Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 28: Meat, Blood and...Shape

"Hmmm... so that’s it? Looks half-assed. Are you humans really this incompetent?" A hooded girl grumbles at one of the [Cobra] remnants while crushing the project.

"...It’s not as easy as it looks... we don’t have that kind of money for better equipment... plus getting anything with modified vectors is a pain in the ass!!" The [Cobra] scientist tries to justify himself to the hooded girl, who fixes him with an icy glare.

"Blah, blah, blah — make your garbage better. I didn’t step in to help you just so you’d take this long... if I don’t have this in one week, I’ll have to get rid of you and find someone better to do it." The mood in the room turns awful as several [Cobra] members grow discontent, not understanding why their boss lets this girl order them around like that.

"Come on now, girl, don’t be so rude to my employees. They’re doing their best, but it’s hard to mess with vectors without the government finding out." The leader — a tall, strong man with black hair, wearing a completely black, featureless mask — speaks to the hooded girl.

"...It’s taking too long. I didn’t give you my cute little wolf so you could hand me mediocre results!! This is why I hate working with weak, worthless humans like you!!" She speaks as the enormous wolf, over three meters tall in the distance, lets out a low snarl while staring everyone down.

"A wolf isn’t enough to kill an experienced Kaira, girl. You’ll have to give more than that if you want better results. We’re living like rats, hiding in this hole without any decent supply of weapons, money, or tech."

"And your wolf is huge, loud, and draws attention — it’s only good as a guard dog." The man, keeping his courage up in front of his allies, talks to her casually, even though she can feel his fear.

His heart is racing, and he always keeps at least five meters away from her.

"Tsk, you think that’s my problem? I didn’t give you that piece-of-crap engine for nothing, did I?" She steps closer, poking him with her finger while gesturing at the immense machine leaning against the wall.

"Hey, you little bitch — don’t touch the boss!" One of the hot-headed [Cobra] members approaches the hooded girl, touching her shoulder. Since no one but the boss and the scientist knows who the girl is, his lack of caution turns out to be idiotic.

Before anyone in the room can register it, his body has already become the paint on the floor and the wall behind her. Immediately, a murmur breaks out among everyone as they see only blood and chunks of flesh plastered across the floor and wall.

"Don’t kill them... I’ll do better." The Leader speaks, trying to hide the chills running through his entire body.

"Good, that’s how I want it. Make this better fast — you’ve got one month... or you’ll turn into wolf food."

"I mean, it shouldn’t even be that hard to create this with my help. I gave you pieces of my flesh so you wouldn’t have so many delays and you still only managed to make some shapeless blob that drags itself across the floor." She speaks with a mocking tone as she heads toward the door.

"Besides, pay more attention. I heard from a little parasite that the phone AIs from three of your members picked up some things they shouldn’t have, and there are already people who know about this place." Signaling to the wolf, the hooded girl slams the door and starts to leave.

More interested in hunting for something fun to do while she waits, since the results of artificially creating a life form based on her have only yielded failures.

"It shouldn’t even be that hard!! It’s almost like cloning me... human technology is so stupid." Touching her face with both hands while looking at the moon, the girl thinks for a second about an appearance.

And then the flesh across her entire body deforms and contorts in a grotesque display. Cracking sounds like bones breaking and blood being compressed ring out as her shape changes.

It’s not a pretty or interesting transformation — it’s like crushing and reshaping meat into something new, turning a large cut of flesh into ground meat and piecing every bit back together with millimeter precision into a sculpted form like a statue.

The previously short hooded girl is now tall, with red hair and blue eyes, large breasts and a gentle expression — nothing like her previous physical appearance, almost the complete opposite.

"Better like this..." The spare flesh that normally gets discarded onto the ground as excess — usually left behind by her like a snake shedding its old skin — returns to her body like a new outfit properly sized to her new proportions.

"Ahhh, Nadir... do you like busty girls? If I opened up your chest looking like this, would you remember your dear Mimic better?" She speaks with a tone of pure euphoria, taking steps joined with spins like a child who can’t wait to see someone she likes.

"I wonder where he is... the government hides its weapons so well... ugh, I hate this!! They’re keeping my dear Nadir away from me!! I need so badly to tear him to pieces." Her tone of voice doesn’t make it clear if it’s hatred or genuine interest — it’s a distorted, jumbled mix that depends entirely on the interpreter to decide what such a monster feels.

"If it weren’t for my extra teeth and eyes, it’d be so much easier to infiltrate the government... damn competent people with their absurd level of security..." She criticizes the government, kicking a lamppost and ripping it from its metal base in the ground, sending it flying into an empty building and making it collapse.

"...Well... fine for now. I know Nadir is alive. A man like that wouldn’t die to just anyone so easily, and I’ll be the one to flay him alive and devour his flesh. I just need a little patience... and for that metal woman not to get in the way."

"Yes... I really should get rid of Commander Zenith... that woman is a problem, so insane... urgghh..." Just from imagining and thinking of Zenith and her own flesh being deformed and torn apart by a spatial distortion, the girl vomits blood. All the cells in her body react as if they’re separate living beings.

Not an individual, but a multicellular mass that reacts, moving irregularly, vibrating with memories of disapproval and fear, causing small internal chaos.

Flesh deformed by space doesn’t regenerate, making Zenith the only enemy who has wounded her in a way that traumatized every cell of her body, which now reacts aggressively even toward itself when thinking about it.

"Damn woman! Damn wretched woman!! Stupid metal woman!!! I bet she doesn’t even taste good, all contaminated with metal — trash! Trash! Trash!! I’ll TEAR HER TO PIECES!!" Cursing and badmouthing her most hated enemy, she wanders through the half-empty streets, as it’s nighttime.

Seen from a distance, she might even be mistaken for just another normal girl, but the teeth in the ruffles of her dress and some of the eyes visible beneath her skirt when she makes exaggerated movements make it clear something is wrong — combined with the smell of blood she gives off from having just changed forms.

"It’s fine... everything is perfectly fine!! I won’t let some tin can woman ruin my plans!! Nadir will be the finest of banquets, and I’ll make sure to devour him very slowly... piece... by piece..." Feeling an intense craving for flesh, she wanders in search of interesting prey.

Because she can’t draw attention, she avoids random civilians who don’t interest her and who absentmindedly pass by her on their way home after exhausting routines. Seeing how blind humanity is to an enemy right in front of them, the girl wonders why humans are like that?

’I can’t understand... I’m right here, so those humans who always walk past me should notice me, shouldn’t they? I even smell like blood from the appearance change I just did... humans are so foolish and unworthy of being in my presence, since they can’t even recognize me...’

Her enemy walks beside her, and humans don’t recognize it, trapped in their own senseless exhaustion — a true enigma to a monster who can’t grasp this strange logic.

’Humans should have more fun... if they devoured each other, they’d realize how liberating and entertaining it really is... but no!!! They named me Nightmare as if I’m strange for doing the basics of survival...’ Nightmare — a name she readily accepted.

It’s like they say: ’An insult from my enemy is a compliment.’ Having been named Nightmare by humanity, she simply accepted this name even without understanding what it meant, only knowing that it was something bad for humans.

"Ahhh, I’m so bored... one month is way too long... how many humans could I devour in one month? How many bodies could I copy... and how many new abilities from interesting Kairas could I see to replicate? Hehehe." With an extremely dark laugh, Nightmare recalls the expressions people make when being killed by an "ally."

One of her hobbies — turning into someone and killing while using that appearance to cause maximum suffering. After all, who wouldn’t be driven to despair at being killed by someone close — a friend, a relative, a lover? Humans are so molded by sight that even knowing it’s not truly the person close to them, they still feel that desperate sensation that Nightmare so dearly loves.

"You know what... one month is too much time. Two weeks... that’s right, I’ll devour them in two weeks if they don’t finish." Without even going back there to tell them, she changes the plans without saying a word to anyone — without warning the people who will suffer that she, simply on a whim, cut the time in half.