Chapter 23 - Confrontation and Ideals

Ambrosia and I left the hotel, rushing toward the alley. It was nighttime by now, so there weren't too many people out and about. It began to rain, the droplets being illuminated by the streetlights.

We approached the alley where I confronted Marius, but when we entered, the corpses were gone... did somebody clean them up?

"What? They were right here!"

"Yukio, are you sure you got the right alley? There's plenty of them in Camp Alpha."

"Yes, this is the one. I know it because that ladder right there is the same one that was there when Marius was here." I said, pointing to a red ladder a few feet away. That's when I noticed that some blood had remained on the ground.

"Look! There's blood on the ground! That's where his bodies were!"

Ambrosia walked over, squatted, and analyzed the blood on the ground. She obviously wasn't going to touch it, but she examined it.

"Interesting... this blood smells different than regular blood. It's got a strong, almost balsamic scent to it... wait, it's reflective too? I can see my own face in it. This blood is incredibly thin."

Ambrosia was analyzing her face in the blood. It was being distorted by the raindrops hitting it. But then, she started to notice something weird.

"Wait, my face is changing... who's face is this? Yukio, come here, do you know who's face this is? It's definitely not mine."

"Huh?"

I walked over to Ambrosia and gazed into the pool of blood at our feet. She was right, the face in the blood wasn't ours. It was the face of Marius... that's when we realized-

"Ahhh, you're back so soon? Seems you brought someone else along with you as well."

We both looked up and to the right, and saw Marius standing at the end of the alley. He was holding another monster heart in his hand.

"MARIUS, I thought you said you were leaving!"

"I did leave, but not for long. I assumed you'd return with a hero, so I decided to stick around for a little while longer. Also, thanks for cleaning up my bodies!"

"What? I didn't clean up your bodies, they just vanished."

"Oh really? That's odd. I hope nobody important found them, that would be quite the scare, seeing four of the exact same corpse in an alley."

Ambrosia looked at Marius, analyzing his features. Marius looked back at her and smiled. Then, he pointed at her and spoke.

"Hey, shorty with the cream hair, word around here is you're a pretty powerful hero. How'd you like to become even more powerful?" said Marius, holding the heart out in front of him. Ambrosia picked it up with her mind and brought it over to her.

"So this is a monster heart? It looks a lot smaller than I anticipated it to. Yukio, is this what that funny man over there was trying to feed you?"

"HEY, you can't just steal my monster heart without permission, and who are you calling "funny man", how rude of you."

"Yeah, it looked like that, but a little larger. He ate one of those and turned into a monster."

"Quit ignoring me! Listen shorty, either you're going to eat that heart, or you're going to give it back to me. What's your decision?"

Suddenly, Ambrosia started to glow yellow, and so did Marius. His eyes widened, and his expression changed from annoyance to anxiety.

"Whoa, what are you? WHOA!"

Ambrosia lifted him off the ground with her mind, and tossed him around, smacking him against the brick walls of the alley, and then to the ground. She wasn't letting up. She kept flinging him around like a ragdoll, until she finally ceased, leaving his body on the ground.

His body lay motionless on the concrete, the rain falling upon it, and blood spilling out of it.

But then----

"Ouch, how impressive an act that was. I actually felt a little bit of pain. You're pretty quick on the draw, aren't you?"

"Huh!?" said Ambrosia, turning around sharply.

Marius was standing behind her, with a look of agitation. He was gritting his teeth as if offended by her actions.

"So, this is what you meant when you said he came back, Yukio?"

"Yeah, it's weird. He appears for no reason, and I have no idea how he does it. See, his body is back there, but he's also here."

Marius facepalmed, and then looked at me, his black and gold eyes visible between his fingers. He let down his hand and spoke.

"You two are a pretty annoying pair. I don't feel threatened at all by you, Yukio. But you...you're a problem." said Marius, pointing at Ambrosia. She smirked.

"Well, I'm flattered that you find my demeanor threatening, perhaps it might be trying to tell you something."

The monster's heart was still floating in the air, controlled by Ambrosia's mind. Marius noticed it, and stepped forward to grab it, but Ambrosia lifted it further into the air, out of his reach.

"You're not getting this back. Tell me, Marius. How dangerous are you? Why do you want to turn people into monsters?"

Marius looked at Ambrosia and smiled. She wasn't sure why, but the answer immediately became clear, when she was suddenly punched in the back of the head, causing her to drop the monster's heart.

"AH! What the hell? Who's there?"

Ambrosia and I then noticed Marius's body fall to the ground, lifeless. He had suddenly died. But there was a reason... another Marius was right behind us.

"I'll be taking that. It's rude to steal what isn't yours," said Marius, picking up the monster heart from the ground. He had once again duplicated himself, appearing behind the two. There were now two shells of his body lying on the ground.

"How did you do that?" asked Ambrosia. It seemed her esper senses had not picked up Marius's sudden reappearance in time, leaving a backdoor entry to attack.

"The authority of Gemini provides me with protection. You wouldn't understand, but perhaps you would, Yukio, or should I say, Capricorn."

"Is this the Zodiac you were talking about earlier, Yukio? What's an authority?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think it has to do with a hidden ability of sorts. Apparently, I have the authority of Capricorn, which lets me tame monsters."

Marius smiled with glee. He seemed to take a liking to Yukio's statement. He held his arms out and extended his fingers.

"Yes, Yukio, embrace your authority! Your power is unique to you only, which is what makes you so important to our operation."

"What exactly is your operation?" asked Ambrosia.

"It's quite simple really. We believe that in order to protect humanity from the threat of monsters, we must all become them. If the entire world is populated by monsters, then we will finally be able to live in peace with one another."

"Our plan is simple. Feed monster hearts to the mass populous, changing their DNA, and then reproduce, creating more monster-infused humans. Once this is complete, we will simply let the excess population die out, as well as the non-human monsters, as they will feel no desire to eat us."

"Once this is complete, the world will prosper with a society of demi-monsters! The Zodiac will lead the operation, acting as the new government system of the world!"

Ambrosia's jaw dropped. She was just as shocked as I was. This plan...it was genocide...

"That's the single most totalitarian thing I've ever heard in my life. Who's behind all of this? How did you go under the radar for so long?"

"Well, our organization is fairly new. I cannot go into the details of who our leaders are, but I can say for sure that we have a solid plan of attack, and need Yukio's help to put our plans into action. But it seems he isn't too adamant about participating."

"You're right. I will not participate. Your plan goes against the ideals of the Hero Camp, and of humanity. We're going to stick with our plan."

"--and what makes you so sure that you'll eradicate the monster species? They reproduce much faster than you could kill them, and the problem is everywhere, not just localized to this camp. Tell me, Yukio, what is your plan?"

Marius made a very good point. Despite his ideals being twisted and genocidal, he seemed to have a fair amount of logic in his statements. How were we going to eradicate the monster species? I couldn't answer his question...

"I thought so. It's impossible. We've already lost the battle, and this is the next best course of action. We live in a twisted world, Yukio, and we're at the bottom of the food chain." said Marius. Ambrosia then chimed in.

"We actually do have a plan, Marius."

"Oh really, and what is that?"

"You're looking at him, right now. This is our plan," said Ambrosia, pointing at me.

"Him? Yukio is your plan to eradicate the monster species? HAH! Pathetic. He can barely hold a sword right!" said Marius, mockingly. I too added on to this.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but how exactly do you expect me to eradicate the monster species?"

"Don't forget the reason we do our energy infusions, Yukio," said Ambrosia. It suddenly all came back to me. I had an infinite amount of potential power lying dormant inside of me...

"Ah yes, of course. Thank you for reminding me."

"Hmm, you two seem awfully calm despite the situation at hand. Do you not feel threatened by my presence?" asked Marius. Ambrosia answered fairly quickly.

"Well, considering you landed a hit on me, I'd say you're a formidable opponent. However, I don't particularly find myself threatened by you that much."

"Oh, then perhaps this might change your mind?" asked Marius, holding the monster heart close to his mouth, threatening to take a bite of it.

But then, the monster's heart suddenly exploded. Marius was startled, and so was I. However Ambrosia wasn't. She was the reason it had exploded.

"HUH?"

"Sorry, but I can't let you eat that. It's not good for you, at least from what I've heard."

Marius assumed an expression of anger. He put his hand on his forehead and grimaced. He hadn't expected Ambrosia to suddenly destroy the monster heart.

"I went out of my way to kill another Dragon Ram and procure its heart, just for you to blow it up?"

"Wait, you killed a Dragon Ram?" asked Ambrosia. She seemed to be surprised at Marius's sudden claim.

"I've killed many, at least 10 by now, collecting their hearts to feed to those who accept our agenda. I was going to feed one to Yukio, but he declined, so I ate it instead to show him how the transformation works."

"Ambrosia, what's a Dragon Ram?" I asked, curiously.

"It's pretty self-explanatory. Basically, it's a monster that has the body of a Goat and the wings of a dragon. They're usually between threat levels 4-6. If Marius claims to have killed 10 of them by himself, then he's crazy strong." said Ambrosia. Marius then spoke-

"I do find myself to be quite the force of nature, yes. But it's not because of me, it's because of the monster inside of me. Transforming into a monster makes killing them thousands of times easier."

Marius had been turning himself into a monster and killing other monsters to collect their hearts to feed to people, so that they could turn into monsters too, and repeat the cycle. His plan had already begun... at this point, who knew how many individuals could transform?

"You're insane..." said Ambrosia.

"I've been insane for a long time... but I must go now. I must alert the other members of The Zodiac, that Capricorn has been found..."

Marius then turned around and walked away. Ambrosia wasn't going to let him get away though. She once again began to glow and took control of Marius's body. She flung him into the air and slammed him onto the ground.

"Oh, this again-WHOA!"

*BOOM*

Once again, his body lay motionless on the ground, blood spilling from it. We approached his body, and turned it over, confirming he had died. However, I knew what this meant, and Ambrosia started to catch on as well.

"Have fun cleaning those up for me again, I'll be seeing you!" said Marius, standing across the street from us. He was standing under a streetlamp, illuminated by it, the raindrops falling in front of him.

"Damnit! How does he keep doing this?"

He stood there, completely still. Suddenly, lightning struck the top of the administration building. Ambrosia and I looked up for a second to see it, and then we heard the loud crack of thunder. We looked back down, and Marius was gone...

"He's gone...vanished into thin air."

"So that's the man you told me about, Yukio?" asked Ambrosia.

"Yeah, he's something isn't he?"

"He's definitely something else. People turning into monsters has never been documented before, at least not that I've been aware of. I wonder how long his operation has been going on. There could be others like him who can turn into monsters..."

"That's what I'm worried about. If there are people out there who can turn into intelligent, humanoid abominations, then we could be in serious danger..."

"Agreed, we should notify the administration immediately. Here, let's go back to the hotel room. We still have an energy infusion to do."