Claire
As dawn approached, I came to regret edging Alice so far, as everything from my toes all the way up to my head burned with a fiery passion, with the worst of it being my womb and ass as both were under the heavy focus of her goaded assault; she wasn't lying when she said it was my funeral.
Groaning, I curled into a ball while snuggling closer to Alice's slumbering form, hoping to ignore the sun's rays as they pried their way into my vision, however, even that didn't protect me from the strays that found my blackened sight behind my eyelid, the darkness in turn being lit up like the second coming of 'Eko' herself.
It made me miss the slower sun I had cursed so much when I was still at school.
But, I suppose it didn't matter where you were, one of the five suns would always find a way to ruin your day, and this one just so happened to find its own.
That left me with two options: rip out my remaining eye and regrow it later, or just get up and embrace my slugishness; I chose to get up and embrace the day as it was because moving around would be far less painful than attempting to rip my eye out: not that I wouldn't, it was just the previously mentioned reason and sloth, kept me from mutilating myself.
With a final whine of dismay, I sat up sore as one could be when every orifice you had was railed all night by some very lustful tentacles controlled by an equally lustful girlfriend; though there were no major complaints on my side, as I vibrantly enjoyed every inch of them; my only grouch was that she didn't bite me too often during it; they always managed to force more pleasure out of my already strained nerves, and that fact was addicting to some degree.
'Maybe I'll need to push for some rougher sex next time,' were my thoughts as I rubbed the sleep out of my eye, its form red and irritated from the lack of sleep.
Kicking my feet on the black bed's edge, I groaned while standing; upon checking the clock with blurry vision, I saw I had about two hours before I needed to be back out in the field, though that could be wrong, and it could be three: it was hard to tell with my current disheveled state.
After a moment of thinking, I decided to go with the two mark, as it was better safe than sorry when it came to training with Nyx; he could be a real slaver when he wanted to.
Letting my feet drag me over to the bathroom, I weakly turned the knob of the sink before splashing some ice-cold water on my face, its being doing well in forcing my stirring and drowsy face back to its more invigorated form it often bore after a proper nights rest; that wasn't too say the drowsy variation wasn't common, as situations like this happened more often then most would find healthy.
With awakened vigor and less blurry sight, I began going through my hygiene, an action that, while completely unnecessary, has been a part of my life for too long to throw to the side dismissively; yes, I don't need to take care of my teeth or my smell because of mana, but the novelty of it remained, which left me with the yearning to at least retain some of my human activities such as those.
Mana was just a cheat code to daily life, and that wasn't an exaggeration.
After I was done with that, I stepped into the shower before turning on nothing but the cold water; I often participated in ice baths and freezing showers to help my muscles develop.
Letting the freezing crystal water run over me, I thought back to school; I wondered how Engel was doing, and Abbie too; I hadn't seen the pair in the longest time: was Bubble still as bubbly as before? Or had she been affected by my disappearance? Probably not honestly; I was never the closest with her, and didn't really leave her on a good note before I left, or disappeared.
What about Abbie? I had noticed weeks before my run-in with Alice that he'd been getting better, brighter, and more confident, too; hopefully, he continued to get better, as his jokes, though rare, were pretty funny and would often bring me a good laugh.
I sighed while letting my silver orb fall to the tiled floor, the water running down my lashes, taking no time to hit the ground as my human form was significantly smaller than my other form.
Then there was Engel; did he manage to sort things out with himself and Oliver? Did he finally get the biggest bully in the school to see reason? And that brought up another topic in my mind, Oliver.
Alice didn't hide the fact that she knew Oliver, nor did she try to conceal her amusement for him, and, in her words, 'He was the waste of time I was looking for before you showed up.'
That sentence had left me with mixed feelings for a while after, as while I didn't necessarily care about it, it still left me feeling disappointed and somewhat betrayed that she'd even considered someone that wasn't her, however, I was quick to realize that feeling was just petty jealousy, and quickly crushed it under foot.
And now that I thought back to it, I don't think he swung that way anyway, as the occasional lustful glance I caught him shooting Engel painted a pretty clear picture of what he preferred.
I sighed before shutting off the biting water, its lingering form making the minuscule draft once hidden painfully visible to my sensitive skin; it reminded me of an off-and-on switch you could find in some MMORPG games to toggle effects for better performance; the only difference was that there was no benefit nor negative for this one; it just was.
Stepping out, I conjured up a set of running gear that hugged me nicely, my form doing stretches in between as I prepared for another morning run; it was an activity I started doing a few days ago: something to help clear my head of too many lingering questions and doubts.
Stepping out of the relatively large bathroom, I walked over before pecking Alice on the cheek, her form barely stirring due to my gentleness. "{I'll be back later, master.}"
There was a small hum in response to my whisper, so I took it as a sign that she heard me before making my way out of the room, content with this morning's relatively bright start. It was only one step away from perfect because the soreness would not go away for anything: Alice was the only one that could leave me with damage my genes and powers couldn't immediately heal, so I was left in quite a few situations were my insides where ripped, torn, or pulled; there were even some that were still using my body's natural healing to fix themselves.
Though they were likely going to take even longer now due to last night.
I groaned while passing the mansion's threshold, its form quickly growing tiny behind me as my supernatural strength, paired with my well-developed muscles, had me all but gliding on the forest floor.
This left me quickly approaching the main dirt path that led all the way through the forest and out into the city.
Slowing my pace, I jogged leisurely while admiring the beauty of this place.
To my right lay a vast and bottomless lake, its form tattered with life in abundance as plants of all water-reliant varieties grew upon its surface, from Giant Lily Pads, Water Lilies, and Water Hyacinth, to even an occasional Rainbow Lotus; they were all a spectacle to look at, but the thing that truly brought home the prize was the creatures dancing around just under the surface.
Speaking of which, I took a stop near the bank of the lake while I admired the hundreds of thousands of fish schooling around underneath, their forms ranging from red, blue, green, yellow, and even purple; there were definitely more than just those colors, but I didn't actualy know my colors to well, so naming them would be a challenge in itself.
Letting my eye shift back into its more monstrous variant, I peered past the shallows and into the depths, my silver glare watching with joy as I caught sight of the most stunning fish in the entire lake, in my opinion at least.
The Goliath Grouper, a beast of a species that looked like it could swallow an entire person whole if given the chance.
How he got here was beyond me, but I had to guess someone put him here, as over the few months I've been here, I've not seen another of his kind; just him.
I've since named him Lium, and he's been my unprompted friend ever since; whether he recognized that or not was beyond me, though, he did occasionally come up to me when I ventured over to him during a few swims, so he probably understood to some degree, that or he was just trying to eat me.
I shook my head while letting my eye return to its human counterpart, and from there, my run continued, only now I was running along the bank for as long as it followed in tandem with the dirt path, which wasn't something to worry about as I still had a couple miles until it diverged.
But speaking of diverging, that brought my attention to the left of me, which, while it was a hill by the bank, was actually a vast and plentiful forest on the dirt road; one that, while not as breathtaking as the lake, was still stunning in its own right.
I chuckled as I recalled the time when I found a pair of deer caught in each other's horns; the way they struggled as they noticed my approach really hooked a predatory feeling in me, one that I was determined to ignore in favor of helping the pair out of their own trap: we don't talk about how it took breaking the others horns to do so.
But moving on from that, things were quaint in there, and aside from the occasional Nyx cult enthusiast donned in animalistic wears such as skulls and cloth that only barely covered the more embarrassing sights, there really wasn't much to worry about.
Bears were rare, and anomalies such as myself, Alice, and of course, Nyx, were the only ones in the forest; the rest were either pushed out or killed and eaten by Nyx years ago, or so he states.
Ah, I suppose just gliding past the Cultest won't do, so here's a bare-bones version of what Nyx told me.
Supposedly, they were failed experiments that survived his Gene seed, becoming 'Broken', a subtype of human that lacks anything other than the most basic of survival instincts.
He showed me a record of one he tried to rehabilitate, but the conclusion was that it was impossible; its own body shut down after about a week of participation, and the explanation as to why exceeded Nyx's comprehension.
The attempts to reintegrate them into anything structural were soon canceled after the ninth attempt.
I sighed before shaking my head of the remembrance, my jog becoming no slower at the act.
Thoughts like that always ended up with me in a bitter and somewhat sorrowful mode, so derailing the train was my best attempt to quell them; that fact only ran true as long as the thing I was thinking of didn't involve Alice, and some degree, Nyx: he's a lot closer to me than I would've likely been comfortable with a few months ago.
I chuckled, 'Then again, the same could probably be said for him as well because the first time he saw me, I could just see the disappointment rolling off of him; I saw him as a stranger while he saw me as a successful experiment.'
Now was different, though.
Because now it was more of a father-daughter type of relationship, one that was only tempered and molded by the presence of Alice, her entire being selling the fact that it should be more of a Brother sister dynamic; it was anything but, and I could tell she was only pushing for it because she didn't want Nyx to one-up her in theoretical age: its common knowledge that the father was always older and more composed than his children, and she wanted no part in being the daughter to her supposed brother.
Chuckling to myself, I couldn't help but see the irony in the fact, because from what I recalled during my first meeting with Nyx, she was open to the idea of him being our impromptu father, a notion that I'm sure the current Alice would curse to hell and back.
My thoughts were interrupted as I veered off the bank and back up to the path, the end of said bank closing in at a relatively fast pace; my mind stirred as to the reason for its fast approach, but taking a quick glance around, I realized I had broken into a sprint at some point, because everything was blurring past me in quick succession, leaving the once beautiful sight around me hard to admire.
I sighed, 'So much for taking my time.'
Seeing as my stroll would be cut short even if I slowed again, I just went with the change, letting my toned legs carry me past the lake's end and into the tunnel of trees that surrounded the rest of the path into the city.
There was no point in taking my time now, as the thing I slowed to admire in the first place was already behind me, and despite my ready acceptance of Nyx shopping for human food for us, I'd rather not live on a diet of just human flesh and snack cake's; no, I'd rather enjoy a plate of mashed potatoes and human flesh thank you very much: other meats have just become bitter to me after my change, so I opted to stay away from them.
My pace only quickened at the thought of cooking for Alice.
I'd never had the chance before, and if I had a say in it, today would be the day I'd change that fact.
So with a fluttery heart and a grin that beamed with my maw of sharpened teeth, I pushed past the final stretch of trees, my form leaping over a gate that I had a feeling said, 'Do not enter' with a skull and crossbones underneath it, I rushed into the bustling crowd of people none, but one, any wiser.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Xiezhi
My phone spat with sound as I sat on a roof overlooking the square of the city that supposedly hosted Alice's companion, which honestly held some truth, as every time my glassy horn glowed with vigor, I could see the inevitable outline of one Claire Fauns, her tight fit and very toned form gliding stall to stall as she collected what looked to be ingredients.
When the horn stopped its peering, the already flickering visage vanished, boldly reminding me that this was indeed the companion of Alice, as that beast of a creature was the only one in the world who could just say no to my abilities function, or at least she was the only one to my knowledge, though given the trajectory, I might have to add this Claire girl to that list.
My thoughts were interrupted when the curious and pouting voice of Pandora peered through my phone.
"Big Brother Xiezhi!" She whined.
"Yes, Pandora?" I queried back, shamefully realizing that I had been on a call with her before I got distracted.
"Why'd you go quiet? Oh! Wait, don't tell me! No, wait, please tell me! Actually, hold that Corn! Why were we talking again? Where'd you go?"
I snorted at the ever-growing contradiction that was Pandora, her personality so full of wonder and confusion that it makes one wonder how she even got around with her head intact, and better yet, how it seemed to make her one of the cutest beings in the entire Concept Bundle.
What she said in response to my amusement had me choking on imaginary water.
"WAIT! Big Brother Xiezhi! Are you doing drugs? Not fair! Ero's said I wasn't allowed! How come you get to!? HUH!? Wait, Big Brother Xiezhi! Are you grounded now? Yay! That means we can play together! Wait, no, wait, wait, wait, wait! I gasp in shock! Big brother Xiezhi! Can you bring me some?"
Weezing from a combination of laughter and shock, I had no other choice but to buckle to my knees in sheer hysteria as I heard Ero's shocked voice faintly ring from the other side before the line was cut, leaving me to my lonesome.
It was so bad that I didn't even notice the presence that landed next to me until a few seconds into my fit of amusement, their gentle yet very toned form coated in a near skintight suit of black that clung to their form in an equally gentle way, one that highlighted their somewhat flat chest enough to show it off but left a lot to the imagination.
My body stilled immediately as everything in me stilled in mute terror when they spoke; looking back on this moment would be a knee-slapper, that was for sure.
"Um- are you ok, sir?"
The query was so soft and full of nothing but curiosity that I almost didn't bother getting up from my buckled position, almost.
Immediately recalling 021's words, I cursed myself and my amusing sister, her personality already finding a way to mess with me despite her not even intending to. Yes, her chaotic and blunt self had put me in many difficult positions in the past due to falling to the ground in laughter mid-mission.
The small exhale along with the pinched and confused silver eye had me roaring to speak before she could even think of something to say, again.
"Ah! Ya! Ya, I'm ok, just you know sitting on the rooftop, previously laughing at my little sis as she got in trouble for-"
"Asking for drugs," she finished.
My eyes went wide with shock.
"How did-"
"I know?" she finished again.
I nodded in bewilderment, my sun-kissed eyes narrowing a near-insignificant amount as I calmed down from both of the sudden shifts.
She chuckled with a blush as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Ah, well, not to be rude or anything, but I have better hearing than almost everyone, or so I'm told; and it also helps that I can isolate noise as well, so I can focus on pretty much anything I can hear while blocking everything else out, pretty weird, right."
'Weird, huh, ya, I'd like to see you say that in front of Richard and then have to sit through a full twenty-four-hour rant on how sound works, before promptly being forced to train that neat boon until it's near his foresight level, I mean come on the man can basically hear the future based on how your cells twitch.'
I shook my head before speaking, my head having calmed down a bit from my own mini-mind rant.
"No, it's not weird at all, just shocking," I huffed.
She seemed to take an interest in my answer as her single Silver eye widened.
"Really? Most people are put off by it, with some even going as far as to cite it as disturbing, if not creepy."
Not really seeing anything but the situation I was in as a problem, I spoke, almost casually.
"Oh, is that so?"
She hummed.
I grinned in mild truth, my eyes luckily not going blind as her nature was unveiled before me, and 'Eko' was it bright, so much so that I almost squinted to help quell it, but I managed to hold as I spoke.
"Well, I say think nothing of it, Ms. Claire, as I've met someone with the same uncanny ability, and he's trained that ability so much that he could basically see into the future thanks to cells in our body."
Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I realized I had just said her name by accident; I could only hope she would ignore it, and much to my relief, she did, as her lone silver eye lit up in sheer admiration.
"Really?!" She exclaimed.
Humming, I continued. "Yep, and supposedly, he can hear up to fifty kilometers away, now whether that's true or not is heavily debated by some people who know; I've personally already hopped over that fence, and am on the side that thinks he can."
'Perfect, if I can keep her distracted like this, maybe she won't circle back to my slip.'
"Fifty kilometers?! I can only hear up to two kilometers; he must have trained a lot if he can hear up to Fifty."
I nearly choked as she said that like it was a common thing, but I managed to keep my metaphorical jaw up as I went on like I hadn't just received another shocking blow to my ever-dizzying morning.
"Yep, supposedly, he did it by sitting in a completely soundproof room while threading sound waves through the walls and into the outside; how that's possible is beyond me."
Her silver eye gained a sheen at the information, so much so that I swore I saw the gears turning in her head as a palm came up to her chin in an almost understanding churn; it was quite frankly unnerving how she already seemed to comprehend something even I still didn't know the answer to.
"If I may," she spoke, her gaze still locked forward in thought, "I think I may have an explanation as to how he achieved it; that is, if you're interested?"
She posed the last part as more of an offer than a fact, so the choice to deny was still there, and if you can trust me, then the secrets of the Authorities are best kept as such.
I grinned in thought, 'Luckily, I'm an impractical Authority, so I shouldn't be punished for being privy to this particular one, especially since I'm on what I like to call good grounds with the one in question; though the risk will always weigh.'
After a brief session of quiet and wonder, I nodded.
"I've never been more interested in my life; please, do share with the class."
She chuckled, her stance shifting to her right so as to relieve her left of the weight it was under, though given her physique, it was more like she was doing it out of habit.
My eyes, their molten-looking forms, flickered as I stared into her being again, this time diving into her past, present, and future; to my mild shock, her future was blank, meaning I either couldn't see it, she didn't have one, or Alice is playing something here: a gut feeling told me it was the third option.
The past and present were different, though, as I couldn't help but shudder at the scene of the girl losing an eye, and being subsequently assaulted by the horror who'd love nothing more than to put people's heads on a pike before eating them like a kebab.
My everything shivered in terror as the past version of Alice suddenly stopped before looking up at me with eyes of malice and pitch, seemingly understanding I was there even though I wasn't; I wanted to vomit my guts up when her blank face broke into a face splitting smile filled with pointed teeth, its form soon accompanied by a gentle wave as my gut plummeted.
Not even a second later, I was frozen in near-hysterical fear, my form shivering and rocking as she brought herself up from the body of Claire and onto her feet, before treading her way over, the stalking of her feet against something as unnatural and wrong as the void around us as existence itself forced me back in dread and cation.
Her steps were slow and deliberate, each filled to the brim with the intent and yearning to draw me into a fearful frenzy.
I don't know when it happened, but it wasn't long before I was on my knees instinctively begging for mercy from a being too out of scope for almost anyone to even begin to comprehend.
My whines, among other things, were silenced when a pale pair of feet stopped at the edge of my peripheral, their forms soon flexing and bending as a pair of knees hidden behind a dress pried their way into my vision as well; the nightmare didn't end there.
Soon after, a deceivingly gentle-looking hand as fair as an unperturbed lake popped into view, before ever so slightly edging my chin up, leaving me with a sight that would forever haunt my dreams.
"Say, little lamb..." Her smile turned sinister. "What are your thoughts on lamb stew?"
I would have pissed myself had my body been human, because the sight I withheld as she said that was like watching something straight out of Eldritch belief; with half her face slowly pealing back with sickening squelches to reveal rows and rows of teeth, each so jagged and malformed that it was like looking into a sea of rigid stone on the shore: the only difference was I could see mutilated remains of her past victims, some still scream for help, begging for death, or drowning in the ocean of blood that was cascading out and splashing into the void before utterly vanishing like it was never there in the first place.
And the worst part was the fact that the other side of her face never dropped that malicious and hatred-filled smile that had me gagging in fear, her single coal orb that hadn't been peeled away, nothing but a pit of black that swallowed all with regard.
My breath hitched as her words silenced my tears. Her tone gurgling without care as she spoke through her toothy, rowed maw, its form seemingly producing an endless amount of red.
"I don't very much like Pest's Xiezhi... I can hope you're not one of them?"
I could only cry as my world went blank.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alice
"-Tch-, fucking rat," were my only words as I rolled back over in the spacious bed and went back to sleep.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Claire
'His eyes are pretty,' was the thought that ran through my head when I saw the twin suns in his eyes flicker before suddenly going dim, seemingly losing their life as his eyes quickly drifted shut.
This left me in a situation not too strange, but strange enough that I had a feeling of what happened; he must have met Alice.
'Poor guy, I hope she wasn't too bad with him; he seemed nice.'
I was pulled from my thoughts as he collapsed backward onto the tiled roof, though I should thank 'Eko' herself for the fact that this particular roof was snug between two moderately big buildings, or else we might have had to deal with a crowd; I shivered in both delight and hesitance as I recalled the last time we had a crowd or at least the story I was told after I woke up.
Approaching the man's downed form, I felt around his neck; thankfully, I found a pulse, though a very weak one.
'Alice or not, he did something, and they weren't happy that he did so.'
Seeing as I didn't know anything about this man, I would be inclined to just move on with my day, but an odd yet familiar feeling told me there was something more to him than just pretty eyes and a sick-looking horn; that and I felt that if we had been able to continue our conversation we would have been quick friends.
Sighing, I pondered what to do for a moment before coming up with an idea.
'I can bring him over as a guest! It's the perfect plan, and absolutely no one can say otherwise; I mean, we have so much room, what's one more person along with the ride?'
I chose not to focus on the fact that I was indeed too trusting for my own good, as Alice had so kindly pointed out earlier.
'-Ah- maybe I should do my shopping before I get ahead of myself.'
Grinning, I whispered to the sleeping man, "I'll be back in a bit, so stay put if you would."
There was no response.
With my grin growing into a smile, I stood up before leaping off, my aim being the street just below us; though maybe it wasn't such a good idea to land on someone's shoulder, the poor guy was crushed, literally: that would certainly be a situation later, but for now I chose to ignore the screams and other things as I vanished in a burst of speed, confident no one had seen me.
'Was I really that heavy?' I thought with a glance back.
However, it didn't linger as I focused on taking advantage of my accidental kill, its form drawing the attention of the stall owners, and leaving their goods basically unsupervised.
As they say, finders keepers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Narration
Xiezhi is in for a very nerve-racking stay with the trio of trouble, and only 'Eko' herself could save him from death; that or Claire bullying Nyx, and Alice into leaving the poor man alone.
What a fierce little creature she is.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asrel
As we approached the door to my current home, and the residence of Ms. Thavel, I couldn't help but glance at the pair almost conjoined at the hip due to Oliver hugging Engel with vigor; I'd usually find that kind of thing pleasant, or admirable; but something about there love just seems... dark; as if there's a coat of wool masking a wolf.
It's... disturbing to say the least; especially since Oliver seemed to be holding something back, something... viel...