119.
Kiiik.
When she opened the half-damaged door and entered, she saw a mess inside. There were bloodstains left here and there, and people lay scattered on the floor. It reminded her of the day the gate opened in New York; The day Bacardi invaded the center and killed countless people.
With goosebumps, Amber involuntarily backed away. Then she bumped into a man who came in after her.
“Are you okay?”
The man in black asked if she was okay.
"I’m okay. Come to think of it, I didn't ask for your name."
“Yul-mu, please call me Yul-mu.”
Yul-mu looked inside and frowned.
"Let's take a look inside."
This time, Yul-mu moved ahead. He inspected the lobby, saw that no one was alive, and went upstairs. The situation at the top was no different from the bottom.
“Let’s go down again.”
Amber nodded. And as a result of searching all over, she found a door to the basement behind a collapsed bookshelf. The two gradually descended.
“It seems to go deeper than I thought.”
"Yes."
She couldn't hear the loud fighting outside anymore. And around that time, she found another door blocking her way. Amber swallowed her saliva. This was a branch of the Guardian Guild. A door in such a deep basement: what was the purpose of this place?
'Is it for evacuation?'
It wasn't impossible. The Guardian Guild was built to serve as a shelter for local residents in case of emergency. But somehow it didn't feel right.
“I’ll open it.”
Yul-mu opened the door with force. It was so dark inside that they couldn't see anything. Amber rummaged through her bag and pulled out a small flashlight from her waist bag. Fortunately, the light came on as if it was not damaged.
Amber raised the flashlight as it was. And after a while, she sat down on the spot with her hand covering her mouth. This was a laboratory. Test tubes were lined up on the left and right, and inside each were bizarrely transformed people.
'Are they even alive?'
She put her hand on the nearest test tube and tapped it carefully. Then, the test subject that had been sitting still with its eyes closed began to wriggle. Then a voice came from behind.
“No, who is this? No one can come here without permission?"
She turned around and saw a gangster-looking, red-haired man in a leather jacket looking her way. He resembled a human. Those eyes. The deadly eyes inside the sockets showed that he was not.
As soon as he noticed, Yulmu, who was close to him, stepped forward and swung the weapon on his back.
“Ho come on!”
The man easily dodged the attack. Taking advantage of that gap, Amber also launched a mental attack on him. She was weak in the attack aspect, but her attacks weren't without effect. The man staggered for a moment, and Yul-mu’s ax drove into his chest.
'Did I succeed?'
Amber glared at him as she swallowed her saliva.
"Shit!"
Tiamat let out a harsh sound. It was not easy to deal with just Seon-woo alone, but the others also assisted with the attack. And if one felt tired, they took turns with someone else.
Her stomach was boiling. They were really doing a gigantic monster raid. What was even more annoying was that it was quite effective.
Her attacks were blocked every time, and it was impossible to escape. They knew how to block her when she did. In the middle of it, her head was shaking and hurting. Mental abilities were trying to interfere with Tiamat's mind. She was of a great race, so of course it didn't work, but her mind went wild. She couldn't concentrate on the battle.
She tried to fly once, but gave up due to the concentrated attacks on her wings. Meanwhile, the damage was steadily piling up. At least she was holding on because she has a strong body, but if she had been in human form, she might have died long ago.
'What the hell is he doing?'
She remembered the guy who came to destroy the branch together, but he didn't show up. Was he still staying underground? He should have just lit a fire and come out. Tiamat clicked her tongue. It had been a while since that happened.
Tiamat was tired, and the people of the Seon-hyeon Guild were also tired. However, Seon-woo wanted to completely get rid of Tiamat.
“Get ready.”
For that reason, they brought some more people just in case. The people who had been protected so far in the back raised their hands bathed in light. At the same time, stamina began to return to the guild members who were tired due to the fighting so far. Even their minds became clearer.
“I heard that black dragons in the Demon Realm are not good at using recovery magic.”
Seon-woo said calmly.
“Then shall we fight again?”
Lena stepped forward as courageously as the first time. Ain and the other guild members did the same.
'Somehow I don’t have a good feeling about this.'
It seemed that this place would be her graveyard.
‘But I won’t give up my life so easily.’
At least most of them should die with her. Tiamat sighed as she thought so.
“Gasp gasp”
The flashlight had long since been broken, and the lab plunged into darkness again. Meanwhile, the only sound that remained was Yul-mu’s heavy breathing. The red-haired man didn't die all at once. He tried to kill the two of them, turning into a monstrous figure once more, just like Bacardi had done.
Yul-mu nodded and grabbed his weapon.
“Should we look for the data now?”
Fortunately, it seemed that they had arrived before the man had destroyed all the information. The experimental data remained intact. The personal information of the people who became the test subjects and what they wanted were written in detail, followed by research data on the combination of humans and demons.
[The more outstanding the Awakened, the better he adapts to the Demonic energy. But that doesn't mean anything. Even those without any ability can change the world only when they are dyed with demonic energy and able to fight.]
After reading all of that, Amber spat out the words with a dejected expression.
“That’s crazy.”
“I agree.”
Yul-mu stuffed data into the bag she was carrying. Some were photographed. He wished there was some data entered into the computer, but there was nothing there.
Having collected the date, it was time to decide on the treatment of the remaining test subjects.
‘But how?’
Most were dead, but some were alive. But looking into the eyes, it seemed as if their intellect had disappeared. As usual, of course she would hand over everything to the Guardian Guild, but this time she couldn't.
Because this was a branch of the Guardian Guild. In addition, her intuition was shouting that she should not let other members of the Guardian Guild know about it.
'Then what should I do?'
Amber asked again. Yul-mu stared at Amber, who was standing there blankly. It was something hesitating.
“Did you all know?”
“What do you mean?”
“That the Guardian Guild was doing this kind of experiment.”
“We didn't even know everything. But I hadn't suspected as much."
Doubt.
Until now, she had never had the slightest doubt. The Guardian Guild worked to protect the people of the world, so she thought they stood for justice. But the association of the Guardian Guild with the sense of justice, which had been firmly established, began to shake.
Amber ended her brief thought.
“I’ll help you.”
"Yes?"
“Aren’t you short of help? Let me help you. I have memorized all the locations of the Guardian Guild Branch. If you are looking for something in particular, I can find it for you.”
“Why?”
“Because the Guardian Guild must be brought to justice.”
She didn't think that just because she'd seen the fallen and believed the truth, everyone would. So, she would just need to expose the rotten parts.
“What if.”
"Yes."
“Even if the guild leader is the cause of everything, can you help?”
“You are talking about Leon-nim?"
"Yes."
Amber gritted her teeth. However, the answer has already been decided.
“Yes, I’ll help.”
“Good then. Please follow me.”
Yul-mu went up the basement ahead of her.
As the two stepped outside, they saw a huge dragon anchored to the ground with chains and stakes. The wounded dragon bled profusely, but was still alive.
“Yul-mu.”
Lena sang to Yul-mu while wiping her sweat with a refreshing expression.
“You did a great job.”
"This.”
"Unn! You did it! I am just about to wrap this up. In fact, it would be nice to pull out the information, but the mental attack rarely worked. But I didn't think it would be a testimony to us, so I was deciding whether to kill it or not. But have I seen you before? "
“My name is Amber. I'll be with you in the future, so please take good care of me. ”
“Ah, Amber. What are you doing? "
“She’s a guild member of the Guardian Guild.”
“I’m working at the central headquarters.”
"What? But why is such a person here?”
Lena made a puzzled expression.
“For justice.”
Amber left only those words and moved closer to the dragon.
“If you don’t mind, can I approach it for a moment before you kill it?”
Seon-woo looked down at Amber and nodded. Amber took a deep breath and put both of her hands on the messed up dragon's head.
"Get…lost!"
Tiamat growled and tried to push Amber away, but it was no use as she was thoroughly restrained. And Amber began to seep into Tiamat's mind.
HM: The sense of justice, huh… does such a thing even exist… I wonder.. hehe
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Credits:
Translator: Hoshi Miya
Editor/Proofreader: Davine, YaagRabRag
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