HALF: DEAD NOR ALIVE

“You’re not only turning your body into a parasite but your brain as well, huh?” The Adam asked as he chuckled mockingly while staring at Archie who was still chewing the parasite’s flesh in his mouth.

Archie swallowed the flesh down to his throat and The Adam could see the bulging in Archie’s throat. They both were staring at each other for quite a while and suddenly The Adam’s confidence disappeared after realizing nothing happened to Archie and his clone couldn’t control Archie’s body.

“It can’t be! How?!” The Adam stared at Archie with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

Ever since he turned himself into a parasite form, he had been feeling burning hot inside his chest and up to his throat. He didn’t know why but his instinct told him to eat something to reduce the burning feeling inside of him.

Archie’s mouth suddenly released a cloud of smoke and it surprised both of them, and then he roared at the Adam. The Adam saw a glowing red light in the far back of Archie’s mouth, it looked like a fire but he wasn’t sure about it because it was only a glimpse.

Archie realized he wasn’t affected by The Adam’s ability to take control over a body. Not only that, he knew how to kill all his clones, and that was to just swallow them all because his body could kill them from the inside.

The Adam ran away and immediately all his clones ran toward Archie to give him time to run away. Archie roared once more to intimidate the Adam that his presence should be feared, and then he bit off the head of one of the controlled parasites.

“No! My whole research is useless! How can someone who just become Drautnir can do something like this!” The Adam said to himself as he ran into a tunnel while listening to the growl, roar, and screech of parasites behind him.

“How unfair! You treated me badly and you treated spoonfed him like he’s the best child compared to the others! Are you punishing me because I didn’t do as you planned?!” The Adam yelled as he stared at the ceiling as if he was speaking to God.

While the Adam was busy cursing and blaspheming, he suddenly noticed the silence from behind him. All the noises were gone, and he looked scared and nervous at the same time, he then ran as fast as he could and hoped Archie didn’t find him.

“I hope I make it in time,” The Adam said as he ran silently into another dark tunnel.

The Adam reached the end of the tunnel and he turned around to make sure he wasn’t being followed by Archie. Once he was sure that Archie wasn’t right behind him, he proceeded to walk toward a tree in the middle of the spacious cave. It was the same tree as the giant tree on the island that Archie took down.

The Adam turned himself into slime and slowly entered the tree trunk to hide from Archie. The moment his body was fully inside the tree, Archie entered the cave and he was glad that he made it in time.

Archie was staring at the tree and it was the only thing in the spacious cave, he walked toward it and noticed the Adam’s presence inside the trees. He touched the tree trunk with his claws and scratched it to scare the Adam and it was effective.

The Adam tried to use the illusion but it didn’t affect Archie at all since he was already immune to it.

Archie cut down the tree with a single swoop with his claws, and then he saw the same red sap inside the tree trunk. Not long after that, the Adam in his slime form tried to run away but Archie stomped on it with as hard as he could and splattered the slime to pieces and spread everywhere.

The Adam was so scared that he immediately turned himself into his human form, but because he missed a few chunks of his slime body, he became so small. He was walking backward as he raised his hands and hoped that Archie wouldn’t eat him up because it would be the end of him.

“Please, spare my life! I just want to live peacefully!” The Adam said as he stared at Archie with his intimidating presence. “Please, I beg you!” The Adam decided to go on his knees and pressed his hands together.

Archie just stood there and stared down at the Adam in his parasite form, he then realized the slimes were moving toward the Adam. Archie let them enter the Adam’s body and he slowly became bigger and went back to his original size.

Without the Adam realizing it, he was already hugging the wall and he had no other way to run. He didn’t know what to do to make Archie rethink of not killing him.

“I know something that you might be interested in!” The Adam yelled as he looked at Archie.

Archie leaned his head toward the Adam and when the Adam thought Archie was planning on listening to whatever he was about to say, Archie suddenly opened his mouth and chomped the Adam’s whole body. Archie didn’t care what kind of words that the Adam knew about because, in the end, he would be able to see the Adam’s memories once he digested his brain.

Archie swallowed the Adam’s whole body and let the parasites took care of the rest. He stood there for quite a while after he felt the bulging inside his body slowly disappeared.

Archie turned himself to his human form and immediately collapsed because he had been holding the parasites from taking over his body. He was glad he made it and immediately fell unconscious because of exhaustion.

It was just silence until something was moving out from the tree, and it was the last piece of the Adam that he left behind on purpose. With that, he should be able to live if he hosted a parasite body and then rebuild his own body with it.

When it tried to leave, an immense presence was walking in the tunnel toward the cave. The Adam was so scared that he immediately walked back to the tree but it was already too late because someone took the slime with its fingers.

The Adam looked at Eve who was staring at him with a smile on her face. The Adam was mesmerized by her beauty that he didn’t realize he was being brought to Archie and suddenly put him inside Archie’s mouth.

Eve sat down next to Archie and protected him from any harm since he already did his job and she was allowed to be next to him now. She slowly and carefully put his head on her thigh and gently stroked his hair and silently stared at him.

It took Archie two days until he finally woke up, and the first thing he saw was Eve smiling at him. When he tried to sit up, Eve prevented him and pushed him back to her lap.

“Just stay there for a moment, I want to be like this,” Eve quietly said as she kept staring at Archie.

Archie raised his eyebrows and nodded his head as he made himself comfortable on Eve’s lap.

“Now, tell me about what you saw from that guy’s memories,” Eve asked.

Archie stared blankly at the ceiling and didn’t respond to Eve’s words, and that made her look at him with curiosity.

“What did you see?” Eve asked again.

“Before I tell you that, do you think that we are being watched?” Archie replied as he stared at Eve.

“By them? Of course. No matter where we are or how hard you try to hide anything from them, they know it,” Eve answered as she looked at the ceiling and around her. “Why do you ask? Is that have something to do with what you saw?” Eve asked with her eyebrows raised.

“Yes, turned out that he was telling the truth,” Archie said as he nodded his head. “His name was Hansel, he was from the Western Nation, just like me, but unlike me, he was on his own without guidance from the witches,” Archie explained.

“Okay, what happened next?” Eve was still confused about why Archie felt uncomfortable talking about it.

“He traveled on his own, survived on his own, he had no interest in the task that was given to him. He ended up on this island after he felt he didn’t belong with the humans. He spent all his life doing what he wanted and he was telling the truth that he was threatened and had to do this for his own good,” Archie looked at the cave and pointed at it with his left hand.

“Do you think I just killed an innocent guy who was forced to do things that he didn’t want to?” Archie asked as he looked at Eve.

“That’s our life, Archie. Do you prefer to be abandoned and die with nowhere else to go?” Eve asked back.

“I don’t know,” Archie answered as he closed his eyes because it troubled him.