The sudden wave of relief Uriel experienced when Luna told him she had cracked the mystery was soon followed by annoyance when she refused to tell him her findings. Even more when he was able to confirm her suspicions after taking a closer look at the muscle tissue in the heart, finding it was porous as though sothing had taken miniature bites out of it.
"Seriously? Co on, at least give a clue! This isn't a teachable mont, our lives are at stake here." Uriel snarled after a long useless examination of the corpse.
"Uhm, no." Was all Luna replied in spites of Uriel's insistence. Had Nika been present she would not have missed the irony of Uriel badgering Luna for help and her stubbornly refusing, but thankfully to her she wasn't as it would have most likely ended in Uriel taking it out on her.
Brown couldn't care any less about Uriel quarreling with Luna, though she wished they were quiet as she couldn't fall asleep with so much noise and she had lost all interest in the autopsy the mont Luna declared she knew the answer.
"Hang on one second," Uriel said out loud. He had yet to arrive at any conclusions, but an idea dawned on him. "take to the place where he was found and tell everything about your interaction with the victim."
"Sure." Brown shrugged and led Uriel to the showers.
Uriel scanned the place with his mystical sense, then with the glasses that allowed him to see flux energy finding nothing out of the ordinary. Then, he crouched on the precise spot where the victim was found and looked for clues while Brown recounted exactly what happened.
"So, you both took a shower in the sa place almost at the sa ti and the circumstances were almost the sa except for the water temperature." Uriel nodded as the answer ca to him as clear as day, though only after allowing his mind to be open to the weirdest possibilities.
"You figured it out, didn't you?" Brown smiled when she noticed Uriel's mood improved noticeably, though he darted back towards Luna the mont he found out.
"Consider my flabbers absolutely gasted," Uriel joked and Luna nodded at him to continue. "this facility runs on desalinized water obtained from the ocean. They turn brackish water into drinkable by using powerful filters that don't let anything but water pass, or that should have been the case but said filters can't keep out minuscule cryptids like the sea monkeys. They infiltrated inside the bunker by using the water pipes and that is how they got to Evans."
"And why did she survive?" Said Luna pointing towards Brown, who was short of breath after trying to catch up to Uriel's speed.
"What kind of trait allows an evolved to move so fast?" Brown's question remained ignored as Uriel replied to Luna.
"Hot water, it's just that simple. Sea monkeys need cold water to survive and Brown likes her showers way hotter than sea monkeys can endure. Also, the reason why we didn't find any cryptids inside the body is because they consud all the water inside the body."
"Without water, they died and disappeared like any cryptid would." Luna nodded, proud of Uriel's solid work.
"It also explains the scientists writing so much on the walls. They knew they were infected with sothing and sealed themselves in the communications room." Uriel said, though this ti Luna didn't agree and instead beca flustered.
"I need to see it with my own eyes." Luna said as she attempted to stand on her own, failing miserably as her body was too weak for even the slightest movent. As a field dic Luna was aware of her condition, she knew all too well that the treatnt for radiation poisoning ca too late and she was good as dead.
That was the reason why she pressed Uriel to investigate the matter by himself as she saw it as an opportunity to prepare him to continue with her research once she was gone. Sea monkeys were dangerous on their own, but just like many other cryptids they beca easy to deal with once their weakness was uncovered which made for a perfect opportunity to put Uriel's ability to the test. But the mont she heard of the scribbles on the wall she knew sothing was off as the only symptoms of a sea monkey infection were generalized pain and cold, which wouldn't explain hypergraphia.
Uriel grabbed Luna on his arms and took her to the communication rooms followed closely by a curious Brown and as soon as the door was opened Uriel noticed Gordon's corpse along with a few new scribbles, this ti made with his own blood. Luna let out a shrill cry that echoed in the bunker prompting Uriel to shut the door imdiately. All attempts to calm Luna down were useless as she continued crying and screaming even after Nika arrived.
"Where's the enemy?" Nika asked taking a furious glance around finding nothing but Uriel's puzzled face.
"I don't know, she just..."
"Can't you hear that!?" Luna said in a high volu as though she had beco deaf out of a sudden. Her behavior was mystery to the soldiers, but not to her friends as they knew she was a lycanthrope which ant her enhanced senses allowed her to hear more than regular humans and even hunters could.
"What the fuck is going on!?" Said Uriel as he shoved Atkinson against the wall with a single hand as his other hand was busy holding Luna like luggage. Before Brown could even react she had Nika's Peacemaker pointed to the back of her head.
"You don't have the clearance to know." Atkinson said as he attempted to release himself from the unexpectedly strong grasp of the young hunter.
"I'm a captain now, you yourself promoted ..."
"It's not about ranks, it's about the mission. You're performing a secret mission yourself, so you should know how it goes." Atkinson decided to remain silent although every cell on his body wanted to speak.
"You leave no choice then." Uriel's eyes glimred faintly as he prepared himself to extract the truth from the captain with whatever ans necessary, only now he didn't feel bad about it.
"Dead n tell no tales." Brown cried in an attempt to save her captain and it worked, though not how she expected.
"On the contrary," Said Uriel as he released Atkinson and briefly entered his trait to grab the book of the dead. "dead n can keep no secrets." An eerie dark aura arose from the book and it slowly began spreading over Uriel. His eyes filled with the sa blackness and an ominous sensation overtook those who witnessed it.
"A cursed artifact! Stop it! You don't know what you're doing."
"I know exactly what I'm doing. I will summon the shadow of your friend Gordon. In life he may not have had the answers, but at least he can tell what killed him."
"I'll speak!" Atkinson shouted, then continued once Uriel put the book back inside his trait. "this facility used to be a lookout for submarines which is why they didn't show much interest in re taking it after the arrival. Without submarines this facility remained forgotten until a hunter sought refuge here by chance and happened to communicate with sothing and it triggered the scientific curiosity of the community. Since then, keeping this bunker has been a priority."
"Are they dumb? Why would they keep communicating with a cryptid that kills those who listen to him." Nika scratched her head with the Peacemaker in a perfect display of foolishness, not that anybody cared as they were imrsed in what Atkinson was saying.
"I would agree with that if it was a cryptid, but the identity of the being has been confird as Arausio."
"It has a na!? Only titan level cryptids have nas!" Brown blurted out.
"It's not a titan," Uriel lingered for a second as his eyes widened. "it's a god. They've been chatting with a god."
"We believe so, yes... so far it's been benevolent with us. It's the first ti sothing like this happens." Atkinson explained.
"Well, I don't think Gordon would think it was benevolent with him. At least the scientists used markers to write, but that guy used his own blood." Uriel said, briefly reminiscing of the image of Gordon's corpse.
"Did you catch a glimpse of what he wrote?" Atkinson asked, fearing if Uriel didn't it would fall upon himself to open the door and see it for himself.
"Yes, it said..."
At that mont, a trendous bellowing erged from the depths of the sea as if to cut Uriel short. It was thunderous and prolonged, otherwordly even, it carried so much power it caused ripples in the ocean and an earthquake on the shore yet sohow when it finished, everyone who heard it could swear they heard the word 'die'.
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