Biohuman

Olivia hissed in pain as she stood up. Lee Seng hovered over her, lending a helping hand. She scrunched her face together while Lee Seng nervously kept Olivia from falling.

"Can you walk?" Lee Seng asked. Olivia tried her best to fight through the pain, but her thoughts couldn't stop blaming herself for doing a risky thing. She tried to push Lee Seng away. She didn't need help for something she did. Lee Seng stuttered as he watched Olivia. She groaned in pain, stumbling forward into Lee Seng's arms.

'Ah, I shouldn't have done that!' Olivia thought. She took a chance, and she blew it. 'I should've been more careful! Who would even know Deimon blood corrupts down to one's Dark Matter?'

"H-hey, I think you shouldn't walk right now." Lee Seng said. "Lemme just—"

"No, I'm fine! I-I can do this!" Olivia blurted out. She pushed herself up onto her feet, straightening her upper body. She pushed herself off Lee Seng and stood, wobbling. She pushed through the pain and started to move past Lee Seng slowly. Each step was like a flare of pain that had no starting point. Olivia grunted in pain, almost losing herself to gravity.

Olivia collapsed onto the ground. Lee Seng ran over to her, lowering himself to check on Olivia.

"I'm fine!" Olivia lied. "I can do this myself!" Lee Seng didn't understand why she continuously kept telling him she was fine. He knew she was capable of so much, but Olivia was in pain. He wanted to ease that pain for her. "I've pushed through so many obstacles…! I can do this one too!"

Olivia pushed herself up, grunting. She sounded like she was straining as she forced herself onto her hands and knees. She gasped, fighting the fire within her. Lee Seng sighed and waved his hand. Olivia's body felt extremely light and with a single motion, she was lifted into the air.

"I don't think you're in any condition to walk." Lee Seng told her. He stood up and looked around. Nothing had, thankfully, heard them. "I'll carry you until we find Manny. Until then just rest." Olivia hovered in a sitting position as Lee Seng walked off first. She floated slightly behind him, giving Lee Seng enough time to see and react to anything hostile.

The purple hole in the wall was thriving with strange tendrils. The purple tendrils looked like they ripped the hole open. The tendrils dug into the wall, tearing into it while a strange ooze seeped out of the walls. The tunnel was covered in splatters and looked small enough only for one person to go through on their hands and knees. Lee Seng grabbed himself with the use of his gravity and lowered himself. He laid on his stomach and looked at Olivia.

"We're going to have to lie down for this." Lee Seng told her. "I'll go first to make sure everything's fine. You'll follow after, 'kay?"

"We're going in there?" Olivia asked. "Shouldn't we look around before we go into an odd place?" Lee Seng nodded at her. He adjusted Olivia into the same position as him and slowly moved into the tunnel. The tendrils squirmed and dripped ooze while Lee Seng kept his eyes ahead. The tunnel was growing smaller, and the tendrils seemed to be visibly shaking like they knew Lee Seng and Olivia were in here. Lee Seng slowly maneuvered both Olivia and him through the tunnel. He brushed against a tendril which shuddered. One by one, the rest of the tendrils began to shake as Lee Seng and Olivia neared the end.

Lee Seng popped out of the hole, almost getting himself stuck on his shoulders. He grunted as he forced himself through the small gap. The tendrils shuddered, releasing ooze as Lee Seng released the gravity hold on himself.

"I'm gonna get you out now." Lee Seng told Olivia. He squatted down and grabbed the hole. He began to tear, physically forcing the hole to get bigger. Gravity pulled away, clumping the fallen pieces together as Lee Seng stopped to look at Olivia. "Alright, we're gonna try."

"Alright." Olivia replied. Lee Seng stepped back and flicked his finger. Olivia slowly watched as she exited without fail. When Olivia was far enough out, Lee Seng raised her back into a sitting position. She winced as Lee Seng came over to her.

"Okay?" Lee Seng asked, releasing the hold on the torn wall.

"I'm fine…" Olivia told him. "Just another flare…" Lee Seng lifted his hand up.

"Heal." A golden light washed over Olivia. Lee Seng knew it wouldn't do much, but it would relieve a small portion of the pain. For a moment, Olivia felt at ease. The pain on her face lightened up and it felt like she could finally breathe. Lee Seng's light faded, and he lowered his hand. He took the opportunity to look around while Olivia was enjoying the small respite from pain.

The purple ooze was everywhere. Tendrils climbed the ceiling while tiny tendrils hung in the air.

"There's nothing…" Lee Seng whispered. He stepped over to the nearest tendril and reached for it. "Let's see if this changes things…" Lee Seng touched the tendrils and listened as a quiet buzzing noise appeared. The tendrils lit up in purple, snaking and lining down the tunnel. Lee Seng could see the network of tendrils all around them. They had infested the sewers, attaching themselves to anything.

'They even attached themselves to monsters…' Lee Seng thought. He pushed further, noticing the network of energy was going down. Lee Seng continued to follow, feeling the energy suddenly cut off. Lee Seng gasped, taking a step back. 'I can't go that far.' He turned to look at Olivia who was looking at him. Her eyes grew a bit as she noticed the purple in Lee Seng's eyes. The purple slowly melted away, leaving a small blotch of purple near the bottom of his irises.

"Whatever this is, it's going down." Lee Seng informed Olivia.

"Do you think this has something to do with what happened here?" Olivia asked. Lee Seng shook his head as he returned to Olivia's side.

"Dunno. Maybe." Lee Seng replied. "With the way things are going, I think we should get you out of here. If we can find Manny and the others, we can get you healed. I don't know what effect that Corrupted's energy had on you, but I don't want you to potentially die from something we don't know anything about."

"Y-you're right." Olivia nodded. "We should find a way out. Do you feel a way out from here?" Lee Seng looked up, letting the seismic sense take over. It bounced around, not giving Lee Seng anything.

"I can't see anything because of these tendrils. They're blocking my ability to sense with the earth."

"Blocking the earth…? Is Deimon energy that bad?" Olivia looked around. Lee Seng shrugged. "We kinda threw ourselves into something we fully don't understand, hm?"

"Yeah…" Lee Seng started walking, pulling Olivia along next to him. "Deimons… Their blood can corrupt others and turn them into mindless monsters."

"When we fought that Glass Corrupted, it got me thinking about something. What if the Corrupted husk retains your muscle memory? All those years of training would be built into someone, right? Wouldn't that mean the blood made them go crazy and turn purple and weird, but it never stopped their power?"

Olivia had a good theory. There wasn't much Lee Seng knew about the Deimons. He just knew they were some sort of experiment the Creator probably created. Coupled with the fact this project might've been because the Creator wanted Lee Seng's Mom to return to normal, Lee Seng couldn't help but wonder what could happen if the Deimons were perfected.

"Ah, crap." Olivia sighed.

"What?" Lee Seng looked over to his right.

"I forgot my dagger." She sighed. They both came to a stop as Lee Seng looked back the way they came. "Thankfully, there was a rune engraved in it for this very exact purpose." Olivia lifted her right hand up and spoke the word in Korean. "Return." Lee Seng watched as nothing happened. Olivia stared at her hand waiting.

"I-is something supposed to—"

Ting! Ting! Ting! Swoosh!

The dagger flew, passing straight by Lee Seng's ear. Lee Seng jumped, grabbing his ear as the dagger set in Olivia's hand. Olivia smiled as she looked at Lee Seng.

"You weren't going to warn me it wasn't going to appear in your hand but fly back and almost cut my ear off?!?" Lee Seng shouted. Olivia laughed and looked at the dagger.

"Home." Olivia spoke in English. The dagger disappeared and reappeared in Olivia's sheathe on her belt. "That makes it return to its original place." Lee Seng rubbed his ear and looked behind him. He muttered to himself while he fearfully looked at Olivia.

"C'mon, let's go. We don't got all day." Olivia pointed.

"You almost cut my ear off and you act like it's all fun and games…" Lee Seng muttered, trudging forward.