Aside from smelling like the world’s worst shit-piss smoothie, the sewers were also oppressively dark, mostly on account of the few meters of earth that separated the tunnels from the surface. Though, the worst part wasn’t the smell, nor the darkness. It was the fact the air was sticky and humid. That was the worst part.

The moment they had tapped down onto the shit-water covered sidewalk, Mio had shot him a dirty glare. Brock could see how desperately she wished to find Jane, and he knew taking it out on him was something of a coping mechanism. Or just a general attitude. Either way, he understood.

His own coping mechanism was to try mask his emotions with humor. He’d done it since he was in high school and did it even to this day.

It was actually part of the reason his last relationship ended. Well, that and because he had never had enough time for his girlfriend amongst the swathes of work and assignments he had been given. He hadn’t really been ready for a relationship at that stage in his life.

Good ol’ Amy. Wonder how’s she’s doing now? Hopefully not in pieces.

While his aura was slowly rejuvenating, he was still struggling to find any aura traces, if there even were any at all. Even a dozen meters in there was still nothing, and Mio’s aura was full blast, scanning every inch of the place avidly.

It actually led him to a nice little discovery. Back when he had fully depleted his aura when he’d first met Fon, he’d been passed out for three days and it had still been barely recovered. Yet now, he had managed to regain maybe a tenth of his aura’s volume in only two hours. Either the weird berry was to blame, or something else was at work.

Snorting out the stench once more, Brock brought himself from his thoughts and focused back onto the surroundings. Fortunately, Mio had brought along a pair of flashlights, courtesy of the shadows, and they could at least see, not that there was much to look at.

“Hey. You.” Mio called out to Brock, her voice harsh yet oddly quiet.

The ‘You’ in question turned around with a brow cocked and shone his torch onto the woman. She was crouched down, studying a gob of a thick yellow fluid. He had seen a few of them as they walked, splattered occasionally across the sidewalk, and he had just assumed that it was an unfortunate someone’s shit.

Maybe it was something more?

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Mio waited a second to reply, instead staring intently at the glob. She leaned closer and gave it a sniff, “This… it’s Jane’s blood. I’m certain.”

“So, she was taken here then?” Brock asked eagerly.

The woman clenched her jaw as she stood, “Probably. We should hurry.”

He nodded and they began speeding through the sewerage tunnels. Well, speeding was a bit of an exaggeration. Jogging was more apt of a description. One could only go so fast on sewerage and algae before they slipped into it. Still, they were crossing the distance rapidly, chasing the trail of yellow blood.

At one point, violet blood began to join the trail, and Brock assumed it belonged to his sister’s so-called partner, not that he thought she even needed one. He was inwardly rejoicing that Jane had taken a yellow fluid Shard of Awakening as that was still the only colour they were unsure of the powers of, aside from blue. Although, they didn’t really know the specifics on any others either, just basic observations.

Maybe after all this Skin Walker stuff settled down, he’d finally do some research on basic things he should know. He’d still need to find his mother of course, but with the assistance of people like Mio, assuming there were others with similar abilities, it shouldn’t be hard to find her. Enlisting should be an even easier affair considering Jane’s apparent position within the organization.

As they travelled, the blood traces became less and less apparent in both size and frequency. For once, high Vitality was working against them. It didn’t matter in the end though, as the duo soon happened upon a gaping hole in the side of the cement, pieces of rubble and dust showered over the sidewalk and clumping up the river of bodily excrement.

Curiously, Brock peered his head in, and whistled. The noise echoed and continued for a few long seconds. He didn’t know how far it led, but it was still amusing to do so. Mio glared at him, and ultimately made the choice to go first once more. Brock shrugged and followed behind.

It was a crude tunnel, far unlike that of the swarm’s, with the earth seeming to have been literally slashed through instead of dug cleanly. There were dips and divots in the surface, and some parts looked less than stable. They found a few more bits of blood, although they had long soaked into the loose dirt.

The place was strangely vast, with them having sprinted a half hour without even beginning to see the end. A few minutes later, Brock was forced to a stop and Mio stumbled in front of him and almost caused a crash. She looked back at him, and he noticed her eyes were shaking imperceptibly.

Her lips straightened into a line, “I can detect over ten thousand aura signatures. All Skin Walkers.”

“…Well… that’s… not good.” Brock’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead, and a small droplet of cold sweat dripped down the back of his neck. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to the numbers, but more so that he knew he wouldn’t be able to fight the creatures without his Augments.

They gave him the ability to target multiple enemies at once. His fists just wouldn’t be enough.

Mio grunted in affirmation.

**

Her abdomen was split wide open, revealing the pulsating organs beneath. Yellow blood oozed out the savage cut, slowly bringing her life ever closer to its end. Jane’s eyes were shut and her mind unconscious, yet her Vitality worked desperately to keep her alive.

Over to her left, the rattle of chains resounded. Carrie’s eyes fluttered, and she bit back a scream of pain as the state of her body finally found itself realized. She herself was covered in her own violet blood, her innards barely kept within by a set of crude stitches. Her sight fell on her partner, and she squirmed, only rewarding herself with flares of more pain.

Fortunately, Ryan was nowhere to be seen, leaving her alone to her own devices. She didn’t dare rouse her aura in case he detected it, but still she was tempted. She didn’t know if she would ever get the chance, but she wanted to make that man pay. She wanted to drive her rapier through his skull. In fact, she could see the gleaming silver weapon laid on a table a few meters away from her, along with Jane’s katana and tanto.

She squirmed on her hook, using her arms to attempt to pull herself off. Her attempts fell short every time. Her body was beyond weak, the bloodformed hook having sapped away all her energy. Currently, she felt barely stronger than her pre-System self. It was… horrible, to say the least.

“Someone… please…” her words came out quiet and raspy. As her eyes slowly closed, she knew that ‘someone’ was coming.

They had to be.

**

In the end, they decided stealth might be the best option here. Well on Mio’s part. Brock would speed through the place and search for the two women, while his companion would assassinate anything along his path. Quietly.

The plan wasn’t a good one, but it was a plan, nonetheless.

Together, they crept the rest of the distance through the crudely made tunnel, which only happened to be around 100 meters. Eventually, it tapered off into a massive cavern, leading directly onto a stone shelf carved out like many around the rest of the cavern. The scent of blood and roses wafting into their noses.

They had to keep low and turn off their flashlights to stay undetected, spotting thousands of Skin Walkers keeping watch all over the place, the rest probably roaming the tunnels. Some were even snacking on pieces of deceased men and women as their eyes scanned over the place. Beside him, he heard Mio grit her teeth.

Clearly, the creatures were eating her clansmen. The ones that hadn’t been left behind.

Strangely enough, however, that wasn’t the most glaring feature, nor was the slimy flesh growing over every surface. No, it was the humongous heart stationed in the very center of the place, hanging from the ceiling by several thick strands of sickly flesh. It took some eye narrowing, but Brock caught sight of a figure encased in a thin layer of flesh right underneath it.

One he recognized.

…Mira?

For the most part, she looked the same; long brown hair, kind brown eyes and fragile, thin limbs. That was where the resemblance ended, however. While her face was relatively similar, it was slightly disfigured, with a row of fangs populating her maws. Her limbs were also a tad bit too long, her fingernails too.

Brock glanced to one of the Skin Walkers consuming someone’s thigh.

No way…

He was starting to see a troubling resemblance. Was… was someone trying to clone his co-worker? Was that what the Skin Walkers were? Failed experiments? Was that even her anymore? Or was that too just a clone? Brock felt a seed of disgust knot itself in his stomach as questions assaulted his mind.

Fortunately, as a sheen of sweat began to perspiration on his forehead, Mio snapped her fingers in front of him and brought him back to reality, “What’re you looking at? Get ready.”

He nodded shakily, and while the woman seemed to notice something was up, she knew now was not the time. She began to count down from three, and as she reached zero, the shadows coalesced upon her and she teleported elsewhere, cleaving her shadowy blade through the neck of a Skin Walker looking near their direction a mere moment later.

Brock exploded into motion, skipping over the flesh covered earth quietly as eerily familiar corpses tumbled down around him, their heads decapitated cleanly. With his still handicapped aura senses, it was hard to find, let alone parse apart all the different auras he was sensing-

Instantly he veered to the right.

Among them all, there was one indistinct aura that attracted his attention. He didn’t have enough aura to tell the difference in species, but the desperation in it was a flavor strong enough that he knew it couldn’t belong to a Skin Walker. He leapt up and into the air as two bodies rolled under him in a sprawl of tangled and melting limbs.

Idly, he looked up at the pulsating heart. It was glowing a deep shade of crimson, and oddly enough, it reminded him of his own Ascendancy. In fact, just going by scale, he saw similarities to the Source he had been to. The only difference was the imitation energy it was pumping out. It wasn’t one he recognized, but it was inferior to all the energies he’d experience so far, so he didn’t really care.

This whole place was just one massive mystery. A figure that looked like Mira but didn’t seem to truly be her. A giant replica of the heart in the Source. Something was going on, and it was beyond simply the mere terror act Skin Walkers seemed to be.

Brock’s fist shot forward as one of the beasts found him and he smashed its face inward, pieces of brain pulping out its eye sockets. He resisted the urge to gag as he flicked the brain matter from his fist and picked up the pace. Slowly, the desperation in the aura was fading, probably due to the threat of unconsciousness.

It required a good chunk of effort for him to maintain concentration on that one aura lest he lose it, but he was quickly closing the distance between them. Finally, the Skin Walkers realized something was up and a deafening cacophony of roars filled the silence of the cavern. Brock cursed, his blade slicing skull the next moment.

Mio had managed to keep them undetected for as long as she possibly could. Brock was just glad the Skin Walkers also seemed to be confused by their own numbers, their aura senses unable to find them among their brethren. In the dim red glow illuminating the entirety of the place, Brock’s eyes bulged as he caught sight of the abundant tides of the beasts as they streamed from the tunnels all around in response to the roars.

Fortunately, Brock was already upon the room where he sensed the aura, and he left the cavern behind. Mio appeared behind him the next second, warping up from his own shadow, and she threw a series of kunai up into the fleshy ceiling. A few moments later, Brock stumbled as an explosion resounded and the entrance was blocked off by a cascade of flesh and rubble.

The woman met his eyes and they nodded toward each other. Finally, after a minute or two, they broke into another room, this one mostly devoid of flesh. Operating tables and various instruments littered the entire places. Papers scrawled with messy writing were strewn everywhere, almost haphazardly.

More importantly, Brock saw his sister cut open and placed on a table right in the center of the room. To her right was a pair of crystalline meat hooks, with a familiar woman hanging from them. Up this close, it was clear to him that the desperation was coming from her aura.

“…Carrie?”