All bandages on his chest were red. Mostly the blood of the surgeon, but some were wounds that slightly opened up from the altercation.
"So tiring..."
To the point where he almost didn't care about what he needed to do next.
'I want to sleep.'
Letting out a sigh, 'Preferably forever.'
...Not really.
Painfully pulling himself from under the body, Syllian rolled to his side and let himself relax for a moment.
After making sure that the side wasn't anywhere near that black stuff, obviously.
"Why did you kill him!"
The man's voice returned him to the real world.
...Maybe not real.
'You see, I did have you blacklisted.'
'But... I'm a hypocrite you know?'
"He... He was-"
Fighting his words through the exhaustion, Syllian jumbled together his sentence after a solid more minute of rest:
"-the murderer."
The bandaged man paused, then spoke with shock staining his voice, "What!"
Coughing through his stinging lungs, Syllian explained to the man:
"The meticulous- Cough! -ability to tear down his victims piece by piece, the ability to- Cough! -silence the victim, preventing them from making any- Cough! -noise. And the perfect understanding of the human- Cough! -body and the precision of his 'artwork'."
Relaxing his throat, Syllian finished it off with:
"Understand now?"
Silence passed between them for a second, allowing the combat below to fill it instead.
"Yeah..."
While listening to his response, Syllian picked himself up using the desk beside him, flinching from the random bouts of pain.
His body wasn't looking too good.
Staggering around, the boy waved his arms around as he fumbled through the air with his vision covered in stunning beautiful lights.
After a few seconds, his vision returned, letting him stand properly.
"H-h- Cough! -how can I trust you- Cough!"
Glancing at the strapped, bandaged man, Syllian disappointedly sighed and stumbled forward, barely landing on the bed beside the man.
Regaining his breath, "Yesterday, or the day before? I don't remember properly which, I saw him injecting you with something through the gap in the door."
"Huh?!"
"I don't know if you were awake or not, but he definitely did something to you too."
Giving the man a worried look, Syllian pointed to his left arm, "It was there."
The man looked to his left arm in worry, and Syllian, as the great, benevolent being he was, offered to take a look.
"Want me to check?"
"Sure."
Peeling himself off the bed, Syllian staggered around the bed as he slowly recovered, and arrived near the man's left arm.
It was quiet.
Not just the atmosphere between them.
Even the noise from downstairs.
The fighting...
It had ceased.
Looking at the man's barely visible eyes and mouth, he turned his eyes to his arm.
"Should I open it, will you be fine?"
"Sure."
'Ah...'
Syllian wanted to laugh, desperately so.
Just how ridiculous was this situation?
It was so fake, both his and the man's responses.
It was palpable how fake it was.
'Isn't that right, Mr Source?'
The only difference was, he knew exactly what they were, and they didn't know what he was.
Or how much he knew.
Syllian slowly placed his hand on the man's left arm.
[Second Trial]
[A gift of mutiny plagues the ship, unravel the source.]
How simple.
How obvious.
It gave it to him from the beginning, not only that, it placed him in the same room as it.
At first, Syllian found it confusing. A gift? Plague? Unravel it?
With the constant mayhem, the deaths, his confusion and the new environment he was in; he was misdirected perfectly.
Just like the Captain.
A murderer?
Yeah, he thought so too at the beginning.
Perfectly calculated murders began occurring in ways that only someone extremely familiar with the human body could perform them.
It was obvious, too obvious.
Everything pointed at the surgeon, Mr Rinton.
And that's where Syllian found it odd.
Why was it so easy to figure out?
To the point where even the Captain could do so?
To the point where even the Captain was suspicious?
'Simple really.'
Because the real answer was sitting in front of him all along.
The gift wasn't a figurative one, it was a literal one. But it should be interpreted as a present or a surprise.
A surprise that infiltrated the ship.
Syllian slowly unwrapped the bandage around the man's arm, carefully looking at his face to make sure he was in no pain.
The man nodded, telling him to proceed.
The gift of mutiny plagues the ship, meaning a being has infiltrated the ship, and spread its plague around the ship to incite a mutiny.
A literal plague, not a figurative one.
The black centipedes.
...And the murders.
They weren't murders.
They were suicides.
Otherwise, the surgeon, if he was really the murderer, would have picked up the centipedes instead of leaving them there, that was an unnecessary risk to take.
Syllian finally got the first bandage off, revealing a bit of burnt, shrivelled skin.
[Unravel the source]
Unravel.
He thought it meant finding the source at first.
No. No. No.
It meant what it said.
Unravel it, reveal it, open it.
The bandages, that is.
It was curious how it all worked.
It called the Mutant invader a gift, and placed him, another gift, in the same room as the first gift.
'How ridiculous.'
The Source looked at him, "H-how is it...?"
"It looks normal for now."
The Source let out a sigh of relief:
"Thank goodness..."
Syllian clenched the bandages, and with the kindest, but ugliest smile he could muster:
"Indeed."
And pulled, ripping the bandages off of the Source's body.
But as Syllian pulled the bandages off, he noticed an odd, grey bandage flying off too. It wasn't dirtied like the rest, it remained pristine even in this scenario.
Syllian paid it no heed, and what was hidden beneath was finally revealed.
On the abdomen of the infested man; squirming, worm-like dark flesh wriggled within, and the head of a centipede with 3 pairs of mandibles screeched as the light attacked its detestable face.
Patches of black spread from the head growing from inside-out the man, rippling like waves of centipedes through the man's skin. It looked like many new sets of black, living veins had been implanted within him.
"Human-!" Its screeching, hornet-like voice pierced Syllian's eardrums.
Syllian though, didn't stop with his plan. He didn't want to die because of a moment of hesitation.
His left hand punched at the centipede's head without pause, straight to the mandibles, to the salivating mouth, and the black, corrupted spittle.
Pah!
A soft, slimy black tentacle spewed out of the centipede's mouth, wrapping around his left-hand centimetres above its face.
Syllian didn't panic, he, instead, raised his right hand and punched at the tentacle wrapping around his left hand.
But-
'It's not a tentacle.'
-a second one flew out of their mouth, now wrapping around his right hand, freezing him on the spot.
The tentacles were, in truth, smaller centipedes.
'Same as the one I killed.'
They didn't go on to infect another 2 people, they returned to their owner instead.
Syllian had no clue how many it could use at once, but he knew there were at least 4 before, and now there were at least 3.
1 was behind him, and the other 2 were holding onto him.
"Human-! How-! Know-!" The centipede head screeched at him, demanding answers.
In its twisted mind, its plan was perfect.
And Syllian had to admit, the plan was good.
But no plans were perfect.
He had the advantage of information.
"You don't need to know."
But it also had the advantage of information.
"I-! Need-! To-! Know-!"
Syllian smiled even in his precarious situation, his left hand slowly twisting as he spoke.
"Why didn't you use the Quartermaster to investigate me then?"
The centipede suddenly paused, "How-! Know-!"
'Bingo.'
There was a 5th one, the Quartermaster.
Of course, it all made sense now.
How did it avoid getting caught this whole time?
Using the information provided to it through the Captain and the authority of the second in command.
Syllian obviously had no clue the Quartermaster was actually an infected one, that was just a wild guess he threw out.
But this thing didn't need to know that.
Syllian abruptly felt something odd twist in his heart.
'Huh?'
That sensation, what was it... What did he forget...
"How-! Know-! Tell-! Me-!"
This thing was unrelenting, some spit even landed on his right thigh. Fortunately, that was still covered by his pants unlike his torso and left thigh.
"Figure it out." Why would Syllian explain anything to this bastard? But at the same time, he needed to attract its attention.
"Think about it, you're smart are you not?"
Pah!
A third pressure suddenly landed on his feet, tying him down completely.
However; just like it lacked information on Syllian, Syllian lacked way more information on it.
Specifically, the level of intelligence of Mutants.
Swoosh...
A cold breeze suddenly slammed into the room from the corridors.
"What's wrong? Can't figure it out?" Syllian continued pestering the bug while his left hand never stopped shifting.
Its mandibles clicked together as the Source ran its vile gaze up and down his body.
Syllian almost let out a smirk as his plan almost came to fruition.
Until it spoke again.
"Dumb-! Human-! This-!"
It then smirked...
"-Was all a lie."
...and spoke fluently.
Syllian heart sunk to the pits of his stomach, a freezing sensation washing over his drained body.
Struggling to keep a straight face, an ugly scowl appeared on Syllian's face.
'I'm such an idiot! Of course it can talk, its been doing that all along!'
"What, you thought I'd struggle to talk? Idiot. Kekeke!"
Its mandibles clattered together in amusement.
And at the same time, the thing Syllian felt was missing finally returned.
The noise of fighting.
It disappeared a while ago.
And the sound of wind blowing...
"The Quartermaster!"
One of its mandibles rose in a smirk-like way, "Not so dumb, I guess."
'It got me from the very beginning.'
'It knew.'
'From the moment I attacked the surgeon.'
Somewhere from the innards of The Adler, a vague figure flashed through corridors. The wood around them seemed to bend as the man wearing a brown long coat ripped a path through the veins of The Adler.
Corner after corner.
Illan, no, the Source was rapidly approaching.
Syllian adapted his plan on the spot, "Since when did you know!"
"Kekeke! The second you looked at the surgeon when you stood up, you can't hide your feelings as well as you think!"
'That bad?!'
His left hand struggled even more, this time his right hand struggled as well.
And his feet.
He pulled all his muscles as hard as possible, attempting to escape the restrictions.
"Useless."
It constricted the centipedes around his limbs harder, stopping him from moving further than an inch.
But an inch...
His left hand slipped slightly, his fingers reaching for a string sewn into his sleeve that connected to something within.
...was enough.
And he pulled.
The lid covering his flask ripped open, sending all the contents within flooding out.
Over the centipede tying his hand, and most importantly-
"NO!"
-into its face and mouth.
The Source screamed and roared in agony, a guttural bellow that came from the depths of its corrupted self echoed through the room.
"You bastard! BASTARD!"
"Hahaha! Fucked! Get fucked!"
Syllian laughed dementedly, a sense of satisfaction and gloating rising from his throat and into his eyes as he stared at the Mutant.
The Source looked into his eyes too.
It was over for it, it escaped from this water in the first place. And now that it was weakened, and attacked by the water again, it had no way to survive.
"I'll kill you! No, not just you!"
It paused, then shrieked with the loudest voice it could muster:
"All of you!"
Syllian didn't know if it would work, but he made a bet, and it paid off.
Now, however, he had to pay for his errors.
The Source glared at him ruthlessly, and then, it curled up.
'Huh?'
It locked itself in a black, sealed box.
From behind him the sound of the wind exploded-
BOOM!
-blowing the door apart.
A fitting buzzcut, a brown long coat, and a middle-aged, elderly visage.
The Quartermaster, Illan.
But, he didn't attack.
Instead, the man looked at him with eyes that were filled to the brim with darkness.
All signs of humanity had disappeared.
He smiled, then said.
"You can live-"
Syllian didn't believe it for a second, and he was right to do so.
Its smile suddenly rose.
Further...
And further...
Ripping through its flesh until it carved the way for a new and improved mouth.
"-alone."
It didn't attack him, no.
Instead, it turned and faced the direction of the door leading to the upper deck...
And dashed towards it.
It didn't plan on killing him this easily.
Oh no no no...
It wanted to deny him of his humanity.
Leave him stranded on a ship he could not man on his own.
And slowly starve him to death.
Or worse, get attacked by a swarm of Mutants while hopeless and get shredded apart.
'I messed up.'
Syllian bitterly looked at the centipedes tying him that were quickly dying.
'I messed up badly.'
Just a few seconds later, the centipedes died.
Leaving him free.
But the main head was still alive, albeit slowly dying.
And the door leading to the main deck-
BANG!
-broke into pieces.