Dark Fall

Scourge

Alex immediately turned his head over and saw a rather familiar object.

“Dammit, is it another alien?!”

[Correct.]

“That was rhetorical!”

Alex didn’t need the alien to answer his question. Just hearing its voice felt slimy to him and he didn’t like it at all.

“I have to run...but…”

Alex looked down on the crater and was sadly reminded of Claire. She was no longer here anymore as she had been killed by the alien that was now inside of him to his chagrin.

[Evade.]

“?!”

The alien inside of him simply said that and his body reacted instantly. Alex dashed to the left and narrowly avoided something crashing down on his previous spot.

It was some kind of metal and he knew that if he hadn’t reacted immediately, he would have been flattened.

[Our assimilation is not finished. The most proper action is to run away from battle. You have zero chance of winning.]

“Battle? Winning? What are you babbling about?!”

Alex seriously wanted the alien to just shut up since just hearing its voice inside of his head was grating to his mind.

[Detecting D-Class Medical Unit. Our incomplete merger cannot facilitate combat. We cannot defeat this Angrax]

“What the hell are you sayi─”

Alex was immediately cut off as he felt danger and had to jump away. A laser was fired at where he was earlier and it came from within the smoke that was caused by the explosion from the object that had fallen from the sky.

From behind the smoke, an alien similar to the one he had just killed emerged. However, this alien’s color was a bit different as this one was a dark red. It pointed some kind of device at Alex before it suddenly spoke up.

The language was unknown, but Alex was somehow able to understand what it was saying.

“Responding to the emergency distress beacon. Detected an anomaly, cannot confirm whether the Zaegnid is alive or dead. Proceeding to dispose of the anomaly.”

[The anomaly means us. Escape, now!]

The voice in his head sounded quite urgent and when Alex saw the alien in front of him raise the gadget it had holstered on its waist that seemed quite similar to a gun, he immediately booked it after he saw the barrel light up with a blue radiance.

A laser was shot from this alien gun and it nearly hit Alex but he lunged forward and dodged it. He rolled on the ground in all his naked glory and quickly got up to continue running again.

Seeing how Alex moved and behaved, the alien that had just fired at him said something else.

“Mission established, pursuing anomaly and retrieving medical data for further analysis.”

The alien began running after Alex as he continued to fire off lasers from its alien gun. It seemed like it wanted to take Alex alive as he no longer shot to kill but to incapacitate. He noticed this since the alien was trying to aim at his legs with all of its shots.

“s**t, it’s chasing after us─I mean, me!”

[Escape is impossible. The only solution is to complete the assimilation process and unlock the necessary abilities and upgrades to kill this enemy.]

Hearing that the alien inside of him wanted to kill the alien that was chasing after him, Alex was quite puzzled.

“I thought you were allies?!”

[Due to the failed domination, I have become just like you, an anomaly. All anomalies are to be eliminated or transported back to the mothership for data retrieval.]

Alex felt a tingle run down his spine after he heard the latter half of the alien’s words. The only thing that came to mind was dissection and experimentation.

[Chances of survival...very low.]

He didn’t know what the alien was constantly babbling about inside of his head but it suddenly went quiet for a few minutes as Alex continued to run before it spoke up again.

[Human.]

“What?!”

[We must complete the assimilation if we want to survive. Move left then follow the path before breaking towards the left again.]

“...Shit. Fine!”

Alex didn’t know what to do as he had only been randomly running around and parkouring through the park that was now filled with obstacles such as toppled trees and overturned slabs of earth and concrete so he decided to just listen to the alien in his body and follow its direction.

He quickly arrived at one of the fountains inside of Central Park and the alien immediately told him to jump into the fountain and hold his breath.

[I will pull you back to the Heart Realm where we will complete our assimilation.]

“Huh?”

Before he could say anything, Alex’s surroundings changed and he returned to the white and foggy space. In front of him was the mirror reflection of himself and he once more saw that half of his body was tainted black by the amorphous alien that had merged with him.

“I’m here again…”

“Where is this place?” Alex asked as he turned his gaze towards the reflection in front of him, particularly at the side of him that was the alien.

[This is what’s known as the Heart Realm. It is a realm created when a being such as myself, a Zaegnid, merges with another creature.]

“A Zaegnid? Are you different from that alien from earlier? Also, why is it attacking us? I thought you were allies?!”

[After merging with you, human, I was forced to abandon my previous allegiances when I could not completely assimilate your consciousness.]

“You said that earlier, something about assimilation, are you still trying to take over my mind? If you are, I won’t let that happen! Even if we die to that alien, I’ll never let you take over my body!”

The alien inside of him, which was called a Zaegnid, or something, became quiet for a moment before it opened its mouth and said, [I understand...however, I do not wish to die! We, Zaegnids, hold the strongest will of survival amongst any other species in the universe.]

“Heh, you must have been pretty desperate to survive that you merged with me, the one who killed you!”

Alex had a derisive look in his eyes as he eyed the other half of himself.

[Desperate or not, I do not plan on dying today so I will let you use my powers.]

“Hm?”

[Do not fail me, human. If you fail, then we both die.]

“I don’t need you to tell me that!”

The black ‘goo’ that represented the Zaegnid in his body began to wriggle before it suddenly turned silvery-white all of a sudden and it enveloped his entire body without warning.

Alex was immediately pulled out of the Heart Realm and back to reality. He thought that the alien had lied to him and through the slight negligence he had shown earlier, had taken over his body but to his surprise, Alex was still...himself.

‘W-What just happened?’

[You can now use my powers. Now go, kill the Angrax.]

Alex did feel that his body was a bit energetic now so he quietly emerged from the fountain. The alien that was hunting him down had moved past the fountain and was looking around the area with its back turned to him.

It was the perfect opportunity to attack so he immediately took it. Alex lunged at the unsuspecting alien but in midair, his body began changing as a silvery-white, viscid liquid began to secrete from his body and encase him in some kind of suit that was reminiscent of the Zaegnid’s body from before.

The change surprised Alex as he became larger but that was something he could be surprised about later since right now, his priority was to kill the alien. Unfortunately, Alex had underestimated his enhanced body so he had overshot his lunge and passed just above the Angrax’s head, completely wasting his advantage.

“s**t!”

[Control yourself!], the Zaegnid said in his head.

“Dammit, I know!”

Seeing Alex appear before it, the Angrax raised its alien blaster and said, “Target reacquired, proceeding to─”

“Shut up!”

Alex lunged forward again and this time, he knocked the Angrax over with his large body. The alien didn’t just allow itself to get beaten as it quickly took aim and began shooting Alex with its blaster.

[Do not dodge.]

“?!”

Alex reflexively raised his arms when he heard the Zaegnid’s voice in his head. He thought it was stupid and braced himself to receive the attack but to his surprise, his arms transformed into large shields which blocked the alien’s attack.

“Oh!”

[Enough playing around. End it! The Angraxes aren’t built for battle so this should be easy!]

“Alright!”

Alex rushed forward with his transformed arms and bashed the Angrax with them. He jumped on top of the alien and pinned it down with one of his shield-transformed arms while his other arm changed into a blade which he stabbed down into the Angrax’s head.

“KRAAAAAHHH!!!”

The alien let loose a cry of pain as it began to randomly fire its blaster in desperation. Alex was surprised that it hadn’t immediately died so he tried stabbing it again in the head. 

Just before he could, a stray shot was fired straight at Alex’s face but the silvery-white liquid that was encasing his body quickly formed a helmet around his head, blocking the shot and keeping his face safe.

“T-Thanks.”

[...]

A tendril pierced out of Alex’s body and slapped the Angrax’s alien gun away from his hand so now, it was truly defenseless. Alex began to hail attack after attack on the alien he pinned down but for some reason, it was still alive and struggling to get Alex off of him.

“Why isn’t it dying?!”

Although the Zaegnid did say that the Angrax wasn’t built for battle, it was so difficult to kill. The resilience of the alien went beyond what Alex could ever imagine that even after he had completely mangled the alien’s head, it was still alive.

[An Angrax’s core is located in the center of its chest. If you do not destroy it, it cannot die.]

“Say so sooner!”

The Angrax kicked Alex off of its body and tried to stand up but Alex quickly lunged back at it with his two arms transformed into a large greatsword and he rammed it right into the center of the alien’s chest.

He heard some kind of shattering sound and saw the alien let out a dying cry before it collapsed onto its knees, unmoving.

“D-Did we win?”

His words were sort of like a flag but nothing of the cliche sort happened.

[Detecting life signals...no life force detected. You have successfully killed the Angrax.]

Alex felt the tension leave his body as he fell back a few paces before collapsing onto the ground. The suit of amorphous armor around him receded into his body, leaving him naked again.

He didn’t have time to care about that because he was suddenly feeling so drained right now…drained and starved.

“W-What’s wrong with my body? I feel so...weak…and hungry.”

[It is because you have used too much energy in the fight. Using my power isn’t free, it comes at a cost.]

“...I can replenish energy through eating food, right?”

[Correct.]

“Ugh, there’s nothing around to eat though...”

[What do you mean there’s nothing? There’s food right in front of you, human.]

“What?”

Alex’s gaze involuntarily turned to the Angrax’s corpse and he realized what the alien inside of him meant.

“Oh, hell no!”

[Your energy levels are critical. If you do not take in any sustenance, you will die.]

“...Shit...”

The alien was able to feel Alex’s aversion to the thought of eating an alien corpse so it provided him a way out.

[You do not need to physically eat the body. You merely have to absorb it.]

“How?”

[Tch, must I teach you everything?]

Alex felt faint but suddenly, his body began moving without his consent.

“!”

[Do not struggle, human. I will not harm you. Now watch carefully.]

With the Zaegnid controlling his body, Alex moved over to the Angrax corpse and his arm transformed. His entire arm changed into the silvery-white, viscid liquid, like before, and the Zaegnid plunged his arm into the corpse.

[Devour.]

Alex heard the word inside of his head and he could see the process very clearly. He was disgustingly absorbing the Angrax corpse through his arm and he could feel it flow into his body.

It was so disgusting that he wanted to vomit but the sensation that he felt from absorbing the corpse was...euphoric. His fatigue was disappearing and he could feel his body grow stronger.

The feeling was gratifying and once he completely absorbed the Angrax corpse, only a dried-up husk was left behind which began to crumble into dust. Alex retook control of his body and changed his hand back to its original form.

“s**t, that was disgusting…”

[Hmm…the Devouring process was successful. We’ve obtained the Angrax species’ unique analysis ability.]

Alex didn’t pay any mind to the alien talking inside of his head before he started making his way back to the place where the Zaegnid had killed his girlfriend, Claire.

When he arrived back there, he looked around and didn’t see any traces of Claire to his dismay. Only a pool of blood was left on the previous spot she was at. Alex’s heart hurt and the Zaegnid inside of him could feel his anguish, rage, and hate that was directed at the absurd situation and to itself.

“I should kill you but if I did that, I’d be killing myself...we’re bonded on a cellular level so I’m you and you’re me now, right?”

[Exactly. We’re in the same boat now, human. You have the controls, so what are we going to do?]

Alex sighed and said, “...What can we do? The world’s ending and I’ve lost my girlfriend...what’s the point of this all…I should be dead.”

[Hmph, in my opinion, we can do whatever we want.]

“Whatever we want...huh?”

Alex’s downtrodden expression changed to a determined one as he glared up into the blazing sky that was raining fire all over the place. He eyed the balls of fire that were the pods that the aliens were coming in and growled, “I’m going to kill every last one of you aliens.”

When the Zaegnid heard his murderous words, it chuckled evilly before saying, [I like that idea. Maybe going on a ride with you isn’t going to be so regrettable after all.]

“...Hmph.”

[Unfortunately, we are too weak. We must kill and devour more beings to get stronger! That’s of course, if you want to kill every last one of the aliens.]

“I say that but I can’t even kill you...”

[Hmhmhm, do you not understand yet, Alex? We are no longer human nor alien, but something much more... dangerous.]

“If we need to devour more creatures, then let’s go...by the way, what do I even call you?”

[You can call me...Scourge.]