Seventh Jump (Black Bullet: Part 3)

The Release of the Class V’s Army

            It was a cold, December morning, snow coating the ground and the buildings nearby as I walked through the city. I shivered softly as I walked along, pulling my duster a bit more tightly around my body. I was at least able to keep up my work over the past six years… curing as many as I could to the point that the number of Gastrea had actually been lowering quite drastically over the course of the last year and a half, something I was quite proud of… Even if I wasn’t as passionate as I normally was. Granted, I was rarely passionate even before I lost my want to fight, but it became even worse considering that every time I brought myself into the path of a Gastrea, I felt ever worse. They were Human at one point… Were.

            Oh well, it didn’t really matter at this point. I was simply keeping track of the numbers and cases as best as I could to combat the plague that had been assaulting this world. I went over to the local diner that I frequented and got something to drink and to snack on, paying with the money that I was given by Edmund. I didn’t really have a job and healing the infected didn’t really count as I was not compensated for my services.

            People were going about their day as if everything was alright, the waitresses taking orders while everyone else ate. I could see the cooks working behind the little shelf were the food was set out for the waitresses to take… Though, I had to wonder why the cooks were always male and the waiters always female… Hmm… Even back home that was the case.

            As this rather mundane thought went through my head, I raised my cup up to take a sip, only to be splashed with hot coffee, the entire building shaking as dishes and people fell to the ground. With a cough and pained groan, as heat still gave me a lot of trouble, I wiped away the coffee with my sleeve as the air sirens wail filled the air. “Fucking hell… Can’t I get a break? I suppose healing a lot of people counts, but… ack!” I fell back out of the chair from another shake of the ground and, without really thinking about it, I planted my free hand down on the ground and quickly flipped back onto my feet. With coffee in hand, I ran outside with the crowd and looked out from the hill that the diner was set upon.

            While I had planned to keep my coffee, it dropped out from my hand as screams filled the air. It was a Gastrea… It looked similar to a mutated cuddle fish, but was as tall as a skyscraper, dragging itself along the ground with its tendrils with a swarm of Gastrea following along behind it. There were so many… In the air, on the ground, and even crawling over the Class V that led them toward the edge of the ring of Monoliths that was used to ward them off. “How did it… There is no way it could have gotten this close without being seen till now!”

            There were screams drowning out even my own voice, but those were suddenly silenced by the destruction of buildings and people running in all directions, various roars and monstrous screeches filling the air as a painfully large number of Gastrea appeared within the city, visible either due to them filling the air through flight or the falling of buildings. “How!? I… I healed everyone in the city… Even if there were a few left, there shouldn’t be this many!” I leaped into the air and jumped over toward one of the taller buildings, making my way up onto the roof so that I could get a better look at the current condition of the city.

            To put it simply… It was horrible. The scent of blood and dust filled the air as buildings collapsed, people being slaughtered by the dozens, and finally the sound of gunfire and fighting mixed in with the wailing of the sirens, the screams of the citizens, and crashing of buildings. Not to mention that fucking cuddlefish monstrosity that slowly entered the monolith field. I wracked my brain for a moment, one of my hands reaching up to hold onto the side of my head, trying to figure out why so many people were turning into Gastrea at this exact moment.

            “I have been curing people… They shouldn’t be transforming. The Class V… Probably awakened by someone. The masked one… But, why are they transforming. Wait…” I thought it over for a moment longer before coming up with the possibility of what could have caused this. I was using magic to cure them… It didn’t provide an immunity to the infection and, even if it did, the Gastrea virus mutated rapidly… It wouldn’t provide any sort of immunity to that. Why did I not appear as being infected when they did tests? “I was always in the effect… It was repeatedly removed from my system…” As that realization hit me, one of the monoliths fell as two large tendrils slammed into the varanium structure from the Class V, sending it straight to the ground in a large, multi-piece heap that crushed both people, trees, and Gastrea as it went to the soil below. Dust and dirt shot up into the air, only to be pushed away by the flying monsters that went through the air and landed down on any Human or partial Human that happened to be present.

            ‘Beautiful, isn’t it? Seeing all of your work being destroyed in a single movement… To watch as everyone is killed.’ I heard from my left, my head turning to look over toward Kagetane. He stood there, moving his hands like a conductor might as the carnage continued, but would eventually cross his arms behind his back as he normally did before turning to face me properly. His daughter was nowhere to be seen, but I don’t remember ever seeing her in the crowds that I healed… She must have changed. ‘All the violence, all the bloodshed, all the destruction… Poetic, don’t you think? You helped prepare everyone for this exact scenario… Curing them… If they never continued to return, well… They eventually all start to turn at the same time like a batch of popcorn.’

            I simply held onto my head for the moment, the pressure from the stress burning into my head and stomach keeping me from speaking as it practically ate away at my mind and body. It was my fault in a way… I tried to stop a plague with an instant fix that gave no lasting effects. I didn’t think about the fact that a non-natural cure would not provide a lasting immunity and, even if it did, the virus mutates rapidly, so it would be temporary either way. I set everything up for this world to die…

            One of my hands slowly reached up to gently rub my tearing eyes, trying to clear my vision and gather myself as I looked out over the destruction before me. ‘So… Are you going to watch and enjoy the show or are you going to become your title? Will you feel remorse over this and just fall-‘ “Will you just shut the fuck up!” I called out, my body acting on its own in such a fashion that my hand appeared against his throat, my fingers curled in close so that, instead of punching or grabbing him, my palm slammed into his throat and send him flying away and into a distant building, not to be seen again. “Alright… I fucked up. I fucked up majorly… but, that doesn’t mean that I can’t at least TRY and fix it. Absolute morality has no place here… Can’t save everyone, but… If I cause a problem and put those I helped into a position that is a living hell just because I tried to do what most people consider to be right...”

            I reached out to the side, my hand vanishing within the void that was my personal inventory for a moment so that I could slowly pull out my sword. “Well, fuck absolute morality… Fuck the thought that killing is always bad. That saving people is always right… I am going to do what I feel is right! In this case… If I brought them hell… Then I shall bring them peace and cut out the cancer that I brought before it kills this world!” With my sword in one hand and my other slowly taking on its malfested state, Medusa actually crawling out of my pocket to merge with me after such a long time apart. ‘Going to slaughter a world again, aren’t you, Aaron?’ I let out a small huff and simply reached up to give Meddy a little pet to ease her worries. “No… Only that cuttlefish son-of-a-bitch and anything that gets in my way.”

            I adjusted my stance, trading the sword from my left hand to the right. “They shall know my regret… Even if it is extremely edgy.” With that, I toggled my aura, a sudden silence coming over the city… at least to me... There was still violence, but all of my attention focused itself onto that giant cuttlefish-like Gastrea as it continued to pull itself forward and destroy anything that came within range of its body and tendrils. I planted my feet into the top of the roof before leaping forward, tearing up the shingles of the roof in a burst of dust, plaster, and ceramic. To avoid destroying even more of the city, whenever I reached the point where I slowed down, I jumped off the very air (I don’t know how… I just could double jump because of a perk. I was told not to think about it too hard.), sending me ever further.

            A flying Gastrea leaped up to try and attack me, Meddy quickly glancing down and coating its front portion into stone. I brought my legs up to slam into it in a spray of stone and blood before leaping off of it to continue toward the Class V. This was an incredibly stupid idea to be going after it… but, I had to stop this creature and try to break up this attack.

            I continued forward, leaping from roof top to roof top, across the sky, and using random Gastrea as stepping stones as to stay off of the ground and buildings. I came within range of one of the tendrils that came around toward me. With a quick reaction, I turned and brought my sword around. “Negate Regeneration!” I called out, the blade glowing a sickly green as I brought it down into the tentacle. The momentum of the tentacle pushed me back, but it eventually severed itself as I went flying back. I flipped in the air, bringing my sword off to the side. If there was one thing I knew about large monsters… They had to be taken down quickly.
            Time slowed down around me, the colors taking on a tan color as I prepared myself. I placed various Xs across its body in a zig-zag pattern, five in total that ran from the head to the back of its body and a final one back at the head to complete the attack.

            “Dimensional… Evisceration!” I burst forward, a blur that went across the top of the Gastrea’s head before slamming into the stone, only appearing for that instant before vanishing once more. Every now and then concrete and a trail of blood appeared where I had to land on the ground or, occasionally into a building to continue the attack. The final slash was quite visible as the final result was me appearing in front of the beast, purple blood flying into the air as a wide gash slowly opened up across the top of its body. Wait… I forgot to transform into my vampire form first… Shit. That single thought hit me as I held my sword off to the side and slowly started to step forward. This wasn’t a single attack… It was honestly a combination of Deadeye and multiple Dimensional Slashes, which… Really hurt.

All at once, my muscles seized up and started to burn as if I had worked them much too hard. On top of it, there was a sudden feeling of exhaustion that went through my body. I forced myself to remain standing, slowly trying to take a step forward as the beast behind me slowly fell to the ground. The other Gastrea noticed that their leader fell and converged on me. They stayed a certain distance away because of my aura, but I knew that they wouldn’t stay away for long… If I pass out, they will tear me to pieces.

            “Well… Let’s see how lucky I am…” Is all that escaped my lips before I fell to my knees and then the ground with a small thud, everything going dark as I went to the concrete.

            I eventually woke up in a hospital, Meddy curled up on my chest while my malfested arm was, well… no longer monstrous. No one was present except for a nurse, who called for a doctor once they realized that I was awake.

            Come to find out… Edmund came running in after me with the support of others once they realized that I had fallen. Well, isn’t that convenient? The only reason that many of them helped was because of the Gastrea and the fact that, now that we knew that it was only a temporary cure, we could figure out how to better keep people cured and avoid this situation again.

            I remained for the rest of the time that I had in this world, helping how I could, but… I left Edmund here as this was his world and he would be better suited for helping those present. At least I got to do something awesome, heh.