Reincarnated in a depressing erotic world but living a normal life (right?)

Empty Cradles and Gray Flames

In the deepest and most aseptic levels of The Veil, the silence was only interrupted by the constant hum of biological incubators."Ahahaha! I AM A GENIUS!!"

There, beneath a cold neon light, worked the brilliant mind known as Doctorine.

"This will improve the world! These 'BABIES' are perfect!!"

Doctorine, whose sanity was as fragile as her intellect was brilliant, did not simply seek to create life, but to perfect the concept of the twisted form of "existence" that her warped mind conceived.

"With this, I will help the world... Because I am a genius! So, be free... and let’s see what happens!!"

Her most recent masterpiece was not a machine, but a single locust larva: Subject Zero. A monstrosity designed to bring her own version of "peace" to all things.

"Go, little ones, and be free!!"

To achieve this, Doctorine had granted the specimen two gifts that defied the laws of nature.

"More and more, keep increasing much more~!!"

The first ability was its Absolute Asexual Reproductive Capacity. Subject Zero required no mate and no prolonged incubation time. Its cells were in a state of perpetual and violent mitosis; upon receiving the right stimulus, its body would fragment and divide, creating genetically identical clones that reached maturity in a matter of seconds.

"Look at it! It is the culmination of heretical biology! Is it not glorious? Subject Zero is not a simple locust; it is a god of fragmented flesh. What you call 'nature' is a slow, pathetic, and bureaucratic system, but I have broken the chains of time."

A single locust could become a million in less than an hour; a tide of flesh that multiplied simply by existing.

"But make no mistake... true beauty does not reside in how many they are... but in what they know!!"

However, its truly terrifying nature lay in its second biological property: Genetic and Cognitive Memory Assimilation.

"My little creation is a gourmet of the soul, a quantum decoder of existence itself. You see, its digestive system doesn't just seek calories; it seeks secrets. It dismantles DNA and neural networks as if they were pieces of a forgotten puzzle."

Upon consuming any biological material, the locust did not merely obtain nutrients. Its digestive system acted as a quantum decoder, dismantling the genetic and neural structure of its prey to integrate them into its own mass.

"I am a genius, a total and absolute genius!!"

If the swarm consumed a wolf, it gained its agility and sense of smell; if it consumed a soldier, it obtained their discipline and weapon handling.

"RIGHT?!"

But the darkest part was that the locust inherited the knowledge and memories of those it devoured. Each victim became part of the hive mind, granting the swarm a tactical intelligence that grew with every death.

"SHE IS A GENIUS!! DOCTORINE IS A GENIUS, YES, YES, YES!!"

In the heart of the laboratory, Doctorine—a woman of mature and withered beauty—moved through the room with erratic and spasmodic energy.

"The work! The diligence! EVERYTHING FOR MY BABIES!! EVERYTHING FOR THE LOVE THEY OWE ME!!"

She wore nothing under her open lab coat, which billowed like a dirty wing as she writhed, completely ignoring any trace of decency; her mind had abandoned civilization long ago.

"But... where are they?"

At that moment, she lunged toward a cradle located in the center of the room, a wooden relic that clashed grotesquely with the cold metal and biological pulse screens of the lab.

"My little ones... my sweet miracles... I need verification! Someone has to tell me they are alive! VERIFICATION! VERIFICATION!!"

But the cradle was empty. The "babies" she so longingly expected, whom she had cooed to in her delirium while injecting serum into the incubators, had been gone for so long that the void in the room was almost physical.

"He took them!! HE TOOK THEM!!"

But the verification never came in words...

"But why did he take them...? BECAUSE DOCTORINE IS A GENIUS, OF COURSE!!"

For the woman she had once been no longer existed; in her place remained only the existence into which she had been transformed.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Beneath the laboratory structure, the Subject Zero Locust—fueled by the hatred and obsession of its "mother"—finished integrating the last DNA sequence stored in the facility.

(¡¡¡KABOOOOM-SPLIT-ROAR!!!)

It emerged accompanied by an explosion of biological fluids and metallic debris that blew the laboratory apart from below.

"Doctorine is a genius... right?"

Doctorine was left alone in the silence, motionless, staring at the empty cradle...

"It’s time for the next experiment!!"

She suddenly exclaimed, only to continue with her next "creation," sinking deeper into the depths of her own madness.

(¡¡¡SKREEEE-WAAAAAAAGH!!!)

Meanwhile, the locust—a mass of hypertrophied muscles and dark chitin that already carried Doctorine's hysteria in its hive mind—forced its way outside. It let out a roar that sounded like the cry of a thousand newborns, distorted by an insectile throat.

"FLESH..."

While the scientist continued laughing and sobbing in front of the empty cradle, her "progeny" launched itself into the world to consume, learn, and multiply, carrying the hereditary madness of its creator with it.

What occurred that night was not a migration, but a forced demographic explosion.

Upon being released, the Subject Zero Locust activated a metabolic cycle that defied the laws of thermodynamics. By consuming the biomass of the surrounding forests and local fauna, each individual was capable of performing a total cellular division every 300 seconds, creating in a short time a tide of a million clones in less than an hour; a number that continued to expand constantly.

(¡¡KRRRIIIIII-EEEEEEEE!!)

But the real danger did not lie in the numbers, but in the Integrated Cognitive Memory.

As the swarm advanced toward Central City—the logistical and vital node that interconnected all the metropolises of the world—its collective intelligence refined itself.

"MORE... CONSUME MORE..."

They had devoured all kinds of beasts, monsters, and anomalies, feasting on the supernatural diversity that existed in The Veil before escaping into reality to begin their attack.

"EXPAND... CONSUME... GROW!!"

The swarm no longer moved like a plague; it moved as a single, conscious organism, a hive mind with one objective: to assimilate the core of civilization to reach the pinnacle of the evolutionary scale.

(¡¡¡Screeee-chk...!!!)

Central City, with its millions of inhabitants, represented the ultimate "feast" that would allow the swarm to mutate into a form humanity could never comprehend.

"What the hell?!"

However, just as the vanguard of the muscular locusts reached the limits of the outer district, an anomaly occurred that did not appear in Doctorine's simulations.

"...." 

"......" 

<"...."> 

("...") 

("...") 

"........"

As a result, the air, which until that moment had been saturated by the buzzing of millions of wings, suddenly went mute.

"Damn it..."

In the realm of probability, there is a term known as a "statistical anomaly."

"FOOD..."

The locust swarm, having assimilated thousands of minds and logical patterns, operated under the premise that nothing in its path possessed an energy signature capable of altering its advance.

"I have a very bad feeling... And I don't like the way they're looking at me..."

Mireya, who was returning home after an exhausting day of home deliveries—and a restless night that would have broken the will of any human being—stumbled upon the blockade of the main highway toward Central City in the middle of The Veil.

"This is... repulsive... Without a doubt, this won't end well... right?"

Stopping the vehicle and stepping out to check what obstacle was preventing his return to rest, Mireya found himself face to face with the vanguard of the plague.

"F...oo...d...!"

On the other hand, the swarm's reaction was diametrically opposed. The Subject Zero Locust, operating from the core of the tide, fixed its multiple eyes on the figure that had just descended from the car.

Unlike the human eye, which processes light in a limited spectrum, the swarm's visual organs had been optimized by Doctorine to detect energy efficiency. For the locusts, the world was not composed of matter, but of biomass flows.

"Hey, Echidna... I have the feeling they're looking at me like I'm a dessert..."

When Mireya stepped out of the vehicle, the plague's collective neural network suffered a sensory collapse.

<"What a coincidence... I have reached the same conclusion...">.

What stood before them was not a standard biological organism.

"DEVOUR!!"

Through their multifaceted corneas, the swarm perceived an energy emission that defied any known scale: a practically infinite core of power that fluctuated in an impossible chromatic variety.

(¡¡¡SSSKREEEEE-CHAK-STANCE!!!)

Before their eyes appeared the ultimate delicacy; it was the culmination of their evolutionary purpose.

"I hate being right!!"

In that instant, Central City was erased from their genetic memory. The entirety of the tide, composed of millions of units, rotated on its own axis in perfect synchrony, centering all its attention on a single objective.

"I curse you for this, universe!!"

The muscular locusts flexed their chitinous joints, anchoring themselves to the ground and preparing for the ultimate predatory leap.

"SILVER-RESONANCE!!!"

Mireya, panicking, invoked the bond.

(¡¡¡FLASH-BANG-SHIIIIIN!!!)

A blinding and absolute flash of silver light enveloped his figure.

"Sara!!"

When the glow of the resonance dissipated, Mireya's figure had been replaced by a presence that emanated absolute metallic authority.

"Yes, Sara is listening."

Standing before an endless tide of consumption now stood a silver knight in full plate armor of total metallic purity. His silhouette, imposing and stylized, was highlighted by reinforced pauldrons with sharp edges and a curved breastplate designed for perfect deflection.

"ACCELERATE!!"

In the exact center of the chest, embedded in the steel, stood a flawlessly cut celestial gem that pulsed with an internal light, vividly contrasting with the cold silver of the rest of the suit.

"Yes, Sara will accelerate."

Following the manifestation of his silver form, the Silver Knight did not waste a single millisecond in contemplation. With a push that cracked the asphalt beneath his feet, he leaped backward, landing with a metallic thud on the roof of the armored vehicle.

"COME AND GET ME!!"

At the very instant his boots hit the metal, the engine roared with mechanical fury. The car launched into a suicidal charge, accelerating directly toward the heart of the locust wave that approached like a wall of shadows and chitin.

"Here we go, Silver!!"

Faced with the imminent collision against the endless tide, the Silver Knight extended his right hand.

(¡¡¡KRA-SHING-FWOOOOOM!!!)

In his fist, a sword materialized that did not remain a simple steel blade.

"FULL POWER!!"

In an instant, the weapon was devoured by a wave of gray flames of terrifying intensity.

("FOR MAMA!!")

The fire did not dance erratically; it clung to the edge with a suffocating density, giving off a heat that turned the air into pure distortion and reduced dust particles to ash before they could even touch the metal.

(¡¡SLAAAASH!!)

With a fluid movement charged with devastating power, the knight executed a horizontal slash toward the front.

(¡¡¡KRA-BOOOOOOOOM!!!)

The resulting detonation was a deafening roar that shook the foundations of the road: an explosion of ash and energy that erased the first thousand units of locusts from existence in the blink of an eye.

"KILL HIM!! FINISH HIM!!"

Thus marked the beginning of the conflict...

{Those flames!!}

...which would lead to an encounter beyond time.