Chapter: 115
A laboratory with walls entirely made of glass. The stark white bed was the only hint that this was a living space.
“Damn…”
A man with dark blue hair, looking like he’d just rolled in dirt, was thrown in the middle of the room, bound by thick ropes.
He twisted his body to peek at the neighboring glass cells. Kids were huddled in the transparent rooms, displayed like specimens in a museum.
The man gritted his teeth and tried to summon his magic to escape the ropes, but something interfered, scattering his magic like confetti.
Click, clack.
Just then, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed down the long corridor outside the glass rooms.
“Is this the intruder?”
“He looks pretty sturdy, right? Just what we needed for a human test subject. Talk about luck!”
Two figures strolled toward his glass cell: one was an intelligent lizard-like monster, and the other was a demon with a horn growing from one side of his head—definitely a low-tier demon from his scrappy appearance.
The man lay there, feeling pretty defeated but soaking up the information they were blabbing about.
‘They want to experiment on me, huh?’
He glanced next door. A small spirit with sky-blue skin was curled up, not moving an inch.
‘They needed a human test subject? So why do they have spirits locked up?’
From what he knew, this lab had been hoarding spirits like they were going out of style—nearly driving them to extinction. The slave market was only interested in spirits, not humans.
But suddenly, they needed a human test subject, out of the blue?
‘What on earth are they researching here?’
He had two goals for crashing this place. First, he wanted to free the trapped spirits, and second, figure out what kind of mad experiments were going down at the Demon King’s lab.
Given that this was a Demon King-sponsored research facility, the security was off the charts.
Thanks to some serious prep work, he made it to where the spirit kids were trapped, but he fell right into the last trap.
Crack.
He quickly began cutting the ropes with a tiny metal piece sewn into his sleeve, eyes sharp with determination.
‘I’ll make my move when the chance comes. Until then, I need to gather intel.’
Just as he organized his thoughts, he heard a distant scream from the glass room.
[ Ugh! It hurts! It hurts! Mom! Mom! ]
“…!”
The scream belonged to a spirit child, whose face looked unbelievably swollen. The other kids perked up, eyes locked on the one screaming.
Spirits are playful little beings, but they cherish their friends. Pure-hearted as always, they inched closer to the room of the screaming child, even though they knew what was about to go down.
Through the transparent glass, their worried glances and teardrops began to fall.
[ Mother… ]
[ Mom, mom, Annie is hurting! ]
[ … ]
The spirit’s voice floated in the air like a haunting lullaby, but no miracle materialized.
[ Guh, guh! ]
The child’s face puffed up so much, they couldn’t form words anymore. The man etched the horrifying sight into his mind, almost like it would make him shed tears of blood.
[ Mo…m… ]
That was the last thing the child got out before…
Boom!
The child exploded. Blue liquid, totally different from human blood, splattered across the glass walls. Even knowing that spirits would eventually return to nature and be reborn, the other spirits couldn’t hide their sorrow.
“Gather every drop of that liquid! All spirit byproducts are useful.”
As the demon yelled that out, the assistants dressed in hazmat suits entered the glass room. The spirit children could only watch as their friend’s remains got scooped into bottles.
All they did was search for their mothers, somewhere far off, crying softly.
Crack.
The man ground his teeth, imprinting the ghastly scene into his mind over and over again. He wouldn’t ever forget this.
“I believe Melon was in charge of this experiment, right? Tell him the test subject was discarded and a new one will be assigned with reduced dosage.”
Everyone in the lab treated this horrific treatment of spirits like it was just another Tuesday. That’s the kind of place it was in the Demon King’s territory.
*
Leading the front of the ten groups, Lily muttered while eyeing the well-kept path.
“Who would’ve thought a path would exist here?”
“Right?”
Lily’s secretary, Monica, nodded with a chuckle.
“How did Lian oppa know about this path?”
“Maybe he’s been here before? Or got some insider info…”
“If it’s information you can find in Cardishian, I should know it…”
The two giggled and bantered, picking up their pace since if they slowed down, the groups behind would have to halt.
But they were careful not to rush. Being at the front meant they had to sense any danger first.
As they scanned their surroundings intently, they suddenly froze.
Lily raised a hand to signal the eight members trailing them to stop, then ducked into the bushes to peep at something suspicious.
“Lian oppa said there would only be ruins…”
At the end of their sight stood a man with a sword at his waist, guarding what seemed to be an entrance.
“No way that’s a ruin.”
“Right? Looks like a functioning facility to me.”
Lily quietly backed off and pulled out a communication crystal, quickly relaying what she saw to Noah.
“It wasn’t a ruin?”
Lian exclaimed, wide-eyed, before falling into a serious thought.
“It was a ruin in the original story…”
He understood that having changed the fates of many, he couldn’t rely too much on the original plot.
But he never thought the changes would mess with geography and buildings, only events and relationships.
“Finding another path is a priority right now.”
Lian pulled out a map from his bag and began studying it.
“The building may not be a ruin, but the path from the original story still exists. That side path from the original should still be here. Let’s route around there.”
Before long, Lian guessed the location of the side path described in the original story.
“Noah, let’s switch things up and take a new route—”
He didn’t even finish his sentence.
[ Ahhh! ]
[ No! Stop it! ]
Crackle!
Lily’s scream burst through the communication crystal, then silence followed. Noah’s and Lian’s faces solidified. Noah quickly contacted Nero, who was leading the second group.
[ Got it! I’m on my way! ]
Nero’s voice was tense before he hung up. Noah and Lian exchanged serious glances.
“Let’s get to the front as fast as we can!”
“Yeah, we need to hurry!”
Members of the organization nodded gravely, all appearing ready to sprint forward. But they were much slower compared to Lian and Noah, and abandoning them wasn’t an option.
Realizing this, Lian turned to Noah, who looked ready to rush off.
“Noah, you go first. I’ll handle the others.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
With Lian’s reassuring grin, even Noah’s tense expression relaxed just a bit.
“Then I’ll count on you for the rear!”
“Roger that!”
Lian started moving ahead briskly with the group. Not long after, they found the next group waiting around.
According to them, Noah had dashed ahead like a bolt of lightning and told them to hold. Lian explained the situation and merged the teams.
‘Noah and Lily will be fine. I need to stay sharp and get everyone to the side path.’
Lian kept up a quick pace, leading the combined group forward. Just as they were about to merge with the remaining three teams, a chill crept down his spine.
‘Where are they?’
Considering the space between the groups, the next team should’ve been showing up by now.
‘Something’s off.’
With a grim expression, Lian guided the group toward the side path.
‘First, I’ll move everyone to a safe spot—’
Just as he tried to finish that thought…
Boom!
“…!”
“Huh!”
“Is it the enemy?”
“Mom…”
A black magic circle flared before them, and something began materializing.
[ Grrr! ]
A grotesque creature emerged, appearing like it had melted.
“What the heck is that?!”
“Ugh, that’s horrifying…”
“Back away, everyone!”
Screams erupted, and faces turned ghostly pale as everyone stepped back in panic. Lian, however, summoned his demon sword without a blink.
‘Hmm…’
Lian examined the grotesque being with a mixed look of disbelief.
‘How grotesque must it be to need a mosaic?’
[ A mosaic? Is that what you call that? It’s so blurry, I can’t even tell what it looks like. ]
‘Huh? You see it that way too?’
Had the demon sword sucked too much blood from Lian? It was half using the gag filter. That would vanish if it separated from him.
The implication was that there were now two users of the gag filter, which was ridiculously alarming.
[ Screech! ]
As the monster crawled toward them, groaning.
Sizzle.
The liquid dribbling from its body started melting the ground. It was definitely a scary sight, but Lian wasn’t overly fazed. Nor was he particularly happy about it.
“Ugh! That’s disgusting…”
As the mosaic creature let out weird sounds and crawled closer, Lian chucked his demon sword in disgust.
[ Whoa?! If you do that all of a sudden… Ugh! ]
Not wanting to flop like a rock, the demon sword twirled in midair, slicing into the monster’s midsection.
[ Screech! ]
Splat!
Black liquid—blood spilling from the monster as the demon sword screamed.
[ Ugh! Gross! That’s disgusting! Save me, partner! ]
The demon sword wailed, squirming around. Normally, Lian would want to give it a smack, but the image of the sword as a cute maiden lingered in his mind, so he strolled over and retrieved it.
[ I’m soiled… ]
Lian always wondered where it picked up all this fancy talk.
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