As the blood rained from the neck, silent terror took over the room.
"This is your commander: ex-Colonel Haizaki Shin."
As Kentaro said that name, the young mercenaries were confused, but the veterans — they tightened their fists and an unnatural expression took over their faces.
"Who is that?" one of the young mercenaries murmured.
A beautiful black-haired young man in his early twenties stood out among them. It was a wonder how someone with such looks had ended up here.
"Hey kid... you really don't know who he is?" An old veteran next to him looked at him with disbelief.
The old veteran was quite aged but still had a solid build and looked far more experienced than the rest.
"Well... yeah, I don't know what's so special about him," the young mercenary said, growing curious.
"What's so special about him, you ask?" The veteran mercenary looked at Haizaki Shin, who was discussing something with Kentaro — not audible to them.
"Do you know anything about the South Eastern Islands?"
"Eh?"
"Seems like you don't," the veteran sighed at the young boy.
"The South Eastern Islands. They used to be one of the major hideout camps of the Black Skull —"
"Black Skull?! Weren't they the biggest terrorist organisation to ever exist?" The young mercenary was left with nothing but shock.
"So you do know about them, huh," the veteran said with a mocking tone.
"Yeah, Black Skull. That's one of the nastiest organisations. Something no country wants to mess with."
The young merc looked at him with curiosity, and the veteran continued.
"Eight countries came up with a joint operation and selected 8 chiefs to command the mission. One of them was Haizaki Shin."
The veteran looked at Haizaki and continued.
"But there was a traitor among them, so the mission got aborted and everyone was ordered to retreat. They did — except Haizaki Shin."
The young merc looked at him with curiosity.
"What happened then?"
"The military declared him dead because it was impossible to survive after the plan got leaked. But right after six months, army headquarters received a message. It was enough for them to deploy a whole unit to the island. When they reached it, all they saw was blood covering the entire island. At the shore, a naked man was sitting, covered in blood. At that moment, he received the name 'Red Devil'."
The young merc's eyes widened with excitement after hearing the story. Though there weren't many public records, that was the legend surrounding him.
The old veteran looked at the raven-haired merc one last time and said,
"Be careful, kid."
"Yes! I will try my best not to be a burden to Mr. Haizaki!"
"I'm not talking about Haizaki."
"Eh?"
"Look beside him — the man standing next to that devil."
The young mercenary's gaze turned towards Haizaki and the man standing beside him.
"Kentaro Shion?"
Sudden surprise took over the young merc's face.
"Yes. Haizaki Shin — that devil is doing as that man says, so think about how powerful he must be."
Even though the young merc didn't want to accept it, he couldn't shake off that fact at all.
"Very well, soldiers — Attention!!"
Haizaki's voice echoed loud through the hall.
All distracted gazes focused on the old man's face.
Suddenly the ground started shaking.
An earthquake? No — it was a massive door, opened up in the floor, releasing thick steam throughout the hall.
Stunned by its size, the mercs couldn't tell if what they were seeing was reality or a dream.
"Move in."
The sharp voice of Shin cut through the fog.
The mercs started coming together.
The young merc noticed that Kentaro had already disappeared.
They saw a staircase leading towards a door at the far end.
As soon as the mercs reached the door, they found themselves in a huge room — all of them fitted inside quite easily. And soon after all the mercs were inside, the floor started shaking again. But this time the whole room was moving downwards.
This sudden movement caught the mercs off guard, and some even fell to their feet. Soon they realised the room was none other than a gigantic elevator.
After a couple of minutes the rumbling floor calmed down, and steam started filling the space as the door opened.
What they all saw left them shaken.
Four massive gates stood right in front of them, made of silver steel.
Who could have imagined something like this was hidden underground, concealed from reality?
Soon, Haizaki appeared right in front of them from the fog.
Standing in front of everyone, he tilted his head towards them and glared at them with eyes filled with coldness.
"From now on, forget everything you learned and just follow what I say. Is that clear?"
His gaze was fierce enough that none of them had the guts to raise any objection.
He turned towards the mercs and continued.
"From now on, you will each have different training. I can see you are all in possession of different skills."
He glared at them without changing his expression.
"There are 4 rooms, and each one of you will be part of one room only. In the first room, you will be taught swordsmanship..."
Before he could continue further, he saw a trembling hand rising.
He glared at the trembling hand for a couple of seconds. It was one of the mercs. The only noticeable thing about him was that he was skinny and had dark circles under his eyes.
"What is it?"
The skinny merc gulped hard and said,
"Sir... I'm Zeff. I wanted to ask... why are we learning something like swordsmanship? We have all sorts of weapons and guns, so why fight like the medieval period?"
Shin didn't respond for a second.
"It's not like I'm trying to offend you, sir. I'm truly sor—"
"Do you know who you will be facing when this mission begins?"
An old man's voice echoed throughout the area.
"Eh?"
Zeff looked at him with no clue.
"What we will be fighting won't be normal humans... we will be fighting monsters disguised as humans. And we call them Berserkers."
Many of the mercenaries didn't know who Berserkers were, but a few of them did — and one of them was none other than the old veteran himself.
The old veteran frowned as soon as he heard the word Berserker. The beautiful merc looked up at him with a confused face.
"What are Berserkers?"
The young merc whispered near the old veteran's ear.
"Beings that use a special drug to attain inhuman abilities. That's what we call Berserkers."
The young merc flinched.
Because it wasn't the old veteran who had answered, but Haizaki Shin, who was suddenly standing right in front of him out of nowhere.
Haizaki moved again, without a sound of footsteps, walking back towards the gates. As he moved, he continued.
"Now, to answer your question, Zeff — normal weapons don't work against them. Only special weapons do, but they cost a lot to produce. So we will only give them to those with very precise accuracy."
Shin looked at Zeff and continued,
"Those with a decent build will go into swordsmanship — and don't worry, in that room you will train physically to your core and learn more skills beyond just swordsmanship."
He was again standing in front of the 4 giant gates.
"In the second room, you will learn Bombing. You will learn how to deploy bombs and use them during an attack. In the third room, you will learn Gunmanship — a guide to using the new weapons we have created. And in the last room..."
Haizaki paused.
"...You will learn assassination."
All the mercs looked at him without flinching, but the old man could tell the tension in the air.
"And yes, I have already decided which of you will attend which room."
A mad grin appeared on his face.
"Be prepared. Now you will see what true hell looks like."