[LSB] Chapter 116: Disgusting Daemons

“W-wait, Mr. Julian! You need clearance to go there too!”

Craig’s opinion of Julian had shifted so many times in just a few hours that he was starting to feel dizzy from it.

At first, he had all sorts of ideas about what humanity’s only known mutant might be like. Maybe he’d be arrogant, maybe he’d be eccentric—but when Julian arrived on the ship, he was just… weird.

He barely spoke, kept to himself, and didn’t interact with anyone unless necessary. But then, when Craig saw him forging equipment, he noticed something intense in his expression. A laser focus, the kind he’d only seen from Dr. Ling and Dr. Heinz, people who have reached the peak of their fields of expertise. Maybe all geniuses were just naturally a little strange.

And then, Craig’s opinion shifted again when Julian went toe-to-toe with two of the highest-ranked explorers in the world. The fight didn’t even last a full minute, so Craig couldn’t judge the full extent of Julian’s strength—but the fact that he held his own against them at all? That meant something.

Even through all that, Julian had remained calm, almost disturbingly so. Not friendly, but not cold either. He was just… level-headed. Unbothered.

But now?

Now, Julian was pissed.

He didn’t say a word to Craig, didn’t acknowledge his presence, just kept walking like he owned the damn ship.

“Ah! Mr. Winters, you need clearance for that too!” Craig yelped again as Julian stepped up to yet another locked door.

Craig had barely even set foot in this part of the mothership before. His own security clearance wasn’t high enough—at least, it hadn’t been until earlier. Dr. Heinz had temporarily granted him the highest clearance available, but not because Craig was important. 

No, it was because they couldn’t afford to give that kind of access to Julian, who was not a part of DCC.

So now, Craig was basically Julian’s walking keycard, scrambling to step ahead and trigger the security scanners every time they reached a locked door.

He had no idea where Julian was even going, but with each room they entered, fewer and fewer people were around. The deeper they went, the quieter it became.

Craig wanted to say something, wanted to ask Julian what the hell was going on—but the look on Julian’s face, the way he was twisting and pulling on that razor-thin garrote in his hands, made him hesitate. The xylarion wire hissed and whistled under the tension, an eerie sound that sent chills up Craig’s spine.

Did he hate daemons that much? If so… why wasn’t he down on Mars fighting them?

Craig swallowed thickly, pushing the thought away. Now wasn’t the time to ask.

After several more minutes of tense silence, Craig was panting from trying to keep up.

“We… we need clearance here too,” he wheezed, stepping forward to unlock yet another door. As it slid open, a vast hall stretched out before them, its ceiling so high it was almost absurd.

Towering glass pillars lined the space, each one reaching all the way up to the ceiling. Inside them, Craig could see massive fission cores, each one the size of a basketball, pulsing faintly with power.

They weren’t alone.

Two people were already in the room.

“What the—? Chaeryong, are you seeing what I’m seeing? Chaeryong!”

“You don’t have to shout. I see them, Yeji. I see them.”

The two women wore lab coats, but unlike most of the DCC scientists, they weren’t dressed in the usual skin-tight spacesuits beneath them. 

Instead, they wore casual clothes. No—casual wasn’t the right word. Their outfits were stylish. Exaggeratedly so, as if they were about to perform on a stage rather than monitor the most important part of the mothership.

Both narrowed their eyes at Julian and Craig, scrutinizing them—until, suddenly, their expressions shifted in sync. Their gazes locked onto Julian.

“You’re Julian Winters!” Yeji gasped, pointing at him. Her feline-like eyes widened in disbelief as she snapped her fingers, pulling up a holographic display. A recording flickered to life, showing Julian’s very first public appearance—his introduction at the café with Cyrus.

Julian, of course, couldn’t see the projection. He walked right through it, causing the shimmering image to distort and fizzle around him. 

Yeji and Chaeryong both inhaled sharply, watching as Julian passed by them without even acknowledging the recording.

He didn’t react at all.

Instead, he tilted his head slightly, turned away, and kept walking.

The two scientists exchanged confused glances. They looked to Craig, but he was just as lost as they were. He offered them nothing but a helpless shrug.

They could only follow as Julian moved deeper into the hall, weaving between the towering energy pillars. Finally, he stopped in front of a door.

He stood there for a moment, gripping the garrote wire in his hands, pulling it taut between his fingers. And then, for the first time since entering, he spoke.

“They’re here.”

Craig blinked, his breath hitching.

“Here…?” Craig turned his attention to the display on the door. The word ‘STORAGE’ flickered across the screen.

He hesitated, then stepped forward so the scanner could register his clearance. But before he could activate the door, Chaeryong moved in front of him, blocking his path.

“Wait. Here? What do you mean, ‘they’re here’?” she asked, eyeing Julian warily.

Craig didn’t hesitate to answer.

“The… two of you should probably leave,” he said, swallowing hard. “There are daemons inside that storage room.”

"Eh?" Chaeryong raised an eyebrow, her voice tight. "That’s impossible. This entire section is monitored constantly—and I mean constantly, Yeji and I live here. Alone. We basically live in virtual worlds now. We know everything that happens here."

“That’s right,” Yeji nodded, “It’s been seven years since we last saw the real sun. We are—”

"Julian said they're here," Craig interrupted, pointing at Julian who was still twisting the garotte in his hands.

The two women exchanged a glance, and Craig watched as their looks of skepticism dissolved almost instantly.

"Of course," Yeji nodded, her feline eyes narrowing with sudden focus. "If Julian Winters says it, then..."

“True, true.” Chaeryong also nodded several times.

Craig felt his eye twitch. They had just told him that there was no way that was possible just moments ago, and now they haven’t even stopped nodding. Craig watched them for a few more moments before stepping forward to open the door.

The panel flashed green, and the heavy door slid open with a light hiss.

And immediately, cold air slammed into them. Not a comfortable chill, but a cold that pierced through the bones, enough to make Craig's teeth ache. The storage area was dark, but it seemed even more vast than the battery room.

Julian didn't hesitate. He strode forward and tightened his hold on the garrote.

"Wait!" Yeji rushed forward, grabbing a sealed package from a wall compartment. "You need a thermal suit! The cold will—"

Julian turned his shoulder slightly, just enough to let her know he heard her. "Thank you," he said flatly, before continuing into the freezing darkness.

Craig snatched the package from Yeji's hands. "I'll take that," he muttered, hastily pushing the button on the package, and the thin thermal suit immediately crawled to cover his entire body as he stumbled after Julian. The material adjusted instantly, warming against his skin before unfolding a helmet from the shoulders.

The storage area was filled with inactive fission cores, each suspended in its own transparent capsule, almost frozen. The light from each capsule cast eerie shadows across the floor. Julian's boots echoed against the metal floor, the only sound besides Craig's increasingly labored breathing.

No daemons. Nothing but shadows and cold and silence.

Julian kept walking, navigating between rows of capsules. Craig also noticed that he didn’t seem as pissed off as before.

Perhaps, the cold cooled him off?

Craig was about to laugh at his own joke, but his helmet slammed directly into Julian's back when he suddenly stopped walking. The impact felt like hitting a concrete wall. Craig bounced off and landed hard on his butt, a pinch of pain shooting up his spine.

Fortunately, he wore the thermal suit, which also had shock-absorbing properties along with his spacesuit. Craig wondered why Julian would suddenly stop, but he heard a loud squeak whisper into his ear.

In the darkest corner of the room, eight massive rat-like daemons huddled together. Their bodies were sleek and muscular, easily the size of small cars. 

But their faces—god, their faces—were masses of writhing tentacles, glistening wetly as they licked and groomed each other. The appendages made wet, smacking sounds that turned Craig's stomach.

He had seen several daemons, he worked for the DCC, after all. But he had only really seen them through holograms.

But right now, seeing them in person, Craig found himself frozen.

Julian, however, was already moving. One moment standing still, the next launching forward in a blur. The sound was like thunder, a concussive boom as Julian's feet pushed off, waking Craig from his stupor.

And he watched.

One of the daemons turned, tentacles flaring in alarm, but it was already too late. Julian landed atop its head, the nearly invisible garrote wire already looped around the creature's neck. 

A single, controlled breath from Julian, and the wire tightened—slicing through flesh, bone, and entire neck with horrifying ease. The daemon's head separated cleanly, its body not yet registering its death as it writhed with its sharp claws.

Julian punched the severed head with brutal efficiency, sending it hurtling into another daemon. The impact knocked the second creature off-balance, its legs scrabbling for grip on the slick floor.

But Julian was already there, the xylarion wire extending from his hand like a whip. It sliced through the daemon's leg without resistance, the limb toppling sideways as cleanly as if cut by a laser. As the creature fell, Julian pivoted, swinging the wire downward across its exposed neck. Another clean slice, another daemon dead, just like that.

Julian said he would be using the garrote wrong, was this what he meant by that? Using it like some sort of… whip?

Craig couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Julian flowed from one daemon to the next, his movements so precise they seemed almost lazy. The wire sang through the air, catching light from the capsules as it separated flesh from flesh.

He'd heard the whispers—Julian Winters, humanity's only mutant, a superhero in the making. He'd dismissed it as childish fantasy.

But this... this was something else entirely. Julian wore no exosuit, no combat armor, no cyber enhancements. Just a man with a wire and movements so perfect they defied understanding. And he was blind. 

Fucking blind.

In less than a minute, all eight daemons lay in pieces, their bodies twitching and spread across the floor like exterminated pests. 

Julian didn't celebrate, however. Didn't even pause to catch his breath. He simply retracted his garrote and continued walking, this time toward something Craig hadn't noticed before since he was so… intrigued: a shimmering distortion in the air, partially hidden behind a bank of storage batteries.

A portal. An actual daemon portal inside the ship.

Craig's fingers fumbled for his communicator. "Dr. Heinz," he choked out. "Control center. You need to—"

He looked up just in time to see Julian step calmly through the shimmering distortion, disappearing entirely from view. No hesitation. No warning. Gone.

Craig's mouth hung open, the communicator forgotten in his hand. Everything he thought he knew about protocols, about daemons, about Julian Winters—all of it turned to ash in his mind.

What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

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AUTHOR NOTES

This was supposed to be finished yesterday, but I woke up with my cheek and teeth hurting. Turns out my left wisdom tooth's erupting. The garrote's supposed to be named too, but just can't concentrate lol.