Chapter 173: Raymond (2)

Around half an hour after Raymond and Elena’s conversation...

Raymond stood alone in the dark alleyway opposite a massive, eight-story building.

The building had no windows on its lower floors. On the outside, it looked like an abandoned water treatment facility. But the thick iron fence, the heavy steel doors, and the red surveillance cameras placed every ten meters told a very different story.

A cold midnight rain fell over the city.

Raymond did not use an umbrella. The raindrops hit his shoulders, but the moment they touched his dark blue suit, they instantly turned into tiny puffs of steam.

He slowly pulled off his gloves and placed them neatly inside his coat pocket.

Then he looked up at the top floor of the building. His eyes, normally a dull shade of grey, began to flicker with sharp, blinding sparks of blue light.

"A secret underground research facility," Raymond murmured to himself. "Financed by the Association’s corruption fund... and running illegal experiments on captured vampire bloodlines."

He adjusted his silver lapel pin—the mark of the Hunter Association Administration—and took a slow step forward.

"Lady Elena gave her orders," Raymond whispered softly. "Clean up the garbage before it reaches her doorstep."

Ten years ago, when Raymond was only eighteen and was left for dead in a ruined gate, it was Lady Elena who had pulled him out of the rubble. She had given him a purpose, a title, and a reason to live. He was not just an Association administrator. That was just a cover up title. In reality, he was her personal loyal butler, her shadow, and her ultimate instrument of destruction.

If anyone dared to threaten Lady Elena’s peace, or the guests resting under her roof, Raymond would erase them from existence.

He took another step toward the high iron fence.

ZZZZZT!

A silent wave of high-voltage electricity rippled across the soles of his shoes.

Without breaking his stride, Raymond raised his right index finger and lightly flicked it toward the heavy steel front gates.

BOOM!

A beam of blinding blue lightning shot out from his fingertip like a sniper bullet.

The blast hit the iron gates dead center. The massive steel doors didn’t just break—they instantly melted into a puddle of glowing red slag under the intense heat of electric energy.

Inside the facility, red emergency lights began to flash frantically, and loud alarm sirens started blaring across the complex.

"Intruder! Intruder at the front entrance!"

"All security units, mobilize! Shoot on sight!"

Shouts echoed from behind the ruined gates. Within ten seconds, thirty heavily armed guards rushed out into the courtyard. They were wearing tactical armor, carrying anti-magic assault rifles, and wielding heavy riot shields reinforced with magic-resistant alloy.

"Halt!" the guard captain screamed, pointing his weapon at Raymond. "Identify yourself or we will open fire!"

Raymond didn’t stop walking. He kept his hands folded casually behind his back as he stepped through the melted remains of the steel gate.

"You have chosen a very dangerous business, gentlemen," Raymond said softly. His voice cut straight through the loud noise of the sirens. "And unfortunately for you, your business has annoyed Lady Elena."

"Fire! Shoot him down!" the captain yelled.

RAT-AT-AT-AT-AT!

Thirty automatic weapons fired all at once. Hundreds of magic-infused bullets rained down on Raymond like a deadly storm..

CRACKLE!

A dense sphere of bright blue lightning erupted from his chest, forming an impenetrable barrier of raw plasma around his body. The moment the bullets hit the lightning shield, they vaporized completely into dust before they could even touch his suit.

The guards stared in terror as Raymond walked out of the smoke, completely unharmed. Not a single thread of his dark blue suit was out of place.

"My turn," Raymond said.

He raised his right hand and gently snapped his fingers.

SNAP!

A massive ring of jagged lightning exploded outward from his body in every direction.

The electrical wave swept across the courtyard in less than a second.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The lightning tore through the guards’ armor like paper. Their magic-resistant shields exploded into white-hot shrapnel. The electric voltage was so immense that the guards didn’t even have time to scream. Their bodies were instantly incinerated, turning into black ash that scattered into the cold rain.

When the flash of light faded, the entire courtyard was completely silent. Thirty guards were gone. Only scorched black marks remained on the concrete floor.

Raymond didn’t pause to look at the ash. He stepped over the blackened ground and walked straight into the main lobby of the building.

The inside of the facility smelled like ozone, blood, and burning wires.

Reinforced steel blast doors slammed down, sealing off the main hallway to block Raymond’s path.

"Class-3 spatial steel," Raymond noted calmly, examining the thick door in front of him. "Impressive defense."

He placed his open palm gently against the center of the steel door.

ZZZZZZZZT!

Concentrated white lightning poured out of his hand into the metal. The high frequency of the electricity caused the heavy blast door to vibrate violently. Within three seconds, the heat reached over three thousand degrees. The thick spatial steel glowed bright orange, then white, and finally dissolved into liquid metal, pouring onto the floor like hot soup.

Raymond stepped through the hole and entered the lower laboratory level.

This was where the real horror lay.

On both sides of the long hallway were massive glass tanks filled with green liquid.

Inside the tanks were pale, unconscious people—vampires, demi-humans, and rogue hunters—bound in heavy mana-suppression chains. Tubes were inserted into their arms and necks, pumping out their blood and mana into large collection vats.

In the center of the room, twenty researchers in white lab coats and ten elite mercenary guards were panicking, frantically trying to delete computer files and pack up syringes filled with glowing red liquid.

When Raymond stepped into the room, everyone froze in sheer panic.

"Who... who are you?!" the head researcher stammered, backing away toward the control panel. "This is an authorized facility under the Central Bureau’s secret mandate! You can’t be here!"

Raymond glanced at the glass tanks. He saw a young vampire girl inside one of them, her skin pale, her body weak, and her eyes hollow from continuous blood extraction.

His grey eyes turned dangerously cold.

"Cruel, filthy creatures," Raymond said, his voice dropping into a deep, terrifying rumble. "To torture living beings for power and money... You truly are a disgrace to humanity."

"Kill him! Use the heavy mana cannons!" the head researcher shrieked, pressing a red panic button on the desk.

Four automated plasma turrets dropped down from the ceiling, their barrels locking onto Raymond’s head.

"Charge!" the mercenary leader commanded, pulling out a glowing broadsword. "He’s just one guy!"

"You are mistaken," Raymond whispered. "I am not just one guy. I am THE butler."

CRACK-BOOM!

Raymond vanished from where he stood.

He moved so fast that he completely bypassed the speed of sound. A sonic boom shattered every glass cup and computer screen in the laboratory.

He reappeared directly in front of the mercenary leader. Before the man could raise his sword, Raymond jabbed two fingers straight into the mercenary’s chest.

ZZZZZT!

The lightning blew a clean, fist-sized hole straight through his torso and exiting out his back. The mercenary fell dead before his brain could even process what had happened.

Raymond didn’t stop at only him. He turned into a blinding streak of blue lightning, zipping across the laboratory floor in a zig-zag pattern.

CRACKLE! SLAM! BOOM!

In less than five seconds, all elite mercenaries were dead. Their charred remains lay scattered across the broken tile floor.

The twenty researchers fell to their knees, weeping and screaming in utter terror.

"Please! Spare us!" one scientist cried out, holding his hands up in desperate mercy. "We were just following orders! The Bureau paid us! We didn’t have a choice!"

Raymond walked slowly toward the head researcher.

"Everyone has a choice," Raymond said coldly. "And you chose to walk into the dark."

He raised his right hand over the room.

The air pressure inside the laboratory dropped rapidly. Hundreds of tiny electric sparks began to dance across the ceiling, gathering together into a massive, swirling sphere of white-hot lightning plasma. The heat coming from the sphere was so intense that the paper files on the desks instantly burst into flames.

"No! Please! Mercy!" the scientists begged, scrambling backward on their hands and knees.

"M’Lady ordered me to leave no trace," Raymond said, his expression completely unreadable. "My master does not like messiness."

Raymond brought his hand down.

"Thunderstorm Judgment."

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The massive sphere of white lightning detonated.

The destructive lightning raged for three seconds, completely incinerating the entire room before suddenly vanishing into thin air.

When the light finally settled, the laboratory was completely empty.

The walls were charred black, the floor tiles were melted into glass, and all the research data had been burned to cinders.

The heavy glass tanks holding the captive vampires were shattered, but Raymond had controlled his lightning, so the captive subjects were completely unharmed.

Raymond looked at the sleeping, pale vampire subjects lying on the wet floor.

Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a small silver communication crystal, and tapped it twice.

"Raymond reporting," he spoke calmly into the crystal. "The facility has been neutralized. All data, equipment, and staff have been erased."

A familiar voice echoed from the crystal. "And the captives?" Elena asked.

"There are twelve subjects alive, my lady," Raymond replied respectfully. "Mostly young purebloods and demi-humans."

"Transfer them to the southern safehouses through the third portal network," Elena commanded. "Ensure they are fed and healed. Leave no blood trail for the Association executioners to follow."

"It shall be done immediately, Lady Elena," Raymond said, bowing slightly toward the crystal as if she were standing right in front of him.

"Good work, Raymond," Elena said. "Return to the villa once you are finished. Woo Jin and the others will wake up at morning, and I expect breakfast to be prepared on time.."

For the last two months he had been stuck in an Gate that was even higher rank then S, called a Legendary Rank Gate. He just managed to clear it a few days ago. So, he is to return to his dutries as quickly as possible which was serving Elena and Young Master Woo Jin.

"Of course, my lady," Raymond smiled faintly. "I will prepare your favorite black tea as well."

Raymond placed the crystal back into his coat pocket. He looked around the ruined, blackened room one last time to ensure that no evidence remained.

Not a single soul was left alive to tell the tale. Not a single piece of research remained to threaten the secrets hidden within the city.

Raymond raised his hand, sending a soft shockwave of gentle electricity across the room to break the lock mechanisms on the safehouse transport badges. He adjusted his tie, pulled his clean gloves back over his hands, and turned around to walk out into the quiet night.

His master needed him at home. And a good butler was never late for breakfast.