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Eldritch Horror? No, I'm A Doctor
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The silence in the Grafting Room was absolute.
Axel stared at Emily, at the broken figure that supposedly contained five separate consciousnesses. Steven stood beside him, his face pale, trying to process what he was hearing.
"Five brains," Axel repeated slowly. "You put five brains in one body."
"Technically, I integrated five neural networks into one biological system," Nox corrected helpfully. "The brains are all connected now. Shared consciousness. Distributed processing. It's quite elegant, really."
"Elegant," Steven echoed, his voice flat.
"Yes. The surgical precision required was extraordinary. I had to map all the neural pathways, create new synaptic bridges, ensure the personalities could coexist without immediate psychological collapse." Nox tilted his head. "Though I suppose the long-term mental stability is questionable. This is experimental, after all."
Axel took a deep breath, forcing himself to think like a military officer rather than a horrified bystander. "We need to get her to medical. And Daniel. He's still unconscious."
"He fainted from the pressure," Nox observed. "Weak mental fortitude. He should recover in an hour or two."
"Right." Axel looked at Steven. "Colonel, help me get them to the vehicle."
Steven nodded, grateful for something concrete to do. He moved to Emily, carefully wrapping his jacket around her naked form. She didn't resist, didn't even seem to notice. Her eyes remained vacant, staring at nothing.
"Emily," Steven said gently. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes," five voices whispered from her mouth simultaneously. Different tones, different inflections, all speaking at once. "We hear you. All of us. Always. Forever."
Steven's blood went cold. He looked at Axel, who'd gone pale.
"Jesus Christ," Axel muttered.
They helped Emily stand. Her movements were uncoordinated, like five different people were trying to control the same limbs at the same time. She stumbled, and Steven caught her.
"Easy. We're going to get you help."
"Help?" The five voices laughed, a discordant sound. "What help is there for this? We are one now. Fused. Merged. There is no separation. No escape."
Axel picked up Daniel's unconscious body, slinging him over his shoulder. "Let's move. We need to get them to command center immediately."
They started toward the door, but Nox's voice stopped them.
"Oh, before you go."
All three of them turned. Well, two turned. Daniel was still unconscious.
Nox reached into his coat and pulled out something large. A crystallized organ, about the size of a basketball, with veins of orange and red running through it. Even from a distance, they could feel the heat radiating from it.
"I have this Fire Titan heart," Nox said casually. "That Brigadier General dropped it before the procedure. I assume he wanted me to use it for a grafting, but, well, circumstances changed."
Axel stared at the heart. That was Cataclysm-rank monster material. Worth millions on the black market. Enough power to boost someone from A-rank to S-rank if grafted properly.
"Keep it," Axel said quickly.
"Huh?"
"Keep it as an apology gift. From the military. For what Varyn tried to do." Axel's tone was firm. "Consider it compensation for the trouble."
Nox tilted his head. "Are you sure? This is valuable."
"I'm sure." Very sure. If keeping one Fire Titan heart prevents this doctor from becoming an enemy, it's worth a thousand times the cost.
"Well, if you insist." Nox tucked the heart back into his coat. Where it went, neither Steven nor Axel could see. The coat seemed to have more space inside than should be physically possible. "Thank you for the gift."
"No, thank you for not killing them," Axel replied.
"Oh, I considered it," Nox said cheerfully. "But this seemed more interesting from a medical perspective."
Interesting, Steven thought with mild hysteria. He calls creating a five-brained super soldier 'interesting.'
They made their way out of the Grafting Room, through the blood-stained hallway, past the reception desk, and out the front door. The door chime rang as they left.
Cling.
The fresh air hit them like a physical relief. Steven took several deep breaths, trying to clear the smell of blood from his lungs.
The Humvee was parked where they'd left it. Axel loaded Daniel into the back seat, then helped Steven get Emily settled beside him. She sat there, staring forward, occasionally whispering to herself in those five overlapping voices.
"I'll drive," Steven said. His hands needed something to do, something normal and mundane to focus on.
Axel nodded and climbed into the passenger seat.
Steven started the engine, put the vehicle in gear, and pulled away from Hector Clinic. In the rearview mirror, he could see Nox standing in the doorway, that plague doctor mask watching them leave.
Then the door closed, and the clinic looked normal again. Unassuming. Just another medical facility in the district.
They drove in silence for several minutes. The only sounds were the engine's hum and Emily's occasional whispering in the back seat.
Finally, Axel spoke. "We need to classify him."
Steven glanced at him. "Classify?"
"As a Phenomenon."
The word hung in the air between them. Phenomenon. The code name the Azareth Empire used for things that were unnatural, unexplainable by conventional science. Things that defied the normal rules of reality.
It was the Empire's system for cataloging anomalies. Events, entities, locations that operated outside standard laws. Things that couldn't be controlled through normal means, that required special protocols and extreme caution.
There were only seven registered Phenomena in the entire Empire. Things like the Eternal Gate in the north that never closed, or the Whispering Forest where reality itself bent. Events and entities that the Empire simply worked around rather than trying to control.
And now, apparently, there would be an eighth.
"You think he qualifies?" Steven asked, though he already knew the answer.
"He resisted an S-rank mental domination skill without effort," Axel said, his voice quiet but firm. "He emanates pressure that can incapacitate trained soldiers. He performs surgical procedures that shouldn't be possible. And he just created a human with five brains who's somehow still alive and functional."
"Fair points," Steven admitted.
"Plus," Axel continued, "you gained an actual skill from his procedure. Not a temporary buff. Not an item effect. An actual, permanent, system-registered skill. That alone defies everything we know about how the awakening system works."
Steven touched his eyepatch reflexively. "So what does classifying him as a Phenomenon mean? Practically speaking?"
"It means we don't fuck with him," Axel said bluntly. "It means we treat him like a natural disaster. Something to be aware of, something to work around, but not something we try to control or eliminate."
"And if he becomes hostile?"
"Then we evacuate the city and call in General Malvick." Axel's tone was grim. "And pray that one Legendary-rank hunter is enough."
In the back seat, Emily suddenly spoke. "He's not human. Never was. Wearing human skin but underneath is something else. Something that sees us as interesting specimens. Fascinating experiments. We felt it. All of us. When he looked at us, we weren't people. We were potential."
Steven's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "Emily, do you remember what happened? In the Grafting Room?"
"Everything," the five voices whispered. "We remember everything. Every cut. Every fusion. Every moment of our minds being torn apart and stitched back together. The General tried to control it. Tried to dominate the other minds. But there are four of us. Four against one. He can't win. He's trapped in his own nightmare. Eternal punishment. We are his hell now."
"Jesus," Steven muttered.
"The soldiers are screaming," Emily continued, her vacant eyes staring ahead. "Inside. Always inside. They can't get out. Can't escape. Their thoughts are our thoughts. Our memories are their memories. We know everything about each other now. Every secret. Every fear. Every regret. There is no privacy. No peace. Only us. Forever us."
"We need to get her to psychiatric immediately," Axel said, pulling out his phone. "This is beyond normal medical."
He dialed a number, waited for the connection. "This is Major General Axel Krane. Authorization code Alpha-Seven-Delta. I need an emergency psychiatric team assembled at command center. Full security clearance. Phenomenon-level containment protocols."
There was a pause as the person on the other end responded.
"No, this is not a drill," Axel said firmly. "We have a Class-A anomaly. Human subject with multiple consciousness integration. Immediate intervention required."
Another pause.
"I don't care what they're doing. Pull them off it. This takes priority. Krane out." He hung up and looked at Steven. "How long to command center?"
"Fifteen minutes at this speed," Steven replied, accelerating slightly. The Humvee's engine roared.
"Make it ten."
Steven pressed harder on the gas. Behind them, Daniel groaned softly, starting to regain consciousness. Emily continued whispering to herself, five overlapping conversations that made no sense individually but formed a terrible coherence together.
"We need to establish protocols," Axel said, pulling out a tablet. "Official classification. Response procedures. Everything."
"What category?" Steven asked.
"Phenomenon-08," Axel said, typing quickly. "Code name: The Doctor. Classification: Sapient anomaly. Threat level: Undetermined. Recommended response: Diplomatic engagement only. No hostile action without approval from General Malvick."
"What about his abilities?" Steven asked. "For the file."
Axel thought for a moment. "Confirmed abilities: Surgical grafting of monster parts to humans with permanent results. Mental resistance to S-rank domination effects. Pressure-based fear aura. Physical transformation including tentacle manifestation. Unknown upper limits."
"Suspected abilities?" Steven prompted.
"Everything," Axel said flatly. "Until proven otherwise, we assume he can do anything. That's what Phenomenon classification means. The rules don't apply."
"And his location?"
"Hector Clinic, medical district. Coordinates to be marked as Phenomenon Zone. No military operations within two-block radius without explicit authorization. Civilian access unrestricted." Axel looked up from the tablet. "We can't lock him down. Best we can do is know where he is and hope he stays cooperative."
"And if he moves?"
"We track him. Carefully. From a distance. And we pray he doesn't notice."
Steven shook his head. "This is insane. We're talking about one person like he's a strategic threat."
"Because he is," Axel replied. "Think about it, Steven. You got an S-rank skill from one procedure. One grafting. Now imagine if he's been doing these procedures on himself. For how long, we don't know. How many times, we can't guess."
The thought made Steven's blood run cold. "The tentacles from his head. That's not a skill. That's permanent modification."
"Exactly," Axel said. "Which means he's been grafting monster parts onto himself. Probably for years. Each procedure giving him new abilities, new powers. We have no idea what he's actually capable of."
"A walking collection of monster abilities," Steven said quietly. "All integrated into one body."
"And that's assuming he's even human underneath anymore," Axel added. "For all we know, there's more monster than man in there now."
In the back seat, Emily laughed. All five voices at once, discordant and wrong. "You finally understand. What we saw. What we felt. That's not a human wearing a mask. That's something else pretending to be a doctor. And you walked into its clinic. And you survived. Aren't you lucky?"
"Shut up, Emily," Steven said, but there was no heat in it. Just exhaustion.
"We can't shut up," the five voices replied. "We're always talking. Always thinking. Five minds, one mouth. We'll never know silence again."
Steven turned the Humvee hard around a corner, tires squealing. "Command center ahead. Two minutes."
"Good," Axel said. "Get them inside. Get them contained. And then we need to brief the General. All of this. Everything."
"And the Phenomenon classification?"
"Goes active immediately. I'll file the paperwork myself." Axel looked at Steven. "This stays between us for now. Only need-to-know. If word gets out that we have a Phenomenon-level entity operating a civilian clinic, there'll be panic."
"Agreed," Steven said.
The command center came into view. Military vehicles parked in neat rows. Guards at the gates. Safety. Normalcy. Everything the clinic wasn't.
Steven pulled up to the entrance. Medical personnel were already waiting, stretchers ready. Psychiatric specialists with sedatives and restraints. A full team to handle Emily.
They unloaded Daniel first, still mostly unconscious, then carefully extracted Emily. She went without resistance, still whispering to herself in five voices.
As they took her away, she looked back at Steven and Axel one last time.
"Thank you," the five voices said in perfect unison. "For getting us out. Even though we can never escape. Not really. We'll be five forever now. Until this body dies. And maybe not even then."
Then she was gone, wheeled into the medical wing.
Steven and Axel stood in the parking lot, watching the doors close behind her.
"I need a drink," Steven said finally.
"Make it two," Axel replied. "A very large two."
They walked toward the command center together, two military officers who'd just encountered something beyond their comprehension and lived to tell about it.