{27} - Io: To Be Human Part I
White shone from her arm. Strength surged in her veins. Her eyes narrowed. Her breath went shallow. Her fingers tensed, her grip tight.
Io swung with all her might.
The Butterfly of Delirium screeched as her halberd tore into its left wing. She took a breath, bobbed under a bolt of liquid poison as she pulled her halberd back. She spun on her heel, momentum building, and she swung her halberd onto the Butterfly's chest.
Thick, viscous blood splashed onto the ground. The Butterfly whimpered, its expression of pain disturbingly human as it slouched onto the ground.
She watched it, gaze empty as she raised her halberd.
White shone from her arm. Strength surged in her veins.
Her halberd came down like a guillotine.
The Butterfly's head rolled towards her feet. Its eyes were wide, jaws slightly agape. She wondered if the Butterfly had truly felt fear. If it'd seen her halberd tear into its skin, and felt fear for its life. She wondered if it was just mimicking the Revenants and survivors it'd killed in the past.
She wondered if it even mattered.
[The Skill -Attendant of the Queen's Blood- is degrading!]
Io shook her head. Her thoughts had been wandering these past few days.
She supposed it wasn't all that strange. There was little for her to do as of recently. Sir Evans' Lectures aside, she did little but meander around the Base. Occasionally she'd scour the city in search of supplies, but even that only lasted a few hours.
When Louis proposed to finally make the Ruined City safe, she'd hoped that there would be something to distract her.
She was assigned to take down the Butterfly of Delirium—the giant Lost that made its nest at the Northern edge of the Ruined City. The others had warned her to be careful. The survivors she met along the way cautioned her to turn away. Told her that it was a monster that had taken many other Revenants.
Her wish did not come true. The Butterfly was slow. And fragile. Her first strike had severed its left arm. Her second had torn its wings. Her third had taken its head.
Perhaps she was…spoiled. Sir Evans was much faster. He was kind in his Lectures, but when it came to their [Combat Training], he bared his fangs with no hesitation. His fists would blur, and her vision would be filled with orange if she wasn't careful.
But was it so wrong? She just wanted a good fight. Something that would satiate the dIvinE blOodLuSt bOiling iNside HEr.
She shook her head.
[The Skill -Attendant of the Queen's Blood- is degrading!]
She glared at the notification. It'd been appearing more and more often as of late. Often when she had nothing else to do but ponder.
She let her halberd vanish into sparks. The Butterfly of Delirium was dead. Its decapitated head laid just next to her feet, fearful eyes staring dead at her. She felt another pulse of agony in her chest, begging her to do something, to kill something.
She brought her foot down onto the head. The head splattered onto the ground, spreading darkened blood across the rocks.
The agony faded. Slightly.
She took a breath. The air stank. The poison the Butterfly used had seeped into the stone below, rising into the air as purple fumes. It did little to her. Her Endurance had risen greatly under Sir Evans' tutelage.
[Name: Io]
[Age: - ]
[Level: 1 (100 Mentor Exp until Next Level)]
[Strength: 83 (54)]
[Endurance: 166 (82)]
[Agility: 46 (34)]
[Intelligence: 52 (37)]
[Skill: 56 (41)]
[Magic: 95 (57)]
[Skills: -Attendant of the Queen's Blood Lv 1-, -Blood Code: Eos Lv 5-, -Gift: Enduring Lv 6-, -Halberd Mastery Lv 21-, -Divine Bloodlust Lv 9-]
[Mentor Exp: 17,229]
Of course, the only thing that'd fallen was her -Attendant of the Queen's Blood-. It was a powerful Skill she was soon to lose access to, and yet she couldn't find it in herself to care.
Because those words were wrong. She was no longer an Attendant, nor did she cater towards the Queen.
Perhaps, had fate been true, she would've remained as one. She would've aided the Queen's Knight as normal. She would be there to guide the Knight to find the Queen once more.
That world was not this one. There was no Knight to step up. There was no Queen to save. And she was the one being guided, not the guide. A reversal. Or perhaps irony?
[The Skill -Attendant of the Queen's Blood- is degrading!]
…ah, what had she been thinking of again?
[The Skill -Attendant of the Queen's Blood- has fully degraded!]
[An unexpected Event begins!]
Suddenly, she felt her heart pound. It was so shocking that she nearly tripped on herself. She placed her palm on her chest, and again she felt that thumping coming from within her rib cage.
Her eyes were wide. Something was wrong.
[The System has discovered a Parasite. Beginning purge…]
She gasped as she fell to her knees. Her chest was burning. Her vision was blurring. She tried to pull for her halberd, but she couldn't even muster enough energy to reach into her Inventory.
She could hear the blood rushing through her body. It almost sounded like there was a torrential wave blasting through her veins. If she closed her eyes and listened, she heard what almost seemed like screams.
[The User is compromised. The User's biology is breaking apart.]
She loosened her jaw, just in time for a globule of viscous blood to explode out from her throat. She coughed it out as best as she could. It splashed onto the stone below, landing close to the splatter of darkened blood left behind by the head she crushed not too long before.
Her blood looked disturbingly similar to the Butterfly's.
[Query: The parasite is attempting to kill the Scorned One's Assistant.]
[Query: This is unacceptable.]
She coughed out more blood. And then she coughed out even more. Her blood fell onto the stone as a stream of darkened red, falling from her jaws and her nose and her eyes. Her rags, already stained, were not dark red.
A puddle of viscous red began forming around her.
[Query: Forcefully pulling Data from the Endless Library.]
[Query: Comparing the most compatible match…]
She fell, no longer able to keep herself up. She laid there, coughing out blood as her mind began to dull.
Her chest hurt. It felt like something was squeezing her heart, ready to crush it. It burnt through her throat and her sinuses. It made her eyes watery.
Building tears mixed with the blood escaping from her eyes.
[Query: Match discovered. Designated Race: [Human]. Comparing compatibility with the Scorned One…]
[Query: Match. Beginning transformation…]
And then she gasped. A cooling sensation coursed through her, flushing out the boiling pain she was feeling. It reached every corner of her, from her toes to her finger to every follicle of her hair.
It was a nice feeling. As if she was standing at the balcony of the Base, staring out towards the setting sun.
Distantly, she pictured Sir Evans standing next to her. He would be speaking, telling her tales, explaining concepts foreign to her and this world. There would be a smile on his face, and a smile would pull on her lips as well.
Ah, she wanted to experience it again.
[Query: Transformation complete. Retracting influence…]
Her mind flashed with a thousand images then. Of walking across the world, caked in dust and blood and grime. Of standing next to women just like her, ramrod straight and unfeeling. Of a woman clothed in whites and grays. Of the tired smile on her lips. Of the apologies spilling from her lips, joining with her blood.
More came. Of a world unlike the one she knew. A world threatened by monsters formed by colonies of parasites. Of skies of dark gray and pulsing with purple.
Of a girl, crying amongst corpses. Of an ordinary girl. Of a girl taken away. Of a girl crying out as her body and soul was split and torn. Of a girl. Of a girl. Of a giRl. oF A gIrL. of A GIrL-
Io shuddered. In pain. In sorrow. In terror.
And unnoticed by her, the blood she'd coughed out began to slither. Moving towards the decapitated corpse of the Butterfly of Delirium. It surged into the still bleeding neck, forcing itself inside.
One of the corpse's wings twitched.