Novel Full Chapter 385: Hand.
The preparations for the Primordial’s arrival were pushed forward without a warning, and as expected, that didn’t go well with anyone, be it the humans who were forced to evacuate all of a sudden or the Nephilim tasked with helping defend the settlements.
“Seriously, what is Queen Thor thinking?”
Thyra, in particular, wasn’t all too happy about helping the humans. Though she didn’t participate in the genocide committed by the previous queen, she never bothered to oppose it. She also didn’t oppose the massacres committed in this world, believing it was unforgivable that they supported their traitorous father whether knowingly or not.
“Politics are a pain,” Hervor said, her muscular arms crossed. “Let’s leave that part to Mimir and the others. Our job is to follow orders and crush whatever needs crushing.”
“Our job is to stop any Primordial Spawn from reaching the humans.” Eira slammed the butt of her sounding staff on the ground. “Until the evacuations are done, there will be no crushing anything.”
“Yeah yeah, just get that porridge field of yours going.” Hervor waved her hand dismissively. “I’m already sick of this place.”
“It’s Purge Field!” Eira scrunched up her face but gave up the argument a second later. Her drones were already in position so it was time to unleash her ability. Not long after, a gentle wave spread out from their position and covered an area of two kilometers.
“This place sure is quiet,” Thyra said. “It’s giving me the creeps.”
“You think they sent us here on purpose?” Hervor asked. “To keep us away from the humans?”
“What are you talking about?” Eira looked at them with half-lidded eyes. “This place is jam-packed. If they wanted to keep us away from humans then they would’ve stationed us outside the wall.”
It was true that there were no humans in range, but there was a crowded residential area nearby, with a few hundred apartment complexes stacked closely to each other.
“For a cleanser, your ears sure clogged.” Thyra sighed while brushing a few strands of her crimson hair aside. “That place is clearly abandoned. Do you think it would be this quiet wh-“
The words halted in the Nephilim’s throat when she felt a hand land on her shoulder. A chill ran down her spine and she whipped her head around. Strangely, there was no one there. If she were a human she might have chalked it up to her imagination, but as a Nephilim, her senses couldn’t be easily fooled so she was sure something had touched her there.
“What’s wrong?” Hervor asked, noticing her friend’s distress.
“Did you see a ghost or something?” Eira sneered.
“Something is here.” Speaking in a serious tone, Thyra formed her halo and took out her weapon. Seeing that, Hervor did the same.
The tension increased as the three Nephilim prepared for battle. Seconds turned to minutes but nothing happened. Heaving a sigh, Eira was about to make another mocking remark when she noticed something in the corner of her eye.
“Hey, is that a… human?”
For a moment she was sure what she saw was indeed a human, and since they weren’t wearing a uniform it was clear they were a civilian. There was one problem, however. The person -a woman, considering her figure and the dress she wore- didn’t have a head. Her neck ended in a mangled mess, with the flesh appearing to have been ripped and what’s left of her cervical vertebrae peeking out.
“That’s-“
Once again the words halted in Thyra’s throat, but that was due to no fault of her own. A strange buzzing sound started playing in her ears and the world around her grew darker. Seeing the shocked looks her friends were giving her, she slowly lowered her gaze to see what caught their attention.
A hand, one that didn’t belong to her, was covered in the faint glow of a Force Field as it held a small orb with several wires and threads attached to it. The hand’s position was a little odd, but the reason wasn’t very hard to figure out. After staring at it for a couple of seconds, the Nephilim realized that the hand was protruding straight out of her chest.
“What… is…”
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Before she could say anything, the hand closed, the glow coating it growing brighter. The small orb crumbled, tendrils of electricity and a flurry of sparks scattering from it. An instant later, what remained of the orb fell to the ground with an audible clang, the sound bringing the other Nephilim back to their senses.
“THYRA!!!”
A wave of rage washed over Hervor and she brandished her axe, rushing over in a mindless attempt to save her friend. The glowing hand retracted from the hole in Thyra’s chest, and as soon as it did, the Nephilim’s body slumped like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Hervor raised her weapon and prepared to swing, but when her friend fell to the ground, the one who had attacked her was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is-“
A tremor spread through her body and the shock returned. Looking down, she saw the same glowing hand from before now protruding from her own chest. Failing to understand what happened, she turned around, wanting to catch a glimpse of her assailant. The confusion she felt grew several folds when she saw that no one was there. The glowing hand started closing on the orb it held, but before it could crush it like the last one, Hervor fought through the confusion, gritted her teeth, and raised the output of her Force Field to the maximum.
Sparks scattered from the hole in her chest and an instant later the hand gripping her Heart weakened and fell to the ground. Barely clinging to consciousness as she fell to her knees, Hervor turned to the only standing member of their team and forced one word out.
“Run…”
Waving witnessed what happened, Eira quickly deactivated her cleansing ability and enveloped herself in the full output of her Force Field. She quickly rushed over to her larger friend and was about to whisk her away, intending to abandon their station and retreat to the base of operations. She was only a cleanser, after all. Her combat abilities were almost nonexistent, and retreating in the face of a much more powerful enemy was a part of their instructions.
As she summoned her halo and prepared to teleport away, the severed hand that fell from Hervor’s chest came into sight. A puddle of crimson liquid had formed under it, its skin was covered in burns, and the nails at the end of its fingers were split and torn.
The hand undeniably belonged to a human, or to something that was once a human. Coming to that realization, Eira turned to the headless woman from before, and for the first time, she noticed the crooked halo floating a short distance over the severed neck, leaving a ghastly gap for a head that was no longer there.
As her eyes slowly widened with realization, the Nephilim vanished without making a sound. With no time to spare, she was forced to leave the body of their crimson-haired friend behind. A few silent seconds passed. The headless woman moved, approaching Thyra’s motionless body with slow steps.
A rustle sounded from a different direction, and a second later, a man slowly walked out of the darkness and approached the dead Nephilim. Just like the woman, he as well was missing a head. Not long after, someone else appeared, this one a kid. Another woman, another man, another kid. Before long, a crowd of twenty people surrounded the dead Nephilim. They all stood motionlessly, like a group of ghastly mannequins. A couple of minutes later, they all shifted around and walked away without doing anything.