The black gooey viscous surface of the stump that just a few minutes ago served as the shoulder of Lucien's right arm wobbled, sending small ripples through the covered area.
At the same time, Lucien came back from her dazed stupor and momentarily stabilized his slowly waning consciousness. The familiar-looking black, transparent screen appeared. The scarlet, bloody symbols that so far was still a mystery began to change, revealing the same set of letters that appeared years ago.
However, this time, it didn't stop there. The next symbol began to flicker, and a moment later flip over, revealing another letter, stepping one step closer to deciphering this soon-to-be two-decade-old mystery.
[…:::The Prєฬгɭรภאɭ๔ ђภคɭ ภเ קฬєן קเ. ๓๓ςɭן รгєเɭן єןɭ!:::…]
A sudden surge of pain jolted, wreaking havoc in his body and mind, originating from the mutilated stump. The pain was unbearable, causing Lucien's so-far resolute, defiant visage to crumble and cry out loudly.
Although a moment ago, this was something that Dr. Frida would have reveled in, she couldn't enjoy this cry of victory. On the left monitor, she pulled up the camera feed to full screen, while keeping her focus on the second monitor reading through the endless feed of numerical data that kept flowing in.
There was a huge spike in almost all of Lucien's parameters. His health dropped, while his emotions that he usually kept calm were raging. His heartbeat was fast and erratic.
"What is happening?!" She muttered, unable to comprehend the abrupt change in the situation. Was this something they caused with the experiment? Is this the limit of his ability? Looking at the feed, she had to shake her head. There was no time to theorize and lament, the subject's vital signals were rapidly waning.
With a frown on her usually cheerful face, she pressed a large red button at the side of her desk, alerting the guards stationed outside the lab.
As they rushed in, she pointed towards the other side of the room and with a cold tone, she gave the command.
"Get the boy out and bring him to the Vital Chambers. We have to stabilize him. We are ending today's tests."
"Yes, ma'am!" Both guards exclaimed in unison with a salute, before turning around and rushing out. A moment later the metal doors, where Lucien was still yelling and struggling madly slid open, as the two armed guards rushed in.
However, what they saw froze them in place. The veins on the sweat-covered, glistening body of the boy were swollen and turned to charcoal black. At regular intervals, a smaller bump could be seen as it traversed with rapid speeds in the darkened arteries. As if sensing their presence, the boy stopped struggling immediately as the doors shut close behind the armored duo.
His eyelids snapped open, revealing a terrifying nightmarish visage.
The boy's irises vanished, the pearl white sclera in his eyes turned completely black. Unlike years ago, when he lost control against Billy and his goons. This time, his eyes were black as the night.
Suddenly the metal straps shattered that held the boy, keeping him strapped to the metallic table. He slowly sat up, his demonic, terrifying eyes locked on the two guards.
A vicious grin appeared on his distorted face. His lips slowly parting, a dark, unfamiliar, guttural voice echoed across the small room.
"Need more…. Feed me… Need more… to complete… the ritual…"
At the other side of the room, Dr. Frida was listening intently to the strange words of the boy.
"Feed? Ritual? What does he... Ooooooh!" Mid-sentence she realized what the boy most likely wanted. With swift reaction, she quickly hit the lock button on her keyboard, trapping the guards that already started backing away in the room with this awakened monster.
"Sorry boys, but we do need as much data as we can get…" She muttered, once again taking her seat and focusing on the endless stream of data that kept flowing through her screen.
Meanwhile, as she was busy analyzing all she could, in the room, the proud, seasoned mercenaries slowly backed all the way back to the door. Feeling as the automatic slider didn't activate, the guard on the right hit the button on the right side of the wall, shouting with all the power he could muster from his lungs.
"OPEN THE DOOR YOU BITCH! LET US OUT! THIS… THIS IS NOT A KID… THIS IS A MONSTER!"
However, no matter how harshly he spoke, no matter how he threatened the doctor, the bespectacled woman didn't acquiesce any of his demand-turned-plea. In her eyes they were now nothing more than the resources towards an unexpected test, she stumbled upon.
….
Whilst the two guards urged and begged the doctor to open the door and let them escape from this previously harmless-looking kid, that now instilled fear in them with his frightening, monstrous appearance, an inexplicable change began to transform the boy's mutilated silhouette.
The small visible bumps that could be seen slowly traversing in the boy's swollen, black veins changed course, converging towards the boy's remaining left arm. The thin, scrawny limb devoid of any substantial muscle mass convulsed and wobbled before it rapidly began to stretch out. The slender fingers on his left hand transformed, growing a set of curved, ebon claws in place of his messy nails. His previously pale, unhealthy tone turned a shade darker, mostly thanks to the darkened halo of arteries hiding just under his skin.
The change was rapid and sudden, before the seasoned soldiers had a chance to realize it, the boy seemingly spontaneously rushed forward with a low crouching posture at a surprisingly fast pace. The guard closest to him being the first to realize that they were suddenly being attacked by the boy-turned-monstrosity.
Although surprised, thanks to the many years of service, first to his country, then as a mercenary, an arms-for-hire, he raised his automatic rifle to his hip and pulled the trigger, spraying an array of bullets to the youthful but demonic assailant. The soldier shrieked in fear as Lucien was already at a mere few feet away from him, prompting the second guard to quickly come to his senses. Turning around, he faced the approaching abominable child, making eye contact with the viral, inhuman entity.
The two guards proceeded to forgo all regulations and orders they had and use everything they had to fight back and hopefully thwart the approaching disaster. They fired their weapons unceasingly at their intimidatingly agile target who meanwhile changed from his frontal assault to a more strategic scatter. Lucien was continuously evading the majority of the gunfire, mostly by using the testing equipment scattered throughout the room, using them to his advantage. Although a few sparse bullets managed to grace by their intended target, they were all negligible and were easily expunged from the body. As the deformed metal cases fell to the ground, the damage they dealt was rapidly being regenerated.
Sensing that the repeated gunfire could pose an issue, causing a further decline in his health, the strange entity that seemed to be in control of the boy's body placed its efforts into creating a more advantageous habitat for itself. Swiftly scanning the room for a means to create a said environment it eventually noticed the multiple sources of lights coming from the ceiling of the small lab room.
Quickly recognizing what had to be done, it grabbed all that it could find whilst continuing his agile evasive movements, appearing in spontaneous locations, avoiding the continuous spray of bullets all the while focusing on tearing the place apart and throwing anything that its large, clawed hands could latch and tear into with frightening accuracy. Each of his throws caused the room to gradually shift into darkness.
As the room grew darker from the speed of which the lights were being destroyed, the guards were overwhelmed by their fear as the inhuman entity drew closer and closer with every dispatched source of light.
With not much time passing since the all-out conflict breaking out, the room rapidly turned void of all source of light, making it nigh impossible for the two seasoned mercenaries to make out the boy's location. Scrambling to the walls as a last-ditch effort to not be flanked and killed, they both scanned the dark room diligently for some means of fighting back.
However, their resistance was futile. Being deprived of their visual senses the entity commenced its next round of attack.
The first to be taken out was the guard that first erupted into crazed gunfire, being quickly overtaken and impaled through his chest in one fluent motion. The sharp claws on the boy's transformed, remaining arm tore and plunged into the guard's body, despite the reinforced vest that resided over his torso, it did absolutely nothing to guard against such a supernatural attack.
Dragging the still alive and struggling guard into the shadows, the boy vanished, leaving the remaining guard alone, and giving him the time to change magazines and letting him once again resume his frantic gunfire due to the horror and dread he was experiencing.
While this transpired, Lucien's body that was still controlled by this unknown entity was already at the other end of the room with the now deceased body of the first guard, currently in the process of tearing off the very same right arm of the guard that he himself lost and placing it in the location where it used to be.
Small miniature spiderweb black tendrils latched onto the flailing adult limb, temporarily substituting the loss of his own arm. As the black tendrils connected, the veins on the dead limb swelled and just like his left arm, the arteries turned a deeper shade of black. The process, while fast, made a lot of gore-filled sounds that resonated throughout the room, further affecting the already unstable psyche of the remaining guard.
As all this was going down, at the other side of the door the bespectacled woman was watching his screens with keen interest. Although the equipment was destroyed by the boy-turned-monster, she still received her invaluable endless stream of numeric data. She didn't care about the loss of a soldier, nor about the second that was just about to join his friend. What mattered to her, were the incredible discovery. This could be the breakthrough she was working on since joining the Director, Mr. Jacobson.
Once the limb was completely assimilated, the entity examined it to confirm if it was still usable. Seeing nothing wrong with it, he returned his attention to the last remaining target in the room. Although hidden by the obscure darkness, a vicious smirk crept up on his face, he charged towards the madly spraying guard with flaring murderous intent. Merely a moment later, he appeared in front of the distraught guard and cleanly separating his torso from his body in one, clean, unobstructed motion, causing the upper half to slowly separate and fall down to the floor.
Now, that he has successfully dispatched all perceived hostels in the vicinity, the entity crouched down and leaned over the corpse of the guard.
"FEEEED… I NEED TO FEED…."
Saying it in a more frantic manner, Lucien's jaw grotesquely dislocated. His teeth became jagged, he lunged forward with an agape maw and began to rapidly devour the body of the man. His body was just as rapidly beginning to regenerate as he continued to assimilate the mass of his victim.