Jin Dong (Part 2)

Indra, Alice and Walter exited the Warehouse, with Walter taking a huge deep breath. Though they were still in an area filled with danger and viciousness, to him, it felt felt serene and ethereal. A man's eyes who now had only one mission. To witness the destruction of DW-Industries.

"That's a quite an expression you have there." Indra said, as he turned towards his left, noticing Walter's recriminating gaze.

"I used to be one of his admirers, devoting my whole life, working hard to become one of them. One of the good ones. It was only when I became one, I finally understood something. That, is no company. It is a horror, filled with so much darkness that I felt like I was choked to death."

"Why did they blame it on you of all people? Aren't you... how should I put it politely, their valuable asset?" Walter chuckled at Indra's words and said,

"Asset? Hah, that's definitely an overstatement. I was like a leftover to them, ready to be skewered, and to be thrown away whenever they wanted."

"Were you against their decision on making that drug? Sorry if I'm intruding..." Alice stepped in and asked politely.

"Not that I'm gonna lose anything, but I'll tell ya. It's like you said, at first it was all about the peace and glory nonsense. Even I was happy to help people and finally make DW-Industries proud. With such an idea, I began working on a specific animal protein, which would inhibit the cells from creating free radicals." Though Alice understood, Indra retained his confused look.

"To put it simpler terms, this protein is not only able to prevent a virus from replicating, like cancer, it also can also destroy it within the body itself." Genius. This man was a crazy genius!

Alice who was a support healer at the Emperor's realm had the ability to cure many diseases, and cancer being one of them, was the hardest to cure for her.

Not only was it hard to destroy the abnormally replicated cells within the body, it was almost implausible.

In order to prevent the patient from dying while healing, she had to place an anti corruption heal on the cells, which further consumed lots of her energy.

She was now looking at a man who had none of that. A guy who not just smart, but an individual who had gained powers beyond a regular human too. Still, his intellect far exceeded his physical capabilities.

You earn one, you lose one. That's how life worked.

"That's quite impressive, though I still marvel at how you were able to survive that potion." Indra was impressed once again by this person's intellect. He gleefully thanked Aaron for not killing this guy.

"Nothing impressive if I couldn't save my sister and the others. I don't expect us to stand a chance though." Walter grunted.

"You never know Walter. I mean, did you expect me to save you? Did you expect to get out of this hellish place?"

"No."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Indra chided. Walter finally turned silent. Silent with a little relief.

"Anyways, everything after what I just said should be relatively obvious. I was forced to make that abomination and the end result, was losing my only sister."

"I'm sorry Walter." Alice replied.

"I don't need your pity, get me my revenge first. I knew a while back that my strength wasn't enough. Remember, taking down DW-Industries alone is not enough, we must choke their necks real hard." He reminded them as he folded his arms.

Just as they were about to leave Jin Dong market, a ten-year old kid tugged Indra's shirt. Turning around he noticed a kid with an average complexion, with brown eyes and short hair.

Bending down Indra looked at him and said,

"What are you doing here kid?"

"I'm not a kid. Call me Hawk, ya hear me Hawk!" The boy retorted as he pulled out three tickets and flashed it in front of the them. Though others weren't able to notice, his swollen bruises and knife marks couldn't escape Indra's eyes. His excitement in selling far exceeded his pain. Pain worth gaining, if he could pocket a bit more.

"What do ya want kid? Kids like you aren't supposed to be here in the first place, so buzz off."

"Why don't you do yourself a favor and get the hell out before I kick you where I'm not supposed to. I work here, and I'm a ticket seller." Hawk yelled in pride as took a step away from Walter.

"What are these tickets for?" Indra asked. Turning towards him, Hawk said,

"These are tickets for the underground battle arena. Uncle, I'll even give you a discount so please, just buy one, and you won't regret it." The kid pleaded.

Just as he was about to politely reject the kid, Walter snatched one and began reading the contents within the ticket. Unaware of Walter's predicament, Hawk immediately kicked him where he wasn't supposed to.

"You little-" Walter screamed as he clutched his waist and bent down with immense pain. Hawk smiled when he took his precious ticket back.

"He literally said to not take it, and that's the first thing you do. Quite pathetic of you to steal it from a kid." Indra placed his hand on his face as he shook his head in embarrassment.

"Very shameless indeed." Even the usually calm Alice, stared at Walter who was on his knees in pain. Taking more damage than he already did from their words, Walter replied,

"That... isn't it you imbeciles! His.. his ticket, better look at it. I'm going to get ya for this kid!" The kid stuck his tongue and completely ignored him.

"Hawk, can you show me the ticket just for a second? I'm not going to take it from you, I promise." Hawk slowly nodded his head and placed it in front of Indra.

As soon as he read the contents, without wasting time he flew up into the sky extremely quickly, without alerting anyone around him.

Ignoring the flurry winds which blew his hair and clothes, he began scanning the underground arena. His eyes narrowed in anger when he saw a huge enclosed arena, hundreds of meters underground.

An oval shaped enclosed platform so large, it was able to easily seat thousands of people. Moreover, at the very center, situated the rectangular battle ground. Not only was Indra able to view the spectators underneath, he also noticed the very thing which made him furious.

Without leaking his power, he flew back down in a secluded alleyway by Jin Dong market and returned to the area where Alice and Walter were frantically searching for him.

Upon his arrival, Alice ran up to him worriedly.

"Where were you? You just disappeared.." She asked.

"Hey kid, I would like to buy two tickets to the underground battle arena." Indra asked, and told Alice to be patient. Walter remained silent in particular, and smiled when he more or less figured out Indra's intentions.

While he continued to talk to Hawk, Alice eventually ran out of patience and walked over to Walter and asked,

"Can you tell me what' going on now?"

"There is a 'battle to death' tournament going on in the underground arena today, and the person that comes out to the top, wins.... a Dem-Potion." Alice narrowed her eyes in confusion again.

"What is this Dem-Potion?"

"An advanced version of the prototype d-potion." Alice's eyes widened and remained still. She now understood, why Walter had panicked earlier.

"Hold on a minute, is this the new drug that's supposed to be released soon?" Walter nodded in affirmation.

"Wait wait wait, there's still one more point I'm missing here. You were arrested five years ago if I'm not wrong. Then how did you know about this Dem-Potion?" Alice asked, as the trio continued to follow Hawk towards the arena.

"Right after prototype d-potion was considered a failure, I was ordered to alter it's effects and continue to increase the potency. While there was a minor success, once news got out that people were dying because of the prototype, I was charged guilty and sent to prison. Those dimwits are fooling everyone into thinking it's a medicine." He cursed, when he noticed Indra remain calm.

Walter was even more curious about him, and his origin. He was able to come to a decent conclusion on Indra's placid attitude.

Either he already knew something about the Dem-Potion and it's origins, or he was aware of something which even he had no idea of.

"So Aaron began planning this five years ago? None of us had a clue on this. If only I took this to Richard earlier, we could've destroyed them long ago." Alice exclaimed in frustration.

"It's pointless thinking about the past. Right now, we have a way to set things right." Indra responded confidently.

"Indeed. If we get our hands on that potion, it would be easier to take them down. But what on earth is that potion doing here? Wouldn't this further ruin their plans?" She whispered this time lowering her voice to not garner any attention.

"Actually, it's quite the opposite and you'll find out soon enough."

"What about you?" Alice asked.

"Me? I'll be participating in this tournament."

"Be careful" Indra smiled and nodded in return.

When they reached the arena, the kid led them in and took them towards a manually operating elevator. Closing both doors, the elevator produced a loud sound, as it took them underground.

'Thud'

Stepping out of the elevator, Walter and Alice entered the arena and took their seats.

Hawk then led Indra towards the battle counter, where limited number of participants were allowed to battle.

"I would like to participate." Indra replied towards the dark burly man in the counter who was munching on his huge hamburger, with saliva dripping from the sides. Placing his burger aside, the man took out a token which wrote '167', and placed it on the counter table.

"No phones or any recording devices. If you're caught, then I wish you a better life in your next birth. Stay in the waiting room until you're called and a guard will do a security check on you and escort you to the battle ground. From then on, you're on own." The burly man intimidated Indra, before going back to munching his hamburger.

Walking away from the counter, Indra headed towards the waiting room and gently opened the door.

Many eyes landed on him, as they began gauging him and his strength. Ignoring their ruthless stares, he walked over to the nearest chair and took a seat. He removed his coat and neck tie and placed it to his side.

Although many here weren't too traditional in their attires, they still wore some protective gears and brandished various weapons ranging from a sword to a pistol for their safety.

Indra on the other hand deemed it unnecessary to change his attire.

Everyone here was so weak, he didn't even need his dragon armor, given to him by Zenith which was able to withstand attacks at Cosmic realm.

Indra leaned back and wondered about Zenith and his wellbeing. It had been two months since he separated and yet it felt like two years had transpired since they've last seen each other.

One by one, the contestants eagerly left the waiting room for their battle. While they returned victorious, some returned with many injuries, while some lost their limbs.

Those who never returned, either lost their lives or were eliminated from the tournament. Only a selective few won with little to no injuries.

At the corner of his eyes, Indra noticed a young woman supposedly in her twenties, praying desperately with a heavy grey armor and a long sword to her side. Her average height and her small build made the armor look too big on her.

Silently gauging her power, he was able to notice demonic energy coursing through her body!

Taking his eyes off her, Indra closed his eyes and waited for his turn to arrive, when he failed to notice the young woman stare right back at him with curiosity.