218. The Pool of Blood

Rakna’s face became serious and he quietly raised his hands. He squinted his eyes and looked at the man behind him through the reflection on the cylinder’s glass; or at least, the silhouette.

“You’re not the Demon, are you? Unless the guy found a way to regress,” he said. “There is no way he would be caught like this anyway.”

“…”

“You’re not going to talk?”

“What is Flood doing here?”

“Hah! As expected of a kid that decimated my men! Even when at gunpoint, you try to interrogate me. You have guts, I’ll give you that.”

“Not so much,” Rakna replied. “No need for guts when you’re not scared in the first place.”

“Oh? What? You’re gonna go martial artist on me and knock my gun away?”

The masked boy snickered. “No need to fear a fate that’ll leave me no room to regret. If I die, that’s it. But I guess I will also die knowing you’re dead.”

“What?”

“You asked if I was the Demon? What if I told you he’s coming here soon?”

The man holding the gun flinched. “You’re bluffing.”

“You wish,” Rakna uttered and suddenly crouched. He heard the bullet go off and swiped the man’s legs. As the criminal fell, he caught the handgun he had been holding midair and threw it away. He extended one of his knives and pointed the blade at the man with a white coat lying on the floor.

“Haha! Holy shit; never thought it was actually possible,” he said with a laugh whilst staring at the spear threatening his throat. “Guess movies aren’t just bullshit...”

“Answer my question.”

“What we’re doing?” He smirked. “You’re going to find out soon and you won’t live long to tell the tale afterward.”

“What are you…” Rakna trailed and his eyes widened as he heard glass crack. A shiver ran down his spine and he looked over his shoulder just in time to see a shadow erupt out of the cylinder that the bullet pierced and hit him on the entirety of his upper half.

His mind barely caught to the fact that he had been flung away less than a second later. He crashed through several chemical pieces of equipment, even breaking an empty glass container. He felt his bones breaking as he hit the wall. It was like he had been run over by a truck.

He rolled over on the floor and vomited blood. He gripped the left side of his abdomen and leaned his shoulder against the wall to somewhat stand. He shook his head trying to get rid of his blurry vision and looked back at ‘what’ had just done this to him.

It was a giant. No, it was a massive hunk of flesh. Sutures all over its body, muscles that seemed to be bigger than others, and a disproportionated head with a metal helmet covering it. Its body was only covered by mismatching bandages and metal straps.

“Hahaha!” The Flood member laughed. “Let’s see how long you get to regret before you die, kid.”

Rakna didn’t even humor him. He fished out two Eion knives and threw them at the abomination in his sight. The Flood scientist didn’t even get the time to react before he was engulfed in the cyan flames.

As for the perpetrator of the attack, he couldn’t be bothered to check the results. He had no idea what that thing was and he didn’t believe the explosion would do anything to it. He ran out of the room as fast as he could in his current state.

He retracted his path and soon heard a loud crash coming from behind him. That creature had smashed through inches of armored concrete. It looked at him and started running in his direction at a slow but heavy pace.

“Fuck,” Rakna cursed and pulled out one more Eion knife. He set it on a timer and planted it in the wall before turning at the intersection. The explosion went off and the footsteps stopped briefly before starting again.

As he was dreading that he would be targeted, he heard shouts and gunshots. “Survivors… well, don’t die too fast,” he muttered and accelerated since he had recovered a bit more. He also took out an injector from his vest and poured the content into his veins.

The serum worked instantly and he sprinted toward the cistern room. Ten seconds later, he could hear the heavy steps of the monster again. “Are you serious?” He grumbled as he entered the room full of blood cisterns. He grunted and started heading toward the stairs to the bridge but in a stroke of bad luck, the abomination entered by breaking through the wall.

The force shot a boulder that collapsed the whole staircase as well as a part of the bridge. Rakna’s expression darkened and he ran to cover when the thing’s helmet turned toward him.

Whilst running, he used one of his knives to create leaks on the liquid Eion pipes. After sabotaging three of them, he left a ticking Eion knife behind. As he hoped, the monster passed by the danger area, and nearly four cisterns exploded right then and there.

The shockwave almost made Rakna fly and he was in fact thrown against the wall. The blast tore several support poles out of their hinges and from outside, the ground and the fake cooling towers shook.

Rakna gritted his teeth as he tried to stand up from his stooped position after falling and cursed in his mind as he saw a scorched but alive figure walk out of the blue flames ravaging the place.

“What the fuck are you made of, you Frankenstein bastard…” He spat as his legs refused to respond to his will. The creature ultimately grabbed him and it was at that point that Ceres couldn’t hold back her gasp.

She frantically alternated between the images and Rakna to convince herself that he was still alive and well next to her. She looked at her hands that were trembling and with a frantic mind, drew a conclusion. ‘So, this is… worry… and fear…’ She thought to herself and forced herself to watch as the creature slammed Rakna on the ground; his mask falling off.

The young boy let out a voiceless scream and was lifted again for the next blow, or the last. But in a show of great fortitude, he took control over his arm back and shoved an Eion knife into the gap of the thing’s helmet.

The creature roared and hurled him away instead of killing him. He flew to a cistern and his body made a hole in it right as he heard his knife go off. Then… red.

Ceres shuddered as everything around her became red. In the middle of it, the past version of her Host began to scream in agony. He swallowed some of the blood and he grasped his own head as voices… or rather noises began to make themselves known.

Ceres almost had the same reflex to hold her head as well. All kinds of animals growling, roaring, barking, snarling… all of it at the same time. But it wasn’t just noise, it was maddening. It was like something was destroying your mind from the inside. If she felt this from a memory, she had no idea of what Rakna must have felt.

He thrashed around stronger and stronger and she began to hear words mixed in with the noises of beasts. “The… the blood… drowning… drowning… DROWNING ME!”

Ceres was terrified as the last shout overpowered everything else. The Rakna in the memories opened his eyes that were now bloodshot. Even his irises were different as if his actual DNA was being affected by the blood. He drew his last Eion knife and triggered it inside the blood, with him a few inches away.

The explosion made the blood fly out like a volcanic eruption while he was freed as the cistern collapsed under the strain. Rakna landed on all four and stayed still whilst looking at the ground blankly. The monster was on the ground, showing no signs of movement, its helmet turned into scrap and its head shrouded by smoke.

“Later,” the present Rakna spoke up coldly and Ceres shivered. “I learned that the blood inside of those things was meant to be a new kind of enhancing antitoxin for humans by going back to the sources; merging our DNA with animals’. But with the addition of Eion liquid, gray matter, as well as human blood, the result was a mixture with extra sensorial properties.”

“If you touched it, it would be like momentarily welcoming inside your head every living being of which the blood was present in the cistern. After this incident, the old man said my IQ shot up and at the same time, I gained unbelievable instincts and a brain condition we called Obsidian Blood.”

Ceres’ eyes widened in realization. “This incident… was the cause behind the uniqueness of your Trait and its ability to re-allocate your attributes and transform your magic affinity…”

Rakna nodded. “Probably. As for the ‘me’ who came out…” He trailed and his past self began to yell and scream at seemingly nothing. “He got stuck in the blood pool. His mind, filled with animalistic instincts, was overwhelmed. His human and animal instincts mixed together and gave birth to one and only urge; seek more blood.”

The Rakna in the memories abruptly closed his mouth. He raised his head and his eyes who had been full of hatred before were now bloodied and hollow. He slowly stood up and his empty stare turned to the destroyed staircase.

He walked toward it like a drunken man, retrieving his dropped weapons, and when he was right under an intact portion of the bridge, he bent his knees and jumped on the edge of a cistern and used it to propel himself onto the bridge where he landed as if his center of gravity didn’t exist.

“His body had ingested the blood. His muscles didn’t know where to stop or how to hold back and his heart was pumping blood faster,” the present Rakna continued to narrate in the third person with an ever-increasing coldness and emptiness in his tone.

The memories resumed with him jumping off the cooling tower and using his knife to slow himself down by cutting into the tower. His eyes didn’t seem to be looking at anything in particular but his legs marched toward the town without hesitation.

Ceres stood up when she understood what was happening; her dollish features changing in order to properly express the dismay she was feeling.

The town was wide awake due to the small earthquakes and explosions coming from the nuclear plant. Therefore, someone quickly spotted Rakna ambling in the streets.

“Hey, kid, are you alright?” A man asked worriedly and approached him. Ceres somehow had the urge to warn him even though she logically knew that it would do nothing. “Is that bloo-!” The man couldn’t finish his sentence as a blade sliced through his carotids.

Rakna didn’t even spare a glance at the dead man’s face and by the time someone noticed him, he had already slain two more people. On his rampage, a civilian even shot him but he didn’t even bat an eye as the bullet got stuck in the Kevlar of his armor.

“He went on and on. To him, there was only one thing true; to drown in the pool of blood. And the pool demanded more blood. More victims. More voices,” Rakna recounted and his expression and voice worsened with each death presented.

Ceres held her hands together tightly and calmly walked in front of him. She stood there, blocking his view of the images, with her hands clasped in front of her stomach. Her face was unmoving to a certain extent but her eyes glowing like molten gold were fixated on him. She slowly untangled her fingers and kneeled in front of him, not even reacting to the screams from the dream.

“What are you-” Rakna swallowed his own words when her arms wrapped around him.

“You did this to comfort the Fox Heiress… does it work?”

He blinked and his countenance drastically softened. He smiled and hesitatingly placed one hand on her back and stroked her hair along with it. “Look at you; they grow up so fast,” he kidded. “But who is comforting who?”

“…I will not comment.”

Rakna huffed in amusement and tapped her head. “All right, you can stop now.”

“…for some reason, I do not wish to. Is that human as well?” She said and if he had been looking at her face, he would have seen the utter honesty on it.

He sweatdropped. “I guess it is…”

“Kid, we talked about this,” a gruff voice jolted the both of them.

Ceres managed to escape from the oddly magnetizing skinship and viewed the image of the elderly man she recognized as Eternal Night. He was garbed in a black leather outfit. Unlike Rakna, he had nothing akin to armor apart from his coat.

She watched as the past Rakna mumbled incomprehensible things as Arimane tried to talk sense into him. From behind her, her Host smiled bitterly. “I don’t remember it a lot… but when the old man arrived, I think I didn’t attack him outright because my mind and instincts were screaming at me to not even dare. For even this scene to be so clear… I guess the dream dimension truly digs deep in my subconscious.”

Ceres looked at him with a tilt of her head.

“And well… everything has its limits.”

On cue to his words, his past self thrust one of his spears into Arimane’s heart. For anyone else, it was too fast and powerful to dodge, block, or even survive. But to the one known as the Demon by all on Earth, it was naught.

Arimane clenched the spear tightly as the tip poked his clothes. He squinted his eyes and twisted the weapon by applying more force. “So, be it, kid. I don’t know what happened to you but I guess this is as far as we’ll go,” he declared and kicked the boy away. The strength behind it was enough to be heard on impact.

Rakna flew and slid on the ground, more blood coming out of his mouth as his ribs started making holes into his lung. Arimane calmly walked to him and put a foot on his chest. He drew a revolver with a double barrel and pointed it at the boy’s blank face.

“I’ll give you one last chance,” the old man stated as Rakna struggled like a cornered beast under his foot. “Are you really going to give up? Is this how you want to go? A murderer? Don’t you have someone waiting for you? What do I say to that lass when I return? What about your duty? What about your revenge? Does your determination only amounts to this?”

It seemed those words had their effect and Rakna stopped moving. His empty eyes gazed at the sky with no light or emotion in them but they nonetheless started glistening as tears fell.

Ceres opened her mouth wide at the sight while Arimane grinned.

“Would you look at that? First time I see you cry, kiddo. Your head might not be entirely there but a man who can shed tears deserves to have his redemption,” he said and whirled his gun back into its holster.

He lifted his foot and this time, Rakna didn’t move nor did he do anything other than stare at the stars. “Good. Better stay put. I don’t want you to lose too much blood,” the old man said and picked a syringe from his inner pockets and injected a green liquid inside the young boy, rendering him unconscious.

“Go to sleep for a while. I need to find out what did this to you so I can fix i-”

“▅▅▅▅▅▅!” A chilling human-like roar resounded in the dream and both Ceres and Rakna widened their eyes in shock.

“What…? I don’t remember this. I wasn’t even awake…” The latter muttered as he stood to look at the dream who went on despite himself being knocked out. “Higure did say dreams can sometimes extend out of yourself… is this what she meant?”

“Hm?” Arimane, unlike his spectators, merely nailed the act of the annoyed uncle at the roar who interrupted him. He turned around to see a bulging mass of muscles with a charred bleeding face revealing a weirdly shaped skull and teeth. “Oh? A bio-weapon? Hahaha! Did the kid give you that make-up? I might have to praise him for it when he wakes up,” he said with a light laugh.

Ceres was speechless. “Is Eternal Night… really so carefree?”

“You have no idea. He never told me about this. I wonder how he dealt with it…” Rakna replied as he grew a bit excited to see his uncle’s performance; even he barely got to see him at full strength.

The abomination of flesh growled threateningly and ran at the old man who calmly put a cigar in his mouth. His movements were slow and fast at the same time. He took out a silver zippo lighter and lit the cigar. He snapped the lighter closed and inhaled.

Immediately after, the creature got in range and threw a punch. Arimane smirked and exhaled a blue smoke. The punch landed and the ground under the old man’s feet cracked.

“Hah! Quite beefy. But you don’t quite know how to throw a punch, do you?”

“He can’t be serious…” Rakna sighed while Ceres was gobsmacked.

The bio-engineered weapon made a noise of hesitance for the first time. Its gaze went from the man’s grin to his chest glowing with a spider-web pattern, and to the sole hand that was blocking its fist from advancing further.

“I don’t feel like playing with you. I have a kid to not let die and a place to explore,” Arimane uttered nonchalantly and shoved the monster’s arm away. He drew his revolver again and shot the thing right in the eye. It roared in pain and stepped back. However, when the smoke of the gunshot went away, it showed that the bullets had not fully pierced its skull.

“Damn. Do you have lead for bones or what?” Arimane said without withdrawing his smile. He put his gun back in its holster and hummed. “No wonder the kid got overwhelmed.”

The creature, even with its limited awareness of the world, felt offended and was about to charge again when the bullets in its skull blipped and exploded. Its head burst into bits and the body soon became acquainted with the ground.

“Alright. Let’s bring this back home,” Arimane said unperturbedly and used a remote to call his jet to his location. He lifted the headless monster and threw it into the open trunk of the aircraft. “And your turn now. Have a nice trip with your friend, kid,” he added and tossed Rakna’s unconscious body on top of the dead creature. “I’ll use your jet to come back.”

The present Rakna’s eye twitched several times at that and the last thing his dream showed them was the jet closing and Arimane grimly gazing into the distance where the nuclear plant was.

AhraManyu

I think this whole thing turned out pretty well… I honestly didn’t plan to dive into his past at this point in time but I thought it was a good way to do it so… why not.

Also, I'll be having my second covid shot tomorrow so don't blame me if I struggle a bit next week. Although I'm pretty confident in my body's resilience, we never know.

Oh, there's an index now. Check it out if you feel like it. Edit: Glossary; semantics.