Prying open a giant gate, a squicking sound reverberated through the surroundings. One could hear a few chains rattle in the distance as a gust of wind swept through the factory. Movements unseen and hidden to the eye, each shadow held its own truth.
As the group's eyes wandered through the large open room, machinery of all kinds was scattered throughout, left in place as if in a hurry.
Noctis saw several pipes pumping something into a complex-looking cylindrical bowl, the contents just barely out of sight. He could guess what it was, however. After all, there were few reasons for which they would be sent so urgently, and this facility was one of them.
A facility to process Notium from its raw state into its marketable state. This facility was quite literally printing or, more acuratly cocking money.
Suppressing his greed at the sight of vats full of money. It was truly greed-evoking. He had been happy over a few drops of the stuff, yet here it was worth as much as dirt.
Above the container, a light smough drifted upward, passing a small bridge that spanned the entire facility, above the identical-looking machines, hanging there emotionlessly. The smough was then finally sucked up by a few valves placed a bit above the bridge, right above the large containers. An old, rusty operational panel was placed on the side, seemingly still halfway functioning even without personal supervision.
One of the panels displayed a red blinking warning sign. Next to it was a half-empty vat, which blinked out of tune with the warning signal.
A bit unnerved by the oppressive atmosphere, off the machinery rhythmically repeating the same processes over and over. This place should have been teeming with abominations, but there was simply nothing.
They had hurried over here, and when they arrived, there was complete silence.
Was the report false?
No, that didn't seem right. There had been reports of casualties, and the beasts had appeared in a very public place before retreating into the facility.
"Should we split up?" Noctis asked, his voice echoing in the wide hall, the sound underlining that he was ignoring his knowledge about the horror genre.
As he took a step forward, Noctis noticed a slit pressure on his chest.
Looking down, he saw a pale white hand holding him back.
"There is something," Recks spoke.
A bit confused, Noctis let his eyes survey the room once more, but there truly seemed to be nothing. Even when concentrating on the strings, which he normally tuned out into the background, he saw no life. Not a single strand of fate other than the ones connected to him and his colleagues. The room was quite dark, but that would normally only accentuate their golden luster.
Noticing Noctis' confusion, Recks pulled out his Revolver as his pupils faded, mirroring those of a blind person. Ironically enough, it seemed like he was seeing far more than any human should be able to, quite similar to Noctis's own ability, which was the reason the two were put onto the missing person case in the first place.
He then aimed at a seemingly random spot. It was one of the vats. Noctis and the yellow-clad man stayed on full alert throughout it all, a bit unsure what to make of the situation.
Peculiarly enough, Noctis, the one who knew Recks longer, was more doubtful of him than the guy who knew him for at most a few days. It was not because Nox had little trust in the guy. In truth, he trusted him greatly. It was more that he had greater trust in the strings of fate, and they told him that there was nothing.
Bang!
A loud shot was fired, breaking through the thin asphalt-and-metal layer, piercing the vat.
Noctis was shocked. He had read the future movements of Recks through it all, but the inisque movement of pushing the trigger escaped his notice. How could he have noticed he had judged what would happen from looking at a bundle of strings?
The real question was who would have noticed.
This seemed downright suicidal. Wasn't this a Notium processing plant? It was the reason why the incident had been reported so quickly.
AND NOTIUM WAS HIGHLY UNSTABLE! What was he thinking, just shooting a vat filled with a substance that was either already Notium or the substance that would become it?! Either was highly combustible!
Ignoring the monetary loss that would come through this, Noctis quickly took a few steps back, bracing for impact.
But nothing happened.
Staring at the broken wall, or to be more precise, the small hole, Noctis' confusion grew, as there seemed to be nothing behind. Did he know it was empty and it wouldn't blow us up?
Couldn't he have at least said something?!
And what was the point of doing that?
Show us that it was empty. Well, it is true that it is weird for the vat to stand empty. It should have been a normal workday after all, which was interrupted by the invaders. So by all means, all of these vats should be filled to the brim.
The panel also said that it was at least half full. Was it malfunctioning?
Thinking about asking Recks directly, a loud gurgling, bubbling sound startled Nox to awareness, his eyes resettling on the huge vat and what lay behind it.
Noctis had first believed nothing living to be behind the wall, but suddenly, he felt movement in the form of loud sounds and tremors in the environment. It was as if something huge were slowly awakening, tossing and turning in its sleep.
But there was no golden connection coming from the sealed-off room, no future path, no strings at all, no sign of life, every creature should have, no specific fate it would follow. Noctis was shocked. He had never seen anything like it. It felt like his own Authority was betraying him.
Through the hole, he could see little, yet a disturbing cracking sound painted its own horrid picture.
It sounded like bones were snapping and flesh was ripping at every moment, as almost-silent whimpers, sometimes high-pitched, other times lower, some sounding male, others sounding female, occasionally escaped whatever was in there.
Boom.
The vat exploded outward without warning, small pieces of rubble flew towards the group, followed by a wave of dust. The second disciple reacted far quicker than the other two and jumped back, followed by Recks and then Noctis, building up some distance.
How was the guy in yellow so fast?!
Nox never considered himself the most athletic person, but he had spent a good amount of time and improved as of late. Yet he could not even compare himself to him. That guy's reflexes were simply out of this world!
Trying to distinguish anything within the cloud of dust that had arisen before the group, a large shadow began to emerge. Its silhouette was hard to distinguish, with the brunt of its mass forming a somewhat humanoid giant, yet at the same time, it seemed so utterly inhuman that it was hard to compare the two.
It was… giant, with the mass of three to four humans, maybe even more combined. It was hard to tell with the visual obstructions. There were random protrusions all over its body, twitching and turning from time to time. It seemed to have two arms and two legs, with its legs being far shorter than its arms. The numerous protrusions made it hard to judge, giving the figure a rough, uneven look; some of them branched out to the point where they could be their own limbs.
Overlaying it all were some dark, almost unnoticeable translucent black lines that branched off its body, flying off towards the factory's walls.
Noctis did not dare to take his eyes off the creature, with its hard-to-distinguish silhouette. However, he did manage to mutter.
If it was a question or an assessment, it was unclear.
"It's unlike in the report?!"
Bam!
Before any of them could speak another word or plan out a new battle strategy to take down the new unknown monstrosity, a terribly disfigured, pale-skinned arm, shredded with protruding bone and flesh, shot out of the cloud of dust, aimed at our newest member.
Neither Nox nor Recks could react in time. The terrible speed of the attack was simply unmatched, and the two Authority Wielders with less combative-oriented abilities weren't quite known for their physical prowess.
The youth in yellow, on the other hand, reacted lightning-fast as he jumped, his yellow robe-like outfit fluttering crazily, somehow tinged with an electric feel.
Not hesitating for a moment, he then kicked off the grotesque arm from his jumping motion. His room for treading looked like a chaotic amalgamation of flesh and bone, built from multiple limbs messily fused together. Flying up into the air, he then grabbed one of the now no longer hidden in dust, unfittingly sized human-like heads of the creature, of which it had four.
One Woman, one child, one Elderly man, and one man of middle age.
The rest of its body, now out of the cloud, was similarly grotesque-looking to the arm that had stretched unnaturally long, its heavy body resting on countless centipede-like arms and legs towering and fusing as they held the creature upright.
The creature, unable to react to the lightning-fast movements of the second disciple, was struck harshly. The yellow-robed disciple cleanly flung his knee into the nose bridge of the childlike head, converting the full momentum of his jump into force. At the same time, its head was clutched between his two hands and pulled into the full brunt of the strike.
The childlike face instantly convulsed inward as he felt his knee break something; he suddenly jumped back.
The now damaged and bloody head that might aswell have been one of a human started crying black tears mixed with red blood flowing down its eyes, under the trio's gazes, everyone standing a few meters apart. A large crack now ran down its forehead, yet for some implorable reason, it was still alive, with its clear pink brain matter just on the brink of running out.
Looking at the second disciple, who was looking at his hands for some reason, the upper layer of his skin was missing, laying bare the flesh beneath.
"Don't touch it directly!"The second disciple yelled, his voice tinged with pain.
"Can you take it?" Nocits asked while never fully averting his gaze from the beast that seemed to be having a mental breakdown, two arms growing out of its shoulders, clutching its head, trying to hold it together.
"T-the heavens have given me the gift to vanquish this beast."
Ignoring the choice of words, a bit astonished that the guy could hold it up under such pain, Noctis simply nodded.
"Good," Recks spoke as he aimed his gun.
Preparing his own attack, Noctis halted. He just barely held himself from vomiting as he saw the sight before him.
The screaming and crying had stopped, as the sound was replaced by the sound of chomping and chewing.
Under their gazes, the three other heads had started eating the fourth damaged one.
The one that resembled a womman was slurping up the spilled brain matter, the other that looked like an elderly man, his teeth half rotted away, was biting and cracking the skull, its brittle teeth somehow withstanding the grueling task, while the third, resembling a middle-aged man, was slowly gnawing on the neck.
This continued under the disturbed gazes of the group until finally the broken, now half-eaten head plopped to the ground and shattered into a mass of flesh and bone.
Now, having fully consumed their weak brethren or whatever these things were to each other, their gazes slowly resettled on the three, who had damaged the head in the first place.
At the same time, hands, feet, torsos, and all sorts of ligaments started growing out around the three heads, flailing about.
The next moment, a murderous stare, filled with unending killing intent, washed over them as the beast lifted its ginormous arm, from which myriad other arms protruded.
Then, with a loud scream, the three voices combined to a horrendous-sounding chorus, as the cetepide-like arms and legs started rushing forward at a frightening speed that, if he had not seen it before, would have caught Noctis off guard.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Recks shot thrice. His first bullet was aimed at the head, but was caught by the wall of flesh flaying about. Trying something different, his second and third shots hit the chest before he jumped to the side out of the beast's reach.
The shots, however, seemed to have little effect, not even worth noticing to the heap of flesh, as it strode onward towards the second disciple.
Frowning slightly, Rex's gaze turned towards Noctis, who promptly threw a wave of condensed energy out of his right hand, covered by a glove with a moon insignia on its palm.
Sensing danger, two of the three remaining heads seemed to notice, as the third's gaze was fixed on the second disciple.
Suddenly, the heap of flesh stopped in its tracks, some of the limbs trying to move forwards, others trying to dodge the attack, resulting in a complete failure of both.
The blade hit strongly, almost severing its left arm before disintegrating halfway through.
The arm hung there limply as all three gazes simultaneously landed on Nox. In the next moment, its larger undamaged arm swung in a sweeping motion that was originally meant for the second disciple, racing towards him quicker than he could dodge.
As he saw death's quick approach, images ran past his vision for a few moments.
Images of his past, reliving them, as if they were just happening.
Memories of his parents, of his childhood, of hearing of his father's passing…
"I summon heavenly retribution."
Bang! His vision went white and yellow for a split second.
Blinking repeatedly, he suddenly saw the colossus completely charred. Many of its branching arms molten into the greater whole, its originally somewhat human features completely gone, replaced by that black-and-reddish furning flesh, mixed with tarlike black veins.
Its arms, before bursting with flesh, were now thinner, ending in two long bones, the flesh still dripping from them.
The limbs that had protected its heads before were now molten, resembling a grotesque helmet.
The centipede-like legs had squished and compressed. It no longer stood on this myriad mix of arms and legs, but now on four distinct, chared limbs ending in hoof-like feet.
It looked like a creature of the bowels of hell.
Resembling the centaurs of myth, or their demonic counterpart.