"Start loading them up."
"Should we kill them first?"
"No. The Neural Frame needs to be active otherwise it won’t be as effective. If we have to start sacrificing our own people..." the voice trailed off.
"... Are you sure we should be doing this?"
"It’s just as the Bishop said. These people came out of nowhere. They aren’t real, they’re constructs formed by the Genesis Spirit. They think they have life, and memories, and hopes and goals, but they don’t. They’ll just be repurposed by the Genesis Spirit and turned into more fodder down the line.
"Plus, they’re all injured and close to death anyway. Focus. They’re not worth losing sleep over."
"Yeah, but the others aren’t..." the man responded, clearly referring to the others in the encampment.
A smack echoed, but more like the sort that came from the back of the head instead of a cheek.
"Do I need you to get fucking replaced? You’re a Holy Knight, not a Priest. Can you commune with the Goddess? Can you sense the Genesis Spirit? Can you—?!"
"Alright, I get it, I get it. Let’s just move them into the holding cells."
Grey almost couldn’t suppress his frown when he heard this. It almost sounded like these fucking NPCs were treating him like he was the NPC.
’Fucking assholes.’
His rage aside, Grey was very confused. Genesis Spirit? Was that the same thing as the Genesis System? Something different?
One after another, the bodies were pulled out of the carriage. Grey knew that his turn was coming up soon. Half of him wanted to just jump out and fight his way out, especially since the words of the bastard had really pissed him off.
But at that point, it would defeat everything he had done until this point. The fact that he was awake was already enough.
’Let me just...’
Grey felt his body being dragged out by its ankles. Then he was yeeted over someone’s shoulders like a sack of potatoes. More bodies were stacked atop and below him like this guy was balancing pizza boxes rather than literal humans.
’Fuck, I really don’t have the patience for this.’
Grey gritted his teeth, but he focused. At the very least, they expected everyone to be alive, so he could breathe normally. Unfortunately, every one of these fuckers smelled like absolute shit.
How long had they been stuck at the coliseum?
The sound of a cage opening caught Grey’s attention.
’Now.’
Grey shifted the slightest bit and the entire pile of bodies went tumbling.
He fell to the ground limply, not fighting it.
"Fuck me." The man cursed. Grey had still not opened his eyes, so he wasn’t sure exactly where he was right now, but he felt that this timing was probably about good enough.
It took everything in him not to rip the man in half when he was yanked up by his wrist and thrown into the cage, though.
The doors slammed shut and the man trudged away, cursing under his breath about heavy bastards and extra work.
Grey waited a little longer just in case there was another batch or something. When a few minutes had passed of nothing, he slowly opened his eyes to find himself, unsurprisingly, in a cage. Though, it was a cage far too small for the number of bodies in it.
It was a cell designed for two people to sleep and shit comfortably, probably about four by four meters or so. Yet there were probably two dozen people stacked in here.
Grey shifted a bit and knocked some people off of him to get a better look at what he was working with.
’Alright. Could be worse.’
They were definitely underground. Deep underground. It was very similar to the dungeon of the coliseum, but cleaner. Unfortunately, dumping dirty people in a clean region instantly made it dirty too.
’Fuck I need seven showers.’
Grey’s Forces pulsed with darkness and in a flash he had appeared outside the cage. He adjusted his bomber jacket and cracked his neck.
This was the real reason he had toppled them over. He had needed his sneakers to land outside the cage on the ground. Being carried around like that wasn’t good enough.
It was quite a useful trick, it had helped him escape the handcuffs in the coliseum too.
’Let’s go.’
Grey snuck forward, following a trail of torches. He pulled out the Faded Cloak again, pulling it over himself tightly.
He felt the synergy between it and his Skrill Mask even more intimately now. Slowly, the darkness coming from his Forces seemed to seep into his very being.
Grey didn’t notice, all he was focused on was being more stealthy. Maybe a little too focused.
’Shit!’
Grey pulled back as he rounded a corner only to find two guards standing right there. He immediately ducked back.
’Nice job, ass hat. Now all that work’s gone down the drain.’
Grey spread out his palms, curling his fingers down to the ground in a ready position to summon his daggers at the drop of a hat.
But then one second passed, then two, then five, then ten.
He frowned in confusion. Then his eyes opened wide.
’SHIT! Did they run?!’
Grey shot out from around the corner, only for his eyes to open wide when he saw the guards still there, in the exact same position.
’You’ve got to be fucking kidding me...’
Both guards looked toward him at the same time, having heard his feet skidding across the stone. But then they both frowned.
There was something off about their expressions, almost like they were...
’They don’t see me?’
Grey waved a palm as though to say hello, but the duo was still looking right through him.
’Holy shit. Who cooked here?’
Grey looked down at himself and his eyes widened.
Abyssal Anchor. It made his mind an endless sink of darkness. And when his mind was communing with not just one item that interfered with senses, but three of them, these guards couldn’t properly perceive him at all.