I'm fighting Kal'tsit? Really?

In other words, the warden of this prison clearly did not intend for the control room to operate in the traditional way, which is reasonable, given the unusual activity brewing below the prison, which all seemed to point to some long-hidden plan.

Forget it, there's no use in overthinking. Once we get to the exact location, all the mysteries will become clear.

Avoiding the prison guards who were searching for them along the way, Gerald and Seria quickly returned to the guards' lounge and reopened the enamel-covered walls.

And just as they stepped back into that dark space.

Mansfield has resumed its movement.

……

"Judging from the timeline, they should have returned to Colombia by now."

Seeing Gerald remain silent, Saria assumed he was worried about the others who had already left. "You don't need to worry too much."

“No, I know.” Gerald shook his head. “The Originium Arts I left on Anthony are not working. Based on past experience, they only disappear after a certain amount of time or distance. Since there is no sign of them being triggered, they should have entered Tikkarendo about five minutes ago.”

“The problem is, the flow tells me that Mansfield’s speed is very strange.” He continued, “It’s too fast, it’s not the speed it should be at all. I’ve never seen this kind of increase, even when burning Originium at the highest power.”

Saria quickly realized what was going on, "You suspect it's related to the missing core system?"

“Yes.” Gerald nodded slightly in the darkness. “Come on, find a way to secure yourself to me.”

A fleeting look of surprise crossed Saria's face. Without hesitation, she embraced him from the front, turning her body to lie on Gerald's chest.

"Don't vomit, Saria, protect us with calcification."

Neither of them harbored any romantic feelings, only a heavy sense of the current situation. Gerald hugged the person in front of him tightly: "One minute is enough."

The moment he finished speaking, the wind swirled around his feet, like a vortex poised to unleash its power.

With a sudden step, he unleashed a whirlwind of speed through the narrow passage, the massive airflow crashing against the walls and echoing with deafening sound waves that filled the entire space.

As he ran, Gerald's mind conjured up a map of the [Storage Area].

The complexity of this area is beyond words: the intricate network of branching paths and the hidden ups and downs seem designed specifically to confuse those who enter, and for those who cannot discern the way, it is a complete maze.

Fortunately, the wind told him that there were no tripwires or traps on the road, otherwise, with that impact force, even someone with enamel would have been injured.

But that's not what he needs to worry about. What he needs to worry about most right now is the pressure that acceleration is putting on the human body.

For him, the burden was bearable, but holding a Seria in his arms was another matter entirely.

Saria's tail was indeed very heavy. When she was squeezed in his arms, it was like hugging a heavy anchor. The stiffness caused by the acceleration made things even worse. If he could not hear Saria's steady breathing, he probably would not have dared to continue.

However, the current situation clearly does not allow for that much room for thought.

From a lighter perspective, Mansfield's acceleration was intended to move the prison away from Columbia, thereby capturing the prisoners inside.

But from a worse perspective, Mansfield's acceleration is more like a self-destructive scramble off course.

The lack of a core system is clearly causing the outcome to approach the latter infinitely.

……

As Gerald said, a minute is a short time, but short enough for two people to travel from one end of the maze to the other end, which is closer to the key area.

A minute can also be a long time, so long that even a Vayvan like Saria wouldn't want to go through the same experience again—the acceleration of tens of Gs rises and falls in an instant, and even she would find it difficult to recover in a moment.

Gerald gave Saria ten seconds to catch her breath, and during that brief moment he said, "I'll focus on perception from now on. I'll take charge, Saria. I'm leaving the situation to you."

"Understood." Saria exhaled a breath, clearing her head slightly, and took out two masks from her pocket. "Put them on, let's begin."

Gerald quickly took the mask and put it on, then placed his palm in the center of the wall and said briefly, "There are thirteen hostile creatures reacting behind the wall, suspected to be Lupo Beast kin, with abnormal prisms on their bodies."

As soon as he finished speaking, the wind instantly cut a large hole in the wall, allowing a person to pass through. The foul wind rushed towards the hole with the air pressure, and then Gerald disappeared without a trace with a wave of his hand.

On the other side of the wall was a low, dimly lit space.

The air was thick with the stench of decay, and the ground was littered with partially gnawed bones. Bloodstained hair and broken entrails emitted a strong, pungent stench.

The hounds poked their heads out of their dens, their bodies embedded with Originium fragments of varying sizes, deeply embedded between muscles and bones, gleaming with an eerie light.

In the corner, several old hunting dogs and weak puppies huddled together, avoiding the aggressive gaze of their companions. Their Originium was embedded even deeper, their wounds were festering, and their skin was covered with cracks and bleeding marks.

The only thing they have in common is that their eyes are filled with a longing for flesh and blood.

Closest to the cave entrance was the largest hunting dog, its muscles taut like iron, letting out a deafening roar as the intruder appeared—

puff.

The heads of all the hounds were crushed to dust by the wind pressure in an instant.

What followed was enamel that covered the ground and directly enveloped the hounds' bodies.

The smooth exterior reflected the crimson light from the overhead lamp, while the contents inside expanded in an instant. This forced Saria to further increase the strength of the enamel to keep the small-scale explosion within a certain range.

"Active Originium is present on the surface of the organism," Saria reported. "Avoid killing it if possible; we recommend neutralizing it."

“Understood.” Gerald continued walking forward. “Living body found. Target is located 100 meters behind the door at four o’clock. The ticking sound is coming from around the door. I will use the wind to cut through the wall.”

"Received." The instant Gerald cut an opening in the wall, Saria covered the area with calcified material. The Originium bomb, which had been ticking, was instantly covered, encased, exploded, and then annihilated within it.

When Saria refocused her gaze on the room, she paused for a few seconds.

Rows of fully functional laboratory instruments lined the walls of the room; the burettes, centrifuges, and microscopes were still brand new. A faint blue light emanated from a refrigerator in the corner, where several Originium crystals, emitting an eerie glow, lay quietly, creating a strange contrast with the human tissue specimens stored nearby.

In the center of the room stood a blood-soaked metal dissection table. On it lay a gruesome human body, its limbs bound by thick leather straps, the exposed muscles riddled with Originium fragments. Some fragments were deeply embedded in the bone, gleaming faintly, seemingly still alive. Others, however, reeked of decaying tissue, surrounded by irregular scars and lumps.

The most striking of them all was the Originium crystal that was integrated with the brain.

That vividness, so real it seemed as if it were still alive—was bizarre.

Only this word can describe it.

"Area cleared, danger eliminated."

"Continue forward. There are tripwires near the door. Confirm that the trap cannot be placed in the air. Confirm that the remaining faint living reaction is gathered behind the target living being."

Gerald noticed the emotional fluctuations of the person beside him and chose to put his arm around Saria's waist. "There are no pipes or load-bearing areas in the wall in front of us. We'll advance from the air."

"...Understood, calcification deployment is complete."

The enamel did not attack him, but gently enveloped him within it. Its familiar surface now became Gerald's most reliable shield, embracing him as they moved forward.

So the wind carried the two of them together, crashing into the seemingly indestructible, solid wall in the middle.

boom! ! !

The deafening roar of the first impact reverberated throughout the surroundings, and the walls cracked like spiderwebs as if struck by a heavy hammer, piercing right through the center. However, the two didn't stop. After ensuring the traps around them were neutralized, the enamel instantly reappeared around them, and they charged towards the second wall amidst the shattered dust.

boom! ! ! !

The second impact was more violent than the first, with concrete blocks flying everywhere and a huge gap being blasted in the wall, but it was still not enough to carry them to the end, so the third impact followed.

boom! ! ! ! !

Carrying all their accumulated power, Pegasus and Vayvan smashed through the last obstacle.

The wind blades tore through the air, and rubble fell like rain along with the enamel. As the walls shattered with a deafening crash, dust billowed in the air, and the entire passage fell into a breathless calm after a brief silence.

As the dust gradually settled, the destination finally came into view, and a figure slowly emerged from the depths.

His figure was blurred by the light, and with a slight cough, his slightly aged voice came through the remaining smoke: "You guys are really... impressively brutal—Ugh!! Ugh!!!!"

Tianma had no interest in letting him finish his nonsense.

The old man's body was ripped into the air by the wind, his left arm snapping in half with a crack. Immediately following was Gerald's question: "Where is the core system that stopped the moving plate?"

"Heh...hehe, that kind of thing has long been—uh!!!!!!!!! Uh!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The wind snapped his right hand and ripped out a tooth, drawing blood from his mouth. The wind continued its relentless howl, crushing the table in the center of the room into dust.

The threatening posture has come to an end for now.

“The rest is up to you, Saria.” Gerald wasn’t worried that his friend would show the slightest mercy. “His fangs have been removed, and there was a piece of technology on the table that was close to an energy weapon; I destroyed it for now. There were a few hidden Originium bombs in the corner, and the signal transmitter was in his pocket—now it’s in—”

He took the remote control that was blown by the wind, "Here."

Saria glanced at it: "I'm not sure if there are any other triggering commands. Are there any load-bearing structures around?"

“Yes, this will make defusing the bomb very difficult.” Gerald glanced around the room. “I haven’t sensed anything else yet. Assuming the other side is determined to take us all down with them, we can only gamble on the possibility of protecting ourselves for now. That’s the situation for now. I’ll check the power layer structure of the moving plate to see if it can be stopped by external force.”

"Also, after everything is over," Gerald paused, then looked up and pointed to the space behind the old man, "there are many strange things there, very bad. Be careful."

After he finished speaking, his figure quickly disappeared into this space.

At this moment, Saria turned her head back, her cold gaze falling on the old man hanging in the center of the room, who could only respond with silence.

What she pursues is order, an inviolable set of rules.

In this respect, she will not choose mercy.

"What exactly have you been doing here, Rendale?"

Her voice was even colder than her gaze.

Chapter Forty: The Cycle of Hatred

The old man, suspended in the air by the wind, looked utterly miserable—his two arms were broken and fell limply to the ground, floating in the air in a bizarre posture; his mouth was full of blood, and his precisely plucked fangs lay on the ground, unable even to bite them to commit suicide.

Even in this state, a smug smile still graced his face, and on that gentle and refined face, the smile did not seem out of place.

The pain seemed to dissipate in no time for him. The antlers on this Erafia's head appeared to have been broken off in some accident years ago, and the skin tissue that was originally attached to them looked dilapidated and incomplete.

The ability Elafia used to communicate spiritually and emotionally vanished from him, transforming into a more cruel reality that fell into his sight and, at this moment, coalesced around Saria.

"...Are you also going to break my bones and tear my flesh apart, you infamous Saria?"

After catching his breath, the prison warden, Rendel, grinned cruelly and said, "Ah, before that, let me tell you something—I've destroyed the prison's braking system."

“I originally planned to wait for you to get through those challenges, and then calmly face the end with you in the final moments… But unfortunately, I never imagined that the trouble brought by the Grand Knight Commander of Kazimierz would be this terrifying.”

"But that's normal. Failure is inevitable. I was prepared for it the moment you arrived in Mansfield."

Seria interrupted Randolph forcefully: "I don't need your nonsense. Since you're not going to shut down this prison, once we get back to Colombia, there will be people investigating, and everything here will be over."

“Interesting, you still think I’ll send you back to Colombia.” Rendall spat out a mouthful of blood-stained saliva, his face a mixture of ferocity and refinement.

"It has nothing to do with your opinion; I believe him."

After saying that, Saria manipulated the surrounding enamel to gag the other person and create a sound barrier around the wall—assuming the Originium bomb was detonated by a specific tone, then sound isolation was naturally the best choice.

"You've come here to find the legacy of the [Loken Tank], haven't you, Saria?"

However, the words spoken by the person in front of her made it impossible for her to continue what she was doing—she was filled with many questions, including about Rendel's motives, why the experiments related to the Loken tank were being repeated here, the role of the beach umbrella in the previous experiments, and the experimental data they had already collected.

"...You are determined to die."

After a moment of silence, Saria slowly said, "I don't believe the words of people who are determined to die. Sometimes they can deceive our perception and lead us to the wrong goal."

“But you still stopped, I can see that.” Ignoring the calcifications creeping onto his face, Randolph said, word by word, “Because you’re afraid. You’re not sure what I’m doing, what my motives are, what my reasons are for wanting to die, or why I chose to send Mansfield back to the wilderness.”

“You like to make your own decisions, you don’t trust the Colombian authorities, you trust what you see with your own eyes. So you’re still hesitant to listen to what I’m about to say.”

His words were laced with a venomous seduction: "How could I not have thought of that? No matter how carefully you try to conceal it, the arrogance inherent in Vayvan's bones will inevitably show at certain times."

The moment Vayvan clenched his fist, he naturally switched from a provocative tone to a calm and descriptive one, continuing his speech.

"Ever since Rhine Labs had a little... I should say, some kind of change, there's been a rumor circulating outside Columbia. It's that we'd better clean up some of our hands and feet to avoid attracting the attention of certain people—like the Melander Foundation, or one of the founders of Rhine Labs who's planning to get involved himself."

"Of course I don't care. Why would anyone come looking for Mansfield? My nephew who does research on beach umbrellas thinks the same way. He thinks that even if you really get involved, you're just going to find a few ordinary people to vent your anger, make an example of them, and put on a show."

"Who knew that the founder of Rhine Life would actually target another pharmaceutical company—the beach umbrella company?"

Seria interrupted him directly: "I don't know who your nephew is, but if you're referring to the secret underground laboratory of the beach umbrellas in New Manchester, then everyone has been punished as they deserved. Including your nephew."

A dark glint flashed in Randolph's eyes. His lips moved, and after a moment of silence, he said:

"The appropriate sanctions?"

“Ah, right, in your opinion, the punishment you deserve is to throw him into a Columbia prison and sentence him to life imprisonment… That’s certainly not a problem for me. I have good relationships with many prison wardens. After all, experiments require high-quality individuals with strong physiques, or core materials with excellent Originium Arts skills. These things are troublesome for those wardens, but not for me.”

"So the moment I heard the news, I immediately set off for the prison there to find my nephew."

"—And in the end, all they found was a corpse that had been carelessly abandoned in the wilderness."

Silence slowly filled the space until Rendel's voice broke the stillness once again.

"It must feel great to be a hero, Saria. You never thought about how things would end, did you?"

His refined and amiable face suddenly twitched, then became contorted.

The hatred hidden beneath the surface erupted like a raging fire. The mask shattered silently, revealing a hideous face scorched by rage. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth down his chin, but it could not conceal the madness in his eyes.

"It's all your fault, Saria."