Ogre Tyrant

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 85 – Might Makes Right – Part Two

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 85 - Might Makes Right - Part Two

I read the notification several times just to be certain. Contrary to previous Evolutions, this notification did not present me with a choice. It also didn’t provide a description of the effects I stood to lose or gain from the Evolution.

Unable to dismiss or move the notification, I could either accept the Evolution or resign myself to lose the majority of my vision.

Without warning, that thin illusion of choice was stripped from me as well as a timer appeared and began a countdown that would automatically ‘Accept’ the Evolution.

Bracing myself against the inevitable, I watched the timer countdown the final few numbers until the notification disappeared.

For a moment, everything went dark. I could feel my bones, muscles and tendons running like water as my skin tore itself apart, knitted itself together and was torn apart all over again. There was no pain, just the unsettling awareness of being altered in real-time.

As my vision returned, I felt someone pressing in on my conscious mind from the periphery.

Expecting Gric or Sebet, I immediately raised my guard after they failed to identify themself.

I could feel the unidentified intruder in my mind. Somehow, they had gained a foothold in the periphery and were able to maintain it despite my best efforts to drive them out. However, even with the foothold, they made no attempts at breaking out.

“It’s a simple procedure-” The voice of the older man caught me unawares and I realised I must have accidentally opened a new file on the tablet.

Warily turning my attention away from the intruder in my mind, I was momentarily taken aback by the altered proportions of my hand.

With the tablet as a basic reference, my hand and fingers appeared to have lengthened by up to a full fifth of its former size.

Looking over the rest of my body, I learned that the elongation of my limbs and general profile had reduced the thickness of my bones by roughly the same degree. Returning my body to proportions I hadn’t possessed since first arriving in this world. However, I still had gills, webbed fingers and toes, and thick sections of calcified hide.

“-you certain it doesn’t feel anything?” Eliza asked, her voice barely above a whisper and filled with doubts.

The invader within my mind stirred, drawing my attention away from myself and the recording. Strangely, this increased scrutiny only seemed to agitate it.

“This procedure has been performed countless times,” the older man sneered contemptuously. “Century-long studies and peer reviews have confirmed that ‘twitch’ is a side effect of the anaesthesia and of no consequence.”

I felt the invader briefly strain against the barrier in my mind before retracting itself again.

“It’s a simple procedure-” The voice of the older man repeated.

Glancing down at the tablet, I was surprised to find that the video file was repeating itself. My right thumb had drifted from the far side of the tablet and was hovering over the far left of the progress bar.

In my distracted state, I must have accidentally reset the video.

I had been distracted by the changes to my body before, so I hadn’t paid much attention to the video's contents. This time, I found it impossible to look away.

The grey-skinned child was laid out and strapped down on a large metal table.

The recessed drains on the surface of the table and the array of surgical tools beside the table brought unsettling memories of the time I had visited the hospital morgue while on Earth.

Eliza’s right hand stiffly entered the frame from the right side carrying a large syringe containing an unidentifiable mercurial liquid. As she brought the tip of the needle toward the grey-skinned child’s neck, the child’s cheek and brow twitched, causing Eliza to hesitate.

“Are you certain it doesn’t feel anything?” Eliza asked quietly, her hand trembling and the tip of the needle less than an inch from the child’s throat.

“Women...” The older man huffed dismissively. “This procedure has been performed countless times,” he sneered contemptuously, snatching the needle from Eliza’s hand. “Century-long studies and peer reviews have confirmed that ‘twitch’ is a side effect of the anaesthesia and of no consequence.” The older man callously jabbed the needle into the child’s throat and depressed the syringe. “See? There is nothing to it.”

The child spasmed briefly, straining against his bonds before growing deathly still.

“Compound one-seven-three dash five-four has proven ineffective,” the older man announced with mild disappointment before turning on Eliza. “If you are incapable of performing even the most menial of tasks, perhaps I should transfer you to a different department?” He threatened. “There is no shortage of candidates to take your place.”

The perspective provided by Eliza’s glasses drifted down to the floor, momentarily providing an unobstructed view of the older man’s I.D. badge.

[ Elis Montgomery. ]

Beneath his name were more of the strange symbols, which was strange since Eliza and Kaine’s badges didn’t have these symbols.

“Nothing to say for yourself?” Elis sneered. “Fine, gather your things and report to HR for your new assignment. I have no use for such a spineless coward in my laboratory!” He snapped in a self-righteous huff.

The video ended with Eliza’s gaze firmly locked on her feet.

Mulling over what I had just witnessed, an involuntary twitch in my hand opened another file deeper in the folder.

It was another video file.

Eliza was staring down at a tablet she was holding with both hands. The contents were a jumbled mess but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Do you ever think that maybe...Nah, never mind,” a strangely familiar male voice began to ask before abruptly aborting the attempt self-consciously.

Eliza looked up from her tablet and toward the source of the voice. The change in perspective revealed that she was sitting at what appeared to be a breakroom table, while the person who had spoken was standing beside a sink and nursing a large mug with both hands.

The man was wearing the same strange armour I had found in the security wing of the facility and that was advertised in the strange promotional video from earlier. His helmet was set on the bench behind him, revealing his dark tanned skin, brown eyes and near-black hair. He was clean-shaven, but his dark hair cast his neck and jaw in something close to a five o'clock shadow.

“Do I think what?” Eliza demanded with a surprising degree of intensity, catching the man off guard.

He stared back at Eliza for a few moments in surprise before returning to stare at the contents of his mug. “That thing they have us sending through the course every few weeks...You ever get the feeling that it’s learning a little too quickly?”

Eliza’s focus briefly returned to her tablet before returning to the man again. “Imprinted knowledge is what we are testing for...” She hedged with an air of anticipation in her voice.

“I know that...” The man replied and rolled his shoulders uneasily. “It’s just, sometimes when I am feeding it prompts...It will anticipate the next step...” He glanced at Eliza and then scowled, although it was unclear why since Eliza herself wasn’t visible in the video. “I know armour and weapon maintenance is meant to be part of that imprinted knowledge shit. I’m not an idiot.”

“Sorry!” Eliza apologised, “I wasn’t doubting you. I swear.”

“Hrmf...” The man huffed irritably. Gradually his expression changed, becoming troubled. “I tried to trip it up...gave it the assembly instructions out of order...” He admitted uncomfortably. “At first, it did like it always does. Just going through the motions, you know?”

Eliza nodded.

“Then it stopped...” The man gulped heavily. “It looked at me and I could see the thoughts going through its head. Like it was trying to decide if I had noticed...And what it was going to do about it...”

“What did you do?” Eliza asked quietly.

“What do you think?” The man replied with a hint of hysteria, his hands shaking violently and spilling a dark liquid over the side of his mug. “I played it off like nothing had happened and kept going through the list.”

“You didn’t tell Moburn or the security chief?” Eliza asked hesitantly.

“Of course, I told them!” The man snapped, slamming his mug on the table, spilling more of the dark liquid, and revealing the name engraved into the chest piece of his armour. Until this moment, it had been hidden from view behind his arm, but now that he was leaning over the table, it was in full view.

[ Kaine ]

“But the damned recording doesn’t show shit. Just me telling it to do something out of order and it waiting for the next set of instructions...” Kaine ran an armoured hand through his short dark hair and released a manic bark. “I nearly got put on review for that!” Abandoning his mug, he retreated to the counter and crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “I know what I saw...” Kaine muttered.

“I believe you,” Eliza stated with absolute confidence.

Kaine looked surprised.

“I’ve been noticing some inconsistencies when comparing progress against the older reports...” Eliza explained, hastily tapping at the tablet before showing it to him. “See?” The encryption or whatever it was that made the contents of the tablet in the video unreadable prevented me from seeing what she was talking about, but Kaine didn’t appear convinced.

“I don’t get it,” Kaine admitted, shaking his head.

“The progress,” Eliza urged, pointing to the tablet again. “Look again and tell me that isn’t suspicious.”

Kaine shrugged apologetically and shook his head again.

“It’s too even and consistent,” Eliza explained heatedly. “You don’t get results like this unless someone is skewing the data...” She sighed and tapped at the tablet again before pointing at it instantly. “There are signs this might have started as early as eight hundred cycles ago...shortly after the second-gen trials started...”

Kaine’s face paled and it took him a few moments before he could look away from the tablet. “But that would mean...”

“It’s been faking it for a long time...” Eliza agreed uncomfortably. “It’s just that it has gotten better at it over time...”

“How has no one else noticed this?” Kaine croaked. “Have you watched the recordings from the gen one lab?! They had to scrub everything and still couldn’t stop their experiments from escaping into the testing grounds...It nearly brought an end to the whole-” He stopped abruptly and a look of realisation dawned on his face. “Oh...”

Eliza nodded. “With the stakes being what they are with the war and all, it makes sense that no one would want to look too closely...”

“But that means...” Kaine’s brow knit together and he took on a deeply conflicted look in his eyes. “Why hasn’t it tried to escape like the gen one experiment?”

“It probably can’t...” Eliza replied uncomfortably. “The gen ones were just altered Tiamite mana constructs, to begin with. It was only a matter of time before they slipped the restraints binding them to the labs and went on a rampage. The Tyrant project is different. It’s bound to the facility itself. It literally can’t leave the facility without one or more of the director's authority.”

There was drawn-out silence between them and Kaine grew increasingly troubled before the video ended abruptly.

Surprised, I watched as my thumb moved off its accord and tapped at the screen and a new video began playing.

Kaine was standing in the same room as the last video but appeared to have aged four or five years and had noticeable wrinkles in the corner of his eyes. His armour was scratched, dented, and spattered with blood, dirt and other grime. There was a faraway look in his eyes that made it seem like he wasn’t quite all there.

“We were jumped by one of the gen ones today...” Kaine croaked dryly. “Lucus and Daus were in pieces before we even knew it was there...” He gulped dryly and stared at nothing in particular for several long moments. “A hundred and eighty-three deployments into the testing grounds without incident...” He stated grimly. “Then, this...”

“I...I watched the recording...” Eliza admitted meekly, averting her gaze as Kaine’s eyes darkened and drew toward her.

“Then you saw what happened...” Kaine said, his voice carrying an edge of hysteria. “You saw what he did?!”

“It can’t have been easy watching your friends-” Eliza began to reply but was abruptly cut off.

“Friends? Those fuckwits weren’t my friends!” Kaine snapped angrily. “Just some blood-hungry shit-heads who signed so they could kill shit without getting imprisoned for it,” he spat with disdain. “What I’m asking is, did you see what the Tyrant did?!”

Eliza made no reply.

“He saved my fucking life!” Kaine swore emphatically. “That THING had me dead to rights! I should be dead!”

“The Tyrant could have been following orders...” Eliza countered hesitantly. “For all their faults, the collars have been shown to work on just about everything...”

Kaine stared at her for several long moments, his right eye twitching as he shook his head incredulously. “You don’t get it!” Kaine barked savagely. “The Tyrant saw that thing coming and watched those fuckers die! Do you get it? He just stood there and watched!”

“I...I’ll watch it again,” Eliza promised in a conciliatory tone. “Just calm down, I think-” The perspective provided by her glasses suddenly shifted toward the door on the far side of the room. “Someone’s coming! Shh!”

The video ended abruptly and my hand began moving of its own accord again. Thoroughly unnerved by its autonomous actions, I felt a profound sense of relief and a small measure of confusion upon discovering I still had complete control and could stop the movement with a single thought. However, the moment I eased that infinitesimal degree of concentration my hand began moving again, opening another file and playing another video.

Freaking out, I redirected my focus toward the invader within my mind. Scanning their presence for even the slightest signs that they might be responsible for the loss of my bodily autonomy.

“I don’t see the point of this,” an unfamiliar male voice whined.

Three armoured figures in a loose formation were trailing behind the armoured giant from the promotional video in a field of five-foot-high grass. The perspective of the video seemed to be recorded from a drone flying a little over seven or eight feet in the air and trailing behind the group.

“Shut it!” Kaine hissed, his voice distorted by the confines of his helmet.

Condescending laughter arose from the other figures.

“You afraid of a few monsters, Kaine?” One of them snickered maliciously.

“Probably pissed himself,” another jibed obnoxiously, earning more laughter from the other.

“I said SHUT IT!” Kaine growled. “The proximity alarm could go off and we wouldn’t hear it because of your whining!”

“Pfft!” one of the armoured figures waved his left arm dismissively, causing his rifle to sway dangerously close to the figure to his right.

“Hey!” Kain barked, identifying himself as he knocked the other man’s rifle away.

“Oh cry me a river princess,” the man replied dismissively. “The safety’s on.”

“Yeah!” crowed the other man in agreement with the first. “Besides, the armoured’ stop a few shots easy!”

The armoured giant’s helmet turned ever so slightly to look to the right of the group. Unfortunately, the angle of the recording left the source of the giant’s curiosity a mystery. However, given the contents of the previous video, I could make an educated guess as to what it might be.

While the smack talk continued, displaced sections of the tall grass marked the approach of the coming danger. When it came within ten feet of the armoured figures, it stopped.

The armoured giant had tracked its progress and whatever it was, the giant was staring directly at it.

I noticed the giant’s hands had begun to tremble and remembered what Eliza had said about the collars during the previous recording. I realised Kaine was right, the giant had not only known about the danger but had waited to see what would happen. Perhaps even as a deliberate attempt to have its captors killed.

Preoccupied with keeping the other two figures in his immediate line of sight, Kaine appeared unaware of stalks of grass silently collapsing behind him as he sidestepped a poke from the other man’s rifle.

The three men all seemed to notice the falling grass a few moments later at roughly the same time.

“Daus? I...I don’t feel sss’grrrd...”

The man that had been harassing Kaine with his rifle, staggered, dropped his rifle and collapsed into several dozen small bloody pieces.

“THE FUCK?! LUCUS?!” The second man, presumably Daus, screamed and began to raise his rifle. However before he could fire a single shot, there was a blur of motion and his head disappeared from his shoulders.

Something struck Kaine from behind, knocking him down to the ground.

A small Goblin-like creature stepped out of the grass. Its skin was a mottled brown and green that blended well with the grass and dirt, while its eyes were black as midnight. The Goblin carried a large scythe but appeared completely unaffected by its size and weight. It made a point of ensuring it had the armoured giant’s attention as it hooked the blade of its scythe under Kaine’s neck and planted a foot in the square of his back. However, just as it opened its mouth to speak, and revealed gums packed with shark-like teeth, it was driven to silence as it found itself staring down the stocky barrel of the armoured giant’s gun.

“No,” the armoured giant rumbled, the simple word accentuated by a thundering roar and several glowing projectiles that ripped through the Goblin’s body.

Thrown off its feet, what remained of the Goblin landed in a bloody heap. Far from afraid, it appeared confused. However, its attempts to vocalise the source of its confusion failed before they even began. The glowing projectiles had so thoroughly perforated its body that the Goblin managed only a single wet gurgle before growing deathly still.

Scrambling onto his back, Kaine drew the pistol from his belt and swung it one way then another as he searched for the enemy. Unaware that the strange Goblin was already dead it took him the better part of a minute of frantic searching before working up the nerve to rise to his feet.

Noticing the Goblin’s corpse for the first time, Kain fired several shots into its body in rapid succession. Even with its head completely obliterated, Kaine refused to lower his gun, keeping it trained on the Goblin while awkwardly kneeling and fumbling for his fallen rifle.

The armoured giant turned away.

Already on edge and spooked by the sudden movement, Kaine turned his rifle and pistol on the armoured giant. Breathing hard for several long moments, he slowly lowered his weapons after realising the armoured giant appeared to be ignoring him.

Kaine looked down at the bloody remains of the two men and the video came to an end.

Expecting my hand to move on its own again, I readied myself to try and trace what was responsible.

Sure enough, my fingers adjusted their grip and my thumb began moving toward another file.

As I had feared, tracing the control led back to the unidentified intruder in my mind.

<We. I. You.> Three words were spoken by three similar yet slightly different voices. Disturbingly familiar voices.

The first voice belonged to the armoured giant from the recordings. The second belonged to the manifestation of the Heart Demons I had purged in the shrine. And the third voice...it was mine...

In a very real and thoroughly disturbing sense, they were all me. The armoured giant was my clone, or I was his, and the Heart Demons were the collective emotional toxicity I had expelled during the cleansing ritual.

But why were they in my mind?

The intruder stirred,

<Us.> The voices corrected as the intruder effortlessly breached my defences. <Make whole.>

“The new collar will guarantee such an incident is not repeated.” The voice of the older researcher Elis claimed with an air of absolute confidence. “As I am certain this demonstration will prove.”

“You certainly sound confident...” A gruff male voice replied.

“Sir, I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Kaine warned in a hoarse whisper.

To my horror, my eyes moved of their own accord, turning to look down to where the tablet had landed on the ground.

The angle of the recording showed Kaine standing before two older grey-haired men.

The head researcher Elis appeared to have aged a decade or two since appearing in a previous recording but carried himself with the vitality and confidence of a much younger man. Dressed in a pristine white lab coat over a formal suit, it suggested he was trying to impress someone important. Although it was currently unclear who that may be.

The man beside him wore a military trench coat over a nearly complete suit of armour. Forgoing a helmet, he wore a military cap bearing an insignia that looked strikingly similar to a clenched fist. His weathered face and deeply set wrinkles were somewhat at odds with his stiff movements. Suggesting he was not nearly as comfortable in the armour as his experience might suggest.

“Explain yourself,” he demanded curtly, steely grey eyes narrowing dangerously at Kaine in a show of distrust.

“Sir,” Kaine hissed, his jaw clenched as he fought to keep a respectful tone and demeanour. “I don’t believe the collar will be sufficient to-”

“You what?” Elis sneered with an amused chuckle. “Belief is for the feeble-minded! This is science! And I can guarantee the new collar will prove more than sufficient to guarantee the subject’s compliance to even the most self-destructive commands!”

The man I presumed to be Kaine’s superior nodded in agreement, apparently far more willing to trust Elis over Kaine.

“Sir-” Kaine repeated but was immediately silenced by the raised hand of his superior.

“I won’t hear any more of your unfounded rumour-mongering,” he snapped. “We will discuss this later AFTER the presentation for the directorship is concluded and not a moment before. Am I clear?”

Kaine lowered his eyes and clenched his fists. “Crystal...” He replied grimly and retreated toward the source of the recording.

“They still won’t listen...” Eliza commented quietly, earning a sullen nod from Kaine as he took up a position at her side, causing the perspective of the recording to pan toward the wider room.

The room was divided into two sections. The first section was occupied by a large gathering of scientists and security personnel. The second contained a small team of security guarding a single scientist and keeping watch on the grey-skinned giant which was sedated and restrained on a large table.

A wall of reinforced glass divided the two sections but had a normal-sized door that allowed access between them.

The scientist on the other side of the glass was fitting a large steel collar around the giant’s neck.

“They still think those security measures will be enough to hold him...” Kaine muttered dryly, shaking his head in exasperation. “He’s designed to take in mana and shrug off physical attacks...I thought these eggheads were supposed to be smart!”

“The Tyrant is supposed to be stupid,” Eliza whispered back nervously.

“He’s far from stupid...” Kaine interjected with a shudder. “I just can’t understand how no one else can see it!”

“They can’t accept the possibility that he’s been able to fool them. Their egos won’t allow it!” Eliza replied stiffly. “And without witnessing things firsthand, it's too easy to explain away anything that they don’t want to find...”

“You’ve mentioned it before...” Kaine sighed defeatedly.

A long silence passed between them and it looked like the presentation was just about ready to get underway.

“I was thinking about retiring...” Kaine said quietly, surprising Eliza. “I just...What we are doing here...It doesn’t seem worth the cost. What’s the point of defeating the Tiamites if we sink to their level?”

Eliza remained silent, her gaze firmly fixed on the armoured giant behind the glass.

There was a blur of movement on the far end of the chamber and the view through the glass became obstructed by a crimson haze.

Thick red droplets began running down the glass.

A panicked cry came from the other side of the glass and was followed by bright flickering lights and a low-keening whine.

The flickering and whining came to an abrupt halt as something struck the glass before picking up again less than a second later. However, a muted wet crunch brought it to an end for good.

The room fell deathly silent.

Without saying a word, Kaine took hold of Eliza’s shoulder and began pushing her along the wall and toward the nearest exit.

A loud impact drew Eliza’s attention toward the glass and caused her to stumble.

Large cracks had appeared upon its surface and were rapidly spreading toward the periphery.

A scream rose amidst the crowd of researchers and scientists.

A dark shape struck the opposite side of the glass, creating new fissures and causing the existing cracks to spread further.

“Security breach!” The warning came from one of the security teams and was quickly repeated by the others.

The security officer closest to the glass on the right side by the wall grabbed a recessed lever and pulled it hard.

A massive slab of steel fell from the ceiling covering the wall of glass.

Kaine lifted Eliza to her feet, practically dragging her from the room and into the corridor. “Cmon! We need to move!” He barked, his voice barely audible above the panicked cries of the scientists.

Eliza looked back over her shoulder as they fled down the corridor and stumbled as a massive shadow was cast around the corner.

The armoured giant escaped its confinement.

The high-pitched whine of weapons fire and terrified cries of the scientists and security personnel chased them down the corridor.

Kaine brought them both to an abrupt stop and then pulled Eliza through an open doorway into what looked like a breakroom. “Get into the storeroom!” He ordered, insistently pushing Eliza toward a door on the left side of the room before throwing himself to the opposite wall and taking cover behind the corner of a counter.

Eliza fumbled with the handle but managed to get the door open after a few increasingly tense moments of effort.

The small room on the other side of the door was packed with shelves carrying small containers and sealed packages. Contrary to my expectations, it was not a room at all, but a small storage space recessed into the wall.

Even if Eliza were to press herself hard up against the shelves, it was doubtful she would be able to close the door again. However, Eliza surprised me by dropping low to the ground and revealing a space beneath the shelves.

After she crawled into the open space at the bottom of the storeroom, Kaine dashed across the room and closed the door behind her. Leaving Eliza alone with only the faint light cast by her glasses for the company as muffled screams continued filtering under the door.

The chaos beyond the door continued and I took the opportunity to probe the gestalt consciousness that had invaded my mind.

I could feel it watching the events unfold on the tablet with what I interpreted as grim acceptance. However, upon discovering my divided attention, it released a flare of aggravation and frustration.

<Learn.> They demanded. <Understand.>

The door to the storeroom slid open and someone hurriedly pressed themselves inside. However, due to the lack of space, they were unable to close the door behind them.

With the door now open, I could see two other people had taken shelter in the room beyond. Hiding behind the table and chairs in the middle of the room.

“It’s coming!” One of the new arrivals hissed in a panic, earning a hysterical series of whimpers from their companion.

Sure enough, heavy footsteps could be heard drawing closer, causing Eliza’s glasses, the source of the recording, to shake with increasing intensity.

The footsteps came to an abrupt halt and Kaine hunkered down to hide behind the cabinets as best as he could manage while clutching at his energy rifle. Despite his earlier claims that it would be useless against the giant’s natural defences, he didn’t seem capable of letting it go either.

A thundering boom shook the room and was followed by the screeching of distressed metal.

One of the new arrivals released a muffled scream.

A massive grey hand shot past Eliza’s hiding place. A muffled crunch brought an abrupt end to the muffled screams. Moments later, grey arm and hand retreated with a pair of broken bodies in tow.

Wet crunching and slurping sounds echoing from the corridor left no doubts as to what fate befell the bodies of the scientists and I felt a wave of nausea stir in my guts.

The grey hand returned, now spattered with blood and drool. It fumbled through the room, tapping and flicking seemingly at random as it progressed through the room, narrowly missing Kaine in his hiding place.

After reaching the far wall, the hand retreated. A few moments later, a series of increasingly muted footsteps could be heard moving away from the room.

Looking toward the scientist taking shelter in the storeroom, Kaine raised one hand and vehemently shook his head while mouthing a warning.

<It’s still out there.> The translation came from the gestalt presence in my mind. Catching me off guard. <He knew...> There was a flicker of surprise.

As time passed the scientist cowering against the shelves grew increasingly agitated. Then, without warning he dashed the door.

A thundering crash echoed from the hallway beyond the door and bright crimson blood splattered across the middle of the room.

Eliza stifled a gasp with her hands and stared across at Kaine.

The giant’s massive grey hand began pawing at the floor and walls of the room, crushing and otherwise destroying any furniture it encountered.

Kaie was forced to abandon his hiding place and engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse while trying to make as little noise as possible. However, as the hand began to stray toward Eliza’s hiding place, Kaine levelled his gun at the giant’s arm and opened fire.

Flinching in reaction to the surprise attack, the giant viciously swung its arm toward the opposing wall, narrowly missing Kaine as he desperately dove deeper into the room.

A pulsing blue orb flew across the room and an explosion erupted from the hallway.

A deafening roar briefly knocked out the audio from the recording and the grey arm retreated from view, revealing a ragged hole in the wall opposite Eliza’s position.

Before Eliza could react, Kaine rushed forward and dove through the hole in the wall.

“-VER HERE! HEY!” Kaine shouted, his voice badly distorted by the damage to the recording device. He punctuated each word with a whining burst of gunfire.

The giant roared in anger and began stomping down the hallway.

Shakily leaving her hiding place, Eliza froze as the giant’s massive grey feet passed by the hole in the wall. However, when the giant continued on its way, she released a ragged sigh of relief and turned toward the door.

Then, she froze.

The floor and wall opposite her in the hallway were slick with blood and viscera. The shattered pulverised remains of the scientist were pooled in a crater just outside the door.

Stifling a whimper, Eliza slowly made her way forward and gingerly traversed the crater.

More gunfire and explosions had erupted from deeper in the complex and Eliza began determinedly running in the opposite direction.

During Eliza’s flight through the twisting maze of corridors, it became increasingly apparent that there would be few, if any survivors from amongst those who had attended the demonstration. Like herself and Kaine, many had attempted to hide in the nearest boltholes they could find. Only to have the giant-

<Us. I. We.> The gestalt presence interjected, interrupting my train of thought.

Irritated, it took me a few moments to realise that the presence had lessened quite considerably from before the video had begun. Even so, its control remained just as potent. Able to do as it will unless I contested the action directly.

My musings abruptly stopped as Eliza left the all-to-familiar quarantine chamber and entered the laboratory.

The gestalt presence seated with hatred at the reveal of the corpses suspended within the glass tubes. Or at least that is what I had thought. However, it quickly became apparent that the hundreds of corpses displayed throughout the room were not the subject of their focus. It was the team of scientists gathered at the far end of the chamber.

Discovering she was not alone, Eliza hurriedly took cover behind one of the preserving vats, using the machinery at its base to conceal her presence.

“I WILL NOT RETURN A FAILURE!!!” Elis shrieked with rage, striking one of the other scientists hard across the face with an energy pistol and knocking them to the floor. “I AM INITIATING IMMORTALIS PROTOCOLS! YOU CAN COME WITH ME, OR-” He levelled the gun at the scientist’s head, “-YOU CAN DIE HERE!!!”

Cowed by the show of violence, the scientists collectively muttered their agreement.

“Fantastic!” Elis snarled with a demented grin and waved the injured scientist toward a section of machinery out of Eliza’s line of sight. “Now, get in the genesis chamber Douglas, and there will be no further need for this unpleasantness!”

The injured scientist hesitated. However, as Elis aimed with the pistol, he stiffly did as he was told.

With everyone distracted, Eliza began skirting around the edge of the room, using the machinery and glass tubes for cover until she achieved an angle that allowed her to see what Elis was doing.

The bullied scientist had been backed into a huge metal vat covered in a diaspora of bare wires and arcane sigils. Once he was clear of the opening, the door slammed shut, restricting vision into the vat to a single viewing port near the top of the door.

“You should feel grateful, Douglas. This will no doubt constitute the greatest scientific achievement of your entire career!” Elis cackled maliciously and threw the large lever beside the console.

The bare wires surrounding the vat crackled and arced, discharging what I had assumed to be electricity. As the sigils flared to life, mournful cries filled the air and disembodied spirits began circling the vat.

Five tesla coils set in a crown atop the vat began sending arcs of electricity at the spirits. However, instead of striking them or passing through, the spirits were bound in webs of electricity and dragged toward the coils.

As each spirit made contact with one of the coils, they released a pitiable shriek and disappeared. The shrieks of the spirits were accompanied by bright flashes of light from within the vat and the pained screams of the scientist trapped within.

After several minutes, Elis reset the switch triggering the vat door to open.

Smoke billowed from the open door and the imprisoned scientist staggered out into the open. Tripping over his own feet, the scientist fell to the ground. Throwing his arms out to try and break his fall, his skin burst in contact with the concrete, like a broken water balloon.

Fine gold and silver dust spilled out of the scientist's clothes, spilling across the ground. Within a handful of heartbeats, the dust began to disappear. Evaporating like spilled water on a midsummer day.

“Typical,” Elis spat disdainfully. “Even in death, you’re useless...” He pointed the pistol at another scientist, “Choy, you’re next!”

Like a frightened herd of sheep, the other scientists retreated, leaving Choy to fend for himself.

Whimpering and with tears streaming down his face, Choy reluctantly entered the vat.

“Don’t worry! I’m sure the calibration process won’t take more than a few more attempts,” Elis chuckled, smiling broadly as the door to the vat was locked firmly in place. “If we had begun human trials sooner, ah, well...No time for regrets now!” He pulled the lever.

One by one, the scientists were coerced into the vat. Each met the same fate as the first. Managing to take only a few steps before disintegrating into the gold and silver powder.

“Good data...” Elis muttered distractedly, manipulating keys and dials with his free hand. Seemingly unaware of Eliza who was slowly sneaking up behind him with a metal pipe. Without warning, Elis spun on the spot and fired the pistol, sending a short burst of energy projectiles racing through the air and toward Eliza.

Eliza’s pained screams as she tumbled to the ground announced that at least one of the projectiles had found their mark.

“You think I didn’t see you skulking in the shadows?” Elis scoffed, turning his back on her in a show of open contempt. “I am not good with faces, but it’s clear you are from a different department. Otherwise, you would have known about the cameras...”

Huffing and hissing through her teeth, Eliza raised a shaky hand covered in blood. “Y-You’re in-insane!”

Elis stopped what he was doing and stared down at her contemplatively. “Insanely brilliant, perhaps,” he countered dismissively before returning to his work. “I always suspected the Tyrant program would fail, you know. The whole thing was far too inelegant a solution from the beginning. If only the directors had shared my vision...Ah well...” He shrugged and sighed in a way that made it clear he no longer thought it mattered.

Using a nearby section of machinery, Eliza slowly dragged herself to her feet.

“Your tenacity does you credit,” Elis commented distractedly. “However, it will accomplish nothing.” He grinned and pumped his free hand in triumph. “I knew it was possible!” He cackled with a manic grin while staring greedily at a screen set into the control mechanism. “I would offer you the chance to join me, but I don’t think you deserve it,” Elis snickered condescendingly before retreating into the vat.

At the last possible moment, just before the door finished closing, Elis threw away the pistol.

Following the path of the pistol, Eliza began taking a handful of unsteady steps toward it before seeming to change her mind. Staggering back toward the console, the perspective afforded by her glasses revealed a three-dimensional rendered image bearing a passing likeness to Elis.

Shirtless, with the physique of a classic Olympian statue and bearing Elis’ face, it was the wings that identified it as a SubSpecies of Angel.

Dismissing the image with shaking hands, Eliza began frantically accessing and altering a series of encrypted files.

Fleeting images of scientists and security I.D.s suggested that she was accessing personnel files, but the encryption made it impossible to be certain.

Replacing the image on the screen, Eliza stepped back just in time to stagger clear of the console as the vat door opened, revealing Elis's transformation.

Now more than ten feet tall and swollen with muscle, the remnants of Elis' clothes hung in tattered rags from his hips and shoulders, leaving nothing to the imagination. Eight ephemeral wings of shining gold and silver shivered at his back, casting his mane of platinum blonde hair in waves of alternating light that made it look like it was flowing like water.

Too busy admiring himself, Elis knocked Eliza down without even registering her presence. “Absolute perfection...” He breathed with unabashed arousal.

Whimpering from the pain, Eliza did her best to stifle herself to avoid drawing attention. However, it proved to be in vain.

“Still alive?” Elis chuckled. “Well, we can change that. Just-” He paused, his arrogant expression swept aside in an instant.

A powerful quake rocked the laboratory, dislodging machinery attached to the ceiling and sending it crashing to the ground.

Despite having less than a second to react, Elis managed to nimbly leap to safety with seemingly effortless ease.

Fortunately for Eliza, when Elis had knocked her down, he had inadvertently sent her clear of the falling debris.

Without saying a word, Elis waved his right hand and opened a Dimensional Breach. Casting one last irritated glance at Eliza, he stepped through the Breach and disappeared.

Three more quakes rocked the lab in rapid succession and then a claxon began to peel out in alarm.

The door to the vat slid shut.

Eliza retrieved the pistol from where Elis had discarded it and aimed it at the vat.

The door to the vat slid open a few moments later, disgorging a fresh wave of smoke.

The pleading cries of an infant echoed from within the vat.

Slowly approaching the vat, Eliza did her best to keep a firm grip on the pistol. Locating the source of the noise, she levelled her pistol at the flailing form of a small grey-skinned baby that was wriggling and flailing on the floor.

Aiming the pistol at the child, Eliza’s finger slowly depressed the trigger but stopped just shy of firing. Already shaking from blood loss, she was struggling to bear the pistol’s weight. Without saying a word, she lowered it again and retreated from the vat.

Returning to the console, she set aside the pistol and shakily began manipulating the screen.

The encryption made it nearly impossible to tell what she was doing. However, when the image of a portal appeared alongside a three-dimensional rendering of Earth, it began to make sense.

The infant in the vat was me.

<Us. You. I...> The gestalt presence was little more than a shadow of what it had been after first announcing its presence, and I now understood why. The boundaries of its presence had been eroding from the very beginning, bleeding its thoughts and memories into my mind. Unaware of them until this moment, I could feel the memories drifting in the periphery of my mind. Many of them were little more than tangled masses of intense emotions. However, others possessed an almost impossible degree of clarity and detail.

A bright flash from the tablet drew my focus back to the video just in time to watch Eliza set aside the glasses and begin the audio recording that had led me to discover her body. Lab coat stained a dark crimson with her blood and her skin deathly pale, the tablet tumbled from her blood-slick fingers as she uttered her final words.

Expecting the video to end, I was surprised when it continued playing for a considerable while longer.

Just as I was prepared to close the video, signs of movement appeared on the edge of the screen.

“Who dared to change...” Elis’ voice filtered through the recording. He sounded tense and incredibly nervous. “Come on! Stupid piece of garbage!” He grumbled bitterly. “What?! Locked out?! NONONONONO!!! ” Elis cried angrily, accentuating each denial with the sound of abused machinery and electronics.

When the tirade came to an end, there was a flicker of light and then the recording fell silent once more. A few moments later, the video came to an end and I was left staring at my reflection cast in the inky black image cast on the screen.

Having gradually overcome my aversion to deliberately inspecting my reflection, in no small part thanks to Lash’s unwavering support and affection, my focus fell upon the newly discovered inconsistency almost immediately.

The sclera of both my eyes had turned black as pitch and the irises were corona of jagged pulsing sapphire and emerald energy.

Confused, it only now occurred to me that I had not reviewed my Status to confirm what the Evolution had altered.

Opening my status, I felt the last vestiges of the Gestalt entity dissolve into my mind as I read the first entry at the top of my status screen.

[ Tim - Eldritch Tyrant ]

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