Aran and Elio's job was done. They got Mr. Isaac's daughter, and the evidence they needed. On the way out, Aran stumbled into some research documents and reviewed them.
As he read through the papers, his expression suddenly became grim.
"They were experimenting on these children to create a bio weapon...."
Elio who was carrying the now sleeping girl was taken aback.
"What?! So that's why they've been taking them!"
"Yes... Here, look at this..."
Aran said as he showed the documents in front of Elio's face
[This paper presents the findings of Project CHIMERA, which explored the extraction, isolation, and transplantation of individual abilities from subjects ranging from 6 to 11 years old. Over a two-year controlled program, ability gifted minors were subjected to ability-stripping protocols to examine the viability of ability transference and enhancement in selected hosts. Of surviving child donors, 75% lost their perk ability while 15% retained partial function but suffered cognitive regression.]
Elio's eyes shook as they hovered over every word.
"This is just cruel..."
Aran sighs sadly before speaking.
"It is... I have a sneaking suspicion that the extracted abilities look like that red serum that we saw..."
"You mean the liquid that the man injected into himself when we fought him last week?"
"Yeah. Skill enhancement or transference... When he injected that serum, his abilities suddenly gained different properties. His physical attributes also changed. What we saw seems to fit the bill..."
Aran closed his eyes before opening them to continue reading the paper.
[Project CHIMERA demonstrated the theoretical and practical viability of human ability transference. Despite high mortality and instability rates, this lays the groundwork for a new era for enforced evolution. Further study is required to refine donor sustainability and host compatibility. With tighter controls, ability-harvesting could become a cornerstone of next-generation ability enhancement programs.]
After he was done reading, Aran gritted his teeth from anger.
"Bullshit..."
He uttered.
The fate of Mr. Isaac's daughter would've been way worse...
And not just that, all those children who died because of this crazy experiment... It makes my blood boil just thinking about it...
He thought to himself before feeling something warm touch his shoulder.
It was Elio putting his hand on Aran's shoulder, trying to calm him down.
"It's going to be okay, Aran... They'll finally be taken down with Mr. Isaac on our side..."
Aran smiled at Elio before nodding his head.
"Yeah, you're right! With this, all those poor kids can rest in peace..."
Hearing this, Elio smiled before chuckling.
"Hehe! Yup we'll definitely-"
*BAM*
A large fist suddenly appeared and punched Elio, launching him across the hallway.
The next instant, Aran's face was completely covered up as blood splattered all over the halls.
Trying to recover from the shock, Aran looked to the side and saw a horrible gruesome sight of bloody bodies buried into a wall.
His heart sank as he realized those bodies belonged to Elio and the daughter of Isaac.
Elio's right forearm was bleeding heavily, along with his head. His left arm, still holding onto the little girl as a desperate attempt to protect her despite being unconscious.
This however proved pointless as the damage to the girl's body was even worse compared to Elio's.
Her eyes and nose bled out, as her entire torso was crushed. Her ribs were shattered and poking out and her limbs were all detached.
Elio was knocked out and the girl was dead.
Aran's mouth was wide open as all the light faded from his eyes.
His breathing became intense before he cried out a blood curdling scream. The shock of the sight, putting him into an uncontrollable panic as his limbs started to contort due to him tensing his body.
Just a few seconds ago, they let their guard down as they were finally about to head out.
How did this happen...?!
Aran thought to himself as he fell down to his knees and violently clutched his hair. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. It was as if he was choking on his own fear.
Looking up, he saw the face of the thing that caused this.
It was a monster that was so large, it barely fit inside the hallway.
The creature was hunch backed and did not have any skin.
Instead, its entire body was covered by exposed muscles that did not belong to a human.
Its right eye was bulging out of its socket, and it walked using its large muscular arms, similar to an ape.
Aran's breathing continued to intensify as he saw this thing that killed Mr. Isaac's daughter.
His panic quickly became rage as he screamed and threw a desperate punch at the creature.
But despite all his rage, Aran was still powerless to stop it.
Before his fist was even able fo touch it, the creature quickly swung its arm and crushed Aran's skull, killing him on the spot.
________________________________________
[Condition met]
[Returning to previous save point]
________________________________________
[ARAN]
I regained consciousness as I gasped loudly in the hallway. My eyes were wide open and my heart was beating quickly.
I see Elio's smiling face along with Isaac's daughter who was sleeping peacefully.
The image of her crushed ribs and bloody face suddenly flashed through my mind, making me collapse on the ground.
I was having a panic attack.
Seeing my current state, Elio kneeled down to put his hand on my back.
"Whoa there! Are you okay, Aran?"
Looking at the two of them, tears started forming before I shook my head and forced myself to calm down.
Just behind the wall at the next turn, Elio and the girl are going to get attacked by that thing...
Quickly standing up, I grabbed Elio's shoulders and desperately pleaded to him.
"Elio, we need to get out of here now!"
"Huh? Isn't that why we're going this way?"
He asked me, confused.
"No you don't understand... Just run!"
"O-okay..."
As we ran the other way, we heard a loud roar behind us. It sounded like the voice of a man and several children screaming in pain mixed together.
Elio and I looked back and saw the creature.
It slammed its large hammer-like fists on the floor, shattering the tiles and making us feel the hallway shake.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
Elio asked me.
Taking a turn, the both of us disappeared from its sight and saw a door with a sign that said "storage room".
Thinking quickly, I told Elio that we should hide over there.
When we got inside the room, we immediately closed the door behind us.
Everything was dark, and we couldn't see a thing. A few moments passed by before we heard the thing that was chasing us run through the hall.
The ground was shaking and making loud pounding noises everytime it moved.
Elio and I both breathed a quiet sigh of relief as I got my phone and turned its flashlight on.
With my phone's light, we saw that the room was filled with mops and various cleaning equipment.
Whispering, Elio asked me a question.
"What the heck was that? Is that why you were telling me to run?"
Nodding, I responded.
"Yes..."
"How do you know about it, though?"
"....."
I hesitated to speak.
Last week, I discovered that I couldn't tell anyone anything about my ability... But maybe I can tell him in a different way. Something like a loophole.
"I uh... Saw it in a vision."
I told him, lying as naturally as I could.
I was surprised that I was able to say it. It wasn't exactly what happened, but st the same time, it wasn't wrong either.
"Wait, is that your ability?"
Elio asked me.
"Yeah, it happens randomly and I can't control it. Anyways, we're lucky that vision warned us about that thing..."
I told him, continuing on the lie I've made before Elio nodded in response.
"I agree... So what's your plan? Can we stop it?"
Elio asked me.
Quickly replying, I shook my head.
"No, we're definitely going to run away. You can't fight while carrying the girl, and I don't think my ropes can even damage it. So we just have to wait until things calm down or when it gets distracted..."
"Okay..."
Elio said, as we both tried to stay as quiet as possible. Careful as to not alarm the creature outside.
But then, we heard something that we'll never forget.
Echoing through the halls, we heard the screams of fighting happening outside.
Elio and I could paint a vivid image in our minds. The sounds of the creature's fists crashing against flesh and bone and the desperate cries and gunshots from the guards... We heard all of it.
It seems like this thing couldn't even tell the difference between friend or foe.
It was messed up, but I saw this as the perfect opportunity to start running.
Without another word, I quietly opened the door and ran towards the direction of the exit, with Elio following closely behind.
Elio could just use his ability, but we couldn't afford to be separated because of the nearby threat.
The farther we ran, the more carnage we saw. All those guards that were supposed to stop us were now a pile of mashed human flesh.
Despite seeing this, we couldn't falter.
I just thank the gods that the girl was still asleep so she didn't have to see this.
After what felt like an eternity of running, we finally reached the destroyed elevator doors and entered the shaft.
Mr. Isaac wasn't there. He most likely moved deeper into the facility to look for the mastermind of this operation.
Even if we couldn't use the elevator itself, we fortunately had my grapple gloves with me.
Pointing them up, I shot the ropes towards a metal pole and slowly lifted myself up by retracting the rope until reaching the elevator, climbing through the hole created by Mr. Isaac earlier.
Once I reached it, I quickly shot another rope down towards Elio, instructing him to tie the rope around Mr. Isaac's daughter.
It was a fairly easy process as I slowly lifted her up, careful as to not hurt her.
Once she was close enough, I carried her and put her down to lean on the elevator wall.
For Elio however, it was a more difficult process...
Lifting the girl was easy considering she was just a small child, but Elio was someone bigger and not to mention, heavier than me...
Nevertheless, I decided to shoot one rope towards him and another rope at one of the elevator's metal bars, in case I slipped and fell.
"Oof! H-heavy!!!"
I yelled with a voice that sounded like my lungs are being crushed as I tensed up every muscle in my body.
"S-sorry!"
Elio said as he was slowly lifted up by my rope.
As hard as the process was, I was still able to finish the job. Albeit, as a tired puddle of sweat afterwards...
"Are you okay?"
Elio asked me.
Hearing this, I slowly lifted my shaking arm before showing a thumbs up and speaking out of breath.
"Y-yup! It was... Haah... A piece... Of cake..."
"Is that so... C'mon, let's get to the shed."
Elio said as he lended me a hand.
After making sure I can stand on my own, he turned his attention towards Mr. Isaac's daughter and carried her again.
________________________________________
There were even less people patrolling outside the facility, to the point where we could just casually walk through the place without any resistance.
I assumed that most of the manpower was likely transferred to the basement to stop us.
Also, since the elevator was broken, I assumed that there were other ways to get into the basement floor, so most of the guards probably went through the other areas, explaining the lack of people outside.
But still, Not leaving anyone here is a weird tactic...
I thought to myself.
Nevertheless, as strange as it was, I should just see this as a lucky opportunity.
After a while, we finally reached the shed.
The plan was for Elio to run to the Bureau of Security, bringing the girl and the collected evidence with him. Once he does that, he'll come back to get me and we'll finally be done with this crazy night and leave everything else to the professionals.
And so, Elio prepared to set out and run back to Astrum as I waited in the shed.
Then suddenly, Mr. Isaac's daughter woke up
Rubbing her eyes, she squinted at us.
"Hm...? Where are we?"
Looking at her, Elio spoke.
"Oh we're about to get you home! You're finally going to be safe!"
"Really?"
"Yep!" I told her, making her smile.
But then, she said something we didn't expect.
"Are the others going with us?"
Elio and I tilted our heads in confusion.
"Others?"
I asked her.
"Yes... When those bad men took me away, I remember being with two more kids like me... The next thing I remembered was that they were taken to different rooms..."
A chill ran down my spine after hearing this.
So you're telling me there's more down there?!
I yelled inside my mind.
Remembering the face of the thing that chased us, I shuddered as I realized the danger those kids are facing right now...
Looking up, I saw Elio staring at me as if asking what we should do.
Shaking my head to calm down, I spoke.
"We'll figure things out later. Just go to the Bureau..."
I told him.
Hearing this, Elio nodded before gathering everything, and ran towards the city, carrying Mr. Isaac's daughter.
I sighed to myself and leaned on a crate.
The entire time, the men that we tied up were staring silently at us.
I stared back at them and spoke to them with malice in my voice.
"You pieces of shit..."
I wanted vent my anger on them... But it wasn't worth it. What's done is done.
I need to focus on the matter at hand...
Just when I thought we were finally done, more things just keep piling on...
I sighed from exhaustion.
I closed my eyes and kept thinking.
Those kids are still down there... I hope they're safe...
Elio's fast, he'll probably get back here in about 20 to 30 minutes with the people from the Bureau...
Everything will be okay...
Yeah...
I thought to myself as I chuckled.
Yeah! I'm sure I'm just worrying too much, those kids are probably fine. Plus, it's not like I can just go down there alone. I'm a weakling after all...
No matter what I do, I will never be able to save anyone on my own... That's just an objective fact.
What happened earlier was proof of that. I couldn't even put up a fight and died pathetically... The person we were planning on saving also died a horrible death...
So why...
Before I knew it, I was already stepping out of the shed and walking back into the facility.
Why am I going back to that hellish place?
Why am I still trying to help, despite my worthlessness...?
I thought to myself as I reach the elevator and looked down the dark shaft.
Without another thought, I jumped in without hesitation.
"I'll save you..."