Chapter Eighty-Six: Poor Wang Xiaofa

Darcy Oak glared furiously at Wang Xiaofa, while the voice in his mind pressed him again and again to go save his crew.

He had already gone utterly mad. He ignored the grotesque twisting of his flesh and the glow of psychic power alike, wholly consumed by the travelers’ slaughter and by the voice in his head.

"Kill them. They are slaughtering your comrades, your friends, your lovers, your children. Hurry and stop them. I will give you power. You need only believe in me, and I will grant you true salvation."

"I believe in you. I am willing to offer up my soul. Only you can save us."

Darcy Oak stared at the gun muzzles spitting fire as he howled at the voice in his mind, accepted its demand, and offered up his soul.

"As you wish, my faithful one."

After the voice in his mind spoke those words, Darcy Oak had completely lost all self-awareness. He had surrendered his soul to that entity, caring only about stopping the travelers’ slaughter.

He twisted his hideous, abominable body, warped by the warp, and crawled swiftly toward Wang Xiaofa, who was just about to open fire on a child whose body had been terribly distorted.

Wang Xiaofa also noticed this poor man corrupted on the spot. He quickly swung the muzzle of his boltgun away from the child, aimed at Darcy Oak, now turned into a monster, and pulled the trigger. Round after round slammed into Darcy Oak’s body, bursting into sprays of blood.

But that did little against the creature Darcy Oak had become. The wounds torn open by the bolt shells across his twisted body quickly grew back beneath the glow of psychic power, and from them sprouted even more grotesque tissue.

The bolt fire did not slow Darcy Oak’s advance. He charged through the storm of shells and bore down on Wang Xiaofa.

Wang Xiaofa looked at the twisted monster before him, threw away the boltgun, now empty, and quickly drew the power sword from his waist, bringing it down in a slash at the creature’s body.

In truth, he had meant to take its head, but its contorted flesh made it impossible even to tell where the head was. Wang Xiaofa could only strike at its body.

The flesh broken apart by the sword’s disruption field scattered through the air, and the crackling field split the body open, but it still did nothing to Darcy Oak. That level of damage was simply too slight for him.

Seeing the sword’s effect, Wang Xiaofa quickly sheathed it and ran back to open the distance between them.

“Wang Lei! Melta bomb! Flamers ready!” Wang Xiaofa shouted into the comms as he ran.

Conventional weapons could no longer harm Darcy Oak. They could only reduce him to ashes with flamers and melta fire, utterly destroying the corrupted flesh.

Wang Lei and the other travelers in his squad saw the twisted monster chasing Wang Xiaofa and quickly brought out flamers and melta bombs, rushing toward it.

One traveler drew a plasma pistol and fired at Darcy Oak. The plasma struck his body, and flesh was continuously vaporized under the searing heat, the air thick with the stench of burning protein.

But Darcy Oak still showed no sign of stopping. Dragging his body, scorched again and again by plasma, he kept pursuing Wang Xiaofa. He had locked onto him; unless Wang Xiaofa was torn to pieces, he would never stop.

Wang Xiaofa ran ahead, Darcy Oak pursued him, and Wang Lei led the travelers in pursuit of Darcy Oak. One could imagine it like this: in a vast plaza, three groups of people racing after one another in a circle.

For a moment, all the travelers’ attention fixed on Darcy Oak as he chased Wang Xiaofa, and that gave the crew time to flee.

Taking advantage of the travelers’ distraction, the crew used their knowledge of the ship’s interior and quickly escaped deeper into the vessel.

From the standpoint of rescuing the crew, Darcy Oak had in fact achieved a temporary success. By drawing the travelers away, he had won them a sliver of hope.

But all he had really done was delay the hour of death for those corrupted crewmen. Once the travelers were done with him, they would enter the ship and deal with the corrupted crew one by one.

Wang Lei ran after Darcy Oak, gradually closing the distance. Cradling a melta bomb, he prepared to slap it onto Darcy Oak’s body.

“Stick the melta on its leg!” Wang Xiaofa shouted into the comms, still running while turning to look at Darcy Oak behind him, and noticing Wang Lei with the melta bomb on his heels.

“One, two, three, four, five... twelve. Damn it! Wang Xiaofa, which leg do you want me to stick it to?” Wang Lei said, glancing at Darcy Oak’s legs. The moment he saw them, he felt his trypophobia acting up.

Under the blessing of the forces of Chaos, Darcy Oak had sprouted a full twelve legs, and he was running joyfully across the metal deck.

“Who the hell blessed this guy? Give him any more and he’ll turn into a Chaos Spawn!”

Wang Xiaofa also turned to look at Darcy Oak. Its twelve legs were moving so fast in pursuit of him that they were almost leaving afterimages.

“It’s already a Chaos Spawn. Haven’t you seen it chasing you without letting up? It doesn’t even look at us. It has no self-awareness anymore! I’d bet its soul’s been swallowed by that evil god!”

While moving closer to Darcy Oak, Wang Lei gave Wang Xiaofa the conclusion he had drawn from his observation of Darcy Oak’s pursuit.

“Fuck!”

As Wang Xiaofa and Wang Lei talked, Darcy Oak somehow even picked up speed, forcing Wang Xiaofa to keep accelerating without looking back.

“I’ve got you!”

With a burst of speed, Wang Lei reached Darcy Oak’s side, slapped the melta bomb onto its body, then stopped and pressed the detonator.

The melta blast erupted across its twisted flesh, vaporizing vast amounts of tissue. For a moment it ceased moving and crashed to the deck, though the momentum of its run still sent it sliding a considerable distance across the metal floor.

It was that distance, carried along by inertia, that sent Darcy Oak hurtling toward Wang Xiaofa. Wang Xiaofa stared in terror as the steaming Darcy Oak came straight at him. The steps that had halted after the melta blast began moving again.