The Last Dainv

Chapter 237

Kyle caught Clyde as he fell from the pod, gulping as the darkness that devoured Eve's arm faded out of existence.

"Back to the group, now!" Gale shouted at him, eyes fixed on Eve as she circled them.

In one flick of the dagger, a flash of blue, Kyle and Clyde blinked back to the rest of the group.

Eve's eyes traced the escape for a second before returning to Gale. A soft motherly smile curled up from her lips, an opposite expression to what this predator should be displaying.

But he had no time to admire. The horde was coming all around.

"RUN!" Gale bellowed to the rest of the team.

The team hesitated, breaking into one step of the run, then looking back at him.

Rachel shouted to Gale, "Be safe!"

The team broke into a full brunt sprint, no longer conserving their energy. Their feet splattered on the flesh creep as they disappeared into the distance.

Gale kept his eyes locked on Eve. With her remaining arm blade, she cut off the stump that was the broken one. Once her attention turned back to him, the motherly smile was replaced by a deranged wide eyed smile.

Her feet moved. Slow and gracefully enough that mundanes wouldn't notice the millimetres she gained.

Her eyes looked him up and down, sizing him up as she licked her lips.

Pounced.

Gale threw himself forward to meet the strike. Erebus arced. Darkness clashed against metal. Impact sent a shockwave through the vicinity. Numbness clawed up his arms.

Deflected. Her blade slid. Using the momentum to twist, his sword slid against her blade and aimed for the neck.

Slow. That's what her pupils showed as she traced the path of his blade.

Cold metal passed through shallowly through his flank as she passed him. Blood dripped. She looked back at him, licking the blood off her blade.

Gale clenched his teeth. Too fast; his eyes couldn't keep up. She was playing with him.

Again, she pounced on him.

This time, Gale rolled left, not meeting her blade. Wind passed by where he had just been. But before he could pick himself up, she dashed at him, passing him again.

Another shallow cut, this time to his thigh.

Eve turned towards him again, still smiling.

Too fast. He couldn't risk a third time. When at a disadvantage by speed, close the distance. Dad's words. Not his.

Gale broke into a sprint. Toward the narrow alley between two flesh structures.

Eve gave chase. She could've probably caught up to him easily, but of course she was crazy, and that would be her downfall.

Entering the alley, the walls only allowed for one of him to pass through. He spun around quickly. Erebus arced upwards, deflecting Eve's blade that came for his back.

But that was just the first strike. The next one came fast. And then the next until her slashes turned into a blur of a flurry. Each one hit like a garbage truck even though she was still human sized.

Gale blocked each one, unable to move Erebus from where it was. She kept striking at the same spot over and over as if wanting to break his weapon.

A kick from one of her mechanical limbs sent him further down the alley.

Chance.

Gale jumped up and zigzagged up the two walls. But before he could reach the top, tendrils warned him of danger from behind.

A loud buzz of insect wings came from below. Eve flew up at him at a speed hard to track even with Breath of the Void. Her eyes tracked his path.

Twisting his body, he blocked the oncoming blade aimed at his neck. The momentum from Eve's strike launched him up the sector's sky.

No time to marvel at the disgusting flesh city from above.

From above, he saw her face below. She was actually laughing as she flew towards him again in a striking position.

Erebus held up again. Slash blocked once again, sending him further up in the air.

Another chance. Dust vial materialized in his hand. Teeth broke off the glass top, and Gale downed the contents.

Liquid lightning flowed to his veins. Everything became sharper. Essence replenished, enough for one more One Step.

[Essence: 1230/1960]

Phase Touch activated. His whole body dematerialized from the physical plane as Eve flew past him, her blade harmlessly passing through his neck.

Deactivating Phase Touch, Alter activated, elongating Erebus.

Gale looked towards Eve once again, pointing Erebus at her as he willed One Step to activate.

Even though he was in the air, he couldn't physically take a step forward. However, that was a limitation of the humane. Space itself was just a concept. He didn't need to move forward with the step. Orientation and space didn't matter to a Dainv.

[Dainv Combat Arts Lv. 2 -> 3]

[Max Load Breached: 700/150]

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The space between Gale and Eve compressed. At the edges of his eyes, everything looked to be squished together.

His foot took one step forward, hitting air as if it were solid. Erebus arced horizontally. Darkness trailed the edge of the blade, devouring everything in its path.

But Eve was too fast. Her body managed the strike. But, the darkness swallowed her mechanical mantis body.

Her human body fell back to the city of flesh. Phase Touch activated along Erebus' edge as Gale followed, aiming its point down at her heart as they both fell together.

The deranged smile on her face faded, once again, the motherly face returned. She smiled softly at him, uttering words silenced by the passing wind.

Eve's body hit the top of the flesh building first, followed by Erebus stabbing her glowing red heart.

[Corrupted Eve felled.]

[Extracting Origin from Prey...]

Gale stood up immediately, ragged breathing. Bile rose up from his stomach from the breaching max load one too many times. He couldn't hold it back as he vomited a stomach's worth of yellow fluid.

[Essence: 10/1960]

Holy fuck, was that one hell of a gamble. There was no time to waste, though. His team was still out there running.

He quickly purchased an Ess Vial and ran, following Breath of the Void's tendrils as it guided him to his friends' signatures. Jumping from building to building, he saw the tide of flesh abominations flooding the streets.

Tendrils saw the team turning left and right every time they encountered a tide of abominations. They were about to be cornered.

Gale hurried, drinking the Ess Vial and using up more of his essence to burn through his legs.

An explosion rumbled the whole sector. Smoke rose up from where he was headed. Gunshots rang out constantly. The team had stopped running, back against a wall. Rachel was at the forefront, taking the brunt of the tide.

Reaching the next building, he finally saw the team. A centipede flesh creature was barreling down to Lily's side of the flank.

He let himself fall onto the side of the building and jumped up. Wind tore past him. Phase Touch and Alter activated. Erebus lengthened. With one twist of his body, he entered into a spin.

Gale landed on the other side of the centipede's body, slicing where he had passed. Half of the centipede's body fell and crashed onto the floor as it screeched.

Rachel looked at him. Smiled. But that didn't last long.

Her fist punched forwards again. An explosion in front of her shook the sector once more, decimating the front line of the abominations.

Looking around, Gale saw the others fighting a desperate battle. Seems like Clyde got the memo rather quickly as he was already up with the Trebuchet barking repeatedly with no regard for conserving ammo. Each shot punched through multiple flesh warriors' heads. Black blood exploded everywhere every time a head popped.

Kyle stood by him. R0 Balista fired at will. He aimed for the soft parts of the abominations, punching holes through them.

Ollie's ether signature burned bright. He probably took a dust vial just like Gale. Every time a cluster of abominations came near him, he'd crush them to a pulp, closing his fist. However, his expression told Gale that he was almost running dry.

Erin launched ice spears from the right side of their flank. Each one impaled multiple crawlers, blade runners, and crawlers together. She had erected ice walls on the right side to feed them into a choke. But even then, she frowned, knowing the situation was hopeless.

Lily's deagles charged blue. Twin lances of blue light burned through abomination heads, both identified and unidentified. "Everyone's about to run out of ammo!"

Gale joined Rachel at the front of the fight, Erebus raised.

But before he could strike at the nearest one, the abominations stopped. Flesh warriors halted mid-charge. Crawlers froze on the walls. The centipede went still. And shit he doesn't even know what to call all stopped at once. Silence fell on the whole sector once again.

The surrounding abominations suddenly took three steps back, creating a circular block around them.

"What the fuck?" Kyle said.

"What the fuck is right. Where the fuck is your snarky comments, Kyle?" Clyde asked.

"Not fucking now, idiot," Kyle grinned.

Suddenly, the abominations at the very middle of the army parted, creating a straight line. At the end of that straight line was a human, not even taller than Clyde.

The man walked through the path laid out by the abominations in deliberately slow steps. In his hand was a staff made of bone, flesh, and metal, holding a skull at the top. He wore a black robe, gilded with gold in a pattern of gears and wings, and a hood covering his head. A gas mask veiled his face, connected to a metal contraption that was strapped to his back, circular and rectangular. Cylindrical vials of what looked like the yellow green fluid from the embryonic sacs were attached to the metal contraption that looked like a backpack. The arm that carried the staff was clearly mechanical, electronic. The other arm that poked out of his robe was unmistakably still an unmodified human hand.

When he arrived, all the abominations kneeled.

Before Kyle could say anything, Clyde elbowed him. Definitely wasn't the time to snark.

Analyze.

[John the Proctor]

[Type: Named Entity]

[Stage: Late-Attuned]

[Description: A doctor at heart, he found the ways to pervert the flesh into machines. In order to survive the harsh environment of the Tomb, he carved his own flesh off of its weakness.]

The Proctor stepped one step forward. Both Gale and Rachel stepped back, clenching their own weapons. The rest of the team behind them did the same.

"I come in peace," the Proctor said in a robotic speakerphone-like voice.

"Who the hell are you?" Gale said, tightening his grip on Erebus.

The light in the Proctor's gas mask eye sockets lit up. "I am the Proctor. The commander of this army that you oppose. I have observed your progress through this Tomb, and I must confess a certain fascination."

"Fascination at watching us struggle?" Rachel said. "Fuck you!"

"Heh. You struggle so valiantly within your flawed, organic shells, patching up torn flesh and broken bones with Aurian chemicals," the Proctor said. "Your efforts are admirable, but ultimately futile."

Aurian? What the fuck? This guy was human from Earth!

Kyle stepped forward. "Futile? We've killed everything you've thrown at us. And we're going to keep fucking doing that till we're out of this disgusting shithole."

"Temporary victories over skirmishes don't really bother me. You see, this world was not designed for the weak. Its defences will grind your mortal bodies down until nothing but dust remains. Have you not seen the Architect's creations? They call themselves Guardians. Of what?" The Proctor chuckled. "The Tomb's purpose is to cull any life. The name itself is a joke."

"Aren't you doing the same thing to us?" Gale yelled. "You've played god and transformed these humans to what you see fit. For what? To fight your war?"

"Foolish. There's no such thing as gods. What you see as monstrosity is simply the next stage of evolution, the perfect fusion of purpose and form. We are Tekanimantus."

"Evolution?!" Lily shouted. "You turned them into monsters! You sacrificed them!"

"I elevated them, and they all entered the sacred wombs and the flesh forges." The Proctor's mechanical hand gripped his staff tighter as if giving a preaching service. "I offer you a choice."

"What choice?" Gale asked.

"You all... hold immense potential with the flesh you have cultivated. I offer you the choice to cast off the prison of your biology and be reborn through technological augmentation. No more decay, no more rot. I will carve away your weakness and grant you greatness and immortality to defy the masters that created this tomb."

"You want to turn us into those things?" Rachel clenched her fist, temperature spiked around the area.

"I offer you ascension. Refuse, and your end will be the same, but without honour. The weak who are culled are not wasted; they are returned to the sacred wombs, their flesh rendered down to biomass, to be recycled and reborn as the foundation for the strong. You either ascend or serve as resource." The Proctor slammed his staff on the floor. "So, choose. Will you ascend with us, or will you simply become fuel?"

"Do we even have a choice?" Kyle asked.

The Proctor laughed. "Of course you do. You either ascend or become resource. It's that simple."

"Some fucking choice," Clyde muttered.

"Shut up, you're making it worse," Lily whispered harshly.

Silence fell across the street. The abominations remained kneeling, waiting for a signal from their master. The Proctor himself wasn't that strong. Issue was that Gale didn't have another One Step. If he drank a bunch of Ess Vials now, everyone would notice, especially the big bad in front of him.

Wet splattering footsteps from behind closed in on the front line. Ollie had walked from the backline to where Gale and Rachel were. His face was a paradoxical mask of complete seriousness and apathy.

"Well, how about I present you a third choice?" Ollie said.