Deviant: No Longer Human

His words froze the soldiers where they stood, their bodies stiffening in fear.

Even the helicopters circling above hesitated, the whirring blades slowing as if waiting for orders.

The captain, his face ashen and drenched in sweat, snapped out of his terror. His voice trembled as he barked, "Fire! Fire! What are you waiting for?!"

Bam-Bam-Bam!

The helicopters roared to life, unleashing a barrage of gunfire toward Wang Xiao.

Bullets screamed through the air, cutting through the night. Dust and debris erupted into the sky as the earth around Wang Xiao exploded from the impact.

The battalions stood frozen, their weapons raised but fingers hesitant on the triggers.

They watched, their hearts pounding, as the dust and smoke engulfed everything.

For a brief moment, the entire garrison held its breath, the world seeming to slow as they waited to see the aftermath.

"Is he dead—" one of the soldiers started, his voice laced with disbelief.

Puff!

As the dust cleared, Wang Xiao stood there, untouched.

Everything around him had been obliterated, but not a single scratch marred his body. And the bullets—they hadn\'t reached him.

Instead, they swirled around him in a perfect circle, spinning lazily in midair as if caught in some invisible vortex.

The soldiers stared, eyes wide with shock and horror. This was beyond anything they had ever seen.

With a mere thought, Wang Xiao\'s eyes flashed.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The bullets reversed their path, launching themselves straight into the heads of the soldiers in front of him.

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

Blood sprayed into the air as one after another fell, lifeless, before they even realized what had happened.

The helicopters above faltered, the pilots hesitating as they witnessed the massacre below.

The captain\'s voice, which had once carried authority, now lay lifeless.

Wang Xiao looked at the remaining soldiers with disinterest, his voice cold. "Was that your best shot?"

Silence fell, broken only by the distant hum of the helicopter blades, but even those seemed to grow quieter, as if the very machines had sensed that the end was near.

_______

"Commander! Commander! Something terrible has happened!"

A soldier burst into the command center, gasping for breath, his chest heaving as if he\'d sprinted the entire way.

Mao Xiang, the Garrison Commander, wasn\'t seated. His gaze was locked on the fires raging outside his office.

The once-strong barracks were crumbling, smoke rising ominously into the night sky.

"I can see that, you idiot!" Mao Xiang barked, turning sharply to face his panicked deputy, Li Bao. "Why haven\'t you unleashed the elite units already?" His voice carried a sharp, cold edge, eyes narrowing with fury.

Li Bao stood there, his forehead glistening with sweat, visibly trembling. "W-We already did it, Commander..." he stammered, his words barely audible.

Mao Xiang\'s frown deepened, confusion flashing across his face. "And?"

He had been the Garrison Commander for over a decade. In that time, he\'d seen the rise of the Ascendant Serum, the government\'s secret weapon—a serum that pushed human bodies beyond their limits, forcing aether into their veins to create monstrous super-soldiers.

These soldiers, enhanced beyond recognition, could destroy a military helicopter with their bare hands.

They were the most terrifying force under his command, elite and seemingly invincible.

But the look on Li Bao\'s face told a different story.

"They... they\'re all dead!" Li Bao hissed, his voice cracking with terror.

His face was ghostly pale, as if he had seen something beyond comprehension.

"What!?" Mao Xiang\'s voice wavered for the first time, disbelief cutting through his anger. His mind refused to process what he was hearing. \'Three minutes.. It had barely been three minutes since the elite units were dispatched. And now… they were gone? All of them?

\'

"Are you insane, Deputy Li?" Mao Xiang\'s eyes narrowed dangerously, now slits of fury and confusion. "How could anyone—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to the room suddenly burst open with a deafening — BOOM!

The heavy metallic door flew off its hinges, crashing into Li Bao with such force that it carried him across the room, slamming him into the far wall.

CRASH!

SPLURT! SPLURT!

The sound of metal crunching against bone was sickening, and before Mao Xiang could even react, blood splattered across the walls, coating the room in a mist.

Puff!

Li Bao\'s body crumpled like a ragdoll, his life snuffed out in an instant.

Blood and flesh smeared the wall behind him, his wide, lifeless eyes staring blankly at nothing.

Mao Xiang stood frozen in place, his heart pounding in his chest, his breath shallow.

Fear, cold seemed to have clutched his legs, gripping him like a reaper.

His wide eyes shifted slowly from the blood-soaked wall to the figure now standing in the doorway.

Wang Xiao stepped inside, his expression calm, as if he had merely strolled into a meeting, not into a room where death had just swept through.

His eyes, dark and glinting, fell on Mao Xiang.

"So," Wang Xiao said, his voice as casual as if he were discussing the weather, "you were the one giving the orders." His gaze flickered briefly to Li Bao\'s broken body before settling back on Mao Xiang.

Mao Xiang\'s body trembled involuntarily, his throat dry, words caught somewhere between terror and disbelief.

Five minutes later.

The once-arrogant Commander Mao Xiang sat slumped in his own chair, his body unrecognizable from the man who had confidently commanded an entire garrison just moments ago.

His fingernails were scraped down to raw flesh, his eyes gouged out, leaving only empty sockets.

His skin, or what remained of it, hung in patches, as if peeled away layer by layer.

He no longer looked human, more a twisted, frail husk glued to the seat, held captive by the very thing that had once symbolized his authority.

Wang Xiao, standing before him, spoke calmly, his voice devoid of emotion. "Below your chair, I\'ve placed a spike. It will increase in size by one centimeter every hour. Leaving your seat is impossible, and so is destroying the spike. You\'ll remain like this... forever, until death claims you."

"Whimper..."

Mao Xiang\'s lips trembled, but he didn\'t even dare beg for mercy.

His mind had already shattered beyond repair, crushed by the terror that radiated from the man in front of him.

Even if he wanted to, no plea could have saved him now.

His face, peeled of flesh and dripping with blood, was a scream of agony.

Silent tears and snot mixed with the red stains on his face, though his empty eyes could shed no more.

Wang Xiao turned, unbothered by the horror he left behind. "Evangeline Technologies..." he muttered, a name drawn from the dying commander\'s broken whispers.

As he walked away, leaving the burning garrison, the flames cast eerie flares that danced in the destruction around him.

The entire facility had been torn apart, reduced to rubble and ash.

But the command center—the heart of it all—remained intact.

Wang Xiao had ensured it wouldn\'t burn, standing as a monument to what had happened.

He wanted the authorities, the government, the so-called elites who dared meddle in his affairs, to come and witness the spectacle he had created.

He imagined their terrified faces as they realized just what sin they have committed.

A grin tugged at his lips as he disappeared into the night. \'Let them come. Let them see the fear that now rules their hearts...\'