Chapter 232: Specimens
With Cillian’s appearance, Jade and Nigel looked as though they had just survived a tornado after being launched into the atmosphere and crash-landed back into the bathroom.
Both of them were breathing hard, their clothes were in complete disarray, and their hair looked as though it had personally declared war on them.
For a brief second, neither of them said a word as their gazes slowly drifted towards the now unconscious masked man lying on the floor between them.
Hands still tightly gripping a shoe and a toilet brush, they scrambled awkwardly to their feet when Cillian took a step inside and shut the door behind him.
He secured the lock before turning to face the unconscious man on the floor and then to the guilty-looking pair.
Raising a single eyebrow, he asked, "Care to explain what happened here?"
"It was his fault!" Both of them immediately pointed at the masked man lying on the floor, sounding like children complaining to their teacher.
The corner of Cillian’s eye twitched as he stepped closer to them and hummed, "I don’t doubt that."
"H-he tried to kill me!" Jade explained, still struggling to catch her breath.
Nigel nodded so frantically it looked as though his head might fall off.
"I saw it with my own eyes! He tried to kill me too!"
Cillian stared back and forth between the two before he pressed his lips into a thin line.
Just as he was about to speak, a faint movement behind the pair caught his attention.
Before either Jade or Nigel could react, Cillian moved.
His arm shot out with a speed their eyes couldn’t even follow, shoving both of them out of the way.
They barely had time to stumble aside before a deafening crash echoed through the bathroom.
Startled, both of them whipped around, and their mouths fell open.
Cillian had the masked man pinned against the wall with one hand wrapped around his throat, effortlessly lifting him off the ground as though he weighed nothing at all. His other hand gripped the assassin’s wrist, trapping the knife in the man’s fingers.
"When did he..." Jade whispered in disbelief, stunned to see that the attacker was not only conscious but had been preparing to strike them again while they were talking.
Her voice caught in her throat as a sickening crunch of breaking bones echoed through the quiet bathroom. Both she and Nigel winced when the assassin screamed in agony as Cillian broke his wrist with his bare hands.
The knife slipped from his fingers and clattered to the tile, but neither Jade nor Nigel dared to make a sound.
They could not see Cillian’s face from where they stood, but they could feel it in the air. The man was in no mood for games.
Letting go of the masked man’s broken wrist, Cillian reached beneath the cloth mask covering his face. With one swift motion, he ripped it off, revealing a face that was already swollen and bloodied from the earlier onslaught.
The first thing Cillian noticed was that the man was... human.
That explained how he had managed to pass through Gavriel’s barrier.
Then came the more important question.
Grabbing the man’s jaw in a harsh grip, Cillian forced him to meet his gaze. His eyes were cold and utterly devoid of mercy as he asked, "Who sent you to do this?"
....
Back in a desolate cave....
Mord stood before his master, who once again appeared as nothing more than a silhouette rising from the black water.
"So, how did it go?" his master asked, his voice laced with quiet anticipation.
"As expected, Master. With the demon mark on the woman, he tightened their security to ensure that no demon could breach either the bride’s residence or the wedding venue."
"And?"
A low chuckle escaped Mord’s lips.
"You were right, Master. With all their attention fixed on the demons, no one ever considered that we might use a human instead. That man’s barrier may be impenetrable to demons, but it can’t stop a trained human assassin from carrying out the simple task of killing another human, can it?"
"Any news since then?" his master asked.
"Not yet, Master. But you’ll be the first to know when the mission succeeds. I’m certain the bride must be mourning her loss by now."
A pleased hum resonated from the shadowy figure.
After a brief hesitation, Mord lowered his head slightly.
"Master, if I may ask... why not kill the woman outright instead of going after the people close to her?"
"Hmm..." His master let out an amused hum. "Haven’t you learnt by now? It is far sweeter to strip a person of everything when they believe they finally have it all."
The silhouette rippled as though the darkness itself were smiling.
"Don’t worry. I have plans for his sweet bride just as I have plans for him. Let him savour this fleeting happiness while he still can. Let him believe that, for once, fate has smiled upon him."
The cave fell deathly silent before his voice echoed once more, colder than before.
"When the time comes... I’ll take every last thing from him."
A low, sinister laugh reverberated throughout the cavern, sending ripples across the black water.
"When I’m done with him... he’ll have nothing left."
Mord’s lips slowly curled into a vicious grin as the sound of his master’s laughter continued to echo through the darkness.
.....
Meanwhile, back in Aria...
Hidden deep within one of the snow-covered mountains lay a secluded cave. From the outside, it appeared untouched, as though no living soul had set foot there for centuries.
Inside, however, it was an entirely different story.
Charred corpses and half-melted bodies littered the cavern floor, grim evidence of the two powerful figures who had carved their way through every demon guarding the entrance.
Ivan and Evelyn continued deeper into the cave until they reached a heavy metal elevator that descended underground.
Ivan pressed the button while Evelyn instinctively covered her nose with a handkerchief, unable to bear the suffocating, putrid stench that permeated the air.
A soft ding broke the eerie silence.
As the elevator reached the bottom floor and its doors slowly slid open, both of them stepped out, only for their movements to come to an abrupt halt.
Before them stretched a medium-sized underground laboratory lined with rows upon rows of towering glass chambers filled with a fluorescent green liquid.
Yet it wasn’t the glowing liquid that stole the breath from their lungs.
It was what was suspended within it.
Humans.
Men and women.
Each one floated motionlessly inside the chambers, their eyes closed as though they had become nothing more than lifeless specimens.
"What... is this place?" Evelyn breathed, her voice barely above a whisper.
Ivan’s expression darkened with every step he took further into the laboratory, his sharp gaze scanning every corner for answers.
Then his entire body went still.
At the far end of the room stood another row of glass chambers, only these were much smaller than the others.
Children.
Some couldn’t have been older than five while others were merely... infants.
Evelyn’s heart lurched violently as the horrifying sight settled before her eyes. She instinctively reached for Ivan’s arm, her voice trembling.
"I-Ivan... what... what are they doing to them?"
Ivan stood silent, taking in the horrific discovery unfolding before them in this dimension.
His molten red eyes narrowed as he surveyed the empty room and not a single living soul in sight, aside from the demon guards they had killed above.
"I don’t know," he murmured quietly.
His gaze suddenly settled on a section of the laboratory concealed behind several large white sheets.
A faint crease formed between his brows.
Slowly, he walked over and gripped the edge of the fabric.
With one sharp pull, the curtain fell away, and Ivan’s eyes widened in shock.