Dan slowly stood back up and wretched Conservative out of the agent’s lifeless body. He took a few steps away from the corpse and his legs were aching from the landing. Glancing up at the building he smashed out of, he let out a low whistle. Thanks to his armor, enhanced physiology and the Church agent serving as his cushion, he had just survived an eighty meter drop. Any normal man would have broken his legs or simply died from such a fall onto hard concrete.
He got over his initial shock of the landing and walked back to the dead body. Crouching down, he rummaged through the agent’s robes looking for the artefact. He finally found a strange object tucked along his hip and took it. The red hexagon on his HUD hovered over the object and blinked repeatedly. Dan assumed this was it.
The object in his hand was a strange cylinder with curves and grooves throughout its design along with a sparkly stardust pattern all over it. The vision in his corners began flickering and he even saw strange pixelization.
Warning: Unknown outside interference detected.
Dan checked out his immediate surroundings and saw nothing but the same streets and buildings all under the reddish tint of the sky. Every step he took he either stepped on or kicked smashed glass, pieces of concrete and brick, all of which strewn along his feet like vomit. He turned his head and everything in his vision left behind strange trailing, like artifacts on a faulty display.
The quiet was interrupted as a familiar demonic voice flooded his mind.
Very fortunate, Dan Orion. I counted three occasions where you almost died, Overlord said.
Dan felt a bead of sweat run down his face. He did not like this shit one bit.
“This is really getting annoying,” he said. “Are you always going to pop in my head and keep peaking at my business?”
My processing power has more important tasks to deal with than watching your every move. It would be a gross misallocation of resources to dedicate anything on watching someone twenty-four-seven.
Dan stroked his mask as he contemplated what Overlord just admitted. The entity in his head just mentioned the term “processing power.” For all this time, Dan had no clue exactly who or what Overlord was. To him, it was a demonic voice that would pop up in his mind and speak to him, tempting him with these supernatural abilities while also producing the dream-like sequences in his sleep and also giving him a tutorial session on each new power he gained. He remembered one occasion were the entity allocated his stat points without his input.
But to the idea that Overlord wasn’t some supernatural force, but potentially an AI equally made Dan squirm in his armor. How could an AI have this much power to influence an agent.
You found the artefact that Judith has promised you. Know that her and I both discussed this and we do not make this decision lightly to grant you this boost in power. It is a step to make you more powerful and prove that we are the only ones who can truly help you ascend.
“Is that so?” Dan asked.
Of course. Actions speak louder than words. We might have kidnapped you and kept you as a prisoner, but Judith is offering you an alternative. Join us.
Dan walked toward the nearest building amd smashed open a window. He climbed in and leaned against a wall.
“Wait a second. I was told that I was originally going to be just a live test subject to study the Arctic serum within me? But then Judith comes in and makes me this offer. I watched as Judith and Colleen argued about this. Is there some conflict of interest within your shard? Hope you get that shit fixed.”
Overlord gave an ugly cackle that made him wince. It didn’t help that this cackling filled his mind and he couldn’t tune it out.
Do not worry about such petty squabbles. Judith as a top Bloodknight will stir the ire of many Kodak agents outside of the sect. But enough of that. Now that you have the artefact, it is time for you taste its power. You must take it apart and pierce yourself.
“I—wait the fuck?” Dan asked.
Green tracers slashed through the bashed window and cut past his arm. Dan dropped to the ground and narrwoly avoided being hit by radioactive rods from his enemies. His HUD immediately updated with a new waypoint and message.
Find cover and peirce yourself with the artefact.
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Green tracers still slashed the space above him. Dan thought it was too dangerous to move, knowing that he could easily be shot in the back.
The relentless barrage finally died down and Dan raised himself off the floor. Behind him, the windows was blocked my smoke and he couldn’t see anything. Green flashed through the clouds of smoke lit up some silhouettes of his enemies on the street.
His HUD notified him of an incoming call.
“This is Ada. Let me take their attention off you,” she said. “Get to a safe space and use the artefact.”
“Thanks Ada,” he said.
Dan followed the new waypoint and navigated through the empty and abandoned interiors of this building. He punched through another window and hopped out, finding his way through the backalleys. While Ada kept up her promise, Dan needed to follow the waypoint to a site far enough where he could use the artefact on himself.
His vision flicked with pixelization again and Overlords voice entered his mind.
Stop fumbling around and use the artefact. Hurry before you get ambushed again.
“Working on it, asshole,” Dan shot back. “And what the hell do you mean by piercing myself?”
He jumped over a dumpster and continued following the waypoint which finally rested on a set of steel doors. They were locked from the inside. Dan drew his Conservative and shoved the blade through the middle of the doors. He ran the blade down the middle and forced one of the doors open.
“Love this thing,” he said to himself.
Barely two steps inside, another voice cut into his mind.
Judith began with a needless clearing of her throat before she spoke. “When you split apart the aretfact, you’ll see it’s basically a abunch of sharp crystals. Church agents will usually prepare an entire ritual to absorb the corrosia energy from the crystal itself. But we don’t have that luxury right now. The quick and dirty method is to stab yourself with the crystalline shards.”
“That doesn’t sound safe,” he said.
“That’s why it’s quick and dirty. The corrosia energy and the microorganisms on the crystals will enter your body and that will grant you the power boost you need. Outside of the Church, only us Bloodknights and some of you with the Arctic serum can do it this way.”
“So any other random asshole who tries this will stab themselves for nothing and potential bleed out?”
“I guess you could say that,” Judith said casually. “But you don’t have to worry. Your healing factor should prevent such a grim scenario. Get to the waypoint and I’ll help guide you through the process.”
Dan followed the waypoint through the building, running through hallways and cutting through any locked doors in his way using Conservative. The waypoint finally rested on a vacant room within this building.
“Any particular reason for this spot?” Dan asked.
“Not really. Anywhere just far enough from the action would have been sufficient,” she said. “I just like explaining things to you. It’s like talking to a goldfish. You’re such an attentive little pet.”
“Fuck off.”
Dan’s ears still picked up the muffled ambient sounds of combat outside. The low cracks and pops as well as the flares of energy hitting and melting surfaces, flesh and armor didn’t escape him.
“Okay, tell me what to do,” he said.
“Take the artefact and pull it apart. It will neatly divide into two halves,” Judith instructed.
Dan looked down and inspected the dark glistening cylinder in his hand. Staring at him would give him strange visual glitches to his HUD and he could feel a slight feeling of fuzziness hit his bare skin while in the artefact’s presence. The back of his neck and the sides of his face were damp with sweat and he could feel his arm shaking just by holding this thing. This was some foreign object from outer space. And he was about to use it to give himself a power boost.
He grabbed the opposite end of the cylinder and pulled from both ends. When the object didn’t budge, he tried twisting both ends in opposite directions. This time both halves turned and Dan managed to separate them. As he pulled apart the two halves, his eyes widened at the sharpened crystalline spikes jutting from each half of the artefact. A small wave of warm energy hit him in the face like a sudden gust of wind.
“Uhh… I’m supposed to stab myself with this shit?”
“Yes,” Judith said. “Both ends. Preferably your stomach region.”
While Dan knew he had a healing factor and wouldn’t died of blood loss from doing this, he still hesitated. He still had to stab himself with a foreign object and he was ordered to do so by his enemies. But if that cult master proved to be that much of a threat, then he needed this power boost.
“How will it feel?” Dan said.
Judith chimed in. “You might briefly pass out, but not for too long. Your enhancements from being an agent should prevent you from keeling over and dying. Not stop being a baby and do it.”
Dan looked at both halves of the artefact and couldn’t shake off the unease of pointing the two crystal shards towards his abdomen. In that moment, he decided on doing something stupid. He would deviate slightly from Judith’s instructions.
He lowered the shard in his left hand but kept the one in his right pointed at his abdomen.
“Fuck it. Let’s go,” Dan said to himself.
The pointy tips of the crystals in the half artefact penetrated the armored shell of his stealth suit with as much ease as his Conservative sword against walls and metal doors. The crystals easily stabbed and sunk deep into his midsection. At first, Dan felt the sudden jolts of pain but were quickly suppressed, either by the bizarre properties of the artefact itself or by his healing factor immediately responding to the puncture wound in his body.
His HUD went ballistic, feeding his vision visual glitches and numerous error messages. His entire world became a jumbled discolored mess as he began swaying and losing his footing. He slipped and fell, the last thing his eyes saw were the rapid destabilization of his HUD elements breaking apart.
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