Lux Locus: Fractured Family
New plan

Zenith rolled away from a downwards strike brought from the demon and proceeded to shoot at its head, but this only aggravated the creature more than it hurt it.

"You need to stop that, human. Resistance will avail you not and risks souring your blood, and Blumarak detests SOUR!" the creature bellowed with a strike of its arm.

"Surround it and pelt its head with bullets," Zenith ordered. "Keep your faith in the Administrator, stay your path from it, and your blood will not become the foul one's beverage."

The demon bellow loudly as it was pelted by bullets. "Do you truly think that so called 'upholder of Its ideals' can prevent me from killing you from a distance?" It reached into its torso and pulled out a solid rock. Focusing into it, the creature turned it purple then punched it, releasing shards of poisonous blood into the air. "I might be a lowly demon to my kin, but a mere human can still die by the will of my blood magic!"

The regimentaries covered their mouths with filter masks that hugged their nose and mouth like a second, black skin. The guide, however, wasn't as fortunate.

"Ahhhh! I don't have one of those!" he screamed.

Zenith rolled his eyes. "Then stay--" He jumped back, avoid three strikes into the ground just narrowly. "Then stay as far away from the gas as possible. Blood magic takes a long time to spread."

A glue-like substance formed from one of the demon's arms and caught a regimentary who tried to struggle free but failed. Her captor laughed as it drained the woman's blood from her body, but before whatever profane act could be finished, Zenith shot her in the head, making the demon frown.

"Now why would ruin my fun like that? I could have used her against you." It grinned and wiggled its fingers. "I could've controlled her corpse."

"That's the reason I did it. I couldn't let her be controlled by something as weak as you," Zenith taunted the demon.

It didn't take too kindly to his words and tried to crush him in its grip. Instead, it hit his right arm and tore it off, surprising everyone in the room. It looked at the machinery on its fingers with befuddlement, then back at the human before it. Its eyes widened in surprise.

"A man of metal?" it hissed. "There's no blood in that!"

Zenith opened the hatch on his face and pulled out the three vials filled with toxic substances. "Why not? Blood is blood!" he bellowed.

The prosecutor threw the vials at the demon and let them sink into the exposed parts of its body and break, expelling their contents and contaminating the blood vessel a sickly green and purple. The hardened armor on its body dissolved and it fell to the floor, using its arms to support itself.

"What...is this?"

"It's MY blood," Zenith proclaimed.

The demon's body started dissolving and bubbling away from the contamination. It looked at the regimentaries aiming at it, then at Zenith standing proudly in front of it.

"Ha. Now I know you are, man of metal. You weren't supposed to be here."

Zenith cocked an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"That's not for you to know, but you're going to ruin everything."

"Tell me everything," the prosecutor ordered.

"A human cannot order a demon around, but I would be remiss to have my vengeance for such a shame you bestowed to me. I will tell you one thing," it started. It was dissolving away and all that remained were two fingers, a hand, and its head. "He's not the only here."

"What does it mean by that?" a regimentary asked. "Blumarak isn't the only one here?"

Before she could try asking the demon directly, it had already dissolved and evaporated into nothing. It was back in the foul realm which its god resided, ripe with blood and bone to let it recover and grow stronger.

Zenith scowled at where the demon was, and started thinking for a brief moment.

"How is our guide?" he asked.

"I'm okay. I managed to hold my breath long enough."

"Good."

"Wow. It was a good thing it was weak to those toxins," a regimentary said.

"It wasn't weak to them. It was summoned with weak blood and nearly no magic. It was weak before it even came here." Zenith turned to face the regimentary and glared at him. Only the lesser demons can be summoned in such a manner, but I don't like what it said." The prosecutor tapped his chin pensively. "I need to meet with the local assembly of prosecutors."

"Perhaps you should get some...ahem, repairs done first?" a regimentary suggested.

Zenith looked to the damaged nub sparking and leaking fluids. "Right." The prosecutor screwed in some fresh vials into his faceplate and shut it. "I'll return to the ship for repairs, but first, I need you to start searching for that follower of Blumarak. Start a full search using posters, infiltrators, patrols, and so forth."

"Wh-what about the man you originally came here for?" the guide asked.

"Find him and take him to the prosecutors. Tell them I asked for that."

"But how will you justify these actions?"

"This is a precaution. This all started happening as soon as I heard about that man. It can't be a mere coincidence."

The guide stood straight. "If you say so. I'll tell my chief and we'll arrest him as soon as possible."

"Then be off with you. This is urgent, and I would rather the populace not know that search is for a worshiper of the god of blood." Zenith narrowed his eyes and looked away from the guards. "Mana Magis forbid it's the other one that's here as well," he thought to himself.

Walking through the street accompanied by his guards, Zenith went back to his vessel as fast as he could, but something caught his eye and would have made his heart stop if he still had one. Another prosecutor of identical rank surrounded by two pillar scieldan in pure white armor. Their entire armor was covered in white, round runes occasionally glowing a strong, deep, blue light with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Their helmets, unlike the complex pattern used by regular pillars, were just a solid cylinder of white with no details, and everyone around had a worse reaction to them than they did with Zenith: They ran away as fast as they could, with nary a person smashing themselves on the ground and praying as much as they could in just a small amount of time. Even Zenith feared these particular pillars, but what really scared him was what they were doing outside.

"They shouldn't be out here," he thought. "Something is off, but my questions will have to wait until I'm back into shape."

Zenith, after a lengthy trip, found himself back into his maintenance pod and blocked from most sound and light of the outside. His only company within being the solders and small mechanical arms, cutting, grinding, and picking out the damaged parts of his body for the replacement afterwards.

"Prosecutor, if you would allow me, we have streamlined the next generation of cybernetics and would like to use your arm as a test run for their efficiency," one of the engineers explained over the com box in the pod.

"Will it compromise the rest of me in case of failure?"

"No, sir. We tested the security features for a hundred days. The arm will shut off and eject if something dangerous occurs, such as a shortcircuit or mana blockage."

"Then go ahead." Zenith agreed. "I do feel the need for new parts. These ones are growing old."

"The procedure for repairs and integration will take about four hours. Do you wish to stay conscious or would you prefer mechanically induced slumber?"

"A difficult decision, but I will go with slumber."

"See you in four hours then, sir."

"Right..."

Zenith felt a bit of melancholy overtaking him with sleep following shortly after. Left to dream his memories, he started to reminisce a brief moment of his past. Good memories without repercussions.

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