Abyss crawling part 16: The city of darkness 2

" So that was your lover huh? Hahaha, this is the most entertaining thing I heard in a century."

Morla laughed and coughed like mad, it felt like she could have a heart attack at any moment while Ilirielth face was turning red, she shouldn't talk this much to the old woman. What was she thinking? It was like she was under some enchantment.

" N-No. Iliriendil and I are not…"

" What're you denying for, girl? To go that far together if that's not what lovers do then what is it? I must admit you have quite a taste young girl, I like that. I have heard stories about elf and dwarf but never a half-elf and a cursed creature."

The old woman poured her something that looked like tea. As far as she knew plants could grow in this place. But behind her was a green garden. She couldn't help but be bewildered about all of this.

" Morla san. Please tell me what's this place? How could humans live in this?"

" Haha. Isn't it obvious? We found a way to cleanse the curse."

" It's impossible, even the goddess can't do that."

" Ah… the goddess."

The smile on Morla's face disappeared for a moment, there was a hint of disgust, and the expression on her face became devious.

" Of course, that woman could never hope to archive this. Hehe. Soon enough the surface's going to be consumed by the curse. I can't wait to see that happen."

' This person…' - Ilirielth thought

Now she knew the old hag was not an ally. Memories flashed through her mind. Ilirielth drowned in her thought. If somehow she could get her hand on the secret of this place...

The front door suddenly burst open and a big woman wearing heavy armor entered the house. Ilirielth remembered this person, she was the one who kidnaped her and her group to this place. Sicat glanced at Ilirielth and then her eyes turned to Sally who was hiding behind Morla. Seeing that scene, she gritted her teeth.

" What do you think you're doing brat!"

Morla shouted angrily as she shielded the little girl from Sicat.

" Morla, I don't have time for you. Give her to me."

" You think this is the place you just come and go as you please and take whatever you want? You know what'll happen if I press this —"

Ilirielth didn't know if it was the effect of whatever happened to her but she couldn't even register Sicat's movement in her head. It felt like the woman just teleport to Morla and knocked her out cold. She then took Sally who was still clinging to Morla's body.

" No! I don't want to go!"

Sicat forcefully took Sally out of Morla's body. And ran out of the house. She looked at the trembling Ilirielth who was curled up in a corner, intended to reach for her weapon but then she remembered Sally was still holding her neck. She ignore Ilirielth and ran off the building.

After Sicat was gone Ilirielth stood up and let out a sigh, she pretended to be afraid hoping Sicat would skip her but even that strategy wouldn't work all the time. She walked to Morla and check on the old woman's condition, the old hag was still breathing. Her eyes laid on the staff in Morla's hand. There were a series of colorful buttons on the head of the staff. Ilirielth had no idea what those buttons could do besides the top one.

' Why the hell all of them are red? Where's the green one?'

Ilirielth screamed internally, she didn't want to accidentally kill herself. She tried to remember the order of the button Morla was about to use to threaten Sicat and pressed it, the whole place was filled with red lights and a deafening siren could be heard all over the city.

In a laboratory buried deep under the city. Redmond tried to calm himself as he watched the system clock, it took so much time, Sicat should have come to this place 10 minutes ago. He received the emergency signal as the siren cried out. A robotic steady voice rang in his ears.

" The template center is being intruded! Repeat, the template center is being intruded! Elite forces dispatch immediately!"

This signal only meant one thing: Sicat had been detected. Redmond cursed himself, he was too careless, he should have thought of the existence of spies under his troops.

' That bastard Raziel!'

He threw the chair at one of his men who wore white coats. If things came to this there was a high chance that Sicat had already been captured or worse, dead. Redmond stared at the green tube in the center of the lab, there was a cursed creature with blue skin and tentacles. Iliriendil seemed to be in an unconscious state.

" Is everything ready?"

" Y-Yes lord Redmond. We're ready to terminate the subject at any time."

" Are you sure it gonna work?"

" Yes, Its stats are very low, there's no way it can survive."

Redmond couldn't understand what secret lay in the creature in front of him that the Great One wanted it dead so much but he has no interest in that. He walked to the corner of the room, there was another tube that had a blue color. Inside it was a woman wearing a white dress. She looked completely normal from the outside. As she was taken out of the tube, her body began to show a clear sign of mutation. Her hair grew longer and there was a six-finger slowly growing on her right hand.

" Mother, can you hear me?"

"…"

Redmond asked with a voice full of sadness but the woman didn't respond. Her eyes were completely blank as if her mind was not there anymore. She just looked at him and smiled idiotically. Redmond gently hold her hand and gave her something that looked like a remote.

" Here, please press this button."

The woman didn't even look at the button, her hands placed on Redmond's cheek as his tears streamed down, Redmond took her hand out of his face and place it on the button.

" … Please mother, we don't have any time. After all those years you can finally be free. It's here. I promised you, remember?"

" …"

" Mother!"

The woman didn't seem to understand, she kept smiling while the mutation became more and more visible on her body. Redmond hold the woman's hand, and when he tried to force her to press the button, a chill ran down his spine.

" I advise you should not do that young man ~"

Behind him, was a young human girl wearing a black gown. Sitting on a chair while nonchalantly sipping something with her cup. All of his attendants stayed away from the girl, all of them were shaking like rabbits. Although her look might differ from time to time, no creature in this cursed place was foolish enough to mistake her for a mere human.

" What do you mean Great One? You promised us! To let whoever kill that thing free."

Redmond too was shaking, for what he know, the Great One never lied about her promise. But if she was displeased at something she might find some way to twist it. He rack his head but he didn't remember doing anything to offend her. Liliana chuckled as she enjoyed the dumbfounded look on Redmond's face.

" I surely did, but you have to do it by yourself ~ If you pressed it using the puppet hand don't you think it's fair that you should be the one who'll get the price?"

" No Great One! This is not right! My mother should be the one who gets it! Wh-What about I gave it to her?"

" Tsk Tsk Tsk ~ [Shaking her head]. My game, my rule. My words are final. It'll be I who bring you out after all ~"

Redmond desperately tried to get his mother to press the button but no matter what he said, the woman didn't press the button. An explosion rang out and soldiers invaded the labs. The giant, Raziel, and 3 more people wearing the same uniform as him.

" Well look what we got here? In my wildest dreams, I never thought that one of the most loyal guardians was a traitor. What do you think? Elder brother?"

A man looked just like Redmond, except he didn't have the metallic eye, his hair was black, and he was at the size of a normal human. He looked at Redmond and the woman in his hand with cold eyes.

" Redmond, be obedient. I can spare the little toy you got there."

" Toy? F*ck you! You're the real traitor brother. Every single one of you! Looking at you makes me disgusted!"

" So you chose the pain? Fine by me."

" Try to touch me or her and I'll destroy this thing right here, right now."

" Why don't you try it?" - Raziel said mockingly.

A hologram appeared, and Redmond's face paled. Inside of it was an unconscious Sicat tied all four in something like an operating table, besides her was Sally who was kept in a cage. Although Redmond did think of the possibility they were captured but seeing it directly made his hands numb. He fell off on his knee and let himself be taken away.

In the white, endless world, Iliriendil was sleeping soundly waiting for his alarm to go off, a disoriented wave of sound entered his head. He opened his eyes to see a blurred image of a young girl screaming at him, it looked like a video played in extremely slow motion. He had no idea what the girl was trying to say, it took a very long time for him to collect her every word and speak at the same speed as her.

" How can I get out of this place? Let me out!"

" How can you get in here?"

" I-I was sent here to wake you up. I've done my job, let me out of here."

" Sent here? By who?"

" I-I don't know, I can't remember! It was too long, too long ago!"

The girl's words became more and more incomprehensible until the only thing she could say was ' let me out!'. Iliriendil had no idea what all of this was, but the girl's figure looked like a person he detested. Iliriendil took a sit and silently watched as the young girl become more and more desperate, she began to hurt herself in every way possible, until her mind was swept away by the sea of time and finally she became nothing but a hollow shell.