Chapter 195: Chapter 195- Awakened
Kevin’s sword of light was still drawn, its blade glowing with a fierce, unsteady radiance that illuminated the tense air. His voice trembled, not from fear, but disbelief.
"What the hell does this mean, Lucy? You... you betrayed us?"
Lucy tilted her head, her expression calm, almost serene. The faint shimmer of blue light danced across her eyes as she slowly lowered her claw. "Betrayed?" she repeated softly, as if tasting the word. "No, I didn’t betray anyone. I just never considered you my allies to begin with."
Sebas stepped forward, his usual composed demeanor hardening into cold seriousness. "That aura we just felt..." he muttered, eyes narrowing toward the sky where Leo’s transformation had split the clouds. "It seems they failed to contain that insect after all."
Cindy blinked, confused and flustered, her voice rising. "H–Huh? What are you talking about? I don’t understand any of this! Lucy, why are you doing this? Why betray us now?"
Rea clenched his fists, anger flashing across his face. "So all this time... I was fighting alongside a traitor."
Lucy chuckled softly, a cruel, condescending sound that carried across the room. "You’re all so naive," she said, lowering her gaze to them like a teacher scolding her students. "If you were so easily deceived, then maybe you deserved it."
Her smile widened, eyes glowing with eerie devotion. "My lord has already ascended, he walks the path of godhood now. None of you can stop him. So, you’d better surrender... before he decides to erase you along with the rest of this rotting world."
Kevin’s eyes sharpened as he stared at Lucy, his grip on the glowing blade steady despite the tension crawling up his spine. "Tell me one thing," he said, his voice cold but steady. "Was Nia involved in all of this too?"
Lucy’s eyes flicked toward him, unreadable. "I don’t know," she muttered, her tone flat, whether it was truth or another lie, no one could tell.
Kevin exhaled sharply. "I see..." he said, voice tightening. Without another word, the air around him shifted, there was a flash of light, so fast it left an afterimage. Lucy gasped as a shock of pain tore through her. She looked down and saw her right arm on the floor, cut clean off at the elbow before she’d even realized she’d been struck.
A scream ripped out of her throat, raw and uncontained. She clutched the bleeding stump with her left hand, her composure shattering for the first time. Kevin raised his sword again, its edge shimmering like a star about to explode. "Spill. Everything you know," he growled. "Now."
Lucy’s eyes trembled, but her lips curled into a pained smile. "And? What will you do?" she hissed through gritted teeth. "Kill me?"
Kevin’s gaze hardened. "Answer my question. Where is Nia?"
Rea stepped forward, fists tight. "Kevin, we’re wasting time. Just kill her before she tries something—"
Sebas adjusted his glasses, voice low but firm. "Don’t. We still lack information about their goal. If we kill her now, we’ll lose our chance to understand."
Lucy chuckled weakly, her breathing ragged. "You’re all underestimating me..." she whispered, voice trembling with both pain and glee.
Kevin’s eyes flicked to her left hand as it began to twitch, fingers curling unnaturally. "Don’t. Move," he barked, his sword now inches from her neck. "Move again, and I’ll cut that hand off too."
But Lucy ignored him. Her left hand rose slowly toward her chest. Kevin snapped, his voice a shout now. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO MOVE!"
Before he could strike again, Lucy’s fingers slipped under the edge of her torn uniform, pulling something from beneath her skin, a small, jagged crystal glowing with an ominous, pulsating light.
Sebas’s expression shifted instantly. "Kevin!" he barked. "Knock her out now! She’s—"
But it was too late. Lucy shoved the crystal into her mouth, biting down with a sickening crack. The shards melted into black-red liquid that she swallowed in one gulp. Her body convulsed violently, veins glowing like molten lines under her skin.
In seconds, an aura of raw, chaotic power erupted around her, shaking the walls like a shockwave. The once-calm soldier before them was gone, replaced by a figure shrouded in surging energy.
Lucy’s voice deepened into something almost inhuman as she raised her gaze, a twisted smile forming on her bloodied lips. "You’re all so stupid..."
A low, wet crack ran up Lucy’s limbs as the crystal’s power poured through her. Her bones lengthened and knotted, muscle bulged into unfamiliar shapes, and the air around her thickened with the metallic scent of insects. Tiny mandibles nipped at her skin and she barely flinched, she smiled instead.
"Ahh... my lord, I accept your power," she breathed, voice thin and reverent as the insects bit into her flesh like priests staking their claim. In an instant the woman they knew was gone. Where Lucy had stood now rose a twisted, mutant form taller, broader, a grotesque reflection of something both human and not. Scales and carapace mingled with flayed skin, a pair of ragged, winglike membranes trembled along her back. Her pupils ruptured into columns of cold red.
She turned her head slowly, savoring the moment. "Hmmm... so this is the Condensed Crystal," she mused, testing the sound of the new power in her throat. "Overflowing... exquisite."
Sebas’s hand flew to his glasses as if to steady the world. He swallowed, voice low and incredulous. "We’ve awakened a lion that never should have slept," he said, trying for sarcasm but finding only dread.
At that exact instant the comms stuttered and a dozen panicked reports flooded the channel. "Frontline is being overrun!" someone yelled. "Zombies are... different. They’re coalescing, forming something.. CHIMERA!!" Static and screams tumbled after the last word.
Cindy’s face went white. "What, what do you mean ’chimera’?" she cried, scrambling for purchase on the blood-slick floor. "This is getting worse."
Rea slammed a fist against a nearby wall, knuckles whitening. "Shit, our main problem’s dead and now this happens?" His tone was equal parts anger and exhausted disbelief.
Lucy tilted her head at their flailing panic and let the sound of it warm the inside of her like honey. Her new mouth twisted into something close to amusement. "Calm down. I’ll make you calm," she purred, the words spilling out like oil. "One by one."