Cherreads

Chapter 18 - Chapter 17 - The Truth of The Shelter

After defeating the first abomination, Adam and his team of T-Dolls were given no respite.

As if sensing the death of their kin, more abominations surged forth with furious howls, shaking the entire facility as though an earthquake had struck. What was once a chaotic rampage now became a focused assault—the creatures had found their prey.

Them.

Through the battlenet—faster than any spoken command—the Specialist T-Doll issued a terse warning: "Three incoming. Fast."

Without hesitation, Adam knelt beside the fallen Defender T-Doll, his hand already moving to administer emergency repairs. A faint, blue shimmer spread from his fingertips as a portion of his nanomachines surged into her damaged frame. The effect was immediate—internal mechanisms flared to life, accelerating her self-repair process.

For Adam, the loss of nanomachines was negligible. As long as he retained energy reserves, his artificial bones would continuously replenish them using raw materials stored within the marrow. Efficiency and survival—his body was engineered for both.

The moment the Defender T-Doll regained functionality, Adam signaled a swift retreat. The team moved deeper into the facility, leaving the breached hallway behind.

They didn't make it far.

Barely a dozen steps in, an unfamiliar sound—sharp and unnatural—cut through the air. Adam's instincts screamed a warning.

"DOWN!" he barked.

The team dropped low just as something blurred past them at near-supersonic speed, slamming into the curved hallway's wall. The impact shook the floor beneath their feet, kicking up a dense veil of dust. From within that cloud, an eerie, pulsating glow of purplish-pink pierced through—a chilling sign of what lay ahead.

Alice was the first to react. In a fluid motion, she rose to one knee, rifle already aimed, and unleashed a relentless hail of bullets. Her shots struck with uncanny precision—each round tearing into the grotesque hybrid of Archangel and human flesh.

But these weren't ordinary Honkai Beasts.

The abomination's wounds bubbled with writhing, tumor-like growths bubbling out of its hole riddled silicone-like carapace and patched itself almost instantly, closing the damage as fast as it was inflicted.

Adam's eyes narrowed his eyes frustratingly.

Before he could issue another order, the creature shifted—its body twisting into an unnatural stance mid-air. A heartbeat later, it lunged.

Fast. Too fast.

It was moving at supersonic speed—an arrow loosed from an invisible bowstring—aimed directly at Alice and the Defender T-Doll struggle to raise her shield in time to block the attack.

For a fraction of a second, Adam caught a glimpse of her face—wide-eyed and frozen with fear.

A surge of rage and something deeper—raw, primal terror—ignited in his chest. His body moved before his mind could catch up.

"ALICE!" he roared.

A pale, ash-white energy erupted around him unconsciously, clinging to his form like a ghostly flame as he surged forward with greater speed beyond his normal limit. Every muscle in his body coiled taut and snapped into motion.

In the same breath, his hands swung his sniper rifle up, finger already squeezing the trigger. At supersonic speeds, a direct hit wasn't the goal—disruption was.

The rifle roared, unleashing a furious stream of tungsten rounds.

Bullets struck home—tearing into the abomination's side—and its trajectory faltered. The sudden impact skewed its path just enough to send it veering off course. It missed Alice by a hair's breadth, leaving only a shallow gash along her left shoulder.

She was alive.

Adam exhaled sharply, heart unknowingly pounding in his ears like a war drum as he turned his gaze back to the creature. It was already recovering—rising from the ground with that same unsettling glow and relentless desire to kill.

But whatever fear had gripped him a moment ago was gone—burned away by cold, unyielding focus.

They weren't done yet.

And neither was he.

Adam surged forward, his gun roaring as he emptied the remaining rounds into the abomination. The sharp click of an empty chamber echoed through the corridor, but he didn't stop. Without missing a beat, he tossed the spent weapon aside that quickly vanished and deployed a dark grey, machete-like blade—a weapon designed not just to kill, but to finish.

The abomination, still writhing in frustration from its failed strike, let out an eerie, distorted howl—like a child throwing a tantrum after being denied its desires. But Adam didn't care. His focus was singular and absolute.

With a burst of speed, he closed the gap in mere heartbeats. Muscles tensed, and just before reaching it, he leaped—the faint shimmer of his ash-white aura flickering like a wildfire around him. He landed squarely on its chest, driving the abomination to the ground with a bone-crunching impact that shook the floor beneath them.

It thrashed violently, its sharp claws scraping against his armor in a futile attempt to break free leaving only faint scratches. But Adam's hand shot out, gripping its face in a crushing vice, his fingers digging into the grotesque and angular contours of its mutated skull. With an inhuman strength, he slammed its head against the cold, blood-slick floor and crushed its skeletal carapace.

But he wasn't finished.

His blade flashed like a streak of midnight steel as he drove it deep into the abomination's unprotected neck. With mechanical precision and merciless efficiency, he carved through sinew and bone, severing the head in a single brutal stroke. A geyser of thick, purplish blood erupted from the stump, splattering across his armor in chaotic patterns.

The abomination's body twitched once… then fell still.

Adjusting his heavy breath as his Aura fizzled out of existence, Adam straightened—his grip tightening on the bloodstained blade as he scanned the shadows for the next threat. This wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

And if they wanted to take what's , they'd have to go through his dead corpse first.

Before anyone could catch their breath, two more abominations tore into the corridor, their howls echoing through the crumbling facility. The air grew heavier—thick with the stench of blood and the metallic tang of spent ammunition.

Adam's vision began to narrow, his focus sharpening into a deadly tunnel. The world around him blurred at the edges as his rage—simmering beneath the surface—began to boil over again. His visor, splattered with purplish blood, distorted his sight, but the rising heat in his chest burned far brighter.

His body tensed, muscles coiling to launch himself at the new threat—until a familiar, gentle touch anchored him.

A pair of warm hands wrapped around his left wrist, their grip steady despite the chaos. He didn't need to look. He already knew who it was—only one person had ever touched him with such warmth and gentleness since he awakened in this cold, merciless reality.

"Master…" Alice's voice, soft but urgent, pierced through the storm in his mind. "Your heartbeat just went over 200 bpm, and your brain activity is irregularly high. Are you… alright?"

Her hands trembled slightly, but her grip on him only tightened, as though she feared he might break apart if she let go.

Despite the blaring alarms in the distance and the tremors rattling the walls, Adam found himself pausing. For a brief moment, the fire raging inside him flickered, held back by her concern—a warmth that nothing yet could provide.

Further down the corridor, the rest of the T-Doll squad had already moved to intercept the incoming enemies. Their precision and speed were immaculate—but there was an undeniable tension in their movements. They weren't just executing orders; they were fighting harder out of shame and injured pride as a top of the line Elite Tactical Dolls.

Shame that they had failed to protect their leader. Shame that he had to step into the fray and risk himself to cover for their incompetence.

Alice's touch remained, an anchor against the rising tide of his anger which eventually simmered and extinguished as he breathed out a tired sigh and lightly patted her head before he regret staining her pristine form with his bloodstained hand. But Alice didn't care as she smiled sweetly knowing that he was fine and showed her his affection.

Meanwhile, armed with newfound knowledge of the abominations—their weaknesses and behavioral patterns—the T-Dolls wasted no time demonstrating why they were considered Elite Tactical Units. With calculated precision and flawless coordination, they eliminated the two incoming abominations before the creatures could even close the distance.

Their response was swift and merciless.

The first step was to cripple their prey. A synchronized attack targeted the abominations' hips, shattering bone and rupturing muscle, forcing the grotesque Chariot hybrids to the ground. Their eerie howls echoed through the corridor as they struggled to rise—only to be met by the unyielding force of the Defensive T-Doll. With brutal efficiency, she surged forward, using her reinforced shield to deliver a bone-crushing slam, toppling both abominations onto their backs with a resounding crash.

Seizing the opportunity, the Weapon Specialists moved in, their mechanical precision honed for moments like this. They exploited the abominations' anatomical weaknesses—the exposed joint areas where mobility required gaps in the otherwise impenetrable silicone carapace.

Unlike the thick armor shielding the chest—where the heart lay hidden—the neck, shoulders, and hips were left vulnerable for articulation. And that vulnerability was all the T-Dolls needed.

They focused their fire on the shoulders to prevent any further retaliation before aiming at the exposed necks, unleashing a surgical hail of bullets that tore through flesh and tendons. The first abomination's head twisted at an unnatural angle before it slumped lifelessly to the floor. The second tried to rise—but the Defensive T-Doll reacted faster and slammed the edged bottom of her shield down like a guillotine which decapitated it's head causing purplish-black ichor spill across the cold, sterile floor.

In less than thirty seconds, the battlefield fell silent once more.

Efficient. Lethal. Unstoppable.

This wasn't just survival—it was a statement. The abominations may have been apocalyptic-level monsters for common soldiers, but against the precision and unity of these Elite Tactical Dolls, they were nothing more than prey for this wolfpack to devour.

Once the battle ended and no further enemies were detected, Adam commended the T-Dolls for their efficiency before ordering everyone to take a brief rest to recover to peak performance. Of all those present, Adam himself needed the respite the most. Without wasting time, he redeployed his previously discarded sniper rifle, swiftly reloading the emptied magazine with practiced ease.

Meanwhile, the Specialist T-Doll resumed scanning the facility using every tool at her disposal, determined to locate any remaining abominations lurking within.

Fortunately, for reasons unknown, only a few abominations remained—most of them appearing relatively docile, content to stay within their original containment zones. This was in stark contrast to the aggressive, rampaging creatures they had just faced. However, several test subjects were unaccounted for, and certain areas of the facility had become blind spots due to abominations destroying the surveillance systems.

Coincidentally, the left wing of the facility—the very area Adam had initially planned to retreat to—was revealed to be the laboratory sector. In contrast, the abominations had emerged from the right wing, which housed the containment and dormitories for the test subjects.

———

The air was heavy with dust and decay as Adam and the T-Dolls advanced through the abandoned lab.

Time had not been kind to the facility—cracked walls, corroded steel, and shattered glass lined the once-sterile corridors. Faint, dried blood stains painted the floor, and the faint stench of rot clung stubbornly to the air, as if the horrors committed here refused to be forgotten.

The Specialist T-Doll's scanners buzzed softly as she bypassed layers of decaying encryption. Containment doors groaned open—their motors grinding from disrepair—revealing rows of broken containment pods. Some were empty. Others still held brittle, skeletal remains, twisted into unnatural shapes, their forms warped by failed experiments. The silence here wasn't peace—it was the echo of something abandoned and forgotten.

Adam knelt by a collapsed desk where his suit's detection system detected an intact electronic device, brushing aside debris to reveal a cracked audio recorder. He activated it, and static filled the air before a voice—sharp, breathless, and fevered—cut through.

"They said I was mad… but only I heard the voice. Only I! I was the chosen one!. God hath spoke to me—He revealed the truth. Humanity is weak, fragile… disposable." The man's voice trembled with unhinged conviction. "But I will be His hand. I will craft a new form—one unbound by flesh, unbroken by weakness."

The recording cut off with a harsh click.

Adam's grip tightened around his weapon. This wasn't mere ambition—this was zealotry, twisted by something far darker.

At the center of the lab, the main console flickered weakly—its screen fractured but operational. The Specialist knelt beside it, working quickly to extract data as Adam scanned the room, seeing Alice and the remaining three T-Dolls providing overwatch. The remnants of a battle were everywhere—scorch marks on the walls, shattered glass underfoot, and empty shells of spent high calibre ammunition. Whoever had abandoned this place had done so in haste.

Another audio log loaded onto his visor display as he thinker with the audio recorder.

"They mock me—Mobius, the higher-ups, all of them! They claim I defile humanity, but what have they done? Preserving weakness? Submitting to fear? I have seen the future—Honkai is not our enemy… it is our only salvation!" His voice grew shrill, hysterical. "When the next eruption comes, the world will burn—and only those that the Lord had blessed will survive."

The Specialist's voice broke the tense silence. "I've accessed biometric logs—one name recurs throughout: Dr. Isaiah Galt. Former Head of Fire Moth's Fifth Institute."

Adam knew next to nothing about that name. But his position, the Former Head of the Fifth Institute… The Fifth Institute is the world's and Fire Moth's leading research team for any Honkai related Biology field.

New files was decrypted by the Specialist T-Doll—a personal manifesto. The first entry was scrawled with erratic fervor:

> "I heard His voice during the very first Impact. The others were blind—deaf to the truth. The Honkai is not an enemy to be destroyed. It is the vessel through which we shall transcend! Humanity is but the raw material… and I will forge it anew… The Herrscher… The Lord's Messenger and Agent."

A second, more recent file revealed the horrifying extent of his experiments.

> "Subjects with high Honkai Adaptability show promising results. Fusing Honkai beast genetics enhances strength—but weak minds break under the strain. The serums can only extend the duration for a short while before they eventually still break. I need… stronger vessels."

"The survivors of the next eruption will be my apostles—the chosen who will remake this world. Their flesh will die, but I will reshape them into His image."

"Oh lord. Forgive your humble servant's incompetence. But I swore that I will see it through even at the cost of my worthless life!"

Adam scanned deeper. A failed experiment log flickered on-screen—video corrupted but still watchable.

A child's scream tore through the speakers. On the screen, a figure twitches violently inside a containment pod. The flesh warped and cracked as Honkai energy surged through her veins—before her humanity was devoured.

"No… no—God, it's not working—why—?! WHY ARE YOU FAILING ME?! AAAAHHHH!" Galt's frenzied cries echoed over the footage while he pulled his hair like a madman as the screen turned black.

The sound of the lab's klaxons suddenly shattered the silence.

"WARNING: Unauthorized access to restricted database detected. Fusion reactor self-destruct protocol engaged. Key personnel are advised to evacuate immediately.."

"All key personnel are urged to gather at the evacuation room within five minutes."

The lights shifted to an angry red as automated defense turrets sputtered back to life, their targeting systems tracking motion. The lab had awakened to kill them.

"Shit!" Adam cursed before turning to the Specialist T-Doll who maintained a calm expression tinged with tension. "Specialist, pull whatever data you can—now!"

The Specialist's fingers flew across the keyboard. "I'm trying—but this system forcefully purged all information! I can't extract everything in time, boss!"

The other T-Dolls and Alice moved swiftly, neutralizing the awakening defense systems with synchronized precision. Each explosion shook the lab as the self-destruction countdown echoed through the walls.

A final audio transmission played through Adam's earpiece—corrupted, but chillingly clear.

"When the next eruption comes… the world will burn. Only the chosen will rise from the ashes—my apostles, my children. And I will stand at the apex of creation, as His right hand! HAHAHAHAH—"

The Specialist disconnected, clutching a data chip. "I've salvaged what I could—but it's incomplete."

"We'll make do," Adam growled.

To make their escape, going through the elevator is impossible with the time remaining and the possibility of it being disabled is high. Not to mention, the fusion reactor, if left alone to self-destruct, will hit even the apartment complex even if it wasn't the initial explosion itself but the aftermath of the explosion is sufficient to heavily damage it and harm the survivors.

"Angeline!" Adam called through his comms.

"Brace for the impact, Master. A sudden quantum jump is very unstable and dangerous. But I will do my best to minimize the negative effect." Angeline replied instantly as Adam and the rest of the team instantly engulfed with pale blue light and vanished.

Just as the fusion reactor in the abandoned facility is about to reach a critical point.

A dark violet beam engulfed the entire facility and the Nagazora hospital itself. The beam descended from beyond the clouds and once struck, everything became static and still as if it was frozen before moment later, everything touched by the beam disintegrated into a cloud of shimmering mist as bonds between atoms broke down and flowed harmlessly into the air as fine dust.

—————

If you enjoy my fic and wanted me to support my work and effort, feel free to support me on Patreon.

patreon.com/DaoistKittyKat

More Chapters