This Thing A Quiet Madness Made

Chapter 26

The black-cloaked man left soon after sending Unknown towards the upper wing where the attackers had most likely reached by now. He gave her explicit instructions, orders conveyed to all of them by Overhaul himself: kill any hero they came across. She was in no rush, however, as she made her way toward the specified area. If the growing sounds of distant clamor were anything to go by, there was indeed some kind of conflict occurring.

As she grew closer, she recognized part of the persistent noise sounded like metallic creaks and groans, and she soon found the source of it when she turned the corner into a hall where the walls and floors rippled violently as if they were alive.

"What the..."

She frowned in confusion as the corridor writhed like a crawling worm, pulsing and twitching in a way that decidedly made her uncomfortable. From what she could see, the entire hall was affected, possibly even stretching to other floors or parts of the building.

After a moment of bewildered deliberation, she took a cautious step into the rippling hallway and found it barely steady enough to maintain her footing.

"Hey, you!" a deep voice called out, seemingly emanating from all around her. It reverberated like a disembodied echo, disorientating as if she were in a tunnel, "What are you standing there for?! Hurry up and take down these damn heroes, temp!"

"Mimic?" she whispered, glancing around in confusion, "...since when could you do this?"

"Quit talking and hurry up! There are heroes just ahead, so move it!" he demanded.

In the blink of an eye, the floor abruptly stabilized as its writhing quickly died down, its movements reducing to little more than a slight undulation.

"Which heroes?" she asked aloud, still not quite sure where to look.

After a moment of receiving no reply, she called out to him again, and was again greeted with silence. She could only assume his attention was elsewhere now, if that was how it worked, as she carefully took a step forward. She decided, begrudgingly, her best option was to continue forward for now.

It took a few minutes for her to come across the first sign of intruders.

Just up ahead, a gaping hole was torn straight through the wall. All around it were splatterings of dents, missing chunks, and scratches to the floor, walls, and even ceiling. She straightened, rolling her shoulders slightly. Something serious must have taken place here. She approached with careful attention, eyes scanning around her for any sign of threat, though it was much too quiet for any danger to still have been nearby.

She reached the edge of the large hole; it stood about a foot above her head and just as wide, the edges rough and irregular with pieces of metal hanging freely in some places. Glancing through to the other side, she could see two figures on the ground near the far side of the room, collapsed a few feet away from each other and unmoving. One of them clearly had a beaked mask, marking them as one of the Eight Bullets, while the other had what appeared to be a sack or cloth over their head. She leaned forward a bit and glanced around the room. There was another fallen figure near the right wall, appearing to be more well-built than the other two, though she couldn't be certain as he was half-obscured from where she stood, his bald head being his most visible feature. She turned to the other side of the room and was met with one more figure in a similar state to the others. This one she was unfamiliar with, mostly shrouded in a white cloak with metallic patterns scattered across its surface. She assumed he was not one of them.

Unknown stepped through the gaping hole and carefully approached the unmoving, cloaked form. His back was facing her, prompting her to step around him to get a closer look. She knelt down near his head, his dark blue hair splayed wildly over his masked face. The rest of his attire certainly looked like a hero costume, which meant she would, unfortunately, have to do as she was instructed. Poor hero. Well, if he had to die in a place like this, she thought, it was best that she be the one to do it. Unlike most others around here, she took little pleasure in this kind of work.