Hartman looked smug and relaxed, as if the place the two of them stood was some upscale hotel in New Eridu rather than a human-organ factory thick with the stench of blood.
That's right—an organ factory. This was the second time Geno had witnessed a place this gruesome.
The last time had been the atrocity from the old Silver forces era, unearthed within the Silver Base.
He'd wondered how the Ravenlocks could so easily give up harassing the Timefield family—turned out they'd been keeping themselves alive on a bloody trade.
"You bastard—this thick reek of blood... just how many people have you killed?!"
"Heh. Do you remember how many slices of bread you've eaten?"
Hartman sneered. They were nothing but worthless ants; being able to use their lives to restore the glory of the Ravenlock family was about as good a bargain as one could ever get.
"Hartman!!! You son of a bitch!!!" Geno glared, trembling all over with fury.
In the eyes of this heartless, ungrateful wretch, human lives were nothing but assets—profits that could be weighed and measured.
As long as it let the Ravenlocks rise, what were a few paltry human lives worth?
What's more, these were merely a byproduct of his primary objective.
"Hmph. Humans are such tenacious creatures. Even with a few of their internal organs removed, they won't die right away."
As Hartman spoke those inhuman words, he snapped his fingers, and a number of grotesque creatures crawled out from the corners of the factory.
Geno stared at the monsters in disbelief. Though their forms no longer resembled anything human, the scraps of clothing they still wore made it clear they had once been people.
Were these Sacrifices?! No—not quite the same!
Looking at the swarms of monsters that bore the marks of Ether Corruption yet held no human likeness, Geno felt their form of existence was somewhat similar to a Sacrifice's, yet not entirely the same.
"Ah, the folks at The Exaltists may all be lunatics, but these lunatics do have some talent. Impressive, isn't it? Even with the vast majority of their organs removed, after modification they can still cling to life—becoming handy little tools! You could say they've pushed utilization to its absolute limit!"
These people had all been seized by the Ravenlocks and then used by The Exaltists as experimental material for developing ElixP07.
Not only stripped of their human rights, they were turned into monsters by technology funded with the very money their own organs had been sold for—the irony could scarcely be greater.
"They can't compare to the latest research results, but these fellows are quite obedient too."
Hartman grew ever more excited. These monsters, deemed failures by The Exaltists, still held no small value in his eyes.
"Of course, I'm telling you all this only so you can die knowing why—because you're about to become one of them."
What did that mean?
Before Geno could even snap out of the shock of the scene before him, he felt a sharp pain, as if something had stabbed into him.
"Ngh?!"
Geno turned his head to see the Ravenlock kidnapper who'd been escorting him now pressing down a syringe—its liquid already injected into his body.
As the drug spread through him, Geno's consciousness began to blur, and the Ether energy within him grew unstable as well.
The dual loss of control over mind and body sent Geno crashing to the ground with a thud, his eyes slowly losing focus.
Seeing this, Hartman walked up to Geno with an expression of utter satisfaction, then slowly bent down.
"That's it—that's the expression, that utterly bewildered expression! Hahahaha!"
Hartman's petty, small-minded nature was laid bare as he madly taunted Geno to his face.
"It'll be a while before the drug takes full effect. Soon you'll be just like these little darlings. Tell me—if I toss you back in front of Timefield before then, what kind of face do you think he'll make?"
The one Hartman wanted revenge on had never been Geno alone; his main target was, naturally, humiliating the Timefield family.
And what could be more satisfying than turning the successor they so prized into a monster that would slaughter them all?
"Alright, hurry up and send him back. Old Timefield is sure to love this grand gift of mine."
Having vented his emotions, Hartman straightened up and adjusted his haute couture suit.
He had other matters to attend to; there was no need to keep wasting time here.
Then he snapped his fingers again, and his half-finished Sacrifices, as if receiving a signal, departed alongside Hartman's footsteps.
After he left, the remaining Ravenlock underlings gathered around Geno, preparing to haul him away.
"Ugh, all this back-and-forth hassle is such a pain."
"Can't be helped—it's like trash-talking in a game. Otherwise, how would it show that I'm better than you?"
"Aww, what a waste of such a tender, fair-skinned young lad. Wouldn't it be nice if I got a taste of him first~"
???
It seemed something strange had slipped into the conversation, but it didn't matter. Next, they needed to hurry and deliver Geno to the Timefield family estate before he fully mutated into a monster.
What happened after that was none of their concern.
But just as one of them reached for Geno, something went wrong. Geno, who had been writhing on the ground, suddenly sprang up, broke free of the restraints on his hands, and seized the man's arm.
Then, under the astonished gazes of the others, Geno's body began to transform—vast amounts of Ether crystals sprouted forth, and his frame started to grow tall and towering.
For Geno, this was merely an ordinary Etherealization transformation, but for this pack of small fry, it was a truly terrifying sight.
"What's going on?! Why is it happening so fast this time?!"
The man whose arm had been grabbed cried out—but there was no follow-up, because Geno had already torn him in two, blood and entrails splattering across the floor.
The flying chunks and gore splashed across the faces of the others as well.
A few of the more faint-hearted ones had already slumped to the ground, their crotches growing damp, a rank, foul stench spreading through the space.
"H-help—!"
The few still able to stand cried out and scrambled toward the factory exit, but how could they ever outrun Geno?
In mere moments, a bloody feast of slaughter unfolded throughout the entire factory.
One of them even mustered the courage to resist, only to be shredded to pieces by Geno's sharp claws, feeding his madness ever further.
After slaughtering every last human, the mindless Geno simply stood there in a daze, no one knowing what was going through his head.
Meanwhile, within the Hollow, Lycaon and his group—come to rescue Geno—were about to arrive at this now utterly unrecognizable factory.
____
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