In a world where poverty and famine affect most of the population, it’s obvious that a significant percentage would pursue an unorthodox way of life; a percentage of people, well-versed in fields that often yield less than livable wages, some who have seen the struggles and strive to eradicate those miseries; that include the likes of Lish, Isha, and even Jul, who had Juliet as a name at that time, choosing to live in dangerous and sinful ways to live a “normal”, passable lives.

  “With marginal wealth comes first the survival of oneself. If you cannot live, alas, your kin will suffer the same fate.”

  Rules are in place to ensure a safe lifestyle. So, it is only logical to follow the orders of those who make such laws, isn't it?

  When you’re abiding by the common law, those who follow the law in each exact word are your friends, and those who follow the essence are your adversaries. But once you forego the boundary, those who have leeway, such that the essence and heart stay true to the legislators’ intention, would become your best friends.

  And perhaps the Design wanted a lot of best friends.

  “Such a lonely existence.”

  Conflicts. If Isha hadn’t been in the War for the Mounds, Lish wouldn’t have killed him; less so, they would have been good friends. But his luck is just that: utterly useless. But it’s his conflicting views on morality and formality that make him the perfect antagonist for the Design; he is impossibly unlucky, impossibly strong-willed, and impossibly empathetic that the Design has to actively warp his plan around him.

  “My daughter, eh?

  …he said,

  She died on the 5th of November, and I remember that day dearly. The day I was promoted, the day my life became meaningless, the day I decided to die; how can I forget my one and only reason for living like a normal person?”

  “She was about the same age as Jul, no?”

  “And? Are you implying I could delude myself, again, and go and live an honest life?”

  “No, no; quite the opposite, actually. You should try to die like how you were supposed to, back in Yenisei—like a hero.”

  “A hero, eh?

  …he groaned, limping up to one leg,

  Sure, I can die as one, but living, that’ll be a problem.”

  The rusty knife that once threatened Lish’s life at Isha’s hand now holds as the only thing to avert his imminent demise; the same knife that had taken the lives of, and butchered the carcasses of, Jul’s parents, the same one he uses to cut his meat, and the same one he tried to dip into Lish, but fortunately diverted back to himself by Jul. He had already snipped off 32 tentacles, but the damage wasn’t enough to slow him down or even hinder the monster’s breath.

  “Isn’t tetanus caused by bacteria?”

  “Yes? But this bollock is a bottom-feeding blue blood—it can’t truly rust away the nerves, yes?”

  “Tetanus is a neurotoxin that targets the nerves and causes spasms. It has little to do with rust, if any at all. It’s a soil bacterium, and look where we are: open air, dirt roads, and this thing has almost 3 dozen open wounds; so surely, right?”

  Right then, Lish and Glass realized that Isha wasn’t moving. Surely, he would’ve grown far and wide and toppled on top of Isha while he was down, but his growth—his fasciation—had slowed, or had stopped entirely. Upon a closer look, along the seams of his suckers and skin, the meat bloomed out of the body as the outer layer had no elasticity left to accommodate the growth.

  Essentially, Isha had started to wither from his evolution.

  His new body had little immunity to the elements, yet he was O so adamant on going beyond the mortal limit. 32 limbs were cut off; another 64 grew in their place; those 64 now crumble off his body as it explodes from within…

  “Li?a! Kirey i?’an. Sen’an ousie ka?. Mo eley.”

  The berries, the ones that introduced Lish to the cruelties of this world, the blue ones—holding the same neurotoxin found in Pacific pufferfish. 7% of the volume of the berry, which is about half the pit, is enough to kill Lish.

  But what about a giant hydra-octopus? How many berries would it take?

  “Let’s say Isha is twice the weight of his tentacles. One of those tentacles weighs roughly 30kg, and he has… 108, maybe? So, around 3 tons, about 46 times your weight. If the pit is the only thing that’s poisonous and all of the pit is poison, then 20-something berries would be enough to kill it… Cool berries.”

  “Kill him softly, she says. Do you think Isha would want to die peacefully, though? Do you think he could rest easily? Do you think he deserves to die this soon? Sure, Jul gave me enough to kill him, twice even, but does he want to die this way?”

  Jul’s God Sight operates like an organic kaleidoscope. The glitter represents a specific set of events that might happen soon, and the pattern they form shows a full view of that future. It changes naturally, but when Jul acts on the visions, it is remodeled chaotically. She can only focus on one sight at a time by tunnel-visioning on it, neglecting any further or adjacent sights.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Surely. He is a horrible person and less so a parent, so his death should be painful and drawn out. And he disobeyed the foreseen will so, surely, right?”

  At some point, Isha has to stop growing. Whether it’s due to malnutrition, suffocation, or just plain exhaustion, at some point, he has to stop. But it looked like Isha had enough food in his cellar to sustain at least a 50x growth.

  “Each limb is a toll on his tire. I’ve already cut 3 dozen off, I’m immune to whatever he has, and I got this trusty knife with me—what else is there to think through? You reap what you sow.”

  “Angel’s body, was it? You got all uppity after hearing that from a dying man. Well, to be fair, your movements are far more polished compared to what you could do back home.”

  …

  “Well then… It’s fair to say I got my tetanus shot. No lockjaw for me this year.”

  Glass was meant to be a flameless soul, only there to keep Lish in his place. But, as his idiotic idealism is too grand for even the design to smother, Glass gained consciousness, akin to Lish’s, as another fiery soul in the same resurrected body. Along with his own soul, he also acquired an equalizer called Anti, which can nullify any and all effects foreign to the body, including poisoning, infection, invasion, and psychedelics, among many others.

  “Say, say, is there any way I can reverse Isha’s transformation? You said I have something called Split; how can I use it? He started out as a human, at some point, so he should die as one, no?”

  “How can you be this cheery? Sure, your optimism is essentially encoded onto your soul, but this just seems… insufferable. Not once did you think through your actions; not once did you worry about yourself or others, yet you still act as if everything turned out just fine. I know you inside and out, past and present, but not once have you been this carefree. Even in your death, you smiled—as if you knew you’d be resurrected—as if you knew you’ll have my Anti in ailment—as if you knew Isha couldn’t kill you or Jul. Why are you this empathetic? Why are you the Hell Hospitaller, even? Do you really believe you’ll go to hell? Is this hell? You even asked in awe while in limbo: ‘Is this heaven?’ … Understand yourself better… As for your Split, you should be able to interact with the ‘higher plane’ by touching either the subject's mean center or the information-transfer channels. From there, it’s up to you, since I have my Anti to worry about.”

  Taking a tendril from the pile of Isha, taking a bite,

  “Tastes bland. And there's too much to just leave around… Yo, Isha! You’re alive, and I know it. Could you be so kind as to devolve yourself back into a human, please? Or else, I have to try something quite experimental…”

  “R’ka elei! Fuley!”

  When something is cornered, it will only try to obliterate everything in its way to escape. But when it knows it can’t escape, alive, only destruction will remain.

  “Death wish, huh? I won’t die, my dear, I’m still an antagonist-”

  To be fair, witnessing a near-miss and the destruction it caused on the surface, then seeing it hit Lish 90% of the time, you'd think it’s a death wish to let him keep going. So, you have to do something about it, and all you can think of is to do something.

  Checked to the side, he lies on the ground, trying to piece together what he should do in the next instant. Cunning as he was, Isha had lain dormant until the last possible moment to strike Lish with his “Forced Metamorphosis”, extra juiced to bypass his Anti. But he didn’t hit his intended target—no, he hit his daughter.

  “...How long until the antidote?”

  “The moment you swallowed the leg.”

  The best defense is a good offense. However, an anti-offense isn't a true defense; it’s just another form of offense designed to combat other offenses. As such, an attack meant to topple any defense can only defeat defenses; an attack targeting the attacker should have no counter.

  “Well, isn’t that quite the coincidence? I’d bet Isha prepared the perfect attack for us, accounting for my Anti and your… optimism. The antidote itself can both attack and defend, like a kind of amalgamation vaccine-antibiotic, but it can attack a hell of a lot better than it can sit still.”

  “A damned coincidence. You think the antidote can eradicate the forced mutation and turn whatever that is back into Jul?”

  “Yes? I just said it can attack better than it can defend, what don’t you get?”

  “Healing and recovering aren’t really the same thing. I’m asking if she can fully recover from this. Can she?”

  “She should be fine; her body is essentially that of a god’s. And Isha can return as well.”

  “Hm?”

  “You dense- Look, I know it’s really damn unlucky that we ran into Isha here. But think of the odds as twice as bad as they already are. Your body was recreated back in Limbo, as well as Isha’s and Jul’s, because you three all died back on earth… We hit the 0.0001% chance twice, Lishe.”

  Forced metamorphosis: the ability to turn a living organism into its next iteration. For Isha himself, it was turning his malice, desire, and the body’s innate familiarity into a monster with infinite potential. It should be counted as a positive effect; after all, who wouldn’t want to level up early?

  Anti-all: the perfect counter to every effect inflicted on the body. And… Split: the ability to cut anything with impossible precision. Any element, any compound, any composite material, any concept—anything—can be dissected and broken down into its basic, small components. In tandem with Anti and the angel’s body, Split can provide the necessary parts to make an antidote and a vaccine for others’ use.

  Isha is now rotting on the ground with bits and pieces of himself scattered around the street. Whenever he lifts an arm, the arm dislodges from his body and falls onto the ground in tens of little chunks.

  The arm that attacked Lish and hit Jul, as well, is in bits, all in front of the Serpent of a thousand eyes.

  “Can you be so kind as to touch the snake, Lishe? If there’s direct contact with the subject, I can inject right into their mainframe and administer the antidote.”

  Like a livid beast, Jul had swirled into a defensive stance, baring her fangs at him, hissing and twisting her four tongues.

  “R’?i?ey mora. Xey dz’l’so xe’an. Ka?ey mo’an.”

  …she said, in a disturbingly familiar voice to Lish.

  Indeed, his selective memory served him right at that time. He was hearing a voice that once belonged to his wife and his daughter.

  “Let’s test this on Isha first.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Just cause. Let’s test how potent this thing is and how much dosage is needed to administer the correct number of antibodies.”

  …and he smiled. He smiled at Isha, reaching his hands out to touch his mean center.