Threads of the Soul

Chapter 437 - 437: Bug Breach Detected

"Woah, Check it out... This thing is so freaky. It's almost as if it's... alive."A German man with the number zero painted on his forehead stared at the glowing pustules with wide eyes. His hand reached up and slowly moved forwards to touch the strange object, but just before his grubby fingers made contact with the slimy, transparent and flesh-like surface of the pustule, another hand clamped around his wrist.

He whipped his head to the side, finding himself face to face with the irritated and withering gaze of Astra. Her fingers tightened around his wrist, almost like she was trying to break his hand so he didn't try touching again.

"Are you serious?" She said in the most disgusted and disappointed tone Corvus had ever heard, "Genuinely. Are you serious? Have you never seen... Oh I don't know, pick a horror movie. Do you really want to be that idiot in Alien who gets face hugged?"

"No..."

"Then keep your hands to yourself. If it looks pretty, don't touch it. If it looks weird, don't touch it. As a matter of fact, just don't touch anything. God, how have you survived this long?"

She released his arm and spun on her heels, strolling off with a deep sigh and a roll of her eyes while muttering about the idiocy of some people. The German rubbed his wrist, which was already starting to bruise, as others watched him and didn't do a very good job of holding in their snickering and laughter.

The group started walking once more, but barely made it a minute before the German man started to slow in his pace. He was staring at the ceiling with a curious expression, frowning as he approached the point he was looking at until he was directly underneath it.

One of the many lights cast by the group passed by close enough that it illuminated the spot, revealing a small bump in the ceiling no bigger than a man's fist. The bump was odd because, although it blended in colour with the rest of the dirt, it had a different texture.

The bump seemed rougher with clear lines like it was made of tree bark. Not to mention the fact it was moving ever so slightly. It was separated into three sections that slightly shifted to reveal their tree nature.

Standing underneath the bump, the German lifted his hand to gently poke it. As his finger drew closer, the lump uncurled, the three portions splitting apart to reveal they were arms, like that of a praying mantis, and a head belonging to some kind of insect. All of which were protected by curved natural armour that acted as shields and camouflage.

The German laughed softly, reaching higher and gently scratching the head of the strange insect, which started eliciting a rhythmic clicking noise that sounded almost like it was purring.

"Hey there little guy... You know, I had something like you back in the old world. How about it? Would you like to come home with me?"

Naturally, stopping in the middle of the group meant that it didn't take long for his activity to be noticed. Astra quickly turned around, letting out an irritated groan as she held up her hand. Lightning sparked around her fingers, illuminating her face and the tunnel around them with pale blue light as she snarled,

"What did I tell you? Don't. Touch. Get away from it, now."

The German scoffed, continuing to scratch the insects head, "Please... Look at this thing. It's so cute and tiny. It's practically harmle-"

The insects 'purring' grew louder before it lunged forwards. The head and body were followed by a long, serpentine body that was as long as a man's arm, was covered in pinkish flesh and ended in a chitinous spiked shovel much like its arms.

Those arms plunged into the throat of the smiling German, quickly wiping that idiotic smile from his face, as the tiny shielded scythes carved through his flesh. Blood sprayed outwards, coating the serpentine insect, as it sliced and diced away at his throat.

Astra cursed under her breath, striding forwards to get a clear shot as she forced her way through the crowds. The German, on the other hand, started to flail and stagger around. Panic and horror painted his face as the insect started to burrow into his throat.

At first he was choking on his own blood, but soon enough he was choking on something entirely new, as the horrific creature forced itself into the hole it had created and wriggled down his throat.

He raised his hands to his throat, showing that he had Zeroes painted on his palms as well. The Zeroes pulsed over and over as he desperately used his own mutation. With every pulse, a 0 would launch itself from his palm and blast a hole into whatever they came into contact with.

Hole after hole appeared in his own throat as he desperately tried to get it out by blasting himself. When that didn't work, for reason's obvious to everyone but himself, he didn't stop blasting.

His arms flailed around, constantly launching rings of energy into the air. Holes appeared in the walls around them and a few of the unfortunate souls surrounded him were blasted full of holes too. At least one of them died quickly as a hole appeared where his face used to be, removing half of his brain and causing the rest to spill out onto the ground as he fell.

Most of all, the thing to get peppered by the holes was the glowing pustules lining the walls. The light died as the gooey skin was punctured and the darkness within stirred. Half formed versions of the creature swimming down the German's throat crawled their way out of their eggs.

Their bodies not yet finished, their survivability unlikely. Yet despite that, they let out shrill screeches before leaping forwards, hungry for their first meal in their short lives.

Powers flew, swords slashed and from the American in particular bullets blasted forth. They tore through the tender, half formed bodies of the insects. Countless shrill screeches and cries echoed throughout the tunnels.

However, as they fought back and let their strengths fly, it only caused more eggs to be ruptured and for their inhabitants to leap out in rage. More lumps in the ceiling and the walls unfolded, revealing themselves to be insects sleeping dormant until they were disturbed.

They latched onto people, stabbing, slicing, burrowing and devouring whenever and wherever they could. Before long, just as they were starting to dwindle the numbers of flesh burrowing insects, the ground beneath their feet began to rumble.

Their minds weren't allowed much time to dwell on what it could be, as a second later countless insects poured from the darkness of the tunnel and lunged into the light cast by the party. Some of them were the size of the one's attacking them currently, but some were much bigger.

Cat sized, Dog sized, Man sized... and even bigger still. The bigger they got, the tougher their armour became and the more of their body it covered.

Starting from the Dog-sized ones, the plated bark like armour covered the length of their long serpentine bodies that they dragged behind themselves as they scuttled forwards with their front two legs. By the time they were as tall as a man, that armour became as hard enough to deflect a transcendent weapon if it wasn't aimed properly or didn't have enough strength behind it.

The Cat-sized one's however, were the real menace. They did not seem like they were less grown versions of the others, but an offshoot instead. Like the difference between worker ants and soldier ants.

Whatever these things were, the cat-sized bugs had shorter bodies, four legs instead of two, and less armour. In exchange, they were much faster, leaping and scuttling through the tunnels with ease.

Their bodies glowed with the same soft, yellow light as the eggs, illuminating their flesh from the inside. Once they got close enough, they would reveal the mouth they had underneath their plated head before spewing out a torrent of sizzling yellow acid that eagerly ate away at whatever it landed on.

As if that wasn't bad enough, when one of their party managed to catch one of these acidic leaping fleas with their sword, they easily cut through the spongy hide and spilled its guts. Alongside those guts, were the contents of its acid sac, which splashed onto the woman who cut it apart.

She was melted to a pile of bones and mangled flesh before she even got a chance to scream.

Corvus snatched one of the acidic bugs from the air and launched it down the tunnel like it was his own grenade. Through his puppets eyes, he was watching the entire battle unfold. Slowly but surely he was forcing the group to march forwards, even if they didn't realise it.

Not just because they had to progress, but because the earth behind them was starting to rumble too, as more bugs eagerly poured towards the meal that had walked into their home.