Darwinian Demon (2)
The tentacles stretched long and thick.
Where once there had been little more than hollow exoskeleton, new tissues identical to those that formed a demon’s body flooded in, swelling the limbs with dense mass. Over the insectile carapace layered a demon’s chitinous armor—adding crushing weight, yet granting protection so absolute that ordinary bullets could not even scratch it.
The transformation was far more dramatic than when Darwin had absorbed the cockroach. That alone proved how many similarities existed between Darwin’s demon and the true demon before them. Already the creature’s silhouette had begun to echo the demon’s own.
Its main body was still only fifty centimeters across; even with the tentacles fully extended it measured no more than five meters—tiny beside a genuine demon. Yet the ability to wield erosion, the very core of a demon’s power, was a strength that outweighed mere size.
Naturally the demon tore its gaze from Yekaterina and fixed it on Darwin. The creature clearly sensed a serious threat from the life-form that had just stolen its own shape.
In that opening I sprinted to Yekaterina’s side.
“Huh?”
Her eyes flew open; she had not expected anyone else to be here. At the same instant I activated the bloodstone.
Kiiing—!
Yekaterina’s unique ability and the bloodstone lodged in my heart resonated, filling the air with a low, harmonic hum. She felt it too.
“You…”
“Take this first!”
I pressed into her hands the blood I had extracted from the corpses that had fallen from above while I scoured every corner of the place. The amount was only a fraction of what she had expended, and impurities lowered its quality, yet even that meager offering was enough for her body to knit the wounds the demon had inflicted.
Using her unique ability she restored herself, then stared at my face as though she could not believe what she was seeing.
“You—how do you have a bloodstone? I never gave you one.”
“…”
“Speak. How in the world do you possess a bloodstone?”
Her eyes glowed crimson. In that moment her mind was a storm of suspicion.
Did one of my subordinates sell it outside? Betray me? Who? Someone from the diplomatic team who deals with outsiders? Or finance?
To Yekaterina the possibility of betrayal among those she had trusted for decades was more shocking than the fact that she might die here and now. The thought alone threatened to shatter her reason.
I read the turmoil on her face, sighed, and told her the truth.
“I’m Lucifer.”
“What?”
She looked at me as if I had spoken pure nonsense. After a moment’s thought she asked again.
“So… you’re saying you’re Lucifer?”
“Yes.”
“Just looking at your face you can’t be older than mid-teens.”
“I’m sixteen.”
Actually closer to fifteen, but my registered age was sixteen, so that would do.
“I don’t know where you picked up such a ridiculous story, but—”
“That life-form over there. Doesn’t it look somehow familiar?”
“Project Darwin…!”
Project Darwin had been conducted in absolute secrecy. Anyone in Leviathan’s finance division knew that funds had been siphoned under the pretext of biotech investment, yet no one knew more than that. In truth only Yekaterina herself was aware the money had gone to Project Darwin. Beyond her, only I—the project’s sole overseer—understood the full picture. Because every process had been controlled by machines rather than people, it was probably the least-known project on the face of the earth.
“You… truly…”
“That doesn’t matter right now.”
I muttered the words and sent Darwin a signal. Telepathy still felt clumsy, yet Darwin’s intelligence was high enough to grasp even that imperfect command as if it were crystal clear.
Dodging the demon’s lashing tentacles, Darwin thrust its own erosion tentacles outward. Limbs that had measured a mere five meters stretched past ten, then twenty. The writhing mass of tentacles plunged into the corpses of the demonic beasts still lying where the fall had left them.
Kwachik—! Kwadeudeuk—!
The newly acquired tentacles of the Eroder sank through the beasts’ armor as though it were soft clay. They tore through shell and flesh until they reached the brains; there the tips blossomed into tiny mouths and devoured the organs whole. The genes thus obtained were applied to Darwin on the spot.
After consuming a mantis-like beast, blades sprouted across its body. A mole-like creature granted infrared vision. An ox-like monster swelled Darwin’s frame and flooded it with strength beyond comparison. Only the traits that suited it were selected and grafted in real time. The entire metamorphosis took barely ten seconds.
What emerged was less a living creature than a demon itself.
And it was not finished. The beasts that had fallen to the erosion tentacles slowly rose. Eyes that had lost their light regained a dull vitality and fixed upon the demon—the original Eroder.
The demon’s gaze filled with shock; it had never imagined its own ability could be copied. Truthfully I had not expected Darwin to acquire unique abilities either. I once read an article claiming unique abilities were influenced by genes—was that actually true? There was no way to know now.
Dozens of demonic beasts launched themselves at the demon like moths into flame. Surprisingly, the tactic worked: their assault successfully split the demon’s attention.
I realized this was the only chance we would get.
“Harvest the beasts’ blood and prepare one big shot!”
“Huh?”
“Hurry!”
The beasts were already under the erosion tentacles’ command; they no longer needed their own blood. Oxygen and the rest could be supplied by the fragments of Darwin’s tentacles that had burrowed into their bodies.
Yekaterina immediately drew the blood into her heart.
“The biggest one I can manage? There’s not enough blood for that…!”
“Whatever you can do!”
I loaded armor-piercing rounds into my pistol’s magazine. Armor-piercing rounds in a handgun might sound absurd, but in this world—thanks to demonic beasts—high-penetration AP rounds were the standard. Ordinary lead was considered barely adequate even for human targets.
Tang—!
One of the demon’s racing tentacles was severed. The main body’s armor could shrug off artillery shells, but the thinner tentacles were vulnerable even to AP pistol fire. Of course, hitting a tentacle moving at supersonic speed was an entirely different problem.
Darwin’s tentacles lunged for the demon’s heart. The demon raised its own limbs in defense, yet the swarm of interfering beasts made a clean block impossible. Scores—then hundreds—of wounds carved themselves across its body. Individually each was a light scratch, but when their number climbed into the hundreds they became serious injuries. The armor cracked open, exposing the writhing organs beneath.
At that exact moment Yekaterina’s attack detonated.
Kwagagagaga—!
A dragon of blood erupted from her fingertips, hurtling toward the demon and pulverizing everything in its path. The power was staggering: it punched straight through the fifty-meter-wide body, leaving a two-meter-wide tunnel. The cascade of entrails that poured out was grotesque, yet no further explanation of the attack’s force was required.
“Haa… is it dead?”
The demon looked lifeless. Borrowing Darwin’s sensory organs I confirmed that biological activity had ceased; internal temperature was steadily dropping.
“Darwin—finish it.”
Darwin approached and began to devour the organic matter. The nutrients flowed into its body, fueling further growth.
Is it really dead?
I was grateful. Had the fight dragged on any longer, defeat would have been certain. I exhaled in relief and turned toward Yekaterina.
Her condition, however, was anything but normal.
“Keuk…!”
“Yekaterina…?”
“Don’t tell me… this fucking…!”
As though controlled by something else, her left hand clamped around her own throat. The instant I saw it I understood: the demon was still manipulating her.
“You think… I’ll go down that easily?!”
She twisted her unique ability, reshaping the left hand. The tentacles that had formed there could not withstand the blood pressure and burst into raw flesh, yet the full expenditure of her power left Yekaterina herself far from whole.
“Haa… haa…”
She gasped and stared at the demon’s corpse. There, dozens of smaller clones—fragments of the original—gazed back at her.