66 Light's Darkness

Over the following days, Aida's group got a better understanding of the dynamic within the base. The base was segregated between people with strong offensive powers and people with useless powers who would get sent to do manual labor or into the kitchen as they had. Since word had gotten out that they were humans, the treatment towards them continued to get worse. They simultaneously envied and hated Aida's group for being human.

Lucifer's intervention to reduce the bullying did help alleviate some of the more overt actions, but did not stop people from making life difficult for the four of them.

Meanwhile, Rin and Xiao Ai were both still unconscious. Aida did not feel comfortable leaving Xiao Ai in the room every day, so she carried her in a pouch to the kitchen. They could not do the same for Rin and Aida in her weakened state could not use electric discharge, so she secretly kept her scan on the entire day so that she could track whether anyone had entered the room.

Aida suspected the reason Rin was taking so long to wake up was because he was severely injured prior to becoming infected. In reality, had she not chosen to infect him at the time and improve his life force, he would have died on the spot. Thankfully, Aida provided an exorbitant amount of blood for Rin to absorb which allowed for accelerated growth. Now, Rin's body had to acclimate to both the blood and the virus which were both collaborating and at war with each other at the same time. It seems he would still take a few more days before coming out of his deep sleep.

Light continued to ignore Aida and began snapping at Yukio with an even greater frequency. During his entire life, Yukio had never seen Light lose his calm and get angry before and was extremely disheartened.

Aida could feel that the darkness within Light was getting worse and it seemed to have turned into something almost tangible. She could almost see the darkness seeping out of him. It appeared to be trying to affect the people around him. Through her scan, she could see that he was entirely surrounded by a black aura, much like Variants and Reapers. It was a curious development as he was clearly not infected.

The darkness within Light continued to suffuse the air until it almost seemed unbreathable. Thankfully, everyone within her group had her blood which seemed to automatically repel the darkness. The darkness seemed to recognize them as kin, allowing them to stay unaffected by it. Despite this, both Ace and Yukio could feel a lingering oppressive air in the room.

Within the base, the discrimination continued. Thankfully, with Lucifer around, the discrimination had still been kept in check as they still had to give face to one of the leaders of the base.

Today, Lucifer informed Aida's group that he would have to go out with his team to hunt for supplies and told them to keep a low profile during this time. Lucifer, as the muscle in the base, was responsible for maintaining a good flow of food and other resources. This time, their task was to head to a mall to acquire thicker clothes. Winter was coming and the nights were getting much colder.

Aida and the rest of the group decided to take Lucifer's advice and took leave for a couple days to lay low. Aida had only recovered a small amount and could exert about 10% of her usual strength at the moment. With such meager strength, she had no way of protecting everyone against a base full of Variants. However, Light, who seemed to have a complete shift in personality, refused to comply and continued to go to work each day despite the bullying.

Due to his poor mindset, he failed to notice the darkness spreading across the entire wall building team. The entire team seemed to slowly become more and more agitated with one another, and the small scuffles began to escalate into full on fights with superpowers involved. Light, who was also present and only human, became collateral damage in the fights.

Hearing about Light's injuries, Aida and Ace immediately rushed on site, leaving Yukio to watch after Rin. When Aida arrived, she immediately noticed through her scan, that many of the Variants in the area appeared to have a black aura that seemed to cover their normal superpower aura.

Right as they reached Light, Peter, one of the leaders of the base, arrived at the scene with a few other Variants following from behind. One of them was an aura reader and immediately pointed to Light while saying, "He is the source of all chaos." It seems this Variant was able to detect the same thing Aida did. He was the person who determined that there were humans in their group.

Peter had on a suit and had his hair slicked back neatly. He walked with the poise and confidence of a leader. As he reached them, he said, "Well if it isn't the humans. We knew you all would cause trouble. Capture them and lock them up."

Aida didn't miss the lascivious look in his as he looked at her. She frowned coldly in disgust, "We refuse. If you want to lock us up, you can discuss this with Lucifer after he returns. We are, afterall, his guests."

Peter's face broke out in a smile as he heard this saying, "Oh my, we have a feisty one here. Lucifer can provide his opinion on things when he returns, but for now, I want you all captured."

Then slyly looked at her while saying, "But… if you want to come with me right now, I will let them go. How does that sound?" He said this with a wink.

Ace, who had remained quiet this entire time, was infuriated and immediately charged at them. Peter had been prepared for this as he raised his hand, signalling the Variants to attack. Meanwhile, Light, who was still trapped in the darkness within his mind, did not seem to react to this situation at all.

Because Aida was in a severely weakened state, she was unable to take down the 3 Variants that came with Peter. She managed to kill one before getting subdued by the other two. Ace, on the side, had been beaten to a pulp and had to be sent to the med bay. Light made no move to help either of them, he watched on indifferently as though the two before him were strangers.