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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Spartawolf on 2024-12-26 21:15:20+00:00.

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“Hmm.” Grine hummed in mild interest as he viewed the camera feeds, before writing down several notes on a pad he had at hand. “Those particular failures have done well enough, considering the circumstances, but there are many clear improvements to be made for my prime specimens.”

“Fascinating though that may be…” Sabisstra sneered with sarcasm. “We have far more pressing concerns right now, Grine!”

“Indeed…” Grine coldly began, but before he could continue his eyes snapped to the centre of the room as Svaarzhul reappeared with Kull in tow. 

Kull’s armour bore fresh scorch marks and clawed gashes from the heavy fighting, and blood dripped from a wound on his side. He carried his war hammer with a heavy grip, his reptilian gaze smouldering with quiet rage as Sabisstra quickly made her way over and cast a healing spell to stop the bleeding. 

“They’re even stronger than they look,” Kull growled, his deep voice cutting through the chaos. “It’s the fucking Cult of the Destroyer!”

“Truely?” Sabisstra asked doubtfully as she checked the Xarak over, healing his remaining wounds with trivial words of power. “I have not known any of those fanatics to be that heavily armed or armoured, and I’ve encountered many in my travels…”

“I speak true,” Kull snapped. “Oh yes Captain, yes I do…”

“Likely a highly specialised cell,” Grine spoke up. “I’ve never encountered them before, but I recognise their work all the same. The Cyberzombies are a clear giveaway. I would almost admire those creatures if they weren’t so crude…”

“We can discuss it once we leave,” Sabisstra pointed out, before looking to Svaarzhul. “My Regulators have been helping the assistants here prepare Dr Grine’s equipment for transfer, but we need you to create and maintain a portal out of here.” 

Svaarzhul bristled at that, as his serpentine eyes betrayed a cold anger simmering beneath the surface. 

“All units withdraw to the inner sanctum and prepare for emergency evacuation.” Grine calmly spoke into the comms. “Let the remaining failed specimens hold them off.”

He turned to the others. “This sanctum was lost the moment they arrived; however, it was an eventuality we had well planned for.”

“I have a teleportation circle ready to go,” Svaarzhul acknowledged. “I shall begin preparations and summon a portal now.”

“I can assist you,” Sarah volunteered, and the Nirah considered her for a moment, before slowly nodding his agreement.

“This bunker is well protected,” Kull acknowledged, speaking up for all to hear. “All the same, be quick and be ready to move.”

The defenders had barely started moving before the lights suddenly  flickered and sparks rained down for a moment, before the backup power kicked in. Grine quickly checked the nearest tank to ensure it hadn’t been compromised, as the loud creaking of blast doors echoed around them. 

“What!?” Sabisstra hissed in shock. “Grine!?”

“That was not me.” Grine rebutted, his tone calm, though his actions sped up in contradiction to his mood. “They’ve breached this sanctum.”

“Get ready to fight!” Kull snarled, limbering his muscles and bringing his hammer up. “There’s a Cyberzombie that talks! That one’s mine!”

“Well, they certainly found their way in earlier than expected…” Grine said, his voice laced with dark humour as he sped over to a hulking containment pod that hissed ominously in the corner. The glass was frosted, but the vague outline of a massive, monstrous figure loomed inside.

“Zethrik! Remain on overwatch and deploy whatever countermeasures you can for the drones! Vexar, I’m field-promoting you as a Maralictor!” Sabisstra screeched out her orders as she unfurled her spiked chain whip. “We shall redeem ourselves for our failure here and now in the name of our creed!” 

“Yes Lictor!” Both of them responded. 

“I didn’t want to play this card so soon, but desperate times beckon,” Grine muttered to himself, his pale fingers dancing over the console. The pod rapidly opened with a hiss, releasing a cloud of freezing mist that rolled across the floor as the hulking body dethawed and shambled out of the pod.

“Time for you to serve your purpose.” Grine whispered almost lovingly to the creature, his hand caressing the side of its head, a motion which he ensured nobody else could witness. “Go. Entertain our unwanted guests…”

The prototype let out a tortured, guttural roar as it stepped out and thundered forward, compelled to obey its master. 

“Let this one go first,” Grine instructed. “I’ve utilized an alchemical combination I want to test.”

“We’re under attack and you want to do fucking experiments?” Kull snarled at the Doctor. 

“Possessing a bounty like mine makes traditional testing difficult,” Grine snapped back coldly. “Having the entire city of Naganai determined to find me hampers my work further.”

“Care to let us know of any other experiments you want to run while you’re at it?” Sabisstra hissed at the Doctor between casting several buff spells between them all. 

“One more, as a matter of fact…” Grine muttered, moving to a laboratory fridge and opening it. Very carefully, he reached in and mixed the contents of several glass vials together, keeping his hands steady before fixing it carefully onto an auto-injector and loading it to the right measurement. Without hesitation, he pressed the injector to the side of his neck and pulled the trigger.

The reaction was immediate. His veins glowed faintly as the liquid surged through his system, branching out like a web of light beneath his pale, scarred skin. Grine staggered slightly, clutching the console for balance. His pupils constricted into slits and his breathing became quick and shallow, before he felt a wave of heat coursing through his muscles, tendons and bones. The sensation wasn’t painful, not entirely, but was more like the feeling of a coiled spring snapping into place. 

“Yes…” Grine whispered to himself, his face betraying a rare smirk, testing his enhanced strength as he gave a casual flick to the desk with a single finger, gouging a deep line into the metal as if it were soft clay. “Quite effective…” 

“Grine, what the fuck can this thing do?” Kull bellowed out over the din of the opening blast doors, as a small robotic creature slipped through the gap and began dashing down the corridor before several bursts of plasma fire from Vexar cut it down. The beast Grine had released was allowed to bypass the defenders as it surged forward, letting out a guttural roar as several Cyberzombies made it through the ever-widening door, charging straight at them. 

“I suggest you maintain your distance…” Grine answered with a hint of amusement as the creature bellowed even louder, its ever-growing massive bulk barreling down the hallway like a living freight train as it tanked several hits before it reached the cultists, its bulk becoming too cumbersome to move. 

“You’re blocking the tunnel?” Sabisstra asked doubtfully.

“Not quite…” Grine retorted calmly, as the explosion came a moment later…

The creature’s detonation was deafening, as a shockwave ripped through the corridor back towards them. Walls buckled under the force, sending chunks of concrete and twisted metal raining down along its length, with burning chunks of mutated flesh the only source of illumination around them.

“Heh, not bad,” Kull admitted, as they heard the sounds of movement up ahead as the Cult of the Destroyer moved to clear the wreckage…

*****

“I’ve created a portal, but something is preventing travel!” Svaarzhul snarled in anger as the swirling arcane haze of purple swirled in front of him with no sight of a destination on the other side. “Maintain it while I find out what!” He hissed to Slarah, who nodded as she poured her focus into holding it in place.

Closing his eyes, the Nirah shut down his physical senses and focused on the arcane, astrally projecting as he searched for the source of the blockage, tapping his staff on the ground as he sent out invisible tendrils of the faintest shadow to reach out and probe their surroundings.

‘This…should not be possible…’  He thought to himself. ‘Unless…’

He gave new instructions to his tendrils, and soon enough, they discovered the source. Willing his astral form, he transported himself to the Plane of Shadow, where in a circle around them a series of glyphs glowed faintly. 

And then, he saw the figure. 

“Well well…This is unexpected.” The cloaked form of Lameth communicated from behind the line of glyphs, voice smooth and mocking, sitting idly as they observed the gaze of the Nirah fall on them. “I knew Skitterdeath would discover something by deploying microdrones to follow those Regulators but it seems we’ve stumbled upon something interesting. Who are you, and what is your objective here?”

Svaarzhul ignored them, casting a powerful breaching spell that smashed into the barrier created by the glyphs. Several cracked and dissipated from the force, and he followed quickly with two other attempts. The barrier was weakened significantly but did not break, as Lameth countered by adding more power, a few of the cracked glyphs reforming. 

“This will not stop me,” Svaarzhul sneered, breaking several more glyphs. 

“They don’t need to,” Lameth mocked. “You will be long overwhelmed before you get to me. Hardly worth using my strongest glyphs for that, especially wh…

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