Chapter 127: Chapter 119: A woman called Jekaterina.

Aranea threw the grenade. Greens closed ranks, protecting the original behind them, and the warlord used this moment to jump in the air. She saw a smirk on Green’s face just before the grenade exploded, taking away seven copies from this world with a wave of acid.

Olesya’s paws grabbed Aranea beneath her armpits, carrying the warlord over the enemies toward the sole island of calm that was Jekaterina and the cylinder next to her. Beneath them, Greens and the remains of Jekaterina’s mutated honor guard charged at the wolfkins in a stream of maddened fury, aiming to take away as many lives as they could. With a heavy heart, Aranea forced herself to concentrate on the task at paw and trust in her soldiers.

"Support me from above," Aranea quickly told Olesya, "And don't go toe-to-toe with her no matter what."

"She will kill you, Ari."

"This is bigger than me, Oles! You are the only one who can disable… whatever this is. I can’t. I will find a way to draw her away, you do what is needed. Now!" Aranea roared, allowing Olesya to drop herself.

She landed before the cylinder, her armored boots created footprints in the ground. Without a moment of hesitation, Aranea charged at Soultaker, reading her shardgun. Jekaterina stood with her back to her, busy pressing some buttons on the display, utterly oblivious to Aranea’s words. The warlord pressed the trigger, praying to the Spirits that the shards would not break the cylinder’s integrity.

Jekaterina only laughed, feeling how shards pierced her back and burrowed into her flesh. Soultaker struck back with the lower end of her scythe, shattering the weapon in Aranea’s paw. With blinding speed, the enemy turned, forcing the warlord to step back to survive.

The blade kissed the warlord’s helmet, leaving a wide slash in the middle. Spinning her weapon with one hand, Jekaterina made an overhead swing, missing Aranea and bisecting part of the mechanical stairway on which they both stood.

Jekaterina stood up, clutching her left hand, and the remains of a burned skull to her chest. She was half naked, her perfect skin soiled with dust and blood, giving her a demonic look. Tears were flowing from her grieving eyes without a halt, giving stark contrast to the never-ending cheerful laughter that was coming from her lips. Her lips were spread far too wide, cracking the skin and forcing the regeneration powers to work without a halt to heal her over and over again. Her whole body was shaking again and again, half from whimpering, half from maddening laughter.

"I saved your life," Jekaterina chuckled, "And later I spared your life. And now you come as my executioner. Fitting. None of my good deeds ever amounted to anything."

"Jekaterina! W-venom will kill everyone! Your people…" Aranea retreated, evading a swing that tore away her left pauldron, "Your own people will die!"

"So what? They should have died resisting you or something."

"How can you say this!?"

"With my lips, you idiot!" Jekaterina stopped, laughing at her own joke. "I am tired of building my life back," Jekaterina threw her head back, opening her mouth with such force that skin cracked all the way to her ears. Soultaker moved on, drooling and crying, "My fucking mother sold me like some cattle to be sacrificed! I felt my flesh burning and my own heart being ripped off!"

Soultaker pointed the scythe at Aranea.

"Instead of running alone, I saved slaves, and how did the world reward me for this? My own leader shot me in the back!"

Jekaterina moved on, her hair billowing behind her like a cloak. With a single hand, she slashed and slashed, trying to bisect the halfbreed. Gone were the cold precision strikes that she used against Janine, instead, came a pure rage guided by madness. Jekaterina cared little that her weapon became stuck in the metal platform, she simply tore it free, along with a solid chunk of steel, attacking again and again, with an obvious and predictable pattern.

Aranea could never hope to fight against Soultaker on an equal footing. Whether she wore power armor or not, the woman outclassed her every time. Had she still been her own reasonable self, the fight would have been over in an instant. The madness, however, made Jekaterina vulnerable, and Aranea used it, evading an overhead strike and piercing the woman beneath her ribs with her claws.

It felt as if she had stuck her claws into a column made of pure steel. The skin and muscles felt untouchable, even propelled by the force of her power armor, the claws barely entered to their half-length, scratching against the lungs helplessly, unable to pierce them. Jekaterina responded with a headbutt, breaking both metal and cracking a bone on Aranea’s forehead, sending the warlord back with such force that it nearly dropped her off the platform.

I can’t take her on head-on! Aranea thought, frantically dodging another slash by making a rolling jump to the left. She landed on her legs and had to lean back immediately, feeling how the scythe’s blade sliced across her face, slicing off skin from her nose. Think, think! There has got to be something you can do… Spine!

"I conquered the kingdom that sought to destroy me and transformed it into something better, banishing slavery and bringing equality to the people!" Jekaterina's eyes rolled back and forth in her sockets; she bit her own tongue several times before charging after Aranea, "And how was I rewarded?! My brother… Dear Kurt was taken away," She showed the remains of the skull to Aranea. "My cities are burning. My son is dead. I am building my life back, rebuilding it, and everything still topples, leaving me all alone," She looked at Aranea with bloodshot eyes that had already started getting clearer. Soultaker stopped, whispering weakly, "Just how many times can a person be forced to rebuild a life? I gave everything to others. I tried to be a good person, a symbol for future generations, I really tried! And all I got back was a never-ending nightmare of constant misery, with even death being denied to me!" Soultaker shook her head, calming again. "No… This world is cursed. The voice that whispered to me in my dreams told me so. Instead of telling him to be gone, I should have listened. Death is indeed a blessing. One that I will bestow on others. I will end this cycle of madness, I will save everyone from this misery of existence."

"Jekaterina," Aranea called out as she noticed Olesya hovering above Soultaker, aiming the cannon. "Tehuoto is alive. Your son is alive!"

"Lies…" Jekaterina chuckled, spinning the weapon in her arm. "Your own side, send me photos and video recordings confirming Tehuoto's death."

"I am not lying!" Aranea stopped, forcing herself to ignore the spinning scythe. "Stop! Stop this madness, before you kill…"

"Kurt never lied to me, you know?" Jekaterina kissed the bones in her hand, "Not once. He too said that my baby had died. I saw pictures."

"It was a misdirection to throw you off! Your son has the same regeneration as…"

"ENOUGH LIES!" Jekaterina’s jaw cracked to let out the thundering roar that deafened every sound. The lower jaw touched the chest. Jekaterina's skin around her mouth cracked all the way to her ears, revealing a diabolical green of perfect teeth. "DEATH COMETH!"

Jekaterina made a swing, aiming to bisect Aranea in two. The hit never came, a blinding ray of energy melted its way through her arm, allowing her weapon to fall into the waters beneath the platform. Jekaterina retreated, hissing mindlessly. Letting go of the skull, Soultaker turned toward the display, pressing a button that opened the cylinder’s top, showing the bulging crimson liquid of W-Venom inside. It had already begun to gasify after coming into contact with Jekaterina's blood, drool, and tears.

No. Aranea lunged forward, forgetting everything about her debt to Jekaterina, anything about mercy or compassion. She had a duty, and that was enough. Jekaterina must die and the lid must be closed before the worst can happen.

Soultaker turned around, just in time for Aranea to reach her with a left elbow in her neck. The hit that could have killed a lesser new breed barely shook Jekaterina. Jekaterina’s jaws were already healed, the flesh was bulging in her missing arm, ready to recreate the limb anew. The warlord refused to wait for this, ramming the foe with the claws on her right paw, tearing a hole in the enemy’s belly.

Jekaterina’s remaining hand closed around Aranea’s right elbow. The elegant-looking fingers closed, bending the metal. When her elbow simply shattered, turning into countless broken bones with these unnaturally strong fingers, Aranea clenched her fangs, shaking her entire body.

Crying from pain, Aranea rammed her left paw into the open wound on Jekaterina’s stomach, allowing the last grenade to fall on the insides. Jekaterina looked down, feeling something strange in her body, and in this moment another beam hit her, slicing off the remaining arm and saving Aranea from losing her own arm.

Aranea bit her. Her fangs closed on Jekaterina’s face, piercing the never-stopping eyes, turning them into a liquid. She tried to bite off the enemy’s nose but failed to do so. Her fangs simply could not pierce the nasal cartilage, getting stuck half-way. Jekaterina chuckled and hit the warlord’s jaw with a shoulder, closing Aranea’s jaws by force. Aranea spat out the nose and the remains of her front fangs into Jekaterina’s face.

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The acid grenade went off within the already healed body, melting a spine column for a brief moment. The warlord used this opportunity to tackle Jekaterina with her left shoulder, falling along with her into the hellish fumes of W-Venom.

"It doesn’t matter." Jekaterina spat into Aranea’s face, "Nothing matters."

The fall wasn’t long, Olesya grabbed Aranea by the nape of her neck, dragging the warlord back onto the platform.

"You madden cusack!" Olesya yelled to Aranea, almost slamming her paws on the display and quickly typing something on it.

Aranea ignored her, looking inside the cylinder. She saw how Jekaterina, reduced almost to a skeleton, had fallen into the crimson liquid. Before the lid closed, Jekaterina broke free one last time from the swirling crimson waters all around her, her eyes, her skin, and most of the meat missing. The body was reduced to a gleaming white bone that was devoured by W-Venom before Aranea’s very eyes. The flesh formed one last time around Jekaterina’s head. Her lips twisted into a leer, spouting one last half-cackle, half-whimper, before gas tore the flesh into nothingness, allowing Aranea to see the emptiness behind Soultaker’s eye socket. The regeneration power and W-Venom came into conflict, and one side gave in. Jekaterina will not revive from this, there will be nothing left of her to regenerate from.

Aranea knelt on her knees and lifted her left paw before herself, making a clumsy religious gesture. She was never a believer in any deities, but right now she was praying. Praying with all her fervor and passion, begging the Spirits to show mercy to Jekaterina, to guide her to a proper rebirth despite all her sins. And of course, she prayed for the cylinder’s hull to endure and keep up the gas within.

“That was an adequate show that provided a most interesting insight,” Aranea’s eyes widened upon hearing the familiar voice followed by clapping.

Ignoring the pain in her right arm, she stood up, seeing an oval tear in space hovering just a centimeter above the stone platform, wide and big enough for several people to enter. Green dashed toward it, dragging his mouth open weakly and dragging a trembling Grug after her. And there he was, standing in this portal.

The bastard who worked with Tilden. Academician. His black hair formed a widow's peak over his forehead, and amidst pitch-black sclera, two green pupils glittered, looking mockingly at Aranea. His white lab coat looked almost indistinguishable from a blinding white light behind him, creating an eerie image of the head floating amidst the perfect white void. Academician was clapping not only with his palms but also with a slew of mechanical tendrils writhing behind his back in a cacophony of sound.

"You," Aranea hissed, jumping off the ruined metal platform. The stone crushed beneath her legs, while she reached for the rail gun, "Academician."

"Aha, so you recognize me, you... You..." He stopped clapping, looking carefree at her approach, "You are?"

"Aranea," She pointed the rail gun at him, "Daughter of Gregor Wintersong, the man you assisted in killing. Daughter of Kalaisa Wintersong, the woman you…"

"Ah, the skinwalker’s whelp!" Academician pointed two index fingers at Aranea, smiling like a kid, "Now I remember how your eyes were denied to me. Ah, I almost want to collect them now."

"What’s stopping you? Come on over, the pool is open, and the water is great."

"Nah, I don’t think so. Too busy these days."

"Chickening out already?" Aranea put her finger on the trigger, struggling to keep herself from firing, "What have you’ve done with the cubs, degenerate?!"

"Hm… Cubs? Ah, you mean the test subjects beta," Academician grasped his lower jaw, ignoring Green’s requests to close the portal, "You know, that’s a good query, actually. Where did I leave them?"

"Stop playing games!"

"Give me a moment, please! You can’t expect me to remember where I placed every toy cube over the years! I could have sworn that I placed a leg here, an arm there, but it seems like I forgot to reassemble…"

The warlord fired. The plasma projectile left the weapon, moving at Mach thirty straight into the man’s forehead. The moment it came through the portal, a light show came into being, spitting out sparks everywhere. Aranea did not hesitate, firing again and again, her rage soon joined by Olesya’s energy beam. Every other sound in the hangar was muffled by their fire: shots fired at the last of the greenies, regular forces running down the stairs to assist the wolfkins, medics shouting commands to evacuate the most critically wounded soldiers.

For a moment, Aranea cared about none of this. Everything that existed for her was just this portal, and she lobbed into it every single plasma projectile from her rail gun, stopping only to reload. She aimed to fire again and heard laughter.

Academician stood in his previous place, unharmed, grabbing himself by the sides and laughing non-stop. Two of his steel tendrils hung before him, creating a bubble of an energy field that stopped every incoming shot.

"This shield can endure even a nuclea…" When Aranea fired to his left and right, Academician's smile turned into an angry smirk. The white light did not allow her to see the results, but judging by the fact that the portal got a bit smaller, leaving only the man standing in front of her, and by the screams of some people, she hit something at least, "Clever girl," The man almost hissed, "Know this. Your fangs and claws will never reach me. For someone like you, this is impossible."

"We will see. For now, stopping your plans is enough." Aranea told him coldly.

"Stopping? Is that what you believe, girl? Yes, it would be nice to see this city reduced to rubble, along with all the mutant filth in it, this is why I provided Jekaterina with a gift," He nodded at the cylinder, "But at the same time, what do you think is happening right now? Every single soultaker in the military and government that was linked to Jekaterina, and now that she's gone," he said, pointing to the lying hand on the stone platform, "The safeguards are now activated,” Academician stated solemnly, "Because of you. Every Soultakers’ government official. Every officer. Every member of the Young and Old Guards. All. Of. Them. Die."

"Captain Scorpio!" Aranea pressed the remains of her helmet to her ear, praying that the machine still worked, "The enemy just revealed that…"

"Ignore his inane blabbering, warlord Aranea" Instead of Scorpio, it was Ivar who calmly answered Aranea, his voice barely audible because of static, "We just got an announcement from the enemy forces. They are surrendering en masse after hearing an automatic, pre-recorded broadcast made by Jekaterina. She used some sort of device to free all her people from their mental bindings in the event of her death. Their imprints are no more, and our spies reported that the last soultaker’s facilities to produce such imprints exploded a minute before."

"Captain Scorpio, can you confirm captain Ivar’s words?" Aranea hit the side of her ruined helmet, hoping to force the broken thing to work for a few minutes longer. "Captain Scorpio, come in, please!"

For a brief moment, Academician stood triumphantly before settling into a concerned frown. One of his tendrils slithered over his back, projecting a holo-image that showed how the soultakers were laying down their arms, surrendering to the state’s forces.

"Why aren’t they dying?" He whispered, "This isn’t funny. This isn’t funny at all," His eyes found Aranea, two more tendrils rose behind his back, pushing small energy cannons from within them, " She tricked me. This jerk tricked me! I might just create a massacre on my own."

"No!" Aranea shouted, throwing herself before the cylinder the moment she saw where he was aiming.

Academician smiled, and crimson lights flashed atop his tendrils.

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