Survival.
That is what most revenants focus on.
After all, they were all trapped by a wall of red mist that served as the lid of a huge garbage can of a city. No, calling it a city might as well be a way to sugarcoat it. It was just remnants of a place where people used to live.
Anyone coming close to the mist will go through maddening pain and have their mind broken within seconds. Monsters that used to be other people just like them were their only company, even the lost ate their own kin without any hesitation. Drying blood springs made blood beads, the blood to stave off thirst, scarce, and thus everyone lived at the border of insanity.
Humans suddenly woke up from their death to this world as revenants, others chose to become part of it themselves, although when they did, it wasn't an apocalypse but a war.
A war that they don't know if they even won once they gained consciousness and saw sh!tshow of a city.
Information about what has led to the state of the city isn't exactly clear, Cerberus not willing to verify anything also led to the truth being much more obscure as nothing but word of mouth has shaped most of it.
Surprisingly, a lot of information wasn't reliable even from the first revenants awakened during the war. A great quantity of them were used as cannon fodder and that led to them losing a lot of memories.
However, there are some revenants willing to look for it—an answer to a question that many have given up on.
Gustav is a man with long dark hair that reaches down to his shoulders and dark brown eyes. He had the firm frame of anyone who exercise regularly and wasn't good-looking or ugly, just an average Joe. Despite his unremarkable appearance, he wouldn't want it to be any other way as it helped his profession quite a lot.
He was an undercover reporter who took pride in his work, and who hoped to catch a glimpse of the new medical research from the government. Some of his sources said that it had begun medical trials.
Science has advanced quite a lot. And in turn, so had medicine. People could recover sight with cybernetic implants, lost limbs could be replaced with new prosthetics composed of artificial muscle fibers that offer just the same if not better, functions than a normal limb. Most diseases became inconveniences unless they were at a late stage where the person had a few weeks to live or people with rare and severe birth defects.
Many of these advances were byproducts of a race that the governments of many nations had in creating supersoldiers before the start of a 3rd world war. Of course, not many knew what was really happening behind these experiments other than the growing tension between the countries around the world was increasing day by day.
The public had very little, if not any at all, access to military-grade products and any knowledge of them as they were kept secret by the government. One could say that some of these advancements were still called 'Science-fiction' by the masses.
Some governments focused their research and resources on androids, others on power armor, and various focused on enhanced humans by genetic or cybernetic means.
Between the new revolutionary discoveries of medical science, one shinned a bit brighter than the rest. One that finally broke through the human limit successfully. Or that was what he heard, at least.
Limbs could be artificially substituted, lost organs could be recreated with science, and senses could be improved with cybernetic implants and prosthetics. However, the healing ability to regrow any of those wasn't that close to coming true, much less anything resembling immortality or successful anti-aging formula.
Nonetheless, Gustav was compelled to verify some rumors he had heard.
Alas, he had not even taken a few steps out of the airport when the Great Collapse happened.
It was unexpected, one would guess that such disturbing spikes which devoured everything standing above them would make an earthquake.
But they didn't.
The cab that was supposed to take him to his hotel was pierced right in front of him. He could still hear the glass of its windows shattering and cutting the arm he used to cover his face as the scream of pain and fright of the driver was cut short.
He heard the airport building crumble under its own weight as the thorns of judgment swallowed its foundation right behind him before darkness overtook his mind, death appearing to be instant.
However, one day, he suddenly woke up in a ruined city with no idea of what happened in an abandoned medical facility.
Slowly, years passed, and deaths were experienced. He had met many people, some were monsters who wore human skin, and others were lost souls searching for a way to live… but there was one remarkable young man he met once.
A remarkable person whose kindness was punished for this world didn't seem to deserve any. Gustav couldn't do anything at that time, but there was one thing he could do now.
He searched for the truth, even if it took him to the worst places in the Gaol of the Mists.
That was why he was here. Standing on a pile of death called Dried Up Trenches searching for more hints of what had really happened during the Great Collapse and Operation Queenslayer. Throughout the years, he has accurately guessed that the situation everyone found themselves in was nothing but a manmade disaster.
About the horrors that appeared when the world turned upside down and the revenants created to stop them. How people who should've been left to their peaceful rest had their graves pillaged to just be another asset for a war they weren't part of, to begin with.
He was disgusted at what lengths Cerberus was willing to go to, but it was because of those extreme measures humans still lived today. As much as sick to the stomach he was with this information, he knew better than oppose the government.
However, that wouldn't stop him from voicing any criticism. People need to be presented with the truth.
"Let's see." So he searched the outside of the cargo ship. One that supposedly had documents and components that should've been delivered to one of the military facilities within the city before the collapse.
Almost the entirety of the ship had been buried under the dead coral, only part of the haul visible. It took many weeks of deductions to find the proximity of its location within the destroyed bay, one month to find the vessel itself with the mountains of other boats around, and an entire day to unearth a part of the hull.
The darkness of a cloudy night around him didn't seem to impede his vision as he knocked on the hull of the ship to find its weakest point. He would preferably enter through the boat deck after excavating more of the dead coral, but the Crimson Sword and his party were doing a good job at taking away the attention from him.
"Alright then!" He glanced back to see if the man feared by most rotten revenants was still causing a ruckus with his team before finally deciding on where to enter the ship.
He could freely make a hole without caring much for the noise he would make and without the worry of being ambushed by the blue coral demons. Besides, he already had a partner on the lookout just for good measure.
His sword cleaved through the hull, barely being halted by the reinforced steel, and was then twisted slightly to make the opening bigger. Gustav took his sword out of the oxidated hull and grabbed the edges of the new gap, forcefully widening it further. He was no slacker and did have enough resources to bulk up, unlike most revenants starving for blood beads.
His blood code isn't focused on combat, but that didn't stop him from earning an income from trades nor making sure he had the muscle to explore the most perverse terrains this place was plagued with.
The reinforced steel took a bit of effort but it wasn't something that could really stop the strength of a well-trained revenant. It cried and shrieked as it was slowly torn apart, the jagged edges of the opening where Gustav's hands garbed onto slowly wrinkled like cloth, the pipes and other conduits inside the metal wall quickly twisted and deformed.
The reporter silently used his gift in the dark corridor as he entered. He took a step inside the vessel only for him to be welcomed by a vertical angle almost making him fall face-first onto the floor, the cargo ship was buried at an awkward angle under the dead coral.
But all it took from Gustav to solve the problem was to dig his gloved fingers inside the steel walls of the vessel, stopping himself from falling.
Small specks of light exited his body, almost like spores. They spread and shinned their light onto the surroundings. One would usually be in awe of their beauty, but it was a normal occurrence to him.
It's as if he controlled small swarms of white fireflies. Each of their rays of light reflects on each other and clears away the darkness at every angle.
The insides of the ship slowly revealed to Gustav. The metal walls inside the vessel in near-perfect condition harshly contrasted with the remaining bones of a person near the entrance he made a moment ago.
Oxidation bleeds on the surroundings of the remains, unlike the near-perfect state of the remaining hallway. A uniform with black stains covering most of the unrecognizable white uniform garbed the skeleton.
Unexpectedly, there was something yet corrupted and decayed.
"Cerberus… I'm in the right ship!" Gustav saw the recognizable emblem of a three-headed dog spewing fire attached to the clothes of the diseased officer. It had not lost its metallic luster.
It appeared that lady luck had smiled upon him.
While the reporter focused on his treasure hunting, his partner focused on the group far ahead outside the cargo ship.
A black-haired woman not seemingly older than 20 stared at the group led by Louis. Her weird frog-like wide pupil focused on the team of revenants, her eyes never left the Crimson Sword the moment he suddenly forced his way through waves of blue coral devils. The clouds stopped any light from the stars and moon from reaching the ground, but to this girl, it didn't matter as much, she almost preferred it this way.
Normally, any revenant should very much be scared of not only knowing that he was close by but also being accompanied by a team of equally strong teammates. But the girl didn't seem anxious in the slightest.
'He isn't doing much…' Most of the work rested on the three revenants clad in hounds' blood veils and wielding colossal weapons.
Though, one seemed to do most of the lifting. A man with a gas mask with its glass tainted in black, the color of his hair was hard to discern as the lack of light and his entire body being covered in crimson gore made it difficult.
'But that other one is scarier.' She noted the man wielding a heavy battle axe. Unlike the hammer who pretty much sent flying or pulverized his opponents and the swordsman bathed in blood, he didn't have a single drop of blood on him. Not once had he let the blood spill uselessly during the attacks, he maximized every single move and situation to his advantage.
She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't see what the Crimson Sword was capable of, especially after hearing how he took on a whole camp of slave traders recently, but seeing the performance of the other revenants did open her eyes a little.
Who would've thought that purely physical revenants could be that good?
'Oh, they are approaching us?' She saw them converse and approach her location.
'At least they had sheathed their weapons… but then again, revenants don't really need weapons to fight…' The girl sighed. From Gustav and personal experience, she had an idea of Crimson Sword not being the bogeyman that others made him to be.
But it was her first time seeing him up close.
She turned to the small bulb of purple light floated to that floated beside her where she took cover behind an odd pile of dead corals. The girl gave it two slight taps and proceeded to come out of her little cover to greet the group of revenants approaching.
Gustav, after receiving the signal from one of his light orbs, comes out from the deformed hull of the boat with a briefcase. His little treasure hunting appeared to be successful.
"Never thought I would see the Crimson Sword out in this place." He greeted Louis by his title.
"I wish I could say the same to you, this place is too dangerous for treasure hunters, even for someone like you."
The researcher and the reporter seemed to know each other, though it wasn't more than acquaintances at the moment.
"I have no plans in dying here so you don't have to worry about my supply." Gustav shrugged, "I already sold most of it my lights to Coco, so I don't have any to spare at the moment in case you wanted some."
Gustav could crystalize his lights and modify them to shine only after being agitated enough. They are basically glowing stones that function as markers for places of interest, a source of light for pitch-black areas or areas already explored by a lot of revenants who travel in the Gaol of the mists.
Rather useful for everyone.
While the two men exchanged greetings, most of the other members noticed the unnamed woman staring at Louis.
'What is going on?' Oliver was left out of the loop. Yakumo was silently snickering while Adam and Yami obviously exchanged stares. Io remained her aloof self as always.
"Well, we don't have much time to chat…" Gustav stared at the sky, rays of sunshine finally coming through.
"It appears so." Louis agreed.
Mere minutes was the short amount of time given to rest for the explorers in the Dried Up Trenches. Blue coral devils will leave as soon as the sun rose while the red ones will surely come out early in the morning to recharge, they always come out as soon as any sun rays begin to bathe the surface.
"Hm. I don't plan on staying any longer, I already got what I wanted. What about you?" There was a proposal in Gustav's inquiry.
One that Louis had to decline.
"We still have things to do." He shook his head. "I'm sure you have noticed the lack of miasma already, but two msitles have been restored not long ago, so it's a bit safer than it was to return back through the path leading to the port on the city."
"... Thanks." Gustav noted, "You should also be careful, the hunter has been gone rampant again. It wouldn't be strange to see him even in a place like this."
The reporter gave some info back before leaving with his partner.
A short silence took over as the groups went their different ways.
Was the team thinking about the possible appearance of the Hunter? A revenant known only for his kill-on-sight temperament. Or, at least that is what the rumors say.
No one really wanted to confirm the rumors. But one thing was known to all who heard of him, he might as well be the strongest revenant alive. Not even high-ranking officials of Cerberus approach the areas where his location has been recently confirmed.
Maybe the group wondered about what this treasure hunter was looking for in a place where very few have successfully found anything useful. There were different treasure hunters. Some wanted relics of the past like Shang. Others wanted jewels and anything worth money.
A few of them wanted to acquire the technology that Cerberus has yet to reclaim. And those treasure hunters were few indeed, it was a tall order to explore places of the city that Cerberus had deemed too difficult to extract anything worth the resources they would spend on such a chore.
But, apparently, Yakumo wasn't musing about any of those subjects.
"Well well well, Mr. Crimson Sword the heartbreaker at it again!" The ex-mercenary threw his arm over the shoulder of his best friend while wearing a shit-eating grin under his mask and held him in a headlock.
"Nooo…" Louis didn't even fight back. He just seemingly slouched forward, totally defeated and accepting of his fate, wishing to find a hole where he could crawl in and never come out.
"Huh???" Oliver was stunned at what was happening as Adam laughed his ass off with a confused Io at his side.
"No way a nerd like him gets any! The girl was staring at him because of his reputation, that's it!" Yami protested.
"I'll have you know, this gentleman is single by choice!" Yakumo bragged about his unwilling friend. "Girls love this kind of nerd, you know how many hearts have this face broken?!" He ruffled his friend's messy black hair as if he were a plushie.
"But, I guess we shouldn't be talking this carefree in an expedition." Yakumo lets Louis out of his lock, the researcher was rather relieved that the bashing was cut short…
Unfortunately, the relief was short-lived as well.
"That is something we should talk about with a drink." Yakumo smiled.
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Word Count: 2,957
Due to extensive research, I've discovered that Louis appears to have a certain 'Charm' to him. One glance at the FFs in Fanfiction Net and Wattpad will tell you that much.