VII VIII IX

"Minotaur is the guardian of the seventh circle. Pure violence. With his axe, he cut shadows in half at once, terrifying the others and sending them running. He was too strong with his pack of loyal servants, so we fled to the park."

In Hell, the park was transformed into a suicide forest, where Misha and the Black Rabbit hid from the Minotaur and his hounds, who quickly tracked down the victims. The half-bull almost killed the Black Rabbit, catching her off guard.

Mikhail shielded the girl with his hand at the last moment. The axe passed right through, cutting her off at the elbow. Misha's pain was unbearable, the scream echoed throughout the park.

"Horror!"

"The strength of the bones wasn’t yet sufficient. But this is where our drug differed from yours. It contained the genes of mollusks for the production of mucins - glycoproteins for mineralization, that is, for the creation of shells or bone tissue." Another dying moment pushed Mikhail's body to an even more abrupt and powerful adaptation. When the Minotaur raised his axe for the finishing blow, Misha's bone grew back at lightning speed. The guy chopped off the demon's hooves and finished him off. Using the enemy's flesh, Misha replenished the missing resources of the body and began to restore his hand.

"Full regeneration! I'm afraid to ask what at that moment…"

"It's better for you not to know. We’re very close. Then I was so overwhelmed with emotions and new knowledge that I wanted to end everything as soon as possible and went to the city of Dit - a hellish version of Moscow City."

The devil's dozen skyscrapers looked more like titans guarding the entrance to the last circles of Hell.

"On the eighth circle languished those who deceived those who didn’t trust: thieves, liars, bribe-takers, instigators of discord. And on the ninth - those who deceived those who trusted: traitors to their families, homeland, friends, benefactors, the divine and the human." "And… most of them lived in this "diamond" city within a city?" "That's right, here they indulged in the most terrible sins." Misha and the Black Rabbit entered the "Evolution" building and began to rise in a mirror elevator to the very top. While they were there, Mikhail saw endless reflections of himself and his companion, while simultaneously reading the thoughts of all the souls on the floors they passed by. Misha absorbed all this, and then moved to them, as if in dreams, exposing and showing their true nature.

Until suddenly the mirrors inside the elevator cracked and the couple found themselves in the air on the elevator platform alone, surrounded by skyscrapers. They began to move, the fog hiding their essence dissipated and giants appeared.

"Geryon is the guardian of the eighth circle, as well as Briareus, Ephialtes and Antaeus - giants guarding the ninth circle of hell, the guardian of which was… Lucifer - a giant humanoid three-headed dog."

"H-how can you deal with something like that?"

"Are you still surprised by this, although you know that they’re not real? I was more amazed by your Hidora! I didn’t fully understand whether it was real!"

"Yes, me too. But it seems that it was a monstrous construction created by nanorobots and a special ‘liquid’."

"In any case, the giants were only images — reflections of my subconscious. I only defeated them in my imagination, overcoming my fears, admitting my sins. Real pain and betrayal were ahead."

The couple went up to the top floor with a helipad. Misha thought it was an abstract pinnacle of evolution. he’d come as close as possible to his inner self, the source of his thoughts and will. He only had to “grab” it to gain absolute control over his body. Everything hidden was revealed to his consciousness.

“Then I didn’t know that I hadn’t defeated Lucifer and that he’d managed to deceive me.”

“Lily! We did it! I remembered everything!”

“Y-yes, my love…”

Misha dug around in his pocket, took out a box, and knelt in front of Lily. He looked into her eyes and showed her the ring.

“Lilia Lokman, will you marry me?”

Suddenly, the sound of helicopter blades was heard from above and a blinding spotlight appeared.

“S-sorry…” Lily said, sobbing.

“W-what?..”

A shot rang out from a rifle, the bullet passed through Lily’s heart and hit Misha.

“!?”

"The VVP company we were experimenting with wasn't going to let us live with such a 'weapon' in our hands. Or they found out about Lilia and me's true intentions. The thing is, we didn't trust VVP from the start. During the experiment, Lilia secretly found out what the company was really planning. We wanted to use them first, and then destroy them, or use the antidote hidden in the ring, as a last resort. But…"

"So, you went against almost the entire country? After all, the world is on the brink of war and…"

"What would you do if you found out the truth about the country?"

"I… in their hands, it would become absolute evil…"

Lilia fell dead, and Misha began to heal the wound, while the sniper tried to finish the job. Mikhail ran along the roof and, using the extending bone, pulled himself to the helicopter and dealt with the attackers.

"When Lilia was shot, I finally reached my goal. Whether I defeated Satan or took his place is a philosophical question. However, there were no more obstacles in front of me."

Mikhail paused and finished sadly.

"I hope that's enough?"

"W-what happened next and how did you penetrate my consciousness? And… why are you here?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

Mikhail smiled strangely, looking into Keshita's eyes.

"Get ready, there's real hell ahead."

Mikhail snapped his fingers, the recording continued. When Misha pierced the soldiers with a sharpened bone, he wondered what to do with the pilots, because he didn't know how to fly a helicopter. He didn't want to bring this down on civilians either. Then Misha grabbed one of the pilots by the head and read his thoughts, quickly learning to pilot, however…

"I decided to go even further."

"F-further?"

Mikhail transferred part of his genetic material through his hand directly into the body of the pilot, and then the second one, gradually rebuilding them into his copies with some changes. Their personalities were still preserved, but in a dormant mode deep in the layers of the subconscious. Misha took control of the consciousness, collecting them into his own local collective consciousness.

"M-madness…"

Afterwards, Misha supplied the corpses of the soldiers with his genes and directed the helicopter to the busy city center.

"This is only the beginning… The beginning of the apocalypse!"

When the helicopter was in the right place, Misha pushed the corpses down. When they fell on the asphalt and formed pools of blood, special "spores" evaporated from them, spreading Mikhail's genes along the streets, "infecting" everyone along the way and turning them into new copies of Misha.

"Kami-sama! This is genocide! Are you trying to play God!?"

"You didn't know?" Mikhail, smiling, looked at Keshita with a calm gaze.

"Mikhail is translated from Hebrew as godlike."

"You didn't want to kill innocent people!"

"Innocent?" Misha was surprised. "I understand your naivety. And this is not murder, I temporarily borrowed their bodies to unite for their own good."

Mikhail got to the Ostankino tower by helicopter and jumped onto it.

"At first I wanted to destroy this stronghold of propaganda, but then I found a better solution."

Misha took over the studio, turning its employees into copies of himself, and then went on air with his manifesto.

"Dear residents of Russia! I’ll not be verbose, most of you already understand what kind of country you live in. It's time to get rid of the oppression of dictators and build a better world together! I’ll lend you my power…”

“A coup d’état…”

“An uprising is a natural human right to resist oppression and get rid of usurpers.”

“That’s unrealistic, right? Just your imagination, possible options?”

“No. It’s still going on. I stayed on the Ostankino TV tower and, having adapted my body, used its capabilities to transmit my thoughts. That’s how I discovered other Crispers — test subjects using CRISPR-based drugs.”

“I-it’s that simple?”

“Not exactly. You haven’t noticed me for a long time. With the help of a kind of “mental” connection, I can only contact my own kind for now. My physical distribution is limited now, and there’s little time left.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh yeah, you were completely out of contact.” Mikhail ran his hand through his hair, shaking it.

“World War III has begun. In its most insane form.”

"Y-You're lying…" Keshita's breath began to falter.

Mikhail looked at Tamiya with anticipation, raised his hand, and snapped his fingers.

The show goes on!