V.I.R.A.L

Chapter 63: Bad Omens

Since the incident where their drones attacked streamers, a thick haze of fog has swept over the capital of Rhinefield with no real sign of the cause nor any signs of stopping. As the week went by the fog only thickened with even some cases of people growing sick, strange enough though the fog was a presence not seen by everyone, only a fair few numbers of individuals were affected. With no evidence in why or how the fog has only grown taking the whole city by storm.

Iris is one such person he has been deeply affected by this strange power. She stood in the middle of what used to be a jam-packed place for the streamers, the middle of the robust shopping centre was for the first time dead. A few people were walking around although to Iris; she would have no idea until she was literally in front of them, causing a few arguments. To accompany her this time was her sister, who was worried about Iris. It was rare these days for Alice and her to be seen together in public, never during a stream. However, Iris wanted to stream her ordeal and get some insight from other streamers who too were troubled by the fog. Iris looked around troubled as she stopped taking a breather. "I'm not used to it being this quiet."

Alice looked around utterly unaffected by the fog. Although people were going around their daily activities, there was a lack of streamers. "The Alice must agree with you on this. Usually, you can't walk by this place without streamers meeting the eye to eye. Alice must ask, however, are you, alright, little sis?"

Iris cleared her throat nodding. "I'm just fine. We've just walked too far, that's all."

"The Alice concludes we have only been walking for ten minutes." She whispered. "Shall we head back?"

"No. I can keep going. I need to discover the truth."

"Coming out here will not solve anything. Alice suggests you wait for Team Rhapsody to come back from their trip and work this out. You cannot do this on your own."

"That's why I have you know?"

"But to Alice, there is no fog. What good will she do if she cannot see the fog?"

Iris looked at the faint outline of her sister from the depts of the fog grunting. "It doesn't make any sense. Why is it some streamers are consumed by this fog yet others don't see a thing."

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"Whatever the reason it has put a huge hit on V.I.R.A.L, many streamers are too scared to stream these days. The few who do end up missing."

"Why is it that the fog controls me yet you are fine?"

"Alice is just as clueless. I guess it might have something to do with the cult. Overall conclusion, Alice has no conclusion."

"The Cult of Vanguard and Paradox, huh? You might just be onto something."

"I guess…" Iris began to feel dizzy as she stumbled back. Alice caught her feeling her head. "It appears you have a fever; Alice concludes you should get some rest. We shall head back."

"Damn it; I was hoping to have figured something out. Do I have to wait for Rhapsody to do everything for me?" Iris debated losing every internal argument she had with herself. "Fine, I'm switching off the stream."

As she was ready to turn the stream off the small notification of a donation came up. It wasn't too familiar for Iris to receive such a treat, so she took each one to heart. Opening it, she felt all the life leave her body—an empty donation from none other than P4R4D0X. Turn around. Iris gulped unable to move as she just stared at her screen, scared out of her mind. Refusing to obey the instructions another donation came through. An empty donation. Iris Hawthorne, I said turn around! Iris scrunched her face together, snapping around finding nothing but the endless fog. Her eye began to twitch as she felt at ease. Her phone went off one last time. One final donation from P4R4D0X. Iris, you are not worthy. As she looked up, a dark figure engulfed in the fog appeared in front of her. Iris freaked out, dropping her phone as she fell backwards. This caught the attention of Alice, who watched her idly. "Is there something wrong, Iris?"

"Where did this thing come from?!"

"Alice sees nothing."

Iris was taken back by those comments as the fog creature began slowly walking towards her. Each step made a sharp screech as its long claws were dragged against the floor. She jolted up, stepping away as the paradox didn't stop. "This isn't funny, Alice, this thing. It's right in front of me!"

"There is nothing there, the overall conclusion, Iris is unwell. We should head home immediately."

Iris was left dumbfounded. She couldn't quite understand as a matter of fact how Alice could not see the thing tailing her. She concluded it must have been a creature of the fog, one which only she could see. Knowing this, she was put slightly at ease. Until now the fog hadn't harmed Iris. Although she had felt wheezy and tired more often, she had never taken any remote sort of damage. Knowing the legend of P4R4D0X, she was well aware the being would drive its victim's insane, stalking them and causing suicide. There was never once a case of murder. Remembering this, she laughed off the paradox, choosing to ignore it.

As she turned back to Alice, the paradox was now in front of her. She couldn't help but jump from the sight as the thing slashed at her. Iris held her arm out, which was cut through. She stumbled back as her sleeve was ripped off and a broad yet shallow cut appeared. This caught the eye of Alice, who watched idly. Iris was caught entirely off guard, although the attack didn't hurt that much it defiantly freaked her out more than anything. Because of this Iris retaliated calling a cube which spun around striking the paradox with a quick motion. The cube, however, passed through the thing like it was nothing—a phantom to the fog. Iris gasped stepping back again as the creature began scrapping its claws against the floor as it began to speed up slowly. Iris blind by the fog just kept attacking the phantom losing all sense on reality with no train of thought on the people around her.

Alice stepped back almost struck by Iris' mindless attacks as she noticed each separate attack was getting closer to hitting innocent bystanders who also watched in confusion at what the streamer was doing. The next attack this time struck Alice as she held her arm up blocking the attack. Alice took no real damage but was more troubled that her sister was losing her mind over something she didn't understand. However, she didn't do anything to try and stop her. Instead, she kept watching looking for some kind of clue into what Iris was being attacked by. It was at that split moment Alice caught something. A faint scratch mark on the wall next to her sister. This was all the evidence she needed as she prepared an attack.

Iris was having no luck as the phantom drew closer. Having used all her attacks on its Iris was slowly losing her strength and willpower to fight after seeing little progress done. Not paying a single bit of attention to what she was doing Iris unknowingly stumbled into an onlooker who was filming the ordeal. Falling to the floor, she glanced up as the paradox stood over her, ready to strike. As it did, a blinding light consumed the area as the phantom was pinned to the wall, a stray arrow of light piercing its heart. Iris turned to see Alice holding her finger forward-looking concerned. "How troublesome. Iris should have been able to take down this monster."

Iris stood up with a shocked look. "Wait, you can see it?"

"Indeed, Alice can. When she struck the creature dead, the illusion powers concealing it from Alice faded. Today's conclusion, Iris could not harm the creature one bit."

"No, shit. I can't believe I let a pawn of P4R4D0X get to me…"

"Alice, too, is surprised. You even injured an onlooker there."

"Oh, crap! Sorry." She yelled, helping them up. The onlooker ran at the sight of the phantom. "You couldn't see it like you can't see the fog. Could it be only people who can't see the phantoms can harm them?"

Alice nods clicking a pen over and over, keeping herself occupied. "No matter. It didn't harm you at all. The legend of P4R4D0X is a strange one, I guess."

"Didn't hurt me but…" She stopped seeing her torn arm untouched. She flinched unsure if she imagined it or not. "We need to find a way to stop this thing."