The city greeted them with a dead silence.
So thick that every step echoed, as if the buildings were listening.
Fog lay on the ground, clinging to their boots. It was dense, almost viscous, as if you could scoop it up with your hand. Sai felt something inside him tighten—instinct? a warning?—hard to say. But one thing was clear: the air here was infected.
Liana lifted her head and sniffed.
"Feel that?" Her voice became muffled. "That smell… the parasite is nearby."
Sai wanted to reply, but at that moment, the fog before them shuddered—as if sliced by an invisible knife.
First, a hand appeared.
White, devoid of circulation. Fingers too long.
Then—a silhouette.
Sai froze.
The figure fully emerged from the fog—and he saw himself.
Or rather—a dead, distorted copy.
Paler than chalk.
Skin grayish, cold.
Eyes—completely white, without pupils, like his own when his power activated… only here—dead, glassy.
Hair longer, as if someone had stretched the strands down to his waist.
And in its hands…
An exact copy of his revolver.
Sai exhaled:
"…What the hell?"
The clone opened its mouth—not to speak—but as if merely mimicking the motion. A rasp came from within, like air passing through a dried-out throat.
Liana narrowed her eyes, and her expression instantly changed.
Not fear.
Not anxiety.
Anticipation.
"Interesting…" she tilted her head. "Your scent. Your form… but dead. It seems the parasite has found a new way to play."
The clone twitched. Sharply. As if a puppet string had been pulled.
Sai raised his revolver.
The barrels faced each other—the living and the dead.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asked.
"No.
But I like it," Liana smiled dangerously, too widely, as if this weren't a horrific situation but a pleasant surprise. "If it's copying you… that means you're becoming more interesting."
Sai wanted to voice everything he thought about that, but the fog behind them stirred.
Footsteps.
He turned—and saw three more.
Just as pale.
Just as dead.
Just as… him.
All with weapons that perfectly mirrored his revolvers.
All stared at him with white, empty eyes.
The air grew heavier. Oppressive.
As if the city itself was trying to collapse onto them.
Sai felt something stir inside him—strange, subtle, like a thread.
It stretched from him to those copies.
"Liana…" he whispered. "I think… I'm creating them."
She sharply turned to him.
"What?"
He pressed a palm to his chest—something was vibrating there.
Not pain.
Not fear.
Power.
Power that hadn't existed before.
As if something inside him had been unlocked, something the parasite had only spurred on.
"They're… mine. Or partly mine," Sai said this quietly, but the words sounded heavy. "I don't know how… but I feel a connection."
"Dead copies?" Liana slowly licked her lips. "With revolvers? White eyes? And long hair… Hmm. Now you've truly become interesting."
The clones moved.
A lunge—unnatural, sharp, like a broken doll.
Sai managed to shoot the first one—it shuddered but didn't fall. The bullet entered, but the clone kept walking as if nothing had happened.
"Damn!" Sai shouted, leaping back. "They don't even feel pain!"
Liana smiled predatorily.
"Then…
"Let me have a little fun."
She lunged forward.
Her movement was like a flash of light—fast, precise, almost inexplicable. She closed the distance in a second, diving right between the dead clones.
And Sai saw her expression.
Eyes burning.
Cheeks flushed.
Her heartbeat… he could almost hear it.
She was aroused.
As always—when there was blood, battle, death.
"Don't slow down, Sai!" she yelled, shoving one of the clones aside with her shoulder. "If they're yours… then killing them is even more enjoyable!"
The fog exploded with the echo of gunshots.
Clones surrounded them.
There were more and more.
The shadow of the parasite somewhere deep in the city stirred, as if watching him fight… himself.
And Sai felt a new power in his chest. Uncontrolled, but his own.
A power that could create…
and destroy.
"Alright…" he exhaled, cocking both revolvers simultaneously. "If you are my corpses… then I'll bury you myself."
---
The city shuddered.
The fog scattered in waves from another shot, and Sai felt the recoil travel through his fingers, as if the revolver had grown heavier. Muffled bangs echoed through the empty streets, reflecting off the stone walls, and each time he hit another dead double, something strange happened.
The copy's body jerked back—but didn't fall.
It didn't tear, didn't splatter blood.
It… dissolved.
As if the skin lost density, melted, turned into a murky, viscous substance, like thick water. The clone's hair spread out last, like shadows in puddles of night light, and it all got sucked into the revolver's barrel—as if his weapon was a real maw.
"What?!" Sai exhaled, not believing his eyes.
The matter flowed into the revolver with a soft squelch, mixing with something inside, as if the weapon was drinking this dead essence. A faint white glow began to pulse within the barrels—quiet, but distinct.
The clone he'd just shot at vanished completely, leaving no trace on the ground. No clothing. No ash. Nothing. As if it had never existed.
The next three dead copies rushed him from different sides—with broken movements, like dolls on shattered hinges. Sai felt a cold tension rising inside and raised both revolvers at once.
A shot.
Another.
A third.
Each time, the same thing happened: the corpses dissolved into liquid and were sucked into the revolvers. And with each absorption, the weapons grew heavier—slightly, but noticeably.
Liana noticed it first.
"Sai… your weapon…" she slowed her pace, deflecting a clone's strike with her elbow and breaking its neck with one sharp movement. "It's changing."
"I see. But damn if I know how…"
He glanced at the left revolver—and for the first time saw a faint glow on its side. As if symbols were emerging on the metal, barely visible through the fog. They crawled from within, slowly, as if the weapon was etching them itself.
Sai froze for a split second—and in that moment, the symbols suddenly formed a word.
CREATE CLONE.
He blinked.
"Lia… I think I got a new button."
"Huh?" she tore herself away from another clone she was happily bisecting with a kick. "What button?"
Sai raised the revolver—and in that very second, he felt he could… press the symbol.
Not with a finger.
Not physically.
More with a thought. A desire.
The weapon seemed to be waiting.
"…Let's try."
He didn't know what would happen, but the other copies were closing in, and he had no choice. Sai concentrated and, as if with an internal impulse, pressed on CREATE CLONE.
The revolver shuddered in his hand.
The fog around him stretched into the barrel, like a coiling spiral.
The metal rang faintly.
Sai sharply aimed at the empty space ahead—and pulled the trigger.
There was almost no shot.
Just a quiet, muffled pop, as if he was firing air, not gunpowder.
And right in front of him… something appeared.
First—a silhouette.
Then—flesh.
Then—a face.
A second later, his own clone stood before him, but not a corpse—alive, solid, real. Eyes—completely white, like the dead ones, but looking with awareness. Hair—longer than Sai's, flowing over its shoulders and down. Skin—pale, almost translucent, but not dead.
It was… a perfect combat version of himself.
The clone blinked, looked at Sai, and tilted its head slightly, as if awaiting orders.
Sai exhaled:
"Holy shit…"
Liana laughed quietly, deeply, her laughter holding more arousal than joy.
"Well, well…" she ran a finger over her lips. "You created… yourself?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Are you even human?"
Sai snorted:
"I'm not sure anymore myself."
The clone took a step forward, raised its copied revolver—and instantly fired at an approaching dead double. The hit was perfectly precise—right between the white eyes. The dead clone scattered, dissolved, got sucked into the living clone's weapon barrel—exactly as it had earlier entered Sai's revolver.
Sai watched in shock.
"It… can absorb too?"
"Seems so," Liana almost purred with pleasure. "You're getting tastier and tastier, Sai."
He didn't react—too absorbed in what was happening.
Copies…
Creation…
Absorption…
He felt a strange lightness in his head, as if a new mechanism was unfolding inside him, one he'd never used before.
As if this ability had always been with him—just dormant until now.
Sai raised the revolver again and whispered:
"If I can create one…"
The fog around him trembled slightly.
The revolver in his hand grew warmer.
The symbols on it flared brighter.
"…does that mean I can create more?"
The city answered with a deafening silence.
The infected air quivered.
And ahead, beyond the fog, something huge and heavy began to stir.
And Sai understood that he would need… many more copies.