Chapter 253: The Voice

The freezing gloom of the cell fractured under a sudden, overwhelming surge of dark mana.

From the empty corners of the high concrete ceiling, Two pairs of hollow, burning blue eyes ignited against the dark like twin beacons of death, their light reflecting off the pool of dried vomit on the stone floor.

Slowly, their massive silhouettes condensed from the air.

Zenith and Aegis descended without a single sound. The tall executioner dropped to one knee, lowering its gargantuan, dark-plated torso so its spiked head would not scrape the low ceiling. Beside it, the iron juggernaut Aegis took a knee as well.

"We are here, my Liege," Zenith resonated, its hollow, ancient voice echoing straight into Hide's consciousness.

Lying paralyzed on his side, his cheek pressed hard against the cold stone, Hide's voice came out in a sharp, impatient rasp.

"Zenith... the machine on my back," He breathed through gritted teeth. "Pull it out. Destroy it now."

Zenith rose slightly, its featureless dark visor glowing. Reaching behind Hide with its massive, razor-sharp gauntleted hand, the executioner wrapped two clawed fingers around the circular titanium apparatus clamped into Hide's upper spine.

RIIIIP!

With a single, merciless jerk, Zenith tore the machine from Hide's vertebrae.

"GAH—!"

A strangled cry tore from Hide's throat as the four barbed needles ripped through flesh, muscle, and nerve endings. Four separate geysers of hot blood erupted from the puncture wounds on his back, splattering across the concrete wall behind him.

Yet, the moment the titanium talons lost their grip, the mana blockage in his body opened up.

'Abyssal Healing!' Hide commanded with his mind.

This time, the skill answered.

A radiant, emerald-tinged flame flared beneath his skin, racing along his severed nervous pathways. The torn flesh between his shoulder blades violently closed, the ruptured tissue knitting together, sealing the bleeding holes until nothing remained. The fractured bone in his left leg snapped back into alignment with a muffled pop, the torn ligaments reweaving themselves under the soothing, restorative surge.

CRUNCH!

Beside him, Zenith closed its iron talons around the titanium suppression device. The rare, high-grade artifact was pulverized into twisted scrap metal and powdered microchips, falling through the phantom's fingers like grey sand.

Then, shifting its massive frame down toward Hide's lower body, it seized the heavy, matte-black suppression cuffs locked around Hide's ankles. With a sharp flex of its strength, Zenith sheared the runic alloy apart like brittle chalk. It reached behind Hide's back next, snapping the wrist cuffs with a single, effortless twist.

The heavy pieces of metal clattered against the stone floor.

Sensation flooded back into Hide's limbs in a stinging, pins-and-needles wave.

Hide rolled onto his stomach, pushed his palms against the ground, and smoothly rose to his feet. He stood tall in the darkness, rolling his shoulders, flexing his scarred fingers, and rotating his left ankle. His strength had returned.

WHEEE-OOO-WHEEE-OOO!

Suddenly, high-pitched emergency klaxons detonated through the facility.

Outside the heavy iron door of the cell, rhythmic crimson strobes bled through the narrow door seams, bathing the darkness in flashes of bloody light. Automated warning sirens wailed through the ventilation shafts.

They knew. The facility knew their prisoner was free.

"What a mess," Hide grumbled, his brow furrowing in irritation.

He turned his ocean-blue eyes toward the thick, load-bearing concrete wall opposite the door. He didn't know the layout of this bunker, but brute force had always been an effective compass. He pulled his right fist back, preparing to smash through the stone and carve a straight path to the surface.

'Are you going to run away? Like a pathetic bastard? What are you afraid of?'

Hide froze.

The voice did not come from the corridor. It did not travel through the air, and it carried no physical vibration. It was a mocking, grating whisper that echoed directly near him.

Hide snapped his head around, his True Sight flaring to life as his gaze swept the room.

There was no one.

With his release complete, Zenith and Aegis had already dissolved back into wisps of dark mana, sinking seamlessly into the center of his chest to conserve their form. There was no hidden speaker in the corners, no intercom grille. He was the only living soul inside the cell.

"No, I am not afraid of anything," Hide snapped aloud into the empty darkness, his jaw tightening. "Leaving is the best course of action."

'Excuses! Excuses!' the voice sneered back immediately, sounding like it was perched directly on his shoulder.

Hide spun on his heel, his combat instincts spiking.

Abyssal Scale Carapace!

A dense layer of overlapping draconic scales punched out from beneath his skin, covering his forearms, hands, and knuckles in an impenetrable armor of jagged black metal. His fingers sharpened into lethal, dark talons as he bared his teeth at the empty shadows.

"Where... where are you?!" Hide demanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous, hostile growl. "Show yourself!"

'Are you even worth knowing?' the voice chuckled, a cold, mocking sound that resonated in the marrow of his bones. 'Hah! Go ahead, run away with your tail between your legs. Run like a scared dog.'

Fury ignited behind Hide's eyes.

BOOM!

Hide pivoted and drove his scaled right fist straight into the load-bearing concrete wall.

The sheer force of his strength blew a massive hole through the partition. Concrete crumbled into fine dust and rusted rebar snapped like dry twigs, collapsing outward to reveal... nothing. Only another cavern of pitch-black, silent darkness stretched beyond the breach.

'See how dumb you have become?' the voice mocked lazily, completely unfazed by the destruction. 'You are like a—'

"SHUT UP!" Hide yelled at the ceiling, his veins bulging across his neck. "Tell me, who are you?! What the hell are you?!"

The voice went quiet for a beat, savoring the frantic chaos unraveling in Hide's chest.

'You know me, Hide Volter,' it finally whispered, the tone shifting from mockery to a terrifying, chilling intimacy. 'And I know you. Or... knew you.'

A brief, suffocating pause stretched between them.

'Are you really Hide?' the voice asked softly. 'Are you even worthy of knowing who I am?'

Hide's breath caught in his throat, his chest heaving. "Yes... I am Hide! Of course I am! What the fuck do you mean?!"

'Then prove it,' the voice hissed, suddenly shedding all trace of amusement.

The phantom words grew heavy, pounding against the back of Hide's eyes with the force of an avalanche.

'The Hide I knew would never run away. He would never sneak out through a hole in the dark like a rat. He would have slaughtered every single living thing in this building. All those who wronged him. All those who trapped you here. All those who butchered your rookies and took away Risa.'

The name hit Hide like a hammer.

Risa.

The image of her lifeless, blood-stained face flashed before his eyes. Her white hair soaked in crimson.

'Don't you want to?' the voice urged, growing louder, vibrating with manic glee. 'Don't you want to rip their throats out? Don't you want to make them bleed like she bled? Don't you want to, Hide?! DON'T YOU?!'

The voice dissolved into an echo of wild laughter that faded slowly into the black corners of his mind.

Hide stood frozen in the center of the ruined cell, his scaled fists trembling violently.

The red emergency strobes continued to flash through the seams of the iron door. The sirens screamed endlessly.

Slowly, Hide turned his back on the collapsed wall.

He walked past the concrete partition, his boots crunching over the shattered fragments of the titanium disruptor, coming to a halt directly before the heavy, reinforced iron door leading out into the corridor.

The voice was right.

These people beyond this door were not strangers. They were Walter Bigiva's lapdogs. They were the corporate butchers who had orchestrated the 4-Star meat grinder. They had chained him to the floor, left his comrades to rot in the mud, and murdered his friend.

Why should he run?

Why should he crawl through the dirt like a fugitive when the monsters were breathing the air on the other side of this metal?

Rage swallowed whatever rationality remained in Hide's head.

He tried to summon his dual obsidian blades, only for his hands to grasp empty air. The memory flashed through his mind: the massive hammer strike in the sinkhole, the blades snapping into useless shards across the ash.

'System!' Hide commanded mentally, his teeth grinding until his gums bled. 'Open the System Shop! Purchase a high-tier blade!'

Silence.

No blue screen appeared. The Universal Adaptation System remained completely dark, offering no inventory, no shop, and no guidance.

"Tch!"

Hide clicked his tongue, a bitter, vicious sneer curling his lip.

He didn't need a blade. He didn't need a divine system from House Wartz.

He had his own hands.

Lowering himself a bit, Hide lunged forward like an unchained beast. He drove both of his scaled, dark-metal talons directly into the center of the reinforced iron door.

SKRRRRRRT!

The sound of shearing metal was deafening. Hide's fingers punched through the four-inch-thick hardened blast alloy as if it were wet parchment. With a violent roar, he ripped his arms outward, tearing the massive iron barrier clean off its hinges and hurling the crumpled metal slabs backward into the hallway.

BANG!

The iron doors crashed into the opposite wall of the corridor.

Hide stepped through the threshold, his silver hair wild, his scaled frame bathed in the flashing crimson glow of the emergency lights.

The moment his boots crossed the doorway, the hallway erupted.

"TARGET HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT!"

"OPEN FIRE! OPEN FIRE!"

Two full squads, clad in heavy black ballistic armor, helmets, and night-vision visors—were already crouched in firing formations down the corridor.

A blistering torrent of automatic gunfire tore through the hallway. Hundreds of high-velocity, armor-piercing mana-infused rounds screamed through the air, creating a blinding wall of muzzle flashes that converged directly upon Hide's exposed chest