This world made no fucking sense.

You had people demolishing buildings with a single punch, guys running faster than supercars, chicks carrying massive guns that could open a hole to the other side of the world—hell, you could fly if you wanted to. There were a thousand ways to achieve flight, and a thousand more ways to break this shitty system into pieces.

But despite that, the world was still being governed by decrepit sacks of shit who never knew the smell of blood. You couldn’t call them “people”, just like you wouldn’t call an Apocalyptic “human”—fucking, they turned that into official protocol. Once you became an Apocalyptic, you were stripped of all human rights and the automatic solution was an execution.

But no one was saying the same thing for weak bureaucratic shits sitting in fine leather chairs, laundering money through trading, pretending they were protecting the world—no, that wasn’t right. They weren’t pretending, they weren’t actors. By inking their signatures on freshly-printed paper, they believed legislation and mandates qualified them as guardians of the world. That enforcing needlessly complicated rules and regulations made them badasses.

On the same level as the Slayers—nah, higher than them. Higher than the Chief Slayers in the Alliances, because they disobeyed the Global Guards before. Higher than the No.1’s across the world. Higher than Gadabout, of course, they hated that motherfucker. Higher than Kosmos, because he was the king of the Slayers and they were kings of bullshit.

Politicians, bureaucrats, officials, employees, all of them were the same. More than money, they loved using their power against Slayers.

That, as Shiraishi Kosuke, Carn, discovered early in his career as a Slayer, was the single word that drove most in this career: power.

Yet it made no fucking sense why his brethren would bend over and get fucked by these weak bitches. Why they’d purposefully go through mindless paperwork and threats and lawsuits and courts when even a fucking D-Rank could kill a man in a blink in an eye. Where one adequately-ranked Slayer could flick his finger and off went someone’s head.

That wasn’t strength. That wasn’t power.

Power was the ability to say “Fuck you!” to whoever you want so you could do whatever the hell you wanted. Because what the fuck could they do against you, a walking army who could raze a city to the ground? Exactly what could they do to even lay a scratch on you?

This? The way things were right now? Backwards. It was fucking backwards and Carn would rather kill himself than to live in it.

The Ordo Disaster gave him the best opportunity to do so. He had tried to snatch power for his own, tried to rob some fucking vault but lost bits of his vision for it—thank fuck he was a high-ranker, his Constitution saved his ass and prevented him from losing his vision completely.

But apparently as it turned out, Mister Hangzhou had deep connections and now the entire city was gunning for him. And the dumbasses that Carn recruited but they were idiots. They didn’t know how to fucking fight, they couldn’t outsmart the trackers. And if HSOC was tasked, then they’d definitely be fucked then.

Even Carn knew that he wouldn’t win against anyone in HSOC, especially the Graylords. These fuckers were more of a killer than he was.

So in summary: he made a shortsighted decision and painted a target on his back, fucking himself over (and the other guys too but they didn’t matter, fuck them). At best, him and his gang could survive for three days before being hunted down. Their equipment they got from System Articles didn’t matter; the “good guys” had better shit. And only Carn had any worthwhile skills to speak about.

So yeah, definitely fucked.

The lengths these motherfuckers would go to preserve their peaceful, backwards world.

All they needed to do was turn the gun the other way and the world would be theirs.

Wasn’t going to happen. Not any time soon.

Carn rubbed his eyes, his vision blurry enough where it was annoying. “Fuck me…” He sat within System Articles’s vault, pondering his next moves.

Outside the vault were his dumbasses testing out their new gear and shit, whatever. He didn’t care. They’d kill themselves by accidentally discharging a gun or something. One less body to keep track of. Or maybe he ought to kill everybody anyway, no skin off his back. He could do it within the minute, less than that probably.

But that’d be a temporary pleasure. The real pleasure was finding a way to survive this bullshit while Ordo was recovering from Scorcher.

He shut his eyes to rest for a second, and when he opened them the world was suddenly fuzzy. Fuzzier than normal. Glitter was in the air like some little girl’s birthday party. “The hell?” he muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes again.

The fuzziness didn’t disappear. Rubbed his eyes, nope. He kept rubbing them just before the point of bleeding but something boomed in his head, a voice that was meant to be heard: “Shiraishi Kosuke, or let it be known to this shell of mine, known as Carn, Predator of Predators?”

Carn looked up to see a lanky robed figure standing before him. Underneath the hood was darkness, the face unable to be seen. He knew what it was. The entire city knew. “Which one are you, eh?”

“Wonder. Lonesome am I, stardust in darkspace, abyss in this horrid shell of false palpitations. In this ransacked treasure-dwellings is the emergence of I, the I that is wanderlust, the shell who sheds sparkling drops for eyes and warriors.”

Carn pressed his lips together and gave Wonder a confident nod. “Yeah, I understood literally fuckin’ none of that. You speak Japanese? Est-ce que vous parlez français?”

He wasn’t worried that the others would hear their conversation, because Wonder had created a private communication bubble that prevented eavesdropping. Wasn’t the first time that Carn had seen it in action.

Wonder continued, “What this shell utters is your device, sarcasm.”

“I knew that all along. Whaddya want? Y’prolly didn’t come for milk and cookies.”

“This servant here comes interested, sorrowful at the uneventful rupture of stardust found in Pereyra, the Lesser Watcher; Tewfik, the Lesser Cutter. We seek alliances, of cosmos and man.”

Carn raised an eyebrow, cackling. “You wanna team with me?”

“Yes. The courageous—!”

“Sure.”

“—servants to the Great Kreutz—!”

“Shut up, I told you that I’d do it,” Carn said as he stood, flashing his dagger-like teeth at the Comet.

Wonder paused, stared at him for a few moments then nodded. “Enthusiasm is unveiled beneath whites, yet now I lay beneath you an inquiry, of reason and causes, o’ betrayer of humanity.”

“Do I need a reason?” he said, moving closer to his new partner. “This world’s humanity is fucked. They got everything twisted: old fucks in suits calling the shots, bloody warriors obeying and bending the fucking knee. There’s nothin' more I gotta say. I’d rather see these fucks burn, I’d rather die in a blaze of glory than live another second in this shitty place.”

“Destruction is shared, wishes,” Wonder replied, its voice tilting up in satisfaction. “Shiraishi Kosuke, Kreutz Sungrazers, a ruined world.”

Finally, Carn could see himself making some real waves in the world. “Yeah, so what am I gettin’ outta this deal—?!”

An oppressive fear lunged into his chest and paralyzed him cold, as though a hand had held onto his heart and squeezed it tight.

[SLAYER SYSTEM ALERT]

SHIRAISHI KOSUKE, YOU HAVE BETRAYED HUMANITY.

YOU HAVE BETRAYED YOUR WORLD.

THIS ACT IS A VIOLATION OF THE AGREEMENT MADE TO ENSURE THE NATURAL ORDER.

TREASON PROCEDURES WILL BE ENACTED.

OTHERSELVES OF SHIRAISHI KOSUKE WILL BE DESIGNATED AS THREATS TO THE NATURAL ORDER.

EXECUTION IMMINENT.

GOODBYE, SHIRAISHI KOSUKE.

Carn collapsed the second after reading his final message.

His heart stopped altogether.

Wonder looked down at the fallen Slayer, unreacting. “Oh. Enlightened, is it? Within this Pestilence is a defense, a defense against now, a jolly cooperation betwixt cosmos and man, the stars and matter. Reminiscent of a phrase on this earth: reaping what had sowed.

“Fret not, Predator of Predators, Humanity’s Traitor. Life or death, our vision—ordained by fools, the Watcher—comes.”

That was how it began: with the death of Shiraishi Kosuke, executed for treason against his own world, but in his shameful demise he could not rest in whatever awaited him after. He was revived, used as a flesh puppet by the Kreutz Sungrazers with enough consciousness, enough sentience to perform his tasks.

As a Fragment.

Wonder and Ikeya collaborated, using Carn as a medium to see their goals manifest. They placed him within Pereyra’s demesne, in which they maintained after their ally’s untimely subjugation, and had him absorb the remnants of the Lesser Watcher’s power: its vision, its red light.

The rogues that he had recruited were turned into obedient servants, controlled by emotions, enslaved by the magic exhibited from Wonder—chained by their own selfish desires and grudges against the world. Thus allowing the Sungrazers to have spies throughout Dawns without needing to call in fiends from other worlds specializing in espionage, where they’d surely be caught and killed eventually.

Ikeya, then, experimented with what would be known as “object-bound distortions” (OBDs) as termed by Ordo, infusing earthly products with portals, then distributing them through the rogues with Carn acting as the manager and enforcer, guiding his lackeys throughout the borough. Where, before the initial distribution, they had performed dozens of heists, burglaries, and recruitment drives to broaden their means.

Just after Scorcher to now, Fragment Carn had been working within the demesne of the Lesser Watcher, watching as his operations collapsed. And the other Sungrazers were nowhere to be seen.

However…

~~~

The human body could not endure the might of the stars.

This fact was made obvious when Fragment Carn stepped out to face the Dawn Baptists, and each of them gasped and gawked, lowering their weapons in sheer disgust of what he had become.

There was a corpse standing in front of them. A sheet-pale, thin-haired body hunched over and gasping his last breaths, unable to turn his head upwards and see the stars for the final time. The muscles were too weak. He was in the nude, exposed, and across nearly every inch of his body were the same eyes that Pereyra had: bulging, twitching eyes deeply embedded into his flesh like open sores.

Across his chest, running down his arms and legs, digging underneath his nails, all over his face like a rotten, peeling acne. His two original eyes—human eyes—were competing for their space, with multiple cosmic eyes stuffed in the sockets. His mouth opened to groan, and more appeared on each individual tooth, on his tongue and under it, scattering throughout the soft inner walls and down his esophagus. His scalp was devastated by them, nasal cavities flooded.

That had used to be a man.

“Oh.” Problem dropped his arms at the state Carn was in. “I... I should've realized this sooner. Carn has been dead this entire time, I think.”

“…What do you mean by that?” Leona asked, her hands trembling at the sight. “He’s been…dead?”

“The Slayer System. If we were given the System to protect our world, the what would happen if we were to betray it?"

“You’d be killed,” Gul answered, and even she had to look away. “The Sungrazers used Carn as their puppet once he signed away his life. But what about the other Apocalyptics?”

“I don’t know, the System—or the Earthwill, Mother, they're interchangeable terms here—has a peculiar way of observation. Maybe the Apocalyptics weren’t directly fighting hand-in-hand with the Sungrazers, maybe they were unaware of the puppeteers, we don’t know. But Carn has certainly agreed to any proposal spoken from the Comets’ mouth themselves. An open and shut case.”

“Okay, but there’s no way we can take him back. No way, man.” Victor shook his head. “He’s gone. Just—holy shit, he’s a monster but I don’t know if anyone deserves this.”

Alexander gritted his teeth. Pissed that it had to end in this way. Pissed that it meant that their search was meaningless. Carn was hours away from kicking the bucket. “We need the information. I don’t know how we’re getting it, but we fucking need it.”

“How are we going to do that?” Leona questioned, gesturing to Carn.

He wasn’t attacking them. He was just standing, heaving like a dying man in hospice. He was in no shape for a fight. It’d been just a week ago when Carn could easily kill an A-Rank monster; now, he couldn't even fight a child without falling over.

Leona continued, “There’s nothing behind his eyes anymore. He can only groan and mumble. We can’t interrogate him. I’m not sure if we can even move him a single step without him falling into pieces. No amount of healing or restoration magick can fix him unless you’re a god. I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”

She was right but Alexander wanted to fight her logic with irrationality. Deep, deep down, Alexander wanted to take the contra-system in his pockets and shoot Carn up with it, then beat him over and over until his face was seized up twice its original size and every bone in his body was broken.

But she was right.

Carn was dead.

“But—!”

“The answer’s obvious if you think a couple steps further,” said a new voice. Behind them appeared Catalyst, the Journey of Alchemy, approaching the Baptists casually and nonchalantly.

“Catalyst?” Forest Master called to her. “You were in the area? I thought you were in Midtown.”

“I came here as soon as possible,” she answered, waving her hand. “I like to do marathons in full sprints.”

“You know how to recover information from Carn?” asked Gul.

Catalyst nodded, unfazed by the fallen Slayer’s current state. “It’s simple: you extract his brain. High-level mentalists can use his physical brain—if it’s healthy enough—to extract information directly. Even when separated from the main body.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Problem told her, “Carn has been disfigured by Pereyra. That most likely includes his organs. Your mentalists will risk suffering the same fate as him.”

“That’s a fair risk for retrieving valuable information on the Sungrazers.”

“And you have a way to preserve his brain?”

“Mhm. Conqueror, here.” Catalyst took his [Sword of Conquerors] and gave him a dark metal box from her [Inventory].

“Jesus!” Immediately Alexander almost fell from the weight. This thing was the heaviest thing he’d carried. Leona had to jump in and help him carry it, and even the two of them couldn’t hold it steadily.

Problem raised his voice, “Wait, you can’t be—?!”

Catalyst walked up to Fragment Carn and cleanly decapitated him. His body dropped. She grabbed his head by the hair, looked at it for a second then shivered in disgust, and placed it inside the box that Alexander and Leona were carrying. Again she swapped items, and once she shut the lid, strange sounds rumbled inside the container and that was that.

“Operation complete,” she declared unexcitedly, looking down at her prize. “The Martials will perform the extraction and research on Fragment Carn. Go and tell Seraph that.”

As unceremonious as her declaration was, she returned to the rest of Carn's body, plopped the preservation contraption down beside her, began the process to preserve his corpse and prep it for transport to wherever facility Martials had.

While everyone else looked on in troubling mixtures of emotions.

“So we did it?” Firebrand asked everyone, his usual fiery personality extinguished.

“Yeah,” Althea answered. “We did it. We found Pereyra’s demesne, got Carn in our own way. What else did we hafta do? We completed the mission.”

“I don’t like this,” he followed. “It feels off, y’know? After all that bullshit with the bombs and Apocs and the Comets, that’s it?”

Votary replied, “It’s justice in its own way. Carn betrayed humanity. What happens afterwards, well, it’s as best as eternal punishment as you can have.”

After her words, the incomprehensible structure began fading like transient embers. The ground beneath the Baptists’ feet was returning to normal, the Void waning. Alexander looked over his shoulder and spotted Damien briskly catching up with Devoy in his hand.

Everyone updated him on the situation, and after Damien soon came the reinforcements, quickly filling Raksha Avenue to the brim with people. Including some of the Journeys, including Righteous Jin Tiehan and Blackviper, including the Duskheads and Graylords. An artisan team from Martials arrived to help Catalyst provide the necessary preparations for the next step, and the Baptists finally had a moment to rest after the an eventful few days.

“I can’t say I feel sorry for him,” Kirk said after glancing at the fervent action where the demesne had been. “But his body’s gonna stick with me until the day I die. Just how the hell do you end up looking like that?”

“That’s what you get for dealing with the cosmos,” Damien replied. “I’m both disappointed and relieved at the outcome, honestly.”

“Disappointed that there wasn’t a big fight?” Alexander prodded.

“But that’s for the better, I think. We lost too much already.”

Leona nodded. “We don’t have the manpower or the resources to repair Dawns back to the state it was. But Damien’s right. It ended uneventfully—a relief, considering everything. At least you’re alright, Kirk.”

“Yeah, it’s not my time yet.”

Alexander asked him, “What’re you going to do now since Carn’s taken care of?”

Kirk shrugged. “I’ll probably stay with the Duskheads until I get transferred to some other place. Carn is just one bullet point in a very long list. That’s how it goes in this life: now that you finished your business, you move onto the next thing. Since you wrapped up loose ends, it’s time to tie the fucking knot.”

The Baptists hummed and nodded.

Carn was gone. The Sungrazers were next.

Eventually, Kirk had to leave. They said their goodbyes, wishing for safety and success in the days ahead.

Alexander continued to speak with Damien and Leona, with Devoy occasionally entering the conversation but he was mainly quiet. They saw their team around the avenue, Vernon speaking with Yatsar, Chunhua and Kaiya talking with a few Martials.

Then, Alexander spotted Milkor and a few Graylord operators, separated from the rest of the pack. He took a minute to speak with them.

“Milkor!” he called to them.

“Ah, Conqueror. It’s a shame I wasn’t the one who decapitated Carn myself,” Milkor said. “Have you come you say your goodbyes?”

“For now.” Alexander remembered back to the hours spent being pulled between the Graylords and Jin Tiehan; he was grateful for both opportunities. “I’m afraid we have to move onto larger pastures.”

“Naturally. I wouldn’t have imagined it: working together with a Pseudo. It’s been a pleasure working with you, and I expect your license when everything’s over. Until we meet again, my friend.” Milkor extended a hand.

Alexander shook it. “Until then.”

When they let go, something hard was in the middle of Alexander’s palm: a large plated coin with a colored image in the center—a gray-armored Slayer who had a red standard embedded into the earth. Around the image had golden words: Graylords rule over land, and on the back of the coin was the Graylord’s insignia.

“What’s this?”

“A challenge coin. Consider it a trinket for good luck.”

He admired it. He ran a finger over the grooves. This served as a decent reminder that he was in this life now, and normally apprehension or fear would come over him but not now. Alexander felt like he belonged.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Yeah. Thank you.”

Alexander said farewell to Milkor before returning to Damien and Leona, and they only had a short amount of time to themselves as Seraph called for them. Everyone in Dawn Baptists, including Devoy and Votary, the two new members. Well, Votary was. No one really knew what to think about the contracted Void Demon.

They regrouped inside one of the buildings, away from the outside action. On one screen was Seraph, and the other had Sage.

After a tense discussion with Jin Tiehan, Seraph had caved and allowed the Martials to perform their research on Carn (albeit with Seraph’s observers), trying to extract the information out of his brain. So that meant the Baptists had time to kill between then.

Before they would take on their next Sungrazer, and so they returned to Grendel Arsenal for now.

~

[Quest Notification - Completion]

Distortion Investigation - Dawns Once More is completed!

You have been rewarded:

2,000,000 standards

1 Outbreak Survival Kit

[Item]

Outbreak Survival Kit

The kit contains: 6 Emergency MREs, 6 Bottled Water, Trauma Kit, 5 Healing Potions, 1 Great Healing Potions, 1 Ordo Teleport Scroll.