Lucius held onto his enemy's throat, a four-armed, humanoid silicon lifeform that hid its face behind a mantis-themed helmet.
It was a Genesis, one of the leaders of the race that called themselves the Seekers.
The being's gray armor was broken everywhere, its wounds wide open and spurting blue-colored blood like a fountain.
Ashamed as he was to admit, none of that damage had been caused by him. The true cause of these grave injuries was the spatial rending that tore at both of them amid the unstable wormhole the two were in.
The insanity-inducing pain barely made the human flinch, though the same couldn't be said for his opponent, whose four arms twitched erratically at the sudden sensation at intensities it probably never experienced before.
This situation gave Lucius a chance to do something more, to exploit his sacrifice even further.
He looked at the arm that held tight onto the being's throat, dark-green crystals grew from his skin, petrifying the limb in that choking stance. Already, he could feel the corruption that originated from his enemy traveling through the arm and reaching into his mind in an attempt to turn him into a monster, as it did to many of his teammates not long ago.
He didn't pay it any heed, the corruption couldn't affect him beyond his physical body despite the difference in strength between the two of them.
In a smooth motion, his free arm dug into a breach in the chest region of the armor, grasping onto a cube of the same color as the crystals that covered his arm.
The core of the Genesis' armor.
It didn't take a second for him to throw it in the direction they came from, a portal that led to the planet Blue Star, his home.
Said portal completely closed the instant the core crossed it, forever sealing any way back.
In the meanwhile, the short contact with the Genesis' core was enough to completely encase his arm in the corruption's byproduct, effectively leaving him armless.
'Though, it's not like I'll be needing to use them again.' The human thought humorously, a smile gracing his lips despite the fate he subjected himself to.
For him, it was worth it.
As he closed his eyes, the peace in them ill befitting of the disintegration ongoing to the rest of his body, another consciousness within him spurred to work, as if it didn't know the meaning of rest.
"Class 8 sacrifice detected, transcending Source to Tier 7. Fate Works initiated, absorbing Corruption Source for sacrificing purposes, sacrificing Tier 8 (severely damaged, severely depleted) Corruption Source, Sacrificing Tier 7 Watcher status. Restarting Martyr."
It only took a moment for everything to change, the Genesis had been completely obliterated by the spatial rending, along with a good part of the arm holding onto its throat, but nothing reached Lucius' body anymore.
The wormhole was suddenly stable, and a new path had been set, transporting the survivor to his next mission.
January 16th, 2009 - 13:22. East Siberia.
Amidst a desert of freezing ice, snow covered the land much like a blanket.
Despite all the cold and the snow, it was still a sunny day. The sky was clear and the harsh, biting wind could not be felt.
In the vast tundra, a man slowly climbed up from the snow that covered his form. There was a hiss of steam coming from the melting flakes that clung to him.
His black-themed tactical gear was torn and broken, his arms were even laid bare to the below zero climate, the red tint on them could be either from the heat he emanated or from early stages of frostbite.
His ash-gray hair was somewhat difficult to make out from all the white that surrounded him. Piercing, deep sea-blue eyes seemed to glow even in the middle of the day, scanning the surroundings for threats and clues to his position.
Confirming the lack of hostiles as well as references for his position, the man, Lucius, looks down at his body.
Despite the bloody battle back on Blue Planet and what should have been the spatial collapse of the wormhole he threw himself in, there was no sign of injuries on himself, but he could feel his Source waning.
Already, he had fallen from Tier 6, all the way down to 4, and in a few hours, he should find himself as a Tier 3.
Despite the fact that his powers were fading, and the risk that they could be gone for good, he did not feel bothered.
He knew that he was paying the price for his feat. Back on Blue Planet, he gave his life to ensure the continued survival of mankind. There was no regret there.
The important thing is doing what needs to be done now. He knew he couldn't be in the same world as he was previously, despite being mostly in the dark about matters of spacetime and the passages in-between, Lucius was aware that the way back was closed, and that the other side of the wormhole should not be remotely close to his home. It just wasn't possible for him to still be on Blue Star.
Nor was it possible for this to be one of the Seekers' FOB planets, they were the actual experts in space traveling, had he fallen in their territory, he would have already been surrounded and taken down by their forces.
Therefore, to ascertain his position, the human needed to contact the sapient locals - if there were any - and, hopefully, start an amicable relationship.
With that decision, Lucius used the remnants of his Source to find his destination, wherever there were people to be saved.
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While he hoped to find a place that needed his help, the sight of a small village desperately fending off a small army of inhuman beasts felt a bit too coincidental for Lucius.
This small doubt could not stop his feet, however, as he hurried towards the settlement at inhuman speeds.
The first thing he took notice of as he advanced were the flying monsters made out of white armor with purple highlights. Looking like a mix of a fly with a butterfly, their body was divided into three parts that floated next to each other, the wings, torso, and a halo above the torso.
There were two in total, leading dozens of people towards the village, who stumbled as they ran recklessly after the strange beings. Slightly further behind, were a few people armed with scythes, hiding behind the mad crowd ahead for cover.
The village, meanwhile, was defended by a unit of twenty strong, armed with assault rifles, they focused on taking as many of the human-looking invaders down, though the need to reload meant that they needed to take turns to keep a constant barrage, limiting their body count. A single mounted heavy machine gun spat bullets at the white monsters in the front but barely managed to stun and slow them for a while.
As he approached the battlefield at a speed that matched an eagle mid-dive, he saw one of the soldiers on top of a house holding an RPG in their hands, while one of the fly-looking beasts got hit several times in their halo by the HMG, almost falling to the ground as it visibly slowed down to a crawl.
Without missing a beat, the rocket launcher was fired at the dazed monster, hitting it precisely on the halo and creating a small dust cloud.
Once the sight was clear again, one could see the remains of the target disappearing in pink particles.
However, there was still one remaining monster, and it had already come too close for another shot of the RPG. It was clear that at the rate things were going, even if they won, there would be heavy casualties.
At a distance of a hundred meters from making contact with the monsters, Lucius jumped, crossing a height of ten meters. After maneuvering his body in the correct position, an invisible platform was created under his feet, giving him the leverage he needed for his next move.
Flexing his legs to correct his aim, Lucius' gaze locked onto the remaining flying monster, who had just started to gather some kind of energy in front of itself.
"Warden Prometheus, engaging hostiles."
*BANG* *BOOM*
Dinara Dashiev liked to think that her life has been quite good.
Sure, she had been just old enough at the time of the 2nd Eruption to have the memories of her parents dying to a random Honkai energy spike imprinted in her mind for the rest of her life, turning into zombies that tried to kill her right after, but at least she still had a few scant good memories of times spent with them. She knew her fair share of child soldiers that never had a father or a mother, and she had both! Even if just for a while...
Anyways, what Dinara wanted to express was that she found it kind of a bummer when the remaining Archangel began charging its shot as it aimed at her.
"Laser! Take cover!" She screamed to the rest of her unit, rolling to the side, towards a small stash of firewood. Before completely breaking sight with the flying Honkai, the unit commander could see it turning to keep its aim at her.
'Oh.' Was all she thought as she fully dropped behind cover, her back resting against the firewood. Dinara could now face quite a few of the soldiers under her, most were young females like her, though there were three boys in there somewhere.
It seemed that about five of them had noticed her slight predicament, and completely gave up running for cover to shoot at the Archangel. Those idiots probably wanted to die in her place, bad luck for them, this kind of Honkai was too stupid to change target midway.
As she closed her eyes, she hoped that the others would somehow make it out of this, even if there was just one Honkai Beast, the rest of them simply didn't have the resistance to stay close to it for long, plus there was that zombie horde just behind...
*BANG* *BOOM*
There was a sudden surge of heat right beside her, splinters of wood rained down everywhere and her ears rang uncomfortably.
It took a second for her to realize that she had, in fact, not died. Opening her eyes, the commander realized that if she had kept on rolling instead of stopping just like an idiot as soon as she hid herself, she would have become a bonafide barbecue. Indeed, the Honkai beam had hit just beside her, leaving a smoldering trace along the ground as it passed.
She didn't waste time wondering how and why, she immediately got up and aimed her rifle at the enemy, though the sight that greeted her answered a few questions in mind.
Standing above the now fallen Archangel was an ash-gray-haired man, dressed in battered black-colored military gear. With one last stomp, he killed the Honkai for good, its form disappearing in the air.
"Aim for the zombies!" The commander ordered through the comms to be sure that everyone heard her, already aiming at the head of one undead in the mob that entered the village's perimeter.
The newcomer immediately jumped to the roof of a random hut, leaving the line of fire of the unit and allowing them to fire at will.
Dinara knew that they weren't nearly the best shots out there, newbies as they were, but living a daily life of shooting monsters and people, mostly people, chances are that your aim will get better eventually.
What she wanted to say was, when the twenty of them stopped caring about keeping a constant barrage in favor of shooting together, the zombies started dropping real fast.
By the time the last soldier was finished with their clip, only a couple of stupid zombies were left, alongside three of the Vigile variants. Dinara was about to pull the pistol out of the holster on her thigh when she saw the newcomer come down from the top of the hut, wasting no time taking down the remnants of the undead himself.
To say he was strong was an understatement, dashing from one spot to another so fast she could barely keep him in her sight, his bare fists would rip through the zombies without resistance. The Vigiles might as well not have been there, that was how much of a difference the armed zombies made in front of him.
It must have taken three or five seconds for the superhuman to send the rest of the hostiles packing.
At last, there was silence in the village.