Volume 6, Heaven or Hell, Eighth Level: Sewers, A Stifled Voice (1/2)

Volume 6, Heaven or Hell, Eighth Level: Sewers, A Stifled Voice

Translator: Trespasserby (proofread by elisa; C/E edited by lucathia)

“Solitary Butterfly, Dark Sun has been in a bad mood recently. Don’t start any fights with him.”

… You’re making it sound like I spend all day trying to pick fights with him. What’s he unhappy about this time?

“Aiya, you have a menstrual cycle, he also has a modification… going haywire cycle! Please don’t fight with him. Arguing with Dark Sun currently is completely pointless!”

I get it… How is there another robbery? What’s been going on lately? There’s been a ton of robberies! Dealing with robbers armed to the teeth is such a pain. Good thing this case is by both our boundaries. Do you want to go or should I?”

“What about Dragon Peace?”

He just went to deal with a robbery in the southern district! Don’t pick on him just because you know him!”

“Rock, paper…”

“Scissors.”

Scissors.

“Hmph… I’ll head over now.”

“Charles! Charles!”

This time, as soon as I heard that call, it did not matter how heavy my eyelids were. I immediately opened my eyes. I could not have known that as soon as I opened them I would be greeted by a scene I would never be able to forget.

The young master had been tied to a cross. His entire body had been wrapped in chains so that only his head was exposed.

I felt a burst of light-headedness. I could only weakly cry, “Y-Young Master, you…”

The young master lowered his head to look at me. He asked in confusion, “Charles, what happened?”

“It was Lieder!”

I struggled to stand up. I had just managed to prop myself on all fours, my knees on the floor, when the young master suddenly called out in a low voice, “Don’t move.” After I froze in shock, he asked doubtfully, “You don’t feel any pain?”

Pain? I lowered my head to look. Both of my palms had a chain going through the center and were badly mutilated. The chains were affixed to the floor. If I had not stopped trying to stand up, my palms might have already fallen to the ground in pieces.

“They’re on your feet too,” the young master warned.

I turned to look. My feet were also bound and similarly fixed to the ground. Only, unlike my palms, the chains had not gone through my flesh.

The chains looked like they were made of silver, or at the very least, silver-plated. I raised my head to reply to the young master, “It does not hurt at all. Perhaps it is because I have been injected with painkillers.”

“Oh.” The young master lowered his head to say, “It doesn’t hurt for me either. It’s probably also because of painkillers. How much did they even give me? I feel as light as a feather and very comfortable!”

No wonder the young master was not in a panic. Even his expression seemed a bit dazed.

“This is very bad.” The young master seemed to be trying hard to stay concentrated, but his eyes were hazy and were completely unable to focus. He asked, “The Lieder you were talking about is the university professor?”

“Yes!” I hastily relayed everything about Lieder’s plan from earlier to assassinate the Sun Emperor to the young master. However, I did not know how much the young master was able to take in. He seemed completely disoriented.

“Cell phone…” The young master had some difficulty concentrating enough to say, “Charles. Your phone is behind you on your right.”

I hurriedly turned. As expected, I saw the cell phone. But as soon as I picked it up, I said, discouraged, “Young Master, the cell phone’s battery has been removed.”

“Oh. Has it…?”

Seeing the color of the young master’s face, I asked with extreme worry, “Young Master, are you alright?”

“I feel fine. But my body doesn’t seem to be O.K. It’s a little hard to breathe. Also not feeling any discomfort is making it worse. I often forget to breathe… Charles, you should also take a look at yourself. You also don’t look quite right!”

I paused for a moment. Only then did I realize that I really was too calm. Under these circumstances, I should not be this level-headed.

I surveyed our surroundings. It was a fairly large space, but the surroundings were exceptionally dark. There were only a few dim light bulbs. I could faintly make out that the walls and floor were old, damp, and covered with moss. It smelled rank.

The sole exit was a steel door with bars. For most people, this place would be difficult to escape from. However, it was nothing to the young master and me.

But would Lieder really allow us to escape so easily? I turned my head to ask, “Young Master. Lieder intends to kill the master. What should we do?”

“Gēge is very far away. There’s no way Lieder could have reached him so fast. Also, he won’t be able to meet with Gēge easily. So we just have to think of a way to hurry and escape so that he won’t have us as hostages. Then, we can call Gēge to warn him.”

Hearing this, I finally understood why the young master was not panicking. I quickly said, “In all likelihood, the master is already in Sunset City. In addition, he is going to meet Dr. Ni Cai. The doctor is Lieder’s accomplice!”

The young master froze and suddenly seemed more clear-headed as he shouted, “What? How did I not hear that Gēge was coming?”

“The master gave everyone an order to keep it from you. He wanted to give you a nice surprise.” I remorsefully apologized, “I am truly sorry. Because of a reason like ‘wanting to give you a nice surprise,’ I acted in accordance with the order.”

The young master helplessly said, “You really gave me a shock. Gēge really is, really is… Ah. Toss me your cell phone. Throw it somewhere around my head.”

“Understood.” I gave releasing my blood ability a try. Using my blood ability to hand over the cell phone is probably a better idea… No. I should directly use my blood ability to sever the chains! I really was under the influence of painkillers or I should have thought of it sooner.

“…”

“What’s wrong?” the young master asked doubtfully.

“My blood ability cannot cut through the chains.”

“These chains are very strong. Even my plasma hair strands would take some time to cut them. You should just throw the cell phone over. Just take care not to throw it too far to the side.”

I threw the cell phone to the young master. His silver hair suddenly grew explosively. Several strands shot toward the cell phone…

Crack!

I froze for a moment and said, “Young Master, the cell phone has shattered.”

“… I know.” The young master looked like he was about to cry, but no tears came out. He used his hair to hold the cell phone up before him. His hair was not glowing. It seemed it was not in energy weapon mode. But even so, the phone’s casing had already been crushed, and all that was left were the scattered components inside. I did not know if it could still be used.

“I don’t have very good control over my abilities right now. So that’s why I haven’t been using my plasma hair strands to break the chains. I’m worried I’ll cut myself in half too. You also probably shouldn’t use your blood ability carelessly either.”

“Understood.”

The young master’s hair floated. It wasn’t long before there was the sound of ringing. Those broken parts could actually be used to make a call!

“Are you calling the Sun Emperor?”

“I don’t know who I’m calling. It’s too hard for me to do precision work right now. So I randomly did some things. Let’s see if the call makes it through…”

A voice came from the cell phone, “Who is it?”

This seems to be a woman’s voice?

“Solitary Butterfly?” The young master quickly shouted, “Solitary Butterfly, is that you? Hurry and warn the Sun Emperor not to meet with anyone. There are people trying to assassinate him!”

The sounds that came through in response were very unclear and were filled with static. Only a few words could be made out with difficulty, “… Dark Sun, what are you… Where…”

“Someone wants to kill the Sun Emperor!” The young master kept repeating these few words. Perhaps ten minutes had passed, but the static grew louder and louder. Finally, Solitary Butterfly’s voice could not be heard at all, and he had no choice but to end the call.

“The connection is bad.” Annoyed, the young master said, “This place might be very deep in the sewers. I don’t know if Solitary Butterfly could hear what I was saying on her end. We’d still better hurry and escape…”

Speaking up to here, the young master suddenly went silent. Only when the sound of an explosion came from the components of the cell phone did he speak up again. “There was a listening device in there. Charles, did Lieder have your cell phone at some point? While he had it, did the phone ever leave your line of sight?”

I blurted out, “Lieder recently held my phone to put in his number. At that moment, his fountain pen dropped and I bent down to pick it up…”

Could Lieder have put the listening device in my phone then?

The young master sighed and said, “No wonder he knew the best time to make a move, and just so happened to strike after I had a surgery.”

Because of my negligence, I gave Lieder the opportunity to take advantage of me. This huge mistake can never be rectified… Lieder! You dared to use me to harm the young master!

“Charles!” The young master called out in a low shout, “There’s no time to blame yourself! Anyway, as long as Josh exists, this would have happened regardless. At most, the bug just gave Lieder a better understanding of when a good opportunity was. Right now, the most important thing is to escape!”

I nodded. I strove to put aside my feelings of rage. I had just been overly calm, but now I was filled with fury. It really was too easy for the painkillers to influence my state of mind. I truly had no idea how the young master was able to maintain control.

At that moment, the young master’s hair began to glow. The tendrils of hair were directly aiming at himself… I quickly shouted, “Wait a moment. Young Master, did you not say that you were worried about cutting yourself?”

“I don’t have time for that!”

I raised my hands and said, “Young Master, please cut my chains! If you cut yourself in half, then even if you escape, you will be unable to save the Sun Emperor. Therefore, please cut my chains!”

The young master went silent, then said, “O.K. Consider this your punishment for being careless. Afterward, you’re not allowed to blame yourself, and you’re definitely not allowed to say you’re resigning!”

“Yes!” I did not intend to resign. I only want to tear Lieder into a thousand pieces!

“Stick your arms out. Then don’t move. You absolutely cannot move!”

I followed his words. Once I moved, I did not move again.

Two streaks of white light flashed in front of and behind me respectively. Following that was a series of sounds as the chains fell to the ground.

“Charles?” The young master shouted in a panic, “Blood is coming from your chest!”

I lowered my head and touched it. I replied, “Just a flesh wound.” Although it had narrowly missed slashing my heart, even if it had, vampires were not so easy to kill.

“And your legs?”

I turned my head to look. The chains had been severed, but my calves had several deep gashes where bone could be seen. Quite a lot of blood had been vaporized by the plasma hair strands. Fortunately, the effect of the painkillers allowed me to feel nothing at all. I replied “They are fine,” and then stood up and walked to the young master’s side.

At this moment, the young master’s hair had stopped glowing and the young master said to me, “I can’t see where the end of the chain is. Take a look and wrap my hair around the weakest part of the end of the chain. Then let go.”

I looked around. Once I did as requested, there was a flash of white light and the chains around the young master fell away. He also dropped from the cross. I quickly dashed to catch him. The young master let out a soft gasp, and I hastily looked down. The young master’s face could not have possibly been paler… The casts on his legs are missing!

The young master could not utter a single word. Even if the painkillers were still in effect, he seemed to still be in pain… Although the young master had not shown any sort of expression, his face was completely white, and his lips were purple. He had not shown any expression or cry of pain despite already being in this state. Why must he go so far to endure it?!

“Young Master, please do not force yourself to hold it in…”

Bang!

There suddenly came the sound of gunfire. Following that, a trickle of blood flowed down the young master’s forehead… Why must he always be hurt? What has he ever done wrong?

“Grab your weapons already! They’ve undone the chains!” A person shouted outside the gated door, “You f***ers aren’t getting away!”

I did not pay them any mind. I only looked down at the young master. The blood had flowed into his eyes. He shook his head and used his hand to wipe away the blood. He looked exhausted, but collected himself with great effort. He said, “Charles. Put me down. Then go to the farthest corner of the room. I’m going to use my hair to deal with them.”

I blurted out, “Young Master, how can I walk away and disregard you?!”

“Huh?” The young master was puzzled for a moment and explained, “You’re not disregarding me. It’s just that my control isn’t very good right now, and I could accidentally hurt you. So I want you to stand a bit farther away so I won’t hurt you by accident.”

You are in this much pain, but are still concerned about others?

“Hurry and move already. I still have to save Gēge… Ugh!” The young master suddenly frowned. He was unable to suppress his groan of pain. He extended a hand toward his knee, but did not dare to touch that area at all.

“Young Master!”

“I’m… Fine.” The young master growled angrily, “Move already!”

I gently placed the young master on the ground and said, “Young Master, please wait a moment.”

“Wait? Wait for what?” The young master froze.

I straightened up, materialized two rapiers, then charged at the steel door.

Behind the steel door was at least twenty fully armed people. As expected, Lieder would not allow us to walk out so easily. If my guess was correct, the bars on the door should have a high voltage current running through them; otherwise, the criminals would not have just given a verbal warning. At the very least, they would have first shot our legs.

“Charles!” Behind me, the young master cried out, “You don’t have to fight! I promised you! No matter the situation, you don’t have to…”

I looked back and smiled as I said, “Young Master, I do not have to fight. However, at this moment, I very much want to battle. You will not prevent me from doing what I wish, correct?”

“You want to fight?” The young master’s expression looked very strange, but it was still much better than his expression of suffering just earlier.

“Back off!” The criminals shouted a warning.

I turned my head to look at them, but I had no intention of negotiating. I used x-speed and rushed at the steel door from the side. At the same time, I increased the strength of the rapiers in my hands to the point where they could destroy steel. I used the force from x-speed and cut a Z-shape with the rapiers.

Because of x-speed, almost as soon as I finished cutting, I bumped into the steel bars, and the door broke into four pieces. There was a current going through its surface as I had expected, but with enough speed, that brief contact with electricity was nothing to a vampire!

I burst into the middle of those people, bowling down several of them. But they did not lose their heads and immediately began shooting. Bullets flew at me from all directions. Are they not concerned at all about hitting their own people?

I slid slightly out of the way. A bullet brushed past my right shoulder. Immediately afterward, I flipped my body and leapt onto the ceiling. All the gun points followed me up, and many bullets screamed by.

With a step, I used x-speed to propel myself down like a projectile, brushing past numerous bullets. As I shot downward, I stepped on a person and swept out with a rapier in each hand. I did not know how many calves I cut into. I did not have the time to count.

As anguished howls arose, I retreated and used my back to ram into another person. Then I stepped on another person’s thigh and leapt back up to the ceiling. If I had heard correctly, that person’s femur should now be broken.

With my speed, I darted amongst them. Although it was difficult to avoid being hit by the occasional bullet, they were insignificant injuries.

Their numbers dwindled more and more.

“F***!”

“He’s really damn fast!”

“Grab the other one… Hurry!”

Grab the other one…?

Young Master!

“Fire already. The other one isn’t weak either,” a person snarled at the same time as he opened fire at the young master.

I roared, “You will not harm the young master!”

I created a shield out of blood ability to stop the bullets. But I had no way of blocking the bullets that had already been fired. I dashed behind that person. One rapier stabbed him in the back of his neck beneath his helmet, and the other rapier went into his spine at his waist.

Through the blood ability shield, I could see the young master using both his hands to cover his face. In addition, there were two bullets caught between his arms!

He shouted out a warning, “Charles, dodge!”

I slide stepped, but I had already taken too long. My back was riddled with quite a few bullets. Although I had spread a shield of blood ability behind me, the vast majority of my blood ability had already gone in front of the young master to protect him. The rest had been transformed into the rapiers. The thin blood ability shield could not block many bullets.

But I was not worried. Even if they were silver bullets, taking a few bullets would not hinder me too much. Under the influence of the painkillers, I did not even feel the pain.

I turned around. I will not let these people escape. Any of them! They dared to fire on the young master… All of them must die!

The blood-colored rapiers swept out, and what sprayed everywhere was a curtain of blood. I stepped in the pool of blood. Then, I made more pools of blood. The color red stained everything in view… Before I realized it, there was no one left standing beside me anymore.

Raising my rapiers, I looked all around me to confirm there truly was no one else around before putting away my rapiers. Then, I returned to the young master’s side.

The young master’s eyes were wide. He exclaimed, “Charles. You’re really fast! Even with my ligaments changed, I can’t reach that speed!”

As I knelt down, I said, “The young master certainly can.”

“No way. The numbers were calculated by a computer. After switching out my ligaments, I’m probably only…” While the young master was speaking, I lifted him up in one go. He frowned. Even with his attention elsewhere, he apparently was still in pain.

“Let’s go! Carry me on your back. We have to hurry and warn Gēge.”

“Yes.” I carried the young master on my back and rushed out the gated door, but I did not know where to go. I hurriedly asked, “Young Master, which direction should I take?”

The young master said, “Break through the ceiling and go straight up!”

This is indeed the fastest way. I nodded and said, “Then, I will first find a place to set you down.”

“You don’t need to put me down. Just punch straight through! Hurry!”

Hearing this, I created rapiers that were much larger than usual. I had the blood shield block my front again so that the young master would not be accidentally injured by the debris. Following that, I jumped up and attacked. When I pierced the ceiling, I heard a faint bursting sound. This sound is clearly growing more pronounced…

“Damn it! There’s a bomb!”

As soon as the young master finished speaking, the bomb’s flame and heat came directly at us. I could only instantaneously change the rapiers I had just been using to attack into a second blood shield. But the two blood shields were unable to block the explosive force and shattered one after the other.

Using the time the blood shields bought, I turned my body around to protect the young master, hoping I could use my back to block the brunt of the explosion.

The rumbling kept going. Smoke and dust filled the air. My surroundings were very hot. I breathed in so much searing air, my lungs seemed like they were going to burst. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak, the thick smoke choked me to the point where I could not fully speak, “Cough… Cough cough! Y-Young Master!”

There was no response. I hurriedly checked the young master’s condition. The young master’s eyes were closed but thankfully he was still breathing… Why do I always have to be thankful for things as basic as this?

Still alive! The young master is still alive, just in so much pain that he fainted. Is this still something to be grateful for?

Cradling the young master, I was deeply afraid there were more bombs. I could only make my blood ability shield as strong as possible, and then rush upward, carving holes in the ceilings the whole way, until the ceiling was really too thick and could not be broken through. I could only look around me for another way out.

Suddenly, I stopped where I was. Sounds were coming from far away… An enemy? I hid in the shadows. Carrying the young master made it inconvenient to take action, and I did not want the young master to suffer any more injuries.

“Dark Sun! Dark Sun, are you there?”

This voice… The light of a flashlight grew closer and closer, along with over ten fully armed people. It seemed like too many to handle, but the voice was so familiar… If I did not respond, then I would have to spend a long time before I could manage to leave.