188 The Bug In The System (1/2)

How Reed had been killed.

He'd grown tired of waiting, his patience had run thin in the wake of his busy schedule. There were still two fissures left on the table, along with a host of additional minor jobs he had to attend to.

In light of that troubling agenda, Reed felt it a waste of time to wait for Velvund to assist him. Time was his enemy — every second wasted was a tremendous waste he could not afford.

So Reed did what he thought was most optimal to allow him passage into a highly guarded cavern that a squad of concealed men, evidently experienced Chosen from their Anima fluctuations, had not wanted him to enter.

These veiled Chosen, clad in sophisticated environmental suits, were the dominant race that ruled the West. They were known as the Nuedo to the rest of the continent or the ”Diamond Men” to much older folk.

The fourth race that had... purchased the land that would become the West during the Unification War.

What price was unknown to the public and a subject of legend. Nevertheless, it was a hard truth — the Nuedo had bribed the other dominant races at the time of the Unification War with an offer none of them were unable to refuse...

Of the various races that had come to inhabit Mulia, they had been the only race that had not participated in the gratuitous bloodshed of over territory. In fact, it was even rumored that the Nuedo had not lost a single life over the course of the senseless insanity that had taken the continent by storm.

They paid their way out of a major world war.

They took residence in the depths of the harsh mountain ranges of the West and not the untouched wildlands that made up more than half of their territory.

They were a people of notorious secrecy such that even after five millennia, only a handful of confirmed truths were known about them.

For these reasons any many more, the bizarre, withdrawn race that had taken the West for itself earned the moniker of the Diamond Men.

As difficult to find as actual diamonds, as wealthy as if they were made of them, and lived where they could only be found — the bowels of the earth.

But of course, none of this mattered to the dismembered corpse that laid strewn across the entrance of the cavern protected by the Chosen squad.

The mysterious intruder was, without a doubt, completely dead. Even for a Chosen, there would be no recovery from such a thorough.... dissection. What remained of the intruder could have been mistaken for a misshapen heap of bifurcated puzzle pieces.

Why do such a ridiculous thing? To throw oneself into the maw of death without caution?

The Chosen sighed and chalked it up to madness or perhaps, grim desperation.

”Why give it all up?” murmured the man.

”This way of life is not for the weary of heart,” replied another older Chosen further back, as he sent out a pulse of heated Anima to dispose of the remains. ”Someone who'd willingly do this was already dead, I reckon.”

”Either way, the situation's been resolved. It's time to head back,” said the leader of the squad. He sent an all-clear message to his superiors and then the squad retreated into the dim cavern without another word...

Along with an unforeseen guest.

...Already dead, my left nut! Overdramatic bastard. All I did was lose a little mass in a slightly... irregular method.

Comfortably nestled with the shadow of the fellow that had seemingly grown a conscience after ”murdering” Reed, was a razor-thin sheet of transparent fluid without a hint of elegance.

That indisputably pathetic existence was none other than Reed himself, much to his displeasure. He despised that he had been forced to assume such an archaic form, but couldn't deny that it had worked like a charm.

As he currently was, Reed had more with the primordial bacteria that inhabited Mu's seas billions of years ago than anything else currently alive.

A humiliating fact that he was not oblivious to as he squirmed his way underneath the shadows of the Chosen squad, ruminating on the fact had already ruined his brand-new suit and cloak in record time.

Something tragic bubbled up in his heart when he realized that the feeling of shame and embarrassment related to being completely ass naked was beginning to fade. And for a very serious moment, Reed contemplated whether or not he had unfortunately opened a door he would not be able to close.

T-There's no way in hell I'm... an exhibitionist weirdo. I'm no degenerate! I'm a pure and respectable man, a beacon of old-fashioned modesty and dependability!

...Or so the ooze puddle tried to convince himself as he idly passed the time until he could escape from the shadow he had taken refuge under. Thankfully, a small opportunity appeared — a hall of shadows formed by the shuffling movement of many people came around after the Chosen squad passed through a heavily reinforced, pressurized bulkhead.

And then, a mystery unfurled itself before Reed, to his mild surprise. The people residing within the cavern weren't hideous freaks, as he had previously imagined.

They were a little strange, but not the fantastical enigmas he had expected out of them.

Pastel white, with a hint of blue mixed into that unnatural skin. Irises that had a touch of enchanting iridescence depending on the angle you observed them. They are delicate souls, thought Reed, for they seem to lack a great deal of vitality...

Reed's eyes could not be fooled — the moment he glimpsed upon a mortal of their race, he detected a fragility in their bodies that was anything but normal. Their hearts beat weaker and slower than a human's or avunian's did; So, too, were they feeble in many of the other aspects of their physiology.