episode_0115

The laboratory was all made of glass. The pure white bed alone indicated that it was a living space.

“Darn it..”

A man with dirt-covered navy blue hair, as if he had been lying on the ground, was thrown into the middle of the room, bound by thick ropes.

He twisted his body to look at the room next to him. Like exhibits in a museum, children were crouching in each transparent glass room.

With a sudden realization, he tried to summon his power to untie the rope, but it dispersed as if obstructed by something.

Tick-tock.

Then, footsteps echoed from the long corridor beyond the glass room.

“Is this the intruder?”

“He looks quite sturdy, doesn’t he? We needed a human test subject, and here he is.”

Approaching the glass room where he lay was two individuals—one an intelligent monster in the form of a lizard and the other a demon with horns growing on one side of his head. Judging by their sloppy appearance, the latter seemed to be a low-ranking demon.

The man absorbed the information they chattered about while sprawled out, twisting his body.

“They are experimenting on me?”

His gaze shifted to the adjacent room. A little spirit with sky-blue skin crouched without moving a muscle.

“They needed a human test subject? Then why did they capture spirits?”

As far as he knew, this research facility had gathered spirits to the point of depletion. Only spirits, not humans, were collected like slaves, even more ruthlessly than in a slave market.

But suddenly they needed a human test subject?

“What exactly are they researching?”

He had two reasons for infiltrating this place: to free the trapped spirits and to find out what the Demon Army-affiliated research facility was studying.

Due to its affiliation with the Demon Army, the security at the research facility was exceptionally tight and formidable compared to a regular lab.

Thanks to thorough preparation, the man managed to reach the location where the spirit children were held captive, only to fall into the final trap.

Thud.

With a very thin shard of metal sewn into his sleeve, the man began cutting the rope bit by bit, his eyes flashing.

“I’ll escape when I see an opportunity. Until then, let’s gather as much information as possible.”

The moment he neatly organized what he needed to do in his mind,

“Ouch! It hurts! Mom! Mommy!”

“…!”

From a distant glass room, the cries of a spirit child echoed. The child’s face was grotesquely swollen. Despite being mischievous, spirits cherished their friends. The children who loved their kindred so purely approached the room where the screaming child was, knowing full well what might happen next.

Behind the transparent glass wall, worried gazes filled with tears dropped one by one.

“Mother…”

“Mom, Mommy, Ani is in pain.”

“…”

The spirit’s voice, like a song, sadly echoed, but no miracle occurred.

“Cough, cough!”

The child, whose face had grown larger than their body, suddenly couldn’t speak properly anymore. The man, with eyes brimming as if he might shed tears of blood, engraved the cruel scene in his pupils.

“Mom…”

With those words, the child

Burst!

And exploded. A liquid, bluish and different from human blood, flowed down the glass wall. Even though spirits knew they would return to nature when they died and be reborn someday, they couldn’t hide their sadness.

“Collect every drop of the liquid spilled in the room! Spirit byproducts are all useful items.”

The demons spoke loudly, and the attendants waiting in the wings entered the glass room dressed in protective gear. The spirit children could only watch as their friend was transferred into a glass jar, hunched over.

All the children could do was cry helplessly somewhere, trying to find my mother who was trapped and crying.

Thud.

The man etched the horrific scene into his mind repeatedly, never to forget.

“Melon was in charge of this experiment, right? Tell them the subject has been disposed of, and they will assign a new one, so reduce the dosage.”

Treating spirits as expendable was considered normal by everyone present here. That was the land of the Demon King.

***

Leading the foremost of ten groups, Lily muttered while looking at the organized path.

“I never thought there would be a road in a place like this.”

“That’s true.”

Monica, Lily’s secretary, nodded as if agreeing.

“How did Ryan know there was a road here?”

“Maybe he came here himself? Or got information from somewhere…”

“If it’s information from Cardisan, I wouldn’t be surprised…”

The two exchanged light conversation, hastening their steps. If they slowed down, all the groups behind them had to stop as well.

However, they didn’t move recklessly. Taking the lead meant being the first to perceive threats.

Carefully scanning their surroundings, the two leading figures soon discovered something and stopped in their tracks.

Lily raised her hand to signal the eight followers behind her to stop. Then she hid in the bushes to observe the suspicious scene.

“Ryan said there was only ruins here…”

At the end of the gazes of the two, a man with a sword at his waist stood at what seemed to be the entrance, on guard duty.

“That doesn’t look like ruins at all, does it?”

“Yes, it looks like a facility someone is using.”

After quietly stepping back, Lily picked up her communication device. She immediately informed Noah of what she saw.

“It wasn’t ruins?”

Ryan exclaimed in surprise, then fell into deep thought with a serious expression.

‘I’m sure it was described as ruins in the original…’

Knowing that he would hardly receive help from the original work, which changed the fate of Noah and many others, he understood that it wouldn’t be much help in terms of terrain and structures.

‘For now, finding a different path is a top priority.’

Ryan took out a map from his bag and began to examine it.

‘The building wasn’t in ruins, but the road exists just like in the original, so the alley mentioned in the original must also exist. Let’s go around through that path.’

Before Ryan could finish his sentence…

[Scream!]

“No! Stop it!”

Crunch!

Beyond the communication device, Lily’s scream echoed and then the communication abruptly cut off. Noah and Ryan’s faces stiffened. Noah immediately contacted Nero, leading the second group.

“Got it! I’ll go check it out right away!”

After Nero replied in a firm voice, he promptly ended the communication. Noah and Ryan exchanged glances.

“Let’s go to the front as quickly as possible!”

“Yes, we should hurry.”

The members of the group all nodded heavily without any complaints. They all wore expressions indicating they were ready to run with all their might. However, they would be much slower compared to Lian or Noah, only able to hold back their ankles. It was a task that could not be left behind.

Lian quickly noticed this and said to Noah, who seemed ready to run at any moment.

“Noah, you go first. I’ll take care of the people and move forward.”

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Of course.”

With a slight smile, Lian’s words slightly softened Noah’s stiff face.

“Then I’ll ask you to watch our backs!”

“Yeah.”

Lian immediately started moving forward with the group at a slightly faster pace. Before long, they discovered another group waiting.

According to what they heard, Noah had rushed forward as fast as an arrow, ordered a brief halt, and then ran ahead. After explaining the situation, Lian merged the groups.

“It should be fine with Noah and Lily. Let’s focus on gathering the members and diverting towards the side street.”

As Lian hurriedly moved forward with the five teams that had joined, a sense of foreboding began to creep in when there were about three more teams left to join.

“There’s something wrong.”

Considering that they were walking with some distance between the groups, the next group should have been visible by now, but it wasn’t.

“Something must have gone wrong.”

With a stern expression, Lian led the gathered group towards the side street.

“First, let’s move the gathered people to a safe place and…”

Just as they were continuing their thoughts…

Boom!

“…!”

“Cough!”

“Is it an enemy..!”

“Mom…”

A new magic circle appeared in front of them, and something began to summon above the magic circle.

[Kreeeek!]

A creature resembling something melted like a monster or human crashed heavily to the ground.

“What is that!?”

“It’s terrible..”

“Everyone, step back!”

Everyone stepped back, screaming in horror, except for Lian, who summoned a dark sword without changing his expression.

“Hmm…”

Lian looked at the being in front of him with a puzzled expression.

“How terrible does it have to look to be pixelated like that?”

[Pixelated? You call that pixelated? It looks blurry, so I can’t tell what it looks like.]

“Oh? Does it look that way to you too?”

Perhaps due to having sucked too much of Lian’s blood, the dark sword was using the comedy filter halfway. Of course, it had the ability to disappear when separated from Lian.

This meant that there were two users of the comedy filter, which was a terrifying thought.

[Kieeeek!]

As the monster howled and slowly crawled forward…

Splat.

Liquid flowing from its body began to melt the ground. It was quite threatening, but Lian wasn’t particularly scared. However, he didn’t feel great either.

“Ugh..! I feel sick..!”

As the pixelated entity made strange noises and crawled closer, Lian, with a terrified expression, swiftly threw the dark sword.

“What?! Why did you suddenly do that… Ugh!”

Not wanting it to fall lifelessly like a rock, the dark sword hastily spun around in the air, elegantly rotating before piercing the monster right in the middle.

[Kieeeek!]

Sshhaaaak!

A black liquid, presumably blood, sprayed from the monster. In response, the dark sword screamed.

“Ugh! Disgusting, terrible taste! I feel sick! Partner, save me!”

Feeling so nauseous, the dark sword cried out and wriggled its body. If it had been a different partner, one might have wanted to punch it, but due to the image of the cute magical girl still lingering in his mind, Lian approached calmly and rescued the dark sword.

It’s been tainted…

Where on earth did he learn such words was always a curiosity for Lian.