294: A Plague of Phantoms: Lab Rats V

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I bellowed as I turned and ran back down the hallway towards Bone-lasher.

"BOSS!" I heard Bone-lasher yell. As I rounded the corner I saw him fighting a small horde of evos himself. Way more than what his electromagnetic vision had shown earlier.

"BONE!" I yelled then dashed towards him, channeling incinerate attribute mana into my hand along with the volt attribute.

A steam of electric blue flames shot down the hall, reducing everything in his path too ash. Bone-lasher included, however the flames could not burn Bone-lasher's mana crystal core or his crystalline armor. Which I quickly discovered was connected to his bone structure. With all his flesh burned away I got a good look at the entirety of his skeleton which was covered in crystal and connected to his mana crystal core.

Once the flames died down Bone-lasher started regenerating, flesh and muscles rebuilding itself over crystal bone. It only took him a few moments for him to fully grow back and when he did, Bone-lasher jumped over me and bolted down the hallway in a flash. The hallway was quickly bathed in blood as Bone-lasher tore through his enemies with a savage vigor.

[Boss, these things keep popping up! For every one I kill three takes their place!] Bone-lasher warned me. My vision went dark and was replaced with his. I could see down all four hallways and saw hundreds of these demonic looking evos stampeding over each other to reach where Bone-lasher and I were.

[YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!] I exclaimed through the connection then focused on my other evos.

"Jiggles! Empress!" I exclaimed as I summoned their crystalline structures and flung then out in front of me.

Jiggles emerged with a trumpeting bellow that echoed down the hallways. He popped the claws on his crystal forearm bracers and flames engulfed the crystal spikes. He propelled himself into the fray with Bone-lasher with a burst of flames under his feet. Empress hopped back and stood in front of me, curling the metal feathers of her tail feathers around my protectively.

"My lord! Why haven't you summoned us sooner?" Empress demanded as she saw the carnage that Bone-lasher caused.

"I thought Bone and I could handle it!" I replied then fired Dia Caos down the hallway behind us, killing three more evos. "WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY COMING FROM!"

"Does it really matter?" Empress asked then three a flurry of burning feathers at the evos approaching from behind.

"Kinda!" I replied then looked back over to Bone-lasher and Jiggles. Something felt off about them. Their mana levels was dropping much more rapidly than it should have. I could already feel their exhaustion even though the fight had only been going on for a couple minutes. My eyes widened as I saw both Bone-lasher and Jiggles struggling to stand while keeping a good chunk of the horde back.

[Boss…these things…they steal mana!] Bone-lasher warned me suddenly.

"SHIT!" I snapped then channeled mana into the ring on my right thumb. An offensive spell sigil started casting and a disk made of pure shadows formed in my palm. "Bone-lasher, Jiggles, come back!"

I recalled both of them then threw the disk down the hallway. They were encased in their crystalline structures and shrunk before the disk reached them. Once it struck the first evo in the horde a blinding violet light flashed and all sound in the area vanished. When the light dimmed and vanished, the path in front of Empress and I was cleared of evos. Bone-lasher and Jiggles were safe inside my farm crystal.

"Come on!" I ordered Empress then ran down the hall. Empress quickly took to the air and flew above me as I ran.

I could still see the evos in the hallways around us thanks to Bone-lasher's vision. All the evos were dead in the pathway leading to the lab, only the ones that remained in the hallways to the left and right were still alive and they were being slow to react thanks to the blinding and disorienting effects of the spell I used.

"My lord, these evos…" Empress started but I cut her off.

"I know, they aren't like normal evos!" I said sharply as I ran. "They were able to weaken Bone-lasher and Jiggles by draining their mana. They have varying appearances, are able to regenerate as long as their hearts are intact, and somehow fool Bone-lasher's vision about how many of them there are."

[I'm sorry Boss!] Bone-lasher apologized. A loud screeching echoed down the hallway behind us, announcing that the evos were no longer dazzed.

[No need to apologize! As long as nobody's dead!] I replied then glanced over my shoulder.

Thanks to me channeling volt attribute mana and Empress using her mana to increase her speed as well, we'd managed to break away from the large horde of evos and make it halfway to the lab. I was about to look forward again when I saw blip of purple light. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I spun around immediately and started channeling void attribute mana into my hands and willing it to take shape in the form of a spiraling vortex in front of me. No sooner had the black mass spewed from my hands and taken shape had a purple disk of energy, exactly like the spell I had used moments ago, flew at me but was broken down and absorbed by the dark element mana. My own mana reserves were replenished, from seventy percent to one hundred percent.

"MY LORD!" Empress exclaimed and deftly spun around and hovered above me. I gritted my teeth and looked down the hallway.

"That…that was my spell!" I exclaimed as I stopped channeling mana. At the crossroads of the hallway where the horde of the evos were congregating stood five evos with offensive spell sigils being casted. I didn't have to read the runes on the sigils to know what the spell was. "FUUUUUUUCK!"

I channeled void attribute mana into my hands and shaped it as I had before. Five purple energy disks flew at me and my void vortex sucked all of them up and broke down the spells and the mana. Immediately I channeled incinerate, void and volt attribute mana at the same time. Willing it to flow into my hands and condensing it, over and over, tighter and tighter until it was wound tighter than a spring. I channeled mana to keep from suffering from mana overload and ended up having to channel a enormous amount of mana; enormous even for me; and coughed up blood a few times. This was backlash from the mana overload and channeling three attributes at once.

"My lord!" Empress exclaimed worriedly.

"I'm fine! Worry for them!" I exclaimed then willed the mana into my open palm.

A deep purple flame with black lightning sparking in the flames formed in my hand. I fired the flames down the hallway, a deafening inferno screech down the hall, lightning arching and striking every surface as it traveled. The purple flames devoured the evos in its path in an instant while the lightning arched out and vaporized anything that strayed too close to the flames. In the blink of an eye the horde of evos was destroyed.

I collapsed to my knees and gasped for breath, suppressing the urge to throw up and cough some more. Empress landed beside me and lightly tapped my back with one of her metallic wings in a comforting manner.

[Boss?] Bone-lasher asked in a worried tone.

[Star Shaper?] Jiggles called to me along with Bone-lasher. I groaned and stood up on shaky legs.

[I'm fine everyone. Mana overload bucks ass!] I groaned through the connection.

[Sorry Boss, you only dealt with that cause of me…] Bone-lasher whined.

[Feeling sorry for yourself won't help us Bone. Plus I think I figured put why you didn't see them.] I replied then turned and looked down the hallway towards the laboratory that was my target. [These things can copy spells it seems. One of them probably copied a enchantment or axiom spell that erases their presence.]

[So even General Bone-lasher's vision is useless against them?] Empress asked.

[Yeah…though not entirely. He can still sense them once the spell wears off.] I replied then looked back down the hall towards our intended target.

"Fours." I called out while I threw the evo's crystalline structure behind me. When he emerged he silently stood behind me while I decided what to do next. The coast was clear for now and since I had no idea when those evos would show up again I started down the hall with Empress and Fours following close behind.

When we reached the doorway to the lab the first thing I noticed that it wasn't clear like all the doorways that I had seen. The door was black and made of shifting hexagonal tiles. I pressed the door button and the tiles glowed with a white light and parted in a wave.

[Boss, let me out.] Bone-lasher demanded. There wasn't any urgency in his voice so I assumed he wanted to be on guard.

[Me too, Star Shaper!] Jiggles exclaimed, though he was always yelling so that wasn't a good indicator.

"Bone-lasher, Jiggles!" I called out as I summoned their crystalline structures and flung them behind me.

Bone-lasher and Jiggles emerged with a grumble and both immediately rushed in front of me and stood in a battle ready stance. I looked at Empress and Fours who both had incredulous looks on their faces directed at the other duo.

"Problem guys?" I asked.

"Enemy invisible to my sight. Could be hiding in there and we not know." Bone-lasher replied. I scratched my chin and nodded.

"That makes sense…be on alert everyone!" I commanded. I held Dia Caos at the ready and kept my claws out in case I needed to fight. Empress set a couple of her feathers ablaze while Fours flexed his fingers, cracking the knuckles.

Jiggles and Bone-lasher took the first couple steps into the lab then looked around and sniffed the air. After a few moments they took a couple more steps, repeated the sniffing, then looked back at me and waved me to follow them simultaneously. I listened and walked into the lab with Empress and Fours at my flank.

The first thing that stood out to me about the lab was the state of it. It looked like there had been a fight taken place inside it at one point. The walls, floors, and ceiling was made up of the same white hexagonal tiles as the hallways only they had deep gashes, scorch marks, claw marks, and were even broken in several places around the room. There was a bunch of unfamiliar equipment around the room. Most of which gave off the same vibe as the machines on that space station connected to the tablet that Turak'Kahn gave me.

Empress and Fours spread out and checked the room along with Bone-lasher and Jiggles. I frowned as I walked over to once of the scorch marks on the floor then knelt down to touch it. It still radiated with residual heat, like whatever had burned it had only happened moments ago.

"Boss…" Bone-lasher called out. I stood up and looked in the direction his voice came from and saw him lifting a corpse up from under a collapsed machine, a human corpse. I quickly rushed over and looked at the corpse.

"A human…" I muttered as I looked it over. The person was obviously a man and a wealthy one if his clothing was any indication. He wore lavish silks embroidered with precious gemstones. Not only that but he had a farm crystal on his chin. "…a splicer…dead but there isn't a scratch on him."

"Smells weird…old…" Bone-lasher informed me as he held the body away from him like it was a filthy rag. I frowned, the corpse looked fresh like it has only died a few moments ago. There were no signs of decay and no noticeable stench coming off it, at least to my human nose.

"This place is cut off from regular time and space…that might prevent decay of corpses…no that can't be true or those evos we killed wouldn't decay so rapidly once we destroyed their hearts." I said softly then shook my head.

"My lord! Look at this!" Empress called out. I turned and saw Empress standing in front of one of the few machines in the room that wasn't completely destroyed. I walked over and heard a soft, wet thud which I assumed was Bone-lasher tossing the corpse aside.

As I approached Empress she pecked at a control on the machine and a small diamond shaped crystal raised out of the center of the console and a light shined into the air. Light particles and dust swirled to take the shape of a man. A hologram.

"Chief researchers log, Report 3346-A4. We've encountered another problem with the Nephilguize…"