Chapter 87: Tyrannical

Kay and Othafurn were speeding to the danger that was endangering Corvurn. The underground tunnel system, created by the tunneling claws and the dissolving acids of the zerg, was in danger of caving in. At the moment they saw what was causing the cacophonous roar that rumbled through the subterranean underground, Kay and Othafurn knew they would have their hands full.

Corvurn had created something...

BIG.

So much so that its head and spines scraped along the roof of the chamber that Corvurn did his bio-engineering work in.

And Kay and Othafurn knew that if they don't do something soon, it would hunt down any thing that got in its way, or would head for the flooded refugee camp cluster and prey on the gilanian survivors.

The creature in question was an enormous specimen, which seemed to reach the height of around sixty meters. Its shoulders were studded with an impressive set of razor-sharp spikes, while having green pores that seemed to ooze a caustic, noxious green that emitted a deathly mist. However, its veins and plates between its carapace pulsed with a violet power, which almost seemed to conflict with the acid misting pores that dotted across its back. A savage set of teeth parted as it rumbled a growl that shook the dust from the ceiling and made ripples through the creep and glowing floodwater. The fists and Kaiser blades at the end of its arms flung out in a feral randomness, striking down any zerg organism or bio-structure unfortunate to be close enough to its reach. It was a behemoth-sized monstrosity, which took on the appearance of an even larger tyrannozor.

As one of the severed heads of a ravasaur flew over Kay's head, he turned to a retreated Corvurn, whom was hiding behind a infestation pit for his personal safety. Kay shouted at Corvurn. "What the fuck did you just do?!"

"Woven primal essence into omegalisk fusion evolution! Slowed merge process in attempt to repeat variable! Hoped to find variable leading to strain ability negation! Feared had added too much primal essence! Resists swarm control! Must contain or kill!" Corvurn yelled through the chaos.

Another severed body part collided on the infestation pit, making it flinch from the impact. Kay didn't recognize what it was, but he paid no attention to it. He gestured to Corvurn. "Kay, well, don't ever create another one of THOSE things ever again!" Kay shouted, pointing at the supersized tyrannozor. "Set down spine crawlers at the end of every exit out of this chamber, and have them protected by lurkers and impalers! We need to get some infestors down here immediately!"

Othafurn slithered to the infestation pit and settled by Kay and Corvurn's side, avoiding the viscera and liquids of what used to belong to zerg. She looked on with both vaunted interest and startled surprise. "Such terrible strength and power! It has already slain an omegalisk!" She turned to Kay. "By the time the infestors arrive here, I think this new tyrannozor strain would have slain and eaten everything within this chamber!"

Kay quickly shook his head and hissed a sigh. "Spawn swarmlings to distract it! Summon an omega worm if you have to!"

Othafurn nodded. After intensely staring at a hatchery bio-structure, she then turned to Kay. "We are spawning a couple infestors in this chamber, but we don't have the luxury to spawn enough swarmling strain zerglings to take it down!"

"What about spawning more zerglings from the hatchery chambers adjacent to our own?! Can't we also spawn an omega nydus worm inside of this chamber?!" Kay roared, trying to be louder than the violence that the supersized tyrannozor was causing.

Ripping and tearing, followed by the gushing sound of spilled blood, echoed horrendously. Corvurn shook his head. "Not enough room! Space within hatchery chamber, cluttered! Failed to realize size and resistance against psionic control with omegalisk-fused tyrannozor!"

Kay growled as he brought his hands forward as he began attacking the infestation pit he was hiding behind. "We'll make room!" A kinetic blast struck into the side of the infestation pit, making it quiver in pain as a hole was formed on its side. Kay quickly followed with a pounce that clawed the bio-structure's flesh apart.

Corvurn and Othafurn was surprised by Kay's action. "Kay!? Explain strategy!" Corvurn gurgled with confusion.

"Buying you time! Now run for safety!" Kay said as he delivered another leaping strike, followed by another kinetic blast. Once the infestation pit was turned into a bloody paste of cartilage, flesh, chewy organs and carapace, Kay ran through the gore and warm fluids and approached the enormous tyrannozor. Kay then waved his hands at it frantically. "Hey! Overgrown lizard!"

The enormous tyrannozor stopped in its rampage and slowly glanced toward Kay. A low snarl escaped its maw, with steely, glowing eyes that looked at Kay with both interest and hunger. Its height was overwhelming, but that wasn't a concern for Kay.

But even then, Kay almost flinched from its gaze alone. How could he even fight something so large? "Uh... Yeah! You may have been born recently, but that doesn't excuse you from ignoring the zerg swarm's psionic control! So be a good overgrown lizard and- HWUAGH-AUGH-AUGH~!?" Kay backed off immediately when the enormous tyrannozor began swinging its Kaiser blades his way. However, Kay was also retreating due to the overwhelming burning sensation that suddenly washed over his body. The moment that Kay rolled out of the way, a clean line was cut out from beneath Kay's feet, which divided the creep violently. However, the second strike caught Kay off guard as his vision was temporarily blinded by the noxious acid. A backhanded Kaiser blade struck Kay, breaking several bones at the bottom of his rib cage and pulling pieces of his carapace from his abdomen. The attack was powerful enough to launch Kay into a wall, which broke it apart into a fractal spiderweb of shattered stone. Kay slowly removed himself from the indent of the wall and was thankful that the attack didn't tear himself in half, though it nearly did so. He sighed. "Kay... You want to play? Let's play. You want to roughhouse? Let's roughhouse." Kay said as he approached the zerg organism that resisted being psionically controlled by the swarm hivemind.

Othafurn and Corvurn watched on as Kay unleashed his psionic attacks against the rampaging super tyrannozor. However, a 1.9 meter tall infested terran fighting against what is essentially a 60 meter tall zerg dinosaur wasn't exactly the fairest match-up. As Corvurn and Othafurn took residence in one of the tunnel entryways that led into a neighboring hatchery chamber, they saw that the damage that Kay was dealing was insignificant. Corvurn turned to Othafurn. "Concerning. Command organism Kay unable to destroy experimental strain."

Othafurn shook her head. "You may have doomed us all, Corvurn. Kay will be able to respawn from the nearest hatchery, but even with zerglings supporting him, your newest creation is too destructive to be contained." She turned and looked toward a single hatchery under Corvurn's care. Two chrysalises in particular were nearly done gestating. "... Good. The infestors are nearly ready."

However, the super tyrannozor rushed into Kay. Its charging attack inadvertently also struck into the hatchery at the same time. Though a few zerglings of the swarmling strain were spawned to fight off the super tyrannozor, the still developing cocoons and hatchery was ripped apart in a storm of violence. What was left after the hurricane of blades and power was unrecognizable, with the exception of Corvurn's experiment that was hunting down an infested terran. The explosion of viscera had hidden Kay's body, but Othafurn and Corvurn was still able to sense that he was still alive. Still, Corvurn growled. "Infestors no longer ready. Slain."

Othafurn sighed. "Then it was wise of me to spawn another set of infestors in another chamber. We need an omega nydus worm to transport them here."

An omega strain nydus worm roared as it erupted out of the creep-covered cave floor. From its maw spewed forth a swarm of zerglings, which rushed toward the super tyrannozor with abandoned caution. However, its vigor renewed as each swipe of its might Kaiser blades laid down each and every zergling that dared fought it. It was as though it healed with each attack it made, and that the acid cloud it produced somehow leached some of the health from its enemies. It even exploded not only with clouds of acidic mist, but also spikes that impaled any zerg unfortunate enough to be nearby. Corvurn was immensely impressed by his creation. It was as though he created a zerg organism that was almost an anti-everything unit. But even then, if his new creation inconvenienced Kay and Virid's Zerg Swarm any further, then they wouldn't have enough time to amass an army against the Kiln Keepers, and ultimately the Golden Star Empire.

And that was when the infestors came into play. Once they got into range, one of them unleashed a thin line of flesh with a penetrating barb on the end. The barb stabbed into the skull of the super tyrannozor, which prompted it to cease its destructive tendencies. Othafurn commanded for the zerglings to cease their attack. She looked at the massive beast with wariness. "... Well. This turned out good for us."

Corvurn crawled out of the hatchery chamber's exit and slithered over the various kinds of gore that littered over the creep. Corvurn looked upon a massive hill of distorted and cut flesh before sighing. "Command organism Kay. Resume visibility. Experimental strain, subdued."

A bloodied head poked out of the pile of gore. Seconds later, a body followed after the head, revealing it to be a hiding Kay. "Holy... fucking... shit." Kay said with a gasp. "Never... in my life... had I ever... fought that hard before!"

Corvurn would have rolled his eyes. "Relax. Extraneous combat no longer needed."

Kay rolled onto the creep and took in some deep breaths. "That's... good. I'll just uh... Rest here for uh... For a bit. Hooh... Why am I tired?"

Corvurn shook his head, which would be an equivalent to him rolling his eyes in this context. Othafurn slithered up to Kay and Corvurn as she wearily stared at the massive tyrannozor. "At least the infestors are controlling it. Without them, we would have been forced to kill it instead."

Kay's breathing was slowly becoming normal. "Hooh... Well I'm fine with sending that omega tyrannozor monster against the Kiln Keepers. ... Say uh... Would this new strain be called an 'omegazor'? I mean... We got omegalisks and omega worms and stuff."

Corvurn nodded. "Indeed. Dubbing new strain omegazor, acceptable."

Just as they named Corvurn's experiment, a strained growl emanated from the massive, massive beast. Kay looked up at the large monster. "Uh... What?"

The newly named omegazor strain reached up to its head and clawed away at the green growth that addled its brain, which forced it to obey the Swarm's control. Once it plucked the dominating parasite from itself, its low rumble of a growl escalated to another earth-quaking roar. It was not only able to resist psionic control, but was also able to resist the parasitic neural domination that the infestors subjected it to. Kay commanded the other infestor to inject its probing neural parasite into the omegazor, but its neural parasite was caught in midair by the grip of the omegazor. The omegazor then grabbed at the offending infestor and slammed it against its brother, making the two infestors explode into a gruesome and vile splash of infestor innards.

Kay blinked at the monster that unleashed himself from the Swarm's control. He then frowned. "... Fuck."

'I believe that a bit of my mental power is needed here.' Thyzir interjected.

Kay got up from the creep while he cautiously watched the omegazor lap up infestor giblets. "Right now is not a good time, Thyzir. Maybe later."

'Oh no Kay, I actually need to talk to Othafurn. Please continue to distract the omegazor until we give you the signal.' Thyzir explained.

"Signal?!" Kay repeated. He then quickly shook his head and sighed. "Kay, we'll talk about that later."

'Othafurn, a moment of your time. I understand that there is a certain item that was used once before. I was wondering if it may be found again?' Thyzir asked as he focused on Othafurn.

However, Kay broke away from their mental conversation and concentrated on the omegazor. He needed to focus on the monster, especially when it was finally done feasting on the infestors' innards and targeted the omega nydus worm afterwards. The beast growled at Kay when it was busy ripping apart the defenseless worm, even when it tried to spew so many zerglings at a time. Once the omega worm was slain, and the zerglings around it died, the omegazor pursued after Kay. Two large sets of Kaiser bladed claws rose over Kay's head and attempted to slam down onto him. Kay sidestepped the claws and leapt up onto its large, burly arms and ran up them, clenching his teeth as he waded through the foggy acid that eroded his carapace. The omegazor tried to grab at the insect-sized pest that crawled up its arm, only to find that its hand was pushed away with a kinetic blast. Kay leapt onto its face and sent blasts of energy into its eyes. A massive mouth, followed by several shooting spikes, caught Kay in the air. Kay was suddenly enveloped in a moist humidity that was mixed with bad breath and freshly eaten zerg flesh.

Kay hissed as the omegazor's tongue tried to push him to its teeth. "Hey! No biting!" A carefully aimed kinetic blast blasted a hole through the omegazor's jawbone. Kay leapt through the opening while the omegazor had only a few seconds to realize that it had a new hole in its mouth. It roared in surprised pain and indignant rage as it searched around for Kay. However, Kay retreated within one of the few remaining bio-structures that still survived the omegazor's wrath, which was under the warm greenish water inside of a spawning pool. He leapt into it while the omegazor was howling in pain and distracted from its injury.

However, the omegazor was quick to pick up Kay's scent. Once it followed Kay's scent trail, it eventually ended up right by the spawning pool. The enormous monster tilted its head in confusion and anger as it searched for Kay. Kay, on the other hand, was thankful that Corvurn's experiment was actually stupid and moved slowly. However, if it ever got its Kaiser bladed claws onto something, then it would quickly be decimated by its attack. Kay figured that with the spawning pool's water surrounding his body, Kay's acid burns and spike-related injuries would regenerate in time.

However, the spawning pool around Kay quivered. It was being eaten away by the noxious cloud that the omegazor produced, thanks to the noxious omegalisk strain that was introduced to its fusion evolution. Kay hoped that the diversion he was providing for Corvurn, Othafurn and Thyzir bought them enough time to do what they needed to do. Once the spawning pool shriveled as it died, Kay revealed himself from its frothing water and looked up at the omegazor. "Down here, dumb-ass." Kay said as he strained to talk through the cloud of acid that enveloped him once again.

The omegazor looked down and saw Kay. A sneering smile emanated from it. Was it pleased to find Kay again? Nevertheless, its claws flashed forward in several horizontal strikes. Kay did his best to duck and jump over each strike, or sometimes threading through the claws that threatened to rend Kay into sliced quarters. Even when the claws were a primary danger for Kay, the puffing clouds of acid and explosions of sharp spikes were also of a concern.

Kay psionically shifted through the omegazor's attacks and pounced onto its chest, making the blood-lusted monster cough as its lungs collapsed. A kinetic blast launched from Kay's fingers again, which only greatly deepened the omegazor's chest wound even more. Kay then leapt off of the omegazor and focused his mind, concentrating his psionic power to a pinpoint. Kay then launched his stored power forward, which was supposed to slip into the sucking wound in its chest and exploded outward. The omegazor blocked the apocalyptic explosion with one of its clawed paws, but it still continued to express its smiling snarl at Kay. Even with one claw obliterated, and with a jaw that was slowly being healed over time, it was almost as though it considered its wounds to be nothing.

Kay breathed heavily as he accelerated his healing regeneration. "Huh... Huh... Fucking hell, you are a hard monster to put down." Kay knew that he was up against a wall. With the omega worm slain, he wasn't able to call for any further backup.

However, his backup came in the form of yet another omega worm as in bursts from the ground and unleashed a plethora of differing ultralisks, followed by brutalisks and a swarm of zerglings of many hundreds. "Kay!"

Kay turned to see Othafurn. Or rather, sensed that she was there since he was partially blinded by the clouds of acid. She seemed to be done speaking to Thyzir. Kay growled. "Now is not a good time right now, Othafurn."

"We need you to force the omegazor to be still. Thyzir ushered enough ultralisks and brutalisks to distract it long enough for me to explain this part of our plan to you." Othafurn said quickly. "Once Thyzir gives you the signal, grip the omegazor and prevent it from moving long enough so that I can perform my part. I then need you to launch me towards its head."

Kay looked back at the omegazor. It was tearing the heads from the necks of the ultralisks and the brutalisks. The zerglings that tried to surround the omegazor was whittled away by the spines and acid that weakened them over time. Even then, the expulsion of toxic clouds and spike barrages easily killed the zerglings, either dissolving them into bubbling pools or impaling them into the ground. Kay sighed as he looked at Othafurn again. "Alright. I hope you know what you're doing." Kay didn't notice the object that Othafurn was holding, but he paid no mind to it.

Othafurn nodded. She turned toward the violent omegazor and readied herself. "Wait for Thyzir's signal."

Once the omegazor pulled out the entrails of the final brutalisk, it then turned to Kay and Othafurn, chewing on the innards from the prey it slaughtered. Kay was becoming more worried as the omegazor continued to lumber closer to them. "Okay Thyzir. When's the signal?"

'In a moment, Kay.' Thyzir chided.

The omegazor came closer and closer until its obnoxiously dangerous acid clouds washed over Kay and Othafurn. It sneered and hissed as it brought an incredibly sharp claw over its head, intending to slice at Kay and Othafurn in one fell cut. Kay was quickly losing patience. "THYZIR!"

"NOW!" Shouted Thyzir.

Kay flew a hand forward and clenched it into a fist. The omegazor seemed to reacted in kind as its limbs were pushed against its side and forced into the air slightly. Once the omegazor was contained for a brief moment, Kay then reached for Othafurn. Once he grabbed her body, he then launched her like a scaly javelin. Othafurn's tail still slid along the creep as she was launched towards the omegazor, but she was able to grab onto its face.

The psionic grip that held the omegazor in place didn't last long. It fell to the ground, which created a loud, wet thud that rippled through the creep greatly. The omegazor shook its head to rid itself of the snake-shaped zerg advisor that wrapped around itself. When it brought its claw up to scratch Othafurn off of its face, Othafurn took the opportunity to use the item she was holding tightly to herself at the time. A blue, blinding light blazed out from the omegazor's head like an exploding star, and it reacted like it was in blinding pain. It roared and convulsed, slashing at everything that was around itself in an overstimulated rage. Othafurn slithered off of the omegazor's face and fled. Though she suffered some minor acid burns, and was nearly cut apart by a flailing Kaiser blade, she would be able to recover from her unusual mission.

Before the omegazor roared in further pain, it slammed its head onto the roof of the hatchery chamber so hard that it rendered itself unconscious. It then fell backwards in a daze and landed on a gore-strewn layer of creep, and remained there. A pained growl escaped its toothy snout before it grumbled a low sigh. It then remained still, save for the slow, loud breathing that was produced from its chest, its gaping chest wound already closing itself. Kay looked upon the incapacitated omegazor for several seconds before turning to Othafurn with a shocked expression. "... Um... Othafurn?"

Othafurn was laid on the creep, allowing its regenerative abilities to ease her wounds. But despite her acid burns, she turned to Kay. "Yes Kay?"

Kay gestured to the omegazor. "Mind telling me how you knocked that thing out?"

"Ah, but she didn't 'knock it out', my dear overcommander." Thyzir said. Kay turned to the brain-shaped oversized larva and huffed. In a way, Kay was kind of glad that the omegazor didn't devour it first. "I glazed through the information stored by our collective hivemind and noticed that there was a certain item in our possession. Do you remember the device that you created with the protoss templar and the era agents' leader's help? What was it called again? The 'psionic focuser'? Yes, I believe it was called so! ... Oh. It uh... It looks like it was destroyed in the process."

Kay looked at what Thyzir was talking about and saw a ruined psionic focuser, flattened beyond repair. Kay growled in annoyance. "The point, cerebrate." Kay had completely forgotten about the psionic focuser. Had he known that it was still around, he could have had Corvurn use it to experiment with other zerg strains. But it looks like he forever lost the chance to experiment with the device.

Thyzir held back the equivalent of a prideful chuckle. "Getting there, Kay. Getting there. Anyway, to abridge the answer to your question, we simply used your psionic focuser on the omegazor. To think that the hybrid fusion of the noxious and torrasque strains of two omegalisks could be tamed like so! Hah! Sad that it was a bit of a gamble on my part, but I think this plan worked rather well in our favor."

Kay furrowed his brows and tilted his head. "That... Uh... That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, Thyzir. All we did to it is made it smarter. It still doesn't have a connection to the swarm hivemind."

"But you fail to understand, Kay. It was an unintelligent beast that resisted our psionic control. It's an infallible fact to know that one could never successfully reason with a feral beast. That is where the psionic focuser came in handy! Sadly, I had made the gamble to have Othafurn use the device on the indignant omegazor, but we were able to expand its mind in the end. I mean, why reason with a beast at all if one could give it a will to reason with?" Thyzir answered.

Kay nodded slowly. "... So what your saying is that since we couldn't reason with a feral omegazor, we simply made it sapient with the psionic focuser. Which is now destroyed."

"That's precisely correct, Kay. I do apologize for your psionic focuser, however. I didn't foresee its destruction." A procession of drones came out from one of the entryways of the hatchery chamber and circled around the cerebrate. The many drones lifted the large cerebrate upwards and began carrying him on their backs. "But if you don't mind, I think it's only right that I move myself to a different area to manage resources in. This area is a little distracting to me, what with the gore and blood and death, you see. Oh, and Othafurn? I think you should keep our omegazor creature informed on what we are fighting for, whom we are fighting with, and which allies we are abstaining from eating and infesting. Could be beneficial to the Swarm if we convinced it to side with us, provided that we don't force its consent in any way. Think you can manage?"

Othafurn thought about what Thyzir wanted her to do, but then nodded. "... I am unsure. If the omegazor wakes up again, it might target me, and then everything else."

"Then tell it that we have no desire to be its enemies. Explain that we only reacted in self-defense. Simple as that!" Thyzir then directed its living carpet of drones to direct it out of the hatchery chamber. Corvurn stealthily crawled back into the chamber as Thyzir exited it. Corvurn looked around as saw that more bio-structures were destroyed, and many corpses of zerg were piled high.

Othafurn sighed as she slithered toward the resting omegazor. "Well... I suppose I'll perform a mental link with the omegazor. I hope it won't react violently."

Kay shook his head. "At least have some kind of protection before you start sharing your thoughts with it!" Kay shouted at Othafurn.

Corvurn silently skittered to Kay's side. He was wary of the omegazor's presence. "Hmm... Omegazor organism incapacitated?"

Kay turned to Corvurn and nodded. "Uh... Yup. Our psionic focuser ended up breaking, but we couldn't calm the omegazor down without it. Sadly, it was thanks to Thyzir's help that we not only calmed it down, but also got the psionic focuser destroyed in the process."

"Unfortunate. Wanted to experiment with focuser device. Could improve psionic capability of Swarm." Whined a grumbling Corvurn. He discovered a small broken fragment of what remained of the psionic focuser. However, without the knowledge to fix the device they once had, or the tools to be able to build another, Corvurn simply discarded it. The focuser fragment was then made to be at the mercy of the creep.

Kay sighed. "I guess we could ask C.J. to help us build another psionic focuser. ... If he makes contact with us again, that is."

Corvurn nodded and sighed. "Will continue work elsewhere. Gestate new bio-structures and strains. Continue experiments. Will refrain spawning more cerebrates and omegazors. Destruction of focuser, unexpected. Chaotic rebelling of omegazor strain, unexpected." Corvurn said as he slithered and crawled away.

Kay sighed. "Ugh... I think my aches have aches. I wonder what Kragnon is up to?"

Kay summoned a zergling, mounted it, and then rode through the tunnel system that the zerg made. Kay was glad that the infighting was over with, but he had some doubts concerning the creation of the cerebrate and the omegalisk-noxious-and-torrasque-fusion evolution of the super tyrannozor. But more importantly, Kay knew that any further delays would make the Golden Star Empire suspect that the zerg was still alive under Kiln. Kay also knew that it was only a matter of time till they strike back against Golden Star and their Kiln Keeper robots.

A stern hardness settled upon Kay's face. In order for this 20 year war to end, one final push in the right direction was needed.

A/N: Been playing lots of Disgaea this October. Freaking good game. Might even write a fanfiction of it in the future. :3