Chapter 115: Abarrents

The creature looked through the smoke cloud with its glowing purple eyes, certain that it had dealt with the intruder.

The attack was meant to severely hurt the target, but not leave their body in a state that was unusable by the doctor.

It turned to the other two who had been useless all this while, about to order them to retrieve the intruder’s body.

But it soon realized that they were lying on the floor, completely still, with their heads rolling towards it.

"That was quite the nasty blast," Zero’s voice came from beside the creature as he walked past it, calmly sheathing his katana.

Its eyes moved to the side, tracking the hitman, but before it had the chance to try and attack again, the world suddenly flipped upside down.

The last thing it saw was the hitman receding before its head fell to the floor with a thud.

Zero, meanwhile, walked into an elevator and pressed the button that led him to the lowest floor.

The screen beside the control panel suddenly lit up, revealing a man with a gas mask and a pair of goggles.

"It seems I underestimated the HA quite a bit," the man said, his voice sounding a bit mechanical. "To think you managed to defeat the aberrants without even needing your Factor."

Zero looked at the screen for a while, observing the face of the mad scientist he was here for. "Dr. Krell, I assume?"

"Indeed," the man backed up from the camera and spread his arms wide, "the greatest mind you’ll ever have the honor of interacting with."

"..." The hitman looked at him with a blank expression, confirming that the man really was as mad as the file stated.

"I’m guessing those things are all the humans you’ve kidnapped so far?" Zero asked.

"Kidnapped?" Magnus walked closer to the camera again, "Such a crude word; I prefer calling them volunteers to the advancement of humanity."

"They’re the first step in the creation of the perfect awakened human, so I’m certain they’re more than happy to be used by me."

"They don’t seem very enthusiastic for willing volunteers," the hitman stated, "neither do they look human anymore."

"A small sacrifice," Magnus responded, "the first few iterations will obviously...not be perfect, but with time, I know I can create the perfect one."

"I see," Zero muttered, putting both hands in his pockets and leaning back on the elevator wall, "given the nature of your research, I thought you’d have a lot more security."

Magnus placed a hand on his chin...or rather, beneath his gas mask. "I did, but with information that the HA will be sending a beta-ranked hero, I needed to be as prepared as possible."

The hitman wondered what the hell the man was talking about. As far as he could recall, he was here as Zero, not Overdrive, so there was no way for Magnus to know that he was with the HA.

Even if the doctor somehow knew that he was Overdrive, the information available to the public about Overdrive was that he’s a Gamma-ranked hero, not Beta.

Unless...the HA was also dispatching a hero, which would be a headache if they encountered the hitman here.

"Now, they can guard me better as Aberrants." Magnus interrupted his thoughts, pulling attention back to him.

"They don’t seem to be doing that good of a job, though," Zero pointed out, reminding the scientist of the failure of the four Aberrants he had encountered so far.

"True," Magnus nodded, "but I think you’ll find the next few you encounter a lot more challenging."

BOOM!

The elevator suddenly shook as something heavy landed atop it, causing the hitman to look up.

"There we go," Magnus said, his satisfaction evident in his tone, "that should cause you some trouble."

Zero looked back at the screen as the mad scientist added, "Please show me everything you have, kid."

With that, the screen turned black, leaving the hitman to deal with the Aberrant.

BOOM!

The creature slammed something at the top of the elevator again, causing it to tremble, and with all the weight being placed on it, the cable suddenly snapped.

Zero let out an exhausted sigh as gravity took hold of the elevator and it started speeding downwards.

Given the weight of the creature on it, the hitman realized that he’d be flattened into a pancake when the elevator slammed into the ground with that thing still above it.

Fortunately, a safety mechanism that slowed the elevator down kicked in, allowing the hitman enough time to form a laser pen with a high-powered beam capable of cutting through the elevator door.

***

Magnus watched as the elevator moved from floor to floor, wondering if the kid within would truly be able to survive.

His body might not be usable as a pancaked goo, but perhaps the doctor might be able to find a use for even a mangled corpse.

The Camera within the elevator was inaccessible now due to the creature’s sudden landing.

So he had to settle for watching the elevator go down through the cameras just outside it.

Still, it was quite strange that the HA sent someone like this. As far as he knew, there was no such hero within the organization; after all, he always received updated files of all heroes within the HA, even new ones.

Perhaps the kid was part of some sort of secret branch of the HA?

Either way, Magnus was either going to get rid of him or use him as one of his Aberrants, especially if he had a useful Factor.

He turned to a certain corner of the lab, his eyes resting on the only thing within this lab that wasn’t exactly his creation.

A crack in space with a swirling purple vortex within.... It looked like some sort of rift.

Surrounding it were multiple massive cables that seemed to be harvesting a glowing energy from it and pumping it directly towards the glass tubes around.

Without a word, he turned back to the screen, just in time to witness the elevator finally landing on the lowest floor and crumbling beneath the Abarrent’s weight.

BOOM!