1.22.1 Kick the baby...

High in the sky, a featherless bird with a woman's head flew without a sound. Its body was ugly, its spine twisted but the face of the woman on its head was beautiful. Her small but lush black hair moved in the air due to traction, adding to her beauty. If not for the ugly body of the creature, one may have mistaken it for a Harpy.

The creature kept flying towards its destination, leaving the mountain where Spoon's group hunted animals, leaving the village where they once worked as farmhands, and soon reached the outskirts of Riber City. And soon inside it too.

Normally, a mutant beast of this nature would have been detected by the city defenses and dealt with appropriately. But none of that happened, it seems as if the whole city had completely ignored the existence of this bizarre creature. Even the people in city streets completely ignored its existence as it perched on the pole, overlooking the whole city.

But after finding nothing in the city, it flapped its meaty wings and moved toward the eastern barracks where the players were active.

And once again, it was completely ignored by everyone and everything.

The players, like always, moved out to do their missions and accumulate experience for level up. Unlike the higher grade officers of eastern barracks, who were talking among themselves with some worry in their eyes.

Things didn't seem to be going well among the upper brass of the military. And even though the weird players attracted the attention of the creature, it's not why it was here.

The creature flew up once again toward the old research building where Girisia was once kept. It still looked like always from the surface, there wasn't much damage on its outside and if not for feeling the remnant energy left by the tentacle and Wilkis's release of high radiation, the creature wouldn't have stood there for the longest, looking curiously at the building with some worry and fear.

Like before, after a few hours of eyeing the building. The creature once again flew into the air and toward the office of Mayor where Wilkis was sitting going through papers and talking to his most trusted commanders.

*****

"How's the situation on the beast attack, have you found out why they are turning suicidal?" Wilkis asked, his eyes shining in blue tint, further adding to his cold charm.

"Not yet. But we have identified the fiend which is targeting us. It's the mutants from the gray-bone clan." The old commander notified Wilkis as he handed him some drone images which showed some white humanoids standing beside a crystalline lizard. "We don't know why they are showing aggression toward us."

Wilkis took over the report and read it in an instant. "Good work, at least we are now sure of the ones that are attacking us." Wilkis praised his commanders.

"And no need to focus on finding the reason for their actions anymore. Just focus on defense, I will be sending some messengers in their direction and ask why they would break peace between us."

"Yes, General." Both of the commanders said in cue, and after some more small talk about the anomans, both of them left the office satisfied.

They were satisfied, not just because of the praises for the work they did. But after confirming that nothing was wrong with their General. The weird event that happened three days ago still left a huge shadow in the mind of people in Riber city and eastern barracks.

Though Vanras had already done a conference to suppress any fear and worry from cropping up. The upper brass was not that stupid. They won't be content unless they meet with Wilkis on their own.

And their wish was fulfilled.

*****

"This is wrong, I feel like I have sullied the Mayor's disposition. I shouldn't have given out praises so easily." Vanras said, rubbing his head in worry from the other side of Wilkis's study room.

"I am not good at controlling my father and you were the one who was always closest to him. So keep up the act.".And beside him sat Foresight, she was not going to leave until her father woke up.

"I know, you should just go and focus on learning more about that skin left by the entity. The more we learn about 'her' the more advantage we will have in future."

Due to her authority over the current AI governing Wilkis's body. Foresight had long taken both the skin left by the entity and Girisia out of the pocket space after the secondary AI deemed both of them harmless.

"But only I am capable of helping him if something goes wrong during his reboot, the time had already been extended by 1 more day due to errors. And the war is already on the horizon and we need him. If he fights in his current form with others, the casualties he may cause will be tremendous."

"The war may not happen, if the scouts are right and the mutant raid truly is led by the Gray-bone clan, then we can come to an understanding and end this fruitless war from starting up." Vanras had some idea on why the Gray-bone clan may be acting up.

Decades ago, it was Wilkis Riber who during an expedition came face to face with their clan and fought them head-on causing countless casualties on their side all on his own.

A war that made him be reviled by the leaders of the Gray-bone clan, but it also made them put down their weapons and ask for peace. Which they obtained after both the sides signed on non-intrusion policy.

A pact that both sides have followed without question.

The war also changed the feral nature of the Gray-bone clan, causing most of them to become moderate, and rarely do they go to wars with other clans around them.

So, such drastic action by them was too weird. It seemed outright foolish and nonsensical. It will not only break the peace between two sides, instead, but it will also start up an all-out war that may encompass all of humanity. Ending the peaceful days of progress, just the thing radicals in the citadel and followers of Utena want.

"Just do whatever you want, I am staying here." Farsight was not having any of it. She was going to stay by her father's side till he woke up. Even if it meant leaving Girisia alone.

Well, he was not alone in truth, neither in his room nor in his mind. For an anoman had been allowed to be by his side, taking care of his needs in Wilkis's personal quarters.

It was a dream of many to go to such an important place and explore, but Tara could only explore a certain part of this house and most of it was guarded with countless defenses that can end her life in an instant.

And in his mind, Girisia was having a great talk with the child. A talk that consisted of him smashing the countless heads of children growing up from growing up again and again.

"Just shut up… SHUT UP!" He shouted at the babies which grew up like weeds from the ground. At this moment, Girisia had completely recovered. But he was far from a human being.

Besides some parts of his torso still retaining some humanoid features, the current Girisia looked closer to a skinless wendigo, his jaw was like that of a crock, his lets that of a wolf, his claws were just razor-sharp tentacles that moved with a mind of their own. As for his tail, it was the most lethal of it all, a sharp and bony snake with poison dripping from it.

His stats have completely initialized in this dream and his volatile mutation had completely changed the way he was original. His desire to kill and eliminate the tumor that has attached to him was at an all-time high.

It didn't matter if it was just a child looking for a way to survive. For him, this child already lost its chance at life even with a stronger mother backing her up. This was a failure as an organism.

Though Girisia knew, if this tumor had stuck to someone else beside him, he may have shown some mercy on the child and helped her to revive.

But this was not someone else, it was his own body that was used as a surrogate now. Which he didn't like at all.

He knew that he was being a hypocrite in this case. But being a Hypocrite was something he felt proud about. It's one of the tools of the weak and shameless, a tool that lets him adapt to the world depending on their circumstances.

"This is like Whack a mole, but the mole is a squishy baby." Girisia laughed, he felt like he went back in time when his parents were still alive when they took their whole family to an arcade and he wasted all his money on shitty games. Those were the days he was happiest, the day he missed the most.

Even during good adventures of epic proportions in Nirvana along with his siblings can't compare to a simple game of whack a mole when his parents were alive.

Maybe what they say is true, enjoying the simple things in life is the best.

"Thank you, god… I have never had this much fun since coming to this shithole." A beastly laugh escaped from Girisia's crocodile-like jaw.

And after the whole roadside was filled with entrails and guts of countless babies, did the babies stop reviving?

And with that, it was time.

"It feels heavy… is it time to go back?" As Girisia said, he felt as if the ground swallowed him. And when he opened his face, what appeared in front of his eyes was a familiar face, with familiar expressions and a huge amount of deja vu.

'This is getting too weird.'

This kind of deja vu was creepy.