LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 16
As Stephanie and Harley continued to search through the sterile, decaying labs, frustration began to boil over. Every file they opened led to nothing—degraded papers, unreadable notes, and destroyed records.
Harley’s patience finally snapped. In a burst of anger, she grabbed a nearby desk and hurled it against the wall with a roar, the sound of metal and wood crashing reverberating through the abandoned lab. Stephanie jumped, startled by the outburst, and was about to scold Harley when something unexpected happened.
The force of the desk hitting the wall had disturbed the red biological matter, which instantly retreated under the glare of the UV light. As the red mass pulled away, it revealed a hidden door that had been obscured by the growth for years.
“Wait... look,” Stephanie said, moving closer.
They used the card Gigi had given them, and the door unlocked with a faint click. As they entered, the room had a different feel—it was less of a lab and more of a personal office. The air was stale, the papers scattered across the desk untouched for years. This place seemed to hold secrets no one had intended to find.
Rifling through the drawers and filing cabinets, they found several letters. The first one they opened sent a chill through both of them. It detailed the twisted ideology behind the Nocturnis project, calling them the next step in human evolution. The author of the letter claimed that a virus from Siberia was a "divine grace" for humanity, as it had led to the creation of the Nocturnis—a new species that was faster, more powerful, had enhanced regeneration, a longer lifespan, and improvements in almost every aspect.
But then the letter turned darker. It mentioned that only some humans were "lucky" enough to become Nocturnis, while others became something far worse: the Homo Nocturnis Ferals, otherwise known as Freaks. These Ferals were twisted versions of the Nocturnis who hated UV light and lost their humanity in the process.
Stephanie’s face tightened as she read, realizing the freaks they had been fighting were failed products of this experiment.
Harley opened another letter, this one addressed to someone’s wife. It contained a disturbingly personal tone as the writer described a “lucky case” where a girl had been successfully transformed into a Nocturnis female—the first successful female subject in this facility. As the letter continued, it became clear that the writer was talking about Stephanie. The revelation hit hard. The letter mentioned how Nocturnis had three genders: male, futa, and the rarest of all—female.
“They were talking about you,” Harley muttered, her eyes wide as she handed the letter to Stephanie.
The tone of the letter then shifted to a rant about how the "French fuckers" in the Paris facility had botched their experiments, implying that the facility in Berlin was much better at producing Nocturnis than the ones in France. The bitterness practically leaped off the page, and it painted a picture of global experimentation, each facility with its own agendas and successes—or failures.
Another letter they opened had an equally shocking revelation. It detailed the origins of the futanari myth, explaining that the general population had been misled into thinking it was just a natural mutation or evolution. The truth was much darker—the experiments had begun in the 1900s, and most futanaris had been experiment participants. Those who had awakened were often kidnapped back to the facilities to be further tested, while those who didn’t awaken were allowed to live their lives, oblivious to the experiments they had been part of.
Stephanie and Harley exchanged a look, the weight of the letters hitting them. These experiments weren’t just about them—this was something far bigger. The Nocturnis project was old, vast, and hidden in facilities all over the world. So far, they only knew about the Berlin and Paris facilities, but it was clear that this operation spanned far wider.
"This is huge," Harley said, her voice tinged with disbelief.
Stephanie nodded, her mind racing. “Our fathers... they knew all of this. They were part of it. And now we’re... part of it too.”
The room fell silent for a moment as the truth settled in. The experiment had been running for over a century, shaping the world in ways they couldn’t yet fully understand. But they were determined to find out more—especially about their transformation and how to control it.
"Let's check the rest of the facility. Maybe we can find more about this Homo Nocturnis," Stephanie said, her voice steady, despite the revelations.
After searching tirelessly through the facility, Stephanie and Harley finally found the main laboratory Gigi had mentioned. The lab was sprawling, filled with advanced equipment that had long since fallen into disrepair. Dust coated every surface, and the eerie red biological matter seemed to pulse faintly in the darker corners of the room.
As they searched, they located the item that appeared to be what Gigi wanted—some kind of data storage or research material related to his time there. Carefully stowing it in their packs, they turned their attention to the rest of the lab, hoping to find more information about the Nocturnis project.
But after scouring the area, they came up empty-handed. The files and data here were unrelated—another experiment entirely, something they couldn't make sense of. There was no further mention of Homo Nocturnis or the transformations Stephanie and Harley had undergone.
Frustrated but knowing they had no choice, they decided it was time to leave.
As they retraced their steps through the military base, they felt the weight of the secrets they had uncovered. But their journey was far from over.
When they arrived back at the entrance through which they had originally entered, their hearts sank. The entrance was destroyed—collapsed rubble and debris blocked the way, making it impossible to exit through the military base.
“Great.” Harley muttered, shaking her head as she surveyed the wreckage. “Now what?”
Stephanie scanned the surroundings, her mind working quickly. “There’s only one way left to go,” she said grimly, her eyes locking with Harley’s.
They both knew what she meant. The only way out was through the hospital—the other entrance Gigi had warned them about. But that wasn’t just any exit. The hospital was home to a horde of Freaks, thousands of them, waiting in the shadows.
“We can’t stay here,” Stephanie said, her voice steely. “We need to keep moving. If we’re lucky, we can find a way through without getting torn apart.”
Harley nodded, her resolve hardening. They had faced impossible odds before, and they’d made it this far. But the hospital was a different beast altogether.
With no other choice, they turned toward the hospital route.
As Stephanie and Harley arrived at the exit through the hospital, they moved cautiously, opening the heavy door in near silence. Inside, the place was packed with sleeping Freaks, their grotesque forms littering the dark, decayed hallways. Every step was a risk, but they crept forward with skill. Whenever a Freak stirred or seemed ready to make noise, Stephanie was quick to silence it—her knife plunging into their necks as she held a hand over their mouths, ensuring no sound escaped.
Once they reached the outside, the cold air hit them, and they paused for a moment, taking in their surroundings. But their relief was short-lived when they spotted a group of raiders near the hospital, unaware of the chaos they were about to unleash.
"Raiders," Harley muttered, her hand instinctively reaching for her AR. Without hesitation, she took aim and fired. The raiders didn’t even have a chance to react—each one fell before they could understand what hit them.
Just as the last raider dropped, a deafening explosion shook the ground beneath their feet. They whipped around just in time to see the hospital crumbling as multiple explosions ripped through it. Freaks—thousands of them—began pouring out of the collapsing building like a flood of nightmare creatures.
“They planted bombs!” Harley yelled over the sound of the explosion, her eyes wide as the swarm of Freaks surged forward.
There was no time to think. They both rushed to one of the raiders' bikes, with Harley jumping onto the back and Stephanie gunning the engine. The roar of the Freak horde grew louder behind them as Stephanie stepped hard on the acceleration. They sped off, the bike kicking up dust as they tore down the streets, thousands of Freaks chasing them in a wild frenzy.
As they weaved through the city, dodging abandoned cars and debris, Harley twisted in her seat, glancing back at the unrelenting mass of monsters. “Get out of the city! Go left through the forest!” she shouted over the wind.
“Where are we going?” Stephanie yelled back, her voice tense but steady as she pushed the bike to its limits.
“To Ivan’s camp,” Harley replied, a hint of a grin on her face. “Let them deal with this shit!”
Stephanie couldn’t help but smirk at Harley’s plan. They had no chance of fighting off that many Freaks alone, but if they could redirect the swarm to Ivan's raider camp, maybe they could kill two birds with one stone. The raiders had caused enough trouble—now it was time for them to face the consequences.
The bike skidded around the corner, leaving the city behind as they veered into the forest, the sounds of the Freaks fading slightly behind them. But they weren't out of danger yet—the swarm still followed, tearing through the city in a maddened chase. They just had to make it to Ivan’s camp and let chaos take its course.
As Stephanie and Harley tore through the forest, the sound of the thousand Freaks on their trail grew louder, the snarling horde relentlessly closing the distance. Branches whipped past them, and the forest blurred into a chaotic rush of trees and shadows as Stephanie pushed the bike as fast as it could go.
Suddenly, they burst into an open clearing, and before them stood Ivan’s raider fortress—a sprawling structure made of wood, stone, and salvaged materials, fortified to keep out dangers like the Freaks. The moment they appeared, raider guards on the walls spotted them and opened fire, bullets whizzing past them as they sped along the perimeter.
“Shit, they’re shooting at us!” Harley shouted, gripping Stephanie tighter.
“Hold on!” Stephanie yelled back, pulling hard to the left, veering out of the guards' view before any bullets could hit them. The guards, confused and irritated by the sudden appearance of two bikers and their quick disappearance, lowered their weapons, wondering what had just happened.
As Harley and Stephanie vanished back into the tree line, the raiders on the wall shrugged and went back to their posts, convinced it was a false alarm. Just as they began to relax, however, the ground began to shake under the weight of the incoming Freak horde.
The guards barely had time to react before the Freaks came pouring out of the forest, the massive swarm rushing toward the fortress like a wave of death. The Freaks seemed to lose interest in Harley and Stephanie, their attention now fully focused on the raider fortress.
“Looks like they’ve got bigger problems now,” Harley said with a grin as she glanced back, hearing the chaotic screams of the raiders as they realized what was coming for them.
Stephanie smirked. “I’d say that’s justice served.”
The two of them sped away, leaving the Freaks and Ivan’s camp to face each other. The sounds of gunfire and chaos erupted behind them, but Stephanie and Harley were already far enough away, their path clear as they rode deeper into the forest.
As Stephanie and Harley reached the top of a cliff, they parked the bike and stood side by side, looking down at Ivan's fortress below. The chaos was unimaginable—thousands of Freaks were swarming the structure, trampling over one another in their frenzy to breach the walls. It didn’t take long before they began to climb over each other, piling up until they managed to overrun the defenses, pouring into the fortress like a tidal wave.
From their vantage point, Stephanie and Harley could see the raiders inside scrambling to fight back, but it was clear they were overwhelmed. The fortress was being devoured from the inside out by the horde, and the sounds of gunfire and screams echoed up to where they stood, distant but chilling.
As they watched, something caught Stephanie's eye. In the midst of the chaos, standing tall on a balcony overlooking the fortress, was a big blond man—his broad shoulders unmistakable even from this distance. It was Ivan from what Harley described him.
Despite the chaos below, Ivan's piercing gaze locked directly onto them, as if he could see them standing there on the cliff, thousands of meters away. His expression was cold, calculating, and even in the face of the Freak invasion, he didn't look afraid. Instead, it was as though he was memorizing their faces, committing them to memory.
Stephanie felt a chill run down her spine as she met his gaze from afar.
Then, after a long moment, Ivan turned away and disappeared back into the fortress, vanishing into the chaos below. Moments later, they saw him emerge with a small group of raiders, escaping out of the back of the fortress, leaving the rest of his men to their fate.
“He saw us,” Harley said quietly, her voice filled with tension.
Stephanie nodded, her eyes still fixed on the spot where Ivan had been standing. “Yeah. And he’s not going to forget it.”
They both stood in silence for a moment longer, watching the fortress fall apart under the weight of the Freak horde. Ivan may have escaped, but they knew they hadn't seen the last of him.
With one last glance at the destruction below, Stephanie revved the engine of the bike, and they sped off.
Ivan
