"This!" I exclaid.
The door creaked open with a low tallic groan that echoed through the room beyond — making it feel less like a door being opened and more like a tomb being disturbed.
The air that spilled out was colder. Thicker. Like sothing old and damp and rotting.
Juliana froze.
Even I — knowing what to expect — felt the subtle coil of unease wrap itself around my throat.
Rexerd's secret lab was… wrong.
It wasn't just ssy or chaotic — it was simply wrong.
Everything here felt like it had been twisted out of shape, like so unseen force had warped the air itself.
The floor was clean. Too clean. As if blood had been scrubbed from it too many tis.
Every surface glead with a sickly sheen under dim, green-glassed alchemical lamps bolted into the ceiling.
The soft light cast flickering shadows across a series of glass containnt pods that lined both walls.
Those glass containnt pods were actually tall, cylindrical tanks of reinforced crystal, filled with a viscous blue liquid.
And inside them floated… creatures.
So half-ford. So half-dead.
…So even half-human.
So were missing skin.
Others had too many limbs.
One twitched violently as if caught mid-seizure when the door opened… like it could still feel fear for the man who was going to enter the lab.
The man who made it this way — made it a cluster of fused faces writhing beneath its translucent flesh.
It was a disturbing sight — not just that particular creature but all of them. It made my stomach churn and I had to physically stop myself from retching.
Then, I stepped in.
Juliana followed , half-dazed, covering her mouth.
Thank goodness. It seed like I wasn't the only one feeling uncomfortable here.
And moreover, there was still sothing that could make even unnerve this homicidal bitch. That was actually very rare.
I walked forward, my steps echoing against the steel tiles as I passed the pods one by one.
"These…" she began, voice still hoarse from before. "Just what the hell is this place? And are these… are these people?"
Okay, more than just unnerved.
She sounded shaky.
Was this too much for her?
At this point in the story, Juliana was unhinged, but she wasn't a full-blown lunatic.
Maybe I was pushing her a bit here.
I glanced at her over my shoulder and stilled for a second.
Beyond the fear and disgust in her eye, beyond the revulsion and horror… I clearly saw curiosity and fascination.
Okay, yeah. Nevermind. She was still a deranged psycho. She'd be fine.
I sighed and focused forward, answering her quietly in the next mont. "They are people. Well, mostly. I don't know if you can even call them that anymore. They were prisoners. Vagrants. A few unlucky Hunters who were declared 'missing in action,' or so low-ranked Awakened girls who were his past victims. This is Rexerd's secret lab, the place where he researched his true study — sothing that the Academy wouldn't have allowed."
"...A lab?" she whispered. "This place feels more like a twisted graveyard."
"It's both," I admitted.
After a mont of silence, she asked, "What… was he researching?"
I took a mont of theatrical pause before replying, "The Alchemy of Souls."
Juliana frowned slightly. "I heard you ntion that to Rexerd. What even is it?"
My, she certainly wasn't hiding her inquisitiveness today.
I raised my hands and shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what it is in detail. That's the main reason why I'm here, actually. To know more about it."
In the center of the room was an operating table — black-stained and cracked, its surface littered with rusted chains and restraints.
Above it, a nest of chanical arms hung from the ceiling like a spider's limbs, each fitted with a different surgical tool.
Scalpels. Needles. Bone saws.
Behind that table, on the other side of the room was a mountain of experint journals. I wanted those.
And on top of that pile of paper was a long, wall-mounted shelf displaying a set of Acquire Cards.
Those belonged to Rexerd.
Since Rexerd wasn't a combatant, his Card collection wasn't anything special — just the standard Debuff and Support Spell Cards.
But among them, hiding in plain sight… was sothing special indeed.
A type of custom-made Appraisal Card that could identify a Spirit Beast — if it was recorded in the Hunter Exploration Database — its weaknesses, its origin, and even things like whether a registered Awakened had ever survived an encounter with it or sothing similar.
On top of that, it could analyze objects and items like any regular Appraisal Card.
Now, it might not sound like so overpowered cheat item — because it really wasn't — but the knowledge it provided could very well be the difference between life and death.
Like soone once said — knowledge was power.
In the ga, Michael stumbled upon that Card — and it saved his skin more than once simply because he knew what he was fighting.
So yeah, I wanted that too.
It was going to be useful for my future missions.
"How do you even know all this? Any of this? About the Syndicate, if what you're saying is true? Or about Rexerd's plans — things even I couldn't dig up despite doing a full background check on him?" Juliana's voice reached from behind, equal parts confusion and quiet suspicion. "How did you know about this Dinsional Chamber? How did you even get inside?"
I turned my head slightly, not quite facing her. My voice was calm as a still lake. "You're asking too many questions today. Don't get wrong, I like this side of you. But just like how you can't trust completely… I can't trust you either."
Juliana halted mid-step, staring at , her brows narrowing.
Before she could say anything, I turned to face her and placed the golden greatsword I was carrying down against the operating table.
"But that's fine," I said and started taking off my shirt. "In fact, I brought you here precisely because I want to start building that trust. I'm showing you what I was after. What my end goal was. And while I can't tell you how I know the things I do, I can give you this—"
I slipped out of my shirt and tossed it at the white-haired girl. Her eyes widened as she instinctively tried to catch it with her right hand — but since it was broken, she fumbled and caught it with her left instead.
Flabbergasted, she stared at the bloodstained fabric.
I explained, "It has my blood along with Rexerd's, tying directly to his death. Sure, it's all just circumstantial evidence. But if you use that clever little head of yours, you could spin a plot convincing enough to paint as the vicious killer and put behind bars for a while."
She blinked in confusion, visibly thrown. Her lips parted as she tried to stamr out words. "Wha– I… Why–"
I cut her off before she could continue, pointing to the right of her chest where her heart was.
"Because I still have a leash on you. That BloodWorm," I said. "And you'd need sothing in return — sothing you could use against if things don't work out for you. So I figured… I'd save you the trouble of scheming up so master plan and just hand it over myself."
She looked up at , eyes wide with disbelief. Searching for sothing.
Then, softly, she exhaled. "Th-this doesn't make sense. You should be too cautious to act this recklessly…"
"It's not recklessness, Juli. It's strategy," I scoffed. "I told you already — I'd rather have you fighting with than against . This is offering you a hand. And not just this. In the future, you can ask for anything you want. Money. Resources. Weapons. Whatever it takes. I'll help you grow stronger — to the best of my ability."
I walked past her, heading toward the door we'd co through. And as I crossed her path, I looked her dead in the eye.
"But if you try to cut the hand I'm offering — if you ever betray — I will kill you."
Juliana didn't flinch.
Not at the words.
Not at the cold steel behind them.
She just stood there in silence, clutching my shirt like it was so cursed treasure.
Her gaze lingered on a heartbeat longer than I expected — probably srized by my topless beauty.
…Okay, probably not.
The confusion in her eyes slowly lted into sothing else.
Sothing older.
Sothing softer.
And then it vanished — buried beneath that well-practiced façade of detached elegance.
Just like that, her mask was back on.
"Sure," she murmured, her tone clipped but controlled.
I didn't respond.
There was no need to. The ssage had landed.
I reached the door and pulled out a golden key. I held it up so she could see it before placing it against the fra.
A keyhole magically appeared into existence on the door's surface.
"But I can answer one of your questions," I said. "How I got here? It's this."
"A key?" she asked.
I nodded, slipped it in the keyhole, and turned it.
The door creaked open — not into the chamber outside, but into my bedroom.
"It's called the Key of Order," I said. "A hidden academy relic. It can teleport you to any room within the Academy. You just need a door. Neat, right?"
She nodded, despite herself, eyes wide with quiet amazent.
"Anyway," I said, stepping aside and holding the door open for her, "go get your wounds treated. That arm of yours is broken — it should be treated imdiately. Take my Ace badge, it should be on the console table in the foyer. Also, don't parade around with that shirt. Put it in a bag — you'll find one on the table too."
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