Chapter 16: The Phantom Assault [2]

*CRACK*

"Hon."

"Yes."

Elena instantly jumped to the side and got out from whatever was behind the wall's way.

*SHATTER*

Hai's ice wall shattered and a shadow as big as a bull flew into Hai's direction.

Hai's brain started to process the whole situation in a matter of fractions of seconds.

He saw that this thing, whatever it is, has a strange body. The whole thing is pitch-black, as if its body is made of shadows.

Hai made a simple ice spike and hurled it at the thing's direction while he moved enough to get out of its way.

The ice spike went through its body and came out on the other side without doing anything.

*SWOOSH*

Hai nearly lost his balance when the thing passed near him just from the winds produced by its charge.

*CRACK*

The thing stomped on the ground with its right leg, spun its body and charged to Hai once again, this time with more speed however.

"Hon."

"Understood." Elena replied while compressing a ball of purple miasma in her hands.

Hai smiled at the bull-like entity coming towards him.

"Let's play a little." He reinforced his muscles with mana and made dozens of ice spikes, then he fired them all towards the thing.

Just like before, all the ice spikes passed through the entity without doing nothing.

Hai wasn't discouraged, he was already expecting this result.

He then made ice pillars appear besides him and shoot from the ground towards the thing.

The pillars that were around 10 cm diameter passed through the thing that kept sprint towards Hai without any sign of slowing down.

This time, the thing suddenly speed up even more and the pillars passed through it once again.

Hai stood still without any intention of dodging.

When the thing arrived close enough to enter Hai's personal space, he acted.

With a burst of speed, he vanished from his place by taking off forwards.

*SWOOSH*

Hai passed through the entity while feeling a cold and foreigner feeling.

When he was halfway to "traversing" the shadow-like bull, he started to feel some resistance on his way.

Almost as if he was trying to move against a wall or something solid.

'So that was it.' He thought without much surprise as he half-expected this result.

"Now."

Elena on the side bit her bottom-lip hard enough for it to draw blood.

"Y-Yes." She then fired the ball of purple miasma at the entity while Hai was still "in" it.

*VOOOOOM*

With an ominous sound, both the entity and Hai felt as if something dangerous was coming for their lives.

As Hai was already used to worse, he didn't express much of a reaction.

For the entity however…

It started to struggle when it experienced the feeling of death's first-hand.

It suddenly materialized itself entirely forgetting that Hai was still "in" it.

Hai felt flesh and something resembling bones trying to crush him but he paid it no mind.

When the creature manifested itself, he gushed out the mana he has been compressing inside his core.

*FUUSH*

He froze the whole thing while still in it.

The thing's eye started to shine a brighter green light and the ice started to crack, but it was useless.

Elena's ball of purple miasma hit the thing.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*SHATTER*

The ice cracked and shattered.

Hai freed himself by literally tearing him way out and then he looked behind.

The entity that now seemed like a pitch-black bull with humanoid form was lying on the ground while trembling and its eyes were dim and hazy.

The previously bright green eyes that shone in the dark were no more, now, its eyes were faint and going in and out, as if a toy with low battery.

Hai looked at the thing and used his mana to scan through it.

'Hum…'

Opening his eyes, Hai was even more intrigued and serious now.

That thing has parts of orcs, trolls, minotaurs and a mana core with shadow affinity.

However, this core is strange. Almost as if only has the affinity and limited space inside it.

It's like the thing was created to use solely shadows and nothing else. It couldn't learn any magic aside from shadow.

'Seems like we're in a laboratory of shorts.'

Now, this begs the question: Is this something linked to a mega corporation or not?

If it's the former, Hai is screwed at astronomical levels.

If it's the later, then he knows that something big, really big is going on behind the scenes and it has been ongoing for quite a long time.

Be as it is, he is going to get the answers from this lab.

"Hon."

Elena raised her head.

Even though she is wearing a mask, Hai can clearly see that she is quite down by hurting him.

Although he isn't showing, he is feeling "slight" pain from her magic as it didn't distinguish between friend and foe yet.

"Stop blaming yourself."

She lowered her head but said nothing.

*SIGH*

'If it worked it would have been a miracle.'

"If you keep being depressed, I will take out a whole week from my agenda and have you on my bed for that whole week." Hai said while feeling no shame by his so-called 'punishment'.

Elena flinched.

She doesn't know what to do.

Should she keep her depressed state and be punished or should she obey her young master?

Both are something she likes.

The punishment is looking more tempting though….

"Pfft!" Hai let out a stifled laugh.

Elena woke up from her stupor and looked at her young master.

It finally dawned on her.

"Youn- Hubby, you meanie." She pouted.

Hai looked at her and turned ahead while trying to contain his laugh.

"Now that you're better, let's us continue."

Elena nodded while she started to feel better seeing that her young master was perfectly fine, then they both sprinted towards the darkness at the end of the corridor.

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"Okay, what in the seven hells is this?" Hai asked exasperatedly while looking ahead.

Elena was silently standing behind him but she also shared his doubt.

The place they are in right now, is something like a giant lab.

There are several tubes here and there with green liquids inside it and some organism inside that Hai doesn't quite recognize.

There are also several robots going all over the place while wearing lab coats.

"Was this supposed to be a film's grand discovery or something?" Hai muttered aloud but didn't really expect an answer.

 *SIGH*

Sighing, Hai started to scan the place with his mana.

His brows furrowed when he finished this process.

"Okay, I knew that this place was f*cked up, but I didn't know it was to this point."

He looked at a certain direction.

There was a door where he looked and this door seemed like something going to a vault or something like it.

He looked at the heavy metal door and thought back to what he sensed in there.

"Hon, we're going there first."

Elena simply nodded and vanished after her young master.

*TAP*

Hai appeared before the door, waved his hands and the thing opened.

'Metal affinity sure is convenient.' He thought while watching the door slowly opening.

When the door finished opening, he entered through and stepped on what could be said to be a white vault.

The whole place was white in color with the only difference being the small black lines from between the drawers.

*TAP*

*TAP*

*TAP*

*TAP*

Hai calmly walked inside and used his mana on one drawer at the bottom.

The drawer slid outwards and gave view of what was inside.

Hai looked below at the drawer and saw something he half-expected.

"…"

He looked at Ye Chen's body, or something resembling Ye Chen. This one however, was different from the guards from before. This one is identical to the Ye Chen he knows, except for his injures, that is.

The thing had its left eye, mouth, throat and belly exploded, as if it had taken several bullets or strong hits.

"What the hell is this…" Hai muttered while examining the corpse's details.

By his analysis, it has already been at least a year since this guy's death.

"I'm disliking this more and more…" He said and pulled open another drawer.

Another corpse resembling Ye Chen.

This one however, was in a worse condition than the previous. It had it\s whole lower body missing.

"…"

Hai started to open more drawers. Drawer after drawer, corpse after corpse. All of them had and were ones resembling Ye Chen.

Elena meanwhile has stayed quiet. She obviously know about Ye Chen so she is trying to understand what it all means.

Hai opened the last drawer.

This one, the body was mostly intact and only its genital was missing.

Hai narrowed his eyes.

This one seems oddly familiar.

Strangely so.

If he is not mistaken, there was a time during this run where Ye Chen meet with one of his heroines. He as the arrogant guy he is, thought he had an irresistible charm and that she was already his.

Big mistake.

When he tried to force himself on her with the words "they were destined to one another", the heroine that is a feisty one, resisted with all her strength and as she was a martial artist, she landed a blow on his pelvis.

Ye Chen who was weaker than her, obviously could do nothing except being hit.

He ended losing his little brother and was gravely wounded.

The help only arrived around 30 minutes later, enough time for the heroine to understand she had done something "wrong" to him and felt guilty from hurting him "so much".

Hai know about it since it happened in a hotel he was also in for plot's purposes.

He always questioned how absurdly high was his luck for not dying from her attack which even had intend in it.

Hai looked at the corpse without its "tool".

"He is the same one…" This corpse is exactly identical to the Ye Chen when he was injured by the heroine back in the hotel.

"This is becoming more and more f*cked up…" If he wasn't sure before, he is now. Those corpses are either the Ye Chen, or Ye Chens he knew and met during his run(s) or they are identical copies of him with all his injures suffered through the years in them.

He looked behind him at Elena and saw that she was guarding the door while letting him to his devices.

He turned back to those corpses and decided to do something rather nasty.

He pulled open one drawer that was around his stomach's height.

He looked at the corpse for a second and then…

He pierced the corpse's head with his hand.

Hai didn't express any disgust when he felt a slimy liquid sliding his hands.

He twisted and turned his hand inside the corpse's head until he finally found what he was searching for.

Feeling a hard small ball, he grasped it and pulled it out.

The thing showed a bit of resistance, as if it was linked to something.

Hai didn't care an used more strength.

He successfully pulled it out.

He looked at his hand with red liquid in it and narrowed his eyes.

The corpse wasn't supposed to have blood anymore.

He used magic and whipped the blood off his hand and then looked at his palm.

A small red ball was there.

The thing had a faint dim light, almost as if it was on the verge of losing its glow.

He looked at it with an intense gaze.

Then, he used his mana to scan inside the thing.

*DRIP*

Hai raised his left hand and whipped the blood that started leaking out of his nose.

"Motherf*cker. This changes everything." He smiled in a crazy manner.

He can just smile right now, he doesn't know how to deal with this situation.

It seems that all his suffering was nothing more than a mere illusion, a lie, a small part of an act.

To say that he is pretty pissed right now would be an understatement.  

And this time, it is not with Ye Chen.

"Hubby."

Hai turned to Elena and saw what she wanted to say.

Every single robot had vanished, the doors were closing and the tubes started to open.

*GROWL*

*ROAR*

*HOWL*

Several inhuman grunts and sounds started to be emitted from the tubes.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

Hai cracked his knuckles.

"Hon, those are mine."

He is going to let out some steam.

*ROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR*

Hai grinned manically when he witnessed a big door opening and the roar coming from behind this same door.

"Entertain me for a bit, will you?"

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Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!

So, what do you guys think about this chapter?

Comment if you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.

Also, sorry if this chapter has some mistakes or may seem a bit off. I had to write more than half of it from my phone. And even though I'm using a keyboard, it's still harder to write than when on my PC.

Lastly but no less important, sorry for the late update.

I hope you have enjoyed today's chapter.

That's all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎