Chapter 33: A Hateful Screech

-Renji POV-

Renji let out a hiss as he was jostled in his liege’s hand. His neck flared with pain, and he could only grit his teeth and endure this indignity.

Of all the loathsome things to do!

They had arrived in this city and showed no malice, and his liege had even entrusted him to speak with the army of parahumans that had greeted them with glared of suspicion!

Renji dutifully ignored the fact that he had been given this duty solely because his creator desperately didn’t want to do it.

He had known going in that it was likely they would come to blows, regardless of how optimistic their liege may have been. What he hadn’t expected was for that woman to go from smiling to physically assaulting him in the blink of an eye!

He gasped, trying desperately to move in that clenched hand as a black light ate at the edges of his vision.

There was a flash of light, and suddenly he was no longer where he had been.

For a moment he laid there, stunned and confused. Where was he? How did he get here?

Wherever he was it was bathed in an inky blackness that denied the acuity of even his vision. He turned his head, and then again, but no matter where he looked there wasn’t even a glimmer of light he could use to navigate.

“Hello!” Renji shouted into the darkness. “My liege! Are you there!”

Echoes of his own voice were the only reply, before even those were swallowed up by the oppressive silence.

Renji scowled at that, but his failure had revealed something important. Wherever he was it wasn’t a wide and open space, far from it. Judging by the echoes the walls of whatever confined him must be near.

Perhaps he could use those to navigate and find a way back to his liege.

Before he could put his plan into action a steady blue light began to flicker to his left, dim at first but growing more luminescent with every passing second. The light grew and coalesced into a familiar figure.

It was his liege, or rather a hologram of them. Renji felt a strange dissonance as he noticed that this image of his creator only reached his own height, his liege had always loomed large.

But not this time.

“Yo Renji!” The hologram called out, the flippant behaviour completely at odds with the situation.

“My liege? What is going on? Where have you sent me?” Renji asked the questions in quick succession, but if the hologram heard them it gave no sign of it.

“Just an FYI-”

What in the world was an ‘FYI’?!

“-This is a pre-recorded message, so I can’t hear whatever you might be saying,” the recording said with a small apologetic smile.

“Oh for the love of-“ Renji stopped himself and sighed deeply. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“Now I know I can be a little careless sometimes, but it would be beyond the pale even for me if I created you and didn’t have a way to save you in the worst case scenario.”

So it was this sort of scenario.

“My liege,” Renji bit out before continuing “I am not some damsel to send away at the first sign of danger!”

The words were almost growled past his teeth as he glared at the hologram of his creator. Normally he would never dare be so impertinent, even to a mere image of his progenitor. However the growing fire in his chest couldn’t be quelled.

“So, yeah. I placed a teleportation seal in you after Jinzhou. It would only go off if I activated it or if I was dead. Hopefully it’s just the former, but even in that case it would mean I’m currently facing down foes that would be more than capable of killing you.”

Renji stewed as the message continued, eyes beginning to glance around the room he was in, now that he could see. The elegant flowing lines and sublime etchings made it obvious that he was in a room of his creator’s design. Which must mean-

“You’re currently in one of the many buildings I created whilst we were travelling to Hyderabad, so-“

Renji tuned out the words of his creator as he noticed a flashlight placed on one of the tables. Stomping forwards, he grabbed it before switching it on. The light cut through the remaining darkness, further illuminating the room he was in.

Gleaming swords hung upon the walls, armour stands sat to his left and the floor contained numerous mats upon which to sit. The wallpaper of the room was simple, but the flowing blue waves depicted would have brought a sense of calm had he not been so furious.

Renji realised that this room was almost tailor made for him.

He pushed back that realisation, it would not do to ponder any distractions while he had an objective. Ignoring the hologram, still speaking even now, he left the room and beheld the cavernous expanse.

The rocky tunnel lined with buildings was a sight he had seen before, something he had grown used to even. Yet without the presence of his liege, and with only a flashlight to guide him, the place felt oppressive…and almost wrong.

The samurai approached the walls of the tunnel, taking note of the way the rock had been carved in order to find the right direction. It took a while, fumbling in the dark with a single source of light and trying to piece together clues hidden in rock.

Eventually he found the direction of Hyderabad, or at least his best guess, and began to run. His feet blurred, and to any outside observer they would wonder if his feet even touched the ground with how fast he was going.

His body did not know exhaustion, so he could keep this pace up indefinitely. The only issue was the distance. Renji had no idea how far away he was and by the time he arrived the battle could be long over.

The thought made him run faster, to the point that Renji could feel the wind pushing futilely against his body. It only made him run faster.

‘My Liege, I’m going to have a serious conversation with you after this is over,’ Renji vowed to himself.

-Alexander POV-

The black light rushes towards me.

My cognition speeds up and the world slows to a near halt.

I attempt to effect the attack.

It doesn’t work, whatever it is it isn’t matter.

I twist the air molecules to become an alloy with the strength to put titanium to shame.

It crumbles at the slightest touch of the abyssal light.

I attempt to move myself with my powers.

The light is already too close. I instead use my abilities to pull myself backwards, buying precious moments more to think.

I attempt to inscribe a teleportation matrix.

The ink weaves itself upon the ground. Only to become ash as the light reaches it.

I activate Renji’s emergency teleport and brace.

-Eidolon POV-

His power strikes the Endbringer, ripping through entire layers of false flesh. David smiles beneath his mask, the power he had been given was a powerful one – an entropic blaster power perfectly suited to destruction. However David has fought the Endbringers for well over a decade at this point, so he knows that this wasn’t enough – it wasn’t even close.

Sure enough, the acrid black smoke clears to reveal the monster. It’s beautiful form was now a ragged mess full of abrasions that bled black. It floated silently amidst the wreckage of his attack, almost as if it hadn’t noticed it.

Except the face, which had previously been a serene mask of gentle beauty was now a rictus glare of pure hatred and pain.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Eidolon backpedalled in the air, grasping his ears in pain from the ragged screech.

The scream that erupted from the Endbringer almost reminded him of the simurgh, but there were differences. The simurgh’s scream was a crystalline shriek, a constant whisper in the back of your head urging you to do unspeakable things. It was a deliberate thing, unnerving in its unceasing and monotonous malice.

This scream wasn’t that. It was an animal scream of blood and rage. There were no psychic whispers, no hidden trick. This was just noise, throat tearing murderous noise.

A flicker of nervousness rose in his breast, never before had an Endbringer sounded so horribly human, but he quashed it.

Instead he darted forwards once more, a mass manipulation power increasing his strength and constitution.

This was a mistake, as he would find out mere moments later.

The Endbringers manic face snapped to him, and its arms struck him with the force of a meteor.

Eidolon wheezed as he was sent hurtling through a building, and in the direction he had been struck from he could hear the desperate sounds of battle erupting.

-Alexander POV-

Liquid agony poured directly into his brain. The sensors and programs meant to inform an Endbringer of any damage done to their vestigial forms was instead being interpreted as pain by his very human mind.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

So he screamed.

He struck at the green buzzing figure (A fly! Get away from me!)

More came. Strobing lights and noise came with all the force of a storm (Too loud! Go away!)

Old programs shifted to the fore, now that the main mind was almost catatonic from pain.

The hosts came to deliver conflict. A man with a primitive weapon, a blade attached to a staff, drove forwards. His strength was augmented by the suit of armour he wore, filled with familiar designs and systems. Intriguing. (Thief! You use what I gave to hurt me?!)

Solidified air met his charge, and bound him tightly in chains he could not see.

Following quickly after him was a great work of artifice in the shape of one of the host species’ superstitions known as: dragons. The intelligence inside, bound in vat grown flesh and silica, rushed to aid the man choking on nothing. (Dragon? Isn’t she-)

Rockets were fired from the craft racing down towards us. Calculations were run, forty three of those missiles were on track to hitting us. The last two seem to have suffered slight malfunctions and would miss us by about 2.43 meters. The majority of the missiles were transmuted into helium while the last were left to explode near us, doing minor damage. Acceptable. (AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!)

The artifice used the distraction to swoop down and drag the man in armour away. (Where’s Renji? Where’s… Where’s everyone?)

The numerical disadvantage was soon becoming apparent as more of the host species began to join the battle. Use of this platform alone is calculated to be inefficient. Excess resources detected. (Wanted to use those to make…to make lights?)

[CONVERTING]

BioPunk Level 2- A branch of technology that utilises flesh in all things. Create monstrosities or cure the world of sickness, the possibilities are endless! At this level larger structures and technologies are possible and practical.

Atoms were rewoven. Amino acids blended and tissue was formed into being. The primitive dwellings made of heated mud and rock dissolved into writhing meat. The hosts paused at that, the programs identifying this as ‘fear’ and ‘unease’.

Useful. (…)

Their mistake was to its advantage. The flesh congealed into combat forms. Variety was the most pressing criteria against the vast array of hosts that were already here, and those that would likely be coming. (This isn’t what I wanted…)

Howls filled the air as the beasts took their first breaths, a cocktail of pheromones was produced in order to serve as a primitive method of determining friend and foe. The howls turned to growls as the monsters birthed from stone looked upon the hosts that stood against them.

Light and fury matched their howls as the hosts fell upon their creations.

A female host in black wove through the beasts, pulping heads as she went, before flying straight towards them. Their powers reached towards them, only to fail to get a hold on them. The hosts body seemed inviolable to direct manipulation. (Alexandria!!!)

Instead, as the host drove her fist back -aiming to uppercut them, they matched the woman’s charge with their own.

Their fists met with a crack of abused wind.

The hosts fist dug into theirs, but it didn’t matter. They had the mass.

The woman soared backward from the blow, her body skipping over the broken and flooded pavement.

And, even now, her creations continued to form. The slain bodies lay still for only a moment before their bones cracked back into place and their flesh was regenerated by their hands.

It was a tide of red which sought to swallow the hosts, ever growing and endlessly brutal.

They noted, with some intrigue, that the artifice known as ‘Dragon’ was once again moving, but not towards them. No, it was moving away. Likely in an attempt to leave the area subject to jamming and call for reinforcements.

Calculations were run and predictions plotted. The conflict would become known soon enough regardless of the whatever happened. However a sudden influx of hosts arriving before critical mass was reached would be…sub-optimal.

They reached out, ready to crush the flying craft-

(NO!)

-before aborting the attempt. It wasn’t truly needed regardless.

Instead it turned their attention to hosts, once more massing up and attempting to break through the tide of abominations that sought to devour them.

AN: And it begins! For those confused over what happened to Alexander he’s essentially a human mind trapped in a shard. This has advantages, as well as disadvantages. One of which is that his human brain is still running the same ‘software’ so to speak. So when the shard self informs the brain of the damage the Endbringer body is taking it’s interpreted as pain.

In this case enough pain to kill a normal human by shock.

Thankfully that can’t happen to Alexander, as he’s in a shard, but it is enough to knock Alexander out of the controls. So the other programs took the reins, these other programs being the ones Endbringers typically have.

Now this is a temporary thing, and Alexander is already beginning to take back control but for now the heroes have to deal with an endless swarm of biological horrors that keep coming back from the dead.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment!