*
Gina moved first. A white streak flashed through my vision like lightning, and I instinctively raised my arm, scattering the current with my claws.
She drove the stun baton hard toward my jaw.
"—Ngh!!"
Electricity coiled all the way into my brain, clouding my mind for a moment.
But what responded inside me was not pain—
It was rampage.
The virus within my body began pounding wildly in pulses. My claws lengthened and warped, shattering the floor beneath them.
"Aaaaaaah!!"
Gina tried to leap back, but she was already too late. The claw I swung past her left behind a booming sonic crack as it tore through the air, grazing near her chest.
Crack—!
Part of her armor shattered.
She let out her first cry of pain.
"Ghk—!"
At that moment, Alex gave an almost crazed cheer.
"Good! More! Draw out more! All of that power—!!"
I reacted to Alex's voice. My heart throbbed like a pulse. DX-1118 M was showing abnormal signs.
Flames engulfed my entire body.
The floor melted.
Gina was by no means an easy opponent, but right now, I was something beyond her.
The instant she jumped backward to escape—
The flames burst outward from my body.
"Aah—aaaaaah!!!"
Driven almost entirely by instinct, I rushed her at explosive speed.
Then I drove down my claws.
KABOOM—!!!
The entire test room shook. Several cameras fell loose. Gina barely evaded the blow by rolling across the floor. The armor around her waist had been torn completely away.
She panted heavily.
"Hah... this... isn't a test anymore."
There was a trace of acknowledgment in her voice. But I could barely hear it.
I was on the very brink of a rampage. DX-1118 M was moving of its own accord. Flames covered my entire body, warping the air around me.
Just before I charged at her, Gina whispered.
"...Sorry, but this is as far as you go. M-01."
And at that instant—
A shadow dropped from the ceiling of the test room.
Psssh—!!! White smoke burst out. A cold scent spread with the gas.
"Stop."
Kir's voice.
I turned my head, but the gas had already begun seeping into my lungs.
"...Father?"
Kir's figure looked hazy.
But in his hand was unmistakably a sleeping-gas device designed specifically for my body.
"Let's stop, Kiria. Your condition... is dangerous."
I looked at him. The flames flickered and weakened.
At that moment—
My heart gave one huge, thunderous beat.
And as my consciousness barely held on—
Thud.
I dropped to the floor as if my strings had been cut.
The world inverted, and I sank into ultimate darkness.
*
Darkness.
A space with no light, no shadows, no shape.
But...
There was a sound here.
The sound of a heartbeat. No, the pulse of something deeper and more immense than that.
—Thump,
—-Thump,
—--Thump.
It was not my heartbeat.
This was... another being's heart.
It was watching me in the darkness.
Who was it...? There were no eyes in this space, yet I could feel its gaze.
Then—
A soft and sweet, yet somehow sticky voice echoed out.
"...You've finally awakened, my child."
"...Mother?"
At that moment, the darkness trembled as if it had been torn apart. Though it had no eyes, there was something enormous looking down at me. It was not Mother's virus, DX-1118.
DX-1118 M—
The “unknown virus” inside my body.
This was the first time it took form. Its silhouette seemed like a giant beast, a human, and a woman all at once. But one thing was certain...
It was the something that had made me.
The voice in the darkness whispered again.
"Awaken further, Kiria. Your body has only opened halfway."
Countless tentacle-like shadows writhed in the darkness.
"As you are now... you are no more than the shell of a bird being born anew."
"...Why... have you appeared now?"
"Because today, your instincts... tasted battle."
At that moment—
Black-red flames exploded in the darkness. And within those flames, another me, one that resembled me, appeared.
Its eyes glowed red, sharp teeth showed at the corners of its mouth, and a bloody heat poured from its entire body.
The being smiled at me.
"In the end, this is what you will become."
Then it seized my throat.
"—!!"
The instant its hand touched me, an overwhelming, indiscriminate urge to destroy
tore into my mind.
'This... is the urge inside me...?'
But right then, a powerful sound shook the entire darkness.
Beep— beep— beep—
A mechanical sound.
An alarm from the testing equipment.
And the darkness split apart.
I fell swiftly, downward, downward, downward—
Falling.
*
"Breathing stable! Pulse recovered! Tissue mutation index falling—"
The researchers' cries blended together. Slowly, I opened my eyes.
A white ceiling.
Bright light.
A medical capsule bed.
"...Where am I...?"
"The isolation recovery room."
Kir came into view. His face looked different than usual. He was gentle, but... there were deep hollows beneath his eyes. He placed a hand on my cheek as he spoke.
"You pushed yourself too hard, Kiria."
I tried to speak, but my voice would not come out properly.
"Earlier... your eyes changed. It wasn't quite a rampage, but... it must have been the stage right before one."
His voice trembled.
"This test may have been too much for you..."
Then the recovery room door opened. Alex Mercer entered. Behind him stood Gina Cross, her arm wrapped in bandages.
When Cross saw me, she spoke briefly.
"...You look all right."
Alex immediately began giving Kir his report.
"Dr. Minazuki. Today's experiment was an overwhelming success."
Kir's expression hardened.
"A success..."
"Biomass activity increased by 240 percent. We even confirmed energy-based mutation. In particular, right before the final rampage, DX-1118 M displayed an independent pattern."
"..."
Kir said nothing.
Alex stepped closer, studying my data as he spoke.
"This child...
is beyond anything we imagined."
Gina folded her arms and spoke quietly.
"...To be honest, I lost today."
My eyes widened.
"You were faster and stronger than any infected I've ever faced. Test subject M-01... no, Kiria."
Then she—
Removed her helmet and gave a slight bow. A scar at the corner of her mouth came into view. A single lock of white hair swayed amid her distinctive black hair.
"...Next time, I'll face you properly."
There was no arrogance or rudeness in that gesture. It was pure respect for an opponent.
After Gina left, only Alex and Kir remained in the conference room. Tapping his fingers on the table, Alex said,
"Dr. Minazuki. This child needs stronger stimulation."
"No. Today alone was dangerous enough."
"Dangerous? What we are creating has already surpassed the category of a weapon."
Alex slowly smiled.
"It is practically a god."
Kir's face turned ice-cold.
"...Mercer. Do not cross that line."
Alex narrowed his eyes and whispered.
"Doctor. You know it too, don't you? Kiria is no longer... a mere research project."
"..."
"Elizabeth Greene's second child. The complete evolved organism we all dream of. The pinnacle of DX-1118."
Kir spoke quietly.
"...At the very least, this child is not a weapon or a sample. He is my son."
Alex gave him a subtly cynical look.
"And that is the most fatal problem of all."
*
The location—GenTek's fifty-first floor, the special containment zone.
Elizabeth Greene.
In the darkness, she was bound to a steel structure, surrounded by dozens of monitoring devices. Her hair hung down like water, and her eyes remained closed—
Then they abruptly snapped open. Her lips moved very slowly.
"...Kiria."
That name brushed past her lips.
At that moment, the virus sleeping deep within her
moved like a giant heart.
But there was neither a smile nor joy on her face.
Her emotions lay layered in far more complex strata.
Relief, fear, sorrow, and the tremor of maternal love.
"...At last... it is beginning."
In the darkness,
biomass faintly rippled across her entire body. Every monitoring device sounded an alarm at once.
Beep—! Beep—!! Beep—!!!
She did not close her eyes.
Instead... her gaze became clearer. A dim green light trembled within her eyes, carrying emotions that could find no place to settle.
"My child... is awakening."
It was not joy, but a desperate wish to protect him,
mingled with the knowledge of a tragedy that had already become irreversible.
Maternal love, guilt, fear, and love were all tangled together on her face.
*
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