"Ye Lan, how are you so badly injured?"
Before Ye Lan could hit the ground, Malkuth, who was directing clerks in the Control Team, caught him.
The Arbiter's shockwave had broken four of his ribs. The "Key" that pierced his abdomen had taken his left kidney. Then, during the assimilation with the Magic Bullet Shooter, the Abnormality's own nature had caused a seventh bullet to pierce his heart.
If the regeneration reactor hadn't released a pulse right as he fell, he would have already lost consciousness by the time Malkuth caught him.
"Cough, cough... just the price to pay. First... help me sit down. Let me get hit by a few more pulses."
Ye Lan managed to pat her metal shell, and with Malkuth's help, he sat down in the lounge. The pulses from the improved regeneration reactor did their best to restore his lost tissue, but organ-level damage couldn't be repaired so quickly.
Although Malkuth wanted him to rest longer, at least until the hole in his abdomen closed up, Angela's broadcast didn't give him the time.
"Announcement. The 'Arbiter' has moved from the Training Team to the Central Command Team. All containment units in the Security, Information, and Record Teams are in a state of meltdown. All clerks in the Welfare and Training Teams have been killed. Corresponding departmental buffs are offline."
Ye Lan had Malkuth help him toward the elevator. As they walked, he asked Angela, "Angela... where is the Mountain of Smiling Bodies now?"
"The Mountain of Smiling Bodies is confirmed to have breached and is moving toward the Welfare Team."
"Understood." He looked up at the non-existent Angela, then said to Malkuth, "Malkuth, let me go. The rest is up to us employees."
"You can barely even walk. Are you sure you want to face the Arbiter?" Real concern showed in Malkuth's mechanical eyes. She didn't want Ye Lan to go on a suicide mission.
"Malkuth, there are some things only I can do. I don't know why the Arbiter appeared today... Did you know? Today was supposed to end when I killed the fake Binah."
Ye Lan forced himself to stand up from Malkuth's support. "I don't know what went wrong, but... I have to fix it. I'm the only one... the only one not in the script. Only I... only I can deal with the Arbiter, who is also not in the script."
Massive blood loss made his face pale and his lips blue. Dizziness made him unsure of what he was even saying to Malkuth, but at least she let him go. This allowed him to step into the elevator and head for the Welfare Department, where the Mountain of Smiling Bodies was.
In this brief window, only that Abnormality could help him quickly heal his injuries.
Ding!
The elevator quickly reached the Welfare Department corridor. The moment the doors opened, Ye Lan fell out.
Whether it was lucky or not, he landed on the body of a clerk. It saved him from further injury, but the blood from the corpse soaked his already blood-drenched clothes.
As for his Twilight E.G.O. suit? It had been destroyed as a protective measure when the Arbiter knocked him out of his assimilated state.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
A series of heavy, rapid footsteps sounded. The Mountain of Smiling Bodies, having eaten enough corpses to grow both of its secondary bodies, seemed to have spotted him. It charged toward his location with a speed that belied its size.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
In the blink of an eye, the Abnormality—a mass of interconnected corpses with limbs and mouths—was upon him.
"Heh heh... colleagues, come and help me..."
As if understanding his words, the Mountain of Smiling Bodies melted over him. Countless employee corpses climbed onto his body, layer by layer.
"Help... each other... become hands... feet..."
Every corpse wore a sorrowful smile. They disassembled their own remains, using the flesh and blood to patch Ye Lan's wounds.
"Don't come back... leave quickly... remember... our sacrifice..."
The bodies rotted, and a black, putrid fluid soaked the corpses around Ye Lan, fusing them all into one... except for him.
The deceased employees entrusted everything they had left to Ye Lan. Now, they were his weapons, his shields. Until their very existence faded, no one could harm him.
[Mountain of Smiling Bodies] E.G.O. Assimilation.
The monster made of corpses rushed into the elevator and then out again. Three massive, rotting bodies, large enough to block an entire corridor in the Central Command Team, charged forward on countless hands and feet, slamming violently into the Arbiter.
The giant mouth on the main body of the Mountain opened wide, spewing a torrent of corpses wrapped in blood and ichor at the Arbiter pinned beneath it.
"Disgusting thing."
Countless faeries converged into a sharp ray of light, capable of dicing the entire corridor. One of the Mountain's secondary bodies exploded from the massive damage. Countless dissolving corpses fell to the floor, struggling to attack the Arbiter with their bodies and even their teeth.
"Are they just 'disgusting' in your eyes?"
"But these disgusting corpses you speak of are my sacrificed colleagues! The reason I can fight you now is because of their support!"
The Mountain, having lost one secondary body, raised the other and slammed it down repeatedly on the heavily damaged Arbiter.
"Incomprehensible!"
Three consecutive shockwaves blasted the main body of the Mountain of Smiling Bodies. After the first, the remaining secondary body shattered.
After the second, the main body was in tatters, on the verge of collapse.
And before the third shockwave could land, the Mountain actively ejected Ye Lan from the assimilation, flinging him to the end of the corridor.
"Is this your true nature?"
Ye Lan took a deep breath and shouted to Angela, "Open all the containment units in Central Command! I'm going to kill her right here, right now!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The doors to eight containment units flew open. Nothing There, Silent Orchestra, Blue Star, the Queen of Hatred, the Knight of Despair, the Snow Queen.
Aside from two Tool-type Abnormalities that couldn't leave their units, the other six stepped out and launched their attack on the Arbiter.
Then, the Express Train to Hell lit its four lanterns. The train, carrying countless dead, sped from its containment unit, plowing through the Arbiter and the entire length of the corridor, only to graze past Ye Lan. A bottle of sap from the Big Tree fell at his feet, which he quickly snatched.
"Although the other employees, and even the Sephiroth, might not agree... I've always believed that these Abnormalities are also members of the company. That's why I can connect with them, and why I can receive their help!"
Nothing There retreated to Ye Lan's side. It crawled up his legs, forming a cocoon of twisted flesh and eyes that enveloped him completely. A moment later, countless fleshy tendrils burst from the cocoon, twisting around his body to form a suit of armor.
Two sharp bone blades extended from his arms, deflecting two "Keys" shot at him. The Snow Queen created a path of ice at his feet, and the cold air froze the Arbiter at the other end of the path.
"Thanks."
Ye Lan ran, slid, and glided along the ice path.
His two bone blades crossed. Nothing There, assimilated with him, exploded with a speed that was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye. In a single, intersecting flash, two deep, crossing gashes were carved into the Arbiter's body, slicing her into four pieces.
The moment the Arbiter fell, the "End the Day" button on A's screen lit up.
Day 49 had finally, truly, ended.
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