Chris's POV
I continued making my way through the desolate lands of Mordor with Joseph beside me, both of us riding the lionesses while the giant male lion stayed slightly ahead, accompanied by our small unit of Pascal clones and our two modified rhinoceroses.
So far, this excursion into another world felt more like a particularly grim sightseeing trip than an actual dangerous mission.
We'd run into about twenty Orcs a few minutes earlier, and honestly, they hadn't even been enough to properly warm up my muscles. I'd sent the first few flying several meters with a handful of punches while the Pascal clones calmly dealt with those trying to surround us.
Joseph had been even less subtle than I was.
The largest one in the group, an Orc covered in thick metal armor, had probably assumed his equipment gave him an advantage right up until Joseph simply closed his hand.
The armor immediately contracted around its owner.
The metal deformed like aluminum under Joseph's control before crushing the Orc inside his own protection.
I'd grimaced at the sound.
"Couldn't you have just broken his neck?"
Joseph had shrugged.
"He put all that metal at my disposal. I wasn't going to be rude."
The only real advantage of these encounters was that we didn't have to carry the bodies around. Gerald had configured his System so that simply touching a dead enemy allowed us to send it directly into his grinder and recover the resources needed to create new units.
The rules were different for living prisoners.
Gerald had explained that we first had to subdue them before we could transfer them, which was far too much effort for the average Orc soldier when they seemed to be crawling around this region by the thousands.
So I'd decided to reserve that treatment for officers, captains, or anyone who looked important enough to possess useful intelligence.
The others could go straight into the grinder after they died and contribute to our expedition in a much more productive way.
We resumed our advance until Joseph suddenly stopped beside me.
He narrowed his eyes as he stared at something in the distance before pointing toward a dark structure that was barely distinguishable against the volcanic landscape.
"Hey, Chris, look. There's a fortress. Could make a decent base for our future operations."
I followed his finger and studied the structure for a few seconds.
Calling it a fortress was rather generous, considering several sections of the walls had been torn open and some of the towers seemed to still be standing only because they hadn't realized they were supposed to collapse yet.
"Looks more like a bunch of raised walls, considering how many breaches I can see from here."
Joseph smiled.
"We've used worse places as bases."
"Unfortunately, yes."
I continued studying the ramparts.
Several figures were moving along the walls, and I could see enough activity inside to tell that the place was still occupied by an Orc garrison.
"Until we find something better, it'll do. We'll clear the place out and, more importantly, try to grab an officer alive. With any luck, he'll be able to tell us exactly where we are and what's worth checking out in the area."
Joseph immediately nodded, and we began preparing our approach.
I had no intention of sending all our resources into an unknown fortress without keeping something behind us in case this world suddenly decided to throw an unpleasant surprise our way.
So we left the Pascal clones with the two rhinoceroses in a rocky area far enough away to keep them hidden from the ramparts.
They would serve as our fallback position and could quickly intervene if Joseph and I discovered something considerably more dangerous than a few dozen Orcs.
I was just about to move forward when something suddenly appeared in my field of vision.
I froze as a man materialized a few meters away from us through the System.
Blond.
Dark sunglasses.
Long coat.
I stared at his face for a few seconds.
"Oh no."
Joseph turned his head toward me.
"What?"
I pointed toward the newcomer.
"Tell me you see the problem too."
Joseph studied him carefully before understanding.
"He looks a lot like Wesker."
"Way too much like Wesker."
The stranger didn't seem particularly pleased by our reaction. He calmly adjusted his sunglasses before approaching us.
"Zeno. Gerald assigned me to your squad."
I remained silent for a few seconds as I looked him over. After all the creatures, clones, and alternate versions Gerald had collected over the years, meeting someone who looked like Wesker wasn't even in the top ten strangest things I'd ever seen anymore.
"Chris Redfield. That's Joseph."
Zeno tilted his head slightly.
"I know."
"Of course you do."
I quickly explained the situation and our objective. The fortress was occupied by Orcs, we wanted to eliminate the garrison, capture at least one officer alive, and keep the structure as a forward position if it proved solid enough.
Zeno studied the fortress for several seconds without answering. His gaze moved across the various breaches, the sentries visible on the ramparts, and the main entrance before he calmly drew two long blades.
"Start running."
I frowned.
"Why?"
"Otherwise, you'll be too late."
And he disappeared.
I didn't even see him leave.
One second, Zeno was standing in front of me with his two blades.
The next, there was no one there, and a scream suddenly rang out from inside the fortress.
Then a second.
A third followed almost immediately.
I slowly turned my head toward Joseph.
He was already looking at me with a huge grin.
"I think I like him."
Another scream echoed from behind the walls, followed by the metallic sound of a weapon hitting the ground.
I sighed.
"Gerald sent us another monster."
Joseph started running toward the fortress.
"You seriously going to let him kill everything before we get there?"
I looked toward the main entrance before smiling as well.
"Absolutely not."
I immediately took off after him, gradually accelerating until I was charging toward the walls at full speed.
The Orcs were already shouting orders inside while the sentries desperately tried to understand what had just entered their fortress.
Above the ramparts, I caught a glimpse of Zeno passing behind an Orc for a fraction of a second.
His two blades flashed.
Then he disappeared again, leaving his opponent to collapse a few moments later.
Joseph burst out laughing beside me.
"Hurry up, Chris! He's seriously not going to leave anything for us!"
"I'm coming!"
The main gate was rapidly getting closer, and several Orcs were finally beginning to realize that two more enemies were charging straight at them from outside.
I took a deep breath before launching myself into the charge.
Durthang's main gate was enormous, completely reinforced with plates of black metal, but with my current strength, it wasn't much of an obstacle anymore.
I simply kept accelerating until the very last moment before slamming into the gate at full speed.
The explosion of wood and metal echoed throughout the entire fortress.
One of the two doors was literally ripped off its hinges and flew through the entrance hall like a gigantic battering ram, crushing about ten Orcs who'd made the very poor decision to stand directly behind it.
"Entrance is clear!" I shouted as I stepped through the debris.
The Orcs still standing didn't even have time to reorganize.
Joseph extended one hand toward a warrior and ripped the enormous greatsword from his grasp with his metal manipulation. The weapon then began spinning around him at insane speed before tearing through an entire group, slicing the soldiers in half as though their armor didn't even exist.
Meanwhile, Zeno was practically invisible.
Every now and then, I caught a flash of his blades or saw a spray of blood erupt behind a sentry, but most of the Orcs died without ever understanding where their killer had come from.
Even Joseph, despite being used to Gerald's monsters by now, raised an impressed eyebrow.
The capture of Durthang was over in less than fifteen minutes.
Between my strength, Joseph's powers, and Zeno's absurd speed, the garrison never managed to organize any real defense, and the last survivors were quickly cornered inside the command room.
In the end, the most complicated part wasn't the battle.
It was the interrogation.
We'd captured the officer alive as Gerald had requested, except none of us understood a single word of his language.
After fifteen minutes of particularly convincing rough treatment, his morale completely collapsed, and Gerald transferred him directly into his Factory so he could extract his memories.
"Well, at least he'll be speaking fluent Gerald soon," Joseph joked.
Once the officer was gone, Zeno revealed another aspect of his usefulness.
He swept through the entire fortress at such speed that he looked more like a gust of wind than a human being. In less than a minute, he'd touched every corpse and sent several hundred bodies directly into Gerald's grinder.
Joseph and I used that time to systematically search the fortress.
We discovered a reasonably well-stocked armory, several food stores, and, most importantly, the command chamber, where a massive map of Mordor covered almost an entire wall.
I immediately pulled out my phone and photographed the map from several different angles.
The markings were written in the Orcish language, but Gerald could probably translate them using the officer's memories, making this discovery far more valuable than a few crates of weapons.
As soon as the Pascal clones arrived with the modified animals, I contacted the logistics team in Raccoon City.
I requested another hundred clones, fortification supplies, and an Aquila for Zeno so we could greatly expand our reconnaissance capabilities and intercept Orc convoys more effectively.
The response didn't come immediately.
Gerald explained that he preferred to convert all the dead Orcs into resources before starting production of new units, which kept the grinder occupied for nearly two hours since it first separated the metal from their armor into iron ingots before breaking down the Orcs themselves.
When the transfer finally arrived, the difference was spectacular.
A hundred Pascal clones appeared in Durthang's courtyard alongside the Aquila we'd requested, while several crates of heavy weapons were deposited near the ramparts.
Inside, we found several heavy machine guns specially designed by Heisenberg.
The clones immediately began installing them along the walls, aiming the barrels toward the main approaches and gradually transforming the ruins of Durthang into a genuine forward fortress.
Not long afterward, Gerald called me back with the information he'd extracted from the officer's memories.
A massive fortress called Gorath-Dûm was located about two hours away by Aquila.
It served as a major military hub for the armies in this region of Mordor. They passed through it on their way to a plain called Udûn before heading toward the Black Gate and pouring into what the Orcs called the Free Peoples' lands.
"I want you to get close, but don't launch an assault right away," Gerald specified. "I'm going to release a new Nemesis in front of the fortress. Let him fight alone and just clean up whatever he leaves behind."
I agreed without hesitation.
If Gerald was this determined to make that Nemesis evolve, there had to be a good reason.
So we took off toward Gorath-Dûm aboard the Aquilas, leaving the clones and our modified animals behind.
The journey wasn't completely uneventful, since several Orc convoys were traveling along the roads between the two fortresses.
Each time, we dove down from the air and quickly eliminated them, adding roughly two hundred more bodies to Gerald's resource reserves.
When the gigantic walls of Gorath-Dûm finally appeared on the horizon, we chose to land behind a line of hills to remain out of sight.
The place was far more impressive than Durthang: enormous ramparts, towers bristling with spikes, and a garrison that probably numbered in the thousands.
A violet light suddenly appeared in front of us, and a massive figure slowly emerged from it.
The Nemesis stood roughly three meters tall and possessed a surprisingly human appearance, with monstrous musculature that almost reminded me of Tintin, although his face remained far more disturbing.
Without saying a word, the giant turned his head toward Minas Morgul and began walking.
A few seconds later, his walk became a run, and he charged alone toward the fortress, completely ignoring the difference in numbers between himself and the thousands of Orcs waiting for him.
Zeno watched the scene curiously before crossing his arms.
"We just wait?"
I smiled as I watched the giant steadily close the distance.
"I guess you're still new, so let me explain something. That guy isn't just some ordinary Tyrant. He's probably the most dangerous biological weapon Gerald has."
Zeno turned his attention back toward the Nemesis, who had already crashed into the first lines of Orcs like a living meteor.
"Gerald often describes him as a low-cost version of himself. His stability is much worse, and his appearance will become increasingly monstrous as the fighting continues, but he has a completely absurd evolutionary ability. The more powerful enemies he fights, the stronger he becomes."
An explosion echoed against the walls as the Nemesis hurled a troll into one of the towers.
"That's exactly why we're letting him take the lead. Our job is to clean up behind him... and watch just how far he's capable of evolving."
I continued watching the spectacle from a safe distance through my tactical binoculars.
The Nemesis was advancing straight toward Minas Morgul without making the slightest attempt to take cover, tearing through the Orc ranks with punches powerful enough to send several soldiers flying with every impact.
The Orcs were still trying to use their superior numbers to overwhelm him.
Spears plunged into his sides, swords opened long wounds across his arms, and several arrows remained embedded in his back, but none of the injuries seemed capable of slowing him down for long.
Every time a blade left his flesh, the tissue behind it began closing almost immediately. Some wounds disappeared within seconds, while deeply embedded projectiles were gradually pushed out by his regeneration before falling to the ground.
"He's not even slowing down," Zeno remarked.
"So far, they haven't given him any reason to."
I noticed movement behind the front lines, however, and adjusted the magnification on my binoculars. The Orcs were hurriedly moving aside to make way for several much larger figures approaching from inside the fortress.
"Ah. Now this is getting interesting."
Ogres standing five to six meters tall lumbered toward the battlefield, each one massive enough to tower over the Nemesis in his current form. Some carried enormous clubs or chunks of metal crudely fashioned into weapons, while others seemed perfectly willing to fight using nothing but their fists.
But they weren't alone.
Several Olog-hai accompanied them, some slightly smaller than the ogres but far better equipped, their thick bodies protected by plates of armor and carrying enormous weapons suited to their size.
One of them carried a mace whose head must have weighed as much as a man, while another wielded a massive two-handed axe. Unlike the ordinary Orcs, they didn't rush their opponent in a disorganized mob and seemed intelligent enough to try surrounding him.
"Those should at least manage to hurt him," Joseph commented.
"That's exactly what we want."
The first ogre came within range and struck the Nemesis with a massive backhand.
The biological colossus was lifted off his feet by the force of the impact and sent crashing through several Orcs before slamming into a wall in a cloud of dust and stone.
He had barely begun getting back up when an Olog-hai charged him.
Its enormous axe came down violently and buried itself deep in the Nemesis's shoulder, splitting his flesh almost all the way down to his upper chest.
The Nemesis finally unleashed a roar that echoed all the way to our position.
"There we go," I muttered. "Now they've got his attention."
He closed one hand around the axe handle before the Olog-hai could pull it free. With a brutal jerk, he dragged his opponent toward him and drove his other fist straight into its face, sending the creature flying several meters backward despite its considerable weight.
A second Olog-hai immediately took advantage of the opening and slammed its mace into his ribs.
The impact was powerful enough to bend the Nemesis sideways, and I clearly saw his rib cage cave inward under the blow.
The ogres then threw themselves at him almost simultaneously.
One grabbed him by the arm while another struck him in the back, with the Olog-hai continuing to hammer his body with their weapons whenever an opening presented itself.
For the first time since the assault began, the Nemesis was genuinely bleeding heavily.
His torso was covered in deep gashes, several pieces of flesh hung from his back, and one of his arms had been bent at an angle that would have permanently ended the fight for almost any other creature.
"They're massacring him," Zeno observed.
I kept my binoculars raised.
"Look closer."
Something was already beginning to change.
The deformed arm suddenly snapped back into place with a sharp crack.
The wounds gradually stopped bleeding, and his muscles began swelling around the injuries as the damaged fibers rebuilt themselves.
His body was growing as well.
At first, the difference was subtle enough to go unnoticed amid the fighting, but it quickly became obvious. The Nemesis, who had stood around three meters tall when he'd first appeared, was now well over four meters and continuing to gain mass.
An ogre tried to hit him again, but this time, the Nemesis caught its fist.
He didn't move back.
The Nemesis's fingers closed around his opponent's hand before he gave a violent pull. The ogre lost its balance and received a headbutt powerful enough to break its nose and send it staggering backward.
The Nemesis passed the five-meter mark a few minutes later.
From that moment onward, the balance of power truly began to shift.
The ogres no longer physically dominated him, and the Olog-hai now had to attack together just to force him back a few steps.
His fighting style gradually began to change as well.
He was no longer content to simply absorb attacks before responding with straightforward blows. He started taking advantage of his increased size, grabbing ordinary Orcs and hurling them at the larger fighters or simply using his enemies themselves as improvised weapons.
One Olog-hai still managed to bury its axe in his abdomen.
The Nemesis almost calmly looked down at the weapon lodged deep in his stomach before grabbing the creature by the throat.
He lifted it into the air.
Then slammed it into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
On the third impact, the Olog-hai stopped moving.
"Charming," Joseph commented.
"Effective."
The Nemesis then ripped the axe out of his stomach and hurled it at another ogre. The weapon spun heavily through the air before burying itself in its shoulder, giving the biological colossus the opportunity to charge straight into it and knock it to the ground.
Meanwhile, his growth continued.
Six meters.
Then more.
The wounds that had covered his body only a few minutes earlier had almost completely disappeared. His musculature had become considerably more massive, and his skin was thickening in certain areas, as though his body was already developing new defenses specifically adapted to the weapons he'd just faced.
By the time the Nemesis finally surpassed seven meters in height, the fight had practically stopped being a fight at all.
He now towered over even the Olog-hai.
One of the ogres charged with a roar and tried to slam into him with its full weight. The Nemesis absorbed the impact without taking a single step backward, wrapped his arms around the creature's torso, and slowly lifted it off the ground.
Even from this distance, I could almost imagine the ogre's surprise.
The Nemesis hurled it straight into a group of Olog-hai.
Several of them were knocked off their feet by the impact, and the colossus immediately threw himself at them. His fist came crashing down on the first with enough force to crack the ground, then a backhand sent a second fighter flying through the ranks of Orcs still trying to support their heavy troops.
Zeno lowered his binoculars slightly.
"He just gained four meters in the middle of a fight."
"I warned you."
"And he's completely healed."
I smiled as I watched the Nemesis grab another Olog-hai by the arm before sending it crashing into the walls of Gorath-Dûm.
"That's why Gerald wanted us to stay back."
The Orcs were beginning to retreat from him now.
Even the ogres were hesitating to continue the fight, while the last Olog-hai still standing desperately tried to reform a defensive line in front of the fortress entrance.
I slowly lowered my binoculars.
"Get ready."
Joseph turned his head toward me.
"We're going in?"
"Not yet. We'll let him keep going as long as they can give him something worthwhile to fight. But we can start collecting the bodies he left behind so we don't overwhelm Gerald's grinder all at once."
(Author's note: And that's it for Chris's POV for now, since his tasks are going to be fairly repetitive. The next POV sections will focus on Wesker. I should also mention that I'm not very good with Middle-earth geography, especially since things never seem to be placed exactly the same way from one map to another, so please don't spam me about the geography. ^^ I've also added creatures from the Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War games to expand the bestiary.)