Page 200 of Light Leech

Don stood and pushed the woman out of the way.

“Get the zeg away from that, you idiot!” Kim shouted. “Someone do–”

“I know what I’m doing!” Don shouted back as the room erupted into shouting.

The light faded to green. The room dimmed and the diagram on the wall lit up. A small, green dot appeared inside the triangle’s image, then began to grow larger. It consumed one of the Dokkaebi icons, then increased in size large enough for me to see what it was.

A green face. Half of it was a solid color, the other an outline. The solid half had two eyes while the other had one. Its lips were turned up in a satisfied sneer.

It consumed another Dokkaebi icon. The creature shot around inside the prism as if looking for an escape.

“What is happening?” Kim shouted.

“I d-do-don’t kn-kn-know.” Dokkaebi’s voice skipped and his image flashed around the prism without fluid movement.

“Run diagnostics!” Kim shouted at the woman who had stepped away. “Don, make her get her zegging act together!”

He did as commanded and forced the woman to face the panel

I couldn’t hold onto hope yet. That icon was familiar, yet impossible.

It consumed another Dokkaebi icon.

“T-t-there appears t-to be a virus, sir!” the woman said as the room pulsed with green light.

A green orb appeared inside the prism. Dokkaebi cried out as he moved as far away from it as possible. “Let me in, Kim!” he cried.

“What? No! We can’t let this thing run the system!”

“Just let me in!” Dokkaebi lost another icon.

“I–”

“I’m coming!” Light shot from the line on the pyramid’s peak into the machine connected to Kim. He seized, every light line on his body flashing with a cascade of colors.

The green orb in the prism grew in size. Its blurry amoeba-like shape started to form into a humanoid outline.

The green icon was the only one remaining on the diagram. The side that had once shown Kim’s single icon now displayed multiple.

Kim stood from his chair with an electronic groan. His eyes flashed with a jarring cascade of colors. His mouth was wide open, emitting a similar barrage of flashing lights. His arms stretched, then his legs and finally, his torso. Like a machine upgrading itself, his body doubled in size. Violet light leaked from any cracks in his body, including the violent tears in his face that looked like cracked pavement after an earthquake with light lines inside keeping the shattered surface intact.

The opening to the homunculus shut, severing the probe lines that had connected him to the machine.

“Exterminate the virus!” Kim’s body said, though it carried the digital sound of Dokkaebi’s voice like an electronic echo.

The council scrambled, some stepping away from the table, others leaning in to see what was growing inside the prism.

“Zeggin’ bureaucrats have no idea what you’re doing,” Don groaned as he pulled out a pistol and shot three violet light rounds at the prism.

“Fool!” Kim–Dokkaeibi said, knocking Don to the ground with the swing of his arm.

Don started to stand. “I’m trying to help, dammit!”

Kim–Dokkaebi glared at him. “Don’t break that chamber or we’ll lose it in the entire palace’s system.”

“Oh, babe,” a familiar voice said from the prism. “I’ve already spread my touch through your little system.”

Ralia’s voice wasn’t sweet, per se, but hearing it was a blissful salve to my diminished hope. I had thought failure was imminent for me and the rest of the Luxists but seeing her again made me want to believe. I had to believe there was hope.