Chapter 95: Saint Hilarius Hospital (26)
The Executioner, who was blazing with white fire from the sheer intensity of heat, was driving his flaming chains into the body of the Gelatinous Reaper.
And the Gelatinous Reaper, the massive ocean of acidic blood, was coiling around the Executioner, attempting to melt his steel armor.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The collision was legendary.
The two monsters crashed directly onto the "Broodmother"!
Floor B4, the cursed nursery, transformed in a single second into a battlefield for three S-rank territorial kings!
The Executioner — fire and steel.
The Gelatinous Reaper — blood and acid.
And the Broodmother — flesh and sonic frequencies.
The clash between the three was equivalent to the detonation of a tactical bomb.
A wave of searing orange fire mixed with a tsunami of green acidic blood, alongside crushing physical blows from the Broodmother, which roared in fury at the violation of its domain and the fall of two nightmares upon it.
The hanging cocoons burned and melted within seconds.
The flesh covering the walls began to char.
The remaining Alpha Team members were only meters away from the center of this cosmic collision!
A wave of fire and surging acid rushed toward them.
They would have been burned, dissolved, and crushed like insects beneath battling elephants.
"Kael! The shadow! Tear the shadow!" Valisera roared, coughing blood as she grabbed his collar.
She no longer had the gravity to save them, but she knew his secret!
Kael did not hesitate. He no longer feared being exposed. Death was coming.
If the blade will devour my lifespan... then let it devour it now!
He shut his eyes and fully summoned the "Forgotten Blade" into his right hand.
Icy pain tore through his arm, black veins crawling up to cover his neck and half his face.
Kael opened his crimson eyes—and instead of attacking the three monsters—an impossible act—he slashed the black Ether blade directly into the shadow of the fallen concrete wall before them!
SHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
The absolute S-rank-minus ability to tear shadows created a terrifying spatial rupture through the rubble and concrete.
The solid wall split apart, forming a tunnel, and a massive drainage fissure opened beneath them!
"Jump!" Kael roared.
They needed no second invitation. All four leapt into the opening Kael had created at the exact fraction of a second when the wave of fire and acid devoured the place they had been standing, turning it into molten emptiness.
They survived by a miracle. A miracle that happens once in a millennium.
They tumbled into a slanted waste drainage tunnel, sliding at extreme speed away from the raging hell above them.
They could clearly hear the roars of the three monsters and the thunder of explosions grinding Floor B4 to dust and tearing apart the very foundations of the hospital.
Finally, the slide stopped.
They crashed onto a wide metal platform, dimly lit by faint yellow emergency lights.
Directly in front of them stood a massive steel door, marked in dark red:
"Descent to Floor B5 – The Grand Basement."
They were gasping. Broken, burned, covered in blood and ash.
Sia was nearly unconscious from pain, supported by Eva.
Kael was trembling, his right hand completely black like charcoal from the toll of the Forgotten Blade—but he was breathing.
And Valisera sat on the ground, staring at the steel door with eyes devoid of any energy.
"We... we’re still alive..." Eva whispered, wiping blood from her ruptured ear.
"Three S-rank monsters tearing each other apart above us... and we survived."
Valisera looked at Kael, who was leaning against the steel wall, breathing with great difficulty.
"Kael..." she spoke weakly, exhausted.
"You pulled Lieutenant Gray’s memories... you saw the blueprints in his mind."
"Yes..." Kael replied, still with his eyes closed.
"How many underground floors are there in this slaughterhouse?" she asked, her gaze fixed on him.
Kael slowly opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Six," he answered hoarsely.
"The sixth floor is the last. The Cathedral of Flesh. Saint Hilarius’ operations center."
A suffocating silence fell over the platform.
The horrifying calculation struck their minds simultaneously.
"Six..." Eva muttered, her eyes widening with cosmic dread beyond the horrors they had just witnessed.
"In Purgatory there was the Executioner. In the Blood Farms, the Reaper. In the Chimera Labs, the Surgeon. In the Nursery, the Mother... four floors, four S-rank monsters."
She looked at the steel door before them (Floor B5), then downward toward Floor B6.
"If this pattern holds... then the final two floors contain two disasters of equal or greater rank... not to mention Saint Hilarius himself!" Eva continued, her voice trembling.
But... Eva stopped.
She blinked several times.
The shock in her eyes was not just from the number of monsters.
Her sniper’s analytical mind, which assembled puzzles even in the darkest moments, began working at a frantic pace.
She caught a fatal contradiction. A contradiction that shattered the very reason they had entered this hospital.
Eva slowly stood up. Ignoring her pain, she looked at Kael.
Her gaze was no longer one of fear—but of cold, terrifying realization.
"Ka... Kael..." she whispered, her voice carrying a strange tone.
"What is it, Eva?" Kael replied weakly, pressing on his blackened arm.
"Didn’t you say... when you interrogated Lieutenant Gray and pulled his memories... didn’t you say there would be a harvesting operation?" she asked, stepping toward him.
"Yes... I said that. Why are you asking now?" Kael frowned, confused.
"You said—word for word..." Eva continued, her voice rising, her eyes widening with absolute paranoia.
"You said they would merge thousands of civilian patients... thousands of people who believe they are receiving free treatment... in a single night. That they would be turned into abominations and living Ether batteries to feed the six Folded Ones. And that tonight is the Harvest Night!"
"Yes?" Kael answered, tension creeping into his voice.
"That’s what I saw in his memories. That’s why we launched this suicidal assault. To stop the harvest."
Eva fell silent for a second.
She looked at Sia, who forced her eyes open to listen.
She looked at Valisera, who was watching in eerie silence.
Then Eva screamed at the top of her lungs—a scream that shattered the illusion they had been living in:
"Then why is NONE of it here?!"
"Huh?" Kael uttered, completely stunned, his blood running cold.
Sia froze, forgetting her pain, her eyes widening in shock as she understood.
Valisera remained silent—but her gaze sharpened like a blade.
"Where are the humans, Kael?!" Eva roared, stepping forward and grabbing his collar.
"We’ve descended four floors! Where is the harvest operation?! Where are the doctors and scientists who are supposed to be transferring patients and performing the merging?! We haven’t seen a single living human working here! No guards! No researchers! Nothing but monsters, nightmares, and abominations left to devour each other and destroy the hospital!"
Eva released his collar and staggered back, clutching her head in hysteria.
"Isn’t there supposed to be a complex operation happening tonight?! Aren’t they supposed to be preparing to move thousands of people?! If this is their grand secret basement... then why is there nothing here but monsters?! Where is the operation?! Where are the details you described?!"