Chapter 23: Sacrifice for Survival

After returning to the room where Clyde and Casca had awakened inside the capsules, Clyde laid Corie’s body onto a steel table nearby, right beside the row of capsules, and both of them tapped behind their ears to open their masks. Casca picked up a severed arm and piece of chest meat from a soldier and carried them over to Corie.

Seeing Casca approach, Clyde gently forced Corie’s mouth open until it was wide, and both Clyde and Casca noticed the inside of Corie’s mouth was bone-dry, as though it hadn’t been opened in a very long time,

"Give her the blood first... let’s see how she reacts," Clyde said.

"Okay," Casca replied.

Casca squeezed the meat in her hand until blood oozed out, then aimed the drops into Corie’s mouth. Drop after drop trickled inside, slowly moistening her mouth once more, bringing an immediate look of relief to Clyde and Casca’s faces. Casca bit off a piece of the meat and chewed it, then pressed her lips to Corie’s, transferring the finely chewed meat to her. Clyde watched as the muscles in Corie’s throat moved to swallow the food. After repeating the process several times, Clyde and Casca glanced at the floating holographic screen to check Corie’s status report, specifically her current condition,

[Hunger : [Progress bar 99%] Danger.]

[Stamina : [Progress bar 1%] Danger]

[Regeneration : [Progress bar 0%] status : not healthy.]

Seeing her hunger decrease and her stamina rise, even though her regeneration factor hadn’t gone up yet, relief washed over Clyde and Casca’s faces,

"This is working, Big Brother!" Casca said cheerfully.

"Yeah... hurry up and do it again, I’ll hold her mouth open," Clyde said.

Casca went back to forage through the severed remains of the soldiers, bringing a large quantity of meat back to the table, and began feeding all of it into Corie’s now-moistened mouth. Once all the meat in the room was gone, leaving behind nothing but bare bones, Clyde and Casca checked Corie’s status once more,

[Hunger : [Progress bar 60%] Warning.]

[Stamina : [Progress bar 40%] Warning.]

[Regeneration : [Progress bar 5%] status : not healthy.]

The two looked around the room, there was no meat left, yet Corie was still unconscious, her status far from safe,

"What do we do now, Big Brother... we’re completely out of meat and blood," Casca said.

Clyde thought hard, his eyes scanning every inch of the room searching for a way to revive Corie, until his gaze suddenly landed on the massive capsule standing next to the two broken ones. Naturally, he knew what was inside that container. He turned to Casca,

"There’s still meat left, Casca... and plenty of it," Clyde said.

Seeing Clyde speak to her while looking elsewhere, she turned to see where his eyes were fixed. Upon spotting the capsule Clyde was staring at, Casca looked back at him with a anxious, puzzled expression,

"Are you sure, Big Brother? You want to release that giant and... kill it?" Casca asked.

"Yeah... wait here and watch over Corie," Clyde answered, letting go of Corie’s mouth.

"Um... but what if she’s really strong?" Casca asked.

"Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem, trust me," Clyde answered.

Before Casca could say another word, Clyde tapped behind his ear and closed his mask again. He walked up to the front of the capsule and looked up at the container that was noticeably larger than himself,

"Okay... here goes nothing," he said.

He raised his hand, clenching it into a fist, and "crash," punched straight through the glass, sending the thick red liquid inside gushing outward. "Crack... crack," the entire capsule began to fracture under the water pressure from within. Clyde stepped back, and "crash," the entire glass face of the capsule shattered into pieces. A muscular female giant standing 13.5 feet tall fell forward out of the container, lurching out as Clyde pulled his fist back, preparing to strike her down, but suddenly,

"Huh?"

Clyde gasped in shock as the giant opened her eyes, her face instantly turning into a terrifying snarl. Her muscular body swelled even larger, her skin stretching and cracking to reveal raw muscle fibers as her feet planted into the ground from her fall. The female giant swiftly raised her arm and swung a heavy fist straight at Clyde.

"Blam!"

Unable to dodge in time, Clyde took a direct blow to the torso, sending him flying backward into a massive machine covered in indicator lights, smashing it to pieces.

"Big Brother!" Casca screamed, watching from afar.

Hearing Casca’s scream, the giant turned, her fierce yellow eyes narrowing. Her damp blonde hair fell over part of her face, and heavy mist billowed from her snarling mouth with every ragged breath. The giant drew herself up to her full height, forcing Casca to look way up at her, and began striding toward Casca with rapid steps. Casca tapped behind her ear to close her mask and got into a defensive stance.

"Graaaaah!"

The giant burst into a jog as she charged at Casca, raising a fist to strike. Casca held her ground, refusing to budge from her spot since Corie was lying right behind her. But before the giant could land her punch, Clyde suddenly hovered right behind her with his wings fully unfurled, and "thump," delivered a spinning roundhouse kick straight to the giant’s head, launching her sideways through the wall, shattering it completely as she crashed out into the corridor.

Relieved to see Clyde unharmed, Casca let out a sigh,

"Wait there and protect Corie," Clyde said telepathically, pointing at Casca.

"Got it," Casca replied telepathically.

Clyde hovered out through the gaping hole in the wall, watching as the giant shook her head and struggled to get up, her fierce eyes locking onto Clyde floating before her. Opening her mouth once more, the giant exhaled a plume of smoke, her lips muttering something as she raised her palm toward Clyde,

"Haaaah!"

A massive fireball shot forth from the giant’s hand directly toward Clyde, but with a single slice of his wing, Clyde dissipated the fireball entirely, taking the giant by surprise. Seizing the opening, Clyde lunged forward through the air toward her, and "thud," drove an uppercut into her chin, snapping her head back toward the ceiling. With her neck exposed, "sreeet," Clyde spun through the air, his wings slicing through her throat and tearing it open.

"Cough!"

The giant clutched at both sides of her neck as blood spewed out, coughing up fresh crimson. Her eyes widened, her face filled with sheer terror as she stared at Clyde floating right in front of her. Looking at the face of this female giant, a creature called a Nephilim, an enemy of humanity, Clyde froze; the expression on the giant woman’s face was no different from a human being on the brink of death. A strange sensation welled up in Clyde’s chest, but before he could process the feeling, "bum," the giant woman’s body collapsed face-first in front of him, hitting the floor with a heavy thud, motionless.

Clyde looked down at his hands, then back at the lifeless female giant lying face-down on the floor.

"Why... is this happening? Why... when I looked at her face... did I feel like... Nephilims are no different from humans? And... why do I feel guilty? What is this feeling?" Clyde questioned in his head.

"Big Brother?"

Clyde turned around to see Casca standing at the edge of the shattered hole in the wall, her mask off, looking worried and confused. Clyde shook his head, landed on the ground, grabbed the giant woman’s hand, and began dragging the 13.5-foot-tall body inside. He paused to remove his mask, then looked back at Casca.

"She should be enough to get rid of the hunger status and restore Corie’s stamina... come help me drag her inside," Clyde said.

"Oh... okay, Big Brother," Casca replied, grabbing the giant’s other arm to pull her inside.

As Casca turned her body, Clyde caught sight of the giant woman’s face, which now looked peaceful, almost bearing a faint smile. Turning his head toward Corie on the table, "slap," he slapped his own cheeks with both hands. Looking at the giant woman’s face once more, he pressed his hands together against his chest and bowed his head in a gesture of respect. Noticing Clyde’s behavior, Casca looked down at the giant’s face as well, then squatted beside her head.

"I’m sorry... but you can help our little sister," Casca said softly.

"So you noticed it too, huh," Clyde said.

"Yeah... that’s why I asked earlier... if you were sure," Casca replied.

"Forget it, let’s be grateful for her sacrifice, Corie is what matters most," Clyde said.

"Agreed, Big Brother," Casca replied, standing back up.

Once again, the two paid their respects to the giant woman, after which they took her flesh to feed Corie, striving to satisfy her hunger and replenish her stamina.