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Chapter 29

The beast sniffed and picked up another horrible scent, probably the same one as before. It jerked its head up and updated its radar. It was a different room now, with the area and height of the room expanded like never before. There were human beings standing far away from it. Tables with cups and bottles were laid on the floor like they were obstacles to the beast. Its limbs were stuck, like before, and it didn't feel sunlight here. Instead, it felt a chill. A cold one, indeed.
With its ears, it heard people mumbling softly, speaking in their own language. But for whatever reason, it understood them. And it hated them.
It flexed its limbs and tried to pull the bondage until it snapped, but it couldn't. It couldn't even budge. Perhaps the bondage was made out of something stronger than its own skin. It growled, trying to intimidate them, but the people in front of it clapped.
It sniffed again, and the same person, who tortured it, came up to the beast and splashed the same mixture of piss and other toxic materials at the beast. But it could resist more than normal. It was still agony, but less. People celebrated for its suffering and created sounds from their hands meeting. The beast shivered once more, hoping it wouldn't die from it, since the beast didn't feel like anything was sustaining it.
Then, a kind of heat appeared to the beast like the source was dragged from somewhere. It started to feel stronger. But it wasn't the same level of strength as before. This one was more intense.
This time, it had bondages instead of spikes. It seemed that the living beings here forgot about its strength. It tensed its limbs and pulled, breaking what held it for a while. The residue on its head remained where it was, but even with that, it didn't shiver anymore.
It heard screams now. It didn't know why, but it enjoyed the fear instilled in every being it heard. It landed on its four legs, and crushed the one who poured the mixture on it.
Its teeth penetrated through the person's neck and ripped out part of the flesh as satisfaction from killing its torturer. It faced straight and updated its radar. Most of them had left when it broke free. But different people were coming in. With stick-like weapons.
With its maximum strength, it launched itself forward and into the air and crashed through the roof. Outside, it didn't feel any heat anymore. It became weaker as it landed on the roof. But not too weak to move around and attack normally.
Outside, it sensed massive and tall blocks built closely together and well-shaped mobile things moving at a fast speed. But the biggest event it detected was a monster of death rising from somewhere. The beast knew whether any monster was a monster of corruption, darkness or death. It knew its kind all too well. The monster was far more vast than the massive blocks surrounding it. Also, an extra limb stood up from its head. It was weird to see that because there were never monsters with a mutation like that.
Monsters of darkness and death were enemies to each other, like monsters of darkness and corruption. So, it wouldn't try to get its attention.
From its radar, there were the same people with the same weapons looking around, probably for the beast.
It waited until it was fully rested. As an immediate impulse, it howled into the night and the sun rose. It felt its extra strength coming back. This was to prepare for its hunt for the monster of death. It jumped from block to block, chasing that giant beast.

Chapter 30

Myke stood at the edge of the defense wall of East, looking at the 200-metre-tall monster of death rampaging East. It looked like it was enjoying the destruction. Myke didn't know why, he just felt it. Henry stood beside him, but instead of looking at the monster, he looked at Myke, holding a rare and ancient pistol in one hand and a modern blast gun in the other.
Myke had a choice whether to destroy the monster for good, or to just leave East to its doom. He wanted to do both. Kill the monster, then leave East to find a new city to settle in. He hadn't gone further than Klensburg, but there were, in fact, over a few thousand cities according to the latest detection radar. They weren't just explored yet. No doubt a city would be a similar replica of East, but just not destroyed.
Myke tapped Henry on his shoulder before he moved towards the stairs. Henry followed.
Myke saw two guards at the bottom of the stairs when he was going down two steps by two steps. The guards weren't like the guards above. They looked like the mayor's private bodyguards, with suits and ties worn. Before he completed the stair walking, he let his whip loosen and swung at the right angle. It curled around the guard's neck on the left side. He splayed his arm to the right and the guard was forced to move along. He knocked into the other guard and they went down together. Myke probably cracked a skull or two.
He reached the bottom and checked their equipment. They had laser pistols with them. That was out of the ordinary, but then again, the mayor himself was out of the ordinary.
Fortunately, there wasn't anyone else on duty around the entrance of East. To Myke's right were cars with drivers running for their lives, helicopters flying around and not hitting anything, apparently, and two types of buildings; the ones that weren't on fire, and the ones that were.
Even the fire was bright to Myke. He saw Henry pointing towards the mayor's office, one of the very few buildings that didn't catch on fire. They were about to go to the office.
But there were a few problems. For starters, it would take at least an hour to walk from where they were to the office. Transportation was limited to helicopters above, if they could get one anyway. There weren't any cars nearby, nor were there any public transportation available.
But by chance, a helicopter flew to Henry and Myke and it had two machine guns pointing at them. For Myke, this was lucky.
Both of them dived from two different directions. Henry went to the left, Myke went to the right. The helicopter was so low that Myke could probably reach the helicopter with the whip's help. He climbed the concrete stairway again, playing with his whip before he lashed it out.
When he reached the top, he saw the helicopter. It was below him, but far from his reach. His eyes rested a bit and he smiled. His whip would do the trick. He backed up to the other edge of the wall before he ran with his maximum strength. At the edge, he pushed against the ground and in the air, he had his whip out. He struck at the air and the whip went travelling towards one of the helicopter's landing struts. It coiled around it tightly and Myke was left dangling in the air. He wasn't afraid, though.
He left the hilt of the whip and climbed the nylon strings, up and up. The helicopter was already firing the machine guns. They spun with extreme speed and the sound they produced was deafening to Myke. But he was trained to withstand it. He climbed up and went inside, leaving the whip for a while. He brought out his blast gun and took cover against one of the seats. He revealed the blast gun, but not himself, and shot the pilot. The windshield was destroyed along with the pilot's life. Myke stood up and pulled the pilot out of the way and took control of the helicopter before it fell.
Myke lowered the aircraft until Henry could get in. He sat next to Myke and patted him on the shoulder. For some reason, the helicopter wasn't being targeted at all. Besides, the monster of death was far behind the office.
The helicopter rose above the office. The whole journey only took about 10 minutes before landing directly on top of it. Both of them exited the helicopter and Myke saw a red gigantic hand reaching towards them.
****. (Too bad this is censored.)
Myke shifted his feet and faced Henry. He pounced on Henry and pushed Henry with the momentum of his weight before he was crushed to death.

Chapter 31

Rose walked on an alley, far from where she was imprisoned. The place was dark, but not enough for Rose to get used to it and see. Rose had her axe in her right hand, while dragging her left hand against the wall of the building. It was rough, but she liked the friction between her palm and the wall. There was graffiti that stretched the whole length of the buildings before and in front of her. She found a rubber band on the streets to tie her hair up. She would be really annoyed if her hair flew all over the place, like before.
Her head dipped down and her eyes were lazily kept open. The only thing she saw was the black road made of tar and other substances she didn't bother memorising. It was rough like the wall and long like the graffiti which gave little to no meaning.
Then she bumped into something, or someone. She looked up and jerked back from the fist of a man taller than her by a few feet. All she knew about him was that the man was huge and muscular and looked like a leader of a gang, though he wasn't followed by other people. Until she threw the axe and cut through his thick neck. As his head and lifeless body limped onto the ground, she felt the urge to spit at him, but she couldn't. She just walked past the corpse and continued dragging her left palm against the rough wall until there were new paths to choose.
There was left and right, and riddled with fast-moving vehicles. She felt like throwing her axe and destroying everything she saw, except what she needed.
She looked at the pedestrians passing by her, though no one noticed her bloody axe.
Without control, she lifted her ex, looked at a random person she saw and threw it. The axe dug into the person's back and he fell to the ground. She gritted her teeth and clenched her left fist with anger emanated from her. Screams and shouts were heard. People were rushing to see the dead body while sirens sounded their usual alarms. Next to her was a woman that looked fifty years old. Rose caught her axe and swung it to the right, cutting through the woman's abdomen, then pulling it off of her. She chose the left path from the right path and tossed her axe onto the sidewalk. She stepped on it and crouched, then lifting the axe using the power of the glove. She floated up and went to a roof perfect for a bird's eye view. Already, the police had arrived at the scene of the murder.
They were like ants she could crush. But when she wanted to come closer, they were gradually getting bigger than her. The idea of simply killing something sickened her, but she also felt joy.
Okay, no. She shouldn't feel this way. What did the authorities of Wonderland do to her?
Again, she felt the impulse to kill. She looked down and closed her eyes. She had to escape, but almost every city had civilians. Going back to monsters in abandoned villages and cities could help, but she doubted that she would last long without human deaths.
The question, first of all, was why she had this desire to kill.
After all these thoughts, she realised that she was surrounded by policemen, on the street instead of the high rooftop. How did she come down?
This was actually perfect. She wanted answers for this abnormality. She raised both her arms and dropped her axe, making sure she pressed the button on her glove. She looked down and shut her eyes once more while she was being handcuffed.

First off, I have to apologise because I have an upcoming exam in two weeks. So, I cannot write Chapter 32 in two weeks, this week and next week. But I will make it up to you by writing Chapters 32 and 33 by the third week.

Chapter 32

Henry slid off the roof of the office building, trying to grab onto anything sturdy. As he fell, parallel to the falling concrete walls, he stomped both his feet and launched off the wall to a steel pole with East's flag waving above him. He impacted against the pole and wrapped his limbs around it, stopping himself from sliding down. Then he released his grip by a little and shifted downwards towards the ground. Along the way, he saw a grey monster of darkness ripping at the flesh of the foot of the gigantic monster of death. He frowned deeply due to that event.
He put his feet on the ground and released his grip on the pole. He looked down and saw Myke's whip made of precious nylon. He exhaled, kneeled and picked it up. He could put this whip into good use, seeing how strong this piece of equipment could be.
He wondered what happened to the mayor. Was he dead? Did he escape? And most importantly, did he cause all of this?
He saw a figure, dark and unnoticeable even in the sunlight. It was wearing a coat, the one that looked like a detective's one, and a black oddly-shaped hat. In the figure's hands was a dull machete. It was standing, but now it was running.
So Henry chased after it.
When he was running, his feet shuffling slightly on the ground, he prepared the stolen blast gun.
In front of him was a desolate and empty street, with no passers-by wondering why Henry was chasing this person. The streetlights rushed by and small concrete rocks jumped from Henry's running. The figure picked up its pace and moved swiftly. Its feet, though, didn't touch the ground. Or maybe it was just Henry's hallucination. The streetlights weren't working, not surprising for Henry.
He shouted at the figure to stop, but instead it moved faster. Henry cursed silently and aimed his blast gun up into the air with one hand and shot. The gunshot screamed across the street and the figure finally slowed to a stop. Henry ran a bit more until he was at a safe distance from it. The figure turned slowly.
Henry saw the face of the mayor.
Henry's eyes widened and shouted again, but the mayor was already running away. Henry pulled off and chased after him. His target turned into a corner and Henry tipped over the slightly raised sidewalk as he turned as well. He turned in time to fall on his right side, preventing his face from crashing into the hard ground.
He winced as pain sprang from his right arm and grunted as he got up. He leaned on the blast gun as he got up. He used his remaining energy and pushed forward past the corner.
But the mayor was already gone. He screamed profanities and they spread through the air so quickly.
He finally eased himself and quietened down, sitting on the ground with his head on his knees. He looked up and realised the tears in his eyes. He wiped them off with his fingers and looked up.
The broad daylight shone throughout East, providing it with natural light, albeit unexpectedly. The clouds floated around aimlessly, some dark and heavy and some light and white. The sky was as blue as a cyan neon light. It was rare for Henry to see such a scenery as this. Only a few times, Henry had seen the sun glaring at him and blinding him with its overwhelming light rays. As a young boy, Henry had always wanted to play in the sunlight. Most of his lifetime, it had been dark and gloomy. At certain times, he saw stars slit through the night sky and appeared bright and proud.
He brought Myke's whip out and saw a horizontally-built pole just above him. It was reflecting light into his eyes, but not as brilliant enough to make Henry look away. He moved his whip back and sent the nylon part of the whip forwards. It wrapped around the pole and Henry made sure it was tight. He didn't know how to send himself forwards or upwards, so he climbed up and reached the top. From this building, he saw the most obvious thing, the monster of death. But at the corner of his eyes, he saw his old house that he had abandoned. He switched his gaze towards it and reluctantly headed for it.

Chapter 33

Kogh was looking at multiple limp bodies, still and unmoving in their tubes of fluids.The similarity of all these bodies was that they looked like each other.
The room was brightly lit, with fluorescent tubes erected from the roof emitting light and even more light spilled from computers just next to each tube. It was like a factory, except that it didn't produce anything. Scientists were assigned to each tube to monitor the conditions and behaviour of the bodies, although they looked dead to Kogh's eyes. There were metal bars supporting the roof, forming a simple pattern with a bar across each other. There were two floors, the one below that contained the tubes and the one that led to offices with advanced technology. He didn't know what was in there, but he was sure that it was packed with equipment.
He himself was on the second floor. Behind him was a window that allowed anyone to view Wonderland. Kogh wasn't supposed to be here. He sneaked in because he had nowhere else to go. And it was a darn good choice indeed. No one was aware that Kogh stood on the metal floor. He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue shorts with sandals. The clothes he wore was stolen from a shop nearby this place.
His main objective was to find Rose and rescue her, as clichéd as it was. Hopefully, Rose could fend for herself until he arrived at the scene. Or maybe she could save herself.
Soldiers roamed the whole area, above and below. Apparently, all of them were equipped with the same weapons. He just didn't know what exact type of weapons they were. Their boots clanged on the metal floor, the sounds echoing throughout, though they weren't very loud. He saw two soldiers on the second floor, conversing while a soldier patrolled outside the offices. On the first floor, he counted the soldiers below and gave up after five. They were all over the place, so Kogh couldn't afford to venture below without a fight.
He heard a shout from one of the soldiers on the second floor. He turned towards that direction and saw the soldier pointing his gloved finger at him.
Kogh jerked upright and turned around. He crossed his arms and launched himself through the glass. It shattered into pieces and Kogh was plunging into a garbage dumpster. He didn't want to be covered in filth, so he jerked his arms backwards and he launched himself horizontally to the next building. He created invisible sharp claws that could penetrate through concrete and stabbed the wall with his claws, supported by momentum.
From there, he pulled his legs out from the wall, leaving his hands' claws in the wall. He pushed force from below and sprang upwards, the force carrying him up and onto the roof without hurting his legs, though he could withstand tons of force against him.
The roof was as black as any road in the sunlight. There were air vents and antennae lying around. He ran across and saw a flying human?
Kogh was blasted back with force and he looked back, estimating where he would land. That dumpster, again. He pushed at the air and force behind him cushioned him, so it wasn't that sudden when he got into it. But he grossed out from the garbage he surrounded himself with.
He got out and cleaned himself, using force to remove stains on his T-shirt and shorts, which didn't do much. He was in a very long alley now. Buildings forced him to go either left or right. So he chose right.
To go faster, he used force to carry him and push him. The time taken for him to reach the end was almost five seconds and it would take a fully grown man to reach the end in thirty seconds, at least. Vehicles took up the road, with multiple of them speeding past him at unbelievable speeds. To his right, he saw traffic lights, stopping one lane of vehicles from passing through and allowing another one to cross. Streetlights roamed the street, currently not emanating any light, because it was day.
At the other end of the street, he saw his opponent descend like a super villain in a typical movie. Kogh saw his hand moving and he reacted by pushing force against him. Both of their forces tied and it caused a force blast that spread from the collision, sending vehicles flying from the road. And it caused a great havoc.
Kogh hadn't the focus to fly and fight at the same time. It took more effort, but it could make himself unpredictable. Instead of moving left or right, he could move diagonally.
But that was beside the fight. His enemy was landing gracefully, then he sent a force wave, but Kogh sent another. He was too slow, and the collision knocked him over, sending him backwards into the alleyway. From the edge of his eyes, he saw his opponent seizing the chance by boosting forwards and making and equipping dual force blades.
He couldn't see it, but he could sense it. He frowned as he stopped himself from moving backwards and simply floating in midair. That person stuck his arms out, attempting to stab him. But Kogh moved under him and sent a punch, helped by force. His fist hit his abdomen and he was flying upwards. And now was his time to seize the opportunity. He boosted up with force claws over his hands and stabbed him in the stomach.
Then he splayed his arms wide and ripped him up. Half of the upper body flew and landed on an air vent Kogh passed by. The other half crashed into a street lamp, a big piece of flesh hanging there like a corpse, except it was the lower half of the body, not the whole dead body.
Floating in the air, he saw Rose, captured by the authority and being forced into a police car. And he travelled faster than a jet.

Chapter 34

The beast ate some of the monster's flesh and swallowed it. It felt pleasure when it reached its tongue.
It continued to swipe away while the monster of death above was wondering why it was slightly painful down there. Since it was the monster of darkness that called the sun, it couldn't even whimper for at least a day. But at the cost of its voice, it gained strength. Strength to rip the monster of death apart.
The area around it had those same gigantic rectangular blocks surrounding it, with moving shapes in all kinds of patterns, some bigger than it and some puny to its size. It felt the heat from the sun touching it like a warm blanket over every part of its body. It had a fantastic feeling. There were smaller figures moving around and bumping into bigger figures, then heat from the bigger figures coupled with loud explosions that came out so suddenly.
The monster of death raised its foot and it was time for the monster of darkness to move aside. Its hind legs barely dodged the foot. It caused a sheer impact on the ground that it caused the road to break and spread everywhere. One of the pieces flew to the beast. It moved towards the side and pounced on the debris, sending it flying towards the monster of death. The debris scratched through the stomach and left a deep wound in there. Blood spilled from it and flooded the area.
The monster of death bent in response of the immense pain it felt. Both of its hands fell to two spots at different places to support itself from falling over. Its arm on top of its head bent over, almost touching the ground. Then the monster of darkness rushed towards the limp hand and jumped towards it. It dug its claws into the palm and the monster rose from its resting spot.
From there, the beast loosened its grip on the monster of death and slid down, cutting into the long arm attached to its head. Blood splashed onto the beast's head as it reached the head of the monster. It saw the monster's hands reach over its head. The beast just went along with it, pouncing on the arm again and climbed, piercing its claws into that flesh again and again.
When its hands almost reached the third arm, the beast slid down once more. But halfway, it launched itself away from the arm and fell towards the head, with its limbs tensed and ready.
And its claws penetrated through the skull of the monster of death.
It sensed a gigantic oval shape as it sank into blood. Using its legs, it swam towards the oval structure and dug its claws into it. It heard a howl so loud that the beast swore that it would have spread throughout the world. The beast dug deeper and the howl became louder and when the beast reached a certain point, the monster of death finally, but suddenly stopped howling. The beast felt as if the monster was dropping towards the ground. In fact, it was. The beast ate some of the oval-shape structure, which was juicy and meaty, and hopped out of the head to the outside.
There were those small figures again, not moving around like they were panicking, but they were surrounding it, like a thing of interest for them to feast their eyes upon.
One came forward and held up a small object. It brought it towards the beast before it reacted and it felt a jolt from its back. It convulsed and lay there, spittle forming at its mouth. It felt little fingers, smaller than its paws, and they carried it away, once again to be imprisoned.

Chapter 35

Rose's hands were shackled to a table leg, which was stupid, for her anyway, until she found out she couldn't pull the table. Okay, she took that back.
The room she was in was grey everywhere, with patterns of squares that probably functioned as a soundproof material. In front of her was the grey table, but more opaque than the walls. Its legs were black and made of sturdy metal. The shackles around her wrist were grey, again, and tight to the point of blocking blood flow to her hands. A door stood on its dark wooden frame, with a doorknob that looked bright. Luckily, it wasn't dark like last time and that her ponytail was kept in place.
A rather handsome man, probably in his mid-20s, entered the room with a bright smile. Wearing a buttoned white shirt and dark brown trousers, he strolled towards the chair opposite Rose. She noticed a small pistol holstered in his sheath. Her eyes followed his movements as he sat on the other chair. He crossed his legs and just looked at her eyes.
What in the world? She thought. No questions? Oh, sh*t. I gotta kill someone.
Her hands shook violently and the shackles went along with her hands, shaking and vibrating with sound. A sound so annoying to the man that he stood up while slapping his palm down on the table. It ceased her thrashing.
Only now did she realise that she didn't have her glove. Unlike before, this interrogator, though a queer one, didn't possess her axe and glove. Though, he was wearing leather gloves.
The man sat down and continued staring her down. Her urge to kill and rip apart and massacre everyone and everything was still present in her mind. But she controlled herself until she didn't move, not even fidget. She would have her chance, she vowed.
In addition to the awkwardness that the man established, he stood up again and moved closer towards Rose, but not close enough for her to headbutt him in the forehead. Then, Rose saw the man's eyes turn from brown to yellow. His pupils turned tighter until they were as narrow as a cat's eye. His head tilted to an impossible degree. He almost reached 180 degrees before Rose blacked out.
She woke up on a hill with her axe and glove back. The hill was as green as grass. Wait, the hill was covered with grass. She laughed at that thought before she started to descend. While descending, she saw a congregation of hills and mountains taller and shorter than this particular hill. The land was, as big as, or bigger than the Darkness region. She wouldn't know yet. Instead of being a black, dark, and bleak moor, the land was viridescent, similar to the colour of the hill she was on and all kinds of flowers bloomed, ones like roses, hibiscuses, daisies, cannas, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, jasmines and many more. There were strong trees that looked like they couldn't even budge from an earthquake. But no living being, but Rose, inhabited any area.
Some hills had sharp points at their peak and some mountains had a peak where a large-sized stadium could be built over there and it still had more space to be used.
The breeze rolling in was a feeling to behold. The breeze wasn't too cold or too windy. But it wasnât too hot or too stagnant. It was at the right speed and temperature. The clouds above her were shredded into bits and the sky was orange from the sunset. Every little space between the clouds was orange and Rose thought it was beautiful.
Then someone pushed her off the hill.
Rose quickly reacted by putting her axe beneath her feet and she started flying off. She whirled around only to see a grey monster of darkness that was bigger and bulkier than she was. It had no eyes, but had a mouth with razor sharp teeth and ears. She noticed its tongue frequently clicking against the roof of its mouth. She didn't know why and didn't want to know why.
She had that drive to end lives again. She floated towards the monster of darkness on her axe. She landed on the slope of the hill halfway to throw the axe at it and it pierced through its forehead. The beast recoiled from the axe in its head and it began rushing towards Rose.
She grinned as she realised there was a challenge and she liked challenge but not until she wouldn't be able to kill.
She released her clenched fist and the axe fidgeted, then flew back and reached its owner's hand. She threw the axe again and it cut through the beast's right front leg and it fell and rolled on the slope.
The beast didn't howl in agony or whimper in pain. It just kept quiet as it rolled. Rose made the axe turn back, but it was too late for her to get on the axe and avoid the beast. It slammed into her and they were tangled together as they rolled down.
They fought with limbs, one with four and one with three. The beast's limbs were totally stronger than Rose's one. The axe was somewhere on the hill because Rose was forced to clench both her fists. Rose thrashed in a futile attempt to injure her opponent and the beast didn't know how to fight with its limbs. It just knew how to lunge, bite and feast.
Wait, how did she know this?
At the end of the slope, Rose felt painfully numb from the weight of the monster of darkness. But its weight was less by the time it was night. But it still weighed a lot of kilograms (Should I be placing pounds here?) under her. Her vision was starting to blur when the grey beast shifted out from above her. Thank goodness for that.
She finally released her hand from clenching so much and the axe returned to her. She turned and was about to strike her axe down when the beast was running away.
This was weird. She knew monsters in the Darkness region never ran away. This beast was exceptionally conscient.
Only now she realised that her axe didn't emit a purple luminance. She never got used to the axe turning purple and its material turning into a melting machine.
Maybe she was in an illusion. But for now, she had no way to escape. So why not have fun?
She stepped on the axe and lifted off to chase and murder the grey beast.
Kogh, she thought suddenly.

Chapter 36

The man stuck his machete into a guard's back, impaling his stomach. The man formed a straight hand and swung, impacting the guard's neck and breaking the spine. He pulled the machete away from the guard and took his blast gun. He also removed his clothing and put on the guard's one instead, replacing the dead guard with his coat. He also put his hat on the guard's head and took his helmet and wore it.
He adjusted his armour until he was comfortable before he started walking towards the exit of East. He saw other guards patrolling like nothing happened, even though the monster of death had fallen to its death for some reason. The blast gun was laid on his arms, the stock just under his armpit.
He leaned his head downwards, so as to be unnoticed by the guards. He kept on strutting onwards, even ignoring a guard who was calling out to him. He heard more than his own footsteps, but he continued walking. When he was tapped on the shoulder by the guard, still he disregarded him. Only when the guard pulled him and turned him around, the disguised man had his blast gun aimed at the guard's stomach.
He had the same armour as his. It should be, or else who were those guards? His face was veiled by the visor of his helmet and the vest he wore had pockets. But the man never found a use in those. Blast guns used energy, not manufactured sources.
The man couldn't see the guard's face, but he did hear a scream from him as his stomach was pulverised by the man's blast gun.
He turned around and left the guard on the ground, with blood pooling around his dead body. No doubt, other guards would investigate. Actually, they did investigate. They just didn't notice the man leaving East.
The Darkness region was never a favourite place for the man, but he liked it better than East. But it was like saying a piece of trash was better than another piece of trash.
A wasteland, everyone would say. But the man would consider the Darkness region a place of experimentation. On the horizon, he saw Klensburg, standing proud and tall, except that no one lived there before. At least before the Darkness Plague.
The man remembered a time, where the Darkness region wasn't the Darkness region. It was a land of fertility. He remembered East to be a small village, until he rose to take the village and revolutionise it to be the city of revolution. He guessed it was almost sixty years ago. Or even more.
Everything went well in East. It was almost peaceful. There were definitely no wars. The crime rate was controlled and the man established a society where no city could achieve. He was wise, or at least he wanted to think he was.
The Darkness Plague started a few years after the man took control of East. It came from a disease that was unknown and unidentifiable. But when technology advanced and it could research the disease, it was too late to save the land, but they could save the people infected by it, but they couldn't save everyone. That was when monsters of corruption, darkness and death came about. From human beings.
The disease caused a mutation so drastic, it changed the forms of human beings and degraded the brain until it was a mere storage unit for survival instincts.
He looked at the black land. Anything planted would die almost immediately. He started his journey towards Klensburg, but at a slow pace. The journey took almost a day, or eighteen hours. With nothing to do, he counted the seconds, minutes and hours before he arrived at Klensburg.
It was still, unmoving and stagnant, just like what the soldiers said in their report.
There was one place in particular where he had to go.
He looked up at the night sky. It stretched over the man's line of sight and stars were drawn everywhere, like a toddler decided to use a pen and poke randomly. Because of the Darkness Plague, even clouds weren't present, or semi-present. Either way, he couldn't see it. He tried to find the moon, but it wasn't visible.
A new moon, he thought.
He strode past buildings with simple shapes, some were cuboids, some were cubes, hell, some were cylinders. But nothing more than that.
He counted the number of buildings he passed until he stopped at fifty. He looked up and saw a platform, but with little damage. Someone must have had climbed-
His eyes widened. His jaw dangled. His shoulders relaxed. Someone was here.
Behind the platform was another platform, but within reachable height. He went over and climbed up to the roof.
A dead monster of corruption, with maggots eating away at its body. Blue blood was splashed everywhere. Either a blast gun a blade did this. But from the looks of it, neither could fit the injuries applied.
Well, a gigantic spinning saw blade could work, but who would carry something that big? Only Kogh clones could do this.
He had seen Kogh clones in action. Smashed by an overwhelming amount of force, pushing and pulling things from afar, making whirlwinds and even flying.
Without wasting too much time on the carcass, he searched the roof for a hole. When he found it, he looked down and fell into it.
Just as he remembered, it was dark, really dark. But he knew where to go. He walked and walked, but he didn't find what he needed. A simple jagged rock.
He swore it could have been at this spot. Fifty steps from the origin. He shook his head and kept on moving.
As he remembered, the floor was rocky, rough and sometimes spiky. He had no problem with the floor. It was just the lack of illumination. It would have been easier for him to find that jagged rock. He swept his legs every time he took a step to locate that rock. It was a little bigger than the usual rocks in this room. So its weight should be-
He shouted in pain as he stepped on a rock. The rock he wanted.
In pain, but in relief, he picked it up and went forward towards a wall. He laid his hands on the wall and located the doorknob. He twisted it and pushed it open. It was the same dark room, but with a path to a maze. He went into the maze and took a left, then a right, moved forward a little, then left. He felt the wall and counted to fifty, again, then he stopped. He applied a little pressure and the wall split into two and revealed a path to another door.
As tedious as this was getting, he strolled towards the door and opened it.
The laboratory was similar to East's laboratory before the imperfect monster of death arose. It was a usual sight to the man's eyes. Clones in tubes of fluids to keep them in hibernation, supercomputers acted like obstacles and wires snaking around on the floor. Luckily, no one infiltrated this lab yet.
As expected, no one was here, not even anyone who would monitor the progress of the experiments, conditions of the clones and the supercomputers. Only the man worked here. He had branches of laboratories rigorously testing and finding out new answers. And sometimes, those answers could help better the world, maybe even rid the land of the Darkness Plague. For now, he could make super soldiers, young ones at that, using a simplified version of the plague.
He stopped at a blank screen with a keyboard below it. He typed in a few keys and pressed the space bar and a few digital words in green appeared.
Welcome, Mayor Avus.
He grinned and continued his research.

Chapter 37

Henry shoved the heavy wooden door open.
What hit Henry first was the odour. It was the smell of rotten flesh, maybe even worse.
The living room had dusty sofas, vases on top of glass tables and wilted flowers in them and dusty bookshelves which contained books that Henry's mother compiled and collected. Some book covers were coloured differently, some rows of book covers were of the same colour. The plain chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. He bet the light bulbs hadn't been lit since he left this place. There were other shelves, but Henry didn't touch them at all. He thought the items inside were useless.
On the floor was the dried blood of his family, with bones even Henry couldn't recognise. There were broken bones, shattered bones and missing bones. Henry forced himself to look away from them.
There was a hallway with four doors and flights of stairs at the end of the hallway. The floor was tiled and heavy with dirt and dust. Each of the rooms had a wooden door, similar to the heavy wooden door he opened before. A fluorescent bulb was attached to the ceiling, emitting not even light. But for bulbs without releasing light, this place was quite bright, and Henry didn't know why.
He went to the first door on his left and pushed it open. It was a storeroom, filled with junk and toys Henry used to play. There was a skateboard which aged with time. He bet the screws in it were rusty enough they would break if someone used it. Spider webs entwined with each other and the junk inside. Hopefully, there weren't any spiders here now. He'd always hated them. He even saw rusted frying pans in the heap and he didn't even know why.
He closed the door and turned around to open the opposite door. As he remembered, there was a single bed on the edge of the wall by the corner. A bookshelf was next to the bed, containing Henry's favourite books. It was his room.
It wasn't colourful, messy or even tidy. It was a normal boy's room, with the bed's blanket strewn over the bed, as if the boy just woke up and decided he didn't want to fold it. The bed sheet was an uncomfortable type of mess. That type of mess that makes you want to clean it up. It had a rippling pattern, but it was random at times. The top of the bookshelf was dusty, but Henry didn't bother to wipe it off. Some of the books were toppled and some were arranged neatly, like they were never touched.
There was a study table to the other edge of the wall. A table lamp stood and slouched until the light bulb was facing the table. A book lay open in the face of the light bulb. Henry stood closer to see what it was. It was his diary.
He chuckled at the thought of writing a diary. There were two more shelves containing all sorts of stationery including pencils, pens, erasers and glue sticks. There was a pencil case standing in the corner, waiting to be tipped on, containing only the same grade of pencils. He remembered those pencils that helped him a lot in his childhood.
He looked to his left side and saw his computer. The dust had settled on the keyboard and monitor for a long time that Henry didn't want to clean them anymore. The table was a cerulean blue, with the monitor standing proudly on it while the keyboard bowed low towards the monitor. Henry even saw a bug on the monitor. The CPU underneath didn't catch much dust. Henry had the urge to press the power button but he had other places to explore.
He left the room, not wanting to remember anything about himself anymore. He left his old self a long time ago.
He didn't bother about the other two doors because he knew the rooms were his brother's and parents' rooms. He headed for the staircase instead. Walking up, he felt the wooden creak of the steps, lifting his leg higher each step to reach the top. When he did reach the top, he saw his brother, standing in Henry's view. But the weird thing about the brother was that he was younger than Henry. He'd remembered he was the younger sibling.
The brother beckoned him to come forward, and he did. The next floor consisted of two more rooms. The one on the left he knew was the bathroom, and the other one he quite didn't know before. In his whole childhood, he had never once touched the knob of that door and he didn't bother to.
And this time, he wanted to enter it, because his supposed brother opened the door and went inside. It looked empty from Henry's view. He stepped further into the room and saw a nest of monsters of corruption, lying in the darkness for their prey to reveal himself.

I'm sorry, but I'm laying off this story for a while, or at least until 30th November. I'M REALLY SORRY!



I am participating in a competition called NaNoWriMo. It's a writing competition that requires you to write a hefty fifty thousand word novel within thirty days. But it's already eleven days past. It's probably late if you want to join it but if you do, you can at:

I'm sorry again for not posting Chapter 38 but I will make up for it in the future. I promise!

And I'm sorry about the image as well.. Double repost, eeeehhhhh....

Chapter 38

Rose dashed through the hills and mountains, chasing the monster of darkness as it was bleeding out from its leg. She'd reckoned if the sun was still there, the monster of darkness would already have healed from the wounds she caused. She was catching up to it when she accidentally released her foot, causing her to fall. She pulled the axe towards her and in time, she put her axe down on her back and was able to cushion the fall. She only felt a slight shock from her back, but other than that, she was safe.
She looked around as she scratched her back. She jumped as she noticed the grass becoming purple and that she was about to be melted by it. She exhaled as she realised she was safe.
The grass was purple, along with the hills and mountains. It was probably a hallucination. If it was, it was serious.
She continued on her way, stepping on her axe and flying to pursue the beast when a man appeared in front of her before she abruptly stopped in her tracks. She almost fell out of the axe as she did so.
The floating man, probably in his mid-thirties, was wearing a purple robe to fit with the purple grass and highlands. It had a few streaks of white along the robe and the man was hooded in purple as well. He raised his right arm at her and with a blast of his own force, she was pushed away to fall to the ground again. But this time, her axe was gone, along with her glove. She looked up and saw the hooded man with the set.
She cursed and waited for her to wake up from this dream, but then when she almost touched the ground, she floated. She frowned, and then stood on the ground. She looked at the hooded man as he flew towards her. She rolled backwards and the hooded man crashed into the ground. Dust flew everywhere and some got into her nose. She constantly sneezed and tried to find her newly-found opponent. Then she saw the earth fissure. She moved out of the way and the ground split into two.
Suddenly, she decided to call her enemy, Hoodygan, because of his hood and that he was a hooligan. Sometimes, Rose wondered if her previous friends had thought she had no life.
She saw the man rush towards her and, instead of moving sideways, she went forward with a clenched fist. When they were close, she finally moved towards the side and swung her fist at his hidden face. She heard a heavy crunch and the man fell to the ground. She hunkered down and pulled the hood off. It was Kogh with a bleeding nose.
She gasped, but the supposed Kogh caught her off guard, sending a wave of force at her. She was basically flung like a catapult flinging rocks to destroy a castle. Her arms flailed while doing so, unaware that she was sending force waves from her hands as well. The sudden barrage of force wave also sent Hoodygan staggering to the fissure, but not plunging into it. She still wanted to call him Hoodygan, despite finding out that he was Kogh. As Rose landed on the slope of the hill, shock filled her back, causing her to scream out into the night.
Hoodygan hovered towards Rose in a few seconds, but Rose thrust her hand out, again, accidentally sending a force wave and launching Hoodygan into the fissure, never seeing him again.
Roseâs eyebrows were raised in question. She had Koghâs powers now. Apparently, this kind of power consisted of the mind to bend some sort of energy at her will, or maybe that she shouldnât assume things anymore or it might get her into trouble.
She got up from the ground and wiped the dust off of her clothes. She realised her hair was all around and attempted to use the energy to tie her hair together. A few times, she failed, and ended up pounding the ground and knocking the back of her head a few times. When she finally felt her hair hanging from a point, she walked ahead, searching for the monster of darkness which reminded her of Kogh.
Even at the horizon, she couldnât see the beast, save a few upright hills and mountains blocking her view. Maybe the monster was behind the ranges of hills and mountains. She shrugged and chose one mountain to walk towards and reach the summit in order to scout the vicinity. While doing so, she decided to experiment with her new power. She thrust her right arm like before and noticed a ripple of force sent from her hand. She nodded and repeated this until she was used to it, which took only a small amount of time. Once she reached the top, she looked all around her and saw a splotch a shade blacker than night and assumed it was the monster of darkness.
She grinned and went towards the figure, walking, and then sliding down the slope of the hill. She summoned the force to push her down the slope even faster and began to catch a better image of the figure. It wasnât the monster of darkness she had wanted, it was just a boulder. Just moving towards her. At an unbelievable speed.
She took a few steps backwards before sidestepping and avoiding the path of the boulder, but it changed directions and homed in onto her. She tried sending force, but it didnât make any differences whatsoever. She frowned and waited until the boulder was almost close enough to roll her like a rolling pin, then she jumped with force pushing her upwards. She landed on the boulder and it started to float and go upwards, still following her. Once she reached a certain altitude, she woke up from the extremely lucid dream.
She was in a tube with liquid, glass surrounding her floating body. She was able to breathe, but she couldnât move her limbs. She could only see a distorted image of a man in white, writing something with his pen on a list board. When he looked up, he stared into Roseâs eyes before running off to, maybe, inform his superiors or something. Instead, the fluid was drained from the tube and the glass retracted back up. Rose wanted to move, but she couldnât. She just fell forward, but the same man caught her in his arms.
Rose gained control of her limbs and climbed off of his arms. Her axe and glove were gone, but she thrust her arm forward, sending a force wave and pushing the man backwards. It still needed work, but it was better than nothing.
She couldnât locate her axe and glove in this laboratory. The man shouted, trying to stop her, and chased after her. Her perception wasnât clear yet, but she saw a pathway that was straight and simple. She took the path and ran. She occasionally looked behind and pushed the scientist back a few metres with force. At the end was a door. When she smashed the door open, she saw a man, stuck on the wall of a tall building. His mouth was a gaping hole and his hands were joined together against the wall with a nail.
She looked behind and glimpsed the man. With a pistol aimed at her.

Chapter 39

Kogh was chasing the police car, but it seemed like this vehicle was just going around a building, turning right four times. When it stopped, Kogh lowered himself just to see what would happen, careful not to be noticeable from where he was. He perched on an invisible platform he made as he watched two men dressed like policemen get out from the car. One of them had a pork pie hat on his head. They just left the car and walked away. Then the car exploded.
From where he was, it was a booming sound, enough to deafen a normal human, but not Kogh. He shouted Roseâs name in reaction and dashed towards the destroyed car in flames. He resisted the flames that licked against his skin and tried to search for Rose, expecting a roasted dead body. He couldnât find anything and leapt out of the car. There were red marks all over his body, but they would soon disappear.
He tilted his head, wondering how Rose wasnât there. Instead of thinking about it more, he flew up and saw the two men walking into a building. He headed above the two men as they went in. He followed them inside.
The interior consisted of a counter to the right, manned by a woman in her thirties. There was a coffee table at the side of the room, surrounding by cheap-looking sofas ready to break down the instant someone sat on it. There were a few people on the sofas, lounging around while having a conversation, coupled by drinking mugs of coffee. The spinning fan above the coffee table was hanging loosely, and it could fall any minute. It looked like a rundown hotel to Kogh.
The two men went to the counter and chatted with the receptionist. Kogh went to the dark corner of the room and leaned against the wall, waiting for the two men to move. The few people sitting on the sofas gazed at Kogh momentarily before looking back. It was like they never heard the explosion that happened before.
The man with the hat nodded and both of them moved. Kogh started moving too, tailing them from a safe distance. Ahead of the pair of men, there was a hallway of rooms, probably vacant from the look of the interior of the hotel. The men passed the doors until they reached a wooden staircase leading up. Kogh stayed at the left side of the hallway to stay out of sight. The two men stepped up and he followed.
The next hallway was like the one below. Before moving on, he rested his back against the wall and peeked through the corner. The pair of policemen stopped at a door and the one without the hat knocked on the last door of the hallway. There was a moment of silence before the door opened. The hatless man took out a silenced pistol and shot his way through. Kogh hurried over to see what happened next. He hid just next to the door and leaned over to peek.
A figure was on the ground with black liquid oozing out from its neck and head. The two men were looking at each other, discussing whatever when the man with the hat turned his head slightly and noticed Kogh. He shouted out and ran after Kogh. He quickly headed for the staircase and went downstairs. The sudden rushing steps made everyone look at Kogh as he ran past them to open the door. He didnât bother to scan his surroundings and boosted up with force, heading for the skies. He now only looked down and saw the two men exit the building and they suddenly disappeared.
Kogh frowned, when a sharp projectile missed him by a few inches. He twirled around and saw the pork pie hat. He moved around again to avoid another projectile that missed him. The man was holding two more of them, with about twenty more floating above and behind him. The man threw two more, but Kogh summoned up a solid invisible wall to deflect them. He then made the wall spiked and sent it towards him. The man moved aside, then immediately dashed forward, forcing Kogh into a close quarters fight.
Kogh went under the man, causing the man confusion. He hardened force and made a sword out of it, then slashed upwards, cutting through his crotch and up. Blood spilled from the sky, as though it rained red, and two halves of a body. They fell and splattered on the ground. Kogh stayed in the air, waiting for something to happen, when the other cop, flushed with anger and his teeth gritted, stopped ascending.
Immediately, Kogh sent a force wave and knocked the man backwards. His face was still red from the rage when he made a sword of his own. Kogh raised his eyebrow and summoned up four swords and threw all of them at the man. He danced in the air with his sword, deflecting all four swords with a swipe. Then Kogh went in, zooming onto him when the man surprised him with his suppressed pistol. He was quick enough to conjure an invisible wall. In front of him were multiple bullets stuck in mid-air. Kogh then made a spike and threw it at the man. He moved, but not quickly enough for the spike to impale his shoulder. There was a squishing sound and a yell of pain chorusing together. The man flew in the opposite direction in an attempt to escape from Kogh, and he did successfully escape.
But a few seconds later, a scream emanated from where the man was. Kogh urgently moved towards his direction and saw that the man was nailed to a building, along with Rose exiting through the opposite building.

Chapter 40 â" Screw the Rules

There was a drilling spike that emerged from the concrete floor, impaling through it like paper. It crashed through some of the apparatus and wrecked a few of it.
âWhat the hell?!â
Avus moved back from the computer and stared at the large-looking drill that had just barged into his laboratory. He armed himself with a blast gun and moved forward to investigate it. Only half of bulged from the floor. The rest of it was inside, but Avus couldnât get under. There werenât any other floors in the building besides the upper floor. He stepped back and lay in wait for something to happen. The drill moved with a roaring sound this time, moving more until a door appeared under it. It opened and a man appeared from the door. Avus took cover behind a box of metal that housed cables and wires and risked a peek above it.
The man was naked. His face was full of hair, his beard covering his neck and his hair dropping to his back. In his hands was a pair of pistols, traditional ones invented centuries ago. They had their golden shine on the slides of the pistols. His chest was sprayed with green liquid that didnât harm his skin whatsoever. He didnât seem to notice Avus as he walked forward in an awkward manner. He would always seem to fall, but Avus would be proven wrong over and over again. The man went past Avus and walked over to a specimen in a glass tube and stopped there. He raised one of his dual pistols and shot a bullet through the tube. A loud bang went off, but Avus didnât move at all. He had heard tons of gunshots that he could just fall asleep at night with guns blazing outside his room.
For good reason, he kept quiet and observed what the man was doing, avoiding to rest his eyes on the bottom part of the manâs body. The specimen fell to the manâs side and he grabbed it with his arms. It was still incomplete, so it was half monster of darkness and half human with black fur all over. He turned around and walked back to the drill. It was then when Avus got out from cover.
âWhere do you think youâre going with my experiment?!â Avus shouted at him.
The man paused in his tracks and turned around and looked at him. His eyes were jet-black throughout, like his eyes could pierce into Avusâ soul and they were as cold as ice. The man kept his gaze while putting the specimen down onto the floor before raising his pistols to aim. Avus returned to his cover and the pistols fired, bullets ramming into the box of metal. Hopefully, they didnât cause enough damage to jeopardise everything.
Avus brought his blast gun out and shot blindly, only knowing where the manâs last location was. He heard a blast from his weapon and bullets shredding through metal.
âWhere are you?!â He shouted.
He peeked outside the box and saw that the man was trying to flank him. He shook his head as he aimed his blast gun at the man and shot. The man blurred and disappeared from his sight. Avus frowned as he stood up and looked around. He then saw him carrying the specimen to the drill.
âNo, you freakinâ donât!â
Avus swung his blast gun in an arc and pulled the trigger, sending bullets driving into the manâs back as the stream of bullets rammed him into the drill. With his last breath, he pressed a green button and the huge thing descended to where it came from. At least that was a clue.
He stopped at the edge of the hole and leaned forward, looking at the gaping hole with dirt and concrete as its circular wall. He could still see the drill travelling downwards with its spike facing him. There was probably another spike at the opposite side. For now, if he didnât chase after the man, he would lose one of his specimens, which was a pretty big deal. If he did chase after the man, all he could lose was his body. His mind could just hover back up to another one of his clones.
âAlright,â Avus uttered as he shrugged and jumped down the hole with his blast gun, sliding off the curve of the pathway.