After dinner, the elder man continued to smoke while he chatted with his eldest child Dale. Harvey was busy helping his sister and mother with the trash while they washed the dishes and stored away the leftovers.
Dale discussed with his father about the farm as well as the disease found in the tomato field. Luckily, the Farmer Hero had a solution to this issue, or they would have to remove the field. As some tomato diseases had been known to spread to tobacco fields, who knew if this was the case as well.
Soon, the lecherous sun hid itself for peeking on the many women bathing in the rivers while the persistent moon chased around like an angry wife searching for it. A wave of darkness covered the lands. The family of five headed to their rooms to sleep as they had a long day tomorrow. In the midst of their dreams, four gurgling sounds could be heard followed by a slow and scratchy wheeze.
***
Lichen and his agents were consumed by Sofia and her mother. Lichen, in particular, was traveling deep inside of the mother’s esophagus. Through the contact between the throat and the host, Lichen and his agents transferred out of the masticated host and into the cells of the throat.
But Lichen was an undead virus. The only targets he could latch onto and spread were viruses. He couldn’t do anything to these cells except squatting in for temporary residence. What could he do?
Lichen decided to first look around for any dormant viruses the old lady might have had. Throughout the hours of searching, he could only spot a couple of bacterial infections. There was not a single virus in sight. This old host was healthy and yet not healthy.
Moss had told him and Stein that most humans had dormant viruses. The most common one was herpes or more specifically, chickenpox. But, after searching for a while, Lichen didn’t see any spiky ball-shaped viruses.
Lichen was so close to giving up when he chanced upon an active virus agent of various psychedelic colors. It was the common cold. The virus agent sensed Lichen and his agents but didn’t bother with them. It was as if it was saying that there was enough for everyone and they should go their separate ways.
However, Lichen did not think like that. No, instead of going his separate ways, the undead virus surrounded the virus agent and pinned it down. Before it could call for backup, Lichen chomped down on it and activated <<DNA Consume>>.
Ever since he received this skill, he had been constantly using it during every infection. He had come to enjoy the taste…the feeling of consuming DNA. He had become an unapologetic DNA-vore. Nevertheless, today was different. Today was the first time he had actively consumed a virus agent’s DNA without caring about infecting the agent. It was like something had come over him. After consuming a great deal of DNA, Lichen activated <<In Death, There is Life>> and took over the virus agent.
DING!
CONDITIONS MET
AN ANCIENT ONE HAS NOTICED YOU!
THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED IS CURIOUS ABOUT YOU!
THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED HAS OFFERED YOU A CHOICE!
|<Little one, your actions interest Us. You remind Us of Our children. Though you are but a speck of life and do not have the qualifications of being Our child, We would like to offer you a choice.>| A voice echoed in Lichen’s mind, alerting him.
Lichen looked around before carefully considering the words spoken to him. He did not sense any other unknown presence around him. Though he was cautious, he was not afraid. Remembering the monotonic voice that had sometimes appeared in his mind, Lichen asked. [Who are you? Are you this…Queen of the Damned?]
|<That is correct. We are an ancient being. We can grant you great power. Do you wish for power?>| The voice confirmed.
Having failed to pinpoint the voice once more, Lichen continued to question the divine entity. [Why are you asking me if I wish for power?]
|<Don’t you want power? With great power, you will be able to help those who need it…for instance, Moss.>| The Queen of the Damned pointed out.
[You’re right.] Lichen sounded a bit convinced upon mentioning his master. [What do I need to do?]
|<Take this. Drink it and you will feel the effects immediately.>| The ancient one gave Lichen a drop of her DNA-rich blood.
Lichen looked at the tantalizing drop of blood and accepted without further consideration. [Can I trust you?]
|<Of course!>| The voice exclaimed. |<Come, take it!>|
As if obeying a command, Lichen grabbed the drop of blood and brought it close to him. [DNA Consume!]
DING!
SUFFICIENT DNA ABSORBED
ASSIMILATING DNA…ASSIMILATING COMPLETE
BEGIN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS…EVOLUTION COMPLETE
UNLOCKING DIVINITY…DIVINE AURA UNLOCKED
ASSIMILATING DIVINE AURA…ASSIMILATING COMPLETE
BEGIN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS…EVOLUTION COMPLETE
UNLOCKING DIVINITY…DIVINE STAT UNLOCKED
ASSIMILATING DIVINE STAT…ASSIMILATING COMPLETE
DIVINE SKILL <<LIFE STEAL>> ACQUIRED
DIVINE SKILL <<DAMNATION>> ACQUIRED
Name: Lichen
Title: Rabid Blood Wrath Virus (RBWV)
Host: Cold Virus
Rank: Species
Level: 4
Infection Progress (IP): 50681/70000
STATS:
- Infectivity – 15
- Severity – 11
- Lethality – 9
- Durability – 13
- Mana – 6
- Divine – 3
SKILLS:
- Viral Instability (Active) – causes a virus to become unstable enough for mutations to occur.
- Zombification (Active) – Lichen can infect virus agents and turn them into zombie viruses; success depends on Lichen’s and target virus agent’s rank.
- DNA Consume (Active) – Lichen can choose to consume a virus agent’s DNA instead of infecting it as an undead.
- Straight Charge (Active) – Shooting forwards like an arrow, dealing blunt damage to anyone in Lichen’s path.
- Shock Smash (Active) – Lichen attacks with pinpoint accuracy, dealing enough damage to cause delirium and stun.
- Frost Wave (Active) – Lichen can unleash a wave of frost that chills and slows down enemies within range.
- Life Steal (Divine) – Every time Lichen attacks, he will gain some health back.
- Damnation (Divine) - ???
- Berserk (Passive) – The more damage Lichen receives, the more he can deal.
- In Death, There is Life (Passive) – When the host body dies, Lichen encases the area with slowing magic, allowing him time to possess another host.
- Undead Loyalty (Passive) – undying loyalty to Moss.
SYMPTOMS:
- Stench – releases a deathly stench
- Texture Change – changes texture of infected to a withered look
- Color Change – changes color of infected to a greenish blue
RESISTANCES:
- Cold Resistance – 5%
Feeling the effects of the powerup, a glint of raw emotion flashed through his body. Lichen turned towards his agents and ordered them to find a couple of more cold virus agents. This was the route that they would take. Time to get to work.
***
Meanwhile, some of Lichen’s agents had latched themselves onto Sofia’s throat as well. As if connected with Lichen, they started searching for the chickenpox virus. Luckily for them, Sofia had encountered the chickenpox a few years back. Though the virus had been suppressed and mostly killed off, there were still a few lying about in a dormant state. There was no resistance, so it was easy for the undead agents to capture them.
After a few hours, a couple hundred spiked ball agents moved about the woman’s body. Because they had fully diverged from Lichen’s path, these agents had different stat buildups. Unlike Lichen whose overall stats increased with the addition of a divine stat, the undead agents had only experienced an increase in lethality and durability. Because their host had undergone treatment and survived, the undead agents had gained some resistance to drugs and potions.
Name: N/A
Title: Rabid Ghoul Wrath Virus (RGWV)
Host: Chickenpox Virus
Rank: Species
Level: 4
Infection Progress (IP): 50681/70000
STATS:
- Infectivity – 13
- Severity – 8
- Lethality – 10
- Durability – 8
- Mana – 4
SKILLS:
- Viral Instability (Active) – causes a virus to become unstable enough for mutations to occur.
- Zombification (Active) – the undead virus can infect virus agents and turn them into zombie viruses; success depends on the undead agent’s and target virus agent’s rank.
- DNA Consume (Active) – the agent can choose to consume a virus agent’s DNA instead of infecting it as an undead.
- Straight Charge (Active) – Shooting forwards like an arrow, dealing blunt damage to anyone in the agent’s path.
- Shock Smash (Active) – the undead agent attacks with pinpoint accuracy, dealing enough damage to cause delirium and stun.
- Lethargy (Passive) – enemies within a nanometer of the virus suffers a heat-generated lethargic feeling that weakens them.
- Berserk (Passive) – The more damage the undead agent receives, the more it can deal.
- In Death, There is Life (Passive) – When the host body dies, the undead agent encases the area with slowing magic, allowing it time to possess another host.
- Undead Loyalty (Passive) – undying loyalty to Lichen and Moss.
SYMPTOMS:
- Stench – releases a deathly stench
- Texture Change – changes texture of infected to a withered look
- Color Change – changes color of infected to a purplish red
RESISTANCES:
- Cold Resistance – 3%
- Heat Resistance – 0.1%
- Drug Resistance – 0.3%
After possessing all of the chickenpox virus agents, they started to work. Unlike a normal chickenpox virus, the ones they possessed had a distinct zombie-like aura to them, so their infectivity and severity were vastly increased. In just a night, the human would be in their full control.
***
Stein had it easy. Rather, supposedly, he would have it hard. Unlike Lichen and Moss, Stein was a new type of virus made from the combination of undead and living characteristics. As such, he was only able to mutate viruses as his own instead of turning them into zombies or reproduce through cell infections. In other words, if the host has no viruses, he could not build his army.
Luckily, however, Harvey was riddled with sicknesses ranging from bacterial infections to viral infections. Just from his mouth, Stein was able to tackle down some herpes viruses in the form of cold sores. But, Stein didn’t stay long in the mouth. Following the flow of the saliva, Stein and some of his newly acquired agents entered the stomach.
Traveling through the bloodstream, Stein infected many other viruses but mostly were of the herpes community. Most of these herpes viruses were too benign for Stein’s taste. He wanted to possess a virus with more lethality and severity than a mere herpes virus.
After searching around, Stein finally found the perfect candidate. The virus agent was a conglomeration of blue and red. Though it wasn’t as active as all of the other viruses, this agent was malicious. Any cell it attacked would die in a few minutes. However, it seemed as if this virus agent was bidding its time as if prolonging the host as much as possible.
Interesting. Stein sized up the virus agent before making his move.
While the opponent’s back was turned, Stein activated <<Mindless Steam>> and released a gaseous mental spell onto the enemy. The enemy virus agent realized too late as its senses began to numb and blur. Struggling to stay upright, the agent wobbled about until it was hit by an incredibly fast attack from Stein. Stein had unleashed <<Pouncing Slam>> directly onto the enemy agent with the help of <<Frictionless>>.
The already disoriented enemy agent was knocked out completely by Stein’s combination usage of skills. Stein approached the virus agent and stabbed it with his viral instabilizer. The virus agent shook and trembled as visible changes began to occur. Soon, the Hepatitis B Virus agent had converted to Stein’s side. The abominable agent had also experienced a boost in severity and lethality.
Name: Stein
Title: Scarlet Frost Abominable Virus (SFAV)
Host: ???
Rank: Species
Level: 4
Infection Progress (IP): 2852/70000
STATS:
- Infectivity – 15
- Severity – 11
- Lethality – 11
- Durability – 16
- Mana – 5
SKILLS:
- Mindless Steam (Active) – forms numbing steam from combination of fire and ice to numb and confuse senses of enemies.
- Chilly Aura (Active) – unleashes a wave of coldness that slows down targets within the area.
- Frictionless (Active) – Stein can increase his speed exponentially, allowing him to move and attack faster.
- Molten Charge (Active) – a near suicide attack; the virus agent raises its temperature to 500 degrees Celsius and charges at its enemies, dealing fiery heat damage; the virus agent loses all capability to fight afterwards and enters a sluggish state for one day.
- Pouncing Slam (Active) – Stein leaps up and lands, dealing area damage.
- Viral Instability (Active) – causes a virus to become unstable enough for mutations to occur.
- DNA Assimilation (Passive) - for every new virus Stein infects, he gains a boost from it.
- Undying Loyalty (Passive) – undying loyalty to Moss.
SYMPTOMS:
- Color Change – changes color of infected reddish yellow
- Chilliness – a slight chill persisting on the infected, causing slowness and cold to the touch
RESISTANCES:
- Cold Resistance – 3.7%
- Heat Resistance – 2.5%
- Drug Resistance – 0.4%
Accessing the memories of the HBV agent, Stein located the positions of a thousand more. Taking his agents over, he began ransacking the area, upturning cells and infecting countless of viral agents. The boosts in power had caused him to go on a massacre. He was so focused on building up his army and boosting up his stats that he did not notice a small ding materializing in his mind.
DING!
CONDITIONS MET
AN ANCIENT ONE HAS NOTICED YOU!
FRENZY HAS SENT YOU A GIFT!
LOADING NEW SKILL…LOADING COMPLETE
SKILL <<RAMPAGE>> ACQUIRED
Name: Stein
Title: Scarlet Frost Abominable Virus (SFAV)
Host: ???
Rank: Species
Level: 4
Infection Progress (IP): 4155/70000
STATS:
- Infectivity – 15
- Severity – 12
- Lethality – 11
- Durability – 16
- Mana – 6
SKILLS:
- Mindless Steam (Active) – forms numbing steam from combination of fire and ice to numb and confuse senses of enemies.
- Chilly Aura (Active) – unleashes a wave of coldness that slows down targets within the area.
- Frictionless (Active) – Stein can increase his speed exponentially, allowing him to move and attack faster.
- Molten Charge (Active) – a near suicide attack; the virus agent raises its temperature to 500 degrees Celsius and charges at its enemies, dealing fiery heat damage; the virus agent loses all capability to fight afterwards and enters a sluggish state for one day.
- Pouncing Slam (Active) – Stein leaps up and lands, dealing area damage.
- Viral Instability (Active) – causes a virus to become unstable enough for mutations to occur.
- Rampage (Passive) – the more Stein infects or kills, the stronger he becomes; if he doesn’t infect or kill within an hour, the effect wears off and resets.
- DNA Assimilation (Passive) – for every new virus Stein infects, he gains a boost from it.
- Undying Loyalty (Passive) – undying loyalty to Moss.
SYMPTOMS:
- Color Change – changes color of infected reddish yellow
- Chilliness – a slight chill persisting on the infected, causing slowness and cold to the touch
RESISTANCES:
- Cold Resistance – 3.7%
- Heat Resistance – 2.5%
- Drug Resistance – 0.4%
***
Moss flowed through the pipe along with the tobacco smoke and into the lungs of the old man. He and his agents didn’t have to do anything before they were absorbed by the lungs, flowing freely into the bloodstream.
He didn’t have to look far to find a vulnerable cell to infect. The old man had smoked tobacco for nearly four decades now. The accumulation of smoke had charred his lungs black. The lungs were filled with weakened and cancerous cells. Choosing one, Moss got to work.
Using <<True Cellular Instability>>, Moss injected some of his DNA into a large number of cancerous cells, causing them to fall apart. Within milliseconds, the cells exploded and released swarms of virus agents. As if seemingly affected by the cancerous environments, the agents that emerged from such cells were modified with more lethality and severity.
Moss didn’t worry about such a predicament. In fact, he reveled in it and purposely aimed for the cancerous cells. Withing an hour or so, he had infected a large number of cancerous cells. With an army of thousands, Moss turned his attention on the surplus of healthy cells.
DING!
INFECTION PROGRESS REACHED LIMIT
COMMENCING LEVEL UP
LEVEL UP COMPLETED
Name: Moss
Title: Feral Moss Devouring Virus (FMDV)
Host: Human Cell
Rank: Species
Level: 6
Infection Progress (IP): 91266/110000
STATS:
- Infectivity – 14
- Severity – 17
- Lethality – 12
- Durability – 12
- Mana – 7
- Divine – 1
SKILLS:
- True Cellular Instability (Active) – causes any cell to become unstable enough for mutations to occur.
- DNA Extraction (Active) – extracts DNA from others and absorbs them into Moss’s system.
- Viral Injection I (Active) – Moss is now capable of injecting DNA into viruses of the same rank.
- Raise Undead (Active) – Moss can raise dead virus agents into zombie viruses; success depends on Moss’s and dead virus agent’s rank.
- Heat Wave (Active) – expels a wave of heat that increases the temperature around Moss.
- Devour (Active) – consumes and absorbs all DNA in the vicinity.
- Division (Active) – under certain conditions, Moss can split from a part of himself and become two different viruses.
- Body Modification (Active) – Moss can change his body structure to fit his needs.
- Redemption (Active) – Moss passively absorbs a small percentage of damage; after reaching a hundred percent, Moss can activate this skill to fire a condensed ball of damage-dealing pain.
- Creation of Life (Divine) – Moss can create new viruses, given the right amount of materials.
- Poisonous Aura (Passive) – Moss’s attacks now deal poisonous damage.
- Mental Link (Passive) – connects with anything that Moss infects.
SYMPTOMS:
- Color Change – changes color of infected greenish black
- Texture Change – changes texture of infected to mossy-like
- Necrosis – infected areas display blackened, rotting, and eaten away areas
- Itchy - infected display occasional itching
RESISTANCES:
- Cold Resistance – 3.3%
- Heat Resistance – 5.7%
- Poison Resistance – 1.4%
***
Three distinct rumbles vibrated the house as the family of five snored away in their sleep. The old man had the loudest snoring of all. Intermittent sounds of screeching bobcats emerged from his throat was one of the main reasons he now slept alone. It was as if the old man was crying for help as his snores screamed noisily between long pauses of breathless sleep.
Dale and Harvey slept on their backs with their heads tilted a bit to the side. Their mouths opened wide as grunts or gurgles echoed their room. Sofia slept like a baby, though her eyebrows arched slightly as she felt some discomfort in her body. The old lady snored slightly but not much sound could be heard from her lips.
Everyone was tired after a long day and the sleep was as refreshing as it could get. However, while they slept, the internal occurrences within them had begun to click. The old lady whimpered slightly and coughed in her sleep while Sofia felt an itch run along her back. Harvey scratched himself between his legs as his face distorted uncontrollably.
The old man flushed deeply as blood began to trickle from his seven orifices. He trembled and turned aggressively but not a sound escaped from his lips. As soon as the movements climaxed, it stopped completely. The old man laid in his bed with a satisfied expression. And then…his eyes opened as blackness ran through his veins. His eyes…they were black!
.
now there are 5 Ancient One's that have noticed Team Moss, with the Devourer of Worlds, Malice and Agony noticing Moss directly, Frenzy being interested in Stein and the Queen of the Damned being curious of Lichen, to the point of giving them an evolution. At this rate team Moss will have been noticed by ALL of the Ancient Ones XD
It would be interesting for sure if he's noticed in a negative way by one of them, like if he accidentally (or not) hinders the plans of one (or more) of them, or if one of his opponents is noticed by one of them :V
I wonder if they'll be more interested in him if they discover his plans to kill all of the gods (except Life) and probably also kill all of humanity
@Trinox all good ideas. it may or may not happen.
Yay for the good ideas XD
@Zero300 Well aren't you mysterious, are you? I mean... i think that's kind a privillige of an author... Am i right? By the way, aren't the zombi-wirusses supposed to have the pover to use a cell as their host?
@Kiv0 No, normal viruses can use cells to produce more viruses. Zombie viruses can only infect existing viruses. Imagine a zombie world. Normally, zombies need to infect humans to make more zombies. If a zombie could infect one human and out comes ten other zombies, how scary and illogical would that be?
@Zero300 @Zero300 when do you think this will be updated again?
@ravencroft I'm working on side story #1. There will be four side stories for this part 1. They will take some time to write. But once all four are uploaded, Part 2 will start at a much quicker rate.