E/d note: From C54 onwards, I will be trying out a new style of dialogue. You will see it displayed in the chapter. Luke will explain some things about the Abyssal Covenant which covers a few paragraphs. Only the first Paragraph will start with " and then the last paragraph will end with ". So for example:
"Para 1
Para 2
Para 3"
This would indicate that all three Paragraphs were spoken by the same person. I'm doing this because it becomes hard when i have to keep repeating "He said", "He spoke" and etc when it's only 1 person speaking. Additionally, i will try to reduce on my "She exclaimed", "He spoke" and the likes, so if it was a continuous back and fourth conversation between two people, it would look like this:
"Person A" Luke said.
"Person B" Natasha replied.
"Person A"
"Person B"
"Person A"
"Person B"
Without having the need to say who said what for the following conversation paragraphs since we can infer who said what from the flow. (Word count not affected by this lengthy intro.)
'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
(Word count: 1,745)
~ An hour later with Luke and Natasha, in Natasha's previous apartment in Los Angeles ~
Luke sighed to himself as he heard about the events that had occurred the night that he wrote the fifth entry. To hear that the enemy he created, which was meant to be easily dealt with, had killed four people was something that was currently weighing heavily on Luke's conscience.
Thoughts of 'They could have survived if you had told them about the weaknesses' or 'You let them go in blind' had ultimately led to Luke thinking that it was his naivety and selfish thinking that had ultimately led to the death of those agents.
Natasha, through her years of experience, had sensed that her recounting of the events had caused Luke to feel responsible.
"Luke. . ." As she was about to start reassuring him, Luke suddenly raised his hands, indicating for her to stop.
"Don't. I know what you're going to say Nat. But the fact is that I could've saved them if I had just told you guys on how to deal with these creatures." Luke stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
Although Luke had the experiences of causing casualties in the simulated world, through his newly found enhanced mental capabilities, he was able to compartmentalize the experiences he got, thereby those losses did not affect him too much when he returned. However, this time, he had been directly responsible for the deaths in the real world, and not in a simulated experience.
After a long, painful silence, Luke finally spoke up, "Is this the only one you guys faced?"
"It's the only one that we were alerted to." Natasha replied.
Sighing once again, Luke pondered to himself whether he should reveal some things regarding the Messengers or not. 'No, that's not the question I should be asking myself. The question I should be asking is whether I truly want to be involved in this world or just remain a bystander.'
'All this while I've been writing that I would help this world. Telling myself that I am a good person, a hero, in the hopes that I would believe in my own lie. But what have I done thus far? I let Tony get kidnapped and used the excuse of it being a nexus event to let Tony go through it alone with Yinsen, so that he could emerge the hero he was destined to be.'
'I can even let that slide, since the Ancient One would be watching over that event closely. Moreover, I've already dropped some major bombs regarding who could possibly be behind the kidnapping. But then again, I'm not personally doing anything. I'm only hoping that Fury would be the one to take action.'
'And now this. I create a new enemy thinking that it would be easily taken care of. Yet, because I did not want to reveal too much about myself or the enemy, the STRIKE team was unaware of how to deal with the creature, allowing it to go on a rampage undeterred.'
'And though they may know of the weakness now, it was still ultimately my inaction that had caused those fatalities. No. This time, I have to make a choice. How far am I willing to go for this world?'
Thinking to himself once again, a long silence enveloped the atmosphere between Luke and Natasha, who to her credit had remained silent upon seeing Luke deliberating with himself. After another brief pause, Luke made his decision. Leaning forward, Luke adopted a low tone to illustrate how serious the matter of the covenant was.
"The Abyssal Covenant. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know much about them. But I also wasn't telling you the whole truth either. I have fought against these creatures before." Luke started, "I call them, Messengers."
"From what I have known about this cult so far, these creatures were once normal human beings like you and I. They worship an ancient entity, known only as True Demon God. Regarding this God or the man who leads this cult, Marak, I can honestly say that I don't know much.
Except that Marak can somehow use the latent energy in gemstones to power his abilities. What they are thus far? You've already seen one of them. Marak is able to convert a normal human being into a messenger.
He is able to target those with weak wills, seducing them to the allure of power or knowledge. However, it is all a lie. Instead, they are tricked to give up their free will and infected with a curse, turning them into mindless creatures. Creatures who are fully controlled under the orders of Marak."
Another moment of silence ensued, which indicated to Natasha that she could ask her questions at this moment in time. "What can you tell me of these creatures? A couple of our guys were injured by it, could they possibly turn into one of them?"
This was a question that both she and Fury needed an answer for. The lives of the remaining STRIKE Unit Echo members depended on whether this infection of the creatures was contagious or not.
Luke shook his head as he responded, "No, as I've said. They are infected by a curse. I only use the term infected because they would need to be willing hosts to bear the curse. Every cult member of the Abyssal Covenant is willing, and sometimes a weak-willed person will fall into the allure of power or knowledge."
"The only way to be infected is through Marak. A messenger cannot infect another human. This much I can guarantee." Luke stated as he stared into Natasha's eyes, relaying to her how confident he was in his answer. Luke is the creator of the creature, and through the assistance of the system, he already knew the ins and outs of the creature.
Subsequently, Luke asked a question of his own, "Have you done the autopsy on the corpses of the creatures?"
Natasha nodded, "We have. What we found is very disturbing and concerning for the lab guys. Every single major organ had been replaced by eyes and mouths filled with razor sharp teeth. We also concluded that the creature still had the nervous system intact, yet bullets to the body seemed to do no damage to it."
Hearing their findings, Luke spoke up to fill in the gaps in their understanding of the creature, "The creature is not a conventional living creature. It is dead." Luke revealed, which caused Natasha to raise her brows in shock.
"You may shoot at where the brain or heart is, you may also slice off the skull or the limbs of the creature, yet the creature will still remain standing. The eyeballs that appear whenever it's not standing still is where the nervous system is attached to.
Shooting these eyeballs will cause immense pain and damage to the creature. However, if you don't finish them off quickly, this will only enrage them further and puts them into a berserk state once all the eyes had been shot.
There are only two known ways to permanently kill off these creatures. The first is by shooting or damaging the eye at the base of the nape. This eye is special, it will always remain open no matter what. There are some special cases where a mouth is covering the eyes, but you can just shoot the muscle connecting the mouth and it will fall off to reveal the special eye.
The second way is to slice off the head cleanly from the body. But you must be sure that when you do, you slice it off from the base of the nape, where the eye would be. Finally, this special eye is where I personally believe the curse is stored." Luke stated.
"Why do you think so?" Natasha asked, eager to learn more about the new enemies her world would have to face in the future.
"Let's just say that a friend of mine had to go beyond the call of duty to confirm this." Luke answered, further adding to the air of mystery that is his past.
Natasha understood that Luke would not be commenting further on that topic. Instead, she probed for more details, "Is there anything else you can tell me about Marak or this God?"
Putting his hands on his head, Luke leaned back and sat in a thoughtful manner before answering, "Aside from the fact that I have only met this Marak once and have no clue if this God even exists? Then there is only one possibility that I can give. Marak should still be weakened."
Natasha narrowed her eyes, seemingly impatient to hear the reason why.
"I don't know why, nor do I know how, but if Marak was at his full strength, he would have sent more than just one messenger to the store. This means that he is weakened. Or maybe that's what he wants us to think so." Luke explained.
Suddenly, Luke grabbed one of Natasha's hands as he held it gently in between his and spoke in a solemn manner, "Listen Nat, if you ever get sent on a mission by SHIELD to deal with one of these creatures, please tell me. I can not in good conscience let you handle it by yourself."
Natasha smiled as she rebutted his concern, "I'm no pushover myself, you know? Or did you forget that I'm a badass superspy that can match you bullet for bullet in marksmanship? I can handle myself just fine."
However, Luke remained steadfast, holding his concern as he spoke, "Nat, the attack this time was just a singular creature, what if next time it becomes a horde?" Luke disclosed as he tightened his hands slightly, anxiety flickering in his eyes.
Seeing Luke's reaction, Natasha's smile softened as she placed her other hand on top of Luke's hands, "Fine, I will, Luke. Thank you."
After a moment, Luke withdrew his hand once he confirmed that he got his point across to Natasha. However, the silence was short lived as Natasha picked up on a particular choice of word that Luke used.
"So, Luke, they can gather into a horde?" Natasha asked, this time with worry evident on her face.
Luke sighed as he nodded, "Yes, a f*cking horde."
- End of Chapter 54 -
Next time in C55 - Natasha gains Luke's trust.
"A f*cking horde Nat. Individually, like I said they are not a problem. But when they move in large numbers, depending on the size. . . Even a Military Division might not be enough."
.
.
.
Luke then leaned forward as his tone turned serious, "Listen Nat, I know you and the people you work for are trying to look for my past. You can't. And you will never find it. I'm not telling you anything when I say this Nat, but the covenant is not from this world."
Natasha pretended to be confused as she questioned, "This world?"
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