Abyss crawling part 18: The city of darkness 4

Under the warm and flickering light of the fireplace, a young boy standing in his room, watching the world outside of his window. It was stormy for days, the rain was getting heavier and heavier to the point he thought it would eventually drown everything. Everything was dark and blurry. He didn't know if it was just his imagination but he thought he saw someone or something standing out there.

[Bang!]

The boy shuddered not at the sudden echo of thunder but at the image that flashed through his mind, bright red eyes and a mouth full of terrible sharp teeth, it was watching him. He quickly jump back to his bed, into the arm of his beloved friend.

" Ray, there was something out there."

" It's just your imagination, people usually say that they saw a lot of things in the storm."

" B-But there was definitely something!"

The boy was about to cry and then a big hand lay on his head. The man called Ray smiled warmly while caressing the boy's hair.

" Don't worry even if there was something. I'll get rid of it for you."

" Really Ray? Even the bogeyman?"

" Even the bogeyman. I won't allow anything to hurt you. Have I ever lied?"

" No! I believe in you Ray! Nothing could ever beat you, you're the strongest! "

The corner of Ray's mouth raised into a smile. After a short while, he stood up, pushed the boy away, and walked toward the front door.

" W-Wait Ray? Are you leaving already? Please stay!"

The boy wanted to hold Ray's arm but knew that he could never be able to stop the man, all he could do was cry, hoping Ray would change his mind.

" I'll come back soon don't worry, it's already late, just go to sleep. The next time I'll bring you a present."

" I don't need a present! I just need you! Please stay!"

Ray carried the boy to his bed and cover the boy's eyes. He sang to the boy with a soft and steady voice.

" Sleep my child, It's already night 🎶 Dive in sweet dreams, leave the storm behind 🎶. Morning and you open your eyes 🎶. There'll be you, your friend and I 🎶 We'll play from dawn 'till late night 🎶..."

The boy's eyelids when heavy as his body lost its strength. Ray let out a sigh of relief. Before he could leave, the boy's last word entered his ears.

" Ren… and Marina, I hope I can see them the next time I wake up…"

" …"

Ray exited the house. When his feet step outside, instead of getting soaked in the rain, water on his skin evaporated from the high heat. There was no rain or storm, the whole area was a giant metallic structure with various types of machines running loudly.

Explosions were heard here and there along with the screaming of people in white lab coats.

" That doesn't sound good." The giant Raziel said, leisurely smoking his cigarette.

" Everything is still according to plan." - Ray

" Hah is that so brother? I couldn't understand why don't we just throw that thing in there." - Raziel

" I told you it only comes up at the last resort or all of the efforts for the past hundreds of years would have been for naught" - Ray

" Yes, yes, I understood that but is that truly all of it?" - Raziel

" What are you trying to imply here Raziel?" - Ray

" Isn't it obvious? The risk of losing the unnecessary thing called 'humanity' compare to the risk of extinction. Brother, why are you keep insisting on choosing the latter." - Raziel

" Stop spitting nonsense, there's no such risk as extinction. Even if there's a small chance things'll turn out to be that, I'll end it with my own hands." - Ray

" … Yeah brother. Your decision is final anyway."

As flame engulfed the whole cigarette, Raziel's eyes laid on what was behind Ray, an enormous red cocoon with millions of wires attached to it. It made his giant body look like a tiny ant.

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Iliriendil quietly watched the human-looking corpses under his feet. Normally he would eat them without any hesitation but the image of Ilirielth's sad eyes flashed through his mind.

It had been 4 days since they brought him there and injected him with an enormous amount of anesthetics. He thought he would continue to fake unconscious for a while but if his body was fully locked up might ruin the chance of him escaping in the future so he just straight up killed three unlucky guys who were about to put restrictions on him.

The whole place was alarmed. He could feel there were many strong vital signals surrounding him from everywhere, those have to be some kind of elite group but he didn't mind at all. Those numbers and those strengths were meaningless in front of him.

The whole squat of hundreds dropped to one hand number in an instant. After that, there were noisy mechanic sounds, and layers of giant doors began to close, isolating the whole large area.

Iliriendil had to be 20 times faster to be able to pass through all the doors before they completely closed. Not that he wanted to escape anyway. Until he knew the Ilirielth's location he had no choice but to stay in this place.

" Have you found her? "

He reached thin air while watching the remaining soldier sprinting out of the room with their lives.

In his hand was a blue giant finger, it had eyes and a mouth.

" … I just received the signal from the other part. She is at the template center, southeast of here, about 20 km away. It just…"

" What's wrong?"

The titan's short pause made him nervous to the point he couldn't let out a single breath until he heard the reply.

" Nothing. She is fine, but her situation is very complicated."

" Is she hurt?"

" … No. There was a commotion happened in the center, she was caught in that as well but don't worry, she didn't receive a single scratch. You just need to stay here and —"

Iliriendil's claw pierced into the finger's body and blue liquid spurt out from it. The finger's face twisted with pain.

" You should have known that I hate lier the most, tell me the truth."

" Gaghhhh! Ok, ok I'll tell you the truth! She got badly hurt! And her situation is not good at all! Wait, what are you going to do?"

" ..."

" There's nothing you could do! W-What's done's already done! If you come to that place, not only you won't be able to save her but there'll be a high chance you may kill yourself doing that!"

Iliriendil ignored the titan's words, his mind was in a mess right now. He tried to calm himself down but couldn't, his hand swiping through the inventory space, searching for something.

Although the titan had no idea how Iliriendil plan to escape this place, it didn't doubt one-bit Iliriendil had the ability to do so. It didn't worry about Iliriendil's power but the terrifying amount of mana contained in this building could even wipe off its main body.

Iliriendil took a tiny green thing out of his inventory. It was a heart. The strange thing was that thing was still beating.

The titan finger's face went blue when it realized what creature the heart belonged to.

" Are you insane? Put it back!"

Iliriendil didn't listen. He threw it on the floor and just a second after, like a tree grew out of a seed, bone, muscles, and skin grew out from the heart and began to take the form of a creature. It let out a malicious smile and jumped on Iliriendil just to instantly got killed.

" It's over! We're gonna die!"

Iliriendil silently watched 10 more new bodies of the creatures that grew up from the dead and began to multiply rapidly.

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From far away in a monitor room.

A man's eyes browns twitched as he accidentally dropped his hot coffee into his pant.

" Not a fcking gain..."