Chapter 28: Chapter 28: [ANGEL] METAMORPHOSIS

Chapter 28: [ANGEL] METAMORPHOSIS

 

Jack snapped the stick in half as he crawled along the cold damp floor, letting out an ear-piercing scream in the process of the splinters coating his tongue.

Sahaqiel was right, it did hurt. But Jack found himself angry that the angel failed to use a suitable enough tone to convey the fact that he would be literally torn apart. Yet, as he sat there crying and defecating he doubted any words she used would prepare him for the excruciating pain he was currently experiencing.

Nothing compared to the agony of having his entire body restructured, not even being bitten by the hound, impaled by the guardian, or even being set on fire.

He flailed around like a fish out of water, with his body, making unnatural snapping noises as his bones broke and mended themselves over and over again while he struggled to stay conscious.

Not even a minute into the ordeal and blood began leaking from every orifice of his body, pooling underneath him as he laid there digging his hands into the stone and fading in and out from the pain.

"FUCK!" Jack swore as his skin melted off his flesh, only to regrow in a flash of smoke and sparks that radiated off his body like a geyser.

Jack screamed, clutching his head as he suddenly vomited a black wet mucus across the gray cave floor.

[JUST HOLD ON!] Sahaqiel yelled, her voice booming in Jack's head that immediately made the boy wince in pain. [Your body is purging its impurities! You need to stay conscious!]

"Ugh…." Jack moaned, attempting to keep his eyes open despite the heavy weight on his eyelids.

[Think of your sister! Do you want to leave her alone?!]

Suddenly the cave began to illuminate with a golden hue, reflecting the holy yellow radiance that wafted off Jack's body as his entire being let off a combination of sparks, smoke, and magical power.

This went on for hours, with a mix of maniacal laughter and screaming echoing out from behind the waterfall. Every second that passed was another second his body broke itself apart, only to mend the wounds back together to continue the process all over again.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, Jack lay panting heavily as he stared at the blood-stained ceiling above.

[ERROR!]

[ERROR!]

[ERROR!]

"Ughhh." Jack moaned, ignoring the constant display of error messages as he fluttered his eyes to focus. "I hate you."

[Congratulations Jack, you've gone through a rite of passage that hasn't been done for thousands of years."

"I… can see. Why no one's done it before...", Jack huffed as he slowly wobbled to his feet, but paused when he caught his reflection in a puddle.

He had to say, the results weren't half bad.

All of the burn scars were gone, replaced instead with taut muscle and smooth skin, his body significantly more chiseled than ever before. In fact his was a whole head taller than before.

"Holy shit I'm ripped!" Jack exclaimed, admiring his abs and striking a pose.

[Wait for it.]

At Sahaqiel's words, Jack doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach as an abyssal hunger erupted from his soul, demanding sustenance.

Jack immediately searched for something to consume. His gaze, darting around the cave until he spotted it, meat.

Without wasting a second, he dove at the smoked venison hanging up on some sticks, immediately devouring the meat and what remained of his and Eleanor's food rations.

[Don't choke now, jeez.]

Then his attention turned toward the fruits and vegetables that had been carefully assorted into various bags and plastic containers. He wasted no time, and tore at them with his teeth, consuming plastic and all. Sparing none of the defenseless fruits, even going so far as to use his Consume skill to expedite his rabid feasting.

[What, hey! Calm down! Don't put dirt in your mouth! I can taste that too!]

When what remained was nothing left but scraps of plastic and torn bags, Jack bounded out of the cave on all fours on the hunt for something to satiate his all-consuming hunger.

[Where are we going?! Hey! Answer me!] Sahaqiel demanded, but her voice was drowned out by the hunger.

As Jack rabidly barreled out the cave, he was unaware that he had tripped a sensor, sending an alert to Lieutenant Belfusa who was piloting her mech in a field of frozen Demonspawn.

—

"What the-" Eleanor said as she ordered Lovelace to stand down. Setting its onyx twin blades aside, she put a pause on her systematic demon thinning to pull up a screen on her HUD. "Who the hell is that?!"

Eleanor was shocked to see a half naked man roaming around in the woods. But her shock soon changed to confusion as she paused the video and played it back, eyeing her familiar gym shorts on the white haired man. "Jack?"

Worried, Eleanor immediately pivoted her bipedal machine out of the field of demon corpses and Ignited Lovelace's boosters, reaching the hideout in no time at all.

Upon arriving, Lovelace's cockpit sprung open with Lieutenant Eleanor leaping out of its chest and through the waterfall with her pistol drawn.

She scanned the cave, calling out for the teenage boy only to discover all of her rations torn apart with scraps of plastic littering the floor.

Cautiously she stepped further into the dimly lit natural formation with her firearm raised, and Lovelace on standby.

However upon reaching the back of the cave her heart rate spiked. The entire back of the cavern was dyed in an insane amount of blood, shading the once drab gray blue cave into a dark crimson red.

What the hell happened here?!

It looked as if Mi'shka had set off one of his signature blood bombs before going on a eating binge and ransacking the place. Seeing no signs of body parts or of the teen, Eleanor immediately pivoted, heading back to the hulking Lovelace that was feeding visual information to her HUD.

"Pull up camera one."

"Yes. Lieutenant." The machine replied, changing one of her helmet's visuals to a camera mounted in front of the cave.

Playing back the footage to moments earlier, Eleanor watched in horror as she saw what looked to be Jack stumbling from behind an outcrop of rocks and being turned inside out, with his skin falling from his body like molten cheese. What was even more disturbing was the fact that his skin regrew at a pace visible to the naked eye, only to repeat the process over and over again, until finally the boy exploded into a beam of golden light.

When the glow faded, what replaced the teenage boy was a man stumbling back and forth bleeding profusely who then struck a herculean pose.

However the celebration didn't last long, What followed next was a frenzied ransacking of her rations before the teen turned man absconded into the woods with a ravenous look.

Switching off the display, Eleanor stood beneath Lovelace and eyed the direction Jack had fled. Fortunately he wasn't very subtle about his disappearing act. There was a sporadic line of crushed leaves, foot prints, and bloodied smears leading away from the cave, an easy trail.

With a sigh, Eleanor climbed into her cockpit, the oriculum metal doors sealing behind her as she resumed control of her Lovelace. Questions aside, the fool was going to get himself killed if she didn't intervene.

Lovelace took off, following Jack's bloodied path. With every step of the Mechs hydraulic legs, Eleanor got that much more anxious to what she was going to find.

"Switch to thermal."

"Yes. Lieutenant."

Eleanor's vision shifted to an array of heat sensitive colors as her eyes linked with the Mech's sensors. It was past noon, but the sun was low and the foliage was heavy, allowing Eleanor to clearly see the trail of blood splattered sporadically through the forest.

However the kid had moved quickly and far. With Eleanor and her mech occasionally stumbling across carcasses of dead creatures, shredded Demonspawn, and what looked to be bite marks in several trees.

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Eleanor grabbed one of her Onyx blades, holding it at the ready in case anything attempted to attack them, or anyone... She hated forested environments, just as she hated urban areas. Every tree, every shadow, and every nook and cranny could potentially hold an adversary and it made her uneasy being so vulnerable to attack.

If only I could fly. Eleanor lamented to herself, wishing she still had Lovelace's flight wings or had equipped the Mechs K-Ninteen- Lovelace's Rotary cannon before launching from the Landship.

With both items she could roam the sky freely, making finding the elusive teen a piece of cake while shooting down any Demonspawn that dared to come her way.

Alas, she was forced to trudge through the forest like a common man, mudding up her very expensive military hardware and cursing her bad luck. If she had a penny for everytime she was stranded in the woods with a man covered in blood she'd have two pennies. Which wasn't much but it was odd that it had happened twice.

But at least this time she had Lovelace and not just a makeshift spear and a half-dead amputated Mi'shka taped to her back.

Suddenly something raced across Eleanor's vision, snapping her away from her reminiscing and causing her to freeze Lovelace in place as she eyed a thin, red line that appeared in her vision.

She blinked, immediately tensing up. There wasn't much that could catch a Mechframe pilot off guard and if it did it usually meant the pilot was dead or about to be.

The GEN-Four machines like Lovelace were designed to heighten the pilot's senses and spatial awareness, allowing the non-awakened humans to go toe to toe with everyday monstrosities by connecting with their nervous systems. So the fact that she couldn't tell what or where the creature was that made the fading heat signature sent alarm bells ringing in Eleanor's head.

She readied her blade, with Lovelace responding to her will by adopting a stance under the heavy outcrop of trees and running streams.

And then she saw it, the familiar outline of a RidgeDeer running through the forest, only to be caught by a humanoid figure crashing into it from above, snapping its neck instantly.

The humanoid tore at the expensive Ridgedeer's flesh, ripping its head off in a hot mess of blood that distorted Eleanor's vision. Forcing her to shut off her thermals in order to gaze at the creature in front of her.

"Jack?"

"Jack!" Eleanor relaxed Lovelace's stance and switched on her speakers, calling out to the blood drenched teen. He looked up, but from the distance she couldn't tell what kind of face he was making as a piece of the expensive deer's flesh dangled from his mouth.

Ugh, this is the Mi'shka incident all over again.

"What are you doing out here?! It's-!"

Before Eleanor could finish her sentence the teen snarled and pounced, forcing Eleanor to bring up her blade to defend herself.

Using the flat of Lovelace's blade she managed to catch the brunt of the attack, but even with the shock absorbers in the Mech's arms she could feel the force of the impact all the way in the cockpit.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Eleanor demanded as the teen bounced off of her blade. However instead of receiving an explanation, a forceful Impact sent Lovelace careening to the side with its gyroscope attempting to keep balance as the brat clung to the side of her machine.

"Get off!" Eleanor yelled as Lovelace's cameras picked up the teen clambering up her machine. "Are you biting me?!"

Suddenly Jack punched the machine, sending a forceful vibration that shook Lovelace once again.

"Alright off you go!" Eleanor used her free hand, directing Lovelace's other appendage and swatted the boy who landed in a nearby stream.

"Don't make me hurt you Jack, stop!" Eleanor ordered as the rabid humanoid scrambled to his feet and snarled.

Mana madness? Eleanor thought to herself but dismissed the possibility. Awakened were immune to Mana madness, so what the hell was this?

Before she could formulate a hypothesis Jack suddenly blurred, colliding into Lovelace with enough force to knock the hulking machine onto its back.

Eleanor went wide-eyed at the fist shaped dent that appeared in the orchilum hull.

Ok this is not like the Mi'shka's incident at all.

"Jack, I will hurt you! Stand down, recruit!"

Another dent appeared in her cockpit, Jack's answer to her plea.

Ok then.

"Lovelace toggle Overdrive after I activate ES Pulse."

"Yes lieutenant."

Eleanor pressed a glowing blue button, sending an electric charge that sent Jack flying into the treeline.

The cockpit lit up in red as Lovelace's internals flooded with energy, reinforcing the entire machine with power from its core.

Lovelace rolled to its feet before pouncing into the air, catching the still airborne Jack in its free palm and sending the teen crashing into the ground, burying him.

His incapacitation didn't last long however as Lovelace's hydraulic metal palm began to shift and groan as its hand slowly rose from the ground.

"Come on Jack! Just cut it out!"

When the teens body became visible between the ground and Lovelace's palm, Eleanor smacked Jack with the flat of her sword, sending the teen skipping across the stream like a rock.

The Mechframe followed suit, attacking Jack before he could peel himself out of the river and kicking the teen into a tree.

Suddenly Lovelace detected multiple blasts of Mana, allowing Eleanor to activate the Ethereum Shield generator just in time to disperse several blades of wind.

With the Overdrive function enabled, Eleanor was able to keep up with the rabid Awakened, but it was taxing and caused a lot of stress on the machine and pilot. Activating Lovelace's abilities only compounded the stress, bringing down the Mechframes overall combat ability and draining its core.

She had to bring this fight to a close, and soon. With Overdrive, Jack's speed had decelerated significantly to Eleanor, allowing the woman to see him clearly as he sprinted across the river to get to her.

Eyeing the rushing water, Eleanor smirked and immediately activated the Mechframes ES-Pulse, electrifying the water. The Grade-Four Mech was immune to electromagnetic attacks, and well insulated against electrical interference.

Jack folded, convulsing into the river as twenty thousand volts of electricity coursed through the river. For anyone else this would have fried them completely but for an Awakened, especially for one as powerful as Jack this would only incapacitate.

Wasting no time, Eleanor rushed to the boy that was picking himself up out of the river. Before he could fully stand, Eleanor brought Lovelace's metal foot on top of Jack, crushing him into the river.

Jack flailed as Eleanor drowned him. The teen frantically sent out several bursts of random skills that made Eleanor shocked by the variety, but she maintained her Ethereum Shield. Keeping it in place despite the obvious drain to Lovelace's core and her body.

Eleanor eyed the gauges on her HUD. Her Mech couldn't withstand much more and was running on fumes already, so now she had to make a choice.

Attempt to subdue the teen and run the risk of Lovelace burning out or killing him and preserving her energy reserves.

Eleanor gritted her teeth and opted for the latter. She didn't want to, but she was alone, cut off, and surrounded in Demonspawn controlled territory. She couldn't afford to waste anymore energy.

"Sorry Jack. I'll make sure your sister is taken care of..."

Eleanor pressed Lovelace's mechanical leg down, digging the boy further into the water. Already she could see the stream of bubbles rapidly declining. Any moment now and Jack would be gone.

"Stop! You're killing him!"

Eleanor reeled back in surprise as the cockpit suddenly became cramped with a tiny little girl screaming in her face.

 

"Please!"

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