"Oops."
A cat-like woman peeked her head out of the gaping hole that was made by the giant wrecking ball like boulder.
"Morvita is that you! What the hell just happened!"
Bulford shouted at a nearby wall, scolding it as if it were Morvita.
"Did I hit anyone?"
Morvita stood by a puddle of blood, bones, and guts as if it were just another puddle of rainwater.
"Nope, don't think so."
She shrugged while skipping off as if nothing had happened, ignoring Bulford's misguided remarks.
Finally, partially wiping the blood from his eyes, Bulford looked around at the demolished arena and the odd pile of blood, guts, and bones splattered near the boulder that crashed through the building.
"Oi, little man, where are you at!"
Bulford made his way towards the boulder and pushed it out of his way.
Beneath the boulder was a crushed, mutilated pile of bones that littered the ground in a puddle of blood.
Surprisingly, the brain was perfectly intact, resting inside the skull that was also unscathed from the boulder.
Bulford picked up the skull and sighed as if this wasn't the first time this had happened.
Walking out of the Arena, Bulford put the skull into a bag and trotted towards an odd white cube-shaped building at the bottom of the hill, secluded from everything else.
The building was hidden by towering trees that surrounded it.
Knocking on the door Bulford waited patiently for someone to answer.
A camera shot our red leds scanning Bulford, the camera then lit up green and the door opened.
Inside was a lab painted in white; the walls were padded, making it soundproof.
There were various oddly shaped machines lined up in the back, making noises that almost sounded human.
At his desk, Cogito sat with Jericho's skull that held his brain in his hand, both legs crossed as if he were the king of this domain.
He wore a different outfit than earlier, this time wearing a labcoat and triangle shaped glasses with black lenses.
"Ah, so you said Morvita did this?"
Cogito spoke whimsically with Jericho's skull in his hand; he examined it, shifting it around, analyzing every nook and cranny.
Bulford shook his head in response. Cogito was still focused on the skull, paying him no mind.
"There seems to be no cracks, nor wearing on this skull; it's as if it's never been damaged or touched."
Bulford sat on a chair in the corner, listening as if he understood what Cogito was spouting.
"Yeah, I uh, noticed that too."
Cogito snarled at Bulford, shooting his index finger towards the metal door, signalling for Bulford to leave.
With his head down, Bulford trudged towards the door, dragging his feet.
He turned his head towards Cogito, who was still infatuated with the skull, before the door opened for him.
"Finally, it's just us."
Cogito gently placed Jericho's skull onto his desk. His desk was unkept, with multiple vials scattered around it and many artifacts lying about.
He scrambled over to a drawer, opening it revealed an assortment of different beast bones, vials of what seemed to be blood, and a syringe.
Each of the vials were labeled with dates and names; all of the names were the same.
'Jericho'
Ignoring all of the vials and bones, Cogito grabbed the syringe from the drawer, slamming it shut.
He paced over to the only blank wall in the laboratory; compared to every other inch of the room, this one was empty.
Hidden within one of the padding was a button; pressing it opened the wall, revealing a secret hallway that led to a room.
The hall was lit from the glowing multicolored liquids within the test tubes that were lined up on both sides of the walls.
Inside were beasts, each differing from the last; some were fetuses, while others were fully fledged creatures.
Dismissing all of the tubes, Cogito went towards a box lying on a table at the end of the hall.
Above the table was a picture of a human scientist holding a child with multicolored eyes, below it was a box covered in gold marks.
Opening it up, inside was a vial filled with an amber substance that pulsated as if it were alive.
He popped the vial open and siphoned a bit of the substance into the syringe.
"Finally, the day has come!"
Cogito giggled while leaving his secret room and skipped over towards Jericho's skull.
Muscle fibers were already beginning to form around the skull; it was a disgusting sight.
Holding the syringe near Jericho's eye socket, Cogito hesitated.
"Wait, I'm all about consent."
Cogito put his other hand on his chin, massaging the imaginary hairs that would most likely never grow.
"Heya Jericho, do you consent to me plunging a syringe filled with who knows what into your brain?"
Grabbing Jericho's head, Cogito shook it up and down as if he were nodding.
"Really? Thanks, man!"
Cogito sadistically laughed before gently locating the correct spot of the brain with his syringe.
"Ok, ya ready?"
"3…"
"2…"
"1…"
Pushing down on the syringe, Cogito released the substance throughout Jericho's brain.
"Ah, that felt good."
Cogito picked up Jericho's skull, putting it near his face.
"We're so close now, Jericho. Hehe, soon you and I will grow to become much, much closer."
It seemed as if a random wave of sadness washed over Cogito's face; he sighed.
"But that will be far from now."
Placing his head back onto the desk, Cogito carried on with his previous tasks, typing away at his keyboard as if nothing had happened.
"So then that's when I hit him with my ultra special attack!"
Tsuki punched and kicked in the air at an imaginary foe.
"Woah! Is that real?!"
Etsy watching in amazement as Tsuki put her hands near the stove as it ignited with fire.
"Heh, this is just the beginning."
Suddenly Tsuki took some dust like powder from her pocket.
"Explosion!"
Etsy's eyes shot open realizing what Tsuki was holding.
"Wait, Tsuki no!"
As Etsy spoke Tsuki was already in the motion of throwing the powder into the flames.
It created a small explosion on the stove demolishing the cabinets and most of the kitchen.
Tsuki stood there with half of her hair raised to the ceiling, her face was covered in black dust.
She looked over at Etsy who was shocked on couch, her eye twitched and her mouth was in a crooked like smile.
"Tsuki senses she has done wrong…"
Etsy was still sitting down with the same expression on her face, her eye twitch got worse as if she were a ticking bomb steadily counting down.
"Tsuki sees something behind Miss Etsy!"
Tsuki pointed behind Etsy, she looked behind her to see a wall.
Etsy looked back to where Tsuki had been but no one was there, she redirected her attention to the door; which was wide open.
"Tsuki!"
She propelled herself off of the couch blasting through the door like a torpedo, she scanned every direction of the village looking for where Tsuki had ran off to.
Noticing scratch marks of the floor Etsy dashed towards them following the trail of marks in the dirt.
"Tsuki, I'm coming for ya!"
Still following the trial of claw marks in the ground Etsy found herself at dead end.
"Damn, seems like I've been running for a minute."
The trail ended at a small lake that glistened in the sunlight.
"Huh, I guess I accidentally run out of the village."
Sitting down by the lake seemingly forgetting her original objective, Etsy took her sandals off and dipped her toes into the water.
The water was warm yet sent chills down her spine, but why?
Ripples, she felt an odd frequency of ripples within the lake different from the other small fish within the lake.
The feeling got even more intense until Etsy couldn't help but to acknowledge it.
She jumped back from the water in fear for what was to come.
The water began to bubble as if something was coming up, then water flew everywhere.
Constant splashing intrigued Etsy making her instinctively take a stance in preparation for what was causing all this ruckus within the lake.
Suddenly the water became calm, unnerving still as if it wasn't spazzing out just a second ago.
"What the fuck?"
For but a moment Etsy dropped her guard, as soon as she did a black grotesque tentacle shot out from the water latching itself on Etsy's feet.
"Shit."
Etsy retaliated instantly attempting to slice the tentacle from her leg with her claws, but they seemed to have little to no effect on the slimy limb.
She gritted her teeth as a sense of dismay covered her face, the tentacle raised her from the ground before slamming her down.
It then attempted to drag her into the lake, resisting Etsy embedded her hands into the dirt attempting to cling on.
As strong as she was the creatures grip tightened causing her grip on the ground to loosen.
Etsy was drug into the unknown lake, the only sign of her was the marks within the dirt near the lake.