The Ghost Shepherd

Abyssal Demon (part 2)

The sensitivity to light, the dislike for cooked meat, the pleasantness of the night, they were all aspects of the Ghostly Behemoth and they were all ingrained inside the core.  K.C discovered the anomaly during the time Sly was talking to Millie but when she tried to sever the connection that the Nanotrons made from his heart to the Core, it was impossible.  

Inside Sly's body, the Argonian DNA that was blending slowly suddenly lit up in a blue ghastly hue and started to attack their counterpart with the intent to swallow the human DNA and with that material, they wanted to replicate the original strand.  

The Nanotrons immediately stepped in and with the help of the chip managed to zap the parts belonging to the Argonian DNA and gave Sly a fighting chance, however, it was far from enough.  

The only solution K.C could think of was to connect to the Mother AI and have her take over the situation, she could mobilized droids to bring anything required from the military facility as well as use the Nanotrons more effectively in their fight against the residual spirit in the blood that was attacking its host like a virus.

Sly fell asleep the moment he laid on the bed unaware of what was happening to him.  He instead had a dream, he was inside a very dark place in the depths of an Ocean.  He was observing a scene play out in front of him.  

In the scene, a Ghostly Behemoth that was huge by human standards, maybe 10 ft or so, was being held like a baby by another that was 20 times its size. 

Sly looked around and noticed that despite being in such a dark place, he could see perfectly.  There were many creatures cheering for the baby Behemoth and shouting, long live our prince, long live the Abyssal Demon Bloodline.  

The scene then changed rapidly like looking outside the window of a moving train, Sly then appeared inside a spaceship that seemed more like a living organism and saw the young Abyssal demon learning how to use his abilities while traveling to a distant planet. 

On that planet, he was supposed to gain experience and earn his stripes by battling a foreing enemy he had never seen before in an area of conflict.  The moment he arrived at his new station he was received like a prince by the person in charge of the war campaign and shown his place of residency.  It was a very dark place where light was absorbed artificially so that nothing could bother him.  Delicacies such as the brains of the prisoners of war were brought in on a regular basis and thanks to his ability, he was able to converse with the spirits of the dead creatures that he ate.  

He was getting stronger day by day but it was a boring life. When he arrived on the new planet Icarus, he expected to see the sights, fight for the Argonians and gain Merit so when he went back, he could stand tall among his peers. How was he supposed to rule and take his people to the top of the Argonian hierarchy if he was hand fed all the time.  

By Argonian standards he was at the borderline of becoming Lord class but his abilities were feared by members already in that tier.  

In order to have some fun, the Abyssal Demon waited for his chaperon to get busy with the invasion and used a strange ability to leave the place he stayed at.  As an Abyssal Demon he was active during the night and slept during the day, and using that to his advantage he escaped from his room without anybody noticing his absence.  

The young demon spent about two weeks traveling from place to place, hunting and doing whatever he liked, he was free as a bird and loved it.

The dream shattered many times with one recollection after another of his time living alone and Sly as an observer was able to get a sense of the young Abyssal Demon’s journey. 

In the last scene Sly saw, the demon was nowhere to be found and all Sly could see was a 2 handed axe coming down. 

Before the deed was done, Sly jumped out of bed like it was his neck on the chopping block and he had a lot of sweat coming down his back.  The room was Dark but he could see perfectly around, the only thing that bothered him was the little bit of light coming through the window that were like needles being buried through his eyes and into the back of his skull.

“How do you feel?” said K.C

"O.K I guess … I had the weirdest dream last night.  It was about that Ghostly Behemoth, I dreamt the bloodline was called Abyssal Demon and that he was a prince of his race"

Sly proceeded to tell everything about it to K.C who actually put two and two together and passed the information to the mother AI that updated the database and sealed it as classified.   

"Well, you have been sleeping for exactly 90 h 24 m and 50 sec.  Your assimilation has been finished so you should look in the mirror and don't panic about what you see"

Sly immediately panicked and paced around the room before mustering the courage to take a peek while the chip's giggles reverberated in his mind.

“It can’t be that bad, at the very least I sound the same as before,” said Sly.

“We really tried to help you remain as human as possible but that blood was a freak of nature”

Sly took a deep breath and looked at his new self.  The Frame was human, he had everything in the same place it was before.  One head, 2 arms, and two legs, the certification he was a male was still there but his skin was now extremely white.  He had long nails that were obsidian black and the black hair he had before had turned completely white, finally his eyes no longer had any sclera, they were a dark metallic blue throughout.

Sly's skin was a lot tougher than when he left the military center, he had grown a few inches making him stand at 6 ft and he was shredded.  Sly moved from side to side in the mirror and observed his broad shoulders and very balanced body made for close combat. 

The problem came when he went to smile after looking at the positive changes and saw his new razor sharp teeth like those of a shark whose only function seemed to be reaping meat from bone.  

“Hmm… I guess... I can be the quiet type…(stroke a kissing pose) you want a little kiss… muuuah”

Hideous!! Said K.C continuing with the report.

“According to the data collected during the evolution, your Strength and Agility increased considerably but we need more data to determine by how much.  Your eyes are now special, the occipital lobe has been restructured by the genes and now you have perfect night vision and can see a lot more details on a regular basis but the sun is your enemy.  There is no way to regulate the amount of sunlight that enters and it can burn your retina leaving you blind.  Another structure has appeared around your optic nerve and I am yet to determine the usage but it looks like it is related to the spirit energy you saw in your dream, but further study is needed.  It might be the reason the Abyssal Demon looked like he had no eyes, they were always close!!"

"For now stay in the room and watch the videos of the hunters versus the Argonians while the sun goes down, even artificial light might be harmful as well." 

Sly closed his eyes and he realized he could still see.  It wasn’t until he put his hand over his close eyelids that he was unable to see.

Sly laid back on the bed and before he realized it, the first video started to play.  K.C decided to go easy on her host and play the video of a veteran Hunter against a Draco. The hunter was a range fighter and he took out a long rifle and thanks to his enhanced vision he was able to hit the draco with a photon bullet from 1000 meters away.  The gun fired and then a hole appeared on the dracos head before it fell to the ground.

"That hunter had a 5 star common rating, and was not using an E.F.S weapon, the rifle is available for purchase at any weapon store in the city. Pretty easy kill… next we have a failure".  Said K.C

The next video was a young student carrying an orb that looked like an atom with orbits spinning around it.  It was a fire user known as Pyromancer.  He was running in the forest when he saw a creature charging at him.  The hunter raised a fire wall to get a better position while obstructing the draco's line of sight but his initial reaction was too slow and by the time the wall was completed, the Draco had already crossed its threshold and even after the hunter threw a barrage of fireballs at it, the creature just kept on trucking before jumping towards the pyromancer and ate his face.

The videos kept playing for hours, some were short, some were gruesome, some were team hunts but there were no prolonged fights, no fancy moves.  The draco's fighting style was always the same, charging in like a bull and enduring the attacks while getting into range to launch itself at his victim and eat their heads. 

In the alliance side, the fighting style was a little more innovative but the majority of successful kills started with an ambush.

Out of the hundred videos he played, it was always the same except for one that called his attention.  It was the one of a female hunter whose videos had been recorded not too long ago.  She was young and looked about 15  or so, she walked inside the dangerous forest like she was having a stroll in the park.  She didn't try to hide or set up an ambush, she was just trying to call the attention of the Argonians and she was successful.  The outfit she was wearing was a beautiful cherry blossom kimono but what really surprised Sly was that despite the mask she was using the metallic dreadlocks placed her as an Umdali.

Two dracos saw the pink creature walking around against the green forest background and thought, dinner.  The little girl continued walking but out of the sleeves of her outfit, Nanotrons came out and took the form of a young metallic male a lot taller than she was.  

Sly's chip trembled at the sight, the nanos in the video were more advanced than what they had.. 

"Now… those are the Nanotrons we deserve" said K.C

The young girl moved her little hand up, and acted like strings were being attached to her fingers. 

Woosh.

The nano doll moved extremely fast towards one of the dracos and then broke into a bunch of spikes that buried themselves deep into the enemy.  Once this happened the girl moved her hand as if she was swiping the screen of a cell phone and the Draco flew to the side and was knocked against the other Draco that was coming. 

THUD

The dracos fell to the ground but before they could stand up the nano doll reformed into his original form and transform his right hand into a lance and stabbed it into their heads. 

It was over just like that.

"Is there any information about her in the file"

"Just her code name… the Puppeteer"