"This place has a terrible atmosphere," Lisa muttered as she stood outside the car and observed the town in the distance.
She felt uncomfortable because of the high coastal humidity, the salty sea breeze, and the laughter that could be heard despite the considerable distance.
Having grown up in the center of the Federation, she was not accustomed to the atmosphere of life near the sea. Added to that was the dangerous mission they had to complete and the disturbing laughter in the background. Lisa found this small town quite unpleasant.
"Don't complain. If we seal the anomaly, we can spend some time at the beach. Aren't you excited?" Irina asked, putting her arm around her companion's waist and trying to make her feel more relaxed.
"That would be a good idea... if it weren't for the fact that the sea in this part of the Federation is cold," Alexis replied, having overheard his friends' conversation.
The redhead began to check the equipment stored in the car while Laria dealt with the soldiers stationed on the outskirts of the village. She had to arrange their entry and subsequent exit.
"We're in good shape, aren't we? I could use a little relaxation..." Jack muttered those words as he yawned. He was still tired from a poor night's sleep, although his situation was better than it had been a few days ago.
"Yes, but after hearing Alexis, I don't think freezing my butt off is ideal," Lisa commented, narrowing her purple eyes.
"We'll see what our relaxation options are after we resolve the anomaly. Grab your weapons," Alexis said before grabbing the tools needed to seal the anomaly from a white bag.
"After this, I'll recreate my gauntlet. I feel uncomfortable without it," said Jack, as he equipped himself with his revolver and his mace, which he had enchanted to be sharper during the breaks in their journey.
Jack tried to use this task to relax, which worked to some extent. It also allowed him to review his knowledge of the discipline because he loved enchantment and had many ideas he wanted to execute when he reached the appropriate level.
Then there was his axe, which he missed quite a bit. Despite its weight, his companions were still impressed by how easily he lifted this large weapon and placed it on his shoulder.
"I still regret that this task doesn't allow us to use this big guy." Lisa touched a special weapon stored in the steam cart that attracted her and the two other men on the team.
"If we were dealing with a rarity, it would be good for you to use it. But anomalies are a different matter. If we knew more about these phenomena, we wouldn't need to be armed.
After all, our bullets probably won't hit those things but rather the victims. Let's hope there are still survivors," Jack said seriously, causing his friends to look at him.
"Brother, we'll find survivors. Humanity can be quite stubborn," Irina replied, taking a pair of pistols and their magazines. Although she usually relied on her projected sword, she welcomed additional means of attack.
"Yes, and if there aren't any survivors, after sealing the anomaly, we can hold a small funeral ritual," Lisa added after equipping herself with her sniper rifle and placing it behind her back.
Although there was no religion in the Rosicrucian Federation, there was a rich culture inherited from centuries ago and which had emerged during the nation's existence. Thus, funeral rites were familiar to them.
It was an act of respect and guidance for the deceased. They did not believe in a higher power due to the dangers this belief represented. However, the desire for the deceased's soul to rest in peace in the afterlife was prevalent worldwide.
Perhaps this was one of the few consolations humanity could find in this world. Although they did not live in ruins or misery, it was clear that humans were not in the best situation, despite the abundance of resources they enjoyed.
"If necessary, I'll take care of it. Witches are good at that." Laria, who had finished dealing with the soldiers, approached the group and handed Alexis a folded map that the captain of the stationed soldiers had given her.
The brunette then approached the cargo area of the steam car and took a pistol and several magazines from the group of weapons. She had decided to do so after chatting with the person in charge and realizing that they needed a means of attacking from a distance.
Even she, who usually fought with her body and a scalpel, felt that the latest threats the group had faced were more dangerous than previous ones, so she decided to use a pistol as a backup weapon.
"What did you learn from them?" Jack asked, gesturing toward the group of soldiers keeping the village isolated.
"Some interesting details. Now that it's daylight, those affected by the anomaly behave more calmly. However, they become quite agitated when night falls, and a few try to escape the quarantined area," Laria recounted. Her words were not yet finished.
"From what I've heard, the people influenced by the anomaly have enhanced physical abilities. As you heard from that soldier, they are quite resistant to bullets; at least, they can move even after their bodies have been riddled with holes like a sieve.
"But that's not the most interesting part. "It's the fact that it seems like the physical limitations of their bodies have been removed, just like Seone's or Irina's familiar technique," Laria said. She looked at her teammate with gray eyes and a serious expression, although the corners of her lips were slightly raised.
Despite her natural coldness and her knowledge that this situation was serious, Laria couldn't completely control her desire to investigate things related to the body, so sometimes things like this happened to her.
Her team was used to the resident doctor's peculiarities, though. They knew her fleeting smile wasn't because she was amused by the terrible anomaly but because of the changes it caused in the victims.
They understood that she was curious about phenomena that could be useful in medicine. This kind of interest helped humanity create effective solutions and countermeasures because understanding how these things worked allowed them to attack them effectively.
In this case, however, the things Laria told them caught their attention as well, adding another layer of complexity to their mission. Alexis, in particular, touched his chin, thinking about something before speaking.
"Given the tendency of those affected to spread the 'laughter' to others, the army's decision to quarantine this town is easier to understand. If there are survivors, they should be grateful that the army didn't decide to bomb the town with artillery." Alexis's words were harsh but made a lot of sense with a little reflection.
In some very serious cases, the only option left is to reduce everything to ashes with fire. The team had already encountered situations in which they had to take this kind of action.
They did not make this decision alone. Rather, other field agents and even the Federation itself had to make this decision at certain times. It was a difficult decision, and they tried to ensure it would be a last resort after exhausting all other possibilities.
"I don't want to have to deal with that again," Irina murmured, her voice holding a hint of sadness. Although those actions were for the benefit of the Rosicrucian Federation population, the weight of them was painful for her.
"None of us wants to do that, so we have to seal the anomaly," Jack concluded. He looked at the village in the distance, his brow slightly furrowed.
His sixth sense was warning him of danger, making him cautious.
...
The group was traveling along the road to the village of Suri, which was stained with dried blood and littered with the remains of people under the influence of the abnormality who had been killed while trying to escape the quarantine zone.
Unfortunately, due to the anomaly, the army had not attempted to clean up the bodies because they did not know if doing so could spread the influence of the event to the soldiers. Thus, they left the dead abandoned on the road.
Laria approached one of the victims and crouched down beside her. The brunette observed the body, which appeared quite fresh. However, some details caught her attention, such as the fact that, even though the body was dead, it still had a terrifying smile on its face.
"Her muscles are stiff, not just because she's dead, but because they were stiff when she was alive. It seems as if the anomaly put an eternal smile on their faces. Encountering something like this must be disturbing," Laria commented, touching the face of the female corpse with her scalpel.
"I don't see any traces of the anomaly in them. It seems that the power acting on the infected disappears at the moment of death," said Jack, who had excellent sensitivity to Pneuma. But on this occasion, except for the residue of this energy appearing in dead people, there was no sign of anything else.
"She has bruises on her arms and legs. I can recognize them at a glance. Her muscles have been reduced to mush," Irina pointed out, drawing on her own experience, as she had used a technique that caused similar symptoms.
"So, we can confirm what those soldiers said. After we're done with this, we have to burn these bodies. I don't want to seal the anomaly and then have to deal with some kind of undead weirdness," said Lisa, resuming her walk toward the village. However, she only took a few steps before stopping completely.
A person appeared at the side of the road, got up from the ground, and staggered toward Lisa with a stifled laugh. The group had noticed him before, but, seeing the wounds on his body, thought he had little time left to live. They never expected him to stand up again.
"Oh, fuck," Alexis said, pulling out her gun and pointing it directly at the man's head.
"Hehehe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The person affected by the anomaly, a young man, began to laugh loudly, a huge, unnatural smile spreading across his face and revealing his bloodstained teeth.
"Creepy," muttered Lisa, who was closest to the man. She became the target of the affected person, who mustered what little strength he had left to run wildly in her direction.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three bullets, enhanced by Alexis's gun enchantments, struck the attacker squarely in the head. Despite the damage he had suffered, he continued to run toward Lisa, who assumed a combat stance.
Swish!
However, Jack had gotten ahead of his partner and swung his axe, cutting directly through the man's neck and decapitating him with ease. Blood gushed from the man's body like a fountain, but the speed and intensity were unnatural.
His skin seemed to dry out, as if all the red liquid had been expelled from his body and was filling the street. The corpse took several steps forward before falling to its knees, then collapsing completely onto the floor.
Jack slid backward, using Pneuma to strengthen his legs and leave several residual images, to avoid being stained by the blood, not wanting to be touched by it.
This could be considered a waste of energy, but it was common knowledge to avoid contact with any type of fluid during missions. Rumors about field agents bathing in the blood of their enemies? Fabrications. That blood belonged only to them, not some entity.
The head fell to the ground, and despite its lack of a body, its mouth continued to move as if laughing, mocking the man's actions despite being completely dead.
Jack swore he could feel the dead man's eyes fixed on him, giving him one last look before the light in them went out. This thought was frightening because his sixth sense had alerted him to a slight source of danger.
"Thanks for that. I didn't want to touch it or use my bullets on that thing," Lisa said with a hint of disgust in her voice. At this point, these affected people were no longer human. They were vectors of the anomaly's influence, mere puppets.
"You're welcome, but the cut was harder than it looked," Jack replied distractedly. He looked at the decapitated body on the ground and felt that the threat these beings posed had increased.
Not counting the oddities of the head, he could feel a certain unnatural resistance during his attack at the moment of cutting, even though he hadn't used his Pneuma reinforcement. His strength surpassed that of an ordinary human, so he shouldn't have experienced anything like that, yet he did.
Something, not the muscles or bones, had resisted his blow for a moment. It was probably less effective due to the number of wounds the man had, but what if he had been completely healthy? Not to mention the uncontrollable laughter.
"It seems that the anomaly empowers those affected and makes an effort to protect them or keep them moving toward their goals." Laria also noticed this power in the affected body, but the amount was too small to determine its properties.
"So, we can afford to hurt them more," said Alexis, putting away his gun and patting the area of his body where he had explosives, such as grenades, hanging.
"Yes, but in a town like this, the population is only a thousand or two thousand people. Even if there are dozens of deaths, there must be many of these affected people left in Suri, which increases the risk," commented Irina. She bent down to get a better look at the body and recognized the same thing as in the other corpse: bruises on the muscles used most, such as the legs.
Laria crouched down beside her, focusing on examining the decapitated head because something about it caught her attention. The wounds from Alexis's bullets were not as deep or destructive as one might expect.
Moreover, there wasn't much blood or tissue. Laria carefully used her Pneuma to cover her hands instead of reinforcing them, employing her power as a kind of protective glove.
"We haven't even gotten to Suri yet, and this whole thing has already gotten complicated," Lisa complained, frowning.
"Calm down. Things aren't that bad," Jack replied, trying to ease the tension. It wasn't good for pessimistic thoughts to spread among the team because they could influence them.
"All right, don't sulk. Things have gotten much easier," said Laria, standing up. Although she had no visible expression on her face, Jack knew his girlfriend well enough to tell that she was in a good mood, so he approached her.
"Did you find anything useful on them?" Jack asked. Laria nodded and pointed to the head lying on the ground.
"There's hardly any blood. Seeing the spectacle that occurred when you decapitated him, along with what I saw on the other corpse, leads me to believe that the anomaly has affected and improved them, causing certain physiological changes.
It seems that all their blood is focused on their muscles, providing them with more oxygen and allowing them to remain in that enhanced state longer. With the addition of the faint power of the anomaly on their bodies, their existence has become complicated for normal people.
But not for us. A cut or stab wound to key areas will cause significant blood loss. Instead of aiming for the head, aim for the neck, heart, or legs, those areas where a lot of blood flows.
Furthermore, the lack of blood to their heads has made them particularly foolish," Laria said, recounting her discovery. The group visibly relaxed. Even Lisa, who had been complaining a minute ago, now had a big smile on her face.
"Aim for the heart? Well, I can do that and more," Lisa said with a hint of pride in her voice. After all, she was the group's sniper. With her visual talent and Pneuma projection, she was best able to exploit the weaknesses of those affected by the anomaly.
"Now that we know this, I think we can avoid unnecessary fights and look for the anomaly," said Alexis, patting the bag containing the sealing tools.
"Then let's go," said Jack. The group resumed their journey to Suri.
Although they encountered men and women laughing uncontrollably, the team was agile enough to avoid fighting them since their mission was to solve the root of the problem, not to kill everyone.
When they entered the small town of Suri, they began using the alleys to navigate. They had never been there before, but thanks to the map provided by the soldiers, they were able to navigate effectively.
However, it was clear that they couldn't slip away as they had before. When they entered the third alley, a different laugh interrupted them.
It wasn't a wild laugh, but rather a controlled one. One might even say it was sarcastic. No one else was around, yet Jack felt a chill when he felt that line of sight fall on him again.
It overflowed with greed.