Factory Reset: Divine Corruption

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Chapter Sixty-Eight: A Green Light

Decay.

It was a useful ability, dubbed "Grayscale" by Mason, Ruinate's captain. An ability unfitting for a dignified scientist and scientific expert such as Ruinate, but a useful one nonetheless. To be able to instantly rot and decay any substance he so desires. Makes escaping a room trivial.

There wasn't much Ruinate could do at this little fork in the road. Hidden behind the warped shield, his captain and the rest of his crew continued moving forward. They were determined, Ruinate gave them that. Mason and his boyfriend, slicing and dicing their way through the tendrils. Marissa kept track and kept out those that slinked to the back.

For an analytical brain such as his own, there was a beauty in the terror he and his fellow protogen felt. A terror so resident in their very core that it felt as natural as the fear of nonexistence, the fear of oblivion. A condensed emotion of dread and anxiety of those to come. It was odd, in a way.

Among the tendrils of inky darkness, beyond the miasmic walls of fog and void-like blackness, was a sense of fulfillment. A sense of prophecy, that they were going along the path that was forged for them. A sense of sheer and ultimate contentment with all those involved. This was the way.

Ruinate gripped his sword, feeling the soft leather straps coiling around the shaft of the blade. It's toothy appendages, made out of a naturally produced cartilage, shivered with the anxiety of its wielder, and yet the sharp jagged "smile" those teeth formed had not faltered, merely shaken.

Ruinate had always felt like the black sheep of this rag-tag family. The scientist, the "smart" one, he was called. He was smart, of course, but that was his main quality. All though, Ruinate himself was rather taken with being revered in that sense. He did feel attached, but not like the others. He hadn't socialized with them. He barely shed a tear when those that Fallout had killed were confirmed to be perished.

Was it wrong of him to not feel like that, especially with how shaken and disturbed the emotions that Fallout had displayed showed that the ruby bombardier was traumatized by it? Perhaps, though those thoughts were quickly overshadowed with dodging and hacking at a few tendrils.

They were strong, yes, but not invincible. Ruinate's decay and his sharp conscience blade made quick work of those that attempted to strike from above, although he too was deemed invaluable, and was converged around, along with a still sniffling but aware Fallout.

They sloshed through the ink-like goop the silent tendrils dripped upon the floor with their movement. It felt like sticky tar, clumping together the fur on their paws - at least those that had biological paws - and making their movement far, far slower than what it should be. Even those that were fast, like Rallycry.

"Renaissance!" Marissa cried out, curling her fingers together as another intense white glow overtook her body, "Make sure Nebula is healed!" She yelled, her fingers curling together to force out more of her Boson Energy. The energy condensed as an intense gravitational wave thrashed against the room.

"Fuck!" Nebula screamed, her knees buckling as she was knocked to the ground, her crystal claws clenching so tightly some of the crystal cracked off. Her sharp bladed tail dug deep into the floor, the metallic substance they were walking over being pierced to support her.

"Shit, shit!" Render cried out, turning around swiftly to send one of his drones over to assist her. Using it's constructs, it gave her something to rest her arms against, and to brace her legs, as she struggled against gravity to keep them all afloat. Even still, they could feel themselves straining to keep upright. Even the tendrils slowed..