In Eric's room within Panacea.
Eric furiously convulsed on the bed. Iridescent lights came from his stomach, presenting a ghastly view of his internal organs.
"His body is rejecting the Immortal Core!" A doctor screamed. There were four people asides Eric within the room.
Jackson stood to the side, scowling.
"Another failure." He muttered amidst the chatter.
"He's flatlining, sir!" The doctor called once more.
The nurses who held Eric's body released him when he went limp.
"Oh for the love of god." Jackson rubbed his sunken eyes in annoyance. "What a waste of time."
"Extract the core immediately, and dispose of the boy's body." Jackson spoke with irritation clear in his tone.
"Yes sir." The doctor replied, grabbing his scalpel to begin extracting the core.
Inches from the scalpel, Eric's lifeless body suddenly jerked, releasing a deep gasp from his parted lips.
"Huhhhhhhhhh!"
Jackson's brows rose in interest.
"I've never seen that before." He closely watched the heaving Prince.
"Hold the extraction, he might still have some use-."
BOOOMMM
Jackson's words were interrupted by a deafening explosion.
The building shook as if hit by an earthquake. As the people tried to get their bearings another explosion, even stronger than the last, struck.
BOOOOOMMMMM
Eric's eyes jolted open. The world was shaking, and the lights flickered wildly. None of the room's occupants paid him any mind.
He quickly assessed his situation and reoriented himself.
He was untied, and the chaos had begun.
This was his chance.
A third explosion struck.
BOOOOOOOMMMMMM
An armed guard rushed into the room, panting heavily.
"Sir, we're under attack on multiple fronts. The hostiles are yet to be identified but they're using explosives to destroy the primary holds. We've already been breached. We need to evacuate now."
A scowl marred Jackson's face.
As he turned to face the guard, Eric moved. His hand found a lonely scalpel, pulling the closest person to himself, he lodged it deep in their throat.
The woman made wet gurgling sounds as she choked on her own blood and fell to the floor.
Jackson's jaw fell. The flickering lights, gave glimpses of Eric looming over the bleeding Doctor, bloody scalpel still in hand, and a manic grin plastered on his face.
Eric's grin widened when he locked eyes with Jackson.
"Shoot him!" Jackson screamed in fright.
Before the guard could fire, Eric's arm snapped forward. The scalpel, slick with the first doctor's blood, flashed through the air and lodged itself firmly in the guard's eye socket with a wet thunk.
"Arghhhhhhhh"
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM
Another explosion drowned out the guard's cries.
Then, the lights went out.
Darkness cloaked every inch of the room, greatly reducing Eric's visibility but he could still see.
Better than any of the others.
His sensory perception had greatly improved, allowing him to even make out Jackson's subtle movements in the dark..
Eric watched as the supervisor fell, rummaging through the cold tiles, and viscous blood in search of the guard's discarded handgun.
Taking advantage of their blindness, he promptly sliced the throat of a nurse who had wandered too close trying to escape.
"Please!" Eric heard the desperate plea of remaining nurse from a farther corner of the room. Apparently they could hear the gurgling of their dying colleague.
Before Eric moved towards the pleading man a loud sound broke the silence.
Bang Bang Bang
Jackson kept shooting till there was a click from the emptied gun, having expended his magazine on the harmless nurse.
Eric had to stifle a chuckle. 'He thought I had already reached the nurse.'
Shaking his head, Eric lunged at Jackson's sprinting figure.
Just as Jackson was about to push open the door, Eric stabbed the scalpel into the supervisor's back.
Then, before Jackson could regain his senses, Eric pulled his collar with inhuman strength, almost snapping Jackson's head from the whiplash.
"Where do you think you're going Jackson?"
Eric spoke in a restrained whisper.
Eric watched his words paint fear on Jackson's face.
After wrestling the handgun from Jackson's quivering hand, Eric shoved the man to the ground, scalpel still jutting out.
'Such a weak man.' He thought in disgust.
He reloaded the gun as loud as he could, so Jackson wouldn't think of trying anything.
Then Eric rapidly inspected the new system notifications.
[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST.]
[SYSTEM FULLY INTEGRATED]
[IMMORTAL CORE: PRESENT]
[TEMPORAL SOUL: IMBALANCED]
[CRANIAL MERIDIAN PATH: CLEARED]
[ABILITIES]
- [PARTIAL MEMORY RECALL]
- [COGNITIVE PROCESSING]
- [SENSORY PERCEPTION]
- [ENHANCED PHYSIQUE]
[WARNING: Observing Qi is limited to 60 SECONDS. Further use risks meridional damage and blindness.]
[WARNING: Qi Absorption LOCKED. Attempting to draw ambient Qi will result in Meridional Collapse and instant death.]
[MAIN QUEST: RECEIVE IMMORTAL CORE - COMPLETED]
[REWARD: HUMAN-FORM CULTIVATION INITIATION ART - AWAITING COLLECTION]
[FAILURE: DEATH]
[SECONDARY QUEST: INFILTRATE PANACEA FACILITY - COMPLETED]
[REWARD: PHYSIQUE REINFORCEMENT - ACQUIRED]
[SECONDARY QUEST: SECURE HEAVEN'S LOOM]
[NOTE: ARTIFACT CRITICAL FOR LONG-TERM HOST STABILITY.]
[REWARD: FIVE FOUNDATIONAL FORMATIONS SET]
[HEAVEN'S LOOM DETECTED: LOCATION MARKED]
Eric still didn't understand half of what was written. It remained a mystery, just like the overbearing voice he'd heard in his dream.
Noting the additional quest details and his improved limits, he dismissed the interface then turned his attention to writhing man beneath him.
"Where are you holding my sister?" He pressed his gun into Jackson's head, mashing it against the floor.
Eric's finger trembled at the trigger, almost giving into temptation and pulling.
'Restrain yourself.' He recited inwardly. Taking deep breaths, he calmed his shaking hand.
'Jackson still has some use.'
"Last chance," Eric said, his voice flat. "Where?"
When only a wail answered, Eric lifted his gun and changed its trajectory.
Bang
"Hngghhhhh" The man let out a suppressed hiss.
The bullet tore through Jackson's shoulder, shattering the bone in a gory sight.
Jackson's cries worsened Eric's waning control.
"Where's Victoria?" He asked again. His voice calm, like in a friendly conversation.
"If your next words aren't an answer, the next bullet goes through your leg." Jackson felt the hot muzzle of the gun shift from his shoulder.
Jackson let out an audible gulp between his winces.
"You planned thi-"
Bang
Jackson's mouth shot open, a ear piercing cry coming out.
He felt as the hot bullet drilled past his knee, tearing through veins and bone till it made a horrifying sight worse than that of his shoulder's.
Blood sprayed Eric's face, but he remained unmoved.
"They always said showing was better than telling."
He ripped a strip of cloth from Jackson's lab coat, stuffing it against the weeping wound without ceremony.
"Don't die on me yet. You're taking me to Victoria before you bleed out."
He forced Jackson onto his good leg while the other leg soaked the white strip of cloth red.
He retrieved the scalpel still in Jackson then pressed his gun against his back.
With seething hatred and pain, both men pushed out of the room's darkness.
The halls were coloured in the flashing amber of emergency lights.
Despite the mayhem, there was a stillness as they walked through the desolate halls, and deeper into the facility.
The sounds of gunfire grew stronger. Sometimes they would encounter the macabre remnants of a battle.
Strewn about corpses of guards and intruders grew more frequent. Eric neither wanted to risk Jackson picking another gun, nor to waste any time, so he didn't bother looting the dead bodies.
As they walked, Eric's mind wondered what the new information on the secondary quest meant and how he was supposed to even find the whatever it was that had been marked. He hoped it wouldn't be too far from Victoria's location.
While the thoughts swam in his mind the system appeared.
[SECONDARY ENERGY PRINT MARKED.]
[HEAVEN'S LOOM MARKED.]
[DIRECTIONS OVERLAPPED.]
On the heels of the system's notifications, a distinct blue trail of glowing arrows appeared on the floor within his vision.
Their direction coincided with that to Victoria's location.
'Convenient.' He thought. Eric would branch to his target once he had gotten Victoria.
During their journey Jackson initially tried going in the wrong direction, but a pistol-whip from Eric put him back on the right track.
It was all too clear the prince somehow had an intimate familiarity with the bases' layout.
They soon reached Ward D. A thick metallic door blocking their way and a terminal to its side.
Eric shoved Jackson forward, keeping his sights trained on him.
Jackson reluctantly placed his eyes against the terminal, a shrill hiss accompanying the door's opening.
Eric was stunned to see Jackson abruptly dive through the ajar door, screaming.
"I want him alive!"
At the same moment system notifications flashed across Eric's eyes.
[WARNING: Anomalous energy detected.]
[WARNING: Anomalous energy detected.]
Faster than he could react Eric felt a powerful invisible force, yank him into the ward.
He was sent crashing hard into a wall, creating a visible hole in the concrete.
Disoriented , Eric struggled to get up.
His dazed eyes took in the otherwise empty ward.
Save for two people who turned Eric's eyes into dangerous slits and made his face a ghastly white.
'They shouldn't be here.' He nearly screamed.
Before him stood a black haired man with sharp features and a scar under his chin in an impeccable suit.
A woman possessing European features stood next to the man, in a flamboyant gown ill suited for a laboratory.
She was slender, with strange white hair and tattoos running along her neck.
"Narcosa." Eric hissed.