The machine hummed its toll, and the resonance disruptor was now set up atop the Ironside, which took them only three hours of uninterrupted research and manufacturing, all condensed for this single moment. Vigil, who had been the leading figure throughout, had been unusually quiet the entire time it was being built. However, the prototype had been successfully built, and for Altair, that was all that really mattered.

  "Four Stygians approaching, designating them as subjects one to four, Lieutenant," Vigil reported.

  Altair's hands then settled on the controls, and his face leaned forward toward the interface. "Let us see what this can do." He smiled.

  With a forward drive of the slide, the resonance disruptor hummed at an imperceptible frequency that made Altair's muscles weak and his ears ring. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth throughout until he got used to it.

  The cylindrical array atop the Ironside's hull silently vibrated and pulsed with a bristling pale blue light. With the power being rerouted throughout the Ironside and into the resonance disruptor, it glowed even brighter.

  The four subjects then emerged from the tree line, their horrifying and grotesque appearance still sending chills down Altair's back, their muscles exposed to the open rain, and the placements of limbs and facial features where they should not have been left a lasting impression on him. Their crimson-black bodies glistened under the nightless black rain.

  Then they charged.

  "Full power has been rerouted, Lieutenant," Vigil announced.

  Like a horror that came from another world, the air itself screamed and screeched like there was no tomorrow.

  A concentric wave of distorted space rippled outward from the Ironside, which was only barely visible where it intersected with the falling black rain.

  The droplets froze mid-fall, suspended in stasis within the field's grip, then as if the corruption was being washed away, it became something else, as if it remembered what it was before its corruption. It turned crystal clear, and once every ounce of corruption was gone, it simply fell back into the ground.

  The cleansed rain pattered against the Ironside's hull, as it washed the black ichor clean into streams of pure water.

  Altair simply stared, hyper-fixated on the video feed. "Vigil, are you seeing what I am seeing?"

  "That is an affirmative, Lieutenant." Vigil's voice carried something almost like childlike wonder. "The resonance frequency does not destroy the atmospheric particles. It restores them to their original state?"

  "Original state?" Altair repeated, his mind now racing. If the rain could be purified, what else could?

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  Then, the first Stygian struck the resonance barrier at full sprint.

  Its body convulsed and writhed in pain. Each and every mouth it had opened in silent agony, as the frequency tore through its biological signature. It staggered, limbs in a seizure, before it collapsed fifteen meters from the Ironside. It attempted to stand, move, and fight against the disruptive field, but it still failed.

  "First target confirmed incapacitated," Vigil reported. "Atmospheric particle density within its body has been destabilized. It could no longer maintain its cohesion inside the field."

  The three Stygians, sensing the demise of their comrade, slowly circled, their hundred eyes fixed on the Ironside but refusing to advance. They had learned so fast.

  Altair's fingers tapped along the console, and with a decision his hand glided along the console. "Expand the radius, push them back."

  "Affirmative. Increasing output to seventy percent."

  Without a moment's notice, the resonance wave expanded like a splash of water across a still surface. The three Stygians screeched in an ear-splitting voice; it was as if a demon itself was speaking, and so they retreated a few dozen more meters before the new line. One tried to flank and moved in parallel to the barrier's edge.

  "They're testing its boundaries," Altair observed, even more curious. He leaned forward. "They're coordinating." He smiled.

  "We have now confirmed that normal Stygians we usually encounter demonstrate pack intelligence when threatened." Vigil paused. "Lieutenant, the energy consumption is stable at our current output. The resonance disruptor is effective within a thirty-meter radius; any further expansion of the radius, and we would be burning more of our reserves."

  Altair could only smile grimly. Thirty meters might be short; it was not that much, but surely it was enough to protect, and the implication of their discovery set up—

  His thoughts were suddenly cut off as the first Stygian, still writhing in pain within the field, finally dissolved, but not in the way any of them expected. The Stygian collapsed entirely, and piece by piece turned to dust, and with a single gust of wind it disappeared like a fleeting memory on a rainy day. Its black ichor that kept its body shape fell to the ground and was subsequently purified.

  As the Stygian was turning into dust, Vigil detected a strange frequency.

  "Lieutenant, I am detecting something within our radio frequencies. I have intercepted it and it is now being played."

  Once the radio was played, numerous sounds came through, from laughter of children, to the murmuring of voices, until it all completely disappeared with the last bit of the Stygian.

  "W-What was that?" Altair was flabbergasted. "Are those… children I heard? Vigil, have you recorded the playback?" Altair said, his eyes fully narrowed, and in deep contemplation.

  "I-I have, Lieutenant." Vigil responded after a moment of silence. "It strangely feels like a murmur, a murmur of memories?" Vigil said, his voice zooming in and out. "Am I making sense, Lieutenant?" His voice continued to zoom in and out.

  Altair, who was seemingly as fazed as Vigil, could only nod his head. "Right, let's complete our test first, and brainstorm what we experienced later." Altair commanded.

  "R-Right, Lieutenant." Vigil paused, then he spoke once again. "One hostile neutralized," he confirmed. "The remaining three are maintaining their distance. Shall I increase output to test our lethality range?"

  "That is a negative." Altair's eyes narrowed, with him leaning forward as he studied the circling Stygians. "Maintain our current power. I want to see how long they are willing to wait before adapting further."

  The three Stygians stared back, now unmoving, as if they were waiting for something, or perhaps they were learning.

  Altair and Vigil were about to find out.