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Soul's Requiem: B1 - 8. I Can Feel Fangs
🕑 Added 2021-09-02 07:17:39 +0000 UTCNote: Oof, first post back and I'm already messing up, haha! I'm feeling a lot better and glad to get back to my normal schedule. I hope you enjoy!
1: Clover Emberfield
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“Just have Hope, kids. It’ll be okay, I know you’re scared, and this weird school is spooky, but I’m with you! Eh… yeah, maybe I cry and scream too when the monsters come, but I’m strong! I’m here to keep you safe.” - Melissa P. Kenella, The Lost Diaries, Vol. I.
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Passing into the alleyway, Clover took a long breath, shoving her insecurities down to get a grip on the situation at hand; the pungent stench of rats, urine, defecation, trash, sweat, sexual fluids, and thousands of other scents hung in the air.
It wasn’t visual, but the new sense of residual heat mixed with the smells in the atmosphere painted a detailed scene she was able to combine with her other faculties. The chemical compounds triggered with the corresponding identifiers she’d learned throughout her life, such as exhaust fumes and specific blends of food, along with the unique bodily odors every human released.
Each breath drew her mind back to the reality of her transformation after exiting the Great Void; the experiences collided within her brain to form one thought.
If spirit users are defenders, I’m a predator.
“This way,” Clover muttered.
Her gray dress bounced a little while jogging in the opposite direction of the street; the path took them to the facility’s loading area at its back. Melissa trailed behind, and, to Clover’s surprise, the woman didn’t question her deduction.
The Great Void expelled a whistling wind that wove through the city in gentle currents, forcing Melissa to pull back her golden locks as they went; the spirit user scanned the area they entered, searching for any sign of the operator.
“Can you tell if she’s hurt?”
Swallowing the saliva in her throat, Clover slowed to a stop just beyond the alley. Her vision narrowed with the gut-tightening sensation that tickled her nose and tongue. “Mmhmg… I smell transevil.”
Melissa instantly raised her guard to the max, spinning in a quick circle to peer into the empty loading dock’s shadows. “What—where… Here?”
Clover walked a few more steps, breathing deeply; it was the dead of night, nearing 3:35 a.m. Transevil running wild in the city… No, that’s not it… It’s only as strong as other scents because my senses are more tuned to their smell.
On the way over, Clover noted that the bar district was meant for a more mature crowd, likely the adult grave-shift workers on break; the pleasure dens were incredibly bizarre to her more noble, proper upbringing and utterly unacceptable by her previous life’s standards.
That being said, she couldn’t identify many people moving through this particular place; her new perception could gauge a general timeframe by the strength of each odor in conjunction with the prevalence of similar stenches nearby or how often they overlapped, but this space was rarely used compared to the other areas she’d been.
The only things living in the space were rodents that thrived in less than sanitary conditions, considering the front and inside of the bar; only chirping insects and buzzing pests currently occupied the scene.
Yet, out of everything filling her senses, a single distinct scent was like a spotlight piercing the darkness because of the lingering aroma of transevil—a vehicle had recently been in this exact spot.
Her senses were acute but not omniscient; her imagination and limited past human experiences connected the dots of everything within her environment.
Clover’s slitted, seafoam-blue eyes moved to another alleyway adjacent to the business’ storage facilities instead of the much wider road leading to the main street, and her full lips tightened.
Maneuvering a vehicle through these tight spaces wouldn’t be easy, especially with how much alcohol I smelled on the man. Someone else was driving the truck, but I can’t sense any signs of them… Did they not exit the vehicle?
“Clover?” Melissa hissed, still spinning in circles while looking for signs of the monsters, closing the distance between them. “What do you mean there are transevil here? That’s impossible—alarms would have been raised if they moved past the barriers or…”
Spreading her fingers over her forehead and between her bound, platinum-blonde locks, Clover briskly walked forward, motioning for the woman to keep up. “It could be dead—maybe not—but it’s a powerful scent, and it’s lingering on the truck that was here not too long ago; Lily was probably taken in the same vehicle.”
Clover picked up her pace as they went, the trail growing clearer; the heat of the engine spread across the air, warming various nearby objects that acted as a sort of homing beacons with the exhaust that clung to the ground, walls, and dumpsters.
Melissa’s worry was deepening by the minute. “Only the SPU and specific organizations have the license to transport dead transevil.”
“Like selling spirit user beverages?” Clover returned.
“Right…” Melissa groaned, vision darting to the streets when they made a short pass through the long alleys and old, crumbling buildings, so decayed that a truck could use them to avoid eyesight. “I’ll have an investigation started…”
“No need,” Clover growled; her mind continued to work on connecting the dots through each breath of air that funneled new information to her brain.
“He wasn’t lying; he never sold the man or Lily that drink, and I doubt you’d find any discrepancies in his books or stock. It’s fairly obvious at this point that this man has connections to…” she trailed off, coming to a stop at a branch.
Not winded in the least, Melissa stood beside her while managing her hair and finished her thought. “A criminal organization? I mean, it’s not uncommon—unfortunately—but the black market usually deals with stolen parts from the SPU; they don’t have the means to… Well, I suppose they could have paid someone to give them a dead transevil… Umm, what’s up?”
Sliding her tongue across her lips, Clover confirmed what she already knew. “The Steel Bastion employee split off from the group; he’s fairly drunk… Lily and the truck went to our left.”
Melissa scratched her temple. “Left… That’s the old manufacturing district; a lot of it is under renovation by various local startups, and to our right… back to the residential district. Lily takes priority, though, right?”
“She does,” Clover muttered, retaking the lead. “Now that he exited the vehicle, I can smell the endorphins he left behind, and it… doesn’t smell right—it’s off.”
They both jumped close to two meters into the air, using a nearby junk pile to easily clear a slightly taller chain link fence; on the other side, Clover slowed again, taking deep breaths at the various branching areas of the significant highway they passed onto.
“There’s more transevil… seven, and recent—an unusual musk I can’t place, too… I can’t smell significant blood… stress, but that’s it.”
Melissa brushed back her sleeve and played with a digital device that was very similar to Lily’s. “Umm… The Morcov Company is currently in charge of developing this area… They’re reputable and worked alongside MASS on a few projects in recent years—Void, I thought so… Lily’s transponder and earpiece were disabled.”
She spoke as Clover picked through the horde of fumes filling the air to find the right path through the haze; the construction equipment and strong chemicals transported through the area were messing a little with her senses.
Did they continue down the road somewhere or detour to one of these nearby factories?
Choosing to follow the Transvil’s much stronger scent than Lily’s faint trail, Clover was glad and fearful when the odors broke away to reveal the girl’s alcohol-induced sweat, which lingered in the atmosphere.
It was fortunate that they discovered Lily’s abduction so soon because a storm brewed in the wind; it would rain in thirty to fifty minutes, coming in from the sea.
Clover broke her thoughts to listen to what Melissa said while the woman followed Clover’s continuous movements. “Clover? I’m contacting an SPU Public Enforcement unit and alerting them of what you’ve found—I’ll tag the general in the updates, too. Should I call one of my platoons if we need to handle any transevil?”
She shook her head, finding it somewhat funny a veteran captain was asking her advice, yet the thought was dismissed when they stopped at a dark factory a mile away from the bar. “It would be too late for them to do anything.”
In front of the building was various heavy-duty construction equipment showing severe signs of use; steel pipes and bars were neatly stacked in bundles, ready to repair the area’s infrastructure with large replacement glass windows in covered wooden crates.
The windows were dark, but at least two dozen people had passed through the front within the past four hours, and several cars brought specific chemical compounds in packages that were barely sealed enough to allow leaks—it didn’t seem to be a professional move.
Bending down, Clover’s sharp eyes lingered on several areas that didn’t seem all that noteworthy, but grains of a small crystal were scattered across the dirt. “Cypher… A few of my classmates talked about it a lot… so the Gemma City-State’s hallucinogens entered Skydream.”
“Abotestryl?” Melissa mumbled in disbelief. “You’re joking! That’s… There have been some recent deaths due to its use, but I didn’t think there would be a whole operation going on… Are they manufacturing it here? Is Morcov involved, or are the current managers taking advantage of it?”
Clover shook her head while straightening. “I couldn’t tell you, but we need to rescue Lily; someone just spotted us in the window.”
“Backup…” Melissa mumbled, pulling up her device.
A cold excitement grew in Clover’s breast as she caught the lingering scent of a stronger transevil; they were alive. “No, I can handle it on my own… By the way, what is the SPU’s policy on criminals if they resist? I’m fairly sure there are quite a few people inside.”
“Wait…” The golden-haired woman tucked her lower lip under her teeth, concerned eyes shifting from the factory to Clover’s stern gaze. “Umm, to be honest, eh…”
Melissa groaned, looking down to swiftly type a few things; she sent an urgent report while talking. “Abotestryl is serious—there were massive pockets of the population that were wiped out by its misuse five years ago—just people trying to cope and becoming addicts… Umm, I don’t agree with it, but—but the Order of Royals issued a decree that anyone subverting the SPU laws—we don’t have standard prisons anymore—they’re subject to immediate… elimination.”
It was all Clover needed to hear; the Viper Blade appeared in her hand with her battle garments forming around her figure to take the place of the gray dress; again, she was reminded that it could use an overcoat. “I’m only here for Lily; I could care less about anything else, and I don’t intend to kill anyone that doesn’t resist.”
She walked forward, Melissa hurrying after her. “That being said, I’m not going to play this ‘high road game’ spirit users do—they reaped what they sowed.”
With a single flick of her wrist, the whip-blade lashed out, digging into the concrete before passing through the cracks of the door; the sound of metal against metal was swift, and her weapon returned to normal.
Repositioning to use some leverage to counter her light weight, Clover used the tip to push the door in; it gave way without too much effort, surprising her at how strong she’d become.
The first level of the large, open area was empty, showing not a single sign of life—no sounds to be heard—but on her left, beyond another closed door, came the scraping of metal gears that soon ceased.
A cold smile lit Clover’s lips while she changed directions, feeling a chill run down her spine; she still owed Lily a lot—in a way, the girl was her primary guide to this new world, and she wasn’t going to give up anything ever again.
Melissa’s face hardened, and a light-golden aura illuminated her body. “No, I understand,” she whispered, increasing her pace. “If these people are hurting others, then they need to be stopped, and sometimes—sometimes giving them a second chance will only kill more in the future. I’ll protect you…”
Clover took two steps, phasing once to the woman’s left before twisting in a flying leap three meters ahead to kick the door open. The sturdy wood buckled under the force, snapping the bolt to violently swing inward.
She turned to face Melissa. “I don’t need protection, Melissa, but I appreciate the gesture—consider this another trial of my abilities, or you can focus on protecting those inside that might get caught in the crossfire—not that they’re entirely innocent.”
The blonde sighed, dress bouncing a little to show her upper thighs as she jogged after her. “You want to… Fine, but are you sure this is where they are? It doesn’t look like anyone’s here.”
Heart pumping slow and steady, Clover’s black, thigh-high boots created clicks against the tile floor of the building’s interior as she casually twirled her blade around. “Again, Melissa, a test of my aptitude. Watch and take notes for the report.”
“Ugh,” Melissa rubbed the side of her hair, causing it to become even more out of place, “yet another report I have to write after this… So many reports.”
Clover took them through two more rooms before staring at a concrete wall in a half-renovated room cluttered with ladders and other construction equipment. Shaking her head, she followed the heat and chemicals lingering in the air to a small pile of what appeared to be filters, shoving them aside to kick the bottom of the wall with the toe of her boot.
“No way,” Melissa mumbled, arms tightening around her core while watching a section pop out and lift on quick gears to extend a long metal shelf carrying an eye scanner. “Okay, that really makes me think someone else is involved with that kind of technology.”
Rolling her eyes at the secrecy this place was employing, Clover twisted her wrist to cut the device in half. “Not like it helps us, but it does prove this was supposed to be a long-standing operation.”
Clover made a sharp swipe with her blade, sending the extending segments to bite into the wall; it left long gashes and created a horrible noise, but surprisingly, it didn’t make it to the other side before jumping back.
“Tougher than I thought,” she grunted, smirking eyes examining the deep mark in the concrete, “but I wonder…”
“What?” Melissa asked as Clover walked forward to slide her fingertips over its surface.
Smirk flicking to the woman for a moment, Clover gathered her pastel-colored cloak that infused every fiber of her body while dashing at the wall—sound momentarily died as she phased through the solid barrier.
What met her was what appeared to be the inside of a modern elevator; it was more than a little suspect in Hollow Veil’s rag-tag atmosphere to find something that may even outclass Steel Box Bastion’s contemporary appeal.
Melissa soon joined her, exiting her yellow, glow-like state, eyes spinning and a light scream leaving her lips. “W-Why… D-Do you know how dangerous that is—what if—what if we got stuck inside the wall!? You don’t do that without knowing what’s on the other side!” she gasped, hand pressed to her chest as she leaned against the metal wall. “I-I had to double-phase!”
“I didn’t notice,” Clover muttered, turning while studying the space. “Why would a member of the Steel Box Bastion know people that had this base secretly installed? It’s probably still under construction… Do you think they’re a potential recruit?”
“Clover!” Melissa seethed. “Please, you may be able to phase three times, but it’s extremely dangerous—if you get stuck in the wall, do you know how much pressure will be…”
“I understood the first time,” Clover replied, making short swipes at the floor with her blade to open up a triangle-shaped opening; the cutaway piece fell the moment it was free, slowly starting to spin from the air resistance until it struck the sides and hit the ground 100-meters below. “It’s deep—at least fifteen floors. Are you ready?”
Melissa squinted below. “Geez, I don’t have the best night vision… Umm, I guess we’re using the cables to go down? I’m surprised they haven’t noticed we’re here yet.”
“It’s still being built,” Clover responded. “The lookout knows we were hanging around outside, and maybe they know we came inside, but what can they…”
As if they were listening, Clover’s eyes widened—the cable above them made a snap as it was remotely cut. She had less than a second to react, jumping to the ceiling before kicking back to the floor beside Melissa, wrapping her free arm around her waist. “Phase!”
Leaping up again as gravity began pulling them with the elevator, the two passed through the top, exiting near the ceiling of the shaft. Melissa squeaked as she left her golden illumination, hovering in midair, and Clover grabbed the side of her green dress and yanked her closer, flipping her sword around to stick inside the concrete wall.
“C-Clover! W-Why did we have to do this alone?! Oof…” Melissa cried, weight coming down on her fabric as Clover held the back of it.
“Focus on balancing yourself!” she shot back, wincing as the steel box hit bottom and generated a loud shockwave of noise, but Melissa radiated a golden barrier in front of them that blocked the dust and wind that shot back up. “Stop shifting your weight—or you’ll slip out of it!”
“Geez, like I’d be in this…” she choked as a soft ripping sound carried to their ringing ears. “No… I’m not fat—don’t do this to me, dress!”
“Mmgh…” Clover frowned, looking to their right, where an emergency ladder was located. “Melissa, I’m going to swing you over—you see it?”
“Uh… Yeah… Oh, no… Why does this always happen to me?” Melissa moaned. “Okay… one… two… stop ripping! G-Got it!” she called, three fingers closing around the bar, but it was easy enough for the woman to use brute force to make it the rest of the way, given her enhanced strength as a spirit user.
Breathing out a relieved sigh, Clover brushed her braid to her back. Did they know we were inside? Maybe they had cameras installed somewhere at the entrance… There’s nothing I can see inside here.
“No-ho-ho…” Melissa groaned, looking at her dress front; the stress her shoulders had put against the top had ripped the seams to leave the left side open and revealed her blue bra. “I loved this dress—h-aww… Okay, let’s get this over with.” Frowning, the woman’s tone hardened, “They just tried to kill us; let’s take this place down!”
Clover swung below the spirit user, fingers and the sides of her feet closing around the metal frame’s edges to slide down at an even pace before applying pressure to stop herself at the third floor.
“The lower levels are probably the least finished; let’s see where this gets us—our only objective is Lily, and I think this is a good guess.”
Melissa quickly joined her, dress fanning out to show her blue velvet underwear. “Guess? You lead us right to the place, but you don’t know now?”
Jumping to the edge, Clover called for the Viper Blade, causing it to vanish above them and appear in her hand. “No—it could just be a lingering bit of spit of hers that somehow was left on the door here, but I can’t say for sure.”
She pried the door open, revealing three branching hallways with a shocked woman behind a desk to their right, fingers paused over her keyboard.
Clover gave her a welcoming smile. “Hello! I suppose you’re here to help direct people—we’re fans of your service,” she said, gesturing to Melissa as she took the daring gap to join her from the emergency ladder.
“W-Who a-are…” The short, brown-haired woman’s face paled upon seeing the blonde. “M-Melissa?!”
Casually walking forward to stand before the woman, Clover didn’t see a single person down the very long hallways; that didn’t mean there hadn’t been a few that moved through them recently. The worst part was that Lily’s scent vanished entirely; they might have put her in a bag in the elevator, which caused a chill to envelop her heart. “Your reputation precedes you, Melissa.”
“Unfortunately,” she grunted, trying to check the damage to her dress top. “Yeah… gah, no way I’m fixing this.”
Clover stopped in front of the desk, putting her sword across the front and staring into the woman’s eyes; she began to shake upon seeing her slit irises. “You recently took in a young, brown-haired girl by the name of Lily. If you could look up where she is, that would be amazing; I wouldn’t try to lie to me either because, naturally, I’m not in the best of moods after someone tried to kill me.”
The woman’s gaze was still locked on Clover’s unusual eyes, her fingers trembling against her keyboard. “W-Was that the—that big s-sound… Are you a r-rassi?”
“I keep getting that,” Clover grumbled. “No, I’m… sort of a spirit user,” she added with a bright smile, holding up her weapon. “Just not the nice kind. Lily?”
“I-I don’t know…”
Clover’s smile became forced, and a hiss passed through her teeth as Melissa moved to join her, arms folded under her bust. “Don’t lie to me again—I’m a spirit user, remember?”
Melissa’s lips pulled in while nodding. “She’s really not like normal spirit users; she’ll cut you up if you don’t answer her… Just tell us where Lily is, and we’ll just go.”
“Mmh, I don’t think so, Melissa,” Clover returned, drawing both their focus. “I’m not going to give her the chance to call people and warn them we’re coming; she’s going with us, but the moment I have Lily, I’m going to leave. Then again, you could join us and not get swept up in the military coming in to charge everyone, and heh, you know SPU regulations for criminals.”
The woman started to hyperventilate, but Clover reached over to grab her by the shirt front and pull her over the desk.
“H-Help…” she choked, shirt ripping a bit and forcing Clover to find a new purchase.
Knowing Melissa wasn’t approving of what she was doing, Clover put on a smile, seeing as she didn’t stop her.
Throwing the woman against a nearby couch, she drove the blade forward an inch from her neck, passing straight through the material. “I’m not playing around—the people you work for stole someone I like. I don’t have time for your panicking; no one is going to save you—I’m a Class-5 spirit master.”
The woman’s tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth at the lie. “C-Class… W-Why…”
“Are you going to comply, or do I need to freeze your arm off?” she asked, pressing the blade against her elbow and causing a chill to run down her frame.
“N-No… I’ll h-help…”
Clover didn’t remember being this cold, but something about the situation drew her fangs out.
Grabbing a clump of her shirt, Clover sent her tumbling across the ground again, ripping half of it off before marching over and pulling her up by the armpit. The woman coughed violently, sputtering and crying.
“A direction or your arm,” Clover threatened.
Her quaking finger pointed down the center hall.
“Geez, be a little gentler,” Melissa mumbled as Clover shoved her forward; the woman hugged herself, not bothering to even take notice of her exposed bra.
“We don’t know what they’re doing to her, Melissa… I was done playing around when they dropped that elevator.”
Melissa sighed, following behind them with the woman leading.
Something was agitating her gut; she glanced upwards—a new scent cycled through the ventilation system. What is that… It smells like transevil, but it’s also very different—similar to how the man that drugged Lily smelled but far more potent…
Whatever it was, it had Clover on edge.
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Comments
Yotedom
Really liking this story!
