Leave The Monster Alone

Mark moved through the base silently. She tried to not let the atmosphere get to him and it was far easier in his current mental condition than he had expected it to be. Not to mention, the whole space seemed empty of life.

He was not even sure if anyone was in the base at all till he reached the labs. The place was tense too but it had a lot of moments also. The scientists were wary of Suzy, shooting her sharp and warning glances but otherwise seemed content to keep their distance from her.

"Have you already started the communication process? Rika, have you programmed the coordinates and the right interface?" The rational side of Mark's mind was still in control and it was far too easy to make commands.

It felt like yesterday when they had talked with Liam before but here they were once again, the communication array powered in between them.

"We did but it's still not working. The signal is still being jammed by something unseen" Rika sounded stressed and there was a string of defeat in her voice. 

But they had already fixed the signal and the communication array. Even the system was in agreement so this diversion did not make much sense at all.

"Still no progress? It should not be possible" the disbelief was clear in Mark's voice but his brain had already started to think of the cause. Another interference? A system failure here? Or perhaps-

Mark's gaze met Suzy's who could not maintain it for the long term. She turned her head away in an ashamed manner which made Mark certain that she had something to do with it. He needed to ask her but he could also not ask her in such a wide crowd of people.

Most of these people had at least one eye and ear on Suzy. It was a miracle they had not yet pouched on her for more information.

Mark gestured to the female to come to the back and empty side for questioning and got a confirmation nod. Then they discreetly made their way backdoors.

"What is going on? Should the signal not stop now?" The logical side of Mark's mind forced him to keep calm. Losing his mind right now would not help anyone in any way. Least of all the female in front of him looked increasingly uncomfortable.

"It should but this body of mine is not fully capable of containing the core. It is far too damaged to be a long-term solution. The best thing you can do is to kill me and store my core in someplace where it would not be affected" had this not been what they had been doing till now?

Then why had they gone through this much effort to get the core back into her body? Was there a reason for it all? Or all those other Suzy's to die?

"You want me to harvest your core? I'll gladly murder you and do so if you want me to" Mark's voice came as deadpan as he could make it. He did not really want to kill Suzy but she was driving a hard bargain here.

The female saw something in his expression and her face shifted from calm to mildly panicky and uncomfortable. Her eyes did not look at him one again which could be summarized as shininess.

'Or guilt' his brain added not so helpfully.

"There was no other choice if you wanted to help those poor souls affected by my core. This was the only way they would have not lost their existence once my influence was gone. I no longer have any reason to remain to live. I just want you to deliver my core back to my brother" so there was a rational reason behind the madness.

Not a very good one but more derived from emotions than anything else which was not a good sign on the female's part. The rational thing would have been to tell Mark so that he could start to look for a way around it.

He could store it all inside his system but he was not sure how well it would work. Could he even store it inside his system? Or was it not allowed? There were too many risky perimeters to do this.

Had this been his normal mental condition, Mark would have tried the risky route but his current condition did not allow him this luxury.

"Even if I did harvest your core, we currently lack the means to contain it. Hold it inside yourself for now and we'll look for an alternative" the female took a deep breath of relief, realising that she was not going to die just yet.

Perhaps she did not want to die but had resigned to her faith in the end. It did not really matter to Mark though. As long as the problem did get solved then anything would work.

"Let's go back before someone comes looking around for us. It's a miracle no one did yet" that was true. With how tight of a hold the base had been keeping on Mark and the others should have barged into their conversation a long time ago.

The reason became evident as soon as they made their way back to the other side. There was a tense and panicky air in the whole room, quite different from when they first left.

"Status report?" Alan, who had been the closest to them, just noticed them. His eyes were wide and unfocused. Clearly, he was not fully there yet and the why became evident once he opened his mouth.

"There is a disturbance in the frequency. Well, another one except Suzy's. This one is coming from the dead bodies of, you know, and it's not good for this base. It is attracting a lot of monsters" the screen showed various body signals circling the base.

Since the base was a safe spot, it could not be charged into by these monsters that easily. The only exceptions were the rare events that occurred randomly or the big events that were detailed out.

Was this also a part of such a backstory event or was this a new addition?

"Suzy, you have something to contribute?" Mark asked the female who was emotionless till now. Her eyes and aur told Mark that she likely knew something important and he should ask.

"I have a theory. It was not proven until now but there had been instances like these before" the female stalled for a bit and Mark nodded at her to continue. With how panicky everyone else was, it was very clear that they were not really listening in on them.

It was safe to discuss all of this without any further consequence.

"The bodies that came in contact with my core housed my essence for some time. As such, even in death, they give off those pheromones and those lesser beasts must be here to grab my core. They must have sensed the dead pheromones in these bodies and started looking for a chance" the female spoke as if it was common knowledge and occurrence.

It really was the dog-eat-dog world out there.

"What would happen if one of these monsters did manage to get your core?" Alan asked, his voice shaking just a bit. The situation had shaken him up and this was one top of the shock from the dead body.

The kid was so strong to still be able to interact normally with everyone.

"Honestly, it depends? Their bodies could accept the core and become the new divine beast or they could reject the core and fall into the pit. However, it'll only happen if they are at a certain power level at least. Anything below that would just get pulverized" this reminded Mark of the fallen dragon he had faced during the last mission.

The snake had let it slip that the beast had failed to ascent into a divine beast. Mark remembered how terrifying it had been for him at that moment. Should that happen again then no one here would likely survive?

"Have they started invading yet? How much time do we estimate have before they charge inside?" Now that things had come to this Mark needed to start thinking and planning. He needed to have an out as well if nothing else failed.

"We have no idea. W-We never really faced this situation before" the scientist who had somewhat recovered told Mark nervously. It was a miracle he did not hurt his voice with how high he had squeaked out those words.

"Declare this an emergency and get the civilians to a safe spot. Tell everyone to dumb every dead body into the main hall. Hopefully, we can contain this situation before it gets even worse" just how much worse it could get, only Mark had an idea about it.

Hopefully, Suzy would be able to contain these monsters should it really become impossible for them to deal with them on their own.