Black Badger

When we first set foot on Earth, we were astonished by the frailty of humans.

They did not look so different from us, yet they were nothing like us. They were weak and died far too easily. What an adolescent among us could lift, a grown human male struggled to carry. When wounded, they did not heal quickly. They died falling from ladders that were not even high. They died tripping in the street. They died for reasons no one could properly explain.

Humans were fragile.

They still are.

Being surrounded by humans with enhanced bodies, I sometimes forget that fact.

But I recognized it again. Unmodified humans were unbearably weak. Worse still, they could not perform emotional transfer, nor did they know how to command.

‘What can they do?’

There was a reason Kyle and Rei had regarded them as insignificant beings.

‘They look more helpless than a child left by the water’s edge.’

Bottled water pooled across the white floor.

“Sweet, isn’t it?”

Don said.

I did not answer.

It is sweet.

You can endure being denied food, but being unable to drink water is far harder to bear.

They must have been hydrating me because they feared I would attempt rebellion immediately if they withheld even that.

All of this was pointless.

In any case, it was time to leave. The moment felt right. Enough time had passed, and the enemies’ vigilance had softened compared to the beginning. Ashen Mantle had recoiled once more behind the ventilation shaft, coiled like a resting serpent.

Only Don and I remained in the wide room.

A human who could not bring himself to strike my neck out of fear.

After licking up the final drop of water, I rested my head against the floor and let out a long sigh.

“Don.”

His face remained calm, but I sensed his body tense reflexively.

I stared somewhere into empty air and murmured,

“Do you love your son?”

Don’s right foot lifted.

But he did not strike me. He merely trembled, looking as though he might attack at any second.

It was unfortunate that whatever action he chose held no meaning for me.

He was an ordinary man. If he slapped my cheek, he would have to be prepared for his own fingers to shatter.

Still, the technique that compensates for lack of strength is admirable.

He lowered his foot and hooked a finger around the gun at his waist.

“Don’t run your mouth when you don’t know anything.”

“I was going to say that just as you cherish your son, I also have someone I cherish.”

Not a biological son, but I do have a godson.

“Don’t you intend to act in a way your son wouldn’t °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° be ashamed to see?”

“No.”

Don answered firmly.

“My son has to be alive first for shame to even matter.”

His voice was hoarse.

“You’ve forgotten what this desperation feels like.”

Good.

I gave you one last chance, and you refused.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

Then I called Ashen Mantle. I did not command it. Embarrassingly enough, I was not good at commanding this one. It was something I would very much prefer Kairos never discover. I found it far harder to control mental-type creatures than Leviathan.

But luring it to devour me was not difficult.

A thin gray mist seeped from the ventilation shaft.

Those monitoring through cameras would not be able to tell whether Ashen Mantle had emerged naturally or if Don had summoned it.

They would not think I called it.

I had displayed utter helplessness against mental attacks until now. They would never imagine I summoned a Creature to block the camera.

And so the gray fog peacefully covered the camera lens.

I seized Don’s ankle.

“—Mm!”

Subduing him took an instant.

After yanking his ankle, I caught the human before he struck the floor. With my free hand, I covered his mouth.

Now then. Reversal.

Don struggled.

It was useless.

Fragile beings.

Once stripped of weapons, they became so vulnerable that they lulled their own kind into carelessness.

“Don.”

I whispered softly.

“You did the best you could.”

You locked me in a room so devoid of life that I could not even absorb.

You knew physical abuse alone had limits in slowly killing me, so you deployed Ashen Mantle. You withheld food. You spilled water on the floor to humiliate me. You tried various methods to break me.

As a mere human without an enhanced body, you exerted every effort to kill me.

You even did well. I decided to acknowledge that. He was undoubtedly a master in this field.

But all that flailing meant nothing before overwhelming disparity.

“You’ve only seen it on video, so you couldn’t grasp it.”

Even our own kind hesitated to raise a blade against a Child of the World Tree.

Enhanced bodies fell in droves. Corpses piled high enough to form mountains.

And yet you?

Neither kin nor enhanced.

An ordinary human?

BANG!

The veteran agent twisted his arm and fired.

A distant pain pierced through my body.

I smiled faintly.

“Impressive.”

He was among the few true hardliners I had encountered.

He had the right to try to take me himself.

Bang! Bang-bang-bang!

“There’s no need to blame yourself for coming alone.”

I looked down at the human drenched in the blood spilling from me.

“No matter how many of you there are, it’s useless.”

You already know that.

Don, that is why none of your attempts ever humiliated me.

To me, you are little more than a fragile vermin.

And now I intend to make you nourishment.

I usually refuse absorption with stubborn resolve, but at times like this, I use it conveniently. No wonder people call me unfilial. Rejecting the grace of the World Tree only to use it when it suits me — it is unsightly.

But please understand.

My devotion to the golden leaves remains unchanged.

“I’ll leave your clothes.”

I whispered, looking down at eyes where fear faded and resignation rose.

“You won’t be reduced to ash.”

“Mm! Mm—!”

“Your son...”

I looked at the human struggling desperately to speak.

“He’ll be left alone. But I gave you several chances.”

I absorbed him.

Revulsion surged, but I did it regardless. Don could not even scream. I closed my eyes and drew him in. The wounds across my body sealed as strength flooded back.

When I opened my eyes, Don was gone.

Only his clothes and belongings remained.

I exhaled, then vomited gastric fluid onto the floor.

After the convulsion subsided, I picked up Don’s phone, access card, and pistol, and stood.

“Mm.”

I paused in the gray fog filling the room.

Only after fully acknowledging my restored body did I mutter slowly to myself.

I ignored the hallucinations Ashen Mantle began to generate.

“Shall we?”

Gunshots had rung out. I expected humans to rush in.

Do they think I was using the gun as part of torture?

Well. A man who hadn’t eaten for two days, subjected to interrogation, silently subduing someone like this — they would not anticipate that.

Quite a few seemed convinced that the past two days had shattered my mind.

They would soon sense something was wrong and come running, but...

“I want something delicious.”

I muttered, raising the pistol and aiming at the chain.

“I’m hungry.”

Bang! Bang!

Absorption always left a foul aftertaste.

***

Moving through the CIS building was not difficult.

Don’s access card granted authority everywhere, which made things even easier. After cutting the chain with the Intelligence Director’s gun and stepping out leisurely, I concealed myself, dragged a guard aside, knocked him unconscious, changed clothes, and pulled on a cap.

It would have been nice to have lenses.

Unfortunately I did not, so I pulled the cap low enough to shadow my eyes.

Then I headed toward Don’s office.

I asked openly for its location.

“The Director dropped his badge.”

Since the badge was genuinely his, and the janitor knew nothing about Don Child’s ambitious project, he readily told me where it was.

He did look at me strangely, but after I smiled faintly and walked confidently, he did not stop me.

My experience infiltrating a similar intelligence agency long ago was proving useful.

They are all rather alike.

There were no internal CCTV cameras, making movement easy.

Because employee identities were classified, there were hardly any cameras within the compound.

I entered Don Child’s office naturally.

“What brings you here?”

I smiled faintly and closed the secretary office door.

It took roughly two minutes to silently render everyone inside unconscious.

“This was worth the trouble.”

Looting Don Child’s office took about ten minutes.

The computer was password-protected, of course. I simply removed all the hard drives from the main unit.

I felt along the wall, found a hidden compartment, and took the hard drives stored there as well.

Around then, the alarm began blaring.

[Code Alpha! Code Alpha!]

So they use Alpha here.

[Suspect escaped!]

No need to shout so loudly.

I intend to return shortly.

[Code Alpha! All personnel arm immediately!]

“To fake a death, you need more than blood.”

After securing the drives, I opened the office window.

The compound was chaotic with pounding footsteps and booming alarms.

I looked down, waited for a moment when no one was below, and leapt four stories.

Then, suppressing my footsteps, I moved toward the interrogation room.

As I walked, I briefly thought of the family photograph on Don’s desk.

Don.

A corrupt agent striving to save his terminally ill son.

He must have despised and loathed himself for being powerless before the world’s cruelty. Hatred becomes anger. Anger becomes justification.

Pitiful.

He must have fallen at Colton Wiseman’s feet, begging for his son’s life.

After exhausting every option, he came for me.

He was intelligent. He knew that even if several humans monitored me, the situation could reverse in an instant.

That was why he came alone to spill the water. Whether one, five, or fifty — it would make no difference.

He hoped only that I had been broken.

That I would wither under the weight of the past and lose all will to live.

“But I cannot die for you.”

Kyle would truly lose his mind.

He might even chase me after death.

“May you rest in peace.”

I whispered without emotion and began forgetting his name as I walked toward the interrogation room.

***

Anthony Conway realized at some point that Hildebert was standing inside the interrogation room.

He raised his gun and aimed at the Creature. Those around him mirrored the motion.

There was no wasted movement among his subordinates.

Every one of them could easily pass the physical portion of the Black Badger recruitment test.

Then they would gain exceptional regeneration and eternal youth.

But his wife would never become a Black Badger.

So that choice meant nothing.

It was useless to him...

“I’ll give you a choice.”

Just minutes ago, he had been dying.

Now Hildebert — how he entered was unknown — stood in the center of the interrogation room, looking healthy and beautiful.

White hair matted with blood, spread wildly.

The torture marks on the floor.

It all looked like staged effects for a film shoot now.

How is this possible?

Anthony Conway thought.

He knew the concept of absorption.

He knew it.

But seeing it in reality felt too surreal to believe.

And where is Don?

If he died, the alarm should have triggered instantly. Don Child’s biometric signal had not ceased — it had simply vanished abruptly.

At first they assumed a chip malfunction.

But now, it seemed otherwise.

Which meant their boss...

......

No.

He never said he could absorb living humans, did he?

“If you prostrate yourself and kiss the top of my foot, I’ll spare your life.”

Hildebert’s voice resonated through the interrogation room.

A pale space occupied only by those who desired immortality.

“I consider it rather merciful. What do you think?”

BANG!

He answered with gunfire.

The bullet struck the wall instead of its target. Anthony Conway did not lower the barrel as he watched the humanoid Creature slowly turn its head toward him.

Vivid golden eyes pierced him.

Conway tightened his grip to stop trembling.

It did not help much.

“Good.”

Hildebert said gently.

“You’ll be my right hand.”

“What?”

Conway reflexively demanded.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ll be my left leg.”

The white-haired man ignored him and pointed at a bald subordinate.

The subordinate staggered back in terror.

Hildebert did not even blink.

He spoke almost cheerfully.

“The rest can simply be burned without a trace.”

Anthony Conway roughly understood what that meant about three minutes later.

By the time he understood, he was already becoming Hildebert’s severed right hand.

You never said it could grow back.

That was his final thought.

That his opponent was insane enough to sever his own limbs to fake death...

***

10 p.m. that evening.

Ska Owen shattered his mug upon seeing the breaking news.

[CIS headquarters firefight. Black Badger Hildebert Taleb, who had been taken in as a suspect, and multiple individuals including Intelligence Director Don Child confirmed dead. Parts of Hildebert Taleb’s body and Don Child’s identification were found at the scene...]