"Lionel died just like that, without making a sound! If I hadn't come in and casually lifted the clothes on his head, no one would have noticed!" The reporter looked at Lionel's lifeless body with a terrified expression. The frozen expression on his face was covered with red and white, making it look grotesque and horrifying. He said to the high-ranking esper, "This must be the work of espers! We didn't detect anyone approaching here!"
What kind of esper could silently enter and kill someone? The high-ranking esper frowned, staring at Lionel's lifeless body. His gaze shifted downward, looking at Lionel's waist. His heart skipped a beat, and he asked, "Where is his key?"
The person reporting was puzzled, "Key?"
The high-ranking esper's face changed dramatically, "Didn't you open the door to the basement?!"
"No, I forgot..." Suddenly realizing, he exclaimed, "How did you get out?!"
The high-ranking esper cursed inwardly, turned around, and rushed back. He hastily opened the basement door and ran inside. Emerging from the dim staircase corridor, he saw a laboratory illuminated by a large chandelier, a scene completely different from what he had left before.
In addition to the stench and the smell of chemicals in the air, there was now a strong scent of blood. The once living people in this place were now lying motionless in pools of blood on the floor. The zombies tied to the experiment tables struggled more vigorously, unable to resist the temptation of such fresh blood.
The high-ranking esper's expression twisted in anger. He kicked over a table filled with experimental apparatus, causing a commotion.
People upstairs heard the noise and came down, witnessing the horrifying scene of blood flowing like a river. They were petrified, "What happened... Ah!"
"That person is still here! You go upstairs and guard! Close the door!" The high-ranking esper gritted his teeth, his gaze scanning the laboratory filled with bodies as if he were a wolf.
The person nodded hastily and ran upstairs. Then, a loud bang came from the end of the corridor, the sound of the door being closed.
"I admit you're formidable."
The high-ranking esper flexed his joints, stepping over the bodies one by one. His gaze swept over the wounds, clean and lethal, leaving no footprints or other traces. It was as if these people were killed by unseen and intangible ghosts, silent and mysterious, just like Lionel outside.
Ghosts? He sneered inwardly, his tone chilling, "Dare to come out and face me?!"
However, apart from the struggles and roars of the zombies, there was no response.
"Not coming out, huh?" With his words, the temperature around dropped sharply, almost reaching dozens of degrees below zero in just a few seconds.
Ice esper! Aries, standing on the experiment table where the young man's body lay, thought to herself. In the next moment, the sharp gaze of the esper went straight towards her. Aries' pupils constricted; she had been discovered!
Several ice arrows, accompanied by the sound of breaking air, came towards her. Aries quickly jumped off the table. The blood pool that had spread under her feet had been frozen into ice, and she almost slipped on it. The ice arrows hit the wall with a clatter, causing the overhead chandelier to sway slightly, casting overlapping shadows in the laboratory filled with corpses.
Aries supported herself with one hand on the experiment table, crouching down to shield herself. She took a shallow breath, and white mist emanated from her mouth. She realized the reason for her exposure.
Holding her breath, she looked up at the swinging chandelier. Cat-like, she quickly and silently slipped out. The building had long been abandoned, with no water or electricity. Aries had noticed several generators shortly after entering the laboratory. However, before she could reach them, she was discovered again.
Even with the ability of invisibility, Aries couldn't completely erase her presence. The enclosed underground laboratory was filled with extremely low temperatures, making it an ideal arena for the ice-type high-ranking esper. He was highly sensitive to the temperature and, as the only heat source in this place, Aries was like a moving target. Even though the person chasing her couldn't see Aries, the ice arrows closely following her were enough to make her struggle.
The ice arrows from the ice-type esper became more and more dense. Aries dodged left and right but couldn't avoid them completely. She could only draw her dagger to defend herself. The ice-type esper watched as his ice arrows were shattered out of nowhere, a chilling smile appearing on his face.
"Do you think you can escape?"
The surrounding temperature continued to drop, and Aries' movements were becoming sluggish due to the cold. Just standing still for a moment made her limbs start to stiffen. She knew she needed to end this quickly, but the situation was extremely unfavorable, and she couldn't think of a solution.
At that moment, there was a sudden explosion outside, followed by gunshots. The entire underground shook, the overhead chandelier swaying, and the face of the ice-type esper darkened. "Tsk, are there accomplices?"
Aries didn't pay attention to the commotion outside. Swiftly, she took off her outer jacket and threw it at the ice-type esper's head. The deep blue jacket, now separated from Aries, also left her range of influence. The ice-type esper, seeing the jacket materialize out of nowhere and come towards him, quickly conjured an ice blade and mercilessly cut the jacket in half.
"Hiding like a turtle, huh?" The ice-type esper sneered. However, as he watched the cut jacket fall to the ground, his expression changed, and he muttered something under his breath. Suddenly, he tensed up, shifting his body left and right vigilantly.
He couldn't sense her temperature anymore. A bad premonition crept into the ice-type esper's mind. Yet, apart from the swinging chandelier above, even the struggling zombies on the experiment table had frozen stiff. There was no movement in the laboratory.
He listened carefully, not missing any sound, but even with focused attention, he couldn't perceive anything special. It was as if the other's presence had truly disappeared into thin air. In the laboratory, besides himself, there was no living creature.
The remaining temperature in the laboratory...?!
The ice-type esper suddenly looked up at the swinging chandelier. At that moment, a rusty padlock appeared directly above him. Though it happened abruptly, the ice-type esper skillfully avoided it.
The solid iron lock was heavy, slamming onto the frozen pool of blood with a bang. It instantly sent white ice shards flying. However, the opponent seemed to have anticipated his movements. Even before his body shifted again, a dagger had already descended in that direction. He dodged the lock but moved right into the path of the dagger.
Before he could stabilize his footing, he suddenly felt the danger and lost his rhythm. Stumbling to evade, he was still scratched in the eye. The dagger grazed his forehead, leaving a gash on his eyelid, cutting through to his right eyeball, and finally, with an unstoppable force, lodged itself a few inches in front of his foot.
The ice-type esper, covering his injured eye in shock and anger, had not yet reacted when his back uncontrollably arched backward. His face quickly turned red from congestion, staring with widened eyes. One eye was forced shut due to bleeding, while the other seemed about to pop out of its socket. He reached up to grab his neck, and his nails scratched violently against his skin, leaving a trail of bloody marks. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't catch whatever was strangling his neck.
Looking closely, there was a ring-shaped mark on his neck, indicating that an extremely thin thread had cut into the flesh under tremendous tension. At this moment, unless he took a knife and cut off a piece of his neck, it was impossible to grab the thread that had buried itself in his flesh.
Drip... Drip...
Blood droplets slid down the invisible thread, one after another, hitting the ground.
!
ChatGPT
The ice-type esper was horrified as the thread around his neck tightened; the person was now behind him! Swiftly, he formed an ice blade and stabbed backward. There was a familiar sensation of piercing into a body.
Hit!
Facing the imminent threat of death, the ice-type esper was driven by a strong survival instinct. His face turned red, veins bulging on his forehead. Breathing became difficult, resembling a trapped beast. Despite the frantic struggle, the pressure on his neck showed no signs of easing. He could vividly feel the fine thread cutting into his muscles, and its range was continuously shrinking.
In this life-or-death struggle, one of them would undoubtedly die first. They exerted every ounce of strength, gambling with their lives to see who would fall first. The ice-type esper's stabbing force weakened with each attempt. Eventually, his body convulsed a few times before becoming still.
At the same time, the gunfire outside seemed to have ceased.
The ice-type esper's body swayed and fell backward, hitting the ground with a thud. Aries released her power, and her petite figure appeared next to the corpse out of thin air. She breathed heavily, her right abdomen already a blur of flesh and blood. The trembling arms at her sides held a thin thread, barely noticeable unless one saw the fresh blood droplets running along it.
The laboratory's low temperature slowly rose with the death of the ice-type esper, but due to the sealed environment, the increase was gradual. Massive blood loss combined with the harsh temperature made Aries' head spin. She closed her eyes, standing still as if taking a rest. She couldn't recklessly go out and face potential danger.
Before long, a muffled sound came from the end of the staircase leading to the exit of the underground laboratory. The basement door was opened.
Aries opened her eyes, turning her head to glance at the dimly lit staircase.
Careful footsteps, almost imperceptible, echoed from deep within the stairs. Eventually, they stopped just before entering the illuminated area of the laboratory. The other person was extremely cautious, likely hiding in the shadows, completely focused, gun at the ready. Any slight movement would trigger an immediate pull of the trigger.
Aries smirked, relaxing her extremely tense spirit a little. She bent down to retrieve her dagger stuck in the ground, exhaled a breath, and calmly spoke, "The mission is over."
The person concealed in the shadows froze for a moment, and the gun barrel slightly lowered.
On the way back, Amber was behind the wheel. Gripping the steering wheel, Amber seemed absent-minded, still thinking about the scenes in the laboratory she had just witnessed. Under the pale light, corpses were scattered everywhere, and the temperature inside was extremely cold. Recalling the dark staircase leading to the underground laboratory, it felt like a path to the underworld. At the end of the stairs was the silent hell.
And Aries, covered in blood, was left in that hell.
Amber realized that her fingertips on the steering wheel were still trembling uncontrollably. She shifted her gaze from the road ahead, diverting some attention to Aries sitting in the passenger seat. At this moment, she was already asleep, tightly gripping the blood-stained notebook.
After coming out of the underground laboratory, the two rested briefly in a convenience store. Amber used the first aid supplies and bandages from her bag to hastily dress Aries' wounds, so the scent of blood wouldn't attract too many zombies on the way back to their hiding place.
Aries had multiple wounds from her right abdomen to her right armpit, some so deep that bones were visible. It looked horrifying, and she seemed severely injured—at least, that's how it appeared to Amber. However, Aries didn't seem to take it seriously. As Amber wrapped the bandages around the lean and scarred body, Aries' face never showed a hint of pain.
But now, she was quietly asleep. The pale face still retained traces of uncleaned blood, and her eyebrows slightly furrowed. The damaged jacket had been discarded, and she wore a camouflage suit found in the car, which was slightly too big. Nestled in the oversized coat, she appeared fragile, creating a sharp contrast to the demonic figure she presented in the hellish laboratory.
Amber thought for a moment and turned on the car's air conditioning.
She figured that even demons might feel cold.