The hospital lobby had become a Boschian nightmare. Patients sank like flies in amber, their arms frozen in desperate arcs above liquefying tiles. Fourth-floor VIP wards offered temporary sanctuary, the carpeted floors delaying whatever curse consumed the building.
"Windows!" The senior nurse's epiphany cut through panic. "We can—"
"JUMP!" The junior nurse surged up, raw palm dripping on carpet fibers. "Fourth floor's survivable!"
Bedridden Anna's cough interrupted. "Sheets... curtains..." She gestured weakly at furnishings. "Make ropes."
The younger nurse moved with feral efficiency - ripping drapes, dragging the gasping girl from bed.
"Madness!" The senior nurse caught Anna's frail form. "She saved you from—"
"My wedding's next month!" Bloody fingers knotted linens. "This... this is demonic! I won't die here!"
As the makeshift rope anchored to a wall cabinet, the senior nurse grasped the betrayal. "You'll strand her!"
"Hand injury... can't grip..." The junior's smile twitched. "I'll send help!"
They watched her descend via crimson-stained curtains, betrayal hanging heavier than any body weight.
"That bitch!" The senior nurse hissed, guiding Anna to the window. "Listen carefully—"
"AAAAHHH!!!"
The junior nurse's scream pierced the night. Half-embedded in the hospital's devouring facade, her torso protruded grotesquely from second-floor masonry. "Save me!!"
How? The senior nurse's knuckles whitened on the windowsill. Last time I pulled her back... but this? The building itself had turned predator.
Three quick raps shattered the stalemate.
The Bandaged Woman materialized like specter, her plague doctor mask tilting toward Anna. "Leon's sister. Extraction protocol."
"Please!" Anna gripped the senior nurse's hand. "Take her too!"
The Woman's masked nod held military precision. At the window, she paused at the junior nurse's predicament. "Allied personnel?"
"YES!" The trapped nurse shrieked. "TELL THEM I—"
"No." Anna's interruption rang clear. "Priority evacuation: Senior Nurse only."
With inhuman strength, the Woman lowered the 50kg woman using curtain-cables, then cradled Anna like porcelain. "Your brother awaits—"
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Wall-mounted cabinets sheared from bolts. Three hundred pounds of medical steel torpedoed downward along the escape line—directly toward the Woman's unprotected back.
"ANNA!!!"
Leon's cry froze in his throat as the girl plummeted. Through the scope, time dilated - his sister's pale face framed against concrete rushing upward, chestnut hair whipping like battle standards. The world narrowed to her fluttering hospital gown and the lethal calculus of terminal velocity.
KRAKOOM!!!
The hospital belched glass shrapnel. Reinforcing beams twisted skyward like tortured sculptures, raining debris onto ambulances below. Yet against physics' cruelty - a miracle. Anna's descent arrested mere meters above pavement, suspended by... something.
"Alive." Leon's whisper fogged the ocular lens. The Bandaged Woman's silhouette moved behind fourth-floor wreckage, her soulfire blazing steady amidst chaos. "You magnificent—"
'Trouble brews.' The Ebony Capricorn's mental growl carried rare gravity. 'That impact wasn't random. The Corruptor anticipated our moves.'
Leon's relief curdled. Indeed - the hospital's awakening soul, the timed structural collapse... Coordinated assault.
'Abyss Watch has enemies?' He projected while tracking Anna's stretcher-bound form. 'Demons? Gods?'
The demon's barked laughter vibrated his sternum. 'Demons. Elder Things. Celestial bureaucrats. The First Folk who walked when your ape ancestors still swung from trees. United, they'd pulp your precious Bureau.' A pause. 'Fortunately, they hate each other more. Last millennium, the Star-Eaters sold out their own broodmother to stop the Clockwork Papacy from...'
Leon tuned out the history lesson. Through his soul sight, the hospital's blackened spirit-flame pulsed with malicious sentience. Somewhere within, the Corruptor waited.
"Enough cosmic politics." The Ebony Capricorn's horns glinted with mischief. "Focus on tagging soul signatures. When the moment comes... bang."
...
The Bandaged Woman had anticipated treachery before the cabinet's bolts sheared. Her calculated immobility absorbed the full impact - femur snapping backward, spine curving unnaturally against the windowsill.
Perfect performance. She thought, counting seconds until her regenerative tendons would snap everything back into place.
The junior nurse's transformation from desperate victim to cold observer didn't escape her notice. Through half-lidded eyes, she watched the woman-turned-puppet inspect her "corpse" with clinical detachment.
"Pathetic dedication." The puppet sneered, tossing aside the plague mask. Her bloodied hand reached for a glass shard - lethal potential obvious.
Now.
The Woman's bandages lashed out like awakened cobras. Joints popped in rapid succession as the puppet contorted into a human pretzel.
"Amateur theatrics." The Woman righted her dislocated hips with audible clicks. "Who scripted this farce?"
The puppet's manic laughter died abruptly as its controller severed the connection. Heavy footsteps announced the true antagonist - the chief physician's multiple chins quivering with triumph.
"Behold my domain!" He gestured at the Woman's sinking legs. "Infection equals assimilation! Your precious mask is—"
"Miscalculation." The Woman sighed, observing her petrifying limbs. "Should've maintained the respirator."
...
"NOW!" Leon's modified shot screamed across 300 meters. The Corruptor's skull erupted in a spray of black ichor before he could finish declaring "—born from primordial—"
Bzzt!
[Trial Employee] + [Marksmanship Novice] synergy activated
Critical hit probability increased by 18.7% Error margin compensated: 2.3mm vertical adjustment
"Not bad for a keyboard warrior." The Capricorn snorted. "That crimson-maned shrew better upgrade my tobacco rations after this!"
Leon ignored the demon, focusing on dissipating soul signatures. Six hundred seventy-three identical resonance patterns. One stationary blip near the boiler room. Elementary deduction.
"Overcompensation reveals all." He muttered, recalling the puppet parade around Emma. "Abyss Watch's performance metrics better include hazard pay."
In the astonished gaze of the black goat, the red-haired woman closed the archived materials on the "Red Brick Road Hospital Incident." She then picked up the goat's head and tossed it to Lyon at the table, instructing him nonchalantly:
"We share a kitchen with the police department. After you deliver this fellow, let the chef know we want goat head soup, just like the last few times.
Don't add ginger or scallions, use more cinnamon and grass fruit, double the cooking wine to remove the gamey taste, and add a spoonful of white pepper along with some imported yellow soybean paste. We'll have an extra meal for our bureau today. Off you go."
"Wait… wait a minute! You scoundrel!"
Having unexpectedly received such a fate after achieving a great feat, the black goat couldn't help but fume, arguing from Lyon's embrace:
"Oli… you wretched woman! We've brought you a newcomer and helped you solve the incident, and this is how you treat us? Do you even have any sense of fairness?"
"I've been quite reasonable!"
Hearing about the large-scale incident in the capital, the red-haired woman snorted and sharply rapped her knuckles on the desk. With a pair of charming fox-like eyes narrowed, she questioned coldly:
"Since you want to reason with me, let me ask you: do you know what that director was doing right before you took out the newcomer?"
"What was he doing? Wasn't he busy controlling a bunch of people to attack Emma?"
"Not just that!"
Recalling what she read in the action report, the red-haired woman shouted angrily:
"He thought he had Emma cornered and was bragging about his background! Just as he was about to reveal who was behind him, you guys ended his life!"
"…"
After opening his mouth in shock, the black goat furrowed his brow and retorted:
"Is it really that coincidental? You're not trying to scare me, are you?"
"Ha…"
Seeing the black goat's doubtful expression, the red-haired woman pressed her hand against her chest, feeling the frustration, and threw the report on the desk toward him.
"Read it yourself"
The red-haired director downed a swig of whiskey, gesturing at the goat-headed demon with her flask. "Read it aloud, Leon. This illiterate imbecile can't comprehend human script."
"We are not illiterate!" The Ebony Capricorn's horns flared crimson. "We converse in the abyssal tongue! Who needs your primitive glyphs? Spit out that report!"
Leon unfolded the document, ignoring the demon's bluster.
[Redbrick Road Hospital Incident Debrief]
Classification: Containment Breach (Class-C) Status: Neutralized Agents: Emma Alman & Leon Lyon Anomalous Artifacts Deployed: Caprine Pact, Serpentine Bandages
Skimming through the front matter, Leon's fingers tightened on page two.
[Findings]
Subject identified as hospital director assimilated with infrastructure through deific infusion. Facility now classified as Sentient Anomaly-777.
Documented Abilities:
Staff Subjugation Corrupted administrative authority enables personnel puppetry Resistance observed in one nurse exhibiting moral integrity during evacuation
Pathogen Assimilation Subjects exhibiting critical illness undergo gradual absorption Structural reinforcement confirmed: 350 absorptions reduced custom armor-piercing spikes' penetration from six walls to two
[Supplementary Findings]
The life-draining mechanism appears symbiotically linked to institutional malpractice - excessive billing, preferential high-cost drug distribution, and systematic overprescription of addictive substances at Redbrick Road Hospital.
Leon's eyebrows arched in professional respect. Last night's image of Emma ransacking the director's office now made sense - what he'd mistaken for looting was evidence collection. To produce this damning report overnight... Abyss Watch veterans operate on another level.
"Quit nodding like bobblehead! Read!" The Capricorn's horns jabbed his ribs. "Is crimson-hair's accusation valid?"
"Verified." Leon tapped the damning paragraph. "The director began revealing his patron's identity... precisely when we eliminated him."
The demon's bravado deflated like punctured lungs. "H-how could we know? Three hundred meters away! Plausible deniability!"