Epics of Noche 4, Asylum

EON CH 23- ACT 51, THE TWINS

ROOM OF LIGHT.

1777, APRIL 03rd, SUNDAY 9:01 pm.

Noche destroyed door after door as she chased the Grave brothers through the upper echelons of the asylum. Despite the fact they were unlocking and closing each door behind them, the twins far exceeded Noche in terms of speed.

Unlike the lower levels of the asylum, these rooms were full of scientific equipment, research papers, and other bits and bobs. They were also much smaller in scale than the base of the asylum. In fact, it looked like it was originally designed to store prison staff.

For half an hour she chased the wardens. Along the way she encounter dozens of bell divers, but with how angry she was corruption came easily to her. She summoned massive walls of white fire and bull rushed her way from room to room – never sticking around long enough to get held up in a fight.

It wasn't until she reached a white room flooded with light did she slow down. In the center of this room was a glass box and surrounding it were twelve high-powered flood lamps. Fluorescent lights covered every inch of the ceiling and everything was so grossly incandescent that the radiance burned her eye.

Within the glass box was a void, a shadow darker than the gap between stars, in the shape of a humanoid. She slowed down long enough to stare at the anomaly. A tendril emerged from its torso and grew into a little hand. It waved at her.

She stared at it for a second or two before continuing her dash. The blonde slammed into the door with a pillar of corruption and white flames exploded in all directions. Noche didn't hesitate to continue on her journey upwards.

A few minutes later, Mary and Alice followed General Trio into that very same room. The crazy General stopped in her tracks and stared at the glass cage. The shadowy figure within waved at her.

"Bruh, aren't we supposed to go after the Grave brothers?"

"Yeah, yeah, but this is more interesting."

Mary stared at the shadow figure and frowned; Alice wrapped her hand around her shoulder.

"But the siren to call the hydra."

"We got all four generals here," Trio smirked. "Even if they summon the hydra, I'm confident we can deal with it."

The bald general walked over to a desk at the far end of the room. She opened the drawers and took out some papers. Mary turned to Alice, who in response frowned and shrugged.

"Well that's interesting," Trio muttered.

"What is?"

"They got nudes of Salt."

"What!"

"Well not really, it's just some medical documents. How'd they even get their hands on this?"

She scattered the papers on the table and dug deeper into the drawer.

"Trio, we really ought to—"

"Here we go!"

The general slammed a thick packet onto the table and then threw it open. She flipped page after page until she stopped on one with a picture of a shadow humanoid.

"Found you ya wriggly little fuck!"

Mary and Alice walked over to the general.

"Salt's DNA is the basis for our creation, blah blah blah," Trio said. "An energy being of pure darkness, yadda yadda, where's the good stuff?"

"After much effort we were successful," Mary read. "The shadow is a being of pure energy and is sentient. Made entirely out of drive energy."

"Yeah I figured that out myself," Trio said.

"One unique side effect of its creation is it's capable of teleporting via shadows," she continued. "Constant light should keep it restrained as we research how to replicate it."

"Son of a bitch... The scream. It's my fault he escaped," Trio muttered.

"What was that?"

"Ohh, sounds like Salt is a daddy!" Trio said. "Welp, we can add this to the evidence pile of bad boy activities the Grave besties have done."

"Wait – are you telling me they made some shadow creature using Salt's DNA?" Mary turned to the glass cage and stared. "That's a being of pure energy?"

"Correcto!" Trio threw both arms up into the air. "But I can tell you this. Odds are we're not going to catch up to the twinsies. We're heading back to the generals to plan our next phase of attack."

Alice placed her hand on Mary's shoulder and smiled. The dark-skinned girl let out a small breath as the three of them went back down the stairs. Before they left, Trio turned to the glass cage and stared at the grinning shadow within.

"What's wrong bruh?"

"Nothing. Everything. The past. The future."

Mary scrunched her eyebrows; Trio chuckled.

"I'm fine," the general said. "It's... Just a part of my story I guess."

Whistling a little tune, Trio walked down the stairs.

Noche passed by lantern after lantern in the shape of an anglerfish as she made her way up the dimly lit stairwell. Even at these heights water dripped down the stairs and would splash under her bare feet. She wasn't sure how far below the ocean she was, having spent most of the day running upstairs, but by now she was sure she was nearing the clouds.

Door after door was erased due to her corruption as she gave chase. Floor after floor became smaller as she neared the top of the asylum tower. Her body glitched the few times she rushed through corruption that hadn't finished destroying its target.

Then she did it – she reached the top of the stairs. Noche stood in a room shaped like a dome, like an observatory without a telescope. It was about five hundred feet in diameter and opposite to her were the Grave brothers; they stood before a massive switch mounted on the wall. Both twins turned to the blonde as the white light of corruption died down.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't no nipple Noche?" Red said. "How did you do that – get past that door?"

His eyes lingered on a flickering white flame before it cooled to black tar. Noche grit her teeth as the wardens got into a more cautious stance. She didn't wait to say anything – the blonde charged at red as her left arm made of corruption manifested.

With his guard up it was effortless for him to dodge her swing. He restrained Noche by her right arm and slammed her into the ground. However, her left arm wasn't restricted to mundane movements, and it bent at an unnatural angle to claw at him. As if he could sense the danger he jumped back.

"Is that... Corruption?" Red's grin faltered. "We've never encountered it before. To destroy DriveMetal that can hold back a general so easily... It really is dangerous."

Noche stood and her left arm flared with power. She slammed it into the wall and white flames ate away at the metal. It spread like fire on gasoline, consuming the roof, most of the walls, and even some of the floor before coming to a halt.

It cooled into tar that dripped onto the ground, but both brothers were able to dodge it. Without the shelter around them, hurricane winds buffeted them from all angles. Above a night sky full of stars was visible and below was a sea of blue-gray storm clouds.

Spots of gold lit up the sky as lightning struck the world below. Noche's wet hair snapped back and forth as she stared down her torturers. The wind was deafening as the three all got into combative stances.

"Very well, we have a few moments," they said in unison. "Let's play."