The scrape of Cagaro's pipe lightly brushing against the wall.
The distant hum of electricity somehow still surviving underground.
"You feel that?"
Henry looked ahead.
"What?"
"I don't know. I don't want to get spooked again."
Henry gave the corridor a brief glance.
"That feeling usually means either danger or anxiety."
"Very comforting."
They turned another corner. A body sat slumped against the wall.
Dead long enough that flesh had melted gruesomely, revealing the bones and veins visibly.
Beside him rested a broken radio still blinking weakly. A recorder nearby crackled.
Cagaro crouched.
"We should hear this?"
"If someone recorded it, it of course mattered."
Cagaro pressed play and the first log began playing.
"Sister Cecilia is still refusing evacuation. Says the children need someone. God… she hasn't slept properly in three days."
Cagaro forwarded the recording.
Log 2.
"Command gave the order. Infected kids are terminated. Nobody wanted to do it. Nobody is saying it out loud but some of the soldiers cried afterward."
Log 3.
"On the third night after the termination, something was in pediatrics. We heard singing in children's voices… But there are no children left."
The recorder clicked dead.
Cagaro slowly stood.
"No. Not this."
Henry looked at him.
"What?"
"I am going to hate this mission."
Suddenly, a figure shifted nearby as a cardboard fell beside the sliding door.
Cagaro practically jumped three feet back.
"AAH—!"
A man sat hidden behind overturned equipment. One leg bent backwards badly bruised.
"Don't kill me!" the civilian blurted.
Henry crouched calmly.
"Don't worry. I am vegetarian. Though I am not sure about the kid with me."
The man breathed shakily, his hands and body were shaking violently.
"I could have left... had chances too… but Sister Cecilia... she saved my daughter once. During the outbreak. She wouldn't hurt children. I know my daughter's alive somewhere. I KNOW IT!!"
Henry slapped on his cheek once lightly.
"Answer me, you are alone here? Injured?"
The man nodded weakly.
"I am so stupid..."
"Yes, you are. But it is understandable."
The civilian lowered his head.
Henry placed a hand briefly on his shoulder.
"Calm down. We will see what we can do. Cagaro, let's go. We need to check. There might be children still alive."
Eventually, they moved on. The next room opened slowly.
"Is this a medical wing?"
He observed the surroundings for a bit.
" It seems strange. Rows of hospital beds are filled in this room. There are blankets folded carefully and small pillows placed neatly. Is this some kind of Barbie doll house in a Resident Evil mod? "
Cagaro did not like the room. He stood near the doorway, staring at the rows of beds.
"Tell me this looks weird to you too."
Henry looked around once.
"It looks kidney touching."
"That somehow sounds worse." Cagaro chuckled despite feeling uncomfortable.
A few stuffed toys sat near pillows as if someone had carefully placed them there.
Henry walked toward one of the beds and crouched slightly.
The blanket felt recently adjusted.
His expression shifted a little.
"Someone is been here."
Cagaro immediately looked around.
"Alive someone? Or you mean the nurse?"
"No idea."
"You better don't talk until necessary!"
"Oksy. Stay alert."
They moved deeper into the medical wing. The hallway widened ahead. Cagaro stopped around the hall door.
"…Did you hear that?"
A slow sound came from somewhere far ahead.
" Dammit, it sounds like someone is dragging a sack full of metals. "
Henry's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Too heavy for infected children. "
Cagaro chewed the air processing thoughts in mind.
"That sentence made me significantly less happy. Don't tell me she is coming to hit is with that sack."
Henry motioned forward quietly.
"Stay near me."
"Oh now you want teamwork? I thought someone said he wanna go solo."
"Okay. I am leaving, take care."
"Hey! Wait! You have no rights to leave a poor guy in danger."
Henry ignored him.
As they walked, things became stranger. A wheelchair sat overturned near the wall. The marks across the floor looked deep.
Cagaro looked uneasy now.
"You think it's Cecilia?"
"Possibly."
"You said possibly like there's a worse option."
"There usually is."
Cagaro muttered something unenthusiastically.
After a moment, Henry spoke again.
"Mission priority stays the same."
"Should we locate Cecilia?"
"Confirm if recovery is possible."
"And if it isn't?"
"If nothing works, we have no choice left than containment."
Cagaro understood what that meant.
"You ever think missions like this are unfair?"
"Most bad situations are."
"That is not really hopeful. It's not supposed to be."
Henry stopped walking all of a sudden.
"Stay ready all the time now."
Cagaro tightened his grip on the pipe.
"Please tell me we're not about to meet singing horror nurse."
Cagaro noticed a presence. He stopped walking and looked behind them.
"…Wait."
Henry glanced back.
"What?"
"The infected. There were dozens of them in every turn. Suddenly, they all disappeared."
Henry's expression sharpened slightly.
"Expected it. A classical zombie drama. Predators often change their movement patterns. If weaker things disappear suddenly..."
Cagaro finished the thought.
"Are you saying that something big is approaching?"
"Something here is wrong."
The floor beneath shook enough to feel through their legs. A distant growling sound followed.
Darkness stretched across the corridor in front of them.
Two red points opened inside it.
Cagaro's breathing caught.
"Mister Henry..."
The thing moved forward slowly. Its shape dragged itself into view. Its red demonic eyes were full of bloodthirst and hopefulness.
Too unnatural to understand immediately. Human bodies had become part of it or pieces of them.
Faces pressed through swollen flesh across its frame, some half-formed, some twisted in paused expressions.
Small hands protruded briefly between folds before disappearing again beneath moving tissue. It looked less like one creature and more like many things forced together into something that should never have existed.
A voice came from somewhere inside it.
"Mom loves me.Don't hurt Miss Cecilia.She is the best person in the world!I hate you.When will you return?I will be a good parent!None is alone in this world..."
The voices stacked over each other.
Cagaro staggered slightly as his head throbbed. The sounds didn't feel external anymore.
Agony crawled behind his eyes. His whole body stopped functioning drowning into deep ocean of thoughts
The creature lifted part of itself and something burst outward. Liquid struck nearby walls.
The metal hissed and corroded violently.
"Cagaro! Hurry, follow me."
They stepped back fast.
The creature slammed part of its mass against the floor. The electricity was gone.
" Tch. So you haven't gave up trying to kill me, fate. "
Darkness swallowed the corridor. Cagaro dropped to one knee. The voices were getting louder and louder.
Countless voices stacked with each other where each one of them routed different tragedies.
"Make it stop…" Cagaro muttered, gripping his head.
"Cagaro! Look at me."
A hand grabbed Cagaro's shoulder.
"Wake up. Focus."
Cagaro forced himself upright, breathing hardly. Henry pulled him back another step.
"We don't have to rush this. We need to figure out what it can do first."
The red eyes remained fixed on them.
Cagaro was still struggling when Henry grabbed him by the shoulder again.
"Hear me. Don't touch the fluid it is leaking. It is not just acid or fire. It reacts with oxygen in the air. Even a splash can spread burns and infection."
Cagaro wiped his face with his sleeve, forcing his focus back.
"Yeah, I got that part. But how do we actually stop it? We can't just keep backing up forever."
Henry didn't answer immediately.
He was already observing the creature. Tracking the way the faces along its body reacted in clusters.
"It is not coordinated. Most possibly, it has different nerve responses. That means it's unstable internally. We don't need to fight the whole thing."
He stepped sideways, pulling Cagaro with him.
"We will isolate the segments. Force reaction delay. Then hit structural points where the fusion is weakest."
"Ah, I get it! Where exactly is that?"
Henry pointed slightly upward.
"Spinal core region. If something like this still has a control anchor, it will be there."
The creature lurched forward again and Henry attacked first this time.
"Spell: Chains of Golden Horn. "
The golden chains shot forward, not aiming to bind but to distract, striking the outer mass and forcing a reaction shift.
A section of the creature malformed, exposing a brief gap in its fused structure.
Henry stepped in immediately and drove a focused strike through that opening using compressed Runic Flow, not enough for a full output, just enough to work.
The impact didn't destroy it but it made the creature recoil violently.
A broken, old woman's voice layered under countless children's cries.
"More children…! Come here… I will protect you!"
Cagaro stunned in shock after what he heard.
Henry looked ahead at the anomaly. Then both of them understood at once.
Henry's expression darkened.
"What a nice day to meet each other. It is a pleasure to meet you... Sister Cecilia."