Natalie's vision blurred as intense pain exploded in her mind; rage and irritation were all she felt.
The world around her dissolved into a cacophony of white noise and searing heat.
She clutched her head and screamed, her voice tearing through her throat.
A muffled voice came from her right side, gradually becoming clearer as she struggled to anchor herself to reality.
"Natalie!—Hey Nat, calm down—" the man yelled at her.
But to her, the sound was only irritating and angering.
Other than that, the pain was only increasing, reaching an agonizing peak to the extent that even her own body was now burning.
The flames licking her skin weren't just external; they felt as though they were erupting from her very marrow.
——
Jace saw Natalie's burning figure. "Natalie!" he called out, but there was no reply from her, as she was currently lost in her own suffering.
And it seemed to be getting worse.
Pyromaniacs were supposed to be immune to fire damage, but now her own flames were so intense that they seemed to be burning her, the heat radiating off her in shimmering waves that made the basement air hard to breathe.
'I have to settle this before the matter gets worse and she loses control,' Jace thought.
He hurriedly looked around the room.
Now that he took a good look at the basement—it was a fairly well-built lab, perfect for researching and experimentation.
There were tables and racks of wood filled with chemistry equipment as well as various glass beakers of bubbling chemicals.
There were a few jars with different herbs; some jars were outright disturbing, containing human organs suspended in yellowish fluid.
One of the most disturbing things in the lab was the fact that there was a body swaying on a chain that was attached to the roof, a grim reminder of Edward's depravity.
But Jace ignored it and started looking around for something that would help him in this current predicament.
'There must be some kind of tranquilizing agent here!' he thought desperately as he looked through the chemical racks, his eyes scanning the labels through the thickening smoke.
*Boom!*
Behind him, Natalie was not faring well, as she was sending flame ravens wildly around to burn everything in sight. The walls were beginning to scorch.
'Oh, oh—found it!' It was a brown glass bottle with a label that said 'Phenobarbital.'
From what he knew, it was a sleeping agent used on mental hospital patients.
It had some serious side effects, but he figured it would be fine since Natalie was a Beyonder with a resilient constitution.
He took the bottle and started rummaging through the drawers nearby, hoping to find syringes to use, and to his relief, he found two old-school injections.
Opening the bottle, he quickly filled both syringes.
Then he turned to look back, only to see that the corpse hanging from the ceiling was now burning along with many other things.
"Haa," he sighed.
He jumped through the flames, appearing right behind Natalie.
He jammed the syringe into her neck and injected the fluid.
Natalie, still confused—but alerted by her danger intuition—figured out that someone was behind her.
She manifested a sword of flames in her hand, turned, and stabbed with a guttural groan.
But Jace had already flame-jumped behind her again.
He stabbed the second syringe into her and then flame-jumped away to a safe distance.
Now he would have to wait for the injections to show their effects.
Maintaining his distance, he stood away from her until he saw Natalie's footsteps faltering.
The flames finally disappeared from her body as the drug took hold.
She fell to her knees, her eyes hazy and unfocused, and then she finally slumped onto the floor with a soft thud.
Jace heaved a breath of relief as he walked toward her and inspected her wounds.
He kneeled and turned her over. Her clothes on her upper body were completely burned away, leaving her half-naked in the soot-covered basement.
Usually, he would have been impressed and aroused by her physique, but currently, it wasn't much appealing as her skin was mostly burned and smoking.
Even her face was scorched. But it wasn't as bad as it could have been, since he had acted quickly.
He got up and looked around at the things that were burning.
With his flame control ability, he extinguished the remaining fires, leaving behind only the heavy scent of smoke and soot.
Looking around, he walked towards the burned body of the target.
Kneeling near him, he picked up the sealed artifacts from his body.
One was a vambrace and one was a red bracelet. He figured it was likely the red bracelet that gave him the regenerating and healing abilities. The Beyonder characteristic still hadn't formed yet.
Getting up, he walked back to Natalie and put the red bracelet on her hand.
Though he did not know the side effects of the bracelet, his intuition as a Seer told him it would be fine for the short term.
He then got up and started looking around for loot, as he had a feeling that there were some interesting things hidden here.
And his feeling was right.
In a drawer, he found multiple low-sequence Beyonder characteristics, glowing faintly in the dim light.
One of the most interesting things he found was a set of ingredients for a Sequence 7 Psychiatrist.
Jace wondered why Edward had these ingredients since he was already a Sequence 7 Psychiatrist.
Regardless, he didn't ponder much and took the ingredients along with the other characteristics.
He returned to Natalie. By now, her burned skin had healed, revealing surprisingly fair and feminine skin.
Her face looked softer compared to the stern expression she usually had; her breasts looked larger than they did when she wore clothes.
And her physique was truly amazing—it reminded him of Catherine. She even had six-pack abs.
He whistled in his mind. Usually, he would have blushed at such an 'inappropriate' sight, but it was not the right time for such thoughts.
Jace removed the red bracelet from her body and shoved it in his pocket.
Removing his black frock coat, he made the unconscious Natalie wear it. He was cautious as to not touch her skin directly, and he tied the straps of the coat around her waist so that it covered her completely.
By now, the Beyonder characteristic of 'Psychiatrist' had finally appeared, so he picked it up and kept it in his pocket.
'Mm?' He got a feeling he was being watched.
He turned toward the staircase of the basement only to see a black cat watching him intently.
The cat looked relatively young; with its green eyes and slitted pupils, it was looking right at him.
By now, Jace had figured out that this cat was likely an experiment of Edward the cannibal, because it sure as hell couldn't have been his pet.
The notion of psychopaths having pets seemed ridiculous, as their pets were usually their first kills.
Edward likely used this cat to watch out for him, but the cat decided to retaliate and plot Edward's death.
From his intuition he believed it was a Sequence 8 Telepathist
The commission said to give the Beyonder characteristic to the one who put the bounty on; it was likely that the cat wanted it to advance itself.
For now, he kept the contemplation aside and looked at the cat.
"Keep a watch on her, I'll go call a carriage here," he said as he walked to the staircase and out of the basement.
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A/N:- So you all know where I'm going with the cat.
But the question is, do you want the cat to be Male or Female ???