Chapter 64 14:
The voice came out like a broken shriek that startled him. The lithari leader looked around and managed to identify the one responsible.
Somehow, one of the hidden natos had hurled himself into the battlefield.
It was Nul-lam, who shot out from the barricade like an uncontrolled comet.
The crying nato, the one who always trembled in fear and slept clutching a stuffed toy, the one Korr had comforted through countless nights after his nightmares, now had his face drenched in tears and an expression almost impossible to see on any adult Viltrumite.
It was a hatred almost palpable, visceral and indescribable, stripped of the slightest empathy or consideration toward anyone. Only destruction toward everything he considered hateful in his sight.
Pure and raw hatred, born from an innocent soul.
The lithari leader barely had time to react when Nul-lam slammed into him with such force that even the suit itself seemed on the verge of giving way.
"DISGUSTINGGGG! EVIL! EVIL RACE, DISGUSTING, LOW CLASS! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOUUUUUUU! HOW DARE YOU KILL MY FRIEND, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! I'M GOING TO KILL YOUUUUU!"
The lithari's body flew backward, crashing through two support columns before smashing against the farthest wall of the training chamber.
The metal crumpled like aluminum foil, forming a crater three meters wide around his silhouette.
But Nul-lam did not stop, oh no, not in the slightest.
The child appeared before the lithari before he could even shake the rubble off himself.
His small hand, which moments earlier had been holding a stuffed toy, sank into the armored chest plate of the suit as though it were clay.
The lithari looked downward, dumbfounded, as Nul-lam's fingers pierced through the metal, the servomotors, the cables, and finally his own flesh.
"What? Insolent demon!" he managed to say, but Nul-lam ripped mercilessly.
The entire chest panel was torn free, taking with it a layer of gray skin and muscle.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahg!"
The lithari roared in pain as blackish blood gushed forth in torrents, exposing his internal organs, his synthetic lungs, his enlarged heart, nearly all of his modified organs.
"LITTLE MONSTER GET AWAY FROM MEEEE!"
The lithari attempted to strike him with one of his four arms, but Nul-lam was too fast, and too strong.
Worse still, too furious.
He grabbed that arm and broke it in such a way that it resembled a snapped branch.
At the same time, he counterattacked as well.
His fist struck the lithari's chin and the alien's lower jaw tore free from his face with a wet crack, dangling by a strip of skin.
The scream he emitted was unintelligible, spilling out together with a flood of blood.
But Nul-lam showed no mercy.
He seized the lithari's upper right arm with both hands and pulled.
The limb tore free from the shoulder. The cables, the metallic tendons, the blood vessels... everything remained exposed, pouring oil and blood in equal measure.
"AAAAGGHHH!"
The lithari collapsed to his knees, his two remaining arms trying and failing miserably to hold his organs in place.
Nul-lam drove a kick into the open chest, and the ribcage caved inward with the crunch of splintering bones.
The alien's enlarged heart, exposed and vulnerable, burst beneath the pressure, spraying the child with a jet of blood that completely covered his face and torso.
But the crying nato did not even blink.
"See?" said Nul-lam, his trembling voice loaded with a hatred that did not belong to him. "That's what happens to you for being very bad! Bad evil race! I hate you I hate you I hate you!"
He grabbed the lithari's head with both hands, driving his thumbs into the eye sockets.
The bionic eye burst apart with an electrical spark and a spray of hot oil. The organic eye simply deflated like a balloon.
The lithari tried to scream, but without a jaw, without a tongue, he could only produce a horrifying gurgle.
Fortunately, his torturous end came abruptly when Nul-lam squeezed.
The lithari leader's skull collapsed between the child's hands like an overripe walnut.
Brains, gray and gleaming, spilled between Nul-lam's fingers while the lithari's body finally collapsed, its remaining limbs twitching in postmortem spasms before going still.
The child released what remained of the head and stepped backward, breathing heavily, crying, though not because of what he had done, but because of what they had done to his friend.
But Nul-lam had not been the only one to decide to react.
In fact, the rest of the children had staged a coup against the tall one as soon as they saw how the crybaby kicked off and hurled himself toward Korr, who was obviously about to die.
Before that act of defiance without consequences, the rest of the children had sprung into action.
Vespera, with her pale face, transformed into an uncontrollable fury that wanted only the blood of her enemies, the ones responsible for having wounded Korr-add.
She grabbed a handful of slab fragments and hurled them against a remaining group of lithari attempting to flank them. The rocks tore through the soldiers in a line, their bodies exploding into a cascade of flesh and metal.
The tall boy, intending to reclaim leadership once more, did everything possible to take the initiative in the fray.
His fists shattered armor as though it were cardboard, demonstrating how lethal his blows truly were.
One lithari received a right hook to the chest from the shortest child and his sternum caved all the way to the spine.
Vulc-an and Kang performed aerial maneuvers in which they rammed into their enemies at vertiginous speeds, causing soldiers to die every second without even being capable of reacting.
Those natos dodged their plasma fire, imitating the movements of the previous nato!
In less than two minutes, what remained of the lithari elite force had been annihilated.
The gray bodies lay scattered throughout the chamber, some intact, most in pieces.
The blood formed pools that merged together, creating a shallow lake that reflected the red emergency lights.
Korr-add, from the floor, watched everything through his heavy eyelids, though soon he found more interest in the stars.
Then he saw Nul-lam approaching him, staggering, crying, with his face and hands covered in blood and gray matter.
"Waaaaaaa, waaaaaaaaaa, Korr... Korr, don't diiiiiie," said the child, dropping to his knees beside him, screaming.
His small trembling hands touched Korr's bloodied shoulder, shaking him in an attempt to force a response. Nul-lam was desperate. "Don't diiiiie, don't die, don't die. Waaaaaaa, waaaaa, Korr, don't leave me aloooone, I'm here, remember? Waaaaaaa, You were always there for me when I was alone, now I'm here so don't die, I killed him for you, that bad guy. Waaaaa, Korr, answer meeee Don't die please, don't die."
Nul-lam's tears fell onto Korr's face, clearing streaks through the dried blood.
Around them, the other children slowly began approaching. Vespera arrived first.
Her red hair seemed even more disheveled, and her green eyes stood on the verge of tears.
The tall boy followed, his knuckles bloodied and his jaw clenched. Then the short one, then Vulc-an, Kang, and all the others.
They formed a silent circle around their fallen leader.
And one or two of them began to cry.
Korr wanted to say something, wanted to reassure them, tell them that he was fine, that everything would be all right.
But his mouth produced only a gurgle of blood.
And he was drowning, and he was sleepy and everything felt so comfortable, and he just... He only needed to sleep a little. Just a little.
"Korr-add, please answer..."
But Korr could no longer hear him.
His consciousness slipped toward the darkness, yet it no longer seemed so terrifying.
It felt warm, like a blanket on a winter night.
And while his world faded away and the cacophony of sobs grew ever more distant, Korr-add felt something he had not experienced in so long, back in his first life.
Oh, peace.
How long had it been since he had experienced this?
But it was fine, everything was in order.
There were no more enemies, and the children were safe and that was all that mattered.