Chapter 622: Morbid Crisis (XI)_1

Just when the atmosphere in the room turned a bit awkward, the door suddenly opened. A beam from a flashlight shined in, causing Angela to instinctively shield her eyes with her arm.

Female agent Kira walked in. Seeing Angela and Constantine, she hesitated for a moment, then said, "There seems to have been a power outage in this building just now. Are you two alright?"

"We're fine." Angela's tone was slightly unnatural. But then Kira walked farther into the room and said, "Are the clues you're investigating in this room as well? I've searched all of the 4th floor and this is the only room left unsearched."

"You go ahead and take a look then, we'll check out some other rooms," said Constantine, pulling Angela out of the room and into the hallway. Angela flung his hand off and exclaimed, "What are you doing? I won't let that agent rummage through my sister's room!"

Constantine stopped and looked into her eyes, "Have you forgotten? She said she is here to investigate the missing agent."

Angela took a deep breath to calm herself. She pondered for a moment, then said, "Assuming someone was conducting unauthorized experiments here and brewing a grand conspiracy, then besides the Soviet spies lurking within this organization, the missing agent that this female agent is looking for could very possibly have also infiltrated this organization, and then been murdered by them."

"Now it's confirmed. My sister's death is tied to the group performing unauthorized experiments here. They are also the targets of my revenge. Even for the sake of the people of Metropolis, I cannot let their conspiracy succeed." Angela declared with a firm tone.

"So, you're planning on teaming up with that agent then?" asked Constantine.

"Exactly." Angela stood before Constantine, staring into his eyes, "Our primary mission now is to foil the conspiracy of this organization. We have a common enemy with her."

"Don't you want to deal with those demons anymore?"

Angela glanced back, saying, "Regardless, it is currently impossible for the demons to invade Metropolis on a large scale. However, if the water source were contaminated, many in Metropolis will surely die."

Having said that, Angela resolutely turned around to return, but suddenly, Constantine grabbed her arm. Angela paused and turned her head to look at him, but Constantine's gaze wasn't on Angela, instead, he was focusing on the corridor ahead. He said, "I sense an abnormal presence... "

No sooner than he finished speaking, the lights in the entire hallway flickered and extinguished again. Just as Angela wanted to ask, she felt her arm yanked and she toppled over towards her right. She saw a massive shadow swooping past her left side.

"Hound of Hell!" Constantine's voice echoed. He said, "Damn it, why is it here? Run! Quick, to where the magic array is in the room!"

The two sprinted back to the room they had just left. Kira, seeing the two of them rushing back, was puzzled. But just at that moment, the darkness coalescing on the ceiling started thickening as if it was about to drip down.

Constantine ignited a cluster of flames again, and under the light of the fire, Angela saw a terrifying dark figure descending. That must be the physical form of the demon spoken of by Constantine.

This time, without the need for spirit vision, they could see that the monster was real. Kira took two steps back, "Damn, what kind of freak is this?!"

"This is a demon." Constantine explained. But immediately after that, he said with full confusion, "But these demons are from the depths of Hell. They shouldn't appear here. And that Hound of Hell too, what's going on? Are they really planning to invade Metropolis?"

Looking at the horrifying creature, Kira pulled out her walkie-talkie and said, "There's a black monster at Anderson Psychiatric Hospital. Quick! I need backup! Repeat, it's a black demon, I need backup!!"

"Stop yelling! The FBI can't handle this thing!" Constantine's eyes were locked on the figure. The magic array beneath his feet could no longer trap the demon that had taken form. All he could do was to maintain the light in the room by burning pages from the Bible, because once the darkness swallowed them, this place would become a hunting ground for the demons.

"I didn't call the FBI!" Kira's tone turned cold. Constantine was about to retort when he heard her utter a foreign word not in English:

"Sukabule!"

The timeline rewinds back dozens of minutes, right before the first demon invasion in Isabel's room. Bruce and Lex had already arrived in the basement of Anderson Psychiatric Hospital.

After leaving Isabel's room, they went to the block on the other side, found the key to the basement, and also found quite a few clues in the staff dormitory, including a staff list.

The list indicated that the lab was run by a female researcher named Eliza, who was a graduate of Metropolitan University.

Bruce and Lex were guessing, the woman they had heard talking in the corridor earlier, might be the one in charge of the laboratory, Eliza.

The other information they found suggested that Eliza was not only in charge of the lab but was also the initiator and researcher of all projects. In addition, there were three managerial tiers all living in the underground lab and rarely surfaced.

Upon understanding the staffing structure, Bruce knew who he needed to find. He and Lex, who had successfully made it underground, headed straight to the closest lab to find someone to extract the intelligence they wanted from them.

The researcher they managed to apprehend was just a small fry knowing nothing. But he did share plenty of intel about the structure of the underground rooms.

This information enabled Bruce and Lex to understand that Eliza's office was located at the deepest part of the underground complex. Further in, surveillance equipment filled all the passageways; if detected, all guards from the ground and surface levels would be summoned.

Knowing this, Lex and Bruce knocked out another researcher, took off their uniforms, and placed them on themselves. Bruce told Lex, "You advance into the lab and get as much data as possible from their systems. I'll find Eliza to understand what they're planning exactly."

Lex didn't refute this arrangement because he understood what was needed next was not wisdom but agility. Following Bruce could only end up being burdensome.

The two decided on a rendezvous point and began to act separately. Bruce started to stay out of the surveillance camera's view and made his way towards the deepest part of the lab.

Just as he was nearing Eliza's office, the demon invasion from above kicked off. When the demon arrived, darkness blanketed the building, creating effects similar to a power cut, plunging Bruce's vision into darkness.

Once he had acclimated to the darkness, he noticed that the cameras' view was also obstructed. Thus, he made use of this opportunity to head straight for Eliza's office.

Before her office, he heard noises reminiscent of something being sawed, creating a peculiar "creaking" sound.

Bruce proceeded carefully, stepping lightly towards the window. From the side of the window, he peered inside where he could somewhat make out a figure in the pitch black. This figure appeared to be sawing something with a saw in his hand, one foot resting on a stool.

The darkness didn't last long. Once the lights were restored, Bruce's pupils contracted as he realized that what the man in the room was sawing was a human head.

The man's back was facing Bruce, so he could only see that he was in a suit holding a saw. However, the face of the person getting their head sawed was turned towards Bruce, eyes frozen open in pain.

The suited man was stepping on her chest, lifting her neck on top of a stool while he slid the saw back and forth across her spine.

With a "crack" sound, the woman's head was completely severed from her body. The man discarded the saw, placed the woman onto a chair, and began to fix her upper body with wire.

Bruce was sure, this man was the serial killer. The body presented in the room was also armless, and the method of using wire to bind the body was just like the victims from before.

After securing the body, the man turned the chair around, making the fixed body on the chair face away from him. He then bent down, picked up the head, and placed it back onto the body, but it was attached the wrong way.

The head and body were a stark 180 degrees apart, the body laid back while the head faced forward. From Bruce's angle, he could clearly see the woman's back and her face.

Standing by the window, Bruce finally understood the real theme of the serial murders.

Telescopes represented far-sighted vision, signal receivers represented supreme hearing, mice represented prey, and the reversed head depicted the biggest feature of a certain creature that it could twist its head 180 degrees.

"Owl..." Bruce murmured to himself before focusing his attention back on the room, saying, "...the target is an owl."

Following that, he narrowed his eyes because the murderer was about to turn around. Just as Bruce could not take his eyes off the man, the second demonic invasion from upstairs began. The corridor's lights flickered twice then went out again.

Just before the light was entirely lost, Bruce saw a face in the depths of the darkness he was all too familiar with yet very strange. It was Schiller Rodriguez.

Only, at this moment, the professor's face was pale with a look of...morbidness that Bruce had never seen before.