The Echo Of Lightning

The smoke covering the X Block cleared, revealing the well-designed prison cells. Each cell had two king-sized beds with sleek wool and cotton blankets. An air conditioner hung on the wall, facing a chandelier made of white marble that provided light. The floor was covered with crystal-like tiles, and looking further into the cell, a sink with a vanished tap could be seen near the restrooms.

The cell rooms might have been smaller than those in other blocks, but they offered better living conditions and a more pleasant scent.

On the ground, the crystal-like tiles were covered with an ocean of blood from their residents, the correction officers posing as inmates to handle immediate threats before trouble escalated.

Now they had reunited with their ancestors in the next world, if there was one in Ablauf. A number of them had holes in their foreheads, while only a select few had been sliced into pieces while wearing their silver battle suits.

That said, no one could see their bodies thanks to the Vice Warden's ability to render anything he touched invisible.

Taking deep breaths, Rajah felt proud of the work he had done, and a boastful smile spread across his face. "Did you see that, Lady Encender?! I was awesome, right?! If you have any big sisters, you should tell them about me!"

'Big sisters...' The golden-eyed girl pondered Rajah's nonsense. 'I heard the eldest joined the air force, and the other became an adventurer. I am sure I'll run into them when we get out of this place.'

She didn't have time to waste, so she immediately started walking toward the elevator at the end of the X Block the moment she confirmed Rajah was doing well.

As she got closer to the entrance of the elevator, with the black-haired man next to her, she felt something hurtling toward her at inhuman speed.

Encender ducked down, gripping Rajah's collar in her right hand. The moment they touched the ground with a thud, lightning cracked overhead, charging to destroy the elevator.

Boom–!

An explosion echoed through the air, and Rajah didn't hesitate for a moment to shoot in the direction from which the smoke was rising.

However, the man of thunder was fast enough to catch all seven bullets that came from Rajah's rifle. The smoke cleared, and his navy uniform was the first thing the inmates saw.

"How in the heck did... he endure that?" Rajah muttered as he looked at the scar on the alien's left eye.

It wasn't an ordinary scar. It extended from his jawline to his forehead. Not only that, but it was four inches deep, meaning it reached part of his brain, leaving people to wonder how his eye remained intact.

"Tito Roux Z isn't with you two; such a pity," Raiden said with an emotionless face, dragging his legs toward the two.

Xenogenesis had ended the original Raiden's life, and just as Tito received the memories of his clone's death, he also inherited Raiden's memories.

All the fear he felt when he looked into Tito's emotionless golden eyes, which seemed to hate everything alive. The despair the original felt when his neck was sliced off—the clone even felt the pain.

'Can I defeat such a person?' Raiden's twin-clone pondered all the time since the original's death. He didn't know how Tito had become immune to lightning, which was something that scared him immensely.

'Even if I kill these two, I'm sure he won't even care. Those are the eyes of a snake—an actor who would kill the person he was laughing with just a second before.'

Shaking his head, he met Encender's cold gaze, but there was no need for a buffalo to be scared of a lion cub.

Not saying a word, he cracked his fingers and turned his whole body into red lightning. With a loud crack in the air, he threw a dashing side kick at the little Tohil.

However, Encender's senses screamed at her that danger was coming. Gripping her twin swords, she cut in the direction Raiden was approaching from, separating him into small chunks and evading the attack.

Rajah didn't see a thing; all he could do was blink a few times as he watched the Warden land a few feet away from them, wrinkles covering his forehead.

'She really is the daughter of the strongest swordsman. I can't believe she was able to see through my attack. We should have killed her before,' Raiden thought, but he knew better than anyone that this was no time for regret.

In the next second, he applied something he had copied from the woman he killed a few minutes earlier. He turned his whole body into lightning and began sprinting around the two inmates in a circle, creating a small lightning field.

With a grin on his face, he turned his entire right hand into an arrow and shot it at Rajah. The brown-eyed man was stabbed in the gut, and his whole body turned black as he could not withstand the electric current.

Not a single drop of blood fell to the ground; all his body could do was stay in the same position as it turned crispy.

Even so, the current Warden was unaware of Rajah's ability, as he let out an evil laugh that Encender shrugged off as immature.

Raiden recovered his arm amid his maniacal laughter and shot another lightning arrow at Encender. However, the golden-eyed girl was prepared; she used her sword to block the attack with a clang, sending it flying back at the caster.

Boom-!

Raiden was hit by his own attack, and he was sent crashing into one of the cells, breaking the sink as he fell to the ground.

Outside the X Block, a pair of yellow hands could be seen slowly twisting upward, as two heartbeats vibrated softly in the quiet space.