26 Perfectly Sane

Deep under the city, in one of the many paths and caverns created by the Thorns of Judgment that have swallowed the city hole, a dozen revenants stood guard near a mistle after sending a signal for extraction to the home base.

Kyle stood near the mistle with another revenant who held onto a bag full of blood beads, everyone was clearly excited, but the leader wondered about a few things, not letting the ecstatic feeling get to his head.

The sight of dozens of blood beads after years of starvation and near frenzy wasn't enough to cloud his judgment. 

The dim caverns barely lit by the obsidian spikes and roots with their violet shimmers had a few paths with water slipping by its cracks. The trickling of water running at his feet was the only sound accompanying his musing as everyone else was completely silent.

Reviving dead mistles wasn't as rare during the time Kyle took part in the Queenslayer operation as it had become now. A compound of varied substances with the key item being a sample of the Queen was what the government used to revive the missiles around its base during the war.

It was a precious drug and the man has only ever held it once as he was a capable leader of the scouting team, so he at least knew what it should look like. A black-purple liquid that almost looked alive, moving by itself, and it radiated a revolting aura of dreadful power and chaos. 

Even a small sample of the blood from the Queen was disturbing in nature.

But the solution he was given was different from that formula made with the Queen's blood. One would see no difference if they compared it to normal blood. It didn't emanate any sort of pressure or seem macabre in nature.

Just simple blood… 

So why was it able to revive all the msitles and the blood spring he and his team encountered in the depths?

Did the government find a way to replicate the formula after running out of samples? Perhaps.

Given that the Crimson Sword appears to have genuine support from Cerberus in his operation, this was a possibility. He was given plenty of this sample which meant that they had more to spare. 

So far, it seems like Louis wasn't a pawn of the government. After all, the sentence given to anyone caught with human trafficking is not something you can influence unless you had your connections to people up top. Either you die or you are executed. There was no choice… there was supposed to be no choice. But here he is.

This day was full of surprises, but not enough apparently since the mistle revived by a few drops of the drug suddenly opened its tendrils and golden spores radiated from it, slowly building what seemed to be three people.

Louis, Adam, and Io found themselves surrounded by the team as Kyle stood in the front with his weapon drawn.

"Oh, that's right." Adam walked forward as he ignored the perplexed revenants pointing their weapons at them, "I forgot to introduce myself, Adam Howard by the way."

Was the trio close by and died which caused them to revive at the mislte?

Did the formula somehow make them revive at that mistle in specific- No, Kyle revived other missiles on his way here, that didn't make sense!

They didn't seem confused with short-term memory loss either, one of the clear signs of dispersal and reassembly, so they didn't die.

Something didn't make sense…

The revenant was confused, but he was a man who has seen a lot, so he managed to throw the speculations through the window and shake Adam's hand.

"...Kyle Alick." He introduced himself a bit absent-minded at the spark of remembrance that Adam's name caused.

Since Davis was officially part of the team, Adam could ask the man about his past or records of himself without causing any unnecessary drama about indirectly appearing to accuse Louis of an attempt of his to dig into his past.

From what he had gotten, it turned out that there were barely any details about himself. Just that he lost his parents during the Great Collapse, remains of them were never found, and he offered himself to become a revenant to fight the Queen.

Besides the tragic but not-so-unusual background that lacked details about his participation in the Queenslayer operation, it appears that his name remains somewhat the same in this life, Adam Howard. It isn't rare for revenants to forget or change their names as even Davis has done it, although unconsciously, of course. 

That, and the drastic change in his once green eyes that are now crimson, Adam hasn't found anything else about his identity. Not even something about his blood code. Hopefully, Kyle could confirm a few things for him without probing too much and appearing suspicious.

Adam has only been in this new world for no more than ten days and has yet to verify a lot of information he had from the game. 

It hasn't been long since he finished his third playthrough of Code Vein as well, it was safe to say that he had a good grasp of the batch of most other revenants that gave side quests in the game. So he was aware that Kyle was a 2nd generation revenant just like himself.

The 1st generation was created alongside the Queen during the first clinical trials before the Great Collapse, 2nd generation was created to fight the Queen after she went frenzy, and the 3rd one was awakened after the Queenslayer operation which included people like Louis, Yakumo, and Coco.

He is aware that Kyle and the original protagonist met by chance in the war from the game, but he wasn't entirely sure and he planned to confirm it here.

One would wonder how Adam could navigate in the dim caverns with the glass of his mask being tainted, but the slit pupils in his crimson eyes that no one could see didn't waste a single shimmer of light and caught every single wrinkle in Kyle's face. Not even the glass of his mask was a hindrance to Adam's sight.

A slight frown, the small narrowing of his eyes as they darted around Adam's hidden face, its pupils trembling with confusion, and suspicion, a small vibration coming from the man's throat as if he wanted to say something but couldn't put it into words…

Adam was glad that his visual prowess was so helpful in picking up microexpressions in people. He might not be some master manipulator or mind reader, but reading people's moods and general grasp of their thoughts according to certain involuntary expressions was far easier than before to him.

'So he might remember but not much to connect the dots right now.' Adam quickly assessed before stopping his handshake and looking at the still vigilant revenants, "Just us, guys."

"Stand down," Kyle ordered and his men did as he said. "Could've given us a little heads up."

"Would you have believed us that we have a way to travel between mistles without flatlining?" Adam questioned before looking at Louis who noted down something on the map between his hands.

"I've seen many things, not all, but enough to know that this world can't be judged with common sense anymore the moment I opened my eyes after dying," Kyle answered vaguely as he ordered his team to organize around the mistle.

"Are you ready to see more, though?"

"Try me."

Adam chuckled. It might be arrogance to talk of preparedness when it comes to discovering the secrets that this new world seems to hold, especially to someone who lived in such a world far longer than he has.

However, Adam himself has already experienced some of what the people in this world already thought was 'impossible.'

Transmigration into some kind of AU of a video game he played? Check!

A talking BOR Parasite that isn't the Queen trying to take over? Scary!

Travel through mistles and be taken into some kind of void that only he and his parasite seem to be aware of? Spiritual sh!t right there!

Possessing more versatility than other void-type revenants recorded in the government database? Yup, that's him!

Adam won't be a stranger to the strange. This world won't let him. It was by now that he figured out the nature of things, those oddities won't be all he will encounter in his new life. It might reach a point where the strange is normal which will make the sane seem mad and the depraved appear lucid.

He let out a small snort of amusement at his own musings as a smile formed on his face.

He had come here to pick up the team and also check if he could travel to the mistles that he had not revived himself. As it turns out, he very much can. The only requirement for it appears to be his blood.

'That solves a few problems… I still have to see how many people I can transport though…' His thoughts faded for a second.

The mind became empty, but not in the least blank.

In the small moment that the team reorganized for transportation and Louis updated the map with the revived msitles we traveled through before arriving here, a feeling emerged from Adam's chest, and it wasn't from the pretty silver-haired girl who stuck to his side like glue.

{¿⁇⁈}

'Ah, you finally had enough of your beauty sleep? I can't deny that the lack of bones and teeth is more pleasant to the eyes, that round slick form you have is better I gotta say, though you could tone it down with the number of eyes-.' Adam immediately began to criticize his shut-in parasite that seemingly woke up from its slumber only when it found it convenient.

{℉ʋŔŢĤëʀ βεĻɵὡ}

And the parasite promptly ignored Adam…

Io curiously stared at Adam as his blood pressure raised a few folds (Somehow) since his parasite just told him to 'attaboy' before just dipping.

He gained some self-control as he looked on the bright side, he knew that the vestige is far down and won't waste time trying to find anything at this depth while also noticing an aberration. The way his parasite communicated was much different from the screeches it used once before.

'It felt more… primal??'

He found it difficult to put into words. Before, it imitated a form of speech and now it was as something like intent—a will of sorts.

Adam has yet to discover much from his parasite, he knows there is something much bigger behind it, a big reason that will definitely bring further complications to his future hurdles. He suspected that the vestige his parasite is very vocal about finding isn't even his own… 

He didn't like it.

Not one bit of it.

It reeked of bad omens and a catastrophe ready to happen the moment he stumbles on his way to his goal.

Leaving things uncertain was for the foolish and the blessed.

He doesn't want to be caught off guard again. The last time was a wake-up call to the world's atrocities. Death can be caused by a single mistake. Technical immortality can only serve so much leniency.

That time was like a tender slap in the face telling him that the next one will be a punch, or maybe a kick to the head if he doesn't get his sh!t together.

What if the next one is about the strength of an enemy that he is minuscule in comparison to? A revelation that will change everything that he thought he knew? A choice that isn't right or wrong, a situation where there isn't a lesson to learn, a place where there isn't even anything to win… when all he can do is fail?

And if this very reason could end up being the cause of his death… 

'Another meaningless death…'

For a moment, there was a stillness in the air that no one in the vicinity could notice. Louis was with his map, Kyle was busy with his team, and Io was carefully watching the surroundings. 

No one could even imagine what went through Adam's head for those short seconds when everyone was immersed in their tasks, his gloved fingers tightly grasping the handle of his sword resting on his waist.

The grip was steady, not even an ounce of doubt of what and where the sword in its grasp could end up leading.

A gaze that no one could see behind the mask in mid of darkness glanced at the blade of his weapon… One not from fear exactly, but might be one of a growing obsession needed to make it out of his situation.

'Perhaps, there is a way to make it talk…'

"Adam." Io gently put her hand on his, "Everybody is ready."

Snapping out his twisted thoughts, he saw everyone close to the mistle.

It was as if nothing had happened. Like those seconds of lucid delirium wasn't that strange to himself?

"...Io." He spoke, giving a glance that nobody could really see.

The woman attentively stared at Adam. Her ears perked up as his tone told her that he will ask something from her. Just one word and she was ready to wage war…

"Haha," A small chuckle escaped Adam just seeing Io's eagerness. "Never mind."

He gently patted the mechanic hat on top of her pretty head before walking to the mistle, activating Ichos to check for any prying eyes like always before any teleportation.

'No need for extreme measures just yet…'

{...}

The team along with the others left the Depths.

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Word Count: 2,290

Damn, MC do really be adapting well to the apocalypse, right?

Anyhow, do you have some guilty pleasure kind of thing that you read when you have nothing else to do? Like, when all the good novels you like are on a hiatus or you just have to wait for another week and you just read trashy manhwa or dumb wuxia stuff.

I haven't done it in a while, but the last time I did it was one of those trashy "Woman with 'I can fix him' syndrome can't help but fall in love with a tyrant who has ended more bloodlines than a wuxia protagonist' and had plenty of fun just breezing through it with the sh!ttiest music I could find in youtube. Though, I've read some trashy fanfic harems as well but not too much lest I have an aneurysm.

And, in case you said that my FF is your guilty pleasure, I will rearrange the question just for you dear reader… 

"How long until I reach your house?"

:)