Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Serial Rampage Incident (8)
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Seoul's outskirts were home to a dawn-lit abandoned factory shrouded only in a chill aura.
Bent steel beams jutted out like bare bones, and the acrid scent of rusted iron faintly permeated the air.
Could this really be their hideout?
Staring at the deserted factory with no sign of human life, I couldn't help but rub the goosebumps rising on my arms.
Yet my sharpened senses were signaling that someone was hiding inside.
"Junior. So, how do you plan to breach it?"
"You're leaving even that to me?"
"You're the captain, after all. I have to trust you. Master's intel has never been wrong anyway."
At Rossi's words, I stood tall and swept my gaze over the factory's perimeter.
A bizarre, eerie air was gathering in one direction. This place was definitely abnormal.
"Hmm."
I stroked my chin, deep in thought.
How should I tackle this?
Dragging it out too long wasn't a good idea.
Taking a deep breath to relax, I turned my head toward where P and Rossi stood.
"I've got a method that's right up my alley. Want to try it?"
*****
The factory, cloaked in black mist, silently devoured the city's vital energy, writhing its bloated form without a sound.
40th Branch Pharmaceutical Factory.
The third petal among Flower's seven, built under Cistus's strict rule, the factory was finally nearing the end of its long lifespan.
"Lady Cistus."
Dozens of cultists knelt reverently.
Dark air, black fog.
A girl in her infancy with snow-white hair sat on a chair, flashing a pale smile.
"Looks like it's time to scrap this place too."
"Yes."
"Yeah. It held out for a good while, didn't it?"
Cistus.
Her childlike face bore square, red tattoos circling her nose.
Her fluorescent-glowing eyes sparkled as she rose from her seat.
"That's all. Cutting contact now. Use the clone however you like."
"Understood."
The cultists bowed their heads.
Her eyes dimmed as Cistus continued in a emotionless voice.
"The enemy approaches."
Her clone body took slow steps forward.
Gracefully and boldly, she passed through the ranks of cultists.
Cistus stared into the void with her grotesque face.
"Tighten your formations."
"Yes."
The cultists, repeating only affirmations, donned gray cloaks and melted into their positions.
"Artifact use is authorized."
"Yes."
This time, the higher-ranking priests vanished.
Gazing at the last two elites remaining, Cistus muttered.
"Prepare the Calamity."
A massive tree emerged above her in the air.
It was once a root of this vast world.
But now, even that noble tree was merely a disaster.
Cistus placed her hands on the necks of the two elites.
"Are preparations complete?"
""Yes."""
-Splash!
Blood sprayed.
The two heads rolled across the floor, bumping into the tree's base and stopping.
The tree's roots protruding from the second floor enveloped and absorbed the heads.
Cistus wiped the blood from her face and stared rigidly out the window.
"Heavenly Demon."
She smiled.
"I'm looking forward to the day you die."
⚔ STATUS ⚔ Flower's 3rd Ranking Executive :: Cistus Cristaceae · Cistus Epithet :: The Suicidal Flower Feeling the three approaching presences from outside the window, her clone declared to the Ents kneeling behind her.
"Awaken."
Yellow eyes opened on the black orbs of the 2-meter-tall giants.
They stared blankly at Cistus with mouths agape.
Then—
-Boom!
The factory wall crumbled.
Mana exploded upward, rippling through the entire building and whipping up a storm.
An Ent at the entrance shattered into pieces.
Even accounting for the Ents' weakened defenses over time, it was overwhelming power.
'Heavenly Demon—no, White Path? Anyway, it's definitely that woman.'
Cistus gathered mana throughout her body, capturing the silhouette in the smoke.
It couldn't match even her main body's toe, but using it would deal a fatal blow.
Clones didn't matter if they died. She could just snatch some orphans, hijack their bodies, and remake them into clones—Cistus was built that way from the start.
But the figure that appeared wasn't the one she awaited.
A black-haired man in a mask, an ugly brute.
A warrior shrouded in black mana gripped the necks of two priests in each hand, leisurely invading the factory.
His brutish method and fearless demeanor overlapped with White Path's style, making her momentarily think it was White Path in disguise.
"...Didn't know the buffs were this potent."
The man suppressed the lightning-like mana surging over his shoulders and swung his fist at the approaching Ent.
-Kwang!
The Ent's solar plexus exploded in that state.
Watching him kick away the collapsing wood scraps, the woman behind muttered.
"She said he resembled Master, and she wasn't kidding. Right, P?"
"Affirmative."
Members of the Peach Blossom Haven. Cistus furrowed her brow at the two figures.
But something felt off.
Her pounding heart. The thrill from discovering something.
She looked at the man again.
Black prestige. Mana of a unique quality.
Cistus's clone pondered repeatedly, then sent a message to her main body.
-Found the eighth petal.
A reply came soon from her main body.
-Coaxing failed. Kill him.
*****
"Bob. Got everything?"
"Yessir."
Cheondo sharpened her blood-soaked leaf blade and scanned the surroundings.
The sizable pharmaceutical company had already been thrown into chaos: stationery scattered from the entrance, papers and files strewn across the floor.
A rolling pill bottle caught her eye. Cheondo picked it up, opened it, and checked the contents.
'Mixed with mercury.'
This must have been where various Mendel experiments were conducted, Cheondo thought.
'But I was a bit late. Or rather, they prepared an escape route in advance.'
She checked the computers, but the stored files had long been formatted.
The internal servers were disconnected too.
Traces of hasty scavenging were obvious.
Assessing the situation, Cheondo sheathed her sword.
"Alright. On to the next floor, Bob."
"Got it, ma'am."
Standing at the door, Cheondo scanned left to right to ensure nothing was missed.
-Gasp, keruk.
Air escaping from severed necks.
Thirty corpses in the office twisted unnaturally, spewing blood.
Broken bone shards embedded in windows.
Guts and eyeballs spilled out, crushed underfoot or sliced by swords, littering the floor.
A gruesome scene that would horrify anyone.
Cheondo and Bob exited into the hallway without a change in expression.
Dozens of cultists stood there.
"...Heavenly Demon!!!!"
Vicious underlings snarling with malice.
Cheondo grimaced slightly.
"I said not to call me by that name."
She bent her knees, shifted her center of gravity, and gripped her sword hilt reverse-style.
"The Heavenly Demon does not exist in this world."
A lone woman stood tall beneath the heavens, shaking the decaying world at will, earning awe and the title Heavenly Demon from countless souls.
All called her Heavenly Demon,
Yet she alone denied it in solitude.
Countless reasons could be cited, but what was the point of explaining to mere rabble?
Cheondo drew her sword.
-Slash!
"Begone."
Long red lines appeared on the cultists' necks, their heads sliding to the floor.
-Splatter.
Rotted heads dropped simultaneously, bursting with a pop.
'Still, there are a lot of them.'
Bodies tangled underfoot, but she ignored them.
After a few steps, she glanced back toward the factory.
The man's face flashed in her mind, but she erased it.
Over her cooling senses, she felt a childlike form clinging to the ceiling.
The child lunged at her.
"Kihihik!"
-Slash!
The infant perished instantly.
Cistus. An executive's clone-type suicide bomb.
She recalled the infants sacrificed to create one girl-shaped monster.
-Sizzle.
The charred body exploded.
-Kwaaaaa!
Red light filled her vision. Cheondo grabbed Bob's clothes and ascended into the air outside the company.
The building, intact moments ago, now had a massive hole from the 3rd to 6th floors, half-collapsed and toppling from the blast.
'Yellow Path.'
-Yeah.
'Stop that.'
Smoke cleared to reveal Yellow Path, who extended her slender hand and cast a spell.
The buckling steel beams froze in place.
Scattering concrete chunks halted mid-air.
"Th-this is kinda tough."
-Endure it.
"...Kwaaa!"
Face flushed red, Yellow Path grunted and restored the building.
"I'm not some Wood Dragon...!"
Finally stabilizing the structure, Yellow Path—teary-eyed from mana depletion—returned to Cheondo.
"Good job."
-...Witch.
Cheondo checked her condition and reentered the company.
The near-collapsed building was a wreck with nothing worth salvaging.
Then she paused and looked toward the factory again.
"Cistus..."
Recalling the girl from moments ago, Cheondo thought of Lee Si-heon.
"......"
If Cistus was at the factory, Si-heon's situation was extremely dangerous.
Even she would take a fatal hit without preparation—what about Si-heon, who hadn't grown properly?
Even with P and Rossi protecting him, survival would be unlikely.
'Cistus's clones are chimeras made by sacrificing ten children.'
And if Si-heon knew that...
She pictured his face steeped in guilt and bitterness.
"Bob. To the factory."
-Boom!
At that moment, an explosion echoed from afar.