Wallace’s eyes rolled back as his body went limp, collapsing into the shallow black water with a splash.
He floated there for several seconds without fully sinking, golden light fading from his skin as his body began to change.
His blue eyes slowly shifted into a deep, almost hypnotic purple.
His fingernails darkened until they looked as though they’d been freshly painted black, while the angel tattoo on his wrist twisted and reshaped itself into a pair of demonic wings.
The clock tattoo beside it changed as well, its markings turning completely white.
Finally, his blond hair lost its color and began rapidly growing, becoming long and snow-white until it stretched farther than his own body.
Then his eyes opened.
He remained floating for a moment before slowly sitting upright, blinking in confusion.
“Damn it, Wally…”
The man rubbed his head and climbed to his feet, looking exhausted and disoriented as he tried to understand his surroundings.
“Bastard left me asleep for way too long again.”
He glanced around the flooded dungeon, taking in the crimson walls, scattered corpses, and the growing number of creatures wearing Maria’s face.
“Never wants to hang out. Never lets me spend time with Big Brother.” He sighed dramatically.
“I’m always the one who gets dragged out whenever someone needs killing.”
The creatures surrounding him began backing away.
Not cautiously.
Instinctively.
Whatever primitive intelligence existed between them seemed to recognize immediately that the person standing in front of them was no longer Wallace.
The man’s purple eyes moved from one imitation to another.
“Some kind of doppelganger species, looks like.” His expression brightened slightly.
“Hive mind too, judging by how all of you keep adapting together. Which means there’s probably a queen somewhere controlling the rest of you.”
He tapped a finger against his chin.
“Memory readers as well.”
A grin spread across his face.
“Alright. I can work with that.”
He looked around once more.
“No idea where the hell I am…”
His smile widened.
“But I can certainly raise some hell while I’m here.”
He disappeared.
One of the creatures barely had time to react before he appeared directly in front of it.
His hand shot forward, fingers wrapping around its lower jaw.
Then he ripped it off.
The creature shrieked as he casually turned and hurled the severed jaw across the room.
It struck another imitation in the head with enough force to crush its skull.
Before the first body even hit the water, he had already moved again.
He grabbed another creature by the arm and tore the limb free at the shoulder.
Without slowing down, he swung the severed arm like a club, striking the next imitation across the neck hard enough to decapitate it.
Blood and black water splashed across the dungeon.
He laughed.
Unlike Wallace, there was no precision to his fighting style.
No careful shots to disable movement first, no concern about whether the creatures might revive stronger afterward.
He simply tore through them.
Fast.
Brutal.
Effortless.
And completely unconcerned with anything standing between himself and the queen.
Then realization suddenly crossed his face.
He looked around at the crimson architecture again.
“Oh, Wally…”
His grin became enormous.
“Is this a Devil’s Footprint?”
He laughed wildly as another creature lunged toward him.
Its attack never reached him. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“Alright, fine! I forgive you!”
He grabbed it by the head and slammed it into the crimson wall.
“If you woke me up just to give me a present this fun, how could I stay mad?”
The wall cracked.
The creature didn’t get back up.
He turned toward the remaining imitations, arms spread wide as his laughter echoed throughout the dungeon.
“Come on, then!”
The monsters recoiled.
“I’ve been asleep for ages!”
His purple eyes gleamed.
“Let me have some fun.”
He gave them a wide smile before placing one hand against his chest and bowing theatrically.
“I am the fun version of poor old Wally. You can call me Darwin Valentine.”
The demonic-wing tattoo on his wrist began to glow.
“Come to me, my Curse.”
Darkness spilled from his arm like liquid, gathering around him before hardening into numerous weapons of shadow.
“Curse of the Loving Sinner.”
Darwin looked over the collection with genuine excitement.
“Swords, spears, hooks…” He tapped a finger against his chin.
“Decisions, decisions. How exactly do I want to kill all of you?”
The false Marias didn’t give him much time to decide.
Several lunged at once, thrusting their tridents toward him in the hope of catching him while he was distracted.
Darwin’s smile widened.
“This one.”
He grabbed a bladed whip formed entirely from darkness and snapped it forward.
The weapon wrapped around the face of one of the creatures before Darwin yanked hard, ripping it off balance and hurling it directly into another imitation.
Both crashed into the black water.
He began whistling cheerfully.
Another guard stabbed toward him.
Darwin twisted aside and lashed the whip around its trident instead.
With a sharp pull, he tore the weapon from the creature’s hands.
“Oh, I’ll borrow this.”
He attached the stolen trident to the end of the shadow whip before throwing it through the doorway ahead.
The weapon buried itself deep into the crimson wall of the next chamber.
Darwin grinned.
Then the whip rapidly shortened.
His body was violently pulled forward, launching him through the doorway and into the next room.
He landed lightly in the black water.
Then stopped.
Something was waiting for him.
The queen of the hive.
Its body vaguely resembled Maria, but only in the loosest possible sense.
It was taller and unnaturally elongated, its limbs stretched far beyond human proportions.
Its chest had split open, revealing clusters of eyes staring outward from between exposed flesh.
Its face was even worse.
Multiple versions of Maria’s features had been fused together as though several copies of her had been melted into the same skull.
Eyes blinked across its cheeks, forehead, and jaw, while more had become tangled throughout its blonde hair.
Darwin stared at the creature.
The creature stared back with dozens of eyes.
Then all of its mouths opened.
“Wallace…”
Darwin’s smile slowly faded.
“Why did you kill me?” the Hive Queen cried in Maria’s voice.
Darwin blinked.
Then his smile returned.
“Ah. Sorry to disappoint you, but Wally’s asleep right now.” He casually rolled his shoulder and began swinging the bladed whip beside him.
“Sure, I remember how Maria died. We share a brain, after all. But all that guilt and emotional baggage?” He shrugged.
“That’s his problem, not mine.”
The Hive Queen’s many mouths twisted.
Darwin tilted his head.
“So, do you have any interesting tricks besides guilt-tripping people?”
The creature opened its mouths to answer.
It never got the chance.
Darkness erupted beneath it.
Dozens of black spears burst from the floor at once, impaling nearly every part of the Queen’s body.
Its legs, hands, chest, throat, and skull were all pierced simultaneously, lifting its elongated form into the air as its countless eyes spasmed.
Darwin laughed.
“I’m kidding.”
He gave the whip another lazy spin.
“I don’t actually care about your sob story. Or whatever feeble little attack you were planning.”
The bladed whip snapped forward and wrapped around the Hive Queen’s throat.
Darwin pulled.
Its head separated from its body with almost no resistance.
The enormous corpse collapsed into the black water, the remaining doppelgangers throughout the dungeon melted into a black viscous goo.
Darwin glanced down at the white clock on his wrist.
“Ten percent?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“That whole thing only cost me ten percent?”
His grin widened.
“Oh, Wally really did give me a present.”
Darwin stepped over the Queen’s corpse and continued down the corridor, whistling cheerfully.
“At this rate, I should be able to stay out all night. Let’s see how many other fun monsters are hiding in this hellhole.”
A katana suddenly came flying toward his head.
Darwin’s eyes widened with delight.
His bladed whip snapped upward, catching the weapon just before it reached his face.
Metal screamed against the hardened shadow.
Darwin immediately recognized the katana.
More importantly, he recognized the man holding it.
Nikolai landed in the black water between them, his mismatched eyes narrowing as he stared at the white-haired man standing before him.
His expression immediately soured.
“Damn it.”
Darwin’s grin grew wider.
Nikolai tightened his grip around his sword.
“Please tell me you’re not the real Darwin.”
Darwin spread his arms.
“Hey, Nicky!”
Nikolai’s eye twitched.
“Been a while.”
Darwin leaned forward, excitement shining in his purple eyes.
“So… wanna kill each other for fun?”
Neither man paid attention to the woman standing farther back in the corridor.
Sarah Blackwell remained hidden behind one of the crimson pillars, staring at the two of them in complete silence.