Chương 55: Chapter 53. How to Cultivate Corruption

Whatever the 'Kitchen' was, laid just up ahead. Thus far, the Depths hadn't been much of anything to write home about. A little peculiar for a prison, but nothing too crazy going on. What was strange, though, was how empty the place was. There was some eerie sounds that occurred in the background, but nothing had shown itself. Bruno stepped into the kitchen and saw workbenches littered with empty pill casings. One half of the room was trashed, while the other was relatively clean.

Whatever had came through here had barreled through in a straight line it seemed. The doorway up ahead was in rubble, leaving a massive hole. On one of the workbenches was some strange powder. Bruno ran a finger through the powder and brought it close to his nose. He sniffed—not strong enough to inhale it—and smelled the damn scent that seemed to be everywhere these days.

"This powder… it's corruption." Gita and Oz had been silent this whole time and even now they seemed apathetic to what he had to say. Gita relented after a brief period of further silence and asked him what he wanted to hear.

"And where did this corruption come from?" she asked dully.

"If I had to guess, I'd say their source is that heaping pile of crystals over there," Oz pointed out.

"That's raw… Why is it that you all call it corruption?"

"You want a history lesson now of all times, mongrel?" Bruno asked.

"Mongrel?" Oz repeated coolly.

"Apologies, it's just that I've been trained to hunt down corruption and those that have been corrupted. Mongrel just seems like the most fitting name for you at the moment."

"And you think that I want to be like this? You think that I asked to be experimented on and morphed into… into this?" Oz rolled his shoulders and stepped towards Bruno. It was only due to Gita's intervention that Bruno didn't throw a punch.

"What the hell is your problem, Bruno? We get it, you eliminate corruption. Oz is good. Well, he's not evil like Dorian or mad like Peeper, at least."

"Yeah, we'll see…" Bruno said.

"We call it corruption because of how it warps and influences what it touches. That's really it."

"Hmph… I see," Oz said.

"And how do you get such gnarly crystals such as those?"

"Crystallization sort of just happens," Bruno answered.

"The better question is how did the fine men and women of the Depth's acquire such a large amount…"

"Uh… I think I might know how," Gita said and gestured towards a thick, metal door. The door had a small window in the middle, and when Bruno peered inside, he saw a figure withered away. A mass amount of purple crystals littered both the room and the body. It was like looking inside a miniature crystalline cavern.

"Fuck me, they're cultivating corruption," Bruno said. Up above the husk was some sort of contraption hanging from the ceiling. He saw now that there was what looked to be dried blood staining the body.

"Is the corruption coming from the blood? If so… that must be Romulus' blood."

"So why is this place called the kitchen?" Gita asked.

"Is it just some cheeky, ultra villain bullshit where they're having a laugh at the idea of cooking up some evil weapon?"

"I guess you gotta have a sense of humor in this line of work…" Bruno said.

"Oz, do you remember anything about what they did to you in this place?" he asked, but received no response.

"Oz? Did you hear—oh… he's gone." Gita whirled away from the metal door in surprise.

"You lost Oz? How the fuck did you lose him?"

"Pardon me, but I wasn't exactly holding his hand!" Something loud echoed from beyond the destroyed wall. While Bruno wasn't too fond of the freak, he still wanted his strength, so without thinking about what he was doing, he charged towards the sound. Gita followed behind, her new cestus shining on her hands. Immediately upon exiting the kitchen, Bruno was forced to dodge out of the way of a thick spiderweb that had been set in the middle of the hallway. Gita, however, was not so lucky.

She smacked right into the middle of the web, but somehow, the web didn't break. For the briefest of moments, he found it amusing... and then came the screaming. What had been white webs before, now became a deep black. Reaching inside his suit, Bruno pulled out one of his throwing knifes and slashed at the web from the bottom and then the top, severing the web from its two sources of stability. Gita fell to the ground and the web laid over top her.

The web was still black, but now it began to actually leak whatever the substance was onto Gita.

"What the hell was that?" she asked through shaky breaths.

"It was like getting pricked with thousands of needles, and right before you cut me down… I felt something enter me."

"I don't sense any corruption coming off of you," Bruno said as he helped her up.

"Then again, I haven't sensed much of it in here to begin with… and it'd seem like there's quite a lot of it." Bruno knelt down closer to the black substance. He didn't dare touch it and neither did he, as once he was lower to it—or maybe because it'd escaped the confinements of the web—he could now smell the faint trace of corruption coming off of it.

"But where did this weird muck come from?" Bruno asked as he looked around. Then he spotted it. The web had been connected to the ceiling and the ground, and looking at those connective strands, he saw they weren't onto the ground, but were actually coming from inside the ground.

"The webs run through the walls… what sort of fucked up spider does that?" If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Footsteps smacked ground, forcing Bruno to look towards the source. He saw it was Oz, and he looked… terrified." Fuckin' run, now! It's resistant to poison!" he shouted and ran past them. According to the blueprint, from beyond the kitchen, they were supposed to keep going straight.

There was only two paths to choose from, and Oz was running away from the wrong path, which he couldn't recall what had been over there. Now Oz ran towards the correct path, the path which led towards the heart of the Depths.

"What were you doing over—" he began to ask, but he didn't stop to answer. Which Bruno very quickly discovered why.

"Oh, gods… What is that?" he asked in horror. Gita grabbed his hand and yanked him towards where Oz had ran." Let's go!" she screamed and took off. Bruno pumped his legs as fast as he ever had. Behind him, the sound of insect legs clacked against the hard floor. He didn't dare to look back at the thing. One brief look was all he needed to know that that beast was one born of corruption. The thing was so big that all he'd been able to see was its face.

Which was fine, as he didn't want to see any more of this sinister being.

What was most awful about this place—which wasn't an issue until this very moment—was how wide the halls were. A monster that big should have difficulty traversing here, but instead it was only slightly destroying the walls as it chased them. Up ahead there was a wide door that looked to be the same as the metal door back in the kitchen. Oz was waiting and yelling for them to hurry up. Bruno had long since passed Gita, but to her credit, she'd basically stayed right behind him. Just like the spider-thing.

"Oz, do something about that, would you?" he breathlessly asked. Oz stood motionless, his hand firm on the door. It wasn't until both Bruno and Gita were inside that he finally did something. His hand morphed into one large snake and pierced through into the ceiling above. When he brought his hand back to him, the ceiling collapse right on top of the spider. Bruno slammed the metallic door shut and locked it. Then he fell down onto his ass and laughed.

"That was… something. Do you think that it got squashed?"

"No, of course not," Oz replied, now back to his normal broody self.

"I highly advise that we keep going before it—" Above them, the ceiling rumbled. Dust dropped down from newly formed cracks. Bruno stood back up and immediately booked it out of this rooms exit alongside everyone else. The moment he was out, the ceiling collapsed and the spider was back and looked to be completely unharmed. The dust was thick, obscuring its body, but those eight eyes pierced him through to his very soul. It had such an effect on him, that he actually couldn't move.

He tried to move, but his body just refused to budge.

"Bruno? What are you doing? Go!" Gita yelled. The spider opened its mouth wide and spat out a thick glob of web right at him. From behind, Gita tackled him to the ground. The web flew overhead and smacked into the wall with a wet squelch. Standing back up, Bruno sprinted away with Gita right beside him. Once more, they found Oz waiting for them at what looked to be a stairwell. The moment he saw them, he took off down the steps. With any luck this thing would have a hard time following them down.

At the bottom of the winding stairs, Bruno found Oz ready and waiting. The stairs ended up not being as long as he'd hoped, so assuming this spider was intelligent—which he assumed it was—it was likely going to catch up with them very shortly. Which really, really, really sucked considering their destination was just a few steps away.

"Chances on this thing ditching us and going for Oscar instead?" Gita asked.

"Who's to say it hasn't already gotten him yet?" Bruno said.

"Enough. We don't know what awaits us ahead. I can't tolerate anymore delay," Oz said as he stepped towards the Heart.

Neither Emma or Critter had wanted to go with Oscar and his group as they made their way towards the cell block that they'd came from. Which he didn't blame them for, of course. He'd told them that aside from the one spider-man that they'd killed, there hadn't been anything else on the way back up. They were convinced that what they'd killed would act as an alarm, so down there they remained. The path that they were on now seemed to be a maintenance tunnel of sorts.

The whole layout of this place continued to confuse him, but it seemed that it was essentially a straight shot from here to reach the Heart. Eventually the tunnel fed into a staircase that led upwards, which they took.

"Okay, yeah, that's most certainly a whole-ass cell block," Oscar commented as he exited the stairwell.

"How many people did they keep in here?"

"Better question is how many did they experiment on," Ariesa said.

"I'm having a hard time believing this place was ever even remotely close to full capacity. And this isn't even the Heart, which no doubt housed even more poor souls."

"Poor souls it might've been at one point… but no longer," Shamic said.

"This damn place looks like it's become a playground for spiderlings. And these ones most definitely are part nyxil. Look at those markings over there," he pointed over towards the far wall that was consumed by a myriad of 'X' shaped cuts.

"Nyxils have an uncommon jaw structure compared to other arachnids. It's easier for them to divvy up food for the leader—or king, if one is born—if it has been sliced into pieces. And to be more efficient, their pedipalps have evolved to become razor-sharp and project out in the aforementioned 'X' shape. Then from there, it's standard spider eating stuff."

"Thanks for the… biology lecture," Oscar said. Shamic seemed to actually get embarrassed and let out an awkward cough as his face got redder.

"Ahem… sorry about that. I've spent a lot of time hunting the things, so sometimes I get carried away."

"Sir Shamic, if I do recall correctly, you're a famous [Nyxil Slayer], are you not?" Olin asked.

"How fortunate we are to have you by our side today."

"Yeah, I suppose so. Although, whatever other spider this thing is mixed with will likely result in new patterns amidst combat. So, I wouldn't be too confident about me trivializing it."

"Not to mention that it apparently has some woman on its back like some fucked up hood ornament," Oscar said.

"What's a hood ornament?" Ariesa asked.

"Actually, never mind… I'm not going to be able to understand it, am I?" Now it was Oscar's turn to flush from embarrassment.

"Uh, no, sorry. It's something from my wo— from my culture."" M'lago! You two are so cute! Before you two engage in relations, make sure you fight first!" Shamic said, causing both Oscar and Ariesa to yell in outrage.

"It's Relvikian custom to spar with your mate to ensure that you're both strong spirited. I remember when I fought with Tess… Even though I was the far more physically adept fighter, she was one tricky etta! I didn't think my cock would ever harden again!"

"Excuse me, Sir Shamic… but what the fuck are you talking about your cock for?" Olin asked, the professionalism slipping away momentarily, giving way to genuine confusion. Now Ariesa shifted her outrage from Shamic to Olin." Olin! Watch your mouth!"

"Pardon me, milady, perhaps I've strayed from my true duties a bit too much," Olin said, and Oscar could've sworn he saw him briefly grin.

"Can we address him thinking that Ariesa and I are… in love?" Oscar asked, and then immediately regretted it. Ariesa stomped over to him and slapped him across the cheek.

"And why is that still on your mind? Shamic just said he was having issues getting his… getting his phallus up, and you're still thinking of me?"

"I'd like to clarify that I in fact did not have any issues achieving an erection! It was a moment of doubt, and Olin, Oscar… you two would feel the same if you'd experience it!"

"What in the world could she possibly have done to give you so much fear?" Olin asked, now genuinely interested.

"There's already enough to fear in here as it is… do you truly wish to learn of another horror?" Shamic said, seemingly on the verge of tears.

"C-Can we just move on… please?" Oscar asked as he cowered from Ariesa. His cheek ached from her slap, and he received one last slap before she huffed dramatically.

"Yes, we've wasted enough time as it is on you guys and your sick perversions. The Heart is ahead… Shall we?"

"Milady, do you have your baton ready?" Ariesa pulled out a black handle and with a flick of her wrist, it elongated into a relatively standard baton that Oscar might see in his world. That was if he excluded the magical enchantment that was apparently on it. According to her, it was enchanted to have more impact. Olin nodded in approval.

"Good, but if Aurelia is waiting for us… I want you to run."

"Not a chance in Bhenna that I'm leaving you all behind," Ariesa replied.

"Good, then you can take my spot," Oscar said.

"If you're not going to leave, then I will."

"Oscar! You must fight with your woman! Share some hardships together, and it'll make your first mating—" The slap echoed throughout the cell block, and as Oscar walked towards the Depth's Heart, he rubbed at his sore hand.