Mathew

Making his way from the warehouse to the lab, Mathew glanced at the scorching sun. Between its positioning and the growing shadows along the brown stone, he judged it to be about two o'clock. Plenty of time before the Alpha could call in reinforcements.

Sweeping his red tinted vision across the roads and buildings, he found nothing of interest. No monsters, no Grant. Counting himself lucky, Mathew continued.

Reaching the lab, Mathew took in the sight. Dwarfed on all sides by three and four story buildings, the prime lab compensated for being short with taking up a whole block by itself. A massive two story door took up much of the side he faced. Smaller doors at the corners seemed more like the go-to entrance or exit.

Approaching one, he felt the hackles of 4-2 rise. Rejecting the enemy Alpha, he pressed the silver key to the door. Funneling will into the device, Mathew sensed it clicking. Instead of performing its function as expected, it would tap the door with energy before retreating.

Maybe the silver key didn't have access to this area. That would explain why Grant said there was only one way in or out.

Walking around the building, he looked for entrances he could access. Passing the first corner, Mathew laid eyes on a small hoard of glass beasts.

Scan.

[Test 4-2X - Deceased

A slime bonded to silicon glass into the bio-form of an Eastern Grand Salamander. Can shoot high-powered lasers outside the visible light spectrum. Killed by poison.

Increase skill level to learn more]

On and on, he scanned each just in case one was still a threat. They were lying about in front of an open door as though some giant just decided to sprinkle a pinch of monsters into this part of the world. Stepping further out from the wall and opening his line of sight, Mathew saw an open door.

He was on Grant's trail.

Before entering the lab, he unscrewed the cap of his alchemical acid and poured a small stream onto a nearby corpse. The clear liquid disappeared against the surface of the glass. Moments later, pockets of yellow gas formed, then the rigid body began to fall apart in granules from the point of contact inward. This would certainly do the job. Checking tight both lids, he moved to the door.

Running his hand across the grainy wood doorframe, Mathew found it different than the rest of the doors he'd seen at the complex. Rather than being a part of the structure of brown stone, it had an actual doorframe. The door was splintered wood held out like jagged spears by their hinges, the rest of the material long gone.

Swinging one of the hinges, it let out an eerie note. Ducking inside the prime lab, he waited for his vision to adjust to the dim lighting. More differences between this and the rest of the complex became apparent.

Everything here was built by hand rather than the magical construction that made up the bulk of all the other buildings. Gouges in the hardwood flooring from monster claws, holes punched through some of the walls, the crushed reception desk and broken chairs told the story of a waiting area overfilled with powerful beasts.

A single hallway led out from the entry room. Lit by glowing rocks in lantern like iron cages. Adjusted to the reduced illumination, Mathew paced down the hall.

An open door on his left showed a medical office with an exam table. On the far wall, claw marks showed the magical brown stone was just on the other side of a thin veneer. Filling that inconsistency away, he continued.

Halfway down the hall, Mathew found himself standing on a sign that was once part of swinging double doors. It read "Staff Only."

It was past this point that he started to see hidden messages floating in the air or tightly packed to the wall.

"Earning trust - I don't think I can do this anymore."

Stopping for a moment, he read that one.

Jester. I got them a Hybrid volunteer, Clara Jackson, now I'm invited to project SafeGuard meetings. It wasn't so much volunteering as it was bullying. Doctor Hundle just watched the whole exchange. I guilted her for living at the cost others were paying. I told her horrible things and broke her trust. That is what got me a promotion. Others who bought it multiple Hybrid volunteers didn't get the promotion because they didn't hide that they are actually decent people. I just don't know if I can go deeper.

Heartpiercer. No names! Don't trust that this is secure! We have to know the truth. After all the sacrifices we've made, you can't back out now!

Jester. When they brought her back for aftercare, I saw her horror at the chosen grafting. She was giving birth to monsters!

Tearing his eyes away, Mathew walked down the corridor. He didn't have time to catch up on everything. This was the past, he couldn't do anything about it now.

Crossing over the broken threshold to a new section of the lab, the comfortable finish gave way to an industrial feel of concrete floors and walls. Again Mathew was gobsmacked at the speed of production. Though maybe this was also a thin covering.

Rather than a long corridor, each room had a function and fed into the next. Sometimes it was obvious like the first room had devices with glass tubes piped into the next room.

Flesh and organs suspended within small containers lined shelves while large tanks held mostly intact small or young monsters. At one of these tables, Mathew read another hidden message.

"Overseer - Rinheart is growing more unstable. Even as an herbivore Hybrid, he lashes out sooner and sooner against rising replacements. Even separated, he seems to know of their growth. The sedatives are less and less effective. My conviction to sabotage the immoral mutilations is wavering as he wavers under the weight.

Underseer - Me too. Progress is being made. I almost have hope that the Doctor can finish his research and turn this mad science into our salvation. I don't mean to sound callous, but people would die outside without our experiments. A few losses here are better overall."

He peeled his eyes away. There would be more time later. If only he could find a survivor. A pang of pity and guilt hit him at his plan of killing 4-2, the only survivor he knew of. I will do what must be done, Mathew resolved himself.

Hurrying down the string of rooms, he purposely ignored the gristly scenes as he continued. Still, images seared into his mind. An operating table with bloody saws and restraining straps. Cells of metal bars that were not too different from the stables he'd seen before.

Mathew couldn't imagine people were allowed to free rein here. In his mind, they were slowly allowed to move one room deeper. Each would imprint an evergrowing burden of guilt that could only be washed clean by having something to show for it.

At the end of the strings of rooms, Mathew came upon a hallway of impenetrable brown stone. A silhouette cast from the light scattering through glass tentacles.

The presence of the Alpha locked on in his mind now that he could see part of its body. 4-2 was laughing with dark amusement.

"Grant!" Mathew called out as he closed in.

"Another failure," Grant gestured down the hallway.

Looking around him, Mathew saw a half dozen open canisters. The dark amusement and the chuffing sound from the hall fit together in his mind.

"It seems the Alpha had adapted beyond its limitations, now it eats the poison." Grant pulled out a cigarette. "When this all started, I didn't know. I promise you I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Anger leaked through his voice.

"That this was impossible," Grant gestured at the blocked off hallway. "The secret to civilization in this world is Owning territory and being able to defend it," Grant took a long drag and let the smoke out. "Owning Territory isn't something we humans can do. Hybrids, though, they can. That's the secret to safety."

He started laughing. "I know you're probably confused on why I didn't just use you to begin with. Well, you see Hybrids are like hugging a bomb to keep your enemies away. Eventually, you get caught up in an explosion."

"So you endangered everyone for a fantasy answer that you already have!" Mathew leveled Ripper at him. "Ben has spent everything he has, Amber lost her hand, I've turned into a fucking monster! What for?"

"Fantasy answer? Haha hardly. A real long term answer is right there." Grant pointed at the tons of living glass baring their way. "Churn and burn, Mathew, churn and burn. One Hybrid isn't enough. Instead, we'd make one and support them until they couldn't hold on anymore. Then we'd raise another. The number of lives saved for the sacrifice of one continued to grow as survivors trickled in."

"You lived here before this became a ghost town. Why lie about that? Why didn't you die with everyone else?" Mathew would not let Grant leave until he was satisfied.

"I never did tell you about my magic, I wouldn't in part because its nature dissuades me. It's survival magic. One of the concept magics, a rare elevated type of magic. Rarer still, my expression of it was abnormal. Rather than filling a tank with potential power, I can switch between different combinations of magical abilities." Grant took another long drag. Dropping the pack to the ground, he continued. "Sorry, last one or I'd share. Where was I? Oh yeah, my magic. The first ability I activated and haven't turned off since is threat detection. One day under Doctor Hundle's eyes, I felt the threat. So when I left to scout next, I didn't come back for weeks. When I did, it was empty. Except for this monstrosity growing between me and the artifact."

"You wouldn't know about that, though, would you?" Grant continued. "The Doctor used it to make Hybrids. He never did show it to anyone. That was part of how he kept in power. If they all died, I could only imagine he left it in his vault. Finally, why tell you now. I lied because I was going to stay in charge. Make the Hybrids and dispose of them when they become the threat. When I met you, I thought anything was possible. My threat sense told me you were the best option."

Another drag shrunk the stick down to his fingers. "Tell Ben I'm sorry."

Dropping his cigarette, Grant lunged towards the waiting body of the Alpha.

Mathew lashed out. Conditional ambush driving him faster than Grant. Grabbing his collar, Mathew threw him backwards. "Tell him yourself! You don't get to throw your guilt away. Live with it. Spend the rest of your life trying to make up for the failure you are."

Unscrewing the canister that he didn't drop, Mathew splashed the contents across 4-2. 4-2 laughed more. Mathew could feel it drawing the poison into itself. Something there was familiar.

"What is 4-2!" Mathew yelled at Grant.

"Half monster, half man," Grant answered. "Not just a human with a bit of monster but the next step to get around some limitation. Kent was a skilled architect magical even. The other half was an artificial slime based monster. Corruption magic blended with Kent's blueprints. Neither had magic like they had before being fused; instead, it was something new."

Corruption magic. That's what he felt. The slime ate poison like it had digestion magic. But it didn't any longer, their shared magic had become something else. Concentrating his digestion magic, Mathew focused it into a liquid drop. It took about 35 digestion points for one liquid drop.

Willing it to fling out, he struck the Alpha. Black lines radiated out like veins through the cord of glass. Then the black lines bled into the surrounding tissue. An orb of flesh broke away, falling as glittering sand.

"Do you see that, Grant!" Mathew felt his reserves rise from what he'd digested. Splashing more liquid magic into 4-2 he spoke again. "You gave up to early. First, when you gave up on saving everyone. And again, when you gave up here."

Reperforming his feat from the refrigerator above, Mathew used conversion to refill his digestion magic. Willing splotches into the glass flesh Mathew ate away at 4-2. The Alpha raged, its mind pleading.

Reaching out with mental attack, Mathew spied into its mind. Fragmented and confusing, the part that was Kent didn't even drive the mind around anymore. Instead, his mind became a tool used by the violent, angry urges he'd consumed with his broken digestion magic.

Rejecting its pleas, Mathew continued to eat his way forward, gaining heat as he went.

As a last ditch effort, 4-2's mind turned to consuming the remaining humans suspended in containers next to its mass. Kent's side of its mind lashed out, drawing control away. Don't let us kill her. Don't let us kill her.

Directing his mental attack intelectus to help the Kent side of the beast, Mathew continued to chew away at 4-2. Step by step, he advanced down the hallway.

Eating away as far up the tentacles as he could, hundreds of pounds of glass flesh was freed to land on the floor of the hallway with a bang. After the free floating parts were cleared, the hallway filled top to bottom with 4-2's mass.

Mathew could see a doorway through the distorted plane of glass. He could feel the Alphas anchor to the Alpha spectrum just inside the door.

Moving against the wall on the same side as the door, Mathew began cutting in a line. Drops of liquid magic funneled reserves in and conversion would turn some of it back into liquid magic. As his reserves climbed, he made progress to the heart of the Territory.

Sidestepping down the hallway was nerve wracking. His body was pressed between 4-2's multi-ton weight and an indestructible wall. Fear reached past the influence of the Alpha spectrum and he had to force himself to keep going. Drop by drop, ratcheting up his body heat and cutting deeper into 4-2.

Getting to the door, his enhanced durability and benefits of having Ripper equipped were at the limit of keeping up with his growing heat. He was so close but his body was overheating.

Kent's control on 4-2 mind was wavering. Mathew could see the plan the other side of 4-2 had in mind. Use the half dozen bodies in stasis as blueprints to send more minions like the Crispalid Knight at him.

Pushing his overheated body, Mathew kept going.

[1 health reserved: internal burn]

Pushing through the agony, he kept going. The doorway cleared of glass flesh and an orange orb was locked suspended in the air.

[25 health reserved: internal burn]

The burning was building up faster the more he pushed. Mathew had to find a smarter way to make the last several feet. Consuming a tunnel within the glass flesh, Mathew opened a tunnel to the slime's core. He thrust Ripper into the slime core. Ripper skittered off. Channeling one last drop of digestion magic through Ripper he felt the core give under the blade.

Plunging Ripper into 4-2 Mathew moved forward until his shoulder jammed in the attack tunnel. Drawing Ripper out it was true to its name and whatever was inside a slime core came out in orange spurts of internal organs and liquids.

Shutting all the vents of his armor, even Mathew's lenses were covered in the death of 4-2. A disturbing sizzling sound distracted his retreat until he figured out it was the sound of him cooling down.

Cooling his body on the lifeblood of his enemy, Mathew threaded digestion magic to clean his body as he stepped out into the open hallway where Grant was. Notifications poured in.

[Alpha ascension 94%]

[New title awarded: Apex cannibal - Consume both the mind and flesh of another of your own kind

Gain +5 levels to digestion

Award hidden by award Accidental Occultism]

[New title awarded: Apex predator 1 - Kill a territory Alpha

Improve one stat by 20%, stat unchosen]

Absorbing that information, Mathew walked back to Grant. "No more lies or manipulations. We are in this together, or you will be an exile. If you stay around I will be demanding, because you owe me."

Grant nodded.

"Good. Demand one. Go to Ben and Amber in the building with a shield over the door. Take care of them while I uncover the secrets alone." Mathew loomed over Grant, mental attack already skimming his thoughts for a threat.

Grant nodded again.

"Good call," Mathew growled. It wasn't that he felt his trust was broken. He never really trusted Grant. It was more that he couldn't continue with the threat of a knife in his back or his support to disappear. If Grant had taken off sooner and not let him out of that Cafeteria, he likely wouldn't have survived.

Eating his way down the far side of the hallway, Mathew kept his mental attack feeding him information. He knew as Grant thought about using stealth to get past Mathew before his danger sense steered him otherwise.

Leaving his intelectus on the task, Mathew focused on breaking through the hallway. He heated up again but not enough to hurt himself by the time tentacles fell free.

It was a short walk to the end of the hallway. One door stood open between himself and the center of the complex. Entering the doorway, Mathew read the plaque.

Doctor Hundle M.D. PhD

Do no harm

Walking into the office, he noticed shelves with binders covering nearly all vertical surfaces around the obsidian desk. They were alphabetical. Seeing Alpha Ascension, he pulled the binder out and flipped to the back page.

Clare Jackson also failed Alpha Ascension. Like those before, she reached 100% then became unstable. Her slowed approach to achieving 100% completion did not allow her to avoid failure. I theorize the core issue is using humans as the base. The little information we've extracted from the Knight has confirmed that no human Alphas exist. Next effort, I will use my magic to graft a human and monster in equal proportions.

It was his magic. There was no artifact unless maybe he wrote in a confusing or unclear way. Sorting his way to a binder labeled Grafting Magic, Mathew read through it. Doctor Hundle hadn't made a misprint. It was his own magic he'd used the whole time. Only calling it an artifact so no one would question the compulsive nature of ones personal magic for his motivation.

No answers to civilization, no answers to his imminent instability, and he'd accelerated his progress to 94%. Slamming his fist on the table, Mathew put a week's worth of trauma, stress, and grief into an inhuman roar.

Through the Alpha spectrum, others roared back. Like jackals, they were staking claim to the territory without a master. From nearly all sides, Alphas and their armies moved.