Blood ran from Genblade’s nose, flowing down his chin. He smiled, licking his lips of the red liquid.
“There you are. Was wondering when you’d come back out to play,” he teased.
Black Womb stared at Genblade, looking as if it wanted to say something. It opened its mouth to speak, but nothing came. After a moment it managed three words, each one sounding as though it were vomited up rather than spoken.“Black Womb lives!”
“Had a feeling you were going to say that,” Genblade snickered as he started to rise to his feet.
The Womb grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him straight across the room as if he were a rag doll. He slammed into another wall, smacking into a light hanging from the ceiling as he went. The light swung around for a moment, making shadows dance and jump everywhere. It blinked several times from the impact, creating a strobe effect and made it hard to focus on anything in the room. It couldn’t even focus on Genblade or where he was in the room, or even on its own hands.
When the light finally flickered out, Black Womb stared into the darkness and saw nothing. It put its clawed hands in front of it, preparing for the moment that Genblade came out of the shadows.
Suddenly, it felt an extreme rush of pain in its right side. It looked down and to its shock, he saw the end of Genblade’s blade sticking out of it. It crumpled over, straining its neck to look behind him.
“It’s all about skill.” Genblade smiled as he withdrew the blade, flicking it toward a nearby wall to clean the blood off of it.
He picked up Black Womb, elevating him and propping him up against the wall. He took out a small, sharp blade and jammed it into Black Womb’s right side. It sliced directly through the cancerous blob that the doctor had been so concerned with, and a small -shink- sound indicated that it went clean through the wall as well. Genblade let go of the Womb, letting the blade prop him up, its flesh tugging around it.
“This was absolutely pathetic. If you’re gonna keep going with power over skill, there’s a couple of things you should be made aware of. Number one...”
Shunk. Genblade stabbed Black Womb in the arm. The creature’s head raised, fully awake for the first time in several moments and really listening now, wanting to scream but unable to make the right sound.
“...your right side is your weak spot. It’s where your true self, the real Black Womb, resides. But you probably figured that out. Number two...”
Shunk. He stabbed it through the other arm.
“...That healing factor of yours’ll only go so far. If you tax it too much, or if I do, it’ll simply cut out. Number three...”
Shunk. He stabbed it through both feet, pinning them to each other and the wall.
“...Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY escapes death.”
Genblade stepped back and admired his work. Black Womb stood there, his body pinned into a cross position.
Black Womb’s mind reeled. He couldn’t focus on anything, his vision was blurry, and black around the edges. He felt the healing factor cut out. He lifted his head to face his attacker.
“A crucifixion,” Genblade sneered, stroking his chin as he admired his work. “It’d almost be poetic, if it wasn’t so damn funny.”
A voice crackled to life over a nearby intercom, just out of sight. “Excellent work, Adam... Excellent work.”
Black Womb stared down at the cold metal floor, now wishing that he could merely stand on it. It glared at its reflection in the blood, distorted and obtuse. It reflected how the creature felt, beaten both physically and psychologically.
Its blood mingled with that of the doctor’s assistants, splattered all over the walls and the floor, making it look like a scene from a B-list horror movie. As it stared down at the reflection, its eyes swelled in shock. Its body began to convulse and throb. Slowly and painfully, it began to transform into Xander Drew again. The dark liquid that had been clinging to him ever since this nightmare began finally let go as if it had just lost its grip. It splashed to the floor, revealing his flesh starting with his feet and working its way up to its eyes where it disappeared.
All that was left was Xander, naked and pinned to the wall, blood hemorrhaging from his wounds.
His eyes remained black for a moment, but when it passed they returned to normal. His skin was still covered with a thin layer of blood, a film left over from the change. He gasped for air as sweat and blood rolled down his face. He screamed long and loud, as if he was feeling the crucifix for the first time. Blood began to flow liberally from his hands, feet and side. As the floor around him began to fill with it, he noticed a small drain under him which it was all flowing into. His body began to shake as it ran out of fluids, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
Genblade stepped into the Womb’s field of vision again, bending down and placing his hand flat into the puddle of tar-like blood. When he brought it around to look at it, it was covered completely in the shiny black liquid, and he found himself staring at it intently.
“That should be enough, Adam. I believe it time to begin phase two,” came the voice behind the intercom.
Genblade stepped out of
