The girl sat up from her bed and looked at Aceso, visibly confused about what had happened. Aceso was mesmerised by the girl's eyes but then she looked up a bit and realised she had made a mistake.
"Iris, lie down for me."
"Okay?"
She had forgotten to heal her hair, leaving the girl bald. She picked up all the scattered hair implanted them on Iris' head. Having lost five of her fingers already, she bit off another one and squeezed it dry.
And like that, Iris had hair again. Hair was really easy to heal, Aceso normally wouldn't need to use one of her fingers but took measures for Iris, especially since this was the fourth usage of her abilities.
The last time Iris used her abilities, she sacrificed her whole foot to be able to heal her. But now, she only need 6 fingers, a major breakthrough.
Iris must be healed completely for there to be no further side effects. So the hair and the eyes also had to be healed.
"Is it done, Peso?"
"Yes, how do you feel?"
"Great, a little too great for comfort even."
Iris jumped out of bed, ran around the room, certainly happy with her healed body.
"Where's sir Jean?"
"Let's discuss that later, when Erika wakes up. I want to know why Erika used your telepathy."
"Uhh, miss Erika? I think she said something about saving you guys from a grave mistake but you all seem to be fine."
'A grave mistake? That Erika?'
Aceso was quite confused and also scared when she heard those words but she didn't let it show on her face. And she continued asking questions.
"Why did your throat become like that? I thought the side effects only damage the brain and eyes."
However, when she asked that question, Iris just gave her a questioning look, not knowing what Aceso was talking about.
"Hmm, so you forgot. What was the last thing that you remember?"
"I remember sitting on my bed connecting the four of you in my mind then I heard a loud noise and I lost conciousness."
"What?"
Suddenly, a loud groan could be heard from nearby. Aceso looked in its direction and sure enough, it was Erika. And right upon rising up from her slumber, she cursed Jean.
'This is weird, did both of them lose conciousness at the same time?'
Erika began madly looking around the room, as if looking for something. She looked a little desperate. Then she looked at Aceso.
"How long have you guys arrived here?"
"About two hours."
"Shit, that's 15 hours that I've been asleep."
Erika immediately dashed out of the room. Aceso, seeing this, bid goodbye to Iris and also left the room. She'd been in that room for two hours, what could have happened in that time?
Immediately after leaving the room, Aceso was shocked to find Zirtues everywhere on the floor and they weren't normal ones, they were of the underground type, extremely poisonous and corroding.
She tried to get back into the room to get Iris but then she heard a sharp whistle of wind behind her.
Evading to the side, a loud boom entered her eardrums as she found out that the place she was standing before was turned to dust, and in her place was a massive chela.
A Crab-III was blocking her way. And it seemed that this Zirtue wasn't alone, observing the many Zirtues nearby, she concluded that all of them were grade II or above.
The chela descended upon her again and she dodged it just in time.
"How am I supposed to fight a Crab-III? Damn you Jean, you are never here when there's an attack!"
***
While the others were fighting against an attack, Jean being the human that he was, sat on a log 6500 kilometers away from the Base, in the coast of Germany.
Opposite him was a lit campfire and a figure, Anastasia. He arrived in Turkey by noon and realised that he was never going to find the grade V by looking for it in dry lands. The grade V's up until now were documented to really love water.
So, he chose one of the places left on Earth that had water: the Baltic sea. The Caspian sea, Black sea among with most significant bodies of water dried up due to the giant Zirtues long ago.
Yes, there were more than one.
It was already night, but he didn't care. In fact it worked in his favor a little bit. The angry Zirtues would lunge themselves at him, only to get killed and thrown into the sea, acting as bait for the grade V.
Disturbing his silence was a screeching voice.
"Where's your diary?"
"I forgot it."
"Rookie mistake."
Anastasia then pulled out from her many pockets a giant book that was a quarter of her height and was made from stone.
"Mine doesn't have a core so it doesn't have many pages."
The first time that Anastasia had seen Jean, she always saw Jean carry around a book and so she did the same.
"Let me read it."
"Sure."
The maggots on her face moved with a strange rhythm, their many shadows cast over her face. Passing the book over the fire, Jean took it and read its contents.
Her book contained about 200000 years of time, it wasn't updated everyday but once every ten years. Each page contained 80 years and wasn't that detailed, just like Jean's.
He gave it back to her.
"Quite small."
"Efficient."
"Small."
"Efficient."
Jean gave up as he didn't want to waste his energy on useless arguments.
"You won't prepare anything for the grade V?"
"No, atmospheric pressure should be enough."
He made this decision based on the fact that Platonics were really hard, but hollow. Under normal pressure, they should be okay but the moment there's more pressure outside, the Platonic would be crushed.
Or that was what Jean was hoping for.
Each moment just made him more anxious about his plans. Like, what was he going to do if it failed? Run?
And soon enough, the two of them felt tremors along the coast.
Chapter 11:
A howling wind, a dark, still and empty sea which reflected the many stars in the nightsky. The waves were calming, soothing the hearts of all those who hear it. This serenity was shared by only two people in the entire world. Yet, they couldn't enjoy it.
Though the water looked calm and still, one close look and you could tell.
It was afraid.
Afraid of the thing that was approaching, soon the water began moving sideways, trying to escape the imminent and dreadful being. The ground shook, not by footsteps or any force at all.
The rocks around them began to crack, exposing the two who were hiding. Seeing this, Anastasia spoke in a quiet voice while they were trying to find a better spot to hide.
"See? And you keep asking me to get back in the Union again."
Her voice was like the endless expanse of water, calming, soothing and still. And just like the water, she carried a hint of fear. Even the maggots on her face were trying to 'escape' her face.
"I only meant it as a jok-"
Not allowing her to speak further, Jean covered her mouth with his hand. Then, the ground cracked so deeply that they could see dozens of Zirtues fleeing away.
Staring at the horizon, they finally saw it. A massive, towering creature was approaching, and fast. Like a poor tide, the water receeded back from the shore greatly.
Thereafter, sounds of footsteps echoed all throughout the endless skies as the creature approached the 500 meters mark. It was huge, it looked to be 40 meters tall and a hundred meters wide.
'Shit, atmospheric pressure might not work.'
On closer inspection, the grade V had no platonic shapes on its carapace at all, much to the shock of Jean and Anastasia. Instead, its legs looked like tentacles, dragging the grade V on the ground. The grade-V looked soft.
'I was conceited.'
Then the grade V stopped walking, turned to the water and stood there, unmoving.
'Argh, let's just run.'
But when they poked their heads out of their hiding spot. The grade V immediately moved, abeit not a lot. This caught them by surprise and almost made them fall.
They began making their way out of their hiding spot slowly while carefully observing the grade V. It still hadn't moved. Their unease died down a bit which made them relax their eye muscles a bit.
One moment the grade V stood still but immediately after blinking once, the grade V was gone. Jean was confused and terrified, he tried to look for the Zirtue when
A tentacle hit him in his liver sending him flying into a nearby rock, shattering his bones and basically ruptured all his organs. Anastasia blocked its blow but was still sent flying back.
Jean tried to get up, however he couldn't, he was paralysed from the head down. The grade V disappeared again and he felt a massive blow to his right arm, breaking it and knocked Jean into the sea.
"Jean!"
The grade V disappeared yet again but this time, Anastasia was prepared. She closed her eyes and focused on all the different things around her. She felt mostly dirt and sand that filled the air after the three blows but she also felt a slight movement within.
She then moved her arm at an inhuman speed, so fast that the hand and flesh couldn't catch up. It then hit a massive tentacle coming her way, somehow redirecting it to the ground.
The force of the impact created an explosion that flew all matter away, leaving a crater with a diameter of ten meters.
Stopping herself, she looked at the Zirtue as millions of eyes looked back at her, its intent was clear: kill Anastasia.
'Shit, all the other Zirtues ran away, I can't heal.'
The two of them were severely underprepared, especially Jean. Speaking of Jean, he was knocked out after that blow from the Zirtue and was currently sinking to the very bottom of the ocean.
He was drowning, but then something happened. On his neck, appeared gills that allowed him to breathe. He then opened his eyes which were now covered in a protective layer. He swam upwards towards the surface, each stroke made him faster and faster until eventually, he jumped high out of the water, and dived into the ongoing conflict.
As he was falling down, his legs began to fuse together, forming the shape of a sharp needle. Arriving on the creature's carapace, the needle bounced off, dealing no damage.
The Zirtue realised something on its back and began barraging it with attacks. Which allowed momentary rest for Anastasia. Then, holding the maggots, she threw them forward which stretched them, however, now the maggots were the anchor, thus pulled her up.
She quickly found Jean, who currently had 8 eyes around his head giving him a 360° view of everything, 4 more arms to defend against the numerous giant tentacles and his feet were stuck to the ground like glue.
'A failed adaptation it seems.'
The most unpredictable and unknown ability of all: Adaptation, it needed an unknown set of conditions to be fulfilled before it could fully adapt, else it'd look something like the scene Anastasia was seeing now.
Landing on her maggots, she cut off two of the tentacles targetting Jean. However, the two pieces she cut off, regenerated into two small Crab-II's which she happily killed and used as healing material. The pain was still excruciating but it had to be done.
Looking at Jean who had swarms of grade II's targetting him, he began to grow even more limbs.
'Shit, why is it the limbs this time!?'
Jean now had 18 arms on his body, all moving to kill the Zirtues and defend against the tentacles at the same time. He also quickly gained immunity to the poison from the Zirtue.
When the attacks died down a bit, he fused all the Zirtues on the carapace into his own body and got rid of all the extra limbs. Then he punched the carapace of the Zirtue, shaking the whole beach.
In their exchange, all the sand was blown away, all the rocks pulverized, all Zirtues ran away and the waters receeded by a hundred meters.
And his punch, which finally caused a tiny crack to form on the carapace, altered the terrain so much, it looked like a meteorite had hit the earth.
All the tentacles pulled back and they felt themselves moving, towards the dark sea.
Chapter 12:
The union, first floor.
Currently holding up against a barrage of attacks from a massive crab, one that was five meters in height, she looked for signs of her comrades.
'Alright, calm down, I should look for Erika first.'
She began looking around the whole floor, hoping to find at least Xander or Andre but there was nobody here, literally.
'Did they leave me behind?'
Aceso quickly discarded that possibility, afterall, she just saw Erika a few moments ago, there was no way Erika was actually that fast.
She wasn't staying in one place though, as a massive crab was attacking her. Fortunately, it seemed slower than even some of the grade II's she had faced before. But that only meant one thing: its ability was strong enough that it had side effects.
When faced with a Zirtue of the third grade or above, the first priority behind staying alive was to find out about the creature's ability. Most of the time, they'd have something related to speed. And that wasn't the case for this one.
Having only 4 fingers left, 2 on each arm, Aceso couldn't even attack the Zirtue, she didn't even have a weapon. So, what to do?
If she ran away, there was a chance that it would target Iris. She continued dodging the attacks while searching for clues on the crab's ability. Each moment felt more draining, running for 13 hours and healing Iris already put a massive toll on her.
An attack then grazed her shoulder and she let out a pained groan.
'Think, Aceso, think!'
'This one is slow, doesn't have any strength related abilities, so what's left?'
'Duplication? No-'
She suddenly tripped on a piece of material which made her fall. The crab tried to utilise this opportunity but Aceso just rolled away.
Getting up and catching her breath, she looked around the whole floor. Numerous Zirtues appeared in her vision, she was lucky that they didn't group up on her.
'Wait.'
Upon closer inspection, she saw that all the Zirtues were just standing there, not moving an inch. However, she stared a little too long and failed to see the attack coming her way, she tried to dodge but the attack cost her her whole arm.
However she thought that she was still very close on figuring out its ability. She then looked upwards and that was when she saw warps on the ceiling, the same thing that would happen when you wrap a map onto a sphere.
'Isn't this 'Dome'?, no mind control at all?'
Immediately after conjuring that thought, the dome disappeared along with a glass breaking sound. The Zirtue bled and fell on the ground.
Remembering how Jean killed a grade II, Aceso rushed towards the Zirtue and tried to flip it over. Lifting up something that weighed more than a semitruck with one arm was no easy task but she did it anyways.
She then tried to tear off its abdomen but couldn't, it was just too flexible, so she just created an opening big enough for her to crawl in. The Zirtue retaliated hard but by the time it got on its feet again, Aceso was already inside.
Inside the grade III, she could feel the Zirtue wreaking havoc everywhere, so she had to make it quick.
Now, to find the brain and the core. The brain was easy to locate and only took her 2 minutes of burrowing around, but the core was exceedingly difficult.
You could kill a grade III or above by destroying its brain but if you did not take out or destroy the core, the Zirtue would turn into a mindless zombie, which made it harder to fight.
Fortunately, the core was near one of its joints. Taking it out, Aceso felt the Zirtue stop moving. Which was good news, she then got out of the crab through the abdomen again.
Getting out, she checked Iris' room, it was in normal conditions and looked untouched. She then looked around her and contrary to what she saw in the dome, there were less Zirtues and they weren't any more grade III's.
And most importantly, she saw people again. The people were quite successful in killing the Zirtues, so she left it up to them. Looking down at her arm and fingers, she realised they were all healed, her arm regrown, she had an inkling as to why but left the thinking for later.
She went into Iris' room, saw her burrowed into her pillows then stayed there, comforting the child.
***
The sea that was still, began receeding even further, creating a black wall of liquid that was at least a dozen meters tall. It was trying to escape, but immediately after the grade V touched the water, as if popping a bubble, all the water began flowing back with tremendous speed.
The water, although black, was clear of any creatures. Seeing the crab not attack them, Anastasia wanted Jean to run away.
"Jean?"
However, Jean was silent yet again and simply shook his head. He then walked to the anterolateral teeth of the crab and jumped down, onto to the raging waters.
'Are you serious right now?'
Anastasia wasn't going to replicate what Jean had done and went the other way, to the shore. Though the opponent was incredibly strong, she had trust in Jean, and in his Adaptation.
Throwing her maggots in the air, she quickly flew back to land, and immediately ran away without looking back. Reaching a safe distance of 7 kilometers, she got on high ground and looked back towards the dark sea.
The crab continued walking, each moment making it less visible, hidden by the water. Seeing this, she just left to return to Kazakhstan, she didn't have to stay in Aktobe anymore, the grade V was in the Baltic sea, but she still needed to inform her followers.
Reaching the very depths of the Baltic sea, the crab began to soften, soft almost like a jellyfish. On its head appeared a circular air bubble which glowed with intense light, brightening the dark waters, like a halo.
Its eyes protruded outwards, eventually snapping off, regenerating, merging together and creating thousands of Zirtues. Its halo began to spin wildly, creating a powerful vortex that sucked in all the water.
All to fix a small crack on its carapace which was now soft.
The water began to enter the wound, quickly closing it up, when it suddenly stopped. Its halo stopped spinning, its glow diminished, the halo disappeared. And in its place was a towering man, Jean.
He looked a lot slimmer and his legs were replaced with fins, there was a layer of oil covering his whole body. And fused in the palm of his hands were blades made of bones.
He dived down towards the giant Zirtue aiming to strike in its wounds. Thousands of Zirtues moved in unison and blocked his path, creating a dense wall full of chitin. He sliced them, killing some Zirtues but the wall's structure remained firm.
The blades in his hands suddenly dropped to the endless depths. He spread his arms wide and he brought them together, or in other words, clapped, with immense speed.
The force generated from the clap boiled all the water that surrounded him and killed hundreds of Zirtues, destroying the chitin wall. However, while his sight was blocked, the grade V disappeared.
His body suddenly grew to the size it was before and he braced himself for the worst, he then saw the crabs in front of him grow and on their heads, appeared halos of myriads of colors.
'Huh?'
As he was observing the halos, his eyes suddenly bled. The blood flowed out like spring and then hardened right on his eyes, blinding him.
He then felt something burrow under the skin of his arms, they felt hard, round but sharp. Before he could get rid of them, both of his arms got cut off and he felt a massive force hit his stomach which flew him a good distance away.
Growing two eyes at the back of his head and two more on his cheek, he saw an unspeakable sight.
His arms, which were a few meters away had small human heads with a look of terror on their faces and in front of that was a gigantic humanoid figure.
The crabs were no more, those thousands, were just gone, the grade V was nowhere to be found, but he knew, instinctively that the being before him was much worse.
'I was too late, it...evolved.'
The being then looked at him and he felt a massive pressure bear down on him. The being was even taller than the Crab-V, stronger than the Crab-V.
Chapter 13:
Jean still remembered vividly about that day, the day when crab type Zirtues appeared on Earth. They did briefly appear at the beginning of the apocalypse, however, they were all dead.
It was a Tree-V, and with the help of over a hundred people, they managed to defeat it and suffered no casualties in the process. But when we were trying to locate its core, it suddenly convulsed intensely, hardened and took on the shape of a female humanoid.
None of our tools could penetrate the thing at the time, and seeing as it was pretty much harmless, we left it there, acting like a trophy for killing a Tree-V.
And just 7 days later when a team of researchers inspected the statue, it cracked. It was a small crack at first but after a while, there was a hole large enough to fit someone's entire head in, located at the belly.
Then something resembling a small coconut crab crawled out which baffled the researchers. They tried inspecting it but it suddenly jumped up and killed one of the researchers.
After which, more and more crabs crawled out. It was estimated that a thousand crabs crawled out, we tried killing them but it didn't work, each one of them seemed stronger than the Tree-V they had faced before.
This happened in Argentina and quickly multiplied, making us ditch the Americas for good.
***
Seeing a similar being in front of him, he felt dread and terror. But the last mother stayed still for a whole week which led Jean to think the same thing would happen to this one.
He tried swimming up, he had to inform the others about the appearance of such a beast. After a while of swimming, he looked down at the mother and much to his shock,
It was also looking at him, with a smile that stretched way too much, the smile felt predatory, as though it was not born from joy but something more sinister.
He tried hard to look away from it but to no avail. The thing then closed its eyes as he saw the world turn dark and felt his head detaching from his body.
He then felt the world become dry, he had left the waters of the sea. His skin got hotter and hotter, reaching unbearable temparatures when the front of his face suddenly became cold, extremely cold. After which, he felt massive amounts of radiation hitting him at the back of his head.
He had entered space. Though he did not see it, he knew straight away. So, what now?
...
Wait for his death, the only thing that he could do. Infusing Zirtues into their bodies made them extremely tough afterall, which meant there was a bit of time before he would truly die. Jean soon tried ro recollect everything from his life, he did not feel any regrets aside from not being able to fulfil his promise with Erika and Ana. Soon, his consciousness faded.
***
Aktobe, Kazakhstan.
Arriving in Aktobe, Anastasia immediately went to the coordinates of their temporary hideout. This one was made from fearing the Crab-V in Turkey.
She also kidnapped Andre, because why not? Doing that would allow her to meet Jean. Entering the building, she informed all 19 members about the Crab-V.
Standing next to the members truly highlighted just how tall Anastasia was, she was easily the tallest person in the room at 3,5 meters.
She let out her screeching voice, asking for food and happily stayed there awaiting the night's end.
Though refusing at first, she now saw them as her family, people that she must protect.
'Sorry Jean, but you agreed to killing it anyways. I shall wish you the best of luck.'
***
The Base, Nepal.
Currently holding Iris in her arms, Aceso was reminded of why such a young girl like her was thrust into such a hellscape.
Iris was born 48000 years into the war so she wasn't actually that young but in the eyes of Aceso, she was still a child.
Everything outside the room became quiet and Aceso went out to inspect it and to her delight, everything was normal again, albeit a lot more destroyed.
Deeming the situation to be safe, Aceso went out to heal the injured. She also saw Xander, Andre and Erika stepping out of the elevator, they looked disheveled but it seemed they were okay.
A voice then cursed Jean as she laid on the floor, waiting for Aceso. The two men next to her also laid down, replicating what she did, for whatever reason.
"You guys said Jean is going to fight the grade V, correct?"
The two men quickly nodded.
"Fuckkkk, I will go find him and bring him back mysel-"
Interrupting Erika, Aceso covered her mouth with her hand and quickly healed Erika. The girl was displeased but fell asleep to the comfort of Aceso's healing.
Having heard the girl's words, the three of them all thought about the same thing.
'I hope you're okay.'
'I wonder if the sir's alright.'
'Who is this Jean person?'
Two people, at least. And indeed, Andre did not actually know much about Jean, aside from meeting him briefly five times, he had only heard of his feats. Which he concluded was propaganda.
But, if he were able to kill the grade V then it would become a beacon of hope. Not that they needed hope anymore.
'Please. Kill that Crab-V.'
***
Deepest depths of the Baltic sea.
The giant creature which was easily over a hundred meters in height suddenly frowned. Its whole body was soft, very soft, like a jellyfish. This particular mother fed on despair and terror. It became many times stronger, just by feeding on others' hopelessness.
And currently, by sharing its mind with the entire world's creatures, humans and Zirtues. It was appalled to find people having hope, for a dead man.
It stood up from the abyss, and jumped towards the surface. It had to find the sources of these disgusting thoughts.
And kill them.
Chapter 14:
Exiting the Kármán line, Jean's head began accelerating without anything stopping it. The hairs on his head were already gone, with some skin ripped off. Yet his eyes remained shut, he was not dead yet, he was just dreaming, dreaming about better days.
***
237, 401034 Undocumented.
"Jean, shouldn't we rest for a while?"
Jean nodded his head and they soon found a nice place to rest. Anastasia then made a fire and Jean carried two logs over, both from Zirtues.
"Why did you go with me anyway? You could have observed from afar."
"It just wasn't fun."
His heart suddenly ached, surprising Jean.
The maggots covered her skull side when there were heat nearby. Or that was what Anastasia told him, it was strange because she was boiled alive before but he didn't see such thing happen.
"So will you aid me in killing the grade-V?"
"You agreed to do it alone."
"Alright."
"Where's your diary?"
52, 328569.
"What do they even want me to find in the ocean?"
A few days ago, having heard orders from his higher-ups, he made his journey to the south of Japan and began investigating the waters. He was quite scared of the ocean because of what it did to Tyche a few hundred thousand years ago.
She was still comatose to this day, even though all of the remaining researchers, scientists and healers tried to heal her.
'Jean, I saw it myself Jean, you WILL free us all.....'
Thinking about Tyche hurt him, it was understandable but he didn't know why from the moment he arrived here until now, his heart ached. It felt like something was wrong and that he shouldn't be here.
"How do I even get about doing this?"
"They did say that there were tremors at the Mariana Trench."
Jean then dug a hole and put his whole head inside. He felt nothing, which was a relief. He then tried to get his head out when he felt intense vibrations, not just on his head but his whole body.
Taking his head out, he looked towards the Mariana Trench. And after a few minutes, he saw something rise from the water.
A massive tree.
55.
Their faces, full of terror before getting crushed by a mountain, he remembered it all. They were calling him, saying his name, Jean, asking him, Jean to save them but now, was a pile of red mess.
The Zirtue had already left and he was looking for survivors among the debris and rubble. Not after long, he found all of them, which was fortunate news.
Only about 9000 remained, and one of them ran off to face the Zirtue. He also got informed of other similar giants around the world.
20, 327102.
The Archive got destroyed, the same one which contained all the world's knowledge before the fall.
All because of his failed Adaptation.
317555.
"Do me one favor."
A voice came from behind him, it was Ana's.
"Don't die when I'm still alive, Jean."
...
...
...
Year 30.
"Yes! With this, we shall retake this world!"
The surgery was over, the core was finally infused into his body, giving him hope, hope that they could win.
"Isn't that right, Jean?"
***
His head suddenly convulsed, all his skin then peeled off and he took on the form of something greater.
Something that would end his regrets.
Something, to fulfil their hopes of him.
His skin twisted, trying to replicate how his body looked and stiffened. The dark core infused deep into his body and brain suddenly spewed out from his skin. It was pure again, making his body shine with bright light.
His body looked normal again, as if he never got into battle with the grade V in the first place. All their hopes, all their cries for help had one thing in common: desire to kill the Zirtues. And to do that, he must be able to counter them all.
Fire, to kill the Trees. Radiation, to break down the very DNAs of the Crabs. And lastly for the Jellyfish...
With all of these together, he should be able to answer humanity. Only if he wasn't a few thousand kilometers away from the Earth.
Opening his eyes, he could see the entire world in front of him. He saw hope, he was still close to the Earth, gravity should still pull him back. And eventually, his momentum halted and he found himself diving back to the Earth.
One small problem, the Earth, even though it was so grey and dull still was quite active in its core, or well, it was spinning. If he just dived down, he would undoubtably end up in some random place.
So he quickly located the Baltic sea, which was quite eye-catching then tried to swim towards it, it didn't work.
Biting his finger, blood flowed out, which created some force to drive him forward. It worked, but by a small margin. He then made his blood flow faster by using the machines in his bloodstream.
It was slow at first but then accelerated. Soon, he saw an imposing figure. His legs then fused together, creating a needle and upon arriving upon the creature's head, pierced directly through.
He landed a good kilometer away from the giant, etched deeply into the ground. Getting out, he looked at the Zirtue.
Its head had a small hole on it and from it, dropped a strange liquid. The liquid then shifted, taking on the form of a jellyfish.
"This mother is different than the first one."
The creature then turned around, and on its face was a massive frown. Jean smiled when he saw this though.
The creature then sprinted towards Jean and he did the same. Its movements seemed slower now. A tentacle tried to attack Jean but he replied with his own attack.
When the two met, a flash of orange and blue emerged, and the tentacle twisted violently, dropping even more of the liquid.
Looking up, he saw the creature smile, looking down, he saw six jellyfish on his arm. Using the other arm, he gripped one of the Zirtues making it explode.
Surprising him though, was that the other 5 also exploded and the massive creature dripped more of the liquid.
'This is interesting.'
Chapter 15:
The creature then suddenly stopped moving, its tentacles retreated back to its body. However, its vile smile still remained, disgusting Jean.
Then, from the top of its head, appeared a slit. Immediately, that slit lengthened, dividing the whole body into two equal halves. The smile then opened, creating a voice that both terrified and shocked Jean.
"Wel, come. This world. My children."
Never in his life did he see a Zirtue speak, especially in the human language.
The two halves fell to the floor, creating a shockwave that blew away the dust and dirt. He swiped his hand, and suddenly he saw a red spark which burned away the dust, creating a clear view of things.
'Fire? Helios, you've got competition.'
That joy of his lasted for only a second as he processed the things happening in front of him. The mother, was currently undergoing mitosis.
He ran forward to one of the halves but it was too late. He hated the fact that he was late twice, but hated more the fact that he couldn't stop it. The only reason he could kill one of the jellyfish made from the strange liquid earlier was the fact that it was still a part of the mother, which was weaker than a grade I of that category.
However, that only meant he stood no chance against the grade I, so he made the difficult decision to run away.
Now, he had to decide on one more thing which was whether he should inform Ana first or Erika.
'Don't die while I'm still alive.'
That line reverberated inside of his head endlessly, though it wasn't really related to the Zirtue, he felt like he should go to Ana first. Thinking about it a bit more, it made more sense for him to do this, she was closer to it afterall.
He already knew that she would be in Turkey by now, it was 5 in the morning. So, he headed there.
His feet felt light on the floor, as if he was skating along an ice track. His strength also improved significantly, making it possible for him to jump higher than before.
And soon enough, he arrived at Turkey, two whole hours later.
'Uhh wait, I actually don't know their base in Turkey.'
Idiot. Well it was true, only Andre knew of this, and he didn't inform Jean of it, or couldn't. So, he didn't know. However, not keeping him waiting long, a voice called for him from behind and he saw a cloaked figure.
***
Following the man, he found out that this man, Clou, was just like Andre, which explained a lot of things. Then he arrived at a door in front of an abandoned building of stone, he tried to walk in.
"Uhh sir, we have a dress code."
"Hmm?"
"Put on some pants."
"Oh, yeah."
Borrowing a spare from the man, he walked in and greeted him was 19 people. One of them being Anastasia. She spoke up.
"Haha, you crazy son of a bitch, you really killed that grade V?"
The maggots were cheerful but Jean's next few words made them literally droop to the floor.
"I didn't."
"So you ran?"
"Indeed."
"Well, it's fine, that thing is scar-"
"There's an even bigger threat now."
"What?"
All heads suddenly turned at him, very displeased and surprised with what he was saying. What was the only thing scarier than a grade V? A grade I of the next category. And it seemed this was the case.
"The crab suddenly evolved into a mother. It sent me into orbit and suddenly divided into little jellyfish."
"Jellyfish? Not Platonics?"
"Yeah, I don't get it either."
"So, why have you come to us first?"
"To save you."
Silence prevailed the whole room as 20 people looked at Anastasia, waiting for her response. This persisted for a good minute before Anastasia finally spoke.
"Americas, Cuba. Go inform your Union."
"Alright."
With that, all 21 immediately left the building. With one going to Nepal and the others going to Cuba.
***
3 hours later.
Jean arrived at a flat spot amidst the many mountains in the region, he stepped on a small button on the floor and took the elevator downwards. Surprisingly, it was even slower than before.
Arriving onto the first floor, he looked for Erika. The whole place looked deserted but it didn't matter. Also, for some reason, all the big arrows were taken down.
Located the biggest door in the whole floor, he barged in.
"So as I was sayin-"
Interrupting Erika, he took her outside, shocking her and everybody in the room. They also ran out to see if something happened to Jean.
"What the fuck are yo-"
"Tell all personel, evacuation, stat."
"What? Why?"
"JUST DO IT."
"Fine."
Erika then looked back at the meeting room. Her face a subtle red. The members all saw this and immediately noticed this and knew why.
"Y-you are all dismissed. The meeting shall be postponed till a later date, now you are all to help evacuate all personel to, uhh."
"Cuba."
"Yes, Cuba."
Now that he thought about it a little bit more, why was there only one elevator? It was too slow anyways so he opted for a faster path: straight down.
Though the floor was of extremely durable material, it turned into dust immediately after sparks ignited at Jean's feet, amazing the 11 people present.
He entered a state of free fall, carefully avoiding people that were in the way. In the middle of falling, he then heard an announcement.
"All personel are to evacuate from the base, we'll divide..."
Soon, he reached the very last floor of the Base, and it was a lot darker than most. It was the least frequented place in the place and in it, was Tyche.
He approached the middle of the place and in it was the figure of a woman, her hair was gone, her eyes clouded, her skin pale. She looked devoid of life but he knew that she was alive.
Chapter 16:
The whole floor was there to extend the livelihood of Tyche so he didn't know know he could move Tyche without moving the entire floor.
To this day, no one knew what really happened to Tyche. Even Jean had only heard that she entered the deep seas once and was left like this. He even thought that it was a side effect of her ability.
Tyche had to live though, he couldn't abandon her here. He looked around the dark room full of machines and electronics that he didn't understand the use of but found nothing that could help him.
'Damn it.'
He then just ripped the capsule containing Tyche out of the floor, held it tight and carefully ascended the floors. On the way, he took some crab's meat and covered the two ends of the capsule with it.
Arriving on the first floor, it was empty which was very good news. And it seemed the elevator was still in use so he had to wait.
Placing the capsule on the floor, he couldn't help but think about his encounter with the mother. Why was it on the surface? Where was it headed to?
Why could it speak?
The two first questions could be quite easily answered: it was looking for humans, to kill. But the third remained a mystery, he tried to take out something from his pants but grimaced when he realised.
Picking up the capsule, he headed towards his room, opened the door and went inside. Because the capsule didn't fit the door, he broke it down. He couldn't take his eyes off the capsule, else...
Looking on top of his bed, he saw black, looking under it, he saw black. He looked around the whole room but saw black. The book seemed as though it disappeared.
'Did somebody take it?'
One person immediately entered his mind and he left the room. Walking towards the elevator, he saw that it was open and hopped in.
***
8 minutes later.
He was out of the Base, there was no one around him so that only meant they were on their journey towards Cuba.
'Can I go East? Don't want to go through Egypt...'
'But they must've gone West, quickest route after all.'
Concluding that they went West, Jean followed.
***
It didn't take long for him to catch up, as they were only midway to Iran. He analysed the formation of the cohort and deemed it was safe enough.
All the combatants were on the outside, with the non-combatants in the middle. They should have split into more groups, putting less attention on the non-combatants but whatever.
Quickly locating Erika, he asked her about the book, but it seemed that she didn't know.
'So it just grew legs and ran away, uhum okay.'
The journey was going to be very long now that they had to move about 2000 people and most of them being non-combatants. Frankly, Jean wanted to go East because he wanted to avoid Europe and Africa at all costs.
"Wait a minute, that reminds me."
A voice rang out from beside him, it was Erika.
"If you run away like that again, I'll kill you for real."
"Alright..."
"Wait, did you manage to kill the grade V?"
"No."
"Hehe dumbass, I knew you wouldn't be able to do it. Just, stay home okay?"
"Alright."
"Why did you tell us to go to Cuba anyways? I mean, sure, the Base is as good as a straw house now but you seemed really panicked."
Jean stayed silent for a little while. Erika looked to be in quite a good mood so he didn't want to ruin it but in the end, he still had to inform her of this.
"There was a mother."
Erika's eyes widened, full of shock and she looked up at Jean.
"Are, you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Was it a type of jellyfish?"
"How?"
"I took a peek into your book."
"You-"
Erika then ran away, he didn't try to catch her though. They would all be in Cuba a few days later anyways. One thing irked him though, he could forgive her looking into his book and hiding it to read later, but the fact that she said 'jellyfish'.
Was there such writings in his book? He asked himself but grimaced when he couldn't remember.
***
The journey was smooth sailing and they arrived in Egypt. However, to everyone's surprise, it was devoid of life. This all made them extremely nervous but even after progressing to Libya, they didn't see any Zirtues.
Jean had a bad feeling and he urged the others to go even faster. They quickly arrived in Mauritania but still saw nothing.
Most of the members now had a carefree look on their faces but he knew better, that it definitely was the work of the grade I's, what they did was unclear, however.
Even after crossing the desolate desert that used to be called the Atlantic ocean, they were still alone. At least, until they arrived on Puerto Rico and were greeted with tens of thousands of Crabs, I and II.
'This eased my heart a little.'
Without wasting a breath, Jean went to the frontline and killed the Zirtues, the others were also quickly taking out their weapons. However, he was already done by then, with a blue spark, all the Zirtues literally disintergrated.
They looked at him with shock and awe but he already went ahead, killing more Zirtues in the process. His feet created no sound and he himself was like lightning.
This continued until they reached Haiti, where it seemed the Zirtues had already been taken care of.
"Uhh sir."
It was Xander.
"I think there are other people here, the Zirtues don't normally die like this."
"I know, we are meeting them."
"Huh?"
Soon, a figure could be seen from afar. It was tall, very tall and its body was covered in a dirty hood of rags and other dirty pieces of clothing.
Signalling the other people to stop, Jean approached the figure, who suddenly pulled off its hood revealing a gruesome face.
Voices of protests rang out from behind him, telling him to stop approaching but he still did. When he finally reached Anastasia, she held him up a bit and he put his hand over her shoulder.
"We'll be cooperating with these guys."
Without explaining anything, Jean dropped a bomb of a statement. He and Anastasia looked kinda funny so there were some laughter amongst the confusion too.
.
.
.
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[ End of Volumn 1: Rogue ]