The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 55 - Corruption (Patreon)

                                                                                          Alexander North

The other bees don’t seem to like me having crushed one of their own, so they all begin to target me. Which leaves me frowning as I avoid stinger after stinger after stinger while also clawing straight through each bee that passes by me.

At the same time, I see the others constantly failing at even scoring a hit on the creatures, with the exception of the captain.

Damn bugs are too fast for regular humans.

“Get back!” I shout at the others while still clawing through the bees. Fortunately, despite their speed, their bodies aren’t all that tough and are practically like tearing through paper for my claws. But my guard stays up despite this. Particularly because I don’t know what their stinger’s venom might do thanks to their mutation.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Snow jumping up and grabbing some of the bees between her jaws and crushing them without much issue. And the few bees that do manage to strike at her with their stingers just end up falling to the ground and dying once their stingers snap off thanks to striking her icy fur, without even piercing through.

Guess they are just like regular bees in that they die when their stingers are lost.

I hear a cry to my left, making me turn my head to look at the others, just to find the veteran, who was attacked despite being in the center of the others’ formation, holding his neck that has a bee’s stinger stuck inside of it.

“Shit, no!!” I shout before rushing over, slapping the bees between us out of the way, but by the time I get there small veins glowing a pale bluish black in color are beginning to crawl across his skin. Even after I make it to him and rip the stinger out.

Several other bees try to attack us while we’re all distracted with the wounded veteran whose name I think was Arnold, so I grit my teeth and hand him off to Victoria who is the closest one before jumping back up and beating back the bees again while calling back, “Keep him safe!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her give me a salute in affirmation as I continue ripping the bees apart and absorbing their energy in the process.

Minutes pass by, and after we’ve dealt with over half of the bees, the rest of them all retreat, following after a much larger bee that I can only assume is their queen. But I can’t deal with that right now as I turn back to face the wounded veteran, just to find him convulsing on the ground next to the others. I glance at the captain who is rushing over to the man before doing the same myself and kneeling down next to him.

“How is he?” I ask Victoria, who I left with him. But she just slowly shakes her head as her middle and pointer fingers rest on his bare wrist.

No pulse? Even though he’s still convulsing?! Terran damn it!

A single sting ki-

We all stumble backwards except for Victoria as Arnold’s eyes flash open while glowing with an eerie black light mixed with thousands of tiny white dots. His convulsing then grows worse until he suddenly comes to a stop. He then turns his head to stare at Victoria who is supporting his back and reaches out to scratch at her with claws that are beginning to jut out of his fingers, pushing his old fingernails out of the way in a bloody mess. But before he can make contact, the captain grabs his wrist and pulls him up.

Victoria stumbles backwards at that while breathing pretty heavily in shock and muttering, “Inf-infected?!”

The captain quickly restrains him by pushing the old veteran to the ground and holding his wrists together before looking at me.

Does he… he does, doesn’t he?

I let out a sigh before kneeling next to him and placing my hand on the back of his head.

Here goes nothing.

Right as I’m about to push my energy into him though, a flash of pale blue light shines from my own neck, behind my ear where my terminal is, and a warning appears in my vision that makes me immediately let go of his head in a rush.

/ Notice \

Warning – User is currently touching a corroded entity. Further contact may lead to corrosion of the user’s body.

\End of Notice/

“Don’t touch his skin!” I shout, making the captain quickly adjust his grip to make sure none of his skin is making direct contact with him before he sends me a questioning look. So I send him my terminal’s notice.

“Corroded entity…?” he mutters in confusion while turning to look at the veteran who is face first in the ground and trying very hard to get out of his grip but to no avail. “He isn’t even very strong. Terminal, can you find anything wrong with him?”

A short silence passes before his confusion grows and he sends me a glance along with his terminal’s notice.

/ Shared Notice \

Answer to User’s Query – User does not possess the capabilities to determine the answer to that question.

\End of Shared Notice/

“Guess we need your new powers to find out,” he says while nodding his head towards the veteran.

I can’t help but feel a strange sense of revulsion at the thought of touching him for some reason, but I slowly reach out to do so and quickly ask, “Terminal, inform me of what is wrong with this individual.”

As soon as the terminal gives me an answer, I yank my hand back and almost instinctually feel myself moving some of my energy over to my hand and circulating it.

/ Notice \

Warning – Recommended that user removes his hand from the corrupted entity.
Answer to User’s Query – The individual has been corrupted by a virus-like substance that is incredibly contagious and fully mutates the body into something entirely different. What exactly it mutates the body into is unknown. However, it is not reversable as it is not a result of energy.

\End of Notice/

Right as I share the notice with the captain, we can’t help but flinch away from the veteran as literal wings explode out of his back and through his clothes in a shower of crimson blood while the man lets out a shrill scream.

“What the fuck!?” the captain shouts while pulling his fist back and sending it straight through the man’s skull. But despite having his skull caved in, the man still convulses a little before falling onto the ground, his body having partially transformed into some sort of bipedal insect during the few seconds he had prior to the captain’s response.

I stare wide eyed at the captain, then at the man, then up at the bees that are just barely still in sight.

This world is terrifying.

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