Thoughtless

'YOU CANNOT PERISH HERE, PRECIOUS HOST.'

Theus awoke to the sight of the partially eclipsed Sun with beautiful nebulas surrounding it, riddled with stars. Staring for a while, Theus eventually remembered the predicament he was in, shivering due to the extreme cold. 

'I've gotta… find where we landed…'

Carrying Caylie on his back, who was much lighter than he had expected her to be, he climbed out of the crater made by Caylie and his crash landing.

Theus turned back around, glancing at the large hole made in the moon's icy crust.

'What the hell did she do…?'

Drawing his gaze back to the front, he squinted his eyes to try and see as far as he could manage.

Yet he saw nothing but barren frozen ridges for a really long time.

'Whatever. Some alone time is greatly appreciated!'

Grumbling as if trying to convince himself that he was fine being alone, Theus trotted forward with Caylie in tow. 'He had a lot of thoughts to catch up on and run through, but there was one that stood out heavily from the rest.

'I really wonder what my real parents are up to, ditching me for this dull place.'

Theus held immense hatred and confusion towards his real parents for abandoning him when he was just a newborn boy. He was always stuck by his belief that for every action, there had to have been a justifiable reason behind it, yet this was the only situation where he couldn't piece together why he had been left like this. Theus asked Soteira what his last name had meant, a question that she didn't have an answer for.

All of these unanswered questions fueled Theus' drive to see his real parents to its fullest. Despite him never wanting to see them a day in his life, he couldn't feel at ease with a question of his that had no answer. 

There was plenty more that Theus wondered about as well, especially regarding the pasts of the people he now surrounded himself with, yet he could satiate that curiosity later. There was something more accessible that he could use to search for answers, since the questions he had for his acquaintances weren't the only thing bugging his brain at the moment.

Opening his status and scrolling through, he saw his Desire's name once again, bringing back the only memory he retained when injecting The Mutation.

'Acolythorin, The Founder of Concept.'

Along with this he saw his Desire's rank once again, still being an Otherworldly Desire. He paused his walking for a moment and turned his head to look at the presumably unconscious Caylie, then returned to his original pace.

'I wonder what rank her Desire is, especially considering what it did to me!'

Theus grimaced at the recollection of what could've been his pleasant, yet also pitiful death. Throwing this thought aside, he turned his attention back to who Acolythorin might be. 

'The Founder of Concept… That's lame, why would you name yourself after finding a machine??'

Despite his best efforts, which weren't much, he lacked the overall intelligence at the moment to decipher and depict what anything really meant in his status screen.

Closing the status screen with a dissatisfied click of his tongue, he put more strength in his legs and continued pushing through the sheer cold atmosphere of Europa. 

Then, an idea clicked in his head.

'I want to get to the ship, I want to get to the ship, I want to get to the-'

A compass slowly formed and dropped on the ground in front of Theus, who stared at the ground with disdain, groaning in both disappointment and pain from creating the compass.

"Ugh, I said I want to GET to the ship, not find it!"

Kicking the compass like a pebble, Theus continued walking, then formed another idea.

'Teleport me to the ship-'

A pang rang through his head once again, causing him to fall to the floor with Caylie's body falling on top of him as well, her chest pressing against his back, causing him to blush slightly.

A certain voice spoke that made Theus frown, however.

'YOU CANNOT DO THAT.'

There was that voice as well that Theus gratefully forgot about, yet it was coursing through his brain once again.

"Y'know, you still haven't said anything about who you are. Mysterious people like you are lame." 

Theus pushed himself back up and continued his deliberately slow pace, waiting for the voice to respond.

'I AM ONE OF MANY, YET YOU ARE ONE OF NOTHING. A GREAT AMOUNT OF SOLAR CYCLES HAVE PASSED WAITING FOR YOU-' 

Theus began hitting himself in the head with his free hand, causing the voice to cease talking and shut up.

"Big words aren't my style, guy. Talk to me when you actually wanna say something."

As Theus continued walking, he spotted the shadow of a person on top of a ridge he was trying to pass. Smiling happily, Theus set Caylie down at the bottom of the ridge and ran towards the figure at the top.

"Excuse me! I'm very lost, do you know…"

Theus froze a few steps behind the still person, who appeared to be stargazing. Their head was leaned all the way back as they continued their endless watch of the stars.

Theus carefully walked up, preparing to tap the shoulder of the person when he noticed something off about them.

There was a large purple cyst glowing in the back of their head, seemingly attached to the skull, and maybe even the brain. 

The cyst grew what appeared to be violet roots; tendrils that seeped and stretched deep into the person's skull. Where decay had formed, life would be brought back almost instantaneously, keeping the person on the brink between life and death, an insurmountable limbo.

Theus stumbled back in fear and tripped on himself, causing the person to slowly turn its head around and stare at Theus.

"H-haah, what the hell are you?!"

Its eyes were pitch black with a small, white dot serving as its pupil. It's mouth was uncomfortably closed, forming a straight line, a neutral expression over its entire face.

Theus continued crawling back, yet stopped when he neared a sharp decline in the slope of the ridge. The two stared at each other for a moment, with the person staring deep into Theus' eyes, never breaking contact.

"Uh-"

The person's mouth gaped open, revealing a cylinder of teeth similar to the ones Theus saw in the maw of The Mutation. The sounds of rotten flesh squelching and jaw bones cracking rang about as the person kept their all-devouring mouth wide open. Just then, a splitting scream pierced Theus' ears, causing him to close his eyes in pain for just a second. 

A second was all the creature needed, however. 

It lunged at Theus, pushing itself onto him and causing the two to slide down the sharp slope together. Using Theus' back as if it were a sledding board, it used its body weight to push Theus along the rough, steep decline. 

Being pushed onto the jagged rocks, the durability of the shabby suit was put to the test. Scratches formed along the firm fabric, yet it was holding up regardless, giving Theus a handful of time to think and react.

Thankfully, due to Theus' harsh upbringing, he used to get himself in plenty of street fights. He was a very skilled fighter, and a cunning one at that.

Planting his feet in the ground to stop himself from sliding, he cut his momentum short, causing the creature to lose balance for a moment, giving Theus the perfect opportunity to strike. 

Theus shoved the creature off of him, using the low gravity of Europa to his advantage and buying himself time, the creature staying afloat in the air for a short while.

'Slam him, slam him, slam him.'

Wincing in pain all while reaching the bottom of the slope, a sense of uneasiness surged through Theus' body once more as a thin tentacle sprouted from his palm, aimed directly at the floating creature.

The creature stared deep into Theus' eyes, its sunken and hollow eyes reflecting nothing, there was no emotion behind it.

And yet, it weeped. 

Theus turned his eyes away from the sight, barely being able to muster enough drive to continue the tentacle's pursuit. With the tentacle reaching its target, he felt it wrap around and squeeze, yet he also felt a tug. Retracting his tentacle, Theus focused his gaze upon where the creature was once suspended in the air.

Only to see it directly in front of his own face.

The creature had stuck its arm out while Theus wasn't looking, making the tentacle wrap around its arm instead of its body. After the squeezing had stopped, it quickly grabbed Theus' tentacle before he retracted it, dragging the creature straight towards Theus.

Without enough time to react, Theus hastily attempted to step back, yet it was too late.

The creature pounced onto Theus once more, yet this time, they were stuck on solid ground. Forced to endure the constant scratches and slashes while being held down to the icy crust of Europa, Theus held up his forearms to his head, attempting to block the majority of the blows.

'Hell no. If I'm dead like this, then the damn sky should've just killed me to begin with.'

Screaming the thought in his head and projecting it to his voice, Theus shouted towards the creature, who was still mindlessly swinging at the immobilized boy.

"Get off- Get off me, Get off me ugly bastard!"

Theus coughed out blood as his vision went blurry, his head pounding with immense pressure. Despite the throbbing, Theus knew what this agony meant.

An equally substantial reaction would be generated in return. 

A tremendous force pushed outwards from Theus' body, indenting the ground below him and causing tremors to vibrate along the creature's body, rupturing it entirely. 

Theus heard the body explode as he fell into the indent on the moon that was caused by him. Organs and viscera flew over his head as he landed safely, albeit uncomfortably, within the hole he had made.

'God… Just what the hell was that thing?!'

Taking his time to gather his bearings, Theus quickly assessed the condition of his suit.

Deep scratches were found along the abdomen of the suit, meaning the creature had, at some point, broken past Theus' guard.

However, this was the least amount of damage done to his suit. Looking at his forearms, which were once covered by the low-quality, woven together fabric, they now were barren and raw, showing Theus' bleeding arms. The gashes almost reached all the way to the bone.

That's when Theus' adrenaline had run out.

"Holy shit!! F-Fuck, it hurts! Please, someone!"

Clawing his way and dragging himself out of the hole with all his strength, he crawled towards the slumbering body of Caylie, but not before passing the bursted body of the creature.

While crawling, Theus spotted a wriggling, purple worm sprouting from the violet cyst originally located on the creature's head. 

He stared at the sight for a while, then vomited, causing Caylie to wake up nearby.

"Hmm? Oh, Theus? Where are we…"

Caylie turned her head, the full veil once again covering her face, blocking all possibilities of tracing what her eyes were focused on.

Theus looked up from vomiting, coughing while yelling at Caylie.

"Finally! Argh, could you tell me what the hell you sent me flying for, and help me-"

Cutting him off while fixing her position, sitting down comfortably, Caylie spoke calmly once more.

"Theus, please eat that worm