"Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳Ⱨ₳. Ⱨ₳. Ⱨ₳… Ⱨ₳..." Maniacal laughter mixed in with sobs and wails of anguish echoed across the cold server room.
The young man producing said laugh completely disregarded anything happening around him as he remained immersed in his folly holding his love's body as it slowly lost its warmth.
He had just lost his one true love and now he was going to ₮Ɇ₳Ɽ ł₮ ₳ⱠⱠ ĐØ₩₦.
The bellowback that had pursued Matt previously and now heard him again, approached him from behind before detecting that his target wasn't in a stable situation to fight and thus didn't need to waste its fuel on an overkill firebreath.
So it stepped closer and closer to its mourning target.
It didn't expect the young human to suddenly stop mumbling and laughing before slightly turning his head back.
With a voice colder than ice and an empty but sharp look, Matt calmly said, "Shut up, you're annoying." before completely disappearing.
The bellowback tried to find the target but it didn't even have the time to do so before all of its blaze pipes were cut open and his backtank riddled with holes.
Feeling his fuel leaking out from his body, the machine panicked not knowing from where it was being attacked from and ran straight to where it last saw the male human, near the female human's corpse.
Once again, its body got riddled with holes except this time all of them appeared behind it and seemed to keep it from going closer to the female human.
Not having any time to understand what was happening, the machine had its parts ripped off one by one as if harpoons had been shot at him and were now being pulled back out, taking along with them chunks of its body.
Until it collapsed onto the concrete floor from being dismantled alive.
The ghost having committed this slow torture revealed itself behind the carcass as Matt, but something didn't seem right, his body was partially covered with scales converging on his back where a giant hole had been ripped in his clothes leaving his back bare for all to see.
It didn't look human, not even remotely as stumps of flesh fluidly moved around as if they were connected to something long but unseeable.
He walked closer to the dead machines and ripped out any and all parts he deemed useful to enact his revenge.
Blaze containers, fuzes, miniature pumps, the scorpion stinger…
He efficiently dismantled and assembled them in other ways before heading to one of the server rooms exits.
As he reached the stone framed door, Matt took one last look at his beloved and then left to burn it all down.
At first, a peaceful silence returned to the chaotic cauldron, but don't mistake silence for peace, this was just the calm before the storm.
Three resounding sounds abruptly appeared in the distance after his departure, blasting explosions, sizzling fire and a sad interpretation of an energetic music.
Insane, inside, the danger gets me high
Can't help, myself, got secrets I can't tell
I love the smell of gasoline
I light the match to taste the heat
I've always liked to play with fire ♪
Play with fire ♪
I've always liked to play with fire ♪
I ride, the edge
My speed goes in the red
Hot blood, these veins
My pleasure is their pain
I love to watch the castles burn
These golden ashes turn to dirt
I've always liked to play with fire ♪
Play with fire ♪
Play with fire ♪
Fire, fire ♪
I've always liked to play with fire ♪
Oh, watching as the flames get higher
Oh, I've always liked to play with…
Right of passage, classic havoc
Match in the gas tank
Ooh that's ratchet
Unstoppable legendary animals
Digital justice
Now you're gonna know us
Hail to the king and queen of the ruckus
…..
(Play with fire by Sam Tinnesz)
Somewhere else…
Looking around, only a snow plain that extends infinitely beyond the horizon could be seen. It was stained in blood and littered with bodies almost completely frozen in ice hanging upside down by red twisted chains coming out of the snow as if gravity was inverted.
The starless, almost grayed out, night sky was covered up by a giant crimson moon that seemed to be constantly moving but in fact stayed in the same spot, bringing a faint red light to reflect on the snow.
"Where am I ?"
"You should say, where are we?"
Two copies of the same person stood opposite of each other, taking in the fact that this was their first time actually seeing each other.
While they were the same person, one looked like a cold beauty with neat silver hair flowing down her back and an emotionless face that would only show her true self with her love while the other seemed much more chaotic with her unkempt hair, tribal war paint decorating her face and her unrestrained sadistic smile.
"Are you ?... Did we… die ?"
"Hmm… I don't think so. This is where I usually stay when you are in charge of controlling our body. I do get to see through our eyes though and as long as I can see my hubby… Hihi. By the way you have been pretty mean, always keeping me out and not letting me stay with my hubby."
"No he's my hubby."
"Our hubby."
"..."
"ł ₩₳₦₮ ₮Ø ₲Ɇ₮ ØɄ₮ ₳₦Đ ₴ɆɆ ₥Ɏ ⱧɄ฿฿Ɏ! ₮ɆⱠⱠ ₥Ɇ ⱧØ₩ ₮Ø ₲Ɇ₮ ØɄ₮!" Unlike what you would expect, it wasn't the berserk Astrid that shouted out but the cold one as she grasped the other Astrid's mantle and threatened her.
"I'm sorry to interrupt but you have been very… hard to reach, dear Astrid."
Both Astrids were surprised to hear another voice during their quarrel so they looked around them to try and find the culprit.
One of them quickly spotted weird stripes of glitching textures that seemed to split the air in two to let a pixelated person covered by static appear.
And it spoke, once again with it's distorted and irritating voice.
"LΣt mΣ cΛl1brΛtΣ thΣ 1nf0rmΛt10n chΛnΣl s0 thΛt 1 cΛn sΣΣ y0u… Λnd… done."
(Let me calibrate the information channel so that I can see you…And…done.)
The pixelated character became more distinct until it perfectly resembled a human body, both Astrid's were now able to see the corrupted and glitching figure of a thin pale woman with dead white hair dressed in a gray research coat.
Her figure kept on partially switching with static and metallic textures while also distorting the environment around her.
Even while in such a sorry state you could say that she was a beautiful woman with a neat, elegant and smart aura.
"Who the fuck are you !?" One of the Astrid's asked with a deep and threatening growl.
"Uhm wait… Why are there two of you ?" The unknown person seemed baffled.
Not having received the answer she wanted, the berserk Astrid tackled the unknown woman and pinned all of her limbs to the ground with her own.
This time it was the cold Astrid's turn to speak as she came closer to the both of them, "I don't really understand what's going on but I do know this, we are in my territory, my mind, so unless you want us to chain you up and let you slowly freeze to death you better answer our question."
"W-What ? Hold on… I'm supposed to be the one threatening you !" Her frail body kept on twitching and lagging under berserk Astrid's body who spoke with a deranged grin, "Oh yeah ? We don't want to listen to you. I, personally, would prefer to chain you up and cut small chunks of your body one by one so that I can hear your sweet screams."
"What in the world is wrong with you!? Why did you change so much? You certainly were crazy but n-"
Both Astrid's interjected and said in a different yet eerily similar crazy tone, "You took us away from our hubby !"
The female scientist seemed scared out of her wits before a strange green light enveloped her petite body before disappearing.
She now looked completely calm giving off the impression she was a completely different person.
The glitches and static around her intensified and her entire body completely vanished before reappearing a little further away.
"Enough of this nonsense. You… both of you, are now completely at my mercy, let me show you."
The rising red moon that took up half of the sky progressively changed textures before showing a rediffusion of what had happened outside after Astrid got stabbed and collapsed.
Everything was seen from her perspective which made the sight of Matt desperately trying to save her and crying over her dead body even more heartbreaking to the poor girls.
"I have completely expelled all of your blood and replaced it with my special nanites. They are currently rebuilding your body while also redirecting the oxygen in your body without the need of your heart and lungs for approximately three hours. We have about two hours left." The white woman spoke with a small victorious smile.
"What do you mean ? We haven't been here for an hour. And completely changing our body from within… It makes no sense. " , "You purposefully caused and faked our death ! Why would you do that to our hubby ?" Cold Astrid said quietly while berserk Astrid exclaimed in hatred.
"Ha ! This is what you deserve sister ! What? You thought ruining your little ark was all I wanted? Master ordered me to destroy your little army but I would have done so anyway! Little by little, letting you look your comrades in the eyes as their light slowly died out. " The woman laughed evilly as she dreamed of her twisted fantasy before stopping as she didn't receive the expected response.
"..."
"Who are you talking to ?" Cold Astrid asked with a raised eyebrow.
*Cough* "Well, you sis. The great Astrid Bergesen, Army General and pride of the family. And also the bitch that ruined my life."
"..."
"... I… think there is a…misunderstanding… I mean… We are called Astrid… and we did get called Bergesen a few times by the gods or AI or whatever but we don't have a sister… You could say that Rhin, Yeri and so on are our brothers and sisters, but I… don't recognise you… At all."
"Yeah, me neither." Both Astrid's explained
"..."
"Did the memory transferer not work ? Professor Liu Feng was the one that made it so there shouldn't have been any problems…" The woman seemed confused but was quickly snapped back to reality or in this case the mind realm as she received a report from what happened during the real life hour that just went by. "WHAT THE HELL ! WHY IS HALF THE CAULDRON DESTROYED !? MY POWER PLANTS AND ROBOT CONSTRUCTION CHAINS !"
Scrolling through the tablet of light that had appeared in her hand, the scientist quickly discovered the source of all these not so accidental explosions, fires, hacks and breakdowns.
She once again fell into the cycle of unending problems that ruined her life and she knew it.
"That kid destroyed my life's work ! I only just found another corruptor to increase my resources and he's destroyed that one too ! Wait, where is he heading ? Shit he's coming to my holding space ! I-"
"You're fucked." Berserk Astrid laughed
"Nh, very fucked." Cold Astrid continued with a little laugh.
1882 words
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I want to play a game, if you are able to find all the references in my story you get a bonus chapter next week, easy right :p