Doomsday Wonderland

“Argh!”

The crisscrossed spiny wing had mauled a large laceration on Irezumi’s abdomen, causing half of his body to become red due to the blood. He covered his wound with his hand and rose to his feet. Suddenly, he heard Lin Sanjiu screaming.

“Why were you screaming? I’m the one who got hurt here!” Irezumi boomed.

He raised his head and froze after his outburst. However, his daze was swift. He did a backflip and jumped, landing a few yards away, and looked warily at the direction of where Lin Sanjiu was.

The thick dust storm ahead made it impossible to see through anything, but it did little to hide away the large white bone tail that waltzed madly in the air. From a rough estimation, it was almost as tall as a two-stories building. Although Irezumi wasn’t its target, he was nearly caught in the impact when the bony tail crashed downward.

“What the hell was that…” Irezumi realized the skeletal wings were gone. He spat on the ground as his expression took on a more baleful tone, “I guess you leave me no choice but to use my ability.”

… Right now, Lin Sanjiu had no time to attend to Irezumi.

She felt her body was burning like there was a furnace in it. Her sweat had begun to evaporate as they glided off her skin, giving off white steam before they fell on the ground. Grinding her jaw, Lin Sanjiu had never endured the pain of such intensity before in her life. It felt like someone was reaching inside her body and pulling her guts out with his bare hands. Her vision blurred and she suddenly had forgotten where she was now.

Without the suppression of Nüwa’s Higher Consciousness and with the missing of Mrs. Manas, the segment of foreign cells had gone on a rampage. It attacked her indiscriminately, altering her body structure as it roamed madly up and down inside her body. Each mutation that happened signified the fall of one of her original cells.

“You still have that thing in your possession,” Magus’ voice sounded solemn, “Hmm… Though I’m aware that thing could do wonders to the body of those who possess it, I’ve never imagined it could alter a person body to such effect… That madwoman, she really knows her thing well.”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t utter a word at that moment. Her mind was fully occupied by the spikes that appeared through the cracks on her skin.

“If you want to control the mutation, you have to use your Higher Consciousness,” said Magus. The excitement in her eyes belied her stern tone, “…You have to harness power from your Higher Consciousness; only then can you expel that thing out to me.”

Magus’ voice was merely mumbles in Lin Sanjiu’s ears, as if she was talking underwater. Lin Sanjiu tried to catch her breath, wanting to say something but her attempt was thwarted and the words that had formed at the tip of her tongue dissolved into a painful groan.

On the other side, Irezumi, who was now mid-air and about to launch his attack, opened his eyes wide in shock. Below him, the eyes of the tall woman were tightly shut. Her two human arms had entirely turned into two enormous iron blades, but it didn’t end there. Moments later, more and more iron blades jutted out from her shoulders and twined themselves into a whip-like weapon. The whip blade seemed almost to have its own life force. It flailed in the air for a second before brandishing itself toward Irezumi. Irezumi couldn’t deflect the attack since he was airborne. A stream of blood jutted into the air and he fell back to the ground.

“With the composition of a human body alone, it can create such a thing?” Magus whispered under her breath.

Before the wind carried her words away, Lin Sanjiu’s knees went weak and she slumped on the ground. Quicker than anyone had thought, the iron blades had disappeared and her original two arms had returned. It was as if the segment of the foreign cell had conducted an experiment on Lin Sanjiu’s body and had concluded that a pair of human arms fit her the most.

As the initial dizziness had subsided, Lin Sanjiu let out a breath as she attempted to get up from the ground. Yet, the moment she elbowed herself up, she sensed something heavy pressing on her back which had her pinned back on the ground. She turned and looked over her shoulders but couldn’t see anything except for a clear blue sky.

…Nevertheless, her body wasn’t going to give her any room for her to think.

Once again, she let out a pained cry as a row of spike-like protuberances grew from her back. However, something was blocking their growth. There was nothing at her back yet the bones seemed like fighting against something invisible that prevented them from growing out.

The tug-of-war between the bony spikes and the invisible force had caused even more pain onto Lin Sanjiu’s body. Her scream turned louder.

“I’m sorry,” Irezumi huffed as he pulled himself from the ground. He clenched his fist, and the invisible shackle immediately increased its force by thousand-fold and constricted Lin Sanjiu’s bones in a sickening crunch.

[A Bashful Python]

When the python heard that the longest snake recorded in history was not more than 15 meters long, it had decided that it must bring its wrath upon human, opening their eyes to the real terror of a python. However, the python has a timid and shy nature despite its great ambition. Hence, in order to bring its dream into existence while at the same time mask its presence from human sight, it always hides in the air.

Since it’s an invisible python, many people would fall into its clutch without noticing it. Once you have been caught up in its constriction, dying away while getting your every bone crushed is possibly your only destiny. Nobody would be able to escape from this fate; not even an iron-cladding man could. That is, unless you can last for more than five minutes. Irezumi controls the strength of the constriction, so it entirely depends on the relationship between you and Irezumi whether or not you can survive from the catastrophe of getting coiled to death.

…Lin Sanjiu didn’t have a good relationship with Irezumi.

She didn’t know when the invisible python caught her in its steel grip, and it was already too late by the moment she was aware. The python had coiled around her entire body, minus her legs and head. As the python began to constrict, the foreign cells inside Lin Sanjiu continued to alter her own cells. The combination of both had doubled the damage to her body and a trickle of blood lined her lips.

“Where is your Higher Consciousness?” Magus pressed her upper torso out from the window. Her fingers had turned white from clenching too tight on the frame, “You’re in dire straits and you’re going to die. The time is ripe and you should unleash your Higher Consciousness—” Magus suddenly paused for a moment before moving on. “Alright, now, as long as you can keep that thing that Nüwa had left under control, I can help you to get rid of that bastard.”

Though Magus didn’t finish her first sentence, it didn’t hinder Lin Sanjiu to get the meaning between her words.

It didn’t really matter whether she was dead or alive if she couldn’t put the cells under control. No, it’s much better to say that Magus would probably want her dead at that time. After all, it’s much easier to look for something from a stationary dead person than a living person. It was just what Magus didn’t know was the thing Nüwa had left in her body was actually a sequence of cells.

If she died, the cells would die as well.

Although Lin Sanjiu wanted to say that to Magus, the python was overpowering her. She couldn’t even breathe now, let alone talk. The voice that she desperately pushed out through her chest cavity carried no meaning at all.

Right now, the only route she had was to suppress the mutation as soon as possible and have Magus to deal with Irezumi. However, no matter how hard Lin Sanjiu tried to keep the foreign cells under control. The bony spikes remained standing staunchly at her back, showing no sign of disappearing at all.

Even though her Higher Consciousness was abundant, she couldn’t activate her [School of Higher Consciousness]. Half of it was due to her mind being contaminated by the crypt particle, the other reason being the key figure of managing her Higher Consciousness—Mrs. Manas—had gone missing. She now resembled a general with thousands of soldier and horse in her arsenal but found no way to command them. Hence, how was she supposed to suppress that sequence of cells?

The unseeable python continued its constriction, squeezing more and more air out from her lungs. Her ribs were almost crushed, releasing a hair-raising popping sound into the air.

While she was fighting back against the huge pressure, a thought suddenly swayed unbridled into her muddled mind.

The segment of foreign cells had almost died along with her when she experienced death at Kisaragi Train Station. Survival was the basic instinct of all creatures with conscience.

Hence, if she pushed herself until she was at the brink of death, could she, by any chances, be able to bludgeon the segment of foreign cells into submission and henceforth allowed her to control the cells with her Higher Consciousness?

With that thought in mind, Lin Sanjiu began to stop resisting.

… After she had waited for a few more seconds without blinking her eyes, Magus’s expression slowly turned cold.

When she tightened her jaw, her marionette lines deepened, and it somewhat exposed her age a little. She retracted her outstretched finger and turned around, seeming to have lost her interest in the fray below. She raised her eyelids and glared nonchalantly with her arms folded on her chest at Qing Jiuliu, who had just woken up from his unconscious state.

“It-its you…” Qing Jiuliu had just regained his consciousness since he wasn’t as strong as Irezumi. He staggered to his feet, rubbing his temples to soothe the throbbing headache, “Where is Irezumi… What happened?”

Magus didn’t make any move. The coldness that was brought forth by her disappointment had turned her into an ice statue.

“Your friend is dying,” Magus said without looking at Qing Jiuliu. Her voice was low, layering with glacial, “… Whoever it is, both of them are dying.”

Qing Jiuliu was stunned. With questions in his mind, he scampered toward the window and looked down. When he saw the scene downstairs, his brain stopped functioning. Torn between surprise and perplexion, he peered at Magus.

“If the girl died, the other man would not be living for long,” Magus said softly, “…Because I’ll be the one to kill him.”

“Wait a sec,” Qing Jiuliu blinked his eyes as he was figuring out the complicated relationship between Lin Sanjiu, Magus, and Irezumi in his mind. “Are you an ally of Lin Sanjiu? Why don’t you go and save her?”

“…My kindness has a limit,” Magus said through her tightened jaw.

Even though Qing Jiuliu was confused by Magus, he realized that it wasn’t the time to ask any more questions as the corner of his eyes had caught a glimpse of what was transpiring downstairs. He fingered the siren that was tied around his waist before stretching half of his body outside the window. “I’ll be going ahead first,” he said.

“Oh, well, this is too high for me. I guess I’ll be better off going down by stairs…” He turned his head to glance at the door of the suite. Then, he hesitated, “But would I make it on time if I go through the stairs?”

Magus looked at him as if she was looking at a fool.

“Ah, let’s leave everything to God’s hands. I’m going down now,” Qing Jiuliu said through gritted teeth. He climbed up to the window frame and was frozen in place, “What is that?”

Knitting her brows, Magus followed his gaze and then, she was too stupefied by the scene that met her vision.

Since the python was invisible, they could see nothing but only Lin Sanjiu’s deformed body. It was a horrible scene that would haunt anybody in their dreams. However, they realized something was different this time. Unbeknownst to any of them, Lin Sanjiu had stabbed her leg deep into the plain of grass, completely encasing her feet up to her ankles in the soil.

“Oh?” Magus exclaimed as she lifted her brows. It was apparent that what Lin Sanjiu was going to do had stirred her interest again.

With Lin Sanjiu’s feet as the center, she sent two long projectiles hidden amongst the tall grass and rushed toward Irezumi. The blades of grass would shake as the two projectiles wove around the greens. It was too late when Irezumi realized something was not right.

Two shadows shot out from the ground below him, sending chunks of soil and grass into the air. The two snowy white bone whips had coiled around his legs and lifted him. At the same time, Lin Sanjiu felt she was freed from the deadly hug—the python was gone.

She fell to the ground with a plop and unrooted her feet from the soil.

Two large white bone whips now replaced both of her legs. As the entire bone whips emerged from the soil and lifted Irezumi into the air, chunks of earth fell from the bone whip. Then, the bone whip bit deeper into Irezumi’s feet. Acting like two arms, they flung him away into the distance as Qing Jiuliu stared slack-jawed.

The bone whip contained an enormous amount of power. Irezumi was sent smashing through a couple of buildings before he finally disappeared into the horizon.

Taking a breath, Lin Sanjiu got to her feet.

As if under her command, the bone whips were retracting at speed noticeable for naked human eyes. When she was standing straight, her human legs had returned and the two grisly bone whips were nowhere in sight.

Qing Jiuliu was so shocked that he was ripped off of his ability to talk. He darted his gaze in between Lin Sanjiu and Magus, hoping either of them could give him an explanation. However, Magus paid no mind to him as the little figure below had had all her concentration. A seductive smile found its way and danced around her bright red lips, “… Attagirl.”

Hearing her voice, Lin Sanjiu lifted her head and looked up.

“The thing is here,” she said in a low voice. Her chest was rising and falling vigorously from the battle, “… Where is my friend?”

Magus smiled and snapped her finger. Following that, a window, one floor lower from where her suite was, opened from inside. Lin Sanjiu’s heart tightened. Then, a familiar face appeared hesitantly from the back of the window.

…When Irezumi coughed a mouthful of blood as he tried to get up from the ground, a pair of feet appeared in front of him.

“You… Why, why are you here?” He muttered with his mouth filled with blood.

Number 46 sighed.

“I don’t doubt you won’t listen to my advice and I’m certain that you would come to look for your candidates,” He fingered his bang and said softly. “I have seen everything just now.”

“Urgh,” Irezumi panted as he oriented himself into a sitting position. Then, he glowered, his face was full of aggravation, “Why don’t you come out and help me to kill her, then?”

Number 46 sighed again.

“Do you know why we’re forbidden from recruiting female candidates?”

“Because our target might hide amongst the candidates, of course,” Irezumi answered, frowning his brows.

“So, is the target eliminated?”

“… Yeah, she’s dead.”

“So why we still can’t have female candidates?” Number 46 said, crooking his head as he offered Irezumi a grin.

Dumbfounded, Irezumi suddenly saw the light, “…You’re right.”