Within the Building Scarlet is Inside

Amelia worriedly paces back and forth in the hallway, wondering how her daughter’s mutation is going. Because mutation skills are extremely rare. Something that generally only happens with some passive Title-Bearing Mythic skills. And only rarely even then.

Even though she knows that they never kill the user, she can’t help but worry about the pain her daughter is in.

She pauses for a second to glance at her brother who is looking at the room with a stern look on his face. Then she looks at Red who is simply looking at it with curiosity. Which she understands a little bit, simply because only one human has ever gotten a mutation-based Title-Bearing skill.

Her gaze turns back to that one single human.

Her brother.

“She’ll be fine, but we may want to-” Alexander’s words cut off as all three Knights’ eyes immediately lock onto the door and widen at the sight of the glowing red blood beginning to flow beneath it into the hallway. “Set up a barrier! Now!” And even as he shouts it, Amelia sees him raising his hands, making a barrier of water cut straight through the walls around the room. But he fails to seal it in time, letting some of the glowing red blood leak out.

Amelia frowns at the sight of the blood somehow replicating even with the source cut off by the barrier, making it spread further through the base that is now blaring an alarm. But she works to nullify the blood either way.

Then she hears a loud splatter sound, drawing both her and Red’s attention away from the blood back to the office that is now missing any walls thanks to the blood and Alexander’s barrier. And what she sees has her eyes widening in both shock and terror.

Her daughter exploded into a paste that spread across the room with the glowing crimson blood eating away at the remaining parts.

A terrifying look stretches across Amelia’s face, but before she can get any angrier, the paste that was her daughter slowly begins to reform into her daughter’s unconscious form. And now she looks slightly different from what she looked like beforehand.

Amelia frowns in confusion, only to turn her head at the sounds of screaming coming from the base.

What the hell?!

The sight that greets her is the glowing crimson blood she and Red had almost forgotten about due to her daughter’s implosion reaching and touching people outside of the barrier. And the moment it touches them, their own body takes on the same crimson hue her daughter’s did, but with crimson cracks leaking crimson light slowly spreading from the points of contact. All while the people themselves scream.

“Damnit,” Amelia’s brother shouts before rushing forwards into the crimson blood as the blood itself infects him too, albeit at a far slower pace.

But to Amelia’s surprise, it’s still enough to make him grunt in pain. Something she didn’t realize was possible.

Alex… feeling pain? But… unless it’s reality damage…

Amelia’s eyes widen and she immediately triples her effort to clear out the glowing blood as her brother works to wake Scarlet back up. A process that fortunately doesn’t take him long to do before she sits up in confusion for a second. Then after gathering her bearings, Scarlet narrows her eyes, making the same glowing crimson cracks appear all over her own body, the blood on her body making it impossible to see her naked form in the process. And as if fighting against something, the crimson blood that’s spread all over the base by now, infecting hundreds of people, both Guardians and otherwise, stops moving and seemingly struggles while being pulled backwards.

The blood made by the skill… is fighting against her.

Amelia works to nullify the blood as screams fill the base, but slowly the screams begin to end, bringing her attention to the people who were infected, only to find the infection slowly moving out of them through the cracks that are vanishing as well. Albeit not without fighting Scarlet throughout the process.

Then everyone who was infected slumps to the ground in exhaustion.

Red quickly moves to check on them, only to turn back to Amelia with a look of surprise on his face.

“They’re all better now…” he mutters, surprising Amelia. “Not a single ounce of damage.”

Amelia sighs with relief at that as she turns her attention back to what’s left of the office Scarlet is inside. And she immediately finds her daughter having already put her clothes back on while the last of the blood slowly moves across the office floor with a struggle until it reenters her body.

That blood… it acted like it was alive.

Scarlet slumps down towards the ground again and immediately falls unconscious, but Amelia manages to move over and catch her before her head hits the ground. Then she cradles her in her arms while turning to look at Alexander with a confused look on her face.

Alexander dispels the barrier as the officers in the base quickly attempt to restore order.

Looks like none of them realize Scarlet was the source of that commotion… that’s probably for the best.

Without hesitating, Amelia snaps her fingers, following which she nullifies everyone’s sight and hearing of herself, Scarlet, and the other two Knights. Then she focuses on Alexander.

“A mutation skill can be dangerous for those around the one getting the skill,” he says while frowning down at Scarlet. “But I didn’t expect this much damage…”

Scarlet’s familiar appears in the air again, bringing everyone’s attention to him. But the tanuki just floats down to Scarlet with a worried look on his face.

So Amelia looks down at her daughter as well and hugs her unconscious form.

Despite the worry she’s feeling though, she can’t help but notice something strange as she holds her daughter.

She feels hot. And it’s almost as if the blood running through her body is moving without actually moving.

Amelia frowns, only for her frown to grow deeper at the occasional sight of Scarlet’s veins turning red and then returning to normal.

Then she sighs and stands up, carrying her daughter.

We can’t stay here.