"So you finally showed your true colors, V-1." Zahak glared at V-1.
"Hahaha, it's funny hearing that from a demon in human skin..."
"How did... No, that explains a lot. So you were the one who really shielded Death Watch from my mind control. That explains a lot. So what are you? I know for sure you're not—"
Before he could finish, V-1 used the two chains around his arms to strike Zahak in an X-shaped attack. Zahak quickly shielded himself with a force field, causing the chains to wrap tightly around it.
"It's rude to interrupt someone when they're talking," Zahak said with a smirk.
"You just talk too much." V-1 guided his fire along the chains, making them unbelievably hot. Surprisingly, the chains did not melt.
"Hah! Is this all you've got, V-1? I thought more of you." But Zahak's smile didn't last long as V-1's fire-infused chains shattered the force field with ease, like grass burning in a fire.
"WHAT THE—" With inhuman speed, Zahak opened a portal beneath himself, reappearing behind V-1 before the chains could touch him.
"Die." Zahak uttered the word, his voice amplified into a massive shockwave that sent V-1 flying. The wave destroyed many areas in the base, including Zahak's office, obliterating everything inside—even the camera the team was watching from.
"Damn, that was crazy. Who do you think will win?" S-1 asked, eating his popcorn.
"V-1, definitely," A-1 said in his usual flat voice.
"Nah, I think Zahak's got this. Who knew he was a wizard? Dude's in his villain arc."
"What?" A-1 asked, confused.
"Nothing, dude. So what's up, E-1? You good?" S-1 patted E-1 on the back.
E-1's eyes were wide open, his heart pounding fast.
"No... no... no, no, no, no! What is going on?! Why... why..." E-1 was full of confusion and anger.
"E-1? Dude, are you—"
"No. No, dude. Shut. Up. Can't you take anything seriously in your fucking life?" E-1 stood up, his hands pressed against the table.
"I am taking this seriously—" S-1 sounded serious this time but was cut off.
"Oh sure you are. You never did take anything seriously in your pathetic life, S-1, did you?"
"What are you trying to say, E-1?"
"I'm saying you're fucking pathetic, S-1. Losing your own squad because of your incompetence, and the only way you can cope with it is by acting like a dumbass. You're FUCKING PATHETIC, S-1! YOU WERE ALWAYS PATHETIC, ACTING MORALLY CORRECT IN FRONT OF ME WHEN YOU KILLED KIDS WITH YOUR OLD SQUAD."
"..." S-1 didn't say anything; he just looked at E-1 with dead, empty eyes.
"I know all of it, S-1. Your missions, your squad, your formations, your teamwork, your relationships—I know everything about it. I know your cynical views. I know all about it. So shut up and fuck off. The Death Watch is over. Zahak was planning something like this anyway."
"..." When E-1 looked at the chair where S-1 had been sitting, it was empty. There was no sign of A-1 either.
E-1 sat down again, overheating the reactors of the facility and activating every automaton, setting them hostile to everyone.
"This should buy time." With that, he gathered the most important items from his workshop, took all the information in the base, and looked around one last time before closing the door forever.
Div's POV
It... hurts... it hurts... I can't... it hurts too much... m-my... head... stop... stop... it... please... I-I... can't...
...
Wah!
W-where am I?! Mirrors? Why are there mirrors...? I'm back here again, in my mind? But why?
"Because I had no choice."
"What?" I stood up and looked at the mirror, seeing my old self again, his face still blurry. I couldn't quite make it out.
"...how did I even end up here? I thought my head was—"
"Being destroyed over and over again? Well, that's true, but we aren't in a brain technically."
"What are you talking about?"
"Look, I'm not here to explain how our soul, body, and mind work. I'm here to help us avoid turning into kababa every second."
"Fair point, but how? We're stuck here in our own mind, and as far as I know, we can't do anything here."
"That's because we aren't strong enough to negate that part. At least that's my theory."
"What are you talking about? We can't do anything right now besides—wait, you don't mean..."
"...Yes, it's the only way."
"No, no, no! Absolutely not! I'm trying my best not to be like any of them and you expect me to do that?!"
"What choices do we have? Sit here and wait for Zahak to kill us? No. We have to prioritize survival."
"But—"
"Stop with the 'buts' and 'what ifs.' Are you just going to sit here and do nothing until you die? Look, we didn't get a second chance just to die again because you're scared of being immoral."
"That's beside the point! I just don't want to be a hypocrite!"
"WAKE UP, KID! This is the real world. Everyone is a hypocrite or a monster in one way or another, but we're different. We do this for the future of paradise. Being a hypocrite isn't important right now; survival is."
"...There isn't another way, is there?"
"If there was, we would've done it already."
"..."
It took me a minute to finally say it.
"Alright, I'll do it."
"Good. Just don't listen to them."
I nod and close my eyes, and the next time I open them, I'm standing in front of a lever. I guess this is my mind shielding? It doesn't matter. I can hear voices outside the metal box I'm in. I know these voices—the voices that I devoured before, the voices that screamed as my teeth dug into their flesh.
I put my hand on the lever and immediately feel their discomfort. The souls outside are begging me not to do it, but this is what I have to do.
"I'm sorry."
It's the only thing I can say. Even though I robbed them of their lives, I never wanted their suffering. Something so pointless, yet now I need it more than ever. Heh, ironic, isn't it? Someone trying to make a paradise in the world is creating hell first. He was right—I really am a hypocrite.
With all my strength, I pull the lever down, and I can hear them all. I can hear everything—their suffering, fear, anger, hate, despair. I can feel it, see it, smell it.
I close my eyes, letting my control go, allowing it to take over, because I know I can't take this anymore. Please, just let me sleep.
.
.
.
The head inside the box had no light in its eyes or any living cells in its body, but somehow, it was still alive.
The head grew its nerves, multiplying, gripping the outside of the box and pushing itself off to the ground.
It crashed with a sickening crack as its face broke from the impact, but surprisingly, it regenerated all and built its body back up. It started with its face, then the torso, after that the hands, and finally the legs.
It stood up, its body twitching, its eyes lifeless. Its body still had no life, but it moved. It took a single step, and the souls screamed. They cried, they begged, they were scared—stuck in a never-ending nightmare. Their voices echoed inside the white room with no door or window in sight.
It didn't care. It moved, though its movements were sluggish, like a zombie trying not to fall. Every second or so, it moaned in pain as the spikes killed its brain.
It stood in front of one of the white room's walls. It placed one hand on the wall, letting its flesh move over it. The flesh expanded to every corner of the wall. The flesh ate away at everything, and the wall crumbled soon after to nothingness. It took one step outside and...
"FIRE!"
A barrage of bullets and plasma shredded it. Its head was completely destroyed, its arms and legs cut off, its torso left with only some bones. It fell to the ground, unrecognizable from the human skin it once had.
"Ceasefire!"
The facility fell silent. The white room, which was just a bigger box inside an empty facility, lay half intact. There were approximately 100 soldiers—50 on the railing and 50 on the facility grounds. All of them had high-tech power armor and plasma guns or assault rifles, their hands on the trigger, waiting for orders.
"Something is off,"
the commander said to himself. He was ordered by the archbishop not to let Div escape and to waste its time before the archbishop himself dealt with it. But wasn't Div supposed to have powerful regeneration? He knew that much from the information they were given, but what he was seeing now was nothing like that. Was the information wrong? Did the archbishop make a mistake? And suddenly, he understood.
"It's acting dead! Fire!"
the commander shouted, but no one moved or shot at the body.
A sound echoed in the facility—the sound of flesh falling to the ground.
One by one, the soldiers fell, their torsos cut in half as their upper bodies fell to the ground, making fountains of blood with each fall.
"What is happen—"
the commander couldn't finish his words as he fell shortly after. The facility, once full of soldiers, now resembled a slaughterhouse, with rivers of blood covering the ground.
A sickening sound of bones and flesh echoed in the facility. It started to readjust its body. It grew flesh and bones, but the flesh color was different this time, it had a purplish hue while the bones remained white. It didn't regenerate any skin to cover its body. Its face had no cheeks or nose; instead, they were replaced with a massive mouth shaped into a smile with no lips, displaying its shark-like teeth to everyone. Its eyes were replaced with two dark and empty sockets, each with a glowing purple light. Its hair and nails grew long and purple.
It stood up, revealing its height to be 2 meters tall.
"Hehehehehehe."
It started giggling to itself, its eyes glowing even more intensely as it looked at its dinner. With no hesitation, it dug into the flesh of the fallen soldiers.