Part 55: One X In X Control

I shook my head, trying to remove the whispers who are trying to take over my mind. I wrapped my arm with full bandages to conceal its power. I couldn't let it control me again.

'Kill... Kill... Kill...'

But to no avail. The whispers are still coming back to me, and it's even louder than before. It echoes inside my head until all I can hear are their voices that repeatedly saying the same thing. My mind started to go blank and that word was the only one I can remember.

Finally, the transportation was finished and we're already on the bottom of the palace, where the basements and assumingly, Palm are staying. Now, this is my only chance to do this. I must do it.

"I-Ikalgo..." I called for my colleague, still being manipulated. He turned around to see me, and a hint of confusion can be seen in his face. He knew that there's something wrong with me. I tried my best to keep them from taking over me, but I know that they're too strong to stop. So I decided to keep my friend away from me as fast as possible. I wouldn't let it hurt him. I wouldn't let it hurt anyone.

"I-I'll continue my secret mission for now... so I'll go this way," I added, trying to smile in the middle of my struggle. He knew that I'm having a hard time with myself, but he didn't bother to ask and just nodded at me.

"Be careful." He said and walked on the left side of the corridor we're in, while I went on the other.

I sighed in relief as I was finally separated from him. I tried to turn my head around to see his back, walking like there's nothing going on behind him.

'Kill...'

The voices continued whispering in my head, eager to see me out of control, especially in this plan of exterminating the Chimera Ants. If I let the monsters in my head win over me, then I'll be a nuisance to the team. Why does it have to be now?

'Kill...'

I continued to feel my arm growing, seeing the tongue nails hanging on my hand. My eyes widened at the sight, as the back of my palm started to release a mouth out of nowhere. Those tongues, those eyes, that mouth... I remember it all. I remember this monstrous arm in its highest form.

'Kill...'

Couldn't be able to take the non-stop whispers, I didn't have a choice but to use the medicine Grenno gave me before. I stared at both of my hands, shaking out of fear.

With shaking hands, I tried to grab the depressant medicine in my pocket while fighting the voices mentally.

But then, all of a sudden, I sensed two people walking towards my direction, didn't have any idea I was standing here, struggling. I tried to hide, but there's nothing in the corridor to take cover.

Then, I can finally see their figures, but because of the effect of the voices, I can only see blurry versions of the two comers. Based on their silhouette, they're one of the Chimera Ant soldiers. That means, they're enemies.

And if they're enemies, they must be eliminated.

'Kill... Kill... Kill...'

Because of my murderous intention of willing to bathe in their blood, the whispers became louder and louder than before. Each footstep that I can hear from the Chimera Ants made it more aggressive and desperate to witness death. The voice became like that of a psychopath, trying to insist on killing my prey.

"Who're you?" The enemies in front of me asked, as they begin performing their battle poses to defend themselves, while I was just stumbling in my position to correct my posture, as everything around me was all turbid.

"Kill."

The only thing that came out of my mouth and I didn't realize that I said that out loud.

They're enemies. They're the ones who were torturing the innocent people of this nation. They're the ones who made Gon and Killua grief over their friend. They killed the only person that could remove my arm. So I must... kill them.

The arm finally showed up its final form, like what I remembered before. The slimy tongue nails became longer like that of snakes, and the red eyes started staring at its prey intensely, couldn't be able to miss watching their death.

I didn't have a choice but to gaze at my monstrous arm as it gets bigger since even I couldn't control myself. This is bad. I shouldn't have said that word. I shouldn't have that desire to kill them.

The tongues finally attacked the unprepared enemies in front of me, striking them through their mouth and towards the center of their bodies, reaching for their hearts.

I didn't take my eyes off as the two victims are struggling for air, as the tongues are stuck inside their mouth, trying to find their hearts inside. Every movement of the tongue scratched their insides, causing their mouth to pour a huge amount of blue blood, making a puddle underneath there position. It continued to pour until the liquid trails made it towards me.

My whole body started to shake at the scenery and my eyes widened in shock. This is the same as before. Back in the Hunter Exam where I killed an applicant using this dangerous arm of mine. I thought it wasn't going to come back anymore since it's not showing up before.

Finally, the arm pulled the very thing that it wanted to grab from their bodies. Wrapped in the slippery and slimy tongue nails, were their hearts, still pumping and circulating for blood to keep them alive. But... I knew where this would end up.

Then, the nails crushed the two pumping hearts like oranges, and the blood they contained exploded and scattered all around the hallway. My whole body was stained by their blood as I stared in horror. This... this isn't... this isn't what I really wanted at all.

Their now lifeless bodies fell down into the blood pool below them, making a splash of the fluid, adding another stain to my outfit.

But I didn't care, since what's more shocking was the fact that I killed them with my own hands, with my own arm. I continued to stare at their hideous bodies, still feeling the terror and fear of killing them. Their opened mouths along with their widened eyes are kept glaring at me, blaming me for their death.

'Kill...'

The voices are still trying to take over my body. No matter how many times I'll keep throwing them away, they're still coming back to me, like a boomerang that won't stop returning to its owner.

Yes. I'm the owner of this distorted arm. I'm the one who's using it. But... it feels like I'm not the owner at all. I'm just a host. A host to keep this monstrosity alive and in exchange, they kept me alive. A host that they are trying to control and claim my body like it was theirs.

I didn't care about the voices anymore. But my vision is still unstable like I'm stuck in never-ending nausea. Still, I moved forward, didn't even bother to take care of the mess I made, and just trying to walk forward.

'Kill...'

I can still feel the familiarity I sensed earlier, and it looks like the arm was trying to lead me there, whispering to my ears to control my very body. I couldn't let it do that since it's still staying in its monstrous form for minutes, which I believe is the longest time it lasted.

After walking, trying to ignore the voices of the arm to come and take over my mind, I finally made it into a room. I opened the door and the empty hall greeted me with calm and peace. I breathed the cold air surrounding me and released a deep sigh, lowering my intention of destroying everything.

Then, as I walked towards the middle of the room, a person was already standing there, staring at nowhere.

'Kill...'

The arm that I thought was already gone, came back, and it's still haunting my very existence. The whispers started to take over me again.

The figure turned around to see me, but I didn't have the time to catch his eye. My arm started to grow and gone wild once more, desperate to witness the death of others.

Its tongue nails grew longer and attempted to attack the man in front of me. But fortunately, he dodged the blow by sprinting backward, away from the killers. He kept avoiding the tongues' dangerous attacks like he was used to this kind of thing. How...?

After a long time of watching him evading the assaults coming from my arm, he suddenly disappeared out of thin air. My eyes widened in shock and turned my head around in every corner of the room, trying to take a glance at him. But since my eyes were nebulous to the surroundings, I didn't have any idea where he went.

Then unexpectedly, I felt an intense pain coming from my arm, like something so small stabbed right through my skin and to the muscles inside.

All of a sudden, my vision started to go back to the normal, clear one, while my energy started to decreasing, doesn't have the determination to do something so tiring. What happened to me?

I tried to rotate my head on my side and saw the man that kept avoiding my distorted arm. Now that my eyesight is back, I can clearly see his face. His head wasn't human, as well as his other body parts, especially the large hard shell in his back, protecting him from anything, although I remembered seeing an animal like that before.

"W-What..." I stuttered, trying to let out the words I wanted to say, but my power started to drain and I didn't even know the reason.

"I injected a depressant on you. It might lose your energy, but don't worry, it will stop your arm." He said, while grabbing the bandages coming from my pockets, and started wrapping it all around my arm like he knew how to deal with my struggle.

Come to think of it, he had the same medicine as Grenno gave me before. The depressant. How does he know some things about my arm, especially the things that could stop it from growing?

Then, suddenly, a light bulb showed up in my head, giving me a conclusion and helping me realized what was really happening here.

Wait...that familiar appearance of his, coming from an animal that I've seen before. That knowledge of stopping my arm from going wild. That same medicine as Grenno... could it be...?

His name is Wynn, an armadillo.

"A-Are you... Wynn? Or should I say..." I said, which made him stop in his work and raised his head on me, curious about what I'm going to say, "... are you Pisacco?"