Chapter : 392
Chapter : 392
"Initiate the release sequence," Lord Voss ordered mercilessly. "Open the containment cages. Dispatch the Ashura race. I want the targets located immediately. I want them to find the commoner boy. I want them to assassinate him in broad daylight."
"Understood," the robotic voice replied. The communication device clicked off.
The meeting in the subterranean vault was officially over. The corrupt politicians leaned back in their expensive chairs. They felt a deep sense of cruel satisfaction. They truly believed they had solved their biggest problem. They truly believed the highly volatile, experimental biological monsters would easily tear the messy boy to shreds.
They had absolutely no idea they had just made the biggest mistake of their lives. They had no idea that sending a mindless monster to attack Ken Eliot in broad daylight would simply annoy the lazy slacker. They did not know that their perfect biological weapon was about to meet the true, terrifying power of the Sovereign.
But for now, the corrupt nobles smiled in the dark room. The order was given. The Ashura were released from their cages. The monsters were unleashed into the bright, sunny streets of the capital city. The hunt for the lazy boy was officially on.
And Ken Eliot was entirely unaware of the massive threat heading his way. He just wanted to find a good place to eat his snacks.
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Ken Eliot walked down a dark street. The street was totally empty. He kept his hands in his pockets. His shoes scuffed against the broken pavement. Scuff. Scuff. Scuff. He followed an invisible trail.
Earlier that day, he fought a giant monster in the city. The monster was called Ashura. Ken defeated it easily. But he did not kill it. He let the monster crawl away. He placed a tiny magical tracker on its back. Now, he followed that signal.
The signal led him deep into the industrial sector. The buildings here were broken. The windows were smashed. The air smelled like rust and old oil.
"I really dislike walking," Ken whispered to himself. He let out a loud yawn. "This is too much cardio. My legs are very tired. I want to go home and eat a snack."
He turned a corner. He stopped walking.
A massive warehouse stood at the end of the road. The building looked completely abandoned. The metal roof had large holes in it. The brick walls were crumbling. Weeds grew through the cracked concrete outside. It looked like a terrible place.
Ken stared at the warehouse. The magical signal pointed directly inside. The burnt monster was in there.
He slouched his shoulders. He looked around the empty street. Nobody was watching him. There were no cameras. There were no pedestrians.
Ken dropped his goofy smile. The lazy look vanished from his dark eyes. His face turned totally serious. His eyes became sharp and cold. He was no longer the complaining slacker. He was entirely focused.
He walked toward the warehouse. He did not make a single sound. His footsteps were perfectly silent. He reached a rusted side door. The lock was broken. He pushed the door open gently. It did not creak.
He stepped inside the dark building.
The warehouse was vast. Shadows covered the corners. Broken machinery littered the floor. Dust hung in the air. Ken looked around. He saw a trail of dark blood on the concrete. It was Ashura's blood. The monster had dragged itself across the room.
Ken followed the blood trail. He walked past old shipping containers. He moved like a ghost. He reached the back of the warehouse. The blood trail ended at a large metal grate on the floor.
Ken knelt down. He inspected the grate. It was a secret entrance. He placed his fingers under the metal edge. He lifted the grate without any effort. He set it aside quietly.
A dark shaft dropped down below the floor. A rusty metal ladder led into the darkness. Ken climbed down the ladder. He descended deep underground.
He reached the bottom. He stepped off the ladder. He found himself in a subterranean facility.
The air down here was very cold. It smelled like harsh cleaning chemicals. Pale fluorescent lights flickered on the ceiling. Ken walked down a long concrete hallway. He did not hear any guards. He did not hear any voices.
He reached a large open area. He stopped and looked around. His eyes widened slightly.
It was a subterranean village. It was built completely underground. But it was not a normal village. It looked like a massive prison camp.
Rows of small, dirty cages lined the walls. Medical beds sat in the center of the room. The beds had thick leather straps on them. Sharp surgical tools rested on metal trays. Glowing green liquid filled large glass tubes.
Ken stepped closer to the cages. He looked inside them.
He saw monsters. There were dozens of Ashura creatures locked in the cages. They looked just like the beast he fought on the street. They had gray skin. Glowing green veins pulsed on their arms. They had jagged claws. They looked terrifying.
The monsters were sleeping. They breathed slowly. They looked incredibly weak and sick.
Ken observed them. He felt a strange sensation. Something was very wrong.
He looked at the floor of the cells. He expected to see animal bones or raw meat. He expected normal monster behavior. He did not see that.
He saw human things.
One cage had a small, dirty teddy bear sitting in the corner. Another cage had a torn, faded photograph taped to the wall. The photograph showed a smiling human family. A third cage had a pair of small, normal human shoes resting by the bars.
Ken stared at the shoes. He stared at the photograph. He looked back at the sleeping monsters.
His sharp mind connected the clues instantly. A sudden, profound realization hit him. The realization felt like a punch to his stomach.
These were not monsters. They were not wild magical beasts.
They were people.
They were regular, ordinary human beings. They were citizens of the Belmontia Empire. They were kidnapped from the slums. They were brought down here against their will.
The scientists locked them in these cages. The scientists strapped them to the medical beds. They injected the innocent people with toxic Devil Flour serum. The prolonged exposure to the radiation mutated their bodies. It destroyed their human DNA. It stretched their bones and turned their skin gray. It wiped away their sanity.
The scientists turned innocent mothers, fathers, and children into mindless biological weapons.
Ken stood completely still. The silence in the underground prison was deafening. He looked at the sleeping, mutated victims.
He felt a deep, quiet disgust wash over him. It was a cold, pure repulsion. He hated corrupt politicians. He hated greedy nobles. But this was an entirely different level of evil. This was an absolute atrocity.
"They stole normal people," Ken whispered to himself. His voice was totally flat. "They took away their lives. They turned them into this."