Night One Hundred And Forty Seven
Age 1991
Rose City...
The Catacombs...
A young man could be seen stumbling down in the boney walls of the catacombs. Several others could be seen running with him. All of them seemed to have sprained, or broken legs, and were trying to run by clinging to the walls.
"Oh God... Oh God..." The one in the front of the group hissed out as he stumbled forward. "Crap, crap, crap... This isn't good..."
"That damn bastard..." One of the people behind him said. "That man in the weird mask... He actually took us and threw us down here... It's so dark... Where the hell is the exit!"
The Catacombs were massive, filled with many turns, and twists... They were so large they actually took up an insane 15% of the Red Nation underground, going under many cities. Of course they were nowhere near as big as that when they were first created, but over hundreds of Ages, the people in the Red Nation, continued to use them in order to store their dead, digging even lower, and building more hallways. It was nearly one hundred times bigger than it had first been.
Most people often weren't allowed in the catacombs, least they be lost, and become one of the many walls, or floors...
"W... What's that sound..." A girl in the group asked.
"What sound?" Someone asked.
"N... No I think I hear it... Hey is... Is it getting... Colder?"
"What?"
Slowly their breathing began to become visible as they all heard quiet footsteps. Slowly moving towards them through the dark they saw it. It was once human, but after the experiments it could no longer be called that...
The Human Bestia Macht let out a low groan as ice rolled off of it, and it saw its next meal.
"You should have taken my offer..." A voice said echoing around them. "I offered t let you try and become far stronger than anyone else gaining a power equal to an Equation but you all turned me down... Oh well you Nobles are the same. I'm sure no one will miss you... Now eat Bestia Macht... I want you to get big and strong..."
"Wait-"
The Bestia Macht leapt forward as the ice from it began to infect all the people in the catacombs their screaming echoing out in the dark, cold catacombs.
Perhaps becoming one with the walls, or floor, wasn't so bad when you considered the alternative.
***
Rose City...
Upper Streets...
Squad One Base...
Hero stared the Vice Captain down for a moment as he still gave his smirk. "So if I beat you you answer my question?"
"Sure..." The Vice Captain nodded. "And 'when' I beat you. I want you to let me talk to Row."
Silence passed over everyone for a moment. "Wait?" Kitsune asked frowning as he crossed his arms. "Isn't Hero, Row? I mean Hannah calls him Row? And a bunch of other people do as well right? He just went by Row, but changed it to Hero." Everyone else nodded at that as they all frowned not really getting it. Well everyone but Ken who let out a quiet hiss getting everyone to turn towards her.
"Uh... No..." Ken said sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. "I've been meaning to talk to Hero about it, but I was in this weird red ocean place, when I died one time, and there was this guy there calling himself Row, and claimed him and Hero were different or something."
"Really?" Shelly asked frowning.
"Wait is this why Hero is always talking to himself?" Kitsune questioned.
Everyone turned to Hero who just gave an awkward shrug not really knowing what to say, and he didn't really feel like coming up with a lie at the moment. Instead he turned back over to the Vice Captain as he nodded. "Alright sure. You're on. If I win you answer a question of mine, and if you win you can talk to Row." He said nodding. 'Jokes on her... Row's been giving the silent treatment...'
"That's fine by me." The woman said.
"I don't think this is a very good idea-" North began but was stopped when Eins placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No, no... I wanna see where this goes..." Eins smiled.
North let out a small sigh as he folded his arms. "Alright then... Come on recruits..."
The Squad One Training Room was pretty bland actually. It was the exact same one at Oleander, or the one Squad Six had. Just a massive cubed shaped room, filled with hundreds of metal cubes that formed the walls, floor, and ceiling. It wasn't anything to crazy. It was far larger than the one in Oleander, or Squad Six though, so that was something a little neat. The group quickly got to one corner as the Vice Captain cleared her throat.
"Before I slaughter a member of Squad Six, I want to see what the rest of you can all do first..." She said nodding her head. "But who to pick..."
"Oh! Me, me, me! Pick me!" Eins yelled jumping up and down as he waved his arms around.
The Vice Captain sighed. "Sure..."
"Yes!" Eins grabbed Ken making her let out a hiss as he dragged her over to the center of the training room. "Alright Kitty! Let's do this-"
"Stop calling me that!"
Back over with the group Hero watched the fight as he folded his arms. Shelly let out an annoyed huff as she folded her arms. "That idiot better not hurt Mr. Eins." She hummed. Her, Hero, and North, were away from the rest of the group as they awaited the battle that was about the begin.
Hero let out a small chuckle. "You like Eins huh? And here I thought you were gonna end up with... Well actually I don't know who? Hmm..."
"I... Of course I do..." Shelly blushed a little looking away. "He... It's just... When my city was destroyed by the Bestia Macht... I thought for sure I was gonna die... I stared down the mauls of a beast... My mom... My dad... Both of them... But Eins saved me." She smiled. "He managed to save my life. I'm grateful for him. He's so kind, and energetic. I think... Maybe I even lov- Like him like an older brother!" She finished quickly covering her face with her hands.
Hero let out a small snort. "Sure... Don't let Ken hearing you say things like that-"
"That idiot girl has nothing to do with this!"
"Sure..."
North let out a small laugh as well shaking his head. "Yeah... Eins is strong... He tries harder than anyone I know to do the right thing..."
Hero frowned as he stared at Eins. His mind raced slightly. 'One of Squad One, or possibly, all of Squad One, are the traitors, or is a traitor. I only have two suspects. The first was Eins Licht... He's a transformation type much like the user Mr. Bright... Than again how do we know Bright is a Transformation Type... He started the battle by entering Level Two when he fought Jackson and Dawson... And his arm was said to change often... I don't want to think it but... What if it's Max... In his level two state he can generate the light through his lava, and make armor out of his lava... It isn't a stretch to think he could do everything Bright did, and just pretend to be a Transformation Type... There's also the chance that someone not in Squad One is Bright...Squad One could still have a traitor, and Bright is someone else...I'll need to wait and see if someone becomes a Bestia Macht while Squad One is here... Thankfully in terms of members Squad One is fairly small due to how hard it is to join them...' Hero nodded his head as he finished his thought.
"You okay?" North asked. "You seem to be deep in thought."
"Oh yeah I'm fine..." Hero said shaking his head. "Uh... Kick his butt Ken, and all that... I don't simp for her so I really don't care..."
Shelly huffed crossing her arms. "Ken better not hurt Mr. Eins to bad... Though I doubt she can really harm him in a bad way so who cares."
"Eins will be holding back..." North nodded. "He wants to see her full power after all... I imagine he'll just use his shield mode."
"Shield mode..." Hero asked raising an eyebrow.
"Mr. Eins likes to fight with a Shield." Shelly nodded. "His left arm can make hard light weaponry for him to use. The shield his his favorite though since he can protect the people he cares about. It's really cool, and he used it when he saved me!"
Back over with the fight Eins raised his left arm up as it glowed and morphed into a wooden arm. It was the size of his normal arm, and looked almost exactly the same, but had a small gold spike that was very thin poking out of his palm. It glowed and formed a small golden ball forming a hard light shield around his left arm.
"Alright!" Eins announced with large stars in his eyes as he gave a large grin. "Come at me with everything you got kitty! I'm sure I can take it!"
Ken's eye twitched as she gave a small annoyed smile. "I told you... Stop calling me that!" She hissed bringing both her hands up and firing out a large beam of black and red energy, the same dark matter beams, that Bestia Macht would fire out of their mouths. The beam fired forward rippling the ground around it as it spun faster and faster moving towards the man who gave a large excited grin when he saw it.
Eins raised his shield up blocking the beam as it began to push him back. He managed to stop himself though by implanting his feet firmly to the ground, slowing himself down. The beam crackled against his shield as it began to slowly die out unable to crack his mighty shield. The beam fully vanished as Ken stared with slightly wide eyes.
"Wow... That is one tough shield... I blew down vault doors in a Nobles manner with that attack..."
"What else can you do!"
Ken sighed creating several black spikes which she pulled out of her body and fired forward towards the man dropping down towards him as she stabbed out with them as hard as she could. "How about this-" The spikes shattered when they hit the barrier breaking off. "Okay... Than try this one! Caliburn!" She announced creating a large jagged blade out of her arm, the same attack she used on Reaper, small flakes of ice flew off of it as she slashed it into his shield still not able to crack the thing as Eins's smile grew larger. "Damn it stop grinning!"
"But I'm having so much fun!"
Ken let out a small hiss at that as she jumped back. She unzipped her Enforcer jacket taking it off. "Alright then! If you want to play like that, than we'll play!" Her body seemed like it was about to glow and change but she stopped suddenly.
'I've come to warn you about your power... The reason you blacked out is simple... You evolved... Evolved. A Seraphin looks like a human but has the power of a Bestia Macht, and are always Viscount level the second weakest level of a Bestia Macht, however when their power is high enough they can evolve into an Earl state gaining more beast like features but at a cost of sanity. You went mad and started devouring that woman, and you even jumped past Earl to the next level. A few more hours and you'd have jumped up again. Careful with where you go from here Ken... It's only a matter of time before your madness makes you devour the wrong person...'
Those had been the weird words, of that Hero look alike. The one calling himself Row.
For a moment flashes of the human Bestia Macht coursed through Ken's mind. Than Viper...
'What happened to the past. What happened to our love? You used to let me touch you, hold you, bite you, kiss you, bleed you... Whatever happened to that. We were in love. You seemed to like it. After all you always begged me to hit, or bite you harder? ou can't control it can you? The need to eat? It's hard at first. Eat me darling! devour me like the beast you are! Grow! Grow!'
"N... Never mind..." Ken gulped slowly picking her jacket back up and slipping it back on. "I can't break that shield. I give up..."