Under the Veil of Night

SWISH!

Feeling the wind blowing through the narrow gap between the buildings, Kanae was stunned. It was stronger than what she thought, making her grip the wall tighter.

'Weird, the wind's really strong here.'

The way the wind blew made her suspect that this building was designed so that no one would be able to sneak out. Slowly moving to the side, Kanae looked up. A grimace appeared on her lips. The sixteenth floor was truly far away.

She had climbed up and down her mansion countless times in the past when she was sneaking out from her lessons. However, the mansion was not this tall. Besides, the wind was never this strong.

'Let's go up.'

Slowly, Kanae climbed up. She kept her body as close as possible to the wall. The further she was from the wall, the more resistance she would meet from the wind.

One, two, three…

Due to the uneven surface, she could find places to grab onto here and there. In her mind, she thought that this was the world's worst wall for wall climbing. The gaps between stones were so narrow at times that she couldn't grip properly.

TWACK!

The stone broke off from the wall, making her hand fall to the side. Hanging by only one hand, Kanae's expression was serene. Swinging her body once more, she grabbed a nearby rock. After making sure that her grip was firm, she proceeded to secure her feet before climbing up once again.

Before long, another series of rocks fell since they were unable to support her weight.

"Rei, are you alright?" Shiro's concerned voice sounded from the communication device.

Hearing that familiar voice, Kanae smiled wryly. "You should know that my situation right now is really bad, Shin."

"How are your fingers?"

Kanae didn't answer right away. Even without looking at them, she knew that they were bleeding profusely. There were some sharp stones that she had no choice but to grip along the way, making her fingers bleed.

Shiro sighed. "They're bleeding, right?"

"You know it," Kanae reached up once more, securing her grip before climbing up slowly but surely. She dared not to panic since even the slightest bit of distraction might lead to a fatal mistake.

"How much more do you have to climb?"

"I don't know," Kanae answered helplessly. She started to move again, her fingers finding another crevice she could grip. The blood caused her grip to slip slightly, but she forcefully held on.

Moving her feet up, she noticed that there was a window not far from her. The window led into a small room. She didn't expect there to still be an intact room here, and so she maneuvered her arms until they hung above the window before swinging out her leg to kick the window.

PRANG!

"What's that sound?" Tommy asked cautiously.

Swinging her body once more, Kanae jumped into the room. She landed on the ground safely as her eyes observed her surroundings.

"I'm inside a room," Kanae replied. The room's floor was painted dark red with blood. Due to the dim lighting, she could barely see her surroundings, but her senses were telling her that it was dangerous.

The next moment, she ducked down and slashed her sword upwards. Feeling the increased resistance in the slash, her eyes widened in surprise. It was harder to cut through the flesh compared to before.

Sidestepping, she launched another attack and finished the monster.

"Rei, are you fighting?" Jason was also surprised.

Kanae nodded. "Yeah, there's a monster here. Wait, I'll try to find the light. It's a bit dark here."

Her hands finally found the switch. The sudden brightness surprised her, but her eyes adapted rather quickly. Seeing the scene in the room, her brows furrowed. Any ordinary person would have screamed by now upon seeing this place filled with blood and corpses.

"There's a large capsule here," she said in surprise.

"Is it placed horizontally?" Jason asked.

"How do you know?"

Jason smiled wryly. His eyes were scanning the room before him. "That's because there's one in a room on the tenth floor too."

"You found it?"

"You can say so."

Jason moved to the other side of the room. This place reeked of blood, but he paid no heed. Right now, he wanted to confirm something, which was the identities of the monsters they have been fighting so far.

Moving towards the large capsule, he could see a small tube next to it. The small tube was already empty, but rubber tubing connected it to the large capsule. At the end of the tubing was a needle, seemingly used to inject the liquid from the small tube into the large capsule.

"Rei, are you thinking what I'm thinking right now?" Jason looked towards the large capsule with a dark expression.

Kanae didn't know what Jason was thinking, but she had her own thoughts when she was looking at the one near her. After all, there was still a person inside the large capsule, but he was no longer breathing.

"This was where the experiment took place?"

"Yes," Jason replied. "Those monsters should be the students and other people that went missing."

As the school was rather renowned, there were many students. However, in recent years, many students disappeared not long after they enrolled. No one could say for sure where they disappeared from. It could be from the school or some other place.

"The experiment should have failed, which is why they want to eradicate this place," Kanae heaved a sigh.

"They didn't call the groups to take care of the failed experiment. But rather, they want to erase the evidence that this experiment ever existed in the first place."

Jason knew that it was illegal to conduct experiments on human beings. No matter the reason, doing such experiments should never have been allowed. With the number of monsters they faced thus far, he didn't know just how many people fell victim to this heartless experiment.

"Since when did things turn out this way?" Kanae's tone was suffused with sadness.

"I don't know, Rei. But it shouldn't have been long since the balance of power has only broken around a decade or so ago," Jason replied. He picked up the small tube and inspected it for a second. It was empty, but he could still sense some warmth from the small tube.

Whatever kind of medicine they used in this experiment, it must have been extremely dangerous.

Kanae sighed. "We'll need to look through the history of this city once again."

"Let's talk about that when we get back."

"Yea…." Kanae's words stopped in the middle. She could sense impending danger for a moment. Her gaze hardened.

"Rei, where are you right now?"

"Let me check," moving toward the window, she could see the mountain of rubble not far from her. From her vantage point, she guessed that she was on the fourteenth floor. "I'm on the fourteenth floor."

"Can you go up from where you are, or do you have to climb up from the outside again?"

"I'm not sure," Kanae searched around the room. She moved carefully as she saw the large holes in the floor. It seemed that the explosion caused this room to become unstable. Stepping on the table, she pressed against the wall. Using her hands to prop herself up, she found herself popping up into another room from the floor below.

This room also had a large capsule located not far from her. However, the place was also far messier.

"I can go up," Kanae replied. The explosion should not have happened too long ago. The blood on the floor was still rather warm, but the place was a complete mess. Moving toward the door, she could see cracks in the floor from fights in addition to those from the explosion.

"I'll be going now."

The man shooting at the crowd positioned himself near the stairs heading towards the sixteenth floor. It was also the highest point of the mountain of rubble.

"Still want to try again?" he mocked the people below.

At this point, Kanae was already moving at high speed towards the man. Sensing the incoming person, the man was startled. He raised his gun and shot rapidly.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

But not a single one reached Kanae.

SLASH!

Kanae reached him in mere seconds, attacking and killing him in one move. The man collapsed with his eyes opened wide in disbelief. He couldn't believe that someone killed him right away like that.

Standing near the top of the rubble, Kanae smiled. "What are you waiting for? Let's go up!"