A little more than five minutes had passed and already a squad from the Silver Owls had arrived at the location Bryan was earlier at. Included in this group was Andrew. He looked around at the commotion at the entrance of the hospital and wondered just what had happened there.
His captain, a middle-aged man with brown hair and black eyes, was also here along with three other people. He looked around the place, trying to find just who had shot the emergency signal.
He then instructed his team, "Spread out and look for other members. It was a red flare, which means the situation must have been very urgent."
"Yes, captain!" Everyone solemnly nodded and then dispersed.
Meanwhile, the captain approached one of the fleeing men, grabbed him by the shoulders, and asked, "What happened here?"
The man, angry at being stopped, was about to admonish him, however, he soon heard the captain speak again, "My name is Max Frey, I'm with the Nadir Police."
Seeing that the man was a police officer, the man's attitude made a 180-degree change and he began complaining in a panic, "Officer, there was a mass murder inside. Some man, drenched in blood, came out of nowhere and started jumping around and stabbing people to death…."
The man continued to explain whatever he had seen or heard. Max's eyes narrowed the more he heard it. After letting go of the civilian, he immediately rushed inside the hospital. On the way, he met up with his team and asked, "Find anyone?"
However, all of them shook their heads. Max's face turned solemn. According to him, either two things could have happened. Either, the person who shot the flare was now dead or missing. Or, the enemy managed to acquire the emergency flare and was using it to ambush them.
He suddenly stopped in his steps, with a pensive expression. Both outcomes were equally bad. Hence, he took a deep breath, took out his pistol, and then solemnly instructed his team, "Everyone, stay on guard."
Everyone, including Andrew, took out their respective weapons as well and formed a defensive formation as they entered the hospital. The first floor of the hospital was completely empty, and they could see bloodied footsteps coming from a certain place further inside.
They then traced back the footsteps and finally found the area of battle. Max's eyes narrowed when he saw about a dozen people lying in a pool of blood, lifeless. He instructed his team to stand guard, meanwhile, he approached the corpses.
As he crouched down and checked each body, he was greatly taken aback. He found that all the dead bodies had one thing in common: red eyes!
Max muttered coldly, "Holy Blood Sect…."
At once, everyone around him was shocked. Andrew approached him and spat through gritted teeth, "Captain, is this one of their bases?"
Max got up to his feet and solemnly nodded. "It very well could be." He then thought in his mind, 'But who killed all these men?' He figured that for someone to kill so many Apprentices and Rank 1 Transcendents, they had to be a Rank 2 Transcendent.
His grip on the pistols tightened as he looked toward the bloodied footsteps. He decided to trace it back further inside. He instructed, "Everyone, follow me."
The group then traced the footsteps to their origin and soon found themselves in an administrative office. Seeing the papers and documents strewn around haphazardly, they figured that everyone must have evacuated in a panic.
One thing they realized was that normal civilians weren't killed. The only corpses they found were that of Blood Path Apprentices or Transcendents. Hence, all of them scrapped the idea of a Transcendent mutating and going insane and then causing havoc.
Soon, they followed the footsteps back to a secret corridor that led to an elevator. Everyone stood in front of the elevator, looking at their Captain for instructions.
Max remained silent for a few moments and then instructed one of the people behind him, "Go and inform the rest of the Strike Teams and get reinforcements immediately."
The woman nodded and then immediately turned around and left. Max looked at the rest of the members and asked, "Ready?"
Everyone nodded, except one. He was a relatively young man. He looked at Max and meekly asked, "B-But what if there are people lying in ambush?"
Max shook his head. "It's very unlikely." He pointed at the bloody footsteps and added. "From the impression left behind, I can tell for sure that whoever came out of the elevator did so in a calm manner. Look, you can see that he wasn't hurried in the least."
Everyone looked down and carefully observed the footsteps, and indeed they appeared very steady.
Andrew, thinking of something, looked back at his captain and asked incredulously, "Captain, you mean to say whoever this person was, took out the entire base all by himself?" The reason why he came to this conclusion was because naturally he only saw one pair of footsteps.
Max remained silent for a long time as if thinking of the correct words to say. In the end, he nodded. "It appears so." He then looked back at the bloodied footsteps and added, "And whoever it was, wanted us to trace back his steps."
Everyone remained silent, mostly in shock. One of the people asked in disbelief, "Is this a high-ranking Transcendent?"
"Perhaps," Max replied succinctly. "Regardless, my speculations could be wrong, there are no absolutes in this world. So keep your guard up."
Everyone solemnly nodded and then entered the elevator together. As the elevator gradually descended, everyone stood with bated breaths, nervous about what would greet them. Some tightened their hands around the weapons, while others began preparing spell structures in their minds.
| And within a few seconds, the elevator finally reached the lowermost floor. And as the gates opened, the scene that greeted everyone left them utterly wide-eyed and speechless. One of them even puked instantly, seeing such a scene.
Red! Everywhere they looked, all they saw was red. Corpses were strewn across the cavern, at least fifty of them. It looked as if a destructive cyclone had passed through this place, leaving everyone dead in its wake.
They felt as if the elevator had taken them straight down to hell. Even someone as experienced as Max, a Rank 3 Transcendent, had never seen such a gory scene ever in his life.
Everyone slowly got out of the elevator and looked around at the scene of bloodbath and carnage with utter disbelief etched on their faces. They saw that most of the corpses had been dismembered and some of them had even been bitten off.
One of them asked in horror, "Just who, no… just what could have done this?"
Everyone stayed silent. This indeed didn't seem like the work of a human, but something entirely different. Perhaps a wild animal or… a demon!
"Look!" All of a sudden, Andrew's surprised voice snapped everyone back to their senses. Everyone looked in the direction Andrew was pointing, and once again they were taken aback.
Because in that direction, they saw more than a hundred people inside their cages. But the thing was, the cages looked like they had already been torn open, but the people inside were still afraid to come out.
Max instructed two people behind him, "Search the surroundings. I doubt anyone else is alive apart from the prisoners."
"Y-Yes, captain." Two of them replied, still disgusted to walk amidst so many corpses. Meanwhile, Max and Andrew approached the prisoners.
They entered one of the cages and Max gently said, "Everyone, no need to worry. We're from the Nadir Police."
One of the older men looked at them dubiously and asked, "S-Show us your papers."
After being imprisoned for so long, they had naturally become apprehensive of anyone who approached them. Max knew this very well, and hence, gave his police badge to them. Andrew did the same.
The old man verified the two identification badges and breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes began to tear up and he looked at the prisoners beside him, "Everyone… we can finally go home."
At once, everyone began crying loudly. For months, they had been imprisoned here. And although they had been fed nicely, they knew what awaited them. After all, they'd seen how some of the people in the base had sucked the blood dry of a few of the prisoners.
They were nothing but reared cattle. They had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions earlier today. When Bryan massacred everyone in the base, they thought that they'd be next.
And then, when Bryan broke the locks of all the cages and evilly declared that he was going to eat them all, they really accepted their deaths. But the next moment, Bryan had actually disappeared. They all felt that he had just pulled a cruel prank on them.
When they confirmed that Bryan had actually left for good and also left the cage open for them, they could finally see a glimmer of hope, and now with the Silver Owls here, they could see a path to freedom.
Max waited for the old man to calm down, he then solemnly asked, "Mister, can you tell us what happened here?"
The old man's body trembled ever so slightly. His eyes shone with fear and reverence as he replied, "A demon with four arms appeared here…. He slaughtered those evil men all by himself…. In the end, he also set us free and didn't ask for anything in return."
"A demon… with four arms?" Max's eyes narrowed.
"Yes, a demon." The old man replied, "A faceless demon!"
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