Chapter 99
The underground was filled with death. Screams, gunfire, and the sound of prosthetic bodies breaking apart spread through the space.
It was all the sound of Iskan cleaning up the trash. He was going to kill every last customer in this establishment. No matter who they were.
We were cleansing the Empire’s filth.
Crack!
I stomped down on Bao Zakanan’s head and scanned the room. A serrated blade, a hammer, nails, a flamethrower, a device for flaying human skin… spiked whips, and tools whose purpose I didn’t even want to know were scattered messily around.
The floor was stained with blood that wouldn’t wash away no matter how much it was scrubbed. I couldn’t even begin to guess how many lives had ended here.
“Disgusting bastard.”
I looked down at Bao Zakanan. I wanted to press down with my foot and crush his skull right then and there.
“H-hic… ugh… kuh…”
Bao Zakanan whimpered. He was dressed and made up like a woman. The sight beneath his flipped-up skirt was revolting. I didn’t even want to describe what he had inserted. A faint vibrating sound pulsed intermittently.
Utterly repulsive.
It wasn’t just the act of slaughter that was the issue. If there had been a proper reason behind the killing, I wouldn’t have felt this overwhelming disgust.
But here, there was no cause, no justification. Even morality and ethics had evaporated.
‘Just pure desire.’
This was a place where people were murdered for nothing more than twisted human cravings.
A perverse fetish for tearing apart pure, biological humans.
I had assumed Bao Zakanan harbored dark desires. But I had never imagined it would be to this extent.
Every customer in this place was a noble who had lived for a long time in a fully cybernetic body.
The thought made me gag. I covered my mouth, but bile forced its way through my fingers.
I looked down at Bao Zakanan again. He had an enviable, high-end full-body prosthetic.
‘Full-body prosthetics.’
Nobles who had lived on after losing their flesh and blood.
‘Are you all yearning for the bodies you lost?’
Loss, and perhaps envy and jealousy… might have manifested into this grotesque perversion.
This, too, was part of the Empire’s darkness.
“You… you’re with the Imperial Guard, aren’t you? Y-you know who I am. I’m with Internal Secu—urk! S-stop! I-it’s gonna burst!”
I pressed my foot down even harder on Bao Zakanan’s head. A cracking sound came from his metal skull.
The ever-composed Bao Zakanan was now utterly terrified. In the face of death, even he couldn’t maintain his dignity. Strip away the outer shell, and he was no different from the lower-class citizens.
"I'm not here as a member of the Imperial Guard, Bao Zakanan. I'm here as a representative of the Custoria family."
"What does that have to do with m—keuhhh!"
I pressed down harder with my leg. The pressure increased as if a hydraulic press were bearing down. Cracks spread across Bao Zakanan's skull, and some of his internal components were forced out through the gaps in his synthetic skin.
I wanted to see his head burst open. But I held back.
"Just talking to you disgusts me. I don’t even want to waste words. Just answer my questions. Why did you kill Nikolaos?"
I didn’t even ask if he killed him. I spoke as if I was already certain.
"H-ha, haha, what are you talking about? Me? Kill Nikolaos?"
He still had the nerve to lie.
"Hmm, is that so? Guess I got it wrong, then. In that case, you’ll just die like the rest of the filth outside."
I stomped down harder.
Crack!
More fractures spread across his skull. Even the floor beneath his head was beginning to crack.
"W-wait! I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Only then did I ease up a little.
Bao Zakanan gasped for air. The circuits inside his fractured skull emitted a faint glow. The light shone through his artificial skin, branching out like veins.
"And tell me how you’ve been colluding with Nemesis."
"Wh-what the hell are you… No, fine, alright!"
The moment I lifted my foot, Bao Zakanan shouted.
Bang! Boom!
The commotion outside grew louder. Iskan’s cleanup still wasn’t finished. There must have been an obscene amount of trash to deal with.
It made things easier for me. Bao Zakanan knew something unusual was happening outside.
"You're the Custoria family's adopted son, right? Then I suppose you don’t really know what kind of person Nikolaos was. Heh… heh heh. Are you trying to get revenge?"
Bao Zakanan sat on the floor, pulling out a piece of metal lodged in his temple as he looked up at me. Even in this situation, he had already regained his composure—just like a high-ranking bureaucrat should.
"It was just a little debt, that’s all."
"Then why does that corpse back there look like Nikolaos? I think I already know what kind of twisted desires you have."
"Twisted desires? I won’t say you're wrong, but… ha, fuck. Seriously. Why the hell am I going through this…"
Bao Zakanan spat out curses like some lowly commoner. He glanced at the Nikolaos lookalike corpse, then shifted his gaze back to me.
"…Nikolaos was the one who approached me first, that whore bastard. Believe it or not, I don't care. He wanted to climb the ranks quickly through me. And I actually supported him, thinking of him as my lover. He was capable, so there was no problem."
"What kind of bullshit—"
"I'm different from you monsters who've modified your brains. I can't process thoughts at high speed. Do you really think someone like me could just make up a convincing story on the spot? And spontaneous lies are easy to see through."
Bao Zakanan’s gaze was sharp. What he said was true.
"So?"
I spoke expressionlessly, still pointing my gun at him.
"That piece of trash… discarded me. Do you get what I’m saying, kid? I got used. Fuck, I was serious about him. But that bastard… the moment he didn't need my help anymore… he threw me away!"
Bao Zakanan’s voice wavered with suppressed emotion.
"You knew that was his intention from the start."
I was once again reminded of what kind of person Nikolaos was—someone who would do anything for success. I had sensed it when he approached me in that bold manner. He was an extraordinary man.
"I know. But that's why you're just a kid. When you fall in love, you want to believe the lies."
Bao Zakanan laughed bitterly. I was starting to get irritated. I had no interest in hearing about some old man’s heartbreak.
"I'm not here to listen to your sob story. So, you resented Nikolaos for abandoning you? Is that why you hired Nemesis to assassinate him?"
I cut straight to the heart of the matter. It was the key objective of this mission.
Bao Zakanan hesitated.
And so did my patience.
Crack!
I grabbed his hair and hurled him against the wall.
"Keuhk! Guhk…!"
A choked gasp escaped from Bao Zakanan as he slumped down. A dark red synthetic fluid seeped from his nose and mouth.
Bao Zakanan was a smart man. I had to keep the pressure on him so he wouldn't have time to think. I was already struggling to suppress the urge to tear him apart.
"Alright, alright! Damn it. To be precise, it wasn’t collusion. If I were really in direct contact with terrorists, do you think I'd still be alive right now? And what reason would I have to stoop so low as to work with those bottom-feeding scum?"
Even if it wasn't direct collusion, it was something similar. And that was collusion. He was just playing word games.
"So you’d rather keep wasting time with wordplay?"
"This place… it's probably one of Nemesis' funding sources. Of course, I have no proof. I'm not even certain. But… they recorded everything I did here. Those despicable bastards set a trap and used it to blackmail bureaucrats and nobles like me. If that makes me a collaborator, then every person who's set foot in here is one too!"
I frowned. It was laughable, hearing him call someone else despicable.
"So, is that why you ordered Custoria's assassination through Nemesis?"
This was the second time I had asked that question. I had no intention of asking a third.
The Custoria family had ways of extracting information without the use of words. I could just resort to that.
"Listen, kid. You're just an adopted son. If you want to protect the Custoria family for the sake of your own advancement, don't dig any further. This is the only way we survive. End it here."
Bao Zakanan shut his mouth. For the first time, I sensed a real sense of resolve from him. He wasn’t going to talk easily.
‘So that's how it is.’
I bit my lower lip and shut my eyes tightly. In my mind, the Empire’s tangled web was slowly unraveling.
‘Nikolaos' assassination was probably…’
My accelerated thought process was reaching an answer. It was one of the conclusions I had already considered. But I had come here hoping to find a different answer—hoping that this wasn’t the truth.
"I've also made some insurance for myself. I couldn't tell the Empire’s security firms my travel routes, obviously. I couldn’t exactly brag about visiting a place like this. Sometimes, you have to entrust important matters to people with absolutely no stake in them."
Bao Zakanan muttered. I tried to decipher his words. But before I could, my instincts detected something.
Bzzzt—
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Yet, there was no apparent threat in my surroundings.
There was no one behind me. I knew that without even looking. And yet, unease crept up my spine.
React to the threat. Move for battle.
My brain was issuing urgent commands to my body. My fingertips trembled. My pupils dilated endlessly. My mind had yet to comprehend the danger, but my body and brain had already responded.
Like a programmed machine, I reacted to the situation.
I didn’t yet know what this threat was.
But my brain and body knew.
Understanding and analysis would come later.
Only then would I realize what kind of crisis I was truly facing.
Our consciousness and identity are merely fragments of the brain.
Shhk.
I turned toward the right wall. A crack formed, and a blue light seeped through. An energy beam pierced through the wall, streaking straight toward me.
So, the enemy had arrived. The battle had begun.
I twisted my upper body and threw myself aside. My shoulder hit the floor first, and I rolled three times before landing in the corner. In the process, I disengaged my mask, reactivating my previously suppressed sense of smell.
Tssssss!
The beam burned through the wall, leaving a searing red afterglow. It was a high-output energy weapon, the kind rarely seen on the civilian market.
Bzzzt!
I initiated the preheat sequence of my shock pistol, Ruina. At the same time, my other hand had already drawn Crucis.
I hadn’t seen the enemy yet. But I caught an unfamiliar scent in the air. That meant one thing—my opponent was likely not human.
Vrrrrr.
A slight tremor ran through my hand as the shock pistol finished warming up. I pulled the trigger, aiming at the spot where the enemy was likely positioned.
Thunk!
A dull sound rang out as the energy-infused projectile struck the wall.
Boom!
The wall exploded violently. Before the debris had even finished scattering, I pulled the trigger again.
Through the swirling dust and rubble, the enemy’s figure became visible. The shock round was already hurtling toward him. If he dodged it, that would mean he wasn’t an easy opponent.
Bzzzzzt!
I had miscalculated.
He didn’t dodge.
Instead, an energy shield extended from his forearm. The semi-transparent shield absorbed the impact of the shock round. A dense blue vapor, a byproduct of the energy neutralization reaction, quickly filled the room.
“Well, now.”
Those words came from my own mouth. Honestly, I was surprised enough for something so flippant to slip out.
Hsssss, hsssss.
The enemy wore a helmet that completely covered his face. But even through it, the contours of his head were unusual. His snout protruded in a way that was distinctly non-human, and his arms were long enough to reach his knees. His blue skin, exposed between the gaps in his armor, was marked with glowing orange stripes that resembled scars.
Just as I expected—he was an alien.
‘…An Equessian.’
I had only seen them in videos and documents.
Equessians were a warrior race, mercenaries by trade. And my dagger, Graken Vuth, originally belonged to their kind.
Without even glancing at my right arm, I swung my blade.
Slash!
Bao Zakanan’s legs were severed in an instant.
“Keuhk…!”
He groaned. Even with pain dampeners, he would still feel it.
"Hey, alien. If you want to take your employer, you’ll have to kill me first."
This Equessian was likely a contracted bodyguard for Bao Zakanan. Iskan was probably facing something similar outside.
Ssssss…
An eerie, distorted breath escaped from the Equessian’s mask.
—That is my intention, human.
A robotic translation voice echoed from his helmet.
Bzzzt!
The Equessian stowed the long firearm on his back. Instead, he drew a rod and gave it a sharp flick—causing a spearhead to snap out from the tip.
Whirrr.
The Equessian vaulted over the collapsed wall and stood before me. Spinning his spear in slow, deliberate circles, he leveled it in my direction.
Different species. Same kind of warrior.
"Hmm, this is our first meeting… but I already like you."
I holstered my firearm and raised Crucis.
Reflected in the blade, my lips curled into a wide grin, baring my teeth.
Damn it. That habit again.