Chương 74: CHAPTER 73 – Dash Inside A Cage

Explosions, hisses, and collapses seized control of the air in the warehouses, followed by the crackling of flames. Ascan hurled himself through the intricate system of pipes, running and hurling small clumps of dark, sticky powder behind him. As soon as those masses grazed the ground, a violent flash of light swallowed the path. Behind him, his pursuer launched himself from handhold to handhold, soaring over the explosions and trying in every way to stop his flight.

The ground was torn open by invisible blades, always too poorly calibrated due to the heat of the chase.

"You really are persistent! Don't you think all this effort affects how you sleep?" The scientist smiled, sliding under the legs of some smaller, slender cisterns. With a snap of his fingers, he made them explode, raising a cloud of dust as high as the capital's buildings. A stream of air split it in half, hurling Maliard right into the middle. He slammed against the metal, ripping through it as if he himself had become a projectile.

"I don't think so…" Maliard murmured, appearing beside Ascan, swinging his heavy chains between his hands. The scientist smiled, quickly pulling a purplish metal disc from his pocket. The impact made metal and rock vibrate, and Ascan was flung far away, crashing against the edges of structures and the dense, dark, hot cylinders.

"I'm improving…" Satisfied, Ascan let his little disc, now nearly tripled in size, crumble between his hands. He moved aside, avoiding being slashed by a blade of air. Behind him, the cut split another cistern, which began to pour out a dark, oily liquid.

"I like test subjects that don't give up… They're excellent for making discoveries that are more than interesting!" He laughed, staring at Maliard with a disgustingly excited gleam in his eyes. The man slid down from his perch, dipping his ankles in the black oil.

"Where are you headed? What's beyond that gate?" The chains clanked together, screeching as they pointed at the gigantic door that loomed beyond the iron valves.

"Who knows? Maybe a lot of explosives or your companions." Ascan smiled, warmly opening his arms to point playfully in the same direction as Maliard's weapon. The agent stared at him irritably, lowering his chains and scowling.

"Either way, I'll break your legs before you can reach it." The ground beneath Maliard's feet burst open, releasing serpents of cement and iron. A tangle of materials wrapped around Ascan, blocking his legs and arms. Maliard lunged, raising the chains above his head. The scientist lifted his face, smiling as a small yellowish disc slid from his tongue.

"Another explosive?!" A yellowish flash robbed Maliard of his sight, then expanded into a blanket of dense, pale smoke. The structure of chains collapsed to the ground, dispersing the acrid mist. Maliard's reflexes sent a shiver down his spine, and without turning, he stomped the ground a second time.

"It won't happen again…" Maliard smiled, catching the white lab coat of Ascan fluttering behind him out of the corner of his eye. Immediately, a heavy wall of rock blocked the explosion that erupted from the scientist's shoulders. Maliard spun around, noting with surprise his adversary launching himself into the air, unharmed by the flames.

"I'm immune to my own ability… Remember?" Ascan shouted, continuing to generate explosions from his hands to modulate the trajectory of his flight. Maliard promptly noticed how close he was getting to the gate. A sigh escaped his lips, followed immediately by a click of his tongue. He launched himself in pursuit, slicing away cisterns and pipes from his path. His clothes stained under the cascades of oil, while Ascan kept throwing himself onto the scaffolding, catapulting himself with small explosions.

"The door is right in front of us, damn it!" An explosion cut off Maliard's path, tearing the ground into a tongue of glittering fire. With an elegant rotation of his body, Maliard managed to cleave the flames with air, opening a passage toward his target." Without Compulsion, the consequences will be worse… But I can't let a recruit make a fool of me!" He halted his charge, skidding on the ground and raising both hands against Ascan, closing them palm against palm.

A black light flashed through the gaps between his fingers, growing ever larger." I can't hit him directly, but there won't be any need!" The light darted from his hands, piercing through the explosions and grazing Ascan's leg. The black bullet stopped its flight just in front of the scientist, before condensing into an opaque globe.

"What trick is this?" Ascan tried to balance himself, but a strong pressure made him fall to the ground, drawn and hurled away by that sphere. Maliard caught his breath, smiling and shaking the blood from his skin." Stornieren instantly erased a large portion of air, and the pressure generated by filling that void is definitely enough to extinguish your flames." His footsteps grew heavy, followed by the faint dripping of blood. Ascan tried to get back up, slipping in a puddle of red.

His leg had been lacerated at the shin, covered in places with purplish drops.

"You are way more intelligent than I thought, Mr. Crow." Maliard stopped, staring at him with pupils dilated in a mix of amazement and hatred. Maliard's fingers writhed, as if they wanted to tear themselves from his knuckles and assault Ascan.

"That name… Who told you that?" The scientist's eyes lit up, laughing morbidly at the sight of that face so afflicted and animated. He raised himself onto his knees, lifting his neck and shoulders.

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT!" A blade of air crashed down upon them, but instead slashed a wall of dense, serpentine darkness. Maliard stared in horror at an arm, carbonised and with fingers still attached only thanks to dark worms, bound to the hands.

"I imagine you didn't lose to that boy. Was the situation that dire, Angel?" The hand bent, almost as if it were a head. Ascan snorted, launching himself away with a final explosion. Maliard stared at the sea of shadows separating him from the scientist, feeling rage boil in his stomach.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" A flash of heat completely parted the darkness, making Maliard spit blood to the point of staining his teeth red. Ascan looked back, now dragging himself past the door." What the hell was I thinking, challenging him? He's completely psychotic!" Ascan smiled, biting his hand to endure the surge of pain pulsing from his leg. Behind him, Maliard was spitting blood, clutching his shoulder with his now-tattered glove. His chains were gripped tight in his hands, slithering on the ground.

"Without Compulsion, the overload is definitely accelerated… It doesn't matter, I don't care." Ahead of him, Ascan dragged himself along the wall, leaving a red and dark trail on the crimson surface. With every step, he seemed to pant, slowing as his shadow drew ever closer to Maliard. He felt his sharp breath pressing on the nape of his neck as he slowly approached the great portal separating him from the huge elevator.

"I made it…" The scientist smiled, clutching the column of pale, cold metal. He turned, panting, toward Maliard, holding a silver device equipped with a small antenna with a greyish, luminous spiral. A thin reddish tube connected it to something bright inside his coat. Maliard halted, spitting clots of blood to the ground and watching him as flames began to spurt from his hand.

"This area safeguards one of the few means of transport inside the tower. Don't you think it's the perfect spot for a pyrotechnic show?" Maliard stared carefully at the complex cylinder of gears, glass, and tubes. Taumite was pumped into that iron cage as if it were blood, allowing that heavy metal platform to rise and disappear into the ceiling.

"Most of the personnel will be using it, and unfortunately they're not like us. I'd surely survive, and very likely you too, but them?" A diabolically wide smile formed on his face, while Maliard ground his teeth and sized him up from top to bottom. Not a single word escaped those lips, simply a chilling silence. A drop of sweat slid from Ascan's nose, shattering on the ground. In that instant, Maliard appeared before him.

"People like you…" A burst of flame stole the scientist's sight for a moment, then he heard the crash of water. Three of his five fingers fell to the ground, severed by that jet of water. Ascan stared at them dazedly, noticing how the detonator had vanished. Maliard glared at him from where he had stopped, his face pale and the device gripped in his hand, its severed cable dripping red liquid.

"... Should rot in darkness." With effort, Maliard managed to form a smile, yet Ascan remained there bandaging himself, chuckling between wraps of gauze. He slipped his two remaining fingers into his coat, pulling out a second device. Maliard felt his blood freeze, his senses failing at the faintest metallic sound. Interminable seconds seized his heart, and yet the great mechanical cylinder remained there.

"Change of plans… YOU'RE THE STAR OF THE SHOW!!" The scientist snapped his fingers, and suddenly all the prints, the handprints, even the blood on the detonator lit up. Maliard hurled it away, but by then the light had already enveloped the corridor. A brutal explosion tore apart the floor, hurling him into the black void occupied by the constant noise of machinery. Ascan leaned over to watch him fall, smiling as soon as his eyes managed to meet the green of Maliard's.

He stretched out his hand, aiming flames at him, but his figure grew ever more distant in the dark. The tatters of his clothes, carbonised, slipped into nothingness, while the sound of gears and pistons became deafening. His eyes began to close, and the flames on his body began to die out.

"If only this body… Had held out." Maliard's glove lost pieces, scattering them delicately into the air. Before long, his fingers freed themselves from the protective sheath, now reduced to the size of a wristband.

"PROTOCOL SAFETY TURNER INPENDING- DOSE ACTIVE." A jolt of energy made his vertebrae tremble, forcing him to reopen his eyes. The noise had become deafening, and now he could feel something else mixing in. A sharp, distinct metallic sound, followed by violent bursts and laughter.

"This Frequency?!" Immediately, he clutched his chest, pumping a faint white light into his heart. From beneath the metal contraption, dark wings of tenebrous plumage sprouted. With a single beat, his fall was arrested, and with a second, Maliard set himself in motion toward the source of the sound. A platform engulfed in flames began to shine on the dark horizon.

"That's the platform!" His wings launched him into a glide toward the fire, as screams and laughter echoed through the black. Suddenly everything went dark before releasing a violent explosion. Ice and rock appeared in the air to halt it, only to be swept away. Maliard noticed two figures struggling amid the smoke and condensation, one equipped with strange shining appendages jutting from her back.

"That ice is surely David's doing!" His wings broke apart, slowly reabsorbing and channelling all his remaining Frequency beneath his soles. The air condensed into a translucent platform. As soon as his feet touched it, his speed began to increase. A loud shout cut through the air, followed by the collapse of something. Chunks of the platform erupted from the edges, while iron tentacles, like water whips, battered everything.

"I don't want to believe it…" The figures became clearer: he recognised David, now with his body and face encased in armour of dark stone and bluish ice, but his mind was utterly incapable of fully accepting the woman who, until recently, he would have recognised as his companion.

"Jeanne?" Maliard murmured in a thread of voice, staring at her eyes so laden with spite and rancour, wrapped in that reddish glow. Her body was there, almost naked, only veiled by the tatters of her armour. Thick splashes of paint slid from her arms and face, while soft but sharp tentacles writhed furiously. She had been so battered that even her scythe had become unrecognisable, wrapped in a kaleidoscope of tones and tints, each with its own effect.

"YES… YES! SHOW ME SOMETHING SURPRISING!!!" David licked the blood from his lips, lunging at the woman in an almost imperceptible dash. His fingers coiled around her neck, while an icy frost spread like mould over her white skin. Jeanne panted, whipping the metal on her shoulders like a lash. David's shoulder was lacerated by those movements, losing its grip for a second.

"At this rate, she'll die before the dose can take effect!" Maliard threw himself off his slide, hovering in the air and condensing that white glow once more, this time on his index finger." FEURER STURM!" A gust of flames condensed into a spiral and snaked through the air, blasting against David. The man spun around, baring all his teeth in a smile. The impact engulfed him in fire, sweeping away the ice and completely charring the wall beyond.

Maliard landed forcefully in front of Jeanne, clenching his teeth to avoid focusing on the burns.

"I overdid it… But as long as my dose is circulating, I just have to endure the pain." His eyes shifted to the woman at his side, frozen in an expression of fear and amazement. Her blue eyes had turned a disturbing purplish hue, and one of them was already taking on a crimson tone. Her lips trembled like leaves stirred by the wind, occasionally catching between her sharp teeth.

Lowering his gaze, Maliard noticed the thick wounds grotesquely greased with paint, along with the tattered clothes that left the skin on her chest and abdomen defenceless. He put a hand over his mouth, suppressing a disturbing wave of disgust. It was not for her wounded appearance or the extent of the gashes, but her dishevelled hair and that face of a frightened beast had stirred in him a strange form of attraction, as if he were spellbound by the voluptuousness of her body.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident." Fuck... This is the same as those two... Fuck!"

"M-Maliard…" A veil of tears misted her eyes before instinct made her recoil. He saw the device on her back flashing red, where a purplish vial was desperately trying to fill.

"I still have time!" Quickly he grabbed her shoulder, pulling her to him with a sharp yank. A moan and a hiss followed the spasms, yet Maliard did not lose sight of the transparent cylinder for a single instant.

"I'm sorry, but it's for your own good." Suddenly Maliard covered her mouth, pushing the cylinder into the device with his free hand. Her body went rigid, then cold, trembling as if she had just been washed with an icy jet. He felt first her tongue, then her teeth pierce his hand, in a desperate attempt to escape.

"Don't worry… Everything's fine." Her skin regained a more vital colour, as her body slowly slid to the ground. Maliard let go completely, helping her support herself on trembling legs, almost as if they had turned to water. She sobbed and wept, clumsily trying to peel the paint from her wounds, only smearing herself further.

"I-I'm sorry… Please, I don't…" Maliard embraced her, making sure not to shake her. With a smile, he stroked her hair, gently pulling away. His hands were smeared with fluids, yet he paid no mind until he felt something dripping down his leg.

"You were brave. Now rest." He turned, staring at David, seated with his legs crossed on a cube of rock encrusted with barnacles and wrapped in a cloak of brown, thorny algae.

"Done with this little family reunion, Mr. Turner?" He tore off the last remnants of clothes left on his chest and shoulders, delicately rising from his seat. Each of his steps left a frozen footprint of pure winter frost. Maliard stared at the remains of the glove on his arm, sighing with a smile and tearing them off completely.

"This evening has been exhausting from the start. Dealing with you only makes it all worse…" David halted, frowning at the smoking mechanical remains at the young man's feet.

"Your glove? Do you perhaps have a hidden trick?" David joked, violently stomping the ground while maintaining the same elegance in his face. Beside him, rock and ice began to condense into solid, branching serpentines, in perpetual mutation. Maliard laughed, opening the palm of his left hand and watching numerous sparks arise. The sparks became small flames, and in a few moments, swirls of fire. The fire slid along his abdomen, encircling him in a column of dense, dark flames.

David stared at him, smiling, his pupils wide.

"His glove is the catalyst… He shouldn't be capable of extending his ability without it, or something like that. I wouldn't want to waste a second of my life inside a head like yours." The ground beneath his feet cracked, lifting into a series of cement lances with glowing tips.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your information is a few decades out of date!" Maliard's eyes shone before a violent flash of fire collided with the ice wall in front of David. The sizzle of water turning from solid to dense steam was deafening, but it was soon supplanted by the tremors shaking the entire structure. A gigantic boulder was cut from the wall, crashing against David's columns. The impact was enough to make another part of the platform collapse into the dark.

"I'M SO LUCKY!! SO MANY BEAUTIFUL CANVASES TO PAINT ON TONIGHT!!" Pillars of ice emerged from the darkness, raising the ground. David laughed, flicking his right index finger to direct the swarms of shards appearing in the air. Maliard emerged from the dust cloud, stretching his palm out before him. The air around him swirled, wrapping him in a shining dome of freezing current.

"Compared to Malcom, you really lack quality." With a snap, the air bubble expanded, condensing into a translucent blade. With a swift, sinuous flick of the arm, the blade completely severed the ice columns, even slicing off David's leg. Some gears slid into the darkness, accompanied by an unsettling echo of crashes and explosions.

"Truly incredible! Where are you hiding this strength?!" Immediately, rock took the shape of his lost limb, while ice converged inside his palms into a vortex of frozen splinters.

"It's not something you deserve an answer to." Maliard raised his hand, raising a swarm of dust and rock globules. A breeze of icy blades crashed against the curtain of rock and wind, filling the air with the sound of shattered crystals. A rock appeared beneath David's legs, giving him the handhold to launch himself back onto the platform. His claws of rock cleaved the air, bringing satisfaction back to his sight, yet Maliard had vanished." Feurer …"

He turned slowly, staring at the mass of flames and dripping metal just above his head. Maliard elegantly brought his fingers to David's chest before a violent eruption hurled him away. The fire devoured everything, leaving a smoking crater on the wall. He took a heavy breath, staring at his hand, now burned and covered in cuts.

"The injection is about to be completely metabolised. I can't hold out much longer." As soon as he formulated that thought, he felt a wave of frost pervade his flank. He spun around, freezing at the sight of a being of rock and ice, with some flaps of charred skin dangling from its shoulders and hips.

"I WANT MORE, MALIARD TURNER!!! GIVE ME MORE INSPIRATION!" David's smile carved its way through the granite-black mask that had appeared on his face. He retracted his claws, swiftly dodging Maliard's air blade. He lunged at him again, this time aiming for the throat. Sparks and splinters of iron and ice slid between the two. Maliard seized the iron blade that appeared in the air, grazing David's nose.

"I didn't want to use it, but it's my last hope of winning." In the exchange of slashes, Maliard released his blade, gripping David's wrist tightly. A white light seemed almost to flow into his veins, burrowing through his flesh." FARBERN!!" The light died, and David's arm disintegrated. Without blood, it simply fell to the ground in the form of a gelatinous pulp. David stared at it for an instant too long, enough to allow Maliard to impale him with a lance created from the ice left on his flank.

Screaming and trembling, Maliard lifted him above his head, hurling him off the heap of ice and rock. David's body tumbled, crashing against the spikes of ice. Maliard pursued him, washing the blood from his eyes and nose. His back ached, and he could feel his nerves almost vibrating beneath his skin, but he kept running, gripping that rudimentary iron blade in his hands. David got back up quickly, almost completely regenerated, blowing a frost from his lips.

"Here it comes!" Suddenly, a greyish gash opened behind him, intent on vomiting dozens of lances of rock and ice. Water slid from their tips, freezing on his shoulders. Maliard threw himself aside, dodging the first, which embedded itself forcefully into the ground. David pounced on him, followed by other gigantic darts. Their blades met, shattering each other. Maliard was seized, and a gigantic wall of ice closed around his shoulders." LUFT!"

Maliard grabbed David by the chest, letting a violent jet of air pierce through his torso. Not a drop of blood, only snowflakes and frost. The body fractured, falling to the ground in logs of ice. Behind him, a small hole began to form in the ice wall.

"Farewell, Maliard Turner." A very thin pike of rock shot out from that fissure, aiming directly at his heart. A hiss and then a snap. David stared, stunned, as Maliard's body bent to one side, completely avoiding the blade.

"You know… It's hard not to notice you when the entire floor has become part of me." Maliard smiled, turning, as a crackling flame coiled around his arm. David tried to pull away, but the flame reached him quickly, reducing the ice to water and steam. Maliard appeared from the haze, this time from the side. David stretched his hand out against him, but this time the ice betrayed him. His flank was battered by very fine splinters of frost, intent on burrowing into his flesh.

"He lowered the temperature of the steam?! Can his power be that precise?!" A violent impact forced his leg to bend, noticing his knee was fractured and twisted.

"I have to thank you, David… For granting me this escape from my mediocrity, for making me feel truly useful." David's head snapped upward, struck by Maliard's powerful uppercut. The agent grabbed him by the neck, continuing to sink his knuckles into his stomach.

"Allow me to introduce myself again, then." Maliard struck him full in the face, shattering his mask of rock and revealing the wounds on his chin and cheek, almost pierced through.

"I am Maliard Turner, proud agent of NOIR and the man that will end you!" Maliard released him for a single instant, enough to allow David's eyes to see Maliard launch himself at him. His arm had become entirely red, with black, pulsing veins along its entire surface." VERANDERNNN!!!" Maliard's fist pierced through his armour of ice and rock, fracturing his bones and carving a path into his flesh.

The impact was atrocious, hurling him against the rocks and columns with enough force to reduce them to splinters and fragments. David crashed into the wall, shattering it and bringing everything around him down. He slid from his crater, landing in a pool of blood.

"I really underestimated you… Handyman." David spat blood on the ground, watching Maliard slowly approach him, holding a chain broken into several sections, with spikes at the ends of the last two. The greenish glow reflected off the silver metal as he walked, bloodied.

"Handyman. A person capable of everything with a certain level of decency. It's not a bad description, but for me it's a disgusting term." Maliard struck the tip of the chain against the ground, raising sparks and dust. David smiled, savouring that gaze so full of homicidal will.

"Settling for being decent in everything is just another way of expressing one's mediocrity." David laughed, struggling to his feet with the help of the cracks in the wall behind him.

"You're strong, boy, but you're still a used product." A shiver ran through Maliard as his face regained that hue of madness and perversion.

"After all, you're so focused on your duty as a protector that you don't even realise your actions have endangered your friend." Maliard spun around, noticing the ice slowly creeping over Jeanne's body. In that moment of weakness, David took advantage. Maliard fell to the ground, in pain and convulsing, as blood gushed from his back. A wave of pain had been launched through his body, and now he was paying the consequences for breaking the limit.

"This is a painkiller for you too, right? Your overload is different from a normal Meta, so I imagined this must have been so important that you kept it protected during the fight." He threw Maliard's backpack to the ground, lifting him by the nape and kicking him in the kidneys. He tumbled until he slammed against the rock, gasping and spitting blood.

"I really thought I'd have to make an effort this time… If you'd had a way to manage your condition better, I could have been in real trouble." David strode toward Jeanne, hopping over the debris of the clash.

"And now we come to you… You were doing so well before. Why did you stop like this? You really are one of the biggest threats here!" He bent over her, as she tried in every way to push him away with her hand. The man smiled, squeezing her throat and lifting her into the air. A blade of ice formed on the fingers of his free hand, sharpening with each second.

"You were a muse of voluptuousness and violence, something so natural… Now you're nothing but a clouded masterpiece." David raised his arm above her head, letting the red light and the few remaining flames reflect on its edge.

"If I try to kill you again, perhaps you'll reveal yourself in full?" His muscles contracted, bringing the frozen guillotine down while Maliard could do nothing but scream voicelessly, choked in his pain. Click David, Jeanne, and Maliard were all distracted from their suffering, silenced before a dart of black light. David's arm fell to the ground, releasing Jeanne as he turned toward the origin of that peculiar phenomenon. The first hole, from which all the agents had emerged, emitted a sinister purplish glow.

A few seconds passed, and the echo of footsteps was heard. A few moments passed, and a clear, malevolent laugh, almost feminine, made its way to their eardrums. For some dark reason, the air became dense and freezing, even colder than the ice still alive on the floor. From the darkness emerged a black arm, black as tar, black as smoke, black as the most horrible of nights, with sharpened fingers gripped around the handle of a squarish, unnatural pistol.

The rest of the body followed, the body of a tall, muscular boy, covered in scars illuminated by a disturbing golden glow, a glow identical to that of his eyes.

"Lance?" Maliard murmured, staring at his companion with skin white as snow, as if he were dead. The boy smiled, licking his upper lip and sizing up David from top to bottom. He noticed Jeanne's body lying on the ground, lingering on the weak movements of her chest. A broad grin formed on that face, and the shadow he cast in the room began to dance, taking on a shape ever further from that of the boy." Lachesi … Devour."

The pistol was absorbed into his palm, and his arm seemed almost to resonate, as black scars burrowed across his face to his eyes. A baleful aura invaded the room, enough to make David swallow with a smile.

"At last, an unspoiled canvas…" A new portal opened behind him, and this time two gigantic arms of rock emerged, with sharpened, squared fingers. Lance smiled, letting slip a horrible laugh.

"This night… is perfect for feasting, don't you think?" Lance didn't wait for an answer, appearing before David and tearing part of the man's face away. The man was engulfed in dismay, staring into those golden, so damnably perverse eyes. On a floor further up, perhaps near the top, another clash was unfolding, perhaps equally driven by deviant minds.

"Noel… See that you don't use it unless necessary." Hoku's blade scraped the ground, dripping the blood accumulated on its tip. The brute beside him nodded between breaths, staring at his own prosthetic, now in the shape of a nail"Don't worry, I won't force you to do that again. You don't even have those blades." Noel smiled, never taking his eyes off the woman before them.

"The problem is her. We stabbed, burned, slashed, pounded her, and she is still fresh!!"

"Come now, you're too harsh. Can't you imagine how delicate a woman is?" Laure stripped off her rags, revealing a cloak in the same colours as her once-clothes. She arranged it over her shoulders, smiling as she caressed her lips with her index finger.

"More than a woman, I'd call you a beast…" Noel murmured, aiming the rifle directly at her head. Laure seemed almost to blush before staring Hoku straight in the eyes.

"You wouldn't be that far off, you know! But, in case you'd forgotten, my name is Laure." She smiled, licking the fresh blood on her mouth. Sai's blade jutted from her back as she laughed loudly.

"I'd like to forget it…" The young man replied before Laure kicked him away along with the sword. Noel threw himself at her, their fists colliding.