The further in I moved the more grotesque the barely living dead men became. The amount of damage done within the brief hours of the parasites being released has been almost unprecedented, but then again they are mostly mortal humans who took the brunt force of the weapon. As I absent-mindedly walked over a fallen guard his mouth opened and hundreds of large centipedes crawled out. Scratch that, this situation is now truly unprecedented. How were the parasites reaching the upper level of stage two?

I snatched one of the creepy crawlies that tried to sneak up my cloak and brought it to eye level before giving it a glare to remember. The creation that people affectionately named pestilence, was something I spent years creating. Technically I should know the ins and outs of it by heart but it had a habit of mutating to fit its current environment. But I had set up several safeguards to prevent a mass uncontrollable outbreak like last time. Somehow though, one of those safeguards has been broken.

My bet is on an environmental factor causing things to speed up. In normal cases, it takes around five days of incubation for the parasites to gain the ability to transform into pests to increase infection exponentially. But, somehow, that has been accomplished in six hours. I was more intrigued than angered at the sudden development though. It's in cases like this you can learn new things after all. I placed the centipede that was pinched between my fingers on the ground and continued on. As I passed through another ruined ward I couldn’t help but to admire my handy work. In front of me laid what once was a monster of thrown together flesh and bone that had seen better days. Long but hair-thin worms made the mound of muscle and bone a nest to bolster their numbers.

I didn’t break stride and continued on into the depths of the compound. Many wards and defenses had been ruined by the innate mana corruption caused by the parasites. And what physical barriers are left are easily navigated. I was struck out of my thoughts by a somewhat healthy life signature down the hall. Looks like there’s a lucky one, or someone immune, a nigh impossible possibility. With purposely heavy steps I thudded down the hall before pausing at the solid stone door that the person hid behind. This section of hallway and the one behind me were different from the rest of the winding compound. The floor was nicely tiled and the walls were a dull white, it almost reminded me of a hospital. And if the look didn’t cut it the sterile smell certainly did. An ideal environment to temporarily avoid the pestilence.

I did not move an inch and only sat there waiting like a predator before an ambush. Soon the smell of fear leaked out from the cracks of the door. I gave a wicked smile when I felt heavy breathing coming from beneath the door. I'm not smelling as much fear as I expected, but that can be fixed. I have a lot of pent-up anger and hunger from my mounting disappointment, and this is the perfect opportunity to release it. Using my magic I slowly stepped up an imaginary stair causing my feet to get out of sight of my new prey. Out of sight, the person let out a muffled speak of surprise before resuming to peek under the door.

It would be boring for me if my prey just sat there holding up in a little room. So I put my hand on the smooth white stone of the door before yanking the entire thing off its hinges. To my prey’s view, it looked like the door was yanked by some invisible force since I stayed hidden in the shadows. With a shrill eek the occupant scrambled back while radiating almost pure fear. They futilely waved around a small knife in an attempt to block a nonexistent attacker. I eyed the middle-aged man curiously, he had on a mishmash of non-matching clothes with a torn white coat on top. Strange fashion, to say the least, even a bit painful to the eyes. I slithered through the abundant shadows until I was behind him. I lifted a sole arm out of my domain and ever so slowly reached out to him as he panicked about the door. With a clean swipe, I took off his ear and drug it into the shadows with me, but the man showed no sign of noticing thanks to me disconnecting some nerves in the area.

He continued on panicking none the wiser, but soon he noticed the blood pooling onto his coat. He raised a shaking hand to his head found the ear that was once there was missing. The smell of fear almost doubled as he moved the hand in front of him and saw the fresh blood. Of course, I wasn’t just doing this for the fun of it so I gave the man a small mental push to run to the most important places of the facility. Which he instantly did. I had to give it to him though, for a decently overweight gentleman he was lithe on his feet. He ran and ran, and while he was doing that I was carving off some flesh for some small snacks. By the time he stopped, he was probably twenty pounds lighter. He seemed to have run out of energy and went to hide in another room. Dissatisfied with his progress I took his nose, but probably thanks to the adrenaline he didn’t notice its disappearance.

He moved a large box of what looked like stone bricks to the door and dropped into the fetal position before beginning to sob. I don’t have all day, maybe some fingers next will get him moving. I grabbed his chubby arm and placed a few fingers in my mouth before biting down with a satisfying crunch. This got his attention since I didn’t numb the pain and he cried harder before frantically getting up and throwing the heavy box out of the way. He left in a frenzy, almost ripping the door off its hinges as he sprinted out.