Chapter 1778: The Manifestation of True Devil: Part-3
mander 6 stood frozen, gripping a gun with a crimson energy blade that extended from its barrel like a condensed beam. The humming edge vibrated with a deep resonance, as fresh blood hissed into steam across its surface, the heat so immense that every crimson droplet vanished into smoke the instant it touched the glowing edge.
“Ha…Ha…Ha…”
His chest rose and fell violently beneath the battered mech-suit as he stared at the headless body still moving from its remaining momentum.
The deactivated mech-suit staggered forward another step before its movements gradually slowed, every creak echoing through the silent chamber like the final breaths of a dying machine.
mander 6 lowered his weapon with a trembling exhale and activated the munication module embedded inside his helmet.
“Delta Tower, respond. mander 10 has been eliminated during a confirmed fragging incident after initiating hostile action against mander 6. Threat neutralised.”
The transmission remained steady despite the exhaustion in his voice. Reaching across his chest, he gripped the Eclipse weapon lodged deep within his shoulder plating and ripped it free.
“Arrgh… Hngh… Inform the Governor immediately… and dispatch emergency backup to my location. I repeat, emergency back—”
His voice suddenly died.
His eyes locked onto the headless corpse.
The body had tilted forward, already beginning its final collapse as one foot slipped across the floor.
Gravity had already claimed it.
Then…
Thud!
The right foot slammed firmly into the ground.
!!
mander 6’s breathing stopped.
Instead of falling, the tilted body froze halfway before the mech-suit’s entire frame slowly… impossibly… straightened itself.
The lifeless body stood upright once more without the slightest sign of instability.
The silver bracelet wrapped around mander 10’s right wrist suddenly swelled outward as though something beneath the metal was forcing its way into reality. Jagged cracks raced across its surface while brilliant silver radiance erupted from within, each fracture leaking streams of light.
Crack!
TTTRRRSSSSSHHH!!!
The bracelet exploded into countless microscopic particles that dissolved into the surrounding air without leaving behind a single fragment.
It did not shatter.
It… simply ceased to exist!!
As though whatever had been sealed inside had finally awakened.
Yet, mander 6 saw none of it.
His sensors failed to register it.
His thermal scanner remained blank.
His electromagnetic radar reported nothing abnormal.
Yet every instinct inside his body screamed that something had changed.
The headless corpse remained perfectly still for several long seconds.
Creak…
The sound echoed softly.
mander 6 felt every muscle in his body lock as the headless corpse slowly lifted one leg, stepped forward, and turned around with deliberate, unnatural precision.
!!!
“W… What…?”
His voice barely escaped his throat.
His pupils violently contracted as his mind rejected the impossible before him. He could accept the damaged mech-suit locking its joints. He could accept failing stabilizers or corrupted bat software forcing involuntary movements.
But turning…
Without a head…
That was impossible!!
No bat AI.
No emergency protocol.
No neural backup.
No known technology could mand a corpse after plete decapitation.
Creak
Creak
Creak
The headless body began walking toward its severed head with slow, unwavering steps. Every movement was smooth, balanced, and terrifyingly natural, as though losing its head had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
The chamber remained deathly silent except for the measured clang of armoured footsteps striking the floor.
mander 6’s fingers tightened around the trigger.
He wanted to fire.
He should have fired!
Every military instinct demanded it.
Yet his finger refused to move.
Because something else…
Something far worse…
Was standing behind him.
He could not see it.
His scanners detected nothing.
His radar returned empty.
But every primitive instinct buried deep within his blood and soul screamed that an enormous presence was looming over his back, watching him with patient amusement.
A grin.
A vast, unseen grin stretching through the darkness behind his helmet.
An ancient, primordial terror flooded every nerve in his body.
His heartbeat pounded violently against his ribs while freezing blood crawled through his veins like liquid ice.
It was the kind of fear that existed before reason, before thought, and… before courage. The instinct that prey felt when an ancient predator had already chosen its next meal.
Unable to move, unable even to breathe properly, mander 6 could do nothing except watch as the headless body reached its severed head and slowly lifted it from the blood-soaked floor.
Splash~Thud!
The head slipped free from the damaged helmet.
The headless body casually tossed the empty helmet aside before turning toward its severed head lying amidst the pool of blood. mander 6 could only stare at mander 10’s back as the lifeless figure slowly bent down, picked up its own detached head, and raised it over its shoulder with calm, deliberate movements that no corpse should have been capable of making.
Then…
Something moved.
The blood pouring from the open neck suddenly writhed.
Not like liquid.
Like something ALIVE!
Dark crimson tendrils squirmed from the severed neck like countless grotesque worms, twisting through the air before latching onto the flesh of the decapitated head. They pulsed violently, spreading across the torn muscles and shattered bones before dragging the head toward the neck.
The blood itself seemed to breathe, swelling and contracting as though it possessed a heartbeat of its own, stitching flesh, nerves, muscles, and bone together with horrifying precision.
mander 6 watched in absolute disbelief as the head slowly fused back onto the body.
The torn flesh knitted together in seconds. The fractured vertebrae aligned with sickening accuracy before disappearing beneath newly formed skin, leaving no trace that the head had ever been severed.
The figure slowly tilted its head left.
Crack.
Then right.
Crack…
The sound of its neck stretching echoed throughout the silent chamber like ancient bones grinding against one another.
“…”
mander 6 pletely froze.
His lungs forgot how to breathe.
Cold sweat poured beneath his bat suit as every instinct screamed at him to run, yet his legs remained rooted to the floor. Even during the countless monster extermination missions, even while standing before colossal abyssal monsters capable of levelling cities, he had never… never felt terror like this.
His fingers shook uncontrollably as he reopened the emergency munication channel.
“Delta Tower! Respond! Immediate reinforcement! Immediate reinforcement! mander 10… mander 10 has…!”
His words caught in his throat.
Swallowing hard, he forced himself to speak.
“C… mander…” His voice cracked violently. “C-mander 10… i-is that… y-you…?”
No reply.
Not even movement.
mander 6 prayed…
Prayed that whatever stood before him would remain silent forever.
Then…
“mE…?”
The voice emerged.
Distorted and Broken.
Every syllable sounded as though several throats were speaking at once while rusted metal scraped against rotten flesh.
It resembled a human voice only enough for the mind to recognise it.
Everything else… was wrong~
mander 6 knew he should fire.
He knew he should empty every remaining energy cell into that thing.
Yet…
Without realising it…
He nodded.
“Y… Yes…?”
Silence answered him once again.
Long… Oppressive… Suffocating silence!
Then a strange, childish whine echoed through the chamber, carrying an unsettling tone of innocent confusion.
“hE iS IN mY TuMmYyYyYyYYyyyYY~”
mander 6’s heartbeat nearly stopped.
His breathing became frantic as panic consumed every rational thought.
“C-C-mander 10…” he stammered, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
“T-This… T-This isn’t f-funny anymore…”
The whining stopped.
Instantly.
The reattached head twitched.
Once.
Twice.
Its neck jerked with unnatural force before being pletely still.
“fuNnY…?”
The voice dropped into something impossibly deep.
“DO… i… LoOk… LiKe… FuNnY… tO… YoU…?”
The figure slowly turned around.
mander 6 saw its face.
“…”
His mind broke.
“ARRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
A scream tore from his lungs with such force that it echoed throughout the entire chamber.
Its face…
Its face was no longer human.
A grotesque grin split the entire lower half of its face, stretching impossibly wide until it nearly reached the edges of its unblinking void-black eyes, forming a monstrous U-shaped smile carved into flesh itself.
Blood continuously dripped from the corners of the overextended lips while rows upon rows of jagged, predatory teeth crowded together inside the impossibly deep mouth.
They were not human teeth.
They resembled the fangs of countless monsters fused into one horrific maw.
Its pitch-black eyes never blinked.
Never moved!
They simply stared.
And,
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
The shrill laughter tore through the chamber like rusted blades scraping against glass.
“NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
mander 6 screamed as instinct finally overwhelmed paralysis.
His finger slammed against the trigger.
The rotary cannon roared to life.
THRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!
Blazing energy rounds erupted from the barrel in a relentless storm, each crimson beam capable of melting armoured vehicles into molten scrap. The chamber flashed endlessly as torrents of energy slammed into the monster’s body, explosions blooming one after another while molten steel sprayed across the battlefield.
Yet…
It never moved.
Not even a single step.
Not a flinch or even a twitch.
It simply stood there.
Watching and Smiling.
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
The same childish, whining laughter echoed through the chamber as every beam struck its body without slowing it down in the slightest.
mander 6’s desperate screams became louder.
His weapon continued firing.
His hands shook so violently that warning alarms screamed throughout his mech-suit as the weapon approached critical overload.
But the creature merely watched.
Wasn’t it… Amusing?
Wasn’t it… Delicious?
Watching fragile creatures struggle so desperately against inevitable death…
Watching hope shatter with every passing second…
Watching terror consume every corner of their souls until nothing remained except despair…
Wasn’t that…
Beautiful?
The monster’s endless black eyes remained fixed upon mander 6.
Even through the helmet, even through layers of posite armour and tactical displays, it felt as though those void-like eyes had already pierced straight into his trembling soul, savouring every heartbeat… every scream… every fragment of fear that bloomed within him.
It enjoyed the fear~
The raw, intoxicating fear of death that now pletely consumed mander 6.
Even as the continuous barrage of energy beams slammed directly into the monster’s face, the attacks barely seemed to inconvenience it. The scorching energy detonated across its flesh, sending sparks and fragments of molten armour flying, yet the creature remained perfectly still.
Its grin only grew wider.
And wider.
Until…
Step!
The monster vanished.
mander 6’s eyes widened in horror.
His bat instincts screamed.
He instinctively began turning around.
Then…
Crrrccckkk~
A slow metallic scratching echoed across the chamber.
His body froze.
Something sharp rested against his right shoulder.
Long black nails.
Each one extended nearly an inch beyond the fingertips, unnaturally thick, perfectly black, and sharpened into predatory claws. They lazily dragged across the mander-class armour, carving deep grooves through the supposedly impenetrable alloy without the slightest hint of force.
The screech of tearing metal sent chills racing down mander 6’s spine.
Even the Eclipse weapon required tremendous force just to leave scratches on mander-class armour.
Yet these claws…
They carved through it as effortlessly as fingernails scraping wet clay.
Then…
Beside his left ear…
A distorted voice whispered without the faintest trace of emotion.
“MoMmy… i… aM… sCarEd~”
mander 6’s pupils dilated.
His thoughts stopped.
His entire body locked in place.
“Ha… Ha… Ha… Ha…”
His breathing became ragged and uneven, each gasp shorter than the last as his heart hammered violently against his chest, threatening to burst through his ribs.
His visor exploded with warning notifications.
[Warning: Rapid Heart Rate: 199 BPM]
[210 BPM]
[250 BPM]
[Injecting Sedatives to Stabilise Cardiac Rhythm…]
[300 BPM]
[Sedatives Failed]
[Injecting Adenosine: 12 mg]
[310 BPM]
[Injection Failed]
[Critical Cardiac Emergency]
[Immediate Medical Attention Required]
Alert after alert flooded every corner of his display until they pletely obscured his vision.
The monster quietly watched him.
Watched him drown in absolute terror.
Its right hand, once concealed beneath the mech-suit’s armoured gauntlet, had bee something entirely different.
The glove had split apart from the inside as enormous black claws burst through the metal, tearing apart the armoured fingers until twisted fragments hung loosely around the creature’s monstrous hand.
Then it spoke again.
“dOn’T CrY… dADDy iS hErE…”
Its grin stretched even farther.
“HHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
The enormous mouth slowly opened.
Far wider and bigger than any human jaw ever could.
A long, slick tongue coiled outward before lazily curling back inside. Countless jagged, saw-like teeth glistened beneath thick strands of saliva that stretched between them like sticky threads.
CRUNCHHH!!!
Its jaws snapped shut.
The armoured helmet disappeared into its mouth.
The mander-class offered almost no resistance.
Those monstrous teeth bit through the advanced metal plating as though crushing brittle biscuits, acpanied by the sickening sound of reinforced posites splintering apart.
mander 6’s gun slipped from his lifeless fingers.
Clang!
His body stood motionless.
Then collapsed.
The mech-suit’s systems shut down together with the life of its wearer.
Crunch…
Crunch…
The monster slowly chewed.
Its own face bulged and shifted beneath the pressure of the oversized mouthful, muscles stretching and rearranging themselves with unnatural flexibility while the bones beneath the skin cracked into new positions to acmodate the impossible bite.
It continued chewing with unsettling patience.
Almost playfully~
Like a child determined not to waste the final trace of sweetness hidden inside a chocolate wrapper, refusing to let even the smallest fragment escape.
Only when nothing remained worth crushing did the creature finally spit out the mangled remains.
Tang!
A twisted lump of shattered metal rolled across the metallic floor before ing to a stop.
Thick, warm saliva dripped after it, stretching into long strands before splashing onto the steel.
The monster slowly lowered its gaze toward the fallen corpse.
Its clawed right hand pierced through the mander-class chest armour with ease, tearing the reinforced plating open as though ripping apart soaked paper. Reaching inside, it pulled something free from the darkness within the ruined mech-suit.
Without hesitation… It swallowed the heart.
Munch… Munch…
The creature’s grin curled even higher.
“dElIcIOus.”
It lifted another organ.
Lungs.
Intestines.
Kidneys.
One after another.
Its clawed hand reached into the opened chest cavity without hesitation, pulling out every organ with slow, deliberate movements before stuffing each piece into its enormous mouth. Blood streamed down its wrists while warm flesh slipped between its fingers, yet the creature showed neither disgust nor hesitation.
Only hunger!
It chewed methodically.
Patiently… Almost appreciatively!!
Every bite echoed through the silent chamber with wet, nauseating crunches as though it were savouring the finest feast imaginable.
Munch… Crunch… Munch…
Not a single part was wasted.
Not a trace of remorse crossed its grotesquely smiling face.
It simply continued its feast.
Then…
Within the portal,
Unit-class suits emerged one after another.
“Why is mander 6 taking this lo—”
The soldier’s voice abruptly died.
Every one of them froze.
The chamber before them was littered with scorched metal, shattered armour, pools of blood, and the unmistakable signs of a violent battle.
Then…
Munch…
The sound echoed once more.
Every visor instantly locked onto its source.
Standing in the middle of the blood-soaked chamber was mander 10.
Or…
Something wearing mander 10.
Its back faced them while both arms cradled mander 6’s mutilated corpse. Torn flesh hung loosely from the ruined body as blood dripped steadily onto the metallic floor. Pieces of shredded muscle and shattered bone slipped free from the corpse before splattering beneath the creature’s feet.
The entire squad stood frozen.
Their minds struggled to understand what their eyes were witnessing.
One soldier instinctively stepped forward.
“C… mander…?”
Mun—
The chewing stopped.
plete silence swallowed the chamber.
mander 10 slowly stood upright.
Its back remained toward them.
Its head gradually tilted upward until it stared motionlessly at the ceiling, as though listening to something that existed far above reality itself.
Not a single member of the squad dared move.
Then…
They noticed it.
A darkness.
Not a shadow.
Something thicker… Something alive?
An abyssal blackness slowly seeped from beneath mander 10’s feet.
It wasn’t merely darkness.
It felt… Hungry?
The squad instinctively took several steps backwards.
Every warning instinct inside them screamed.
Run!
Run now!!
Before they could react…
The creature spoke.
“dOn’T WoRrY… hE iS iN mY TuMmY…”
Its neck twisted with a sickening crack.
The grin stretched even farther.
“hApPy… EvEr… AfTeRRRRrrrrRRRrrrrRRR!!”
Its voice suddenly exploded into an inhuman shriek.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
“OH, SHIT!!”
“FIRE!! FIRE!!”
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!!
The chamber erupted into blinding flashes as energy cannons unleashed a relentless barrage toward the grinning monster.
[Trinity: 23%↓]
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