22 C22 Black Stone

Tittle: Black Stone

"Ok class, that's it for today, see you on Saturday. I hope you had a great improvement at that time," Captain Booth said as he dismissed the class.

"Allen, can...I do missions with you?" Annika asked shyly. 

She was low on Military Credits, but her abilities won't let her do missions. Her ability is that she can buff or debuff anyone. 

Of course, she can use her ability to herself or her opponent but she doesn't know how to fight. 

At most, if she does a mission, she will do the janitorial work. But she did not want to do that as long as she still had other choices. 

So, when she saw Allen, she hardened her heart and asked Allen to join him.

Allen thought for a while, he was not low in Military Credits. He had more than three thousand, but on second thought, maybe it would be a good idea. He can speed up the alteration of divine energy through battle.

"Sure. Are you low on credits? If you wan I can treat you to lunch."

Allen felt generous and, thus, decided to help those who are in 'need'.

Meanwhile, Annika was delighted when Allen said that he will treat her to lunch. She didn't think twice and accepted Allen's invitation. After all, it was a free meal.

"Okay," Annika said with a cheerful voice.

…

At the same time as Allen and Annika were eating, somewhere in the outskirts of Base A, a black stone with a deadly evil aura fell from the sky. It fell near a stream where beasts drink water from. It was unknown where the stone came from or how it fell from the sky. 

The gadgets of the humans did not manage to detect it.

After a while, a rat-type beast with red eyes, sharp claws, and metallic tail went to the stream for a drink. 

As it was walking, the black stone caught its attention. For some reason, the beast was attracted to it. 

It felt something that was luring its soul. Making it hallucinate that the stone could grant it anything that a beast desires, power and mate.

Beasts tend to dominate the other beasts. Then, mate to produce offspring to continue their bloodline. 

The desires of the beasts was dictated by its instincts. Thus, the luring of the black stone did not trigger the instinct of the beast. It did not feel danger towards the stone.

The beast stared at the stone, and slowly walked towards it. 

Then, it bit the stone. Surprisingly, the stone was like a cherry when it was bitten. It did not have the hardness of a regular stone.

After that, the stone released dark-colored energy that made the beast shriek in pain as it started to evolve.

The beast's muscles become bulkier and sturdier. Its claws became sharper and longer while its tail grew twice its original length. The beast turned fiercer and deadlier, and most of all, it became demonic.

If the instructors saw this, they would be stunned. The rat-type beast had become a demonic beast.

It turned out that the black stone can turn a regular beast into a demonic beast. 

And, also, the instinct of the rat-type beast is indeed right, it had become more powerful than it was before.

The demonic beast roared which scared the other beasts in the wilderness. 

Then, it ran towards its mischief to try to share with its fellow the 'power' that it had obtained.

One by one, the members of the mischief became demonic beasts. 

Then, they started dominating the other beasts in the wilderness. Which scared all the beasts within and started rampaging for migration. 

They wanted to migrate for a better place where the demonic beast did not exist.

The demonic beast could infect the other beasts but most of the time, they will devour the regular beasts to become their nutrition to gain strength.

…

Meanwhile, the A.I. of Camp 03-355 warned the base of the rampage of beasts in the wilderness.

The location where the blacks stone landed is not too far away from Base 03-355. It is five hours of travel using a hovercar.

"Warning! A beast time was detected!"

"Warning! A beast time was detected!"

"Warning! A beast time was detected!"

The warning from the A.I. alarmed the instructors of Camp 03-355.

The beast tide is a rare 'calamity' but once it strikes, its damage would be too much. 

The bases, big or small, are all wary of beast tide. They suppress it at its first sign to prevent it from becoming wide-scale.

…

During lunch, as Allen and Annika were eating, Allen felt a sudden outburst of energy. 

For some reason, when he felt the outburst of energy, he became very uncomfortable. It's like he met his mortal enemy. 

Even before his divine slumber, he had never felt this kind of energy. It felt as if this kind of energy is the opposite of divine energy. 

Allen did not hesitate and commanded the beasts that he controlled to look for the source. But the meager divine energy that was controlling the beasts disappeared on the first contact with the demonic beast. 

His beasts didn't even manage to transmit what they saw to Allen, which confused him as he felt that the number of the beasts that he commanded was decreasing. 

He panicked and hurriedly commanded to stop the search and stay close to the camp.

"Are you okay?" Annika asked Allen. She noticed that he panicked. 

Although it was only for a brief moment, for some reason, Annika noticed it.

"I'm fine, do you want to eat more?" Allen asked as he tried to change the subject.

"Nah, I'm already full," she replied while patting her tummy. Then, she paused and said Allen with a sweet voice, "thank you for the meal."

"Anytime, I'll get going first." Allen said as he stood.

"Okay, be careful," Annika said, which made Allen's heart flutter.

Allen left the cafeteria and went to the rooftop to have a lone time. He wanted to enter his inner world and had a better view.