Chapter 217: Louis’s Jailbreak
The lowest death row dungeon of the Empire.
The damp, metallic stench was overwhelming, and mildew snaked across the walls like streaks of blood.
Louis was suspended from a torture rack by heavy chains.
His once-dazzling golden hair was now matted with grime, but the defiant fire in his eyes remained.
CRACK! An elite team from the Rebel Army kicked open the cell door.
The masked captain in the lead tossed a crimson pill in his hand, wading through the bloody water on the floor to stop before Louis:
"By order of Lord Red, take the Blood Erosion Pill, and we’ll break you out of here."
Louis stared at the pill and suddenly let out a cold laugh, the sound rattling his chains:
"That thing is refined from the spinal marrow of a King Blood Beast! Take it, and you’ll become a monster that knows nothing but how to tear and bite!"
He strained violently, the veins on his neck bulging:
"Tell Lord Red I’d rather stay here and feed the rats than be his puppet!"
The captain suddenly sneered, staring intently into his eyes:
"Did you really think the Empire wouldn’t dare touch you just because you signed a Spiritual Contract with Alita?"
He kicked Louis’s knee with the tip of his boot.
"Thinking a contract with the Princess is a get-out-of-jail-free card?"
Louis’s Adam’s apple bobbed, but he said nothing. His eyelids drooped, his lashes casting a shadow beneath his eyes.
It was his last hope.
"Looks like I’ll have to wake you up a bit."
The captain unhurriedly activated his Light Brain.
On the live feed, Alita was leaning against a pristine white hospital bed, her expression of disgust clearly visible through the screen:
"Blond hair is so disgusting."
She suddenly looked up, her tone as cold as an Ice Cone:
"Louis dared to betray me. Execute him!"
The chains rattled violently!
"You’re lying to me!"
Louis’s pupils contracted as he struggled frantically:
"She can’t break the contract! She’ll die!"
"Su An’an broke the contract with the help of that Swan Priest," the captain said, slowly twirling the pill, his voice like a poisoned Ice Cone. "Now, Alita can’t even remember your name."
He suddenly leaned closer, his lowered voice dripping with malice. "I hear she’s planning to take eighteen more Beast Husbands and have a bunch of cubs. Either way, it has absolutely nothing to do with you anymore."
Louis’s chest heaved violently, and the taut chains creaked under the strain.
He snapped his head up, his eyes shot with blood:
"You’re lying! Alita is mine! She could never forget me!"
"Yours?"
The captain scoffed, grinding Louis’s fallen golden hair under his boot. "She gets disgusted just looking at golden hair now."
"If you’re going to hate someone, hate Su An’an and Seville. They’re the ones who destroyed your last hope."
"AHHH!!"
Louis suddenly let out a roar like a trapped beast.
The chains snapped taut with a CLANG, and the entire torture rack shook.
"Damn you, Su An’an! Damn you, Seville! I’ll kill you!"
He glared at the captain, his crimson eyes boring into him. "And Alita... how could she? How could she forget me?!"
Agony gnawed at his sanity like a venomous snake.
Rage exploded in his chest.
Despair burned its way from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
He slammed himself against the torture rack. The alloy frame whined in protest, but not a single crack appeared.
He was still just a prisoner, helpless and at their mercy.
The captain chose that moment to raise the crimson pill, dangling it before his eyes:
"This is your last chance."
"Take it, and you can tear down this cell door and rush to Alita to demand an explanation."
"You can also rip all those unsightly Beast Husbands to shreds."
He suddenly pulled his hand back and made a show of leaving.
"Of course, you could also just keep hanging here, waiting to be ground into paste."
Louis stared intently at the pill, a ragged gasp escaping his throat.
Every second of hesitation was like death by a thousand cuts.
Every beat of his heart screamed, ’Survive!’
Just as the captain’s boot was about to cross the threshold, Louis roared hoarsely, "Give it to me!"
The captain raised an eyebrow and tossed the pill over.
Louis opened his mouth and swallowed it fiercely.
"AHHH!!" The moment the pill went down his throat,
an inhuman roar erupted from his lungs.
His blond hair fell out in great clumps, like a spiderweb torn apart by a gale.
Jet-black scales pushed out from under his skin, overlapping to cover his chest.
His fingertips lengthened into half-foot-long claws, his nails glowing with a venomous, spectral light.
CRACK!
He snapped the iron chains. A barbed coccyx burst from his spine, slapping the ground with a dull thud.
The captain quickly retreated outside the cell, a satisfied smile curling his lips as he watched the figure on the rack twist into a half-man, half-beast monster.
Suddenly, the screams of guards echoed from the corridor.
Each scream was more wretched than the last, and then they stopped abruptly.
Warm blood splattered across the surveillance camera.
In the blurry footage,
a jet-black figure smashed through the cell door, its crimson beast eyes filled with nothing but the desire for destruction.
「In the Imperial Royal VIP Ward.」
Alita suddenly clutched her chest, her brow furrowed. "Strange, I just felt a wave of nausea."
Su An’an picked up a piece of emerald Crystal Meat with her chopsticks and offered it with a smile:
"It’s just a side effect from the Spiritual Contract being broken. This Toad King Crystal Flesh is excellent for nourishing one’s spirit. You’ll feel better after eating it."
Outside, a sudden clap of thunder echoed as large raindrops pelted the bulletproof glass.
In the instant a lightning bolt split the clouds, a few bestial howls could be faintly heard, as if rising from the depths of the earth.
[Your Highness, bad news! Louis has escaped from prison!]
Little Pink’s alarm suddenly blared in her sea of consciousness.
Su An’an’s pupils contracted sharply, and the Crystal Meat at her fingertips fell with a PLOP into the food container.
"What’s wrong?"
Alita quickly picked up the Crystal Meat and popped it into her mouth, chewing it with a crisp crunch. "Why so pale all of a sudden?"
"It’s nothing." Su An’an quickly forced a smile, her butterfly-like Wings gently shedding a few flakes of Phosphorus Powder.
"I just remembered there was something I didn’t explain clearly to Night Abyss and the others. I’ll just step out to say a few words and be right back."
"Go on, go on!"
Alita waved her off, then hugged the food container to herself and began stuffing Crystal Meat into her mouth, looking much more lively than usual.
Just as Su An’an stepped out of the ward, two of the motion-activated lights in the corridor dimmed.
Night Abyss’s figure emerged from the shadows, his black and gold scales glinting coldly under the harsh light:
"A message from the death row dungeon: Louis escaped. The Rebel Army sent an elite squad to extract him."
"All twelve guards are dead. The state of the bodies... is very strange."
"How so?"
Su An’an frowned slightly, her face full of confusion.
"It looks like they were mauled by a wild beast."
Night Abyss’s dragon tail swayed gently behind him, stirring a chilling current in the air:
"The surveillance only captured a black shadow moving so fast it was like it was teleporting."
"It must be the Rebel Army’s doing!"
Su An’an’s eyes turned cold, her butterfly Wings trembling slightly with rage:
"If I had known, I would have read Louis’s memories first. We let him off too easy!"
"About the Federation..."
Before Night Abyss could finish, the RUSTLE of wings was heard.
Seville’s Golden Wings cut through the corridor’s shadows as she landed, the Light Screen in her hand still glowing:
"Jin Zhu’s genetic report has been confirmed."
She tapped the Light Screen, revealing the Federation president’s signature in glaring crimson. "The withdrawal order was signed half an hour ago. Jin Zhu is on the way to the Federation now."
Su An’an stared at the signature on the Light Screen, the tense line of her shoulders relaxing slightly:
"Finally, some good news."
A cough suddenly came from Alita’s hospital room. Su An’an immediately suppressed her anger and lowered her voice:
"For now, don’t tell my sister about Louis’s escape."
"Let her start her new life in peace!"