Page 415 of Light Leech

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.

“How the zeg did you–”

She interrupted Kim–Dokkaebi. “Looks like the world’s cult of geniuses isn’t full of the brightest, huh? Let’s be honest, all it required was understanding what that sick little bastard inside me wanted.”

“Noooooo!” Kim–Dokkaebi cried, though I knew it was the beast inside who was crying out that this was impossible. The light lines connected to him pulsed, making the room flicker, though the green kept its dominance.

“Settle, babe.”

The beast went ballistic, crashing into one of the large machines and absorbing the light as it sparked out.

“Hey.” She looked at me. “Guess what I found in the system? This looks like a neurolock for one Petya Nebokov. How about that? Oops! I just released it!”

The beast depleted the machine of its light and shot a predatory glare my way.

I turned away from it to look at the prism. She moved through the prism’s space and placed her hand on its glass wall. “Touch me.”

“No!” Kim–Dokkkaebi charged me.