Chapter 103: The Parasite of the Past
The air in the hidden hangar turned freezing, but it wasn't the cold of the Onyx Reach—it was a spiritual chill that crawled up Ren's spine. Mina stood before him, but the girl he knew—the brave, rebellious daughter of Kimo—seemed to have evaporated. Her posture was rigid, her head tilted at an unnatural angle, and her smile... it was a jagged, predatory grin that didn't belong on her face.
"Master Ina... you look like you've seen a ghost," she said.
Ren's blood ran cold. The voice coming out of Mina's throat was distorted. It was layered with a deep, masculine resonance that echoed with a familiar, sinister tone from a life he had tried to bury.
"But how?" Ren whispered, stepping back, his boots scraping against the metal floor. "Who are you? What have you done to Mina?"
The entity inside Mina laughed, a dark, hollow sound that filled the hangar. "Oh, come on, little brother. Don't tell me you've forgotten me so quickly. I traveled across the boundaries of reality just to find you. I've been in this world much longer than you have, waiting in the shadows, watching you struggle like a pathetic insect."
Ren's eyes widened. "Brother? You... you're from the Real World?"
"I am the reason you ran, Ina," the entity replied, Mina's eyes glowing with a faint, sickly purple hue. "I knew the Vane would draw you here. I simply became a passenger. A parasite. I found this girl—this perfect, fragile vessel—and I slipped inside. She was so full of grief and longing for you that she didn't even notice me taking root in her soul. I've been controlling her every move, guiding her to break you out of jail, leading you here... all so I could finally claim what is mine."
Ren felt a surge of nausea. "You're using her? Let her go! This is between us."
"Let her go?" The entity tilted Mina's head further, a sickening crack echoing from her neck. "If I leave this body now, she dies instantly. I've woven my essence into her nervous system. I'm the only thing keeping her heart beating. But don't worry about her. She was just a bridge. It's your body I want, Ina. An Army Officer's physique, combined with the Butcher's Vane energy... you are the ultimate weapon."
Ren looked at Mina's hands—the same hands that had just given him a new eye, the same hands that had bandaged his wounds. To know that she was being hollowed out from the inside made his Vane energy flare with a violent, uncontrolled heat.
"She... she loved someone," Ren muttered to himself, remembering how she looked at him in the park. "You're destroying her life."
"Love? How sentimental," the Parasite sneered. "She'll never be with her 'love' now. She's already gone, Ina. There's only me."
The entity's face twisted in disgust. "You've become soft, little brother. An Army Officer should have smelled the rot on her weeks ago. You were so blinded by her 'care' that you didn't see the monster staring back at you. You're a disgrace to our name."
Without warning, the entity moved. With speed that exceeded human limits, Mina's body lunged sideways, snatching a jagged combat knife from the workbench. She didn't move like a student; she moved like a trained killer, her center of gravity low and lethal.
"Die so I can live, Ina!" she screamed in that dual-layered voice.
The blade whistled through the air, aimed directly at Ren's throat. Ren's military instincts kicked in just in time. He dropped his weight, the blade passing so close it severed a few strands of his hair. He rolled across the floor, coming up in a defensive stance, his right hand crackling with blue Vane energy.
"I won't hurt her body," Ren growled, his voice trembling with rage.
"Then you'll die!" the Parasite yelled, spinning around for a secondary strike. "Because I have no such weakness!"
The Outside World: The Impending Storm
While the battle of souls raged in the bunker, the world outside was oblivious to the horror. In the Onyx Reach, the first battalion of Knightmare Frames began their march toward the border. The heavy thud of their mechanical feet shook the frozen earth for miles.
In the Iron Archipelago, the fleet had set sail, their black sails cutting through the white foam of the Great Sea. The balance of power was tipping, and the center of the scale was Athelgard—a nation currently decapitated by the loss of its Master Instructor and the disappearance of its most dangerous prisoner.
Back at the Kimo estate, Kimo arrived to find his home surrounded by medical drones and silence. He walked into the bedroom to see his wife, her face as pale as the sheets. Lai stood by the window, his back to his father, his shoulders shaking.
"Is she...?" Kimo started, his voice a mere shadow of the man who had murdered Master Kara.
"She's asking for Mina," Lai whispered. "She keeps saying that Mina is in danger... that a shadow has taken her. Dad, what did you do? Why is our family falling apart?"
Kimo didn't have an answer. He looked at his hands, the gold coins he had earned now feeling like molten lead in his pockets. He realized too late that Spero hadn't just bought his loyalty—he had bought the destruction of everything Kimo loved.
The Bunker: A Clash of Wills
Ren parried another blow from the possessed Mina, his forearm stinging from the impact. The Parasite was using Mina's body to its absolute limit, ignoring the tearing of muscles and the strain on her joints.
"Stop it!" Ren shouted, catching her wrist. "You're going to break her!"
"That's the plan!" the Parasite hissed, kicking Ren in the chest with enough force to send him crashing into the leg of the Red Knightmare Frame.
Ren coughed, tasting blood. He looked up at the massive machine, then at the girl who was being piloted like a puppet. He had three days to save Hana, but he might not even survive the next three minutes.
"I know you're in there, Mina!" Ren yelled, his voice echoing in the hangar. "Fight him! Don't let him take everything!"
Mina's eyes flickered for a split second, the purple glow fading to a tearful brown. "R-Ren..." she whimpered, her own voice barely audible.
But then, the purple surged back with a vengeance. "Silence, girl!" the Parasite roared, raising the knife for a final, downward plunge.
Ren gritted his teeth, his new eye glowing bright blue as it began to analyze the Parasite's movement patterns. If he couldn't save her as a friend, he would have to defeat her as a soldier.