PA.IN:

The slow and cautious clacking of footsteps on a worn path to a dilapidated temple was all that was heard in the hazy afternoon sky. The breeze was still present even on foot as Lyn and Alfaic followed a narrow brick pathway across a system of desolate buildings all blooming with the luxurious abundance of flora. The path to the towering skyscraper was still miles before arrival, but the steady tread helped the two survey their surroundings for danger.

Countless plastic litter and shattered glass from the abandoned stores surrounding them riddled the path to their destination. Lyn turned her head to face an ice cream store ruined beyond repair as she passed through these stores. Not much was left to salvage from decades, or centuries worth of abandonment. Streetlights and lampposts were erected from the underground, creating minor obstacles for the two while treading through.

A small draft brushed Lyn's hair back, activating Alfaic's sensors. She kneeled after catching a glimpse of an unknown colorful object on her radar. She picked it up. A crocheted mermaid-themed plush toy was half-covered in grime and moss nearby. Using her thumb, she attempted to brush the dirt and moss off, but her efforts were futile. She stowed the mermaid crochet away and proceeded on the path.

Alfaic detached from Lyn's back holster and began circling her radius. The holy feathered blade's quirky movements examined the nearby abandoned buildings like a curious child seeking something to thumb through for amusement. Lyn turned around while keeping up the pace on the path, observing Alfaic's side-by-side movement; she moved backward as the scorching sun beat down against her eyes through the shifting clouds.

"Looks like I don't know much about SIGMA after all..." Alfaic admitted, returning to Lyn's radius as it hovered with her. "Where are all the people? Did they all die from those monsters...?"

Lyn disregarded Alfaic's comment, returning toward the path. From a moderate distance, more rusted and ramshackle cars piled through imaginary traffic off the beaten path. Eventually, the vehicles began piling up through a massive roadblock sandwiched between two towering buildings with no clear visibility to the top. She strolled through to observe the vehicles, searching for any remnants of human activity or life remaining.

"No luck. Gotta get around somehow, but how?" Alfaic mentioned. It rotated around Lyn's back, observing the mermaid crochet attached to her back. "Hey. You took that with you. How come?"

"It was the only sign of life," Lyn said. "No other reason."

"A kid probably had it in their hands. Happened a long time ago, no doubt. What really happened to all these people? I can't help but think about it." Alfaic replied.

Lyn scanned for a visible path through the roadblock by teetering through the side for more visibility. The bridge where the roadblock had covered up was completely splintered and smashed beyond existence. A simple glide across the walls of the two buildings would not get them across. She searched around for more entrances, leading her toward a glass-reinforced door with a faulty red siren blinking above it.

"Blade," Lyn called, sweeping her gaze to the door. "On me."

"Yes, your highness," Alfaic sarcastically and scornfully stated after hearing her forceful call. It reattached itself to Lyn's back holster. "Looks like a station of some sort. Nice find."

Lyn attempted to push and pull the door open, but there was no response to pry through. A reinforced iron barricade prevented it from opening. Lyn delivered a swift jab with her foot to break shatter it apart. Excess dust particles and wood shavings from the station's door came piling down near the entrance. She entered with Alfaic, finding themselves in a lobby with a receptionist's desk split in half from the ceiling caving above.

"Man, it's dark in here," Alfaic stated, igniting its energy for a golden spree of light. "That's better. Does that help?"

Lyn did not respond. Instead, she moved across the walls of the abandoned station, catching a dust-riddled banner coated in dried blood. Streaks of red and black blood, along with visible handprints, attempted to write on the walls, but the language was indecipherable. Lyn ran her index and middle finger across the blood-splattered blue banner, revealing it and reading it as NAVI FIRE STATION.

"The perks of being non-human. You don't get grossed out by touching stuff like dried blood..." Alfaic commented. "So, we're in a fire station. There's bound to be some tunnels leading to the other side of that roadblock."

Lyn approached the receptionist's table and peeked over the desk. A maggot-infested corpse riddled with torn flesh and guts greeted them on the other side. The maggots seeped deeply into the corpse's eyes, mouth, and lower half of its stomach to devour its intestines. The lower of its face appeared as if something had taken a bite out of it. Lyn's expression remained neutral, ignoring the atrocity and horrors of it all.

"Oh god," Alfaic said, taken aback by the terrifying sight of the mangled body. "Yep, I'd really love those perks you have right about now..."

Lyn ascended the stairs above the desk, crunching the shattered glass with each consecutive footstep. Glass windows above them dripped in more fresh blood, signaling danger was nearby.

After ascending the stairs to the second floor, the ceiling's wires and crumbled foundation revealed multiple stories in the potential sevens or eights. Static electricity from the split wires, along with flickering hallway lights made the path much more difficult to tread. Distant shadows and half-opened doors signaled life nearby, but not in the way the two hoped to see.

"Oh, don't tell me we're going through there," Alfaic complained after examining their surroundings through her futuristic-plated armor. "We really ought to find another path."

"This is the only way," Lyn said briefly before stepping through.

"Eh, I thought you'd say that."

Lyn passed through the hallways, watching each corner for potential signs of danger. The blue-colored lockers on both sides of her were drenched in fresh blood, making it a natural nesting ground for maggots, blood flies, and other insects whose appetites needed satisfaction. The metallic scent of blood did not phase Lyn. Crackling electricity and the creaking of her footsteps below the weak foundation created more tension for Alfaic and its precautionary coping mechanism.

"Seriously, what the hell happened here?" Alfaic asked. "Bugs and blood? One of my top two worse fears, out of a million. I can't even guess what-"

"Blade. Silence." Lyn ordered, stopping her movement. She eyed a single presence ahead, which was made much more difficult to fully observe with the flickering of the fluorescent light source in a half-shattered lamp. She lowered her eyelids to get a closer glimpse, but the flickers made it much worse.

She placed her left hand on one of the halo sensors behind tying her hair and tossed it at the light source, shattering it completely. All that remained was a much dimmer and consistent light source, albeit weaker.

Now that the path was clear, Lyn had improved clarity with her eyesight. She slowly and cautiously approached the bloodied path, sensing movement on the other side of the hallway. A bubbling and curdling low growl, followed by the buzzing manifestation of blood flies and insects followed soon after, naturally increasing in volume with each cautious step.

The presence became much clearer. A wide and voluminous pool of scarlet blood appeared directly underneath a standing human-like figure coated in patches of pale pus-riddled and bumpy skin. The figure, whose head was jammed entirely inside the opening of a blood fly nest, jerked and quivered unnaturally zombie-like.

The figure's bloody flesh-dripped skin indicated it to be a monstrosity similar to the rotten beast they had encountered on the flying disc. Its torn suspenders and clothing indicated that it was once human and alive, but no longer. Blood-curdling choking sounds, followed by the uneasiness of liquid slurping and engulfing followed soon after as Lyn stopped in her tracks.

In the snap of a second, the dim light faded completely. The creature was no longer visible. Lyn's neutral expression remained still as she could hear the creature stepping on the bloody puddle, croaking with a throat filled to the brim with blood sustenance.

Several more seconds passed. There was no longer any sound.

The dim light ignited itself, giving Lyn the visibility she needed to see her path. The creature was ten steps away from Lyn, approaching her and Alfaic in a sluggish and slumped manner. Lyn expected a flesh-eaten head for the monstrosity, but she was instead greeted by a single massive circular lump covered in elongated hair follicles and spores flickering from all sides. Below the lump was a set of front teeth pushed forward, as the creature's jaw detached entirely. The mutation of the creature was beyond abhorrent as a visible parasite exited through its lower portion of the mouth.

"Holy shit!" Alfaic cried, losing complete composure over the dire situation.

Alfaic's voice made the creature croak; its eyes were not visible at first, but Lyn caught them on both sides of the parasitic lump where its ears used to be. Lyn detached Alfaic with a swipe of her hand and levitated it behind her. The creature's inhumane and blood-curdling croak morphed into a screech as it charged at Lyn. She swept and commanded Alfaic to slice through the lumpy mass, but it was revealed to be completely hardened.

"Lyn, watch out!" Alfaic cried as the creature swept its powerful arms toward her.

Lyn dodged to the side to avoid it and rushed toward the walls to scale it. She reappeared behind the creature and retracted Alfaic to her side. Holding it by the handle, she rushed toward the creature and aimed for its neck, believing it to be less reinforced. With one swift slice, Lyn decapitated the creature, leaving its lumpy mass of head in the blood puddles.

But the creature was not done. The headless creature continued to charge at Lyn after its presumed defeat. It grabbed Lyn's shoulders and dragged it toward the opening of its blood-spurting neck. A worm-like parasite, much like the one embedded in the rotten beast, ejected out and aimed for Lyn's mouth. Before it could reach it, Alfaic levitated around on behalf of its sentience and lashed forward from the side, slicing the parasite in half. The creature's arms slumped back, releasing Lyn.

"Lyn?" Alfaic asked as it remained stuck on a wall beside her. "Lyn! Are you okay?"

With a single stroke of her arm, Lyn wiped the blood off of her cheek from the monster. She reached for Alfaic and pulled it off of the wall. She examined the massive lumpy head on the ground and had no hesitation to demolish it. Using her right foot, she stomped it to create an explosion of brain matter and white pus. Its elongated hair follicles continued moving in the puddle until all life ceased.

From behind, more of the same creature variants came rushing through the hallway. Their faces were horrifyingly disfigured with stitches increasing the size of their heads. They tripped on each other and slipped on the bloody puddles, indicating their low intellect. Lyn placed Alfaic on her back and scaled through the top floors of the building to further increase the distance between them and the monsters.

"What the hell are those things!?" Alfaic cried as Lyn continued ascending through the station. She recalled one of Alfaic's sensors back to her pony-tailed hair and flipped through to the sixth floor as glimpses of light came through nearby windows. "Okay, getting the high ground. That sounds like a good plan. Good work, Lyn! Anything to get us away from those things, right?"

Lyn moved near the light rays peaking through the glass windows. Curdling echoes of the mutated parasitic creatures surged through the darkness, leaving their location unknown to Lyn and Alfaic's perception. She stopped near the windows and caught a glimpse of a signpost and instructions to reach the fire station's tunnels.

"Behind us!" Alfaic cried.

More mutated creatures unexpectedly rushed toward Lyn without enough time for her to react. She pulled Alfaic behind her and shoved one of the creatures to the side with the blade's handle. Another creature toppled over and pushed her down to the ground. Lyn propped her foot against the creature's stomach, watching as the disfigured sewn head of the creature split in half down the middle to reveal a set of jagged teeth pushing down against her. The jagged teeth rampaged forward. Lyn jammed Alfaic in between its gaping jaw and pushed forward with enough pressure to prevent it from devouring her head whole.

Lyn's neutral expression remained until the unthinkable occurred. Part of the parasitic creature's saliva drooled down on her arm, creating a burning sensation that bypassed Alfaic's armor and onto her skin. Alfaic shouted in pain, as Lyn's armor was part of it. A sudden jolt and wave of pain surged through Lyn's body for the first time, causing her eyebrows to slant and her teeth to clench in uncertainty. Alfaic took notice of it as well, regenerating the part of her dissolved armor to wipe the saliva clean.

For the first time, Lyn understood what pain was.

"Lyn! Hang in there!" Alfaic cried, attempting to discharge its electric powers to destroy the mutated creature from within its head. But time was running thin. It was only a matter of time before the creature would satiate its appetite, until...

A sniper bullet whizzed through the glass windows, striking the rotten creature through the neck to detach its head off. Lyn regained composure to the situation and the monster's opening, shoving the head back with Alfaic. She then executed the two creatures with Alfaic by swiftly stabbing the parasites that leaked out of their necks searching for a new host.

Lyn gritted her teeth and pulled Alfaic out of the creature's lumpy heads. She slipped and fell back onto the ground as she dropped her blade to the side. She clutched her left hand and began breathing heavily in response to the burning sensation of the creature's acidic saliva.

"Lyn, what's wrong?" Alfaic asked, removing the part of her arm where the burning sensation came through from the acid. "What's happening to your arm?"

"It hurts..." Lyn revealed, clutching it firmly.

"It hurts?!" Alfaic was astonished by Lyn's response. "But I thought you couldn't feel pain! You're non-human! What the hell was in that thing's mouth?!"

Lyn clutched her arm and stood up, wobbling from the first sensation of pain. Alfaic was right. She was certain that her body could not feel pain, until now. Although the injury was not dire or severe, her pain receptors were triggered for the first time in her life, making it seem much worse than normal. She never believed her body could feel pain until now, and no single rip of her arm could solve that.

"Hey, hey, don't move too much," Alfaic asked, returning to her side. "Looks like we're not so immortal after all. We have to be careful."

Lyn continued composing her breath as the acid's lingering sting continued to fade second by second. Her non-human body accelerated her healing, along with Alfaic's armor to increase that rate. She breathed through her nose and glanced out the shattered glass window where the sniper bullet traveled through. Alfaic moved toward the window as well to observe the distant presence of another human.

An enormously bright sniper rifle glint, caused by the reflection of their tactical scope, greeted Lyn and Alfaic as it swayed side to side. Although the person behind the weapon was difficult to see at first glance, Lyn caught the figure pointing near a nearby transparent glass walkway that attached the station to another sector. The figure gave a clear thumbs-up; all that Lyn could examine of the individual were the tight and blackened goggles covering their eyes.

"That guy wants us to meet through that connected walkway," Alfaic stated, hovering toward the path to their destination. "We better get moving. That could be a human who wants to help us." Before it could move onward, it spun back, watching Lyn continue to adjust to the first blighted reaction to the acid. "I felt it too... like I couldn't get rid of it in my system. But pain is all part of being human too. It's... inevitable."

"Inevitable..." Lyn whispered as Alfaic approached her. "I..."

"It's okay," Alfaic reassured. "You're going to be okay. At least we can rest easy knowing that you have some kind of humanity, I guess. Good to know you're like a non-human... human," Alfaic paused. "Yeah, that sounded a lot better in my head..."

Lyn pushed herself off of the wall and advanced toward the walkway with Alfaic. She returned to her neutral facial expression, but deep inside her system, she wished she could never feel pain again. If being a human meant that was a possibility, then Lyn had no regrets about staying the way she was now.

If it never happened before, why now?

Lyn turned back and examined the mutated creatures one last time with uncertainty before moving onward. Alfaic remained behind her, realizing now that sooner or later if she continued to feel human, there was a possibility that she would find out that it lied to her about knowing her forebearers. Not wanting to dwell on the minor guilt, Alfaic hoped that she would not remember.

We just met. She's not important... not for my lord.