CHAPTER 420: TWISTED

Joanne, Luna, and Bianca were more anxious than they had been in years.

Evolved didn’t get ’sick’. Least of all, an avatar like Malachi.

To quell their nerves, they were making the conscious choice to tell themselves that things were going to be fine, and Malachi had simply gotten overexcited after kissing Joanne.

It may have been delusional, but as of right now, it was the only thing preventing him from going insane.

And soon, they weren’t the only ones to experience a state of panic.

"Oh my god, what is that!?"

"T-The monsters, they’re back!"

A large black tiger bounded across the reception hall and made a beeline straight for the wives’ table.

"Serosh?" Joanne stood up.

"Something’s wrong with brother! He just collapsed!"

Not one of the girls needed to hear a single thing else. They threw back their chairs forcefully and ran to the bathroom with Serosh leading the way.

As they got closer, they could hear the sound of screaming coming through the door.

With one punch, Joanne knocked the door down.

As nothing else remained to block the noise, anguished screams rushed out of the room and chilled the hearts of everyone who heard them.

Malachi writhed on the floor in a clear state of agony.

His wings wrapped around him in a dark and twisted cocoon. They twisted and bent themselves into awkward angles, becoming upside down and slightly misshapen.

The feathers on his upper wings had fallen out and decorated the floor like confetti. This gave them a leathery appearance similar to a bat’s, or perhaps a demon’s.

Blood started to leak from the sides of Malachi’s head as twisted protrusions of bone burst through the skin.

Cuts appeared on his cheeks just beneath his eyes. Joanne was horrified to see them turn into a second pair.

Malachi reached for his shirt and tore apart the fabric as he continued to scream.

Luna almost fainted when she saw her husband’s stomach. It was moving.

It looked like his entrails were fiercely fighting against each other inside of his body.

She screamed for him, and his back arched off the ground as blood ran from his eyes.

His stomach ripped itself open.

Out of the depths of his gut, four inhumanely large serpents sprang out of Mal’s stomach. Blood dripped off their scales as they thrashed in the air, clearly as distressed as their host was.

And even after all that, his body still wasn’t done changing.

The girls each tried to get closer to Malachi and hopefully quell his frenzied state.

However, he was making such a thing unbelievably difficult. And none of the girls knew just how much worse things were going to get.

A small crowd was already trying to peek inside the bathroom to get a look at what was going on. The most noticeable among them were the prime minister and his daughter.

"What is the meaning of this?? Is Mr. Saint alright??"

"D-Did he eat too much wasabi??"

Luna, low on patience and understanding, erected a thick wall of ice between themselves and the rest of the partygoers without answering them.

Bianca swallowed all of her fear and dove on top of Malachi’s body.

She reached for the necklace he always wore underneath his clothes. She rubbed the dark gem held by the metal casing.

An otherworldly light shone from deep within the rock, and the room seemed to become drastically darker.

-

"... er? A sewer??! Is he crazy!?"

In between the worst hangover, fever, and body ache of his entire life, Malachi could hear a voice in the darkness that he knew like the back of his hand.

"What could he even have hoped to accomplish by rummaging around down there like a rat??"

The voice was getting louder, and Malachi couldn’t help but let an uncomfortable groan pass his lips as he tossed and turned in discomfort.

Malachi was a natural back sleeper, yet he could feel he was on his stomach.

He attempted to flip himself over, and inhaled a sharp breath when he felt a tight pain in his back.

Instantly, Malachi sat up.

"Mother f..."

When Mal realized he was sitting inside a giant plastic hamster ball, his anger gave way to confusion.

Beyond the plastic sphere, he could see his wives and Serana staring at him with concerned expressions. In addition to his own supernatural mother.

"My sweet boy... just what did you do to yourself?"

Malachi smiled at Nyx as best he was able. "I wish I knew..."

He looked over his shoulder at the wings coming out of his back.

They were twisted and monstrous-looking. They appeared to have gone through a growth spurt as well.

He thought that they were more than big enough when they were only ten feet- but now they were closer to sixteen.

One set of his wings had lost all of it’s feathers and taken on a more fleshy appearance. They also twisted upside down like a character from one of his favorite video games.

The leathery pair of wings were coming from his shoulder blades; meanwhile, the feathered ones came from his lower back.

As he had done so many times before, he flexed his shoulder blades and attempted to fold his wings back into his body.

It didn’t work.

He tried four more times before his mind became fatigued. His surroundings had already started to spin.

"I... w-what’s happening to me..?"

Nyx has already given Malachi quite a thorough check-up, and while she knew some things, she didn’t understand how this all came about.

"My son... I need you to tell me everything you can about the man you met in the sewers today."

Nyx’s voice rattled around in Malachi’s brain like an echo. Just listening to her made him wince.

"He was just some dirty guy... he can manipulate organic tissue and genes... he said that he was the one giving everybody in Japan powers."

Nyx nodded slowly. "Okay... did he happen to touch you or anything?"

Malachi shook his head while groaning. "Used the... ummm..." Malachi pointed to his brain when he was having trouble coming up with words.

"Telekinesis?" His mother guessed.

"Yeah, that.."

Nyx brought a hand to her temple as if her son’s total lack of caution had given her an ulcer the size of Texas.

"Why am I in a hamsterball..?" Mal asked.

"Quarantine, babe..." Bianca said gently. "We’re all doing it until Loki gets done running tests on you, us... the girls."

Malachi suddenly felt sick.

He could stomach a lot of things and own up to his many mistakes, but the thought that he might have been responsible for making his daughters sick was... heartbreaking.

"My god, I..."

"T-They’re fine right now, and showing no signs of being sick." Sei said instantly. "On the contrary, they’re chasing Zeke around in their hamster balls right now like it’s the most fun thing in the world..."

That didn’t quite make Malachi feel any better. The guilt threatened to eat him alive like a wild animal.

But there was another sensation that he was noticing in his body that troubled him just as much. And he didn’t know how to put a finger on it.

But then, it was almost like a missing limb. It was all he could think about.

And finally, the sensation was connected to a past experience in his mind. One that he knew all too well.

"I think... I think my powers are gone." Malachi said in confusion.

Nyx shook her head. "No, honey, I can still feel you, and I assure you that we’re still-"

"N-No, not the ones you gave me." Malachi shook his head. "T-The ones I got from biting Lucifer’s chosen... force manipulation."

Nyx made an expression that Malachi couldn’t quite decipher.

Her brow crinkled as she sat down in an empty chair and ran her hands through her hair.

"...Ma?"

Nyx looked up at her son again, and her expression was noticeably troubled. It somehow made him feel even more anxious than he already did.

"I... don’t know why any of this is happening. Especially since you say you lost his power, but..."

"But what, Ma? What’s happening to me?"

Nyx stared at her son with a broken heart.

"Somehow... you’re becoming more demon."