"It(Reality) is all a dream--a grotesque and foolish dream..."
– Mark Twain
If there was a dark center on Earth, Cain was sure this was it. Last time trees and life were vibrating with animals, now? Everything smelled of death, oil and destruction.
Cain was handcuffed in chains carried across the sky by a Nightscreamer, a grotesque mechanical monstrosity that resembled a pterosaur with leather bat-like wings flapping. Two small turbine engines for support had a mouth that consisted of knives and razors, two red cybernetic glowing eyes and a chain with spikes for a tail; it got its name for its deafening shrieks and sending out mostly during the night. He tried and struggled to get free knowing his curse prevented him from dying from being dropped from such height, but the flying abominator held tightly on him and his hands were cuffed which made his struggle harder and even if he managed to get free other Nightscreamers that were flying near him would catch him midair. Moreover, this would be his chance to get a better look at the followers of Shormaush Urdal's operation and plans from inside.
He gazed upon the land underneath and it gave him some unsettling flashbacks. It was like it was the Antediluvian age all over again.
He did not know where his brother Abel was, he and he were separated after the fight and he hoped he finally realized that what was coming was bigger than either of them.
Crash Site Omega ship became the new Factory modified to become a twisted parody of itself humming with a sinister red light of its forges and around it was a necropolis of machines and twisted horrors: black smoke fumed from the industrialized sections from their exhaust fumes where new horrors were made were covering the sky so thick that sunlight or moonlight hardy could reach, fires of forges coming out like the maw of a breathing dragon, black towers of metal and concrete reaching up and there were pipes all around to carry hazardous chemicals.
When the Nightscreamer dove down he could smell the ash and polluted fog invading his nose and got a better look.
Machines and abominators of all sizes were crawling everywhere endlessly doing their master's bidding: Fearmongers walked as senteries or went out, Nightscreamers flowed around either to transport cargo or as scouts looking around like vultures, reprogrammed alien drones were guarding the entries, servitors those lobotomized cyborgs handling the labor, Clawhunters with plasma torches fusing metal or holding materials with their claws moving around like a repulsive marriage between a spider and a crab's movement, farm sections where instead of crops were growing SCP-3140 instances using foul Daevite magic from the soil and big centipede-like machines were crawling on the dirt drilling and readying the soil for more construction or Daevite plant manipulation.
It wasn't a factory, it was worse than that, it was a Necroevolution.
When the Nightscreamer came down enough, it dropped him undignifying next flow away with an unholy shriek and from there two armored cultists wearing a sigil that was a hybrid between Factory and Children Of The Scarlet King's symbol as a show of their alliance were now escorting him.
On the way, the anahuman got a much closer look at this hideous and growing metropolis: cultists some wearing gear, others wearing cultism hoods likely going around doing whatever dark occult they were doing, a couple of those crooked and porcupines humanoid robots but with none of the features that made hedgehogs look cute called Eliminators holding shotguns and walking around serving as commandos leading other robots and servitors of all shapes were ever more clearer with their grotesque details of hallowed eyes and movements devoid of true life and flesh, cabals and cybernetics gruesomely fused and on the way he could swear he saw plan fighters were being constructed.
It was staggering how much they advanced so far.
How? Even for the Factory this is a very tall order, he doubts even the ancient Mekhanites could reach such highs in mere days and he was there when they made the city of Amoni-Ram. Where do they get the materials needed? A place as small as Gravity Falls can't support these many resources and even if the Factory grabbed every living being in this country there was simply no way it would be able to make so many servitors.
Even then, there was no way the Factory could make a whole new crimson order this fast.
There were two hypotheses in Cain's mind: the Factory resorted in cloning and also communities formed around the ossified bones of dead horrors, descendants of their brutality integrated into their neighbours to gain more recruits as Children Of The Scarlet King were hardly an hegemony or centralized religion with so many various independent cults, organizations, and movements which have formed in different parts of the world throughout time and always revolve around the Scarlet King with different origins, variable doctrines, only that they all include key themes with the same vile philosophy of "Enlightenment Through Violation" that connects them each claiming they are the 'true' followers of their god even in some cases causing religious confusions to gain deceived followers by claiming that their god is also the same god as other religions through faux and perverting which while do explain the abundance of cultists and servitors but not the materials and even then the Scarlet King cults can't freely preach as they would be immediately hunted down by likes of Horizon, Foundation and GOC, not impossible but hard not to mention making such a big army this fast or…they were ready for this and got resources needed elsewhere and were building up to this moment for years. Maybe both are true.
As he was escorted he saw many flags belonging to the cultists all varied in their symbols but fall the same pattern no doubt where the various cults around the globe that worshiped the Defiler of Worlds, it wasn't much of a secret as no doubt the cults have joined forces in order have enough forces to mobilizer an attack to the Foundation resulting in many anomalies spread all over, yet it felt Cain with a resigned disheartening seeing so many people under the clutches of a mad cult worshiping a cruel and unforgiving god.
Charging
On the way, the sound of crackling electricity and machinery charging heated and when he glanced he realized his second hypothesis was also true to his dread.
It was an honest-to-God portal made of the alien metal of the fallen starship looking like a rusty and retro super collider compressed charging rather loudly, arcane symbols that were grafted on the portal glowed with sinister red, tubes filled with black-blue liquid boiled and machines hummed with lights until in a brilliant explosion of red light a crimson-coloured and swirling vortex formed.
From which passengers came, a group of armored cultists came but he could tell not all of them were humans despite their gears and helmets masking their appearance, one of them failed to cover his head fully revealing pointy ears and he was among some driving small gothic airships carrying goods. Cain could sense were radiating with magic holding machine-like staffs with cables connected between with a red tip at the top that likely acts as a focusing point no doubt paratech. Were they Fae? No, he doubted that, Fae were too proud to ever bend the knee to any god outside of their pantheon, Fae certainly was more powerful in magic in their shining and the magic that came from them as he sensed didn't feel like Fae magic and they were accompanied with some strange golem-like drones that looked like they were rocks held together by some mud-like substance with red emotionless eyes.
There were others as well: stout short figures too wide to be human that wore helmets that oddly looked like it was fashioned after a toad, much smaller figures as well but their helmets looked like frog heads and there were slender figures who were like…newt dinosaurs? He honestly couldn't tell.
He recalled that the Six-fingered man said that Gravity Falls was a weak point in reality and used the alien metal of the crashed alien ship to make his Interdimensional Portal which also would add another reason why the Factory specifically chose Crash Site Omega.
The Factory had well…factories across the globe but they weren't thought to supply or manufacture arms or else every Veil-keeper would have dropped on them like hawks, but if they had access to other worlds and realms…without any competition or challenger they would be able to freely manufacture military hardware and that's not including the raw resources they would gain. He once heard a rumor about the Factory even having a secret underground base on the Moon, yet nothing as having the Factory's operation branched across multiple worlds.
The ever-confirming realization that the Factory had been building up a dark empire across other worlds with no one to challenge, and no restriction on a brutal genocidal colonization of unsuspecting worlds was not a comforting conclusion. He recalled how unforgiving, oppressive and brutal the Daevite Empire was.
Cain's further train of thought stopped when they stood at a big building, this one looked more like a shrine than an industrialized factory. A scanner came and scanned Cain and the guards which with a beep reverted resulting in the gate being opened, the soldiers pushed Cain to enter so he did as they led him in.
Cain expected to hear the cries of the damned as if they came straight from Hell but instead, it was rather dark and dingy only illuminated by the lights just enough to see not enough to be clear, deeper in the hallway there were a few paintings around with religious significance showing numerous periods or historic events or mythological events and various artifacts of past ages laid: Three nations, one of iron and one of flesh fighting a larger one that commanded dark thorny plants at the top were dark figures wearing blood-red hoods with antler crows who unmistakably were the Daeva Matriarchs commanding the endless army to crush the opposing forces.
A glassy window of numerous colors of red, vermillion, black and more depicting a demonic scarlet dragon with one big branchy antler at the center of its head, many red eyes on the head, the resembled of a wolf and it had wings with arrows penetrated on its body yet roared victoriously. No doubt one of many depictions of Scarlet King's appearance.
Engraved symbols and runes on collected Daevite ancient armors that despite the ravages of time he could feel small flickers of dark magic from them.
Ritualistic weapons and equipment made from humans or extinct or mythological creatures are used for ceremonies.
A black obelisk for human sacrifice radiating violence that supplied the Daevite mages with a supply of unholy hatred written in Daevite which roughly translated to 'He Who Hates'.
There were even a few statues in the honor of cruel old gods likely dug from ancient ruins of the Daevite Empire put in specific positions to make anyone feel like they are being watched.
When they reached the destination, they were stopped by two gargantuan-size guards with their bladed spears in a universal sign of halt with their blades vibrating into life with cackles likely from the small generator attached to it. They had plasma pistols that were the only pistols in the guards' big hands big enough to be considered rifles in the hands of an average human attached to their belts and both were wearing heavy battle armor under long, reddish-black cloaks emblazoned with intricate gold patterns at the chest, back, and shoulders and large helmets that conceal their faces except for their two red illuminating eyes with no pupils that looked like Samurai helmets but steampunk.
"Leave us…" a draconic voice from behind the door commanded the two soldiers who in a nod accepted and left.
The guards then opened the door, gesturing to Cain to move in, he complied reluctantly and entered the room while the guards sealed the door behind him.
Inside the room was a big dinner table and at the end near it was a big statue in the fashion of the Scarlet King black with red eyes holding chains and standing triumphant and between it and the dinner table was Dehak.
He sat on a throne, a throne of asymmetric monstrosity of spikes and jagged edges and twisted metal made of melted knives and guns and on some were skulls of humans and nonhumans. His baleful eye was luminated in the shadow sinisterly and he was feeding not by spoons or forks but by his claws and what he was eating was horrid with a sound of munching that was verberating.
On the table, there was a collection of organs from innards to hearts and livers, some he recognized others he did not, harvested from magical and supernatural beings, some were cooked, others still bleeding including what he could recognize as the liver and guts of a Unicorn still dripping with rainbow blood.
The current food Dehak was eating he recognized as a form of Khash made from Unicorn brain. It was a sickening sight.
After one last bite, Dehak put his attention toward Cain and began to speak. "They say Unicorns are the purest beings in the paranormal world." He made a gesture with a claw "Well…when they said 'pure' they never specified 'purely good', but due to their magical potential. They were hunted to near extinct for the sheer magical potential of even just their mere hair not out of 'Pure Goodness'," he gave a sardonic smile despite not having lips "Even in the fantasy world, some things are just that, fantasies." he gazed harder at Cain who remained stoic "You probably wondering what tragic backstory could cause a person become such a monster as you see, Qabill."
The anahuman has been called by many names across millennials; Qabil, First Murder, Father of Murder, SCP-73, and even once seen as a form of prophet by the Mekhanites.
"Monsters aren't born, Black Apostle. They are made." Cain replied neutrally, masking his disgust at the feast.
The Black Apostle amused sneered "How quaint, coming from the First Murderer who killed his sibling in a fit of jealousy."
The First Murderer gave a slight eyebrow "As if coming from the leader of a murderous cult fattening himself by gorging on ponies of 'Purity'?"
Dehak chortled at his sharp retort, his laughter was no longer human but the laughter of a beast. "And they said you're a meek quiet boy too polite to spit fire." he then took what looked like the cooked thigh of a Unicorn and took a big bit before continuing "Not that I don't enjoy my cuisine, but as I found out, my apotheosis takes a lot of energy so I have to feast on beings with magical powers to satiate myself."
"You're delusional to call this curse apotheosis." Cain idly remarked, he recalled many during the Antediluvian Age who saw his curse as a blessing for what he committed and despite trying to put an end to that a cult of personality was born that admired all things wrong about him even trying to emulate his sin, as tragic as the Flood was he was glad that the cult got washed away from the face of the Earth.
Dehak, after chewing it away, loses his forced joviality with something more serious "I was just a normal boy you know, from the small country of Devastaan not even a blip on the map from a middle-class family. I didn't have abusive parents, I didn't lose a spouse or a sibling to drive me mad like you or the ever meddling Pines, I didn't have any special privileges, I was just an ignorant insignificant sheep doing a repeated routine trapped to an insignificant life. One day…I came across some satanic cult, do you know why I joined? I joined because I got bored." he grunted with a sardonic sense of humor "Until I realized it was the real deal once they started doing human sacrifice instead of animal sacrifice, so I backstabbed, toppled and studied the ways of Daevites. Imagine the elation a lethargic normal weakling felt finding the closest thing to the divine…" He looked with nostalgia recalling his past, Cain decided to let Dehak talk while he secretly looked around while also opening his handcuff using a very small thin iron rod."Spirituality is dead, we killed it, normalized the world around us and suppressed the wonder like your Foundation friends. Enlightenment has become cheap, Spirituality now is a tool for False Prophets to control the masses, Greed and Hedonism are actively encouraged, small petty weak men reach high positions and debauched celebrities worthy of Greece's extinct Patheon are now the new gods."
Cain, while planning things out, decided to bait him further into talking more. "There is no shame in living a common life. Your disillusionment for the modern world is your justification in defiling anything sacred?"
The draconic humanoid scoffed "Oh please, nothing is inherently sacred unless you consider it too."
"Am I not the living proof that is otherwise?"
"You misunderstood, Qabil. I'm not denying divinity, I'm denying if there is any true fairness at all. How do mass murderers get away with way more but you get cursed for only killing your brother?" Dehak got up from his chair. "Break the universe, compress it and then show me one atom of justice." He began slowly walking away from his dinner table in the shadows looking around the walls as he continued. "The universe itself is a dark rotten place, filled with ancient horrors and atrocities waiting to awaken and take their vengeance on the modern world for forgetting them. Nothing matters except strength and survival. The only thing worth living for is apotheosis: To be stronger than the others."
How ironically Neo-Sarkic of him as Cain thought so he responded "Power is a means, not the end Dehak, you would only find a bottomless pit that can never be filled once you seek power for the sake of power."
Dehak stopped where he was staring intently at the light bulb on the ceiling as if he wasn't talking to him but asking someone above "Tell me, how did it feel to kill for the first time O father of Murder?" Cain didn't immediately respond, biting his tongue, letting the Black Apostle ramble with himself while he finally managed to get the right lock nearly open, though left for when it was the right time. "When I kill for the first time: I couldn't…feel anything. I tried yet I didn't feel anything, not regret, not elation, not guilt, not easy ... .nothing." he kept staring at the light and for a brief microsecond he looked vulnerable "I never found true companionship, kindred or a lover. Any relationship I ever had was temporary, perhaps I would have become a different person in different circumstances or if I tried harder…" he at that point looked like he was talking to himself.
"Strange, I would have thought you enjoyed it from what I heard," Cain called him out and he heard how he was sadistically gleefully manipulating the parents of that Northwest child and then killed them and how he taunted rather proudly to the Corduroy girl on killing her mother in front of her face.
Dehak glanced back at the Father of Murder with a smirk "Oh, I won't deny I didn't enjoy toying with people. But the murder itself no, I don't feel the same bloodthirst as that damnable arrogant flesh homunculi." He frowned, recalling Mr Redd, still angry at him, dropping the cat out of the bag to fish out the brats and the 7th child, he then while returning to his table continued talking.
"You felt it, didn't you?"
"Felt what?"
"The awakening, the veil is weakened and the masquerade soon will be no more." He grabbed something in his hand and while Cain couldn't see exactly he could feel the wretched thing pulsating with the darkest of magics. When Dehak moved from the shadows and enough light was on to see what the book was he was alarmed though he did not express that.
'A Chronicle of the Daevas'
It was SCP-140.
"I'm guessing you know what this book is. Do you?" The draconic humanoid's question was more a statement than a question as one index of his gently tapped at the book "The lost Daevite trib… tried to master time but in doing so they got imprisoned by it, waiting for the day where they would return and bring back their glorious crimson empire."
"Last I checked, in a battle between sword and gun, the gun always wins." Cain reminded Dehak of that.
Dehak made a ghastly malevolent grin as he sauntered toward him like a Cobra near its prey "Hehe, but here's the thing. They didn't just stay doing nothing while they were lost, they had you could say 'Natural Selection' to weed out the weak and make the strong stronger and let's just say when the Temporal enforcers tried to take care of them…What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
"On that, I agree with you." Cain agreed, then suddenly he broke off his handcuff in a rash and while that happened his blue symbol and tattoos glowed blue channeling magic he innately had and had learned across millennials. The Black Apostle was quick to respond and was gonna snatch him with a claw but then the First Murderer channeled an energy punch from his right fist and punched him in the chest resulting in the draconic humanoid being sent away breaking through a wall. Dehak was quick to get up but when he did so Cain was quick to disappear and when he looked at his hands he realized he no longer had the book nor it was on the ground, either Cain grabbed the book or he dropped it and then he grabbed it.
Cain held the book in a mad dash, he could feel the hateful energy of the book much clearer now that he held it though he also felt another kind of energy as well which he couldn't recognize. He didn't have time to ponder as that stunt brought attention from inhabitants of this accursed factory hence he on his way had to dodge a couple of times the creepy-looking guards he saw before entering coming to stop him and then tried chasing him while the gate in front of him was closing down, Cain was faster than the guards running with an almost inhuman speed but they were close to catching him so he on his way slow them down by throwing every Daevite artifacts and comically the guards' menacing red eyes widen and they hastily snatched every artifacts that Cain was dropping down from hitting the floor which gave Cain the opportunity outrun them and narrowly pass over the gate before coming down by sliding.
The anahuman continued to run as he then grabbed a coming soldier's head and smacked him to the other soldier, ducked down when an Eliminator jumped on him to grab him and jumped over when a Nightscreamer shot a net at him from its projectile. As by then everyone knew of Cain's curse no one shot or tried attacking him knowing any attack would simply deflect back so everyone was instead trying to either capture him or snatch his book or both.
Roar
Dehak flowed passed the roof of his building not caring about the hole he created and seeing Cain on the run drove down toward him, Cain seeing that on his way broke a cooling pipe that was connected to a building likely a meat freezer room based on the smell of preserved meat(Though he rather not think on for what purpose a fridge room would be knowing how vicious the Scarlet King followers are), seized and put it toward Dehak who came near him who before having the opportunity of ca[turing Cain for a moment grunted in surprise of feeling parts of his body frozen, though he can survive being frozen and it takes more than that to freeze him he still felt the sensation which caught him in surprise. Just then, a group of servitors came to aid their master; however, Cain put the book on his armpit, channeled magic as his tattoos glowed blue again and hit the distracted Dehak with both fists at his chest the resulting kinetic once again launched Dehak toward the servitors crushing them under his weight.
When the black apostle got up immediately becoming very annoyed at being plunged away by Cain's attacks twice, he no longer saw either the First Murderer or the precious book. His eyes narrowed scanning the area around him knowing Cain was hiding while with a gesture of his hand commands the underlings to search for him.
Meanwhile, the anahuman hid in a dark corner, he saw rugged clothes in a trashcan so he grabbed them and used them to conceal himself as cover. He moved fast though stealthy, with every being in this accursed city machine looking for him he had to be stealthy, there were eyes everywhere so he had a low chance of getting out of there without anyone finding him, he concluded his best bet was the portal, if he could get his hands he may be able to make the portal transport him with the book to somewhere safe and hidden and before that destroy the portal he learned a thing or two arcane knowledge from the ancient Mekhaites in communicating or understanding machines. They would simply make another portal but it would delay them. It was the least he could do to any world that had been invaded by this Dark Empire. He sneaked past guards with a guard pet the said guard pet was a feline skeleton-like without a tail, a skull that looked like the skull of a cougar, elongated limbs walking on all 4 and two eyes one red bionic and the other was a flashlight, the creature's whole body was half bone and metallic with joints attached to it and to its hands and feet to call it a cyborg was an insult as Cain pretty sure that it's organic part was long dead and the Factory simply used necrotic remains to create this undead mechanical horror.
On his way, Cain also carefully dodged the security cameras that were rhythmically moving until he reached the portal. To his luck, it was still active he just had to find out where is the control pan-
Suddenly his instincts scrambled and when he looked back a giant claw hand grabbed him and brought him to the sky where Dehak was gazing at him "Why the rush to leave? I didn't even get to offer my delicious Khash to you!" The draconic humanoid taunted.
The First Murderer tried resisting and in response, Dehak grabbed his head, dived down and hit him to the side of the portal with a roar.
When Cain's head hit he felt dizzy and his head in a world of pain, the sensation was so new for him that it took moments of eternity to process and when blood dripped from his head his dizziness ceased from the pure shock.
" ..Impossible…!" was all Cain could utter, somehow his curse didn't work and not only did he actually get hurt, but also the attack wasn't deflected back either.
Dehak began to speak, his tone dripping with smug malevolent "I had a hypothesis, you know, I read your psychological files after spending much time with psychiatrists and Alpha 9, how you inexplicably no longer cause plants around you to wither." He now held the Daevite book and then put it under Cain's head where the blood from Cain's head fell, when a few drops of blood hit the book they were immediately absorbed into the SCP book as if the book was vampiric.
"Your curse was never a divine retribution, it was a punishment which you inflicted on yourself."
"...No…Can't be…I would remember- " Cain denied, still in shock that this was really happening.
"Don't remember? Ha! You must have felt like World's greatest horse turd after your murder and seeing your descendants inspired by you in the Antediluvian Age, or maybe that was the whole point of your curse? To…how should I say, have a 'Character journey'?" He shook his head "No matter." he grabbed and held Cain up face to face "Your reconciliation during your time in Foundation left a crack in your curse. A crack for me to exploit. It must be the happiest moment of your life, you get to finally be able to die!" he mocked and then brought Cain down and put his feet down on him holding him down while he gasped from the pressure on his chest, he forgot what pain was like. "With the blood of the first man who murdered and the first kinslayer, I can now unlock the book. Don't worry, before you die your beloved brother will soon have the pleasure of sitting with you witnessing the show with you. For now, watch."
The book was now making pulsating sounds like a beating heart, he held the book over near the ground from which black thorny vines made of wood grew and attached to the book holding it so Dehak stopped holding the cursed book as its pages opened and whatever was written in the book was illuminating with baleful red light. Dehak began chanting Old Extinct Daevite words; each word he said made the words inside the book glow brighter and brighter.
Glowing figures showed from thin air until they were materialized into a solid form which Cain recognized as ancient Daevites. Daevites were subhumand taller than the average humans and possessed pale skin, sharp triangular teeth and sometimes red eyes though not all of them were as pale as the moonlight with red eyes looking like vampires some had average human skin tone and all of them were seasoned warriors, all beginning to materialize.
Some of them wore ancient symbols of the Daevite Empire proudly, likely marked by leaders and decorated centurions.
Noticeably, some wore some advance gears that was not belonging to their original era: one wore a futuristic black helmet with a cracked vizor helding a bow with many arrows on her back that were pulsing with cursite energy for those who could feel magic a contrast to her pre-industrial clothing which were bandages covering her upper body, another rather brutish among his kind with a warhammer wore a belt of human skulls as trophy some still containing cybernetics with one skull had a green lensed bionic for an eye, one augmentd by daevite magic looking a bit hunched with digittile legs and having lengthy claws instead of fingers wearing a daevite war mask with feathers around it like the manes of a lion wore a shoulder piece armor that had the unkistakble symbol of 'SCP' but looking more adance which he guessed he tooked from the enigmatic Department of Temporal Anomalies that was said to involve in operations that not even the O5 Council was pravy to and to this day their origin and purpose is questioned, one low ranking daevite trooper helding a spear wore a broken golden watch that was actually a Tachyon counter (SCP-442) and one of the leaders who held one katar dagger in each hand wore a gasmask with black helmet and a bloodied violently ripped off part of a black armor on his chest that had a flickering weak glowing green symbol of a sand clock and the letters 'T. P. A. E. S' on it.
Dehak who by then stopped chanting cackled "Yes, YES! Those fools gave them access to their temporal knowledge, the Lost Army used what they knew and gathered from the slayed Foundation enforcers and attacked slaves of the Child of Time to gather temporal energy, each of them is now a temporal battery and with enough of them free, it would give enough boost to punch a hole in reality for the coming of the Scarlet King sooner than later!" He glanced back at Cain. "Now the reckoning is due against this disgusting world of petty men and false idols. I no longer believe in Heaven or a God, but I do believe in Hell and a Devil." he then looked to the sky with a hand extending upward as if he were trying to catch a star. "Call it Hel, call it Hades, Jahannam, Naraka…call it the Darkness Below. Call it whatever you want, but I'll take back what's wronged and tear the precious veil of ignorance the Foundation and GOC nurture apart for everyone to see hellfire reigning from the sky and see the world's true disgust face. Scarlet King will destroy the era of False Dreams in dust and blood and I Dehak will be his messenger. And if I can't enlighten humanity to the truth, then let the world burn." He said the latter menacingly with the promise of bloodshed from a zealot while troops around him hurrayed with their fists and weapons up.
Cain had to give Dehak that, he knew how to rally despite liking to talk too much and he also knew he had to stop him, if he managed to take the book the ritual would still end in creating a rift in Scarlet King's domain but he had faith that his friends and the Foundation would be ready so he had to delay this. He bit his lip trying to dull the pain in his body, after spending millennials being invincible to harm he felt like a toddler who just experienced pain for the first time, except he was not a toddler so he bitten his tongue even harder and under his breath he said words of a dead language lost to time, he already spent energy in pushing Dehak away and his curse seemingly no longer worked so there was a chance that he could seriously hurt himself; nevertheless, he took it.
"Athem the, athou thou, at, nodo, uk DUR!"
Dehak shouted in animalistic agony as a surge pulse of blue lightning sent it flying away so as did every minion and materialized Daevites around them. Quick to action, Cain got up and tore the book from the black vines, the magic he did already took a toll on him making him feel fatigued and he was surrounded so he took the only exit, jumping straight into the portal before Dehak could catch him.
The Black Apostle grunted ferally in frustration "He has the book, find them! Find him if you want to see your brethren again!" He roared commands, snatched a surprised soldier and threw him at the portal to his protesting scream. A few other soldiers and Nightscreamers began jumping inside though before the Daevites, which were few by then only 20, were freed from their imprisonment in time he stopped the last 7.
"You wait, I still need of you." As much as it irritated Dehak to fail to free all of the Lost, he still had a few enough to not immediately open the rift but at least accelerate the process. He specifically chose 7 of them to stay as number 7 was a sacred number in Scarlet King mythos, while sure he could use all the freed Daevites since there wasn't enough temporal energy harnessed to immediately punch a hole into reality he had to follow the rules of Mythos as much as it vexing to him.
There were violent lights as Cain fell in a tunnel of light and then ... there was darkness as he gave into the fatigue and fell to whatever destination awaited him.
Deep inside the factory where flesh and metal scream: someone woke up. It was a man trapped on a dissection table his face disfigured by burning chemicals and the only thing that stopped him from screaming his lungs out was a breathing apparatus with connected tubes frantically looked around and everything he saw only added to his panic from many vats with green liquid each containing strange creatures from an oversized mantis to a floating dead humanoid with long ears and a huge monster that looked like a yeti but it wasn't as it had many light yellow sharp teeth can be seen with its mouth open which revealed two dead blue eyes on the gums, hanging hooks fresh with blood and some had meat pieces, above the poor man was looked like an unholy marriage of a torture machine and a surgical device with too many needles, saws and surgical knives and there was another table on it was a ripped open dead body of a toad too big to be a normal toad with its rib cage opened and small beetle like robots moving around it.
As if this horror show wasn't enough, a massive form with a mechanical cry with one red inhuman eye came near him gazing with the detached malice of a machine, it extended an 3 index hand arm which made the man jerk even more violently to no avail in terror. The extended hand grabbed his breathing apparatus and violently threw it away not before revealing more tubes from the apparatus coming from inside of the man's mouth cousin him to cough and gag reflex, the freshly polluted air and the smell of blood and oil attacked his nose and he tried to breathe and yet he couldn't as if he was a fish out of the water yet could not do anything but breath and breath frivolously until he scummed to the fate of every fish outside of water, dying from lack of oxygen.
Another failed experiment as the Living Construct thought; oh well failure is the seed to success in science, Edison didn't invent workable light bulbs without trying nearly a hundred! Maybe trying to mix DNA of numerous samples inside subject Q-91 a captured low-level Foundation worker and the said samples came from his bases in Dimension-191-BETA-9 and Dimension-810-ZETA-7 was excessive in trying to create enhanced soldiers only resulting in severe deformation and the lungs collapsing so bad that the subject need an apparatus to survive that pumped directly oxygen and oxygen riddled water to his newfound amphibian gills. No matter, it is a loss, at least it learned new things about genetic hybridization and Project Grimwalkers was a success to create cannon fodders so as Project Salamander in excavating new technologies to be added and assimilated despite the setbacks and resistances in Dimension-191-BETA-9 and Dimension-810-ZETA-7 respectively.
The slaves and recruits gained from Lord Goran, allies in the other bases and propaganda have been sufficient in converting natives to counteract resistances.
Project Calamity and Project Titan are still pending as Project Soul Extractor.
Huh, peculiar. The Fabrication Machine looked away sensing a presence that was shining in the aether it was like…that cyborg offspring that killed its alpha headlight raptor yet brighter and robust cybernetics this time…wasn't this fleshbag brat supposed to be dead? It was sure that she was dead.
Maybe send a group of Carnifex with heavy hitters this time to rectify the anomaly.
Alert! Alert! Alert
ROAR!
Oh, not that damnable lizard again making a mess of things!
—--END—--
Notes:
