Sixteen. That's how many people were waiting around for me to end their lives in a horrific manner.

It had taken me another two days to force myself to get shit done. Two days of distracted dread mixed with impatience, and just a dash of anticipation. Two days of Mela moping and only occasionally coming out of her funk to chat or eat or generally make herself a very older-sister kind of nuisance.

Honestly? I was still suffering from the good old 'but should I feel horrible?' syndrome. It killed me that I wasn't really disgusted by the idea of chowing down on people. I was still far more haunted by what I'd done to that poor half-formed Shadow that Oliwia had been turning into than I was about devouring sixteen humans.

And of course, I couldn't even do it without an audience.

"Hrm, I have ta say, this is not very torture theater-y so far," Mela complained, lounging against a massive crate of… something.

At some point, we really did need to inspect all the stuff the mercs were keeping in their HQ basement. But then again, Patch Six probably knew all about it, and we had him on retainer. Amelia had even fixed him up. The lowlife was currently standing with the other drones, arrayed before two large trucks.

Two of the trucks we'd used to visit the slums, in fact.

"Don't worry. It'll get very horror movie-ish very soon," Amelia drawled, trying to pretend she was unaffected by her own prognosis even while shooting me concerned looks.

I couldn't blame her. She was a (relatively) normal person with (relatively) normal sensibilities. Preparing to watch the show I was about to put on couldn't have been easy for her.

I loved her so, so very much for putting up with me.

"You know, you don't have to stay here and watch, right?" I sank as much sincerity into those words as I possibly could. "In fact, I'd prefer if you didn't."

Alas, it wasn't to be.

"And leave ya on your own to suffer? Nah."

"What Mela said. You're going to have to put up with me, lover boy."

At least the teasing lilt of Amelia's voice never failed to make me feel a tiny bit better.

"Oh-kay, in that case, earmuffs on. And I'm not kidding! Well, if Mela wants to end up mildly traumatized, she can listen in for a bit at the start, but that's it."

Mela scoffed, leaving her earmuffs hung around her neck while directing a supremely smug look my way. I just shrugged at her and turned to the drones.

"Okay, open them up."

Mela sucked in a disturbed hiss of air, and even Amelia started to fidget behind me, but I remained relatively impassive as the trucks opened to reveal sixteen prisoners. Eleven men on my left and five women on my right stared back at me through the bars that caged off the back of each truck, all with varied expressions. Haunted, cocky, enraged, pleading…

I just stared right back. Knowing what they'd done made me entirely indifferent to their posturing.

Besides, they were a sorry sight. I knew at a glance that fights had broken out among the prisoners in the trucks. I had ordered the drones to keep them in good condition and treat any wounds taken during capture, not wanting any of the scum to expire prematurely. That meant all the bruises, split lips, and shiners I now saw must have been inflicted after they were stuffed back into the kidnapping trucks for this special occasion.

I watched as our drones opened up the left truck, beat and threatened back the braver of our prisoners, and then snatched one of them up. The man was dragged out, literally kicking and screaming, and then pinned to the ground in front of me.

I snuck one more look at the smug elder sister specimen who was refusing to wear her earmuffs, then shrugged again before kneeling and gripping the sides of my victim's face. Assault lashed out. I spared a few moments to utterly destroy his brain, vaguely hearing another exp point notification go off in the back of my mind.

Then I finally unhinged my jaws, letting both Shadow-speak and Essence pour out.

Instantly, my victim jerked and began to spasm. Mela broke into curses, and I was vaguely aware of her fumbling with her earmuffs. A shot of vindictive smugness thundered through me, but it was eclipsed by the odd sensation of bearing my all to my unwilling listener.

The transformation took hold, twisting and altering his body, pushing him ever closer to evolution… and then his ruined mind buckled. His chance to become something more slipped away, and a dead would-be Shadow slumped in the drones' grasp.

I pulled back, eying the corpse and flexing my hands, then critically raked my eyes over the drones. None of them had flinched at my use of Shadow-speak. Not even a single sign of discomfort. That was probably significant, somehow, but I decided to set it aside for the moment.

Instead, I gripped the would-be Shadow's head and yanked. The flimsy neck snapped off easily, spraying me with tar and leaving me with my first snack for the evening.

Someone, probably Mela, let out a retching sound as I bit down, but I ignored her easily enough. The supernatural hunger, the blaze of Essence filling me as I devoured the corpse, and the need to become more all lent me an unnatural level of focus.

As I finished off my first victim, I idly pulled up my status.

Adrian Flinn

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Strength: 10

Reflexes: 20

Acuity: 20

Physique: 10

Recovery: 5 → 6

Stamina: 11 → 14

Soul: 32

Adaptability: 30

Tolerance: 26

Cognition: 24 → 26

Essence: 38/38 → 38/48

Mind Synchronicity: Reluctant Symphony

Body Synchronicity: Sharpening Harmony

Shadow Runner Package:

Clairvoyance 4 (36/100)

Programming 1 (99/100)

Movement 2 (46/100)

Quickhacks 1 (99/100)

Assault 3 (94/100) → Assault 3 (95/100)

Tongue of The Ravening Observer

Unseen Stalker Package:

Stealth 1 (99/100)

Tracking 2 (99/100)

Focus 3 (96/100) → Focus 3 (97/100)

Grace 3 (17/100)

Faultline 2 (19/100) → Faultline 2 (20/100)

Ten Essence down from converting my victim, ten Essence up from devouring him. Perfect. I could actually keep going until I was done with them all, with no fear of running out.

"Next."

Our prisoners began putting up much more of a struggle to avoid becoming my victims, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter when they tried to fight. It didn't matter when they begged. It didn't matter when they offered everything, including their bodies.

One by one, they were dragged before me. One by one, they were twisted into failures that would never become true Shadows.

Essence: 38/48 → 38/58

More.

Essence: 38/58 → 38/68

MORE.

Essence: 38/68 → 38/88

Over and over, a single word kept echoing in the confines of my mind: MORE!

Essence: 38/88 → 38/98

Things were starting to get… weird. The edges between my words, mind, and sense of self were blurring. My insides were burning, like they'd been filled with molten metal. Whispers were starting to echo back at me from the void between places, that space between reality and dreams and something else.

My eyes snapped open, though I was pretty sure they'd been open to begin with, and I found myself gazing straight into the lidless orb of The Observer.

The world sharpened, careened sideways, and grew blurry beyond my ability to comprehend, all at once. With a jolt, I became more aware than ever before of the Essence pooling inside me.

Part of it, a very small part indeed, was incandescent. Or was pearlescent a better word? Regardless, it shone like some precious, coruscating gem. The brightness lit up the murk of my existence, steadying me and rooting me within Reality itself.

The rest of my Essence, though? The rest was black as tar, with just a few hues of grey thrown in around the edges.

The truth slammed into me like a sledgehammer.

Why in the world was I panicking so much about whatever my cybernetics got up to when they really started sucking down Essence, when I was actively devouring the Essence of Shadows in order to build my reserves?

I felt like cackling and weeping at the same time. But in that horrible, half-aware state, I could really only do one thing: demand my next victim.

They were dragged out, thrown in front of me, and subjugated to my tender mercies. I gripped their face with claws that had long since slipped out without my knowledge, stained red and black by the blood of my victims. A brief struggle of minds, some lovingly whispered words, and I was leaning forward to bite into their neck.

I knew something was different this time around from the first mouthful of crunchy Shadow-flesh. The heat swirling inside me… stuttered? Paused? Then it raged through me even more violently. It felt like all the magma flows that had formed within me were trying to stuff themselves into my stomach.

Well, not quite my stomach. There was a spot right behind my navel that erupted into such heat, I couldn't hold back a cry of agony.

I vaguely heard voices calling my name, but I didn't, couldn't, care. All that mattered was stuffing the next bite down my throat, despite how much it exacerbated the heat.

The situation both improved and worsened as the heat coiled tighter within me. My limbs and head were left achingly cold as warmth fled them, but that spot behind my navel felt just about ready to burst and consume me in one glorious torrent of fire.

Then I ran out of Shadow-flesh to eat, and the heat inside me just… imploded. All that ethereal pressure and warmth of Essence vanished, replaced by a sensation not unlike having a ball of lead stuffed into my stomach. I could feel essential parts of me getting shoved around to make space for it.

Essence: 38/98 → 38/108

My status offered no further explanation of the shift that had just occurred within me. But as my mind slowly cleared, and I finally became aware of the hands hauling me back into a sitting position, I could feel it.

My Essence was different now. More substantial. More effective. I called on it, and it streamed through me, slowly rejuvenating my body. I could even feel it beginning to coil within me in very specific ways.

I realized I could call on my skills more easily than ever. More than that, I instinctively knew that even the skills that had resisted being used in tandem with Essence would now be much more accepting of the mystical substance.

I couldn't have kept a smile off my face if I tried.

"Please don't do that," Amelia scolded me lightly, though I could sense the overwhelming relief in her voice. "You look creepy when you smile with your face caked in tar, okay?"

"I'm sorry for worrying you, dear," I mumbled, echoes of Shadow-speech still clinging to the edges of my words.

Even that wasn't enough to make Amelia flinch. If anything, she looked like she wanted to lean forward and kiss me. Then she reconsidered that, wrinkling her nose cutely.

I just grinned wider. Yeah, it's best to wait until I've had a chance to brush my teeth.

For now, though…

I had more victims waiting, and more Essence to earn, and a roiling hunger that wasn't going to let me stop.

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