centipede like abomination. Shit. Can't afford a fight with that thing with all the other shit around.

"Keep going!" Gale said, pointing left. "Don't stop."

"How many?" Ollie asked.

"Too many."

The team broke into a run again. Up ahead, they reached the corner that turned right. Lily took the turn first, again jumping off the wall to keep momentum. Everyone else followed.

"How far?!" Rachel called from the rear.

"Close!" Gale shouted.

The duct vent was just up ahead that connected to Unity sector. Now all they had to do was find it under all this flesh creep.

Moans and wails echoed from behind them. The corridor shook from the rumbling of something big. Tendrils showed him the centipede rolling through the corridor, squishing a few flesh warriors along the way. It was now leading the front.

They maybe had a couple of minutes at most until the abominations reached them.

Erin stopped suddenly.

"Keep moving!" Gale shouted at her.

Her hands raised. Humidity suddenly skyrocketed. In a snap of her fingers, the air turned frigid. The next instant, she erected a wall of ice that was at least a couple of metres thick, covering the whole corridor. The temperature dropped so fast that frost formed on everyone's faces except Rachel's.

"Make haste. Continue forward," Erin said, already turning back to move with them.

They didn't need to be told twice. Everyone pounded the floor. Blood splashed everywhere. Behind them, the sound of the centipede slamming its body against the ice shook everything, causing mini quakes.

Tendrils spread forward. The duct should be around. There. A bulge in the flesh creep on the right wall. Square shape just like before.

"Kyle!" Gale shouted, pointing at the bulge.

"On it!" Kyle slid to a stop, pulling out his dagger immediately. He worked away at slicing through the flesh while everyone else looked behind the corridor.

Tendrils tugged at Gale once again. From the straight of the current corridor, Breath of the Void saw another centipede monster coming. Flesh abominations followed alongside, moving at high speeds.

Kyle sliced horizontally one last time and pulled out the flesh. One yank on the grates beneath and the duct was open.

This book was originally published on NovelBin. Check it out there for the real experience.

A massive crack echoed from behind the corridor they came from. Cracks started forming like webs on the ice wall. One more ram by the centipede, and it broke. The floodgates opened. In under half a minute, the horde would converge onto them on both sides.

"Rachel, get in first," Gale said.

"No." Rachel moved to stand beside the entrance. "There's shit coming from both sides, right?"

"Rachel-"

"I can handle this. Just GO," Rachel raised her hand and pulled off her rhombus earring. With one snap of her finger, the earring shattered. The temperature skyrocketed in the corridor, emanating from her.

Everyone covered their faces to shield themselves from the heat.

"We're counting on you," Gale said, then dropped to his knees to crawl into the duct. Lily followed, then Kyle, Ollie, and Erin slid in.

Erin snapped her fingers again, forming a wall of ice that blocked the vent duct. "The woman of fire can melt my ice as she will should she survive. Move on!"

Gale sucked his teeth and began crawling forward. Tendrils showed him the battle on Rachel's side. Fire enveloped her whole body as she took on the personification of an inferno. She raised both hands, aiming them left and right. The world shook as a large jet of flame blasted forth on either side of the corridor, melting everything in its way.

"Make haste! The ice wall is yielding!" Erin shouted.

Crawling through, scraping his shoulders and legs, the duct was near. A couple more seconds, Gale punched through the grate, pushing out of the vent first. The rest pushed through after he did and fell onto the flesh creep floor.

Before examining the area they were in, everyone looked back to the corridor. All of them waited for Rachel to come out. The sounds of explosions echoed through the vent, the ice wall in the vent must've already melted through.

One large explosion shook the whole sector. Blood and dust dropped from above from the shake. Fire spewed out of the vent, causing everyone to take a step back.

Come on, Rachel. COME ON.

Three more explosions followed. Then silence. Something was crawling through the vent. Everyone readied their weapons, as did Gale, materializing Erebus onto his right hand.

As the sound hit the middle section of the vent, they all let out a sigh of relief. Rachel's ether signature came through, a late resonant. Not something corrupted.

In a couple more seconds, Rachel pulled herself through the vent, falling onto the floor, breathing hard. The flanks of her armour were ripped apart. Leg paddings gone, showing bare skin. Blood had dripped down from her head, covering her left eye.

"Gun syringe, now!" Gale said.

Lily didn't need to be told. She was already in mid motion, pulling out two syringes. One syringe hissed into Rachel's body, a green glow enveloping her followed after. The second syringe hissed just a second after, not waiting for the first to finish.

Rachel's breathing stabilized, and she pushed herself up.

"Are you good?" Gale asked, pulling her up by the shoulder.

"I'm good. Just need a breather," she said. "Where are we?"

Now that she was safe, everyone looked to the sector. A frown formed on Erin's face as she clenched her fist.

They were inside what looked like an alley, but through the walls, they saw a city of flesh. Large threads of flesh as thick as skyscrapers latched from the top to the bottom of the sector. Clouds covered the very top of those flesh.

In the middle of it all was a spire of flesh with 6 different giant hearts beating at independent rhythms. Transparent tubes held up by metal structures connected to those hearts. A mix of red liquid, probably blood, debris, and what looked like pieces of human bodies flowed through those tubes, into the hearts, and out another tube.

"What the fuck is this..." Kyle muttered.

"We already know what the fuck it is," Gale said. "Lead the way, Kyle."

Kyle nodded, eyes already tracking his brother through the flesh covered buildings.

Some even looked like they were buildings made of flesh, as nails, hair, and mouths grew out at different spots. Giant arms and what looked like a swollen leg protruded out from the bottom of a building.

Who knows, though. None of them want to find out.

They exited the alley, entering a street that stretched in both directions. Flesh creep covered the road.

Walking to the left, they followed what was supposed to be the sidewalk. Fingers pointing straight up replaced the streetlights at even intervals.

As they entered the intersection, two flesh pounds turned their heads at them. Arm blades spun. The whirr disrupted the silence.

Kyle threw his dagger. Gale had already pounced low.

One blink, Kyle appeared at the neck, cleaving through. At the same time, Gale had appeared low on the floor. One upward slash from the middle of its body divided the flesh warrior in half.

Both bodies dropped simultaneously.

"Keep moving," Kyle said as he waved the dagger to remove the blood.

The team followed him as Kyle entered the right path of the intersection. This street grew wider, probably a main street. The thick flesh threads above them contracted slightly before relaxing once again, as if stretching its muscles.

Looking above as they moved silently through the streets, the distant shapes in the centre of the sector took form. Six massive organs, each one the size of something that could not be compared to the giant trees of the Eclipsed.

They were giant hearts, beating with independent rhythms from one another. The closer they got to the centre, the sound of the beating grew louder and louder, almost feeling the heavy bass that shook their bones.

Transparent tubes were connected to where the arteries and veins input and output. Blood, organic matter that looked like flesh and limbs, and debris flowed through the tubes at a fast rate with each beat.

Breath of the Void expanded throughout the sector. Empty. No movement all around. Too quiet, like it was a trap, because it definitely was, and they had no choice but to accept it.

After several minutes, Kyle turned left again. "End of the street. Clyde's there."

Gale gripped Erebus tighter. He glanced to the back, the others did the same. Rachel's eyes looked all around for enemies. Ollie had Prudence out, ready at any time. Lily had been looking at all the corners of the flesh buildings like something would appear there. Apart from their own breathing and the loud beating of the hearts above, only the eerie quiet assaulted them.

They walked, and walked in this straight line of a main street. No one was talking. Gale couldn't even think of anything any more other than pouncing on anything that dared to move.

That's when he noticed it. The hearts above somehow had synchronized their beating.

The street ahead curved slightly left. Flesh structures leaned inward, creating a tunnel effect.

Kyle stopped.

He raised one hand, pointing ahead. His other hand clenched around his dagger. Pointing to the front of them, they saw the familiar structure of a hatchery they found in Sanctuary sector.

Hundreds of embryonic sacs sat on the flesh creep. The fluid inside glowed a bright green in the dimly lit sector.

Inside one of the sacs, just at the end of the street, was Clyde. His eyes were closed, in a fetal position, Erin's provided armour still on him.

"Clyde!" Kyle shouted.

Kyle threw his dagger. His body flashed, blinking to his dagger beside Clyde's pod. Stabbing through the embryo sac, fluid burst out and Clyde's unconscious body fell onto his shoulders.

"Kyle!" Gale shouted.

Tendrils suddenly tugged from every direction at once. Everything moved all at once. Thousands of tainted, defiled signatures came through the walls of the sector from everywhere.

One signature lit up above the building beside the hatchery. A mid stage corrupted signature.

How could Breath of the Void miss that?!

A mechanical body of a mantis. Razor sharp blades, wings made of skin. However, instead of the face of an insect, it held the body of a female from the waist up, naked with a glowing red heart. Her face was that of a beauty with a defined jawline, soft features, small lips, blond hair, blue almond shaped eyes.

For a moment, Gale was enamoured, but the killing intent that came from that thing snapped him out of it.

Analyze.

[Eve]

[Type: Named Entity]

[Stage: Mid-Corrupted]

[Description: The daughter of the Proctor born from the first sacred womb. Never having been made into a sacred womb, the Proctor doted on her, gifting her perfect beauty. When she was called to undergo the ceremony of mortal culling, she happily entered the flesh forge, promising her father to never leave him until death do them part.]

She looked down from her perch, tracking Kyle running through the street. A soft smile appeared on her lips.

It happened in a split second. A snap from her mechanical mantis legs. Blade aimed at Kyle's neck.

[Max Load Breached: 500/150]

Gale willed One Step to activate. He aimed for the space just before where the blade would meet Kyle's neck, and the space between listened.

One step forward. Vertical slash. Darkness clawed at the space. Stars spun in the void that occupied reality.

Eve's blue eyes widened as they caught Gale's form. The femur of the mechanical mantis's arm disappeared, devoured by the darkness. She backed off tens of metres in an instant, dodging the brunt of the devouring streak.