Tiny tweezers meticulously penetrated the pair's brain muscles. A single-unit pair of glasses rested on the covered eye. The vision amplified, revealing to him the most delicate modifications.
Suddenly, a voice echoed beside him. Was this right? He turned his face. A ghostly figure approached. Eyelids closed, but its head moved as Slady moved across the room. The hair — white and black — disobedient to reality — floated equally with its feminine body. She admitted she didn't like interfering in his actions, but curiosity spurred her on. As she spoke, she passed behind him, her delicate hands pressing against his shoulders.
Slady recognized the illegality of the act, but saw what he was doing as an act of kindness... but also, to avoid trouble.
The female figure nodded. She stood beside him, the white fabric that concealed her naked body brushing against the man's overcoat. Her legs cross, her arm rises, combing her hair with her nails.
Moments later. Slady puts on a glove, holds the brains and places them in a jar, immersing them in a preservative liquid. He commented on his next action: depositing the organs in their proper places. She approaches again, asks if they are his friends. He assumes, with an apathetic tone, that they are... just unlucky, but that they are good people. The figure offers her help. He refuses, thanking her for the opportunity, but preferring not to use the woman's power to correct a mistake he himself made. She asked what mistake that would be.
The mistake was letting them meet him.
***
Upon opening a door within that same room, the investigators' bodies are revealed under the light that has come on. Naked, with the upper part of their skulls separated from their bodies. Slady places each jar beside each body, commenting to himself how tedious what he is about to do will be.
***
She awakens. Rin Yuang opens her eyes. A comfortable bed lies beneath her. Light clothing protects her from the morning chill. She sits up slowly, then places a hand on her head, closing her eyes.
A distorted image fades in her mind. An echo. She wonders if she's missing something at work. She checks the calendar beside the bed, marked as returning from a day off that same day.
She wonders why she had a day off.
Her clothes were folded on a chair. She gets up, stumbling. For a moment, she covers her mouth, rushing to the bathroom and emptying everything her stomach held.
Kneeling on the cold floor, she wipes her lips. As she stands, she sees herself, her golden bangs falling over her face. Her dark hair is messy. She fills her hand with water, brings it to her lips, and spits. She looks at the shower.
A hot shower seems very pleasant at that moment.
***
Dad... Dad... she called, biting her cheek lightly. Slady opened one eye, asking what she wanted in a hoarse voice. She wanted to be strong like him. The abrupt desire made him sit up, rubbing his hair... he lamented, he was physically weak, his body slumping and a low snore echoing... her voice, in contrast, didn't just want to be strong, she wanted to be able to protect him. He said it was unnecessary, he should protect her, not the other way around.
However, she pleaded, her hands clasping together, shrinking, her tail and ears lowering and a pout forming on her lips. Slady tilted his head, staring at that position for long seconds... with a sound of defeat, he accepted.
***
Beneath a tree, in a hilly region. Slady watches her, his face resting on his mechanical fist. Shaphira breathed deeply, brought her palms together, and fired... nothing. She screamed, stamping her feet. He rolled his eyes. He called her name, rising to his feet. He approached her and held both her hands firmly. He stood behind her, his face beside hers.
He told her to close her eyes, to feel her heart beating in her chest, the energy flowing from her demonic heart to her palm. Rituals would never work; she had to learn to feel the power she possessed. In battle, the enemy wouldn't wait for a special movement, for rhythmic words, but, if necessary, would use their hands to rip every drop of blood from her body.
Shaphira trembled with each word. She begged him to stop being cruel. He didn't stop, saying that if she didn't learn to feel, she would die the first time she faced her own kind.
She pressed her lips together, vowing never to let anyone, or anything, hurt her; Slady was wrong about her abilities. Then…
He told her to prove it.
Then, the crimson energy hits her hands, its intensity distorting the air around them. Shaphira smiles, displaying her sharp teeth. Slady grips her shoulders and, in a commanding tone, orders her to attack.
She lunges towards a tree, the speed of her steps creating a trail of wind. She clenches her fists and directs them towards the trunk.
…But the energy disappears.
And when it hits, her wrist twists.
A snap.
A scream.
Slady sighs at the sight of her writhing on the ground.
He slaps his own face…with his mechanical hand.
He falls too.
***
In the library, snores fill the room. Slady finishes bandaging her hand, half of his own face covered by the same bandage. Her ears tremble when his hand touches her, her face hiding in his stomach.
A comment echoes, calling her cute. He turns his head; the same ghostly woman sits beside him. She recognizes that, in that cold heart, there is a great father. He thanks her.
She yawns, swinging her legs. She says she envies those who can touch him, because, like Shaphira, she also wants to protect him...
From her own mind.
The conversation ends abruptly, with her disappearing. Slady stays there, absorbing all the words spoken. He murmurs to himself. Comfort was a rare thing for him.
However, as he watched Shaphira on his lap, he knew that, in that brief and temporary moment, he could rest a little.
He leans back on the sofa, his muscles relaxing.
Saying thank you to Truth for giving him the idea.
The mind needs peace.
***
In the forest, facing a portal, Slady caressed a sphere in his hand. The familiar voice suddenly asked the purpose of the sphere. It was a test, it said.
Upon entering the Inferius before him, he was greeted by a wave of smoke, causing him to cough. The voice commented that perhaps, just perhaps, someone had entered before him. He told it to be quiet.
When the smoke cleared, a fight was revealed.
Faller...
Against a Destroyer?
He held the sword, emanating energy, advancing like lightning. The one wielding the trident, mounted on a kind of shark, roared, with the tide flooding the carnivorous plants and enormous centipedes, sliding towards the hunter.
The exchange of blows is quick, violent. Faller dodges the attacks of the sea creatures, counterattacking by tearing the "sword" from a swordfish and using it against the Destroyer.
The tide rises. Faller climbs onto a rock. The wave, laden with monsters, reaches Slady, who leaps to a large tree, clinging to the branches.
But that same tree lets out a scream. Its roots rise from the trunk to its base. Slady fires a pistol and, lamenting the waste, throws the pellet into the tree's mouth.
Boom!!!
The wave rises, Faller's eyes widen. He leaps even higher to another tree. However, this one, which was preparing to whip him with its branches, is interrupted by the man's cut, which rests upon it.
For a moment, the sea was silent, however, one, two, three... four, five... six tentacles emerge. The Destroyer, in command of a new body, a colossal octopus, lets out another scream, a jet of water disfiguring its jaw and flying towards Faller.
He cuts, the water parts, but it swirls and returns to his back, propelling him into the air. A tentacle strikes him, plunging him into the sea.
A cry of defeat escapes, like a fan who saw his favorite player fall. Slady, in freefall, extends his mechanical arm, declaring loudly that he will kill the Destroyer.
The metal trembles, a white light begins to emerge. One of the tentacles reaches for him.
But the limb that had momentarily struck Faller flies off, detached from his body. Slady feels his body enveloped, not by the creature, but by strong arms. And a smile that, even coming from a face covered in blood...
Seemed to shine like the sun.
Faller warned him. It was a dangerous place for someone delicate. He rests him on a small mountain and throws himself back into battle. Slady sits there, legs slightly apart.
The man's blade gleams.
Both unleash their attacks.
But one cuts. Clean, perfect, the heart ripped open.
Standing atop a giant, withered, lifeless carnivorous plant, Faller, his short hair swaying in the wind, turns to Slady and smiles once more.
Raising his thumb.