Capítulo 22: Chapter 22 - The Zodiac
"Why would I eat that!? That's disgusting!"
"You don't understand... eating this will offer you great power, I ate one a long time ago... and received great power."
"What are you talking about? What's The Zodiac?"
"Are you declining my offer to consume the monster heart?"
"Of course I am! I'm not going to eat it! What will it do to me anyway?"
The man put the heart back into his pocket and gave me a look of disappointment. He seemed to be really adamant about getting me to eat this heart.
"Eating this will offer you great power. You'll never have to worry about dying to a monster again... are you saying you're not Capricorn?"
"I still don't know what you're talking about."
"I see, so you're not enlightened. Well then, continue living in fear of your life. The waves will not stop, as that is the way of the beast."
"Why do you talk like you know so much about monsters? Just who are you?"
"Allow me to demonstrate what I'm talking about...I am the Patriarch of The Zodiac, representing Gemini...Marius...Aegis."
Then, the man pulled the heart out of his pocket, and ate it himself...
"WHA-"
Suddenly, he began to glow a deep purple, and he began to levitate in the air. His body began to shift and morph around, growing in size. Horns came out of his skull, and his skin turned purple and scaley. He grew to around 9 feet in size, barely fitting in the alley. He grew fangs, and his eyes turned red.
He landed on the ground, and looked into my eyes, smiling. He had just turned himself into a humanoid abomination!
"What the hell are you!?"
"You see now, what the monster heart did to me? That was the heart of a Dragon Ram, a level 5 monster. I'm sure you've never seen one before, but they look sort of like this."
I was shocked. Marius ate the heart, and seemed to take a humanoid form of the monster to whom it belonged to. How the hell was this happening? Did the Hero Camp know about this?
"Is that what you wanted to do to me? Turn me into a monster!?"
"Precisely... allow me to explain, Yukio. Give me a second here."
"How do you know my name?" I asked, but Marius did not respond to this question.
Marius then closed his eyes and tensed up his body. Suddenly, he slowly returned to his human form. However, the monster's heart was now destroyed.
"I am a Patriarch of The Zodiac, a group of individuals who coexist alongside the monster race. You see, Yukio, our belief system is that in order for humanity to prosper alongside monsters, we must cease the mindless slaughtering of them, and instead join them..."
"What...you guys coexist with monsters? How? I thought monsters ate people to survive."
"We do... I cannot go into the details, as our operation has been in hiding for many years now. But we've been secretly surveying the Hero Camp, in an effort to learn about its ideals. When I stumbled upon you, I recognized the authority of Capricorn residing inside of you, so I had to inquire you about the matter."
"I still don't know what you mean by the authority of Capricorn. What is it?"
"It's the authority to control monsters, which you demonstrated during your altercation with the Scatterwolf... with your authority over monsters, you could be an integral part in taming them, and helping our agenda…"
"How do authorities work? How do you get one? I'm so confused."
"I cannot reveal that to you... however, I do appreciate your questions. It shows your interest in our organization... am I correct?"
"I just want to know what the hell is going on...how can you turn into a monster? What's your goal?"
"By consuming the heart of a deceased monster, you will be able to gain its abilities, and take its form."
"By turning into a monster, you will gain great strength, and the other monsters around you will not attack you. Yukio, the true way for humanity to survive, is to become the one thing they sought to destroy. Our goal is to save humanity, and we need you, the final seat, to help us."
Marius held his hand out to me. I gazed into his eyes, still shocked at what I had just seen. How could somebody so powerful go unseen by the Hero Camp? Plus, if there was one member for each zodiac sign, that would mean that there are 10 other people just like him, minimum, who can turn into monsters.
Considering I was in another world, my actions wouldn't affect my status back on Earth, unless dying here meant my death on Earth as well. I pondered both options, considering the logical approach to his agenda. It seemed to me that he thought that becoming a monster would offer him protection against them and that he wanted to turn everybody into a monster so that they could live alongside each other without the fear of being eaten.
But that would mean mass gathering people to turn them into monsters, which was incredibly unethical and inhumane. Plus, there are more people than monsters, so what about the rest of the population?
There had to be a better way to solve our problems. However, I didn't see a way out of this situation. If I declined, he could turn into a monster and kill me on the spot...plus, what if he had connections to The Shade?
I glanced to my hip, where my sword was sheathed. It was recovered from the battle against the Scatterwolf. I took it with me when I left the hospital. I decided that if this guy could turn into a monster, I might as well kill him now, and prevent catastrophe in the future. I drew my sword-
"I will not be joining you, Marius... you're a monster, and you need to be destroyed."
*SLASH*
Without hesitation, I slashed at his neck, decapitating him. His head fell to the ground, and his body followed. His corpse then began to bleed, and a wave of relief overcame me. I had just killed a monster. However, there were still 10 other alleged members that I had to kill...
But then- I heard a voice from behind me. A shiver went down my spine, and my body grew cold, instantly...
"I'm sorry we couldn't come to an agreement, Yukio. But don't you think you acted a bit rash?"
I sharply turned around, and to my horror, saw Marius, standing there... how was this possible? I just decapitated him! I wasted no time and slashed at him again.
*SLASH*
Once again, I decapitated him, and his corpse fell to the ground. But like last time, I heard his voice again, from behind me.
"You don't have to act so violently towards me. We're supposed to be partners, Yukio."
I turned around once more and saw Marius standing there, looking down at his own corpse. He assumed an expression of melancholy. How was he re-appearing? It baffled my mind.
"How the hell are you still here? What's going on?"
"It's no use, Yukio. You've already made up your mind, and so have I."
"You're a monster..."
*SLASH*
His body fell once more, and like usual, I heard his voice from behind me...
"You are the exact reason we're doing this. It's people like you who mindlessly kill monsters, giving them no chance. If you would just listen to me for one second-"
*SLASH*
"You are so unenlightened... I'll just be going now..." said Marius, once again reappearing behind me. There were now four corpses on the ground. Marius gazed at his dead bodies, smiling devilishly.
"How the fuck are you still alive…"
"The Authorities of The Zodiac work in mysterious ways, Yukio. I could ask you how you control monsters, but not even you understand it. I must go now. Make sure to clean these bodies up for me." said Marius, turning around from me.
"If you leave, I'll tell the Hero Camp about you…"
"Go ahead and tell them. It won't make much of a difference anyway. Welcome to the underground operation, Yukio. If you ever change your mind about joining us, you know who to call."
Marius then began to walk away. He walked out of the alley, and turned left. I ran after him, but when I exited the alley, he was gone, nowhere to be found…
"What the hell just happened? I need to tell Ambrosia about this immediately. The Hero Camp is in danger…"
I decided to leave the bodies in the alley as evidence of his appearance. I had no clue how he was multiplying himself, but it seemed to make him unkillable at the moment. What's more, nobody in the city knew what had happened. Nobody even came to the alley to investigate the random loud noises that were occurring…
I walked back to the hotel, as nightfall came. I had to do an energy infusion with Ambrosia, so I didn't want to keep her waiting. I was also going to mention Marius to her, and inform her of his ability.
I walked into the hotel, waved to Kenji, entered the elevator, and made my way to the room. When I entered, Mayumi and Yui were playing a card game, Cyprus was watching, and Ambrosia was reading her book.
"Oh, welcome back Yukio! How's your leg?"
"It's fine. Ambrosia, I need to talk to you, right now, it's urgent."
"Oh, okay. Is everything alright?"
"No…" I said, grabbing Ambrosia by the arm, and dragging her to the bathroom.
"Oh, Yukio!? Whoa!"
We entered the bathroom, and we shut the door behind us as usual. Mayumi, Yui, and Cyprus were concerned.
"What's gotten into Yukio? He's like...panicking…"
"I'm not sure… we should ask when he comes out. I hope it's nothing too major."
Inside the bathroom, Ambrosia and I sat on the edge of the bathtub as usual, and started our energy infusion. That's when she asked me what was wrong.
"What's wrong, Yukio? Your entire body is filled with anxiety, and malice. You also have blood on your hands. What happened?? Did you get caught up with a monster or something?"
"You could say that."
"What kind of monster was it? It couldn't have given you too much trouble right?"
I gazed into Ambrosia's eyes, and she gazed back into mine. She could tell that I was in distress, and indeed I was.
"...it was a person…"
"...what? What do you mean it was a person? Were you attacked on the street? Did you commit murder or something? Yukio, what happened?"
"Can't you just read my mind and figure it out?"
"Your mind is incredibly scrambled right now. I can't pick out exactly what happened. I'd rather you just tell me…"
"Promise me you won't freak out."
"I won't, just tell me."
"I ran into that guy in the alley again, the one I told you about earlier. His name is Marius Aegis, and he claims to be a part of an underground organization called The Zodiac."
"He asked me if I was Capricorn, saying he sensed the ability to control monsters lying dormant inside me. Then, he presented me with the heart of a monster, and told me to eat it."
"What? You didn't eat it did you!?" asked Ambrosia.
"No, I didn't. But when I declined, he ate it himself, and turned into a monster… Ambrosia, he can turn into A MONSTER… has anyone you known eaten monster guts before?"
"It's never been documented, no. Nobody would ever think to eat monster guts, well, actually, there's one girl, but she's not a monster. Regardless, you're saying that after eating a monster's heart, he turned into a monster?"
"Yes, he did. He showed me his monster form, and then turned back into a human. I wasted no time decapitating him. But when I did, he reappeared behind me…"
"Wait, so you killed this man, but then he reappeared? Did he come back to life?"
"Sort of. I killed him 4 times, and each time I did, he would just appear again behind me. Four of his corpses are in the alley if you want proof."
"I'd like you to take me to them, Yukio. I can tell you're telling the truth… if he can really turn into a monster, then the Hero Camp could be in danger…let's do our energy infusion when we come back, this is urgent."
"Yes, please follow me. I'll show you where his corpses are!"
Ambrosia and I burst out of the bathroom and immediately left the hotel room. The others inside were shocked, and confused.
"What the hell happened in there? Where are those two going?"
"I'm not sure, do you think we should follow them?"
"No, wherever they're going, it could be dangerous. Let's leave it up to Ms. Esper Witch for now. I just hope everything is okay... Yukio just barged in here and ran off with her without giving us any explanation. I wonder what he saw out there..."
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder