Tiny silver stars broke in the rusted factory roof, piercing through the thick industrial smog. Fragile points of light defying the suffocating darkness. As Rozeree stared at those distant pinpricks, she wondered how many days it had been. Each one bleeding into another, a relentless cycle of questions and pain.
Her hands—now raw, bleeding stumps void of nails—trembled against rusted chains. Fragments of torn fabric clung to her battered skin like funeral shrouds, revealing a topography of brutality. Cuts that wept angry crimson, burns that traced jagged memories of pain, bruises blooming in shades of midnight and decay.
Each breath was a battle, her shattered ribs grinding like broken glass within her chest. She inhaled sharp, tasting the metallic tang of dried blood, a brutal reminder of her current nightmare
Corpse's quiet footsteps shattered the stillness. Rozeree stiffened, her chains clinking softly. She wouldn't give her the satisfaction of looking beaten.
"Still breathing, huh?" Her compact frame emerged from the shadows. Raven hair catching faintly in the dim light, her expression unreadable. "Tougher than you look. I'll give you that."
Rozeree's lips curled into a bloodied smirk. "Disappointed?" she rasped, her voice raw from screaming during earlier 'interrogations.'
Corpse ignored her taunt, dragging a rusted metal chair closer. It groaned under her weight ass he settled into it, her petite hands resting casually on her knees. Her demeanor was unsettlingly calm, sending a ripple of unease through Rozeree's battered form.
"I figured a kid like you woulda broke by now. You've got guts." she began, her tone conversational, almost friendly.
Rozeree lifted her swollen face, glaring at her with fierce defiance. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Take it however you want. Makes no difference to me." She sighed deeply, icy blue eyes locking onto hers. "But here's the thing—I've got someone who wants dirt on Wolf. And you seemed like a good place to start. But now?" She shrugged, "you're just not worth the trouble anymore."
Rozeree's jaw clenched as she struggled to keep her breathing steady. "If you think I'm going to beg, you're wasting your time."
A hint of emotion played on Corpse's lips. "You're fascinating. You don't break easy. Makes me almost regret what's next." She gestured vaguely toward the room's heavy door. "The Dreadnoughts are on their way. They've got... creative uses for girls like you."
Rozeree swallowed hard, masking the flicker of fear that surged within her. "So, what? You're just selling me off like cattle?"
Corpse rose from her seat, dusting off her clothes. "You should enjoy your time while you can."
The thought sent ice through Rozeree's veins. The idea of being crushed against their leather bodies saturated with blood and motor oil made her skin crawl. A visceral revulsion rose as she imagined countless savage encounters. But they would have to let her go for an instant. And in that instant it would all be over.
After a few more minutes of silence, a familiar sensation crept across her skin. Electric and primal. Like the phantom whispers she'd known since Greybarrow. The sensation wasn't pain. Wasn't fear. But something deeper. A resonance hummed beneath her synthetic flesh. It started as a tremor at the base of her skull. A cold thread unraveling down her spine, spreading like liquid through her nerves. Her fingers twitched involuntarily. Muscle fibers vibrating with an awareness beyond understanding. It's like when I watched for yokai…but this isn't a yokai coming.
The factory door groaned, a sound like rusted metal being torn apart. Heavy boots echoed against concrete. Each step deliberate and weighted. Corpse's posture shifted, turning to greet her guests. It's time.
Two figures emerged from the shadows.
The first carried a frame so massive he seemed carved from industrial steel. Augmented arms rippled with hydraulic muscle beneath patches of scar tissue. The second moved with a serpentine grace, every motion controlled, a knife spinning between metallic fingers.
"Fresh meat," the knife-spinner murmured, a sound more like a mechanical click than human speech.
"You're late." Corpse said.
"We got caught up with the Ironsides, you know how it is." The largest one explained, voice deeper than any natural human's. He simply stared at Rozeree. Evaluating. Measuring her worth in ways that made her skin want to crawl right off her bones.
The moment their eyes met, Rozeree knew they were the cause of that terrifying tingling sensation. But she shook away the fear. Her moment was coming. And she would not let it go to waste.
The large one stepped forward, his movements mechanical. A glint of metal caught the dim light. Tools. Specialized restraints.
"Reinforced transfer restraints," the knife-spinner laughed. "Can't have her causing problems."
They studied Rozeree with eyes that seemed to strip away layers. Her augmented hands flexed, hydraulics whispering beneath synthetic skin.
Rozeree refused to flinch. No fear. No submission.
They approached her battered form, the chains wrapped tight around the pole. The large one held a set of cuffs made from thick reinforced bands. As he moved the factory's shadows seemed to draw back, giving them space as they began undoing Rozeree's restraints.
"Heard you wouldn't tell Corpse a thing," the knife-spinner giggled, his voice a mechanical rasp, face so close she could smell the alcohol on his breath. "That's good for us."
Rozeree remained silent. Her augmented eyes tracking their movements. Each one was calculated, professional. Seasoned hunters who knew exactly how to handle dangerous cargo.
The world around her—the sound of her chains clicking together, the pain that pulsed through her being—seemed to fade. Everything narrowed to this moment.
Rozeree's mind raced.
Her moment would come.
Her chains fell to the floor.
The world shattered like brittle glass.
Rozeree unleashing a primal fury that transformed her from captive to predator in an instant. Her shoulder struck knife-spinner with the force of a battering ram. The impact sent dust spiraling from rusted rafters. Surprise ripped across the faces of her captors. Their precision momentarily fractured by her savage eruption.
Corpses's punch appeared with inhuman precision. A strike engineered to kill. But Rozeree was already moving. Her visionis calculating trajectories faster than thought. She seized a massive, warped machinery pane and whipped it up as an improvised barricade.
The punch cleaved straight through the industrial panel, hydraulics screaming with brutal force. Metal fragmenting and screeching as her arm burst through the other side. Razor-sharp and dripping crimson. Mere inches from Rozeree's face. Only the twisted panel's bulk and Corpse's short arm preventing her from being skewered by her deadly blow.
The familiar electric tingle crawled across her neck. She spun, synthetic muscles moving with impossible speed, just in time to duck beneath the knife-spinner's slicing arc.
Rozeree's foot swept low, but the knife-spinner launched himself skyward. But she had planned this. In a fluid motion, she spun to her back, synthetic muscles coiling with energy.
Her kick erupted upward—a full-body strike that transformed her into a human catapult. Well trained precision met augmented power. Her heel connected with his chin in a thunderous impact that sent the knife-spinner spiraling higher, his body a ragdoll caught in her violent trajectory.
Corpse was upon her like a mechanical phantom. Expression a blank slate of pure, calculated violence. Her fist descended with hydraulic precision, a crushing blow designed to obliterate. Rozeree's reflexes screamed, her head jerking just before the impact.
The concrete floor exploded where she had just been, the impact leaving a crater that spoke of devastating force.
Before Rozeree could fully rise, the massive Dreadnought materialized beside her. His kick a lightning bolt. The force launched her into the factory wall. The impact was brutal. Concrete fracturing like glass, cracks erupting in all directions. Blood burst from her mouth and eyes. A crimson spray that painted her world in visceral trauma.
Through her sticky-wet hazy, the world transmuted. Lines and colors dissolving into mere phantasmal streaks. Time itself seemed to liquify. Each moment happening before it did.
The knife-spinner rushed forward, his jaw hanging grotesquely askew. Eyes burning with savage intent. But Rozeree perceived the attack before its genesis. She could see his knife sweep toward her neck, a calculated feint. The true strike lurked beneath. A serpentine thrust waiting to erupt.
Simultaneously, the other Dreadnought circled from her side. His leg wound up like a deadly piston, promising a blow that could decapitate with surgical precision.
Rozeree witnessed it all—each trajectory, each muscle twitch—moments before they crystallized into reality. The attacks already executed in some strange realm beyond her perception.
She didn't understand.
But she didnt care.
She wasn't about to squander this impossible advantage.
In a blur of motion, she ducked beneath the Dreadnought's kick. The blow crashed into the knife-spinner's already decimated face with a violent explosion of blood and bone. His body flying away, a broken marionette hurled by the crushing impact.
Simultaneously, her hand snatched his knife mid-air. Redirecting the blade with surgical accuracy. It found its mark with lethal precision, sinking deep into the Dreadnought's skull.
Another geyser of crimson erupted, painting the factory's decay in vivid, murderous art.
Corpse remained, her cold mechanical eyes never wavering. Rozeree's strange ability already fading.
The factory fell silent. Only the drip of water and the faint hum of failing fluorescent lights remained. Rozeree's chest heaved as she stood amidst the crumpled forms of her adversaries. Blood-soaked hair clung to her face. Body screaming in protest with every movement.
Corpse's advance was slow and methodical. Each step silent and predatory. Her eyes held nothing—no rage, satisfaction, not hint of humanity—just an endless void that seemed to devour light itself. Rozeree's heart hammered against her broken ribs as she faced this embodiment of calculated violence.
A strange recognition flickered through Rozeree's battered mind. She's exactly who I want to be… Radiating death with every movement. No fear. No mercy. Just pure power. She raised her fists, stance low and steady, though her legs wobbled beneath her. She's amazing…
Corpse paused a few steps away, tilting her head like a predator evaluating wounded prey.
"Quite the show," she said, her voice flat, devoid of life. "But you know you're not walking out of here."
Rozeree spat blood onto the cracked concrete. "Just watch me."
Corpse struck first, moving so fast Rozeree barely had time to react. A punch aimed at her ribs with the force of a piledriver. Rozeree twisted, letting the blow glance off her side. But pain still shot through her, causing her to stagger.
Corpse pressed the advantage. A roundhouse kick slammed into Rozeree's shoulder, sending her sprawling into a rusted support beam. The impact rang out like a gong, and Rozeree's vision blurred.
Get up! MOVE! She rolled away just as Corpse's fist drove into the beam, denting the metal with a screech. Rozeree forced herself to her feet. Grabbing a length of chain hanging nearby, she sent it arcing toward Corpse's face.
But she caught the chain mid-air, yanking Rozeree forward with inhuman strength. Rozeree stumbled but used the momentum to duck beneath a follow-up strike, twisting the chain around Corpse's waist.
"Predictable," the Dreadnought muttered.
With a violent wrench, she ripped the chain free, dragging Rozeree off balance. She staggered, her foot sliding on an oil slick, and fell hard. Corpse loomed over her, a hand raised for the killing blow.
Not like this! Survive! Her visionis flickered, its tactical overlays erratic, but still enough to highlight the weak points in the decaying factory. Her gaze darted to a precarious beam above, barely holding under the weight of rusted metal scaffolding.
As Corpse's hand descended, Rozeree twisted to the side. The blow barely grazed her head, but split her scalp wide. She grabbed a loose metal rod from the ground and drove it into Corpse's exposed side. Blood and sparks erupted as the rod pierced synthetic plating, and the Dreadnought hissed in pain.
Rozeree scrambled to her feet, her eyes locked on the beam above.
Corpse lunged again, her speed breathtaking. Rozeree sidestepped, grabbing a rusted barrel and shoving it into Corpse's path. She smashed through it effortlessly, but the delay gave Rozeree a chance to leap for the scaffolding.
Her hands slipped on rusted rungs, her body screaming for rest, but she hauled herself up. Below, Corpse moved with surgical precision, following her ascent.
As Rozeree reached the top the scaffolding groaned under her weight. Quickly snatching a rusted pulley, she swung it toward the incoming Corpse, forcing her back.
"You're cornered," Corpse said, stepping onto the unstable beam with perfect balance.
Rozeree smirked, though her vision swam. "Am I?"
With a final surge of energy, Rozeree kicked at the beam beneath her. The decaying metal giving way with a deafening crack, sending her and Corpse plummeting. Rozeree leapt for a dangling chain mid-fall—
Her augmented fingers screamed as they locked around the links.
Corpse wasn't as lucky. She crashed into the rubble below, pinned beneath the heavy debris. Sparks and viscera flew from her body as she struggled to rise, movements jerky and stuttering.
Rozeree let go, landing hard. Her legs buckled, and she collapsed, but forced herself up and began limping towards her foe.
Rozeree grabbed the chain she'd used earlier and wrapped it around Corpse's neck, each link biting into her skin with faint bloody streaks. Corpse's cold, mechanical eyes flickered, still calculating, still searching for an advantage even as her body spasmed under the weight of the rubble.
"Release me,"Corpse hissed. Her voice was distorted now, like a machine about to overload.
Rozeree's grip tightened. Her muscles screamed in protest, pain blending with hot fury in her chest. She planted one bloodied foot against the rubble for leverage, pulling the chain taut.
"You know you're not walking out of here." Rozeree growled, her voice a rasp.
Corpse clawed at the chain, her fingers trembling as sparks flew from her fractured hydraulics. Her voice was crackled with static."You think this is the end? You're… going to die."
Rozeree's breath came in sharp, ragged gasps, but she didn't falter. "Maybe," she said, her voice low, each word dripping with venom. "But it won't be easy."
Corpse's hands dropped, her limbs twitching as the light in her eyes dimmed. Rozeree felt her resistance weakening, but she didn't let up.
With one final, brutal pull, the chain snapped tight, cutting off any last attempt of life. The flickering light in her eyes extinguished completely. Leaving only a lifeless shell.
Rozeree released the chain, letting it fall to the ground with a heavy clatter. She stood over them, chest heaving, blood-soaked form trembling. The factory seemed impossibly quiet now. The echoes of the onslaught fading into the rusted factory walls.
Rozeree pushed herself upright, her legs threatening to buckle beneath her. Her wounds screamed. Her ribs ground together with every breath.
Rozeree stood amidst the wreckage. Her body a form of pure pain.
But then, something shifted. A surge of wild electricity sparked through her veins. Burning hotter than the pain. Euphoria crashed over her like a tidal waves. Each pulse of triumph drowning out the screaming of her shattered body. Her nerves sang. Her muscles vibrated. I did it! The thought burst through her like lightning.
A smile twisted across her face. Her teeth gleaming between bloodied lips. "I survived!" The words erupted, part laugh, part roar. "I killed them all! I AM THE STRONG ONE!"
Laughter tore from her throat. A sound half-wild, half-triumphant. It started low, then built, cascading into a full-throated howl that echoed off the factory's rusted walls. She threw her head back, her bloodied hair whipping, and screamed her victory into the indifferent night sky.