Chapter 980 - Going down with a smile

Panting and nauseous, Gabriela stumbled toward her office.

“I guess it would be better to walk the rest of the way…” Sofia mumbled, observing the scientist struggling to handle the spiritual drag of simply going through a few meters.

Seeing the door to her office half-opened, Gabriela’s face darkened, but upon entering, she immediately relaxed.

“Oh thank god… It’s still there…” she exclaimed, grabbing a cup filled with about twenty identical ink pens. Without hesitation, she grabbed one of them from the middle and slipped it into her lab coat’s breast pocket with a relieved sigh.

“A pen?” Sofia asked from the door.

Gabriela turned back around, “It is a grade four entity,” she explained, it can toggle the state of objects like unlocking a door… Or doing more dangerous things.”

To demonstrate, she grabbed a piece of paper from her desk and wrote ‘Shredded’ on it. When she added a period behind it, the paper was instantly cut into hundreds of uneven tiny pieces.

“What will you do if I say I want it?”

“I- I had hoped it would be beneath your notice…” Gabriela answered, clutching the pen.

“Yet you still told me what it does right away? Well, either way, you probably weren’t wrong. That thing must have its limits or it would not be just a grade 4, right? Or couldn't you just write ‘Immortal’ on your arm and call it a day?”

“It only works on inanimate objects under a certain size and cannot create or destroy matter.”

“Well, it’s still a very powerful tool, I get it. Are you feeling better now? Let’s get going, where to next? I don’t feel anybody on this floor nor the two floors below.”

“We should check the containment area and the bunker…”

Sofia nodded, “Lead the way, you walk behind Pareth and in front of me.”

“The stairwell is to the left…”

Walking at a human’s pace was slow, but it was still faster than checking every room one by one, so Sofia followed Gabriela while making small talk.

“You said thank god earlier, can I ask which god you meant?”

“Oh- Oh- I… I do not really believe in any god, I was just raised in a religious family so…”

“Believe? Ah right Eve did say it worked like that… No wonder. So you don’t even know for a fact if your world’s gods are real or not?”

“I personally… There are certainly entities akin to gods that exist. I just cannot believe any of them are benevolent considering the things I have seen doing this job, is all…”

“I suppose that’s fair. Are we heading to the containment area now?”

“Yes. We will have to take the heavy-duty elevator at the bottom of the stairs, we’re just about here, after this turn–”

Unlike the previous floors which were in a relatively good state, the lowest floor the stairs reached was a large open storage area with stacks of crates and metallic shelves. There were bloodstains absolutely everywhere from the floor to the high ceiling. No traces of a body anywhere, just destroyed storage equipment and blood splatters.

“What are you stopping for? It’s just a bit of blood.”

“I… Alright. The elevator is that hole on the other side.”

Just to be sure Sofia thoroughly checked the area with her mana senses as they walked through, but she could not sense anything hiding through the wreckage. When they reached the huge square hole in the ground that looked like quite the safety hazard with chains dropping from the ceiling into it, Gabriela swiped the card at her neck through a slit on a pole and pressed a button.

The several large and sturdy metallic chains started getting pulled into the ceiling.

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Curious, Sofia looked down into the hole. “Oh, I don’t think that’s coming up.”

“For security reasons, the shaft is quite deep so–”

“No, no, it’s wrecked at the bottom, the chains aren’t attached to anything. Let’s jump.”

Gabriela instinctively took a step back.

Sofia was about to explain that there was no risk but instead Pareth just grabbed the woman, ignored her surprised yelp as he threw Sofia a quick glance and jumped.

That works.

Sofia jumped after him following the terrified scream of Gabriela that echoed up the elevator shaft.

Compared to other holes Sofia had jumped down before, this one was not even all that deep, she and Pareth landed softly using their bone wings and examined the situation here while Gabriela tried to regain her breath.

They stood on the wreckage of the elevator which looked like it had probably fallen down after the chains were cut midway up the shaft. A heavy armored gate was blocking the entrance to the containment area but just a meter of steel was still something Sofia’s mana senses could easily peer through.

“There’s movement in there. We might have found the missing people. Pareth, stay here with her for now, I’m checking the other side.”

The graveyard Nymphs pulled Sofia through the heavy gate.

Sofia only had a quick look before immediately telling the nymphs to take her back to the elevator. She knew Pareth had been looking through her eyes too so she did not need to explain. She looked down at Gabriela, and gave her the combat shield, an enchanted robe

and a bone barrier ring.

“Put all of this on. It’s not the best protection but it’s better than nothing. It’s not safe to leave you behind but it’s likely even more dangerous on the other side, so what do you want to do?”

“What is the other side like?” Gabriela asked, obediently putting on the things Sofia handed her.

“Same as up above, blood everywhere, not just human blood, however. The containment cells nearby are all empty, the doors and walls are full of holes.”

“Hole?”

“Likely maggots,” Sofia clarified, “the things that ate Remsei. Honestly, a single one could kill those elite guards you had with you when I saw you yesterday.”

Gabriela was silent for a few seconds. “I would rather come with you,” she decided resolutely, “I don’t feel safe here anyway. I just have one question.”

“Yes?”

“How strong are you, exactly?”

“That’s… A complex question. But let’s see. You know the explosion from yesterday morning? That was maybe a tenth of my maximum power?”

“I am definitely coming with you,” Gabriela reacted, her eyes wide open.

“Ahahah. Alright alright. Counting on your guidance, then. Why don’t you open the door for us, while you’re at it, since you will get sick again if I pull you through.”

Gabriela nodded, and stepped over the elevator’s wreckage to get to the closed gates.

Sofia had numerous ways to open them but she just wanted to see the toggle pen in action.

Gabriela scribbled ‘Closed.’ on the gate, and it immediately opened with a loud clank. It did not slowly open, but truly switched state, being closed one moment and wide open the next.

“I might really have to buy that off of you later,” Sofia commented, flying ahead, “We’ll transform now to prepare for battle, so do not panic.”

Gabriela was already quite stressed out by the blood everywhere, at this point seeing a necromancer and a skeleton transform into hideous demons was only a footnote in the current predicament. Sofia still heard her mumble under her breath: “They are definitely not grade 3… Not grade 3 at all.” Clutching her pen like a weapon, she guided Sofia and Pareth through the containment sections while standing between them.

The entire place was just like its entrance covered in blood, riddled with holes, and utterly devoid of life. Even the more specialised containment cells which had multiple doors and very specific interior environments had been breached and emptied.

If they were all eaten by the Impersonator’s maggots that’s actually quite good. That much fewer entities to deal with later. And it did this in under two hours? Terrifyingly efficient. Is there a world in which I can make it work for me?

Standing in front of another closed armored gate, this one riddled with holes, Gabriela gave Sofia and Pareth a warning. “This is the containment cell of entity the grade 3 entity, E8. We named it the smiling dead. It’s a corpse with a creepy smile that will take control over your body if you see its face then have you try to make at least two other people look before killing yourself… Going in there without a blindfold is really dangerous.”

“Good to know. I’ll make you a blindfold. Don’t worry about us.”

While Sofia answered Gabriela, her mana senses and aura were already probing beyond the doors.

Inside, the walls themselves seemed to be moving strangely, wriggling like maggots. Beyond several thick doors, Sofia’s aura finally picked up on some bones. An entire mountain of them, fused together into a disturbing pile topped with a gigantic misshapen skull.

Sofia’s expression turned very ugly.

Leviathan?!