Chapter 127: Chapter 127- Risk And Choice
The interior of the building was dark and very quiet, making it feel eerie and terrifying. The dry blood on the walls and on the ground didn't help make it any nicer.
Talon looked around him with a serious expression on his face. He didn't have to take a closer look at the blood to know to whom it belonged. It was that of humans.
'A massacre happened here.' Frowning hard as he realized the sheer scale of the murder spree that happened here. Whoever did this was an utter psychopath or a straight-up monster.
Exhaling a small breath, Talon stepped inside the building carefully. He knew that the woman was hiding somewhere inside and he had to find her before she escaped his clutches again.
He had enough of this cat-and-mouse game they'd been having for the past few weeks. Talon had been waiting for the moment he could finally put an end to her life and he was even a few millimeters away from achieving that if it wasn't for the expansion coming and ruining it for him.
"Now, where could she be hiding?" He murmured as he let his senses expand.
'Oh? The area I can sense has expanded again…'
Before, Talon's range was around 5 meters all around him. But, now, he was easily in the 30-meter mark. Not to mention that his senses grew far sharper than before. So much so he could even feel the presence of ants moving through the corners of this rundown place.
It was a surreal feeling for someone who never experienced it before.
'Hmm, she's definitely not on the first floor.' After looking around for a while on the first floor, he made his way toward the second one where he found himself in a maze of long corridors and countless rooms.
'Why is this place built like this… Tsk, so annoying…' Walking through the place, he checked all the rooms he could find to no avail.
So, he made his way to the third floor and then to the fourth. There was not a single trace of the woman in there.
'Only the fifth one is left… She better be there…' Going up the stairs slowly, Talon halted mid-way as he heard noises coming from up there.
Immediately, he ducked down as he listened to the noises carefully. His sharp ears easily captured the subtle sounds.
'Hmm, those sound like… muffled screams?' Talon raised an eyebrow as he slowly took a peek.
He was certain that what he was hearing were indeed muffled screams of some kind. Even more than that, they definitely belonged to humans.
So, with that in mind, Talon slowly moved up the stairs as he listened to the sounds. He was certain that these people were in extreme pain from their groans and shrieks.
As he walked through the dark corridor, the sounds grew closer and closer till Talon found himself standing right in front of a particular door.
'The sounds are coming from here…' Putting his hand against the door, Talon took a deep breath as he twisted the knob and pushed it open before he barged inside holding his spear.
The sight he was met with inside that room made him freeze in his place. On the ground, he saw three people, groaning and crying for help with their mouths muffled with pieces of cloth.
Their bodies shuddered in agony and the reason for that was something sticking to their heads. They were wearing glassy helmets that ended with a tube. The three tubes moved from their heads toward a single stream that reached the fourth person in that room… His target.
She was sitting against the wall, her eyes were closed as she had the tube in her mouth. A stream of blue was constantly moving from the scientists through the tubes to her mouth. It was as if she was sucking their life force slowly in real-time.
'What in the actual hell…' Talon stared at this scene with a flabbergasted look on his face.
If horror movies were to manifest in reality, this was definitely it. It was an utter nightmare fuel.
At the same time, the woman opened her eyes slowly when she noticed his presence. Then, her expression slowly changed when she realized who it was.
"Wha…"
Before she could even speak, Talon had already moved forward and cut the tubes with a single slash. The moment he did that, the three humans stopped screaming and they fell unconscious; frothing from their mouths.
Seeing that they were fine, he looked up again with a cold expression before pointing the blade of his spear at her face. "I finally found you… Sneaky rat…"
The woman opened her mouth and closed it as she tried to find the words to speak at that moment. She hadn't expected to see Talon so suddenly. He was brought to near death a few minutes ago.
'How did he recover this fast?' She thought to herself.
But, that question was useless at this point. He was now standing in front of her and his bloodlust was filling the entire room.
'I can't fight, my body can barely move. I have nowhere to escape either… He's obstructing the only path out.' She analyzed the situation, only to realize that there was really nothing she could do.
"You've done everything you want. Killed as many humans as you wanted and harmed people that are important to me. I honestly want to cut your head off right now. But…"
"Huh?"
Then, under her confused looks, Talon sat down while still pointing his spear at her. "Before that, I have a few questions I want you to answer. Depending on your honesty, I will make your death easy."
"... Questions?" Exhaling a small pained breath, the woman stared at him with a small, wicked smile. "And why do you think I would answer? Do I look like I'm scared of being tortured?"
Her voice lacked any shred of fear in it. Even in such a situation where her survival was very unlikely, she didn't show a single shred of emotions.
Talon was impressed by her composure when faced with certain death.
'Let's play the chance card.' He squinted his eyes as he opened his mouth.
"I already know that you came here through a man-made gate."
Those words dropped on the woman like a bombshell. Her composed expression shattered as she looked up at Talon. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect to hear such a thing from him.
"What…"
"I knew of it for a while now. You aren't from this world and you didn't come from that floating gate either."
'No… How does he know…' Her face slowly turned paler and paler the more he spoke.
"Should I continue giving you more information about you that I know of?" Talon smiled menacingly.
'Good, it seems that I was right on the bullseye.' He secretly exhaled a sigh of relief. 'She's going to be really confused and won't know how I realized that.'
"You… Who… are you?" She asked with a frown.
"It doesn't matter who I am. I know many things that you don't know. That's why, I think you should reconsider answering my questions because trust me, I can find out myself sooner or later. You're just prolonging the inevitable." He said.
'Now, she won't be able to refuse anymore. Unless she really doesn't care if I get to know what she's hiding or not.' Talon carefully watched her expression, searching for the subtle changes.
He knew that he was completely in control of the conversation and could lead it wherever he wanted. He also could easily see how the woman was falling more and more into his trap.
'He's easily manipulating her thought process… Where did he learn that?' Acrypha shook her head.
A few moments of silence passed as Talon waited for the woman to make up her mind. In the end, she opened her mouth.
"Fine, I will speak." She said.
'Good.'
"But, know that when you hear about this… You will be involved and will never be able to leave." She said coldly.
"Involved? In what?"
"..."
"Speak. What am I going to be involved in?" Talon tensed up as he pushed his spear closer to her neck.
"I assume you already know that my existence in this world is hidden from the Core Dimension's radar. It doesn't know that I have been here for a few months now. But, that definitely won't last forever. Sooner or later, it will know that something is off, and when it does… It's going to catch me and anyone else involved in this."
Hearing that, Talon's eyes moved to Acrypha.
"She's telling the truth. The Core Dimension isn't a fool. It will know even if it takes some time." She nodded her head.
"And so, if I know, then the Core Dimension will think I'm also involved in this and punish me accordingly?" He asked.
The woman nodded her head.
'This is really problematic… I can't risk putting my life at stake just to learn more about her. But…'
It was a hard choice to make. Talon had no idea what could be considered to be too much information and what could be considered normal. It was akin to trying to navigate a minefield blindfolded.
'How can I get to know as many things as I could without putting my life at risk?'
Depending on what he does right there, his life could be saved... Or he could be pretty much at threat of being eradicated.
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading 😀