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[ Wendy ]
“Damn it. “Why did something like this happen to me…”
Philip cursed softly and headed towards the 3rd Chimera storage unit.
The Labyrinth of Pandemonium.
This place was built like an anthill, and the roads were so complicated that even old members of the organization often got lost.
But Philip skillfully found his way.
He had an exceptionally good memory and keen eye. Once you’ve traveled a road, it’s almost impossible to forget it.
Philip had no idea that the great man had chosen him precisely because of those advantages.
-If I keep going like this, I’ll be found out that I lied. Would the organization forgive a traitor?
“Bogs ….”
Philip recalled the face of an adult who threatened him with a more evil expression than the devil.
A man who suddenly appears, knocks out all of his subordinates, and threatens himself to get through half of the labyrinth.
An assassin targeting the owner of Pandemonium.
Philip knew the man’s name.
“The landlord…”
The name and face of the landlord were known to all members of the Pandemonium headquarters.
The one who stole the Child of Fire, caused enormous damage to the organization, and killed several high-ranking executives so far.
‘You devil…’
It’s funny that a member of the Pandemonium organization, which worships Soul Eater as a demon god, is afraid of the devil, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be called angels either.
-You know better than me what happens to traitors, right?
The guy who makes such threats with a grin on his face.
Philip slowly took a deep breath as the entrance to the third Chimera Storage began to appear.
‘I like it now or I don’t like it, but I have no choice but to cooperate with him.’
As Daein said, Philip had already become a traitor and it was only a matter of time before the organization found out about it.
Pandemonium does not kill traitors.
They conduct all kinds of experiments on humans to turn them into chimeras, and if they fail, they are discarded. If they succeed, they continue to experiment until they fail.
And if they are ‘lucky’ and reach a certain level, they are subject to special management and undergo repeated observation, experimentation and modification.
It is better to commit suicide.
…But Philip didn’t want to die.
“stop!”
The steel door shutter opens and a man with sharp eyes reveals his face. The man who recognized Philip asked in a curious voice.
“Philip?”
“theory. how have you been doing? It’s not that big of a deal, but there are some products that I recently brought in that need to be returned…”
It wasn’t difficult to get through the door.
Philip was in charge of human trafficking and product management, so he was familiar with the gatekeepers who guarded the warehouse. And he was good at managing his network.
Kugugugugung…!
The door opened with a heavy sound.
It was a door that was difficult to break down even with an Auror Blade, but Philip easily passed through the doorway with just a few words.
But this is just the beginning.
“Let’s have a drink next time we have time.” “I know a cool place?”
“Hehehe. It’s good.”
Philip left the grinning gatekeeper behind and headed inside the storage room.
‘It looks like the rumor about me hasn’t spread this far.’
Not even ten minutes had passed since he, unable to withstand Daein’s threats, broke through the labyrinth half-heartedly.
Organization members who sensed something strange may have reported it to the top, but since this is not the priority in the reporting system, it will take some time for the rumor to spread to this point.
In other words, you never know when you might get caught.
‘That bastard. I’m going to kill you…’
Philip calmed his nervousness by cursing the great man in his mind and naturally walked faster.
“Philip? “What’s going on here?”
“haha. “I have one to return.”
Whenever Philip met familiar faces, he greeted them cheerfully as usual. The members of the organization who were inspecting the ‘product’ saw Philip and pretended to be happy to know him.
Behind them, children were locked in specially constructed cages, staring dead into space.
“…….”
“…….”
There was no child here who cried out in pain due to human experimentation.
Something like that is still unfinished or a failure.
Everything here is of high quality.
Only successful test subjects from laboratories scattered around the world gather here and are reborn as ‘products’ through final development and research.
There are many more places than you might think where children who have been reborn as high-quality chimeras are used.
A powerful combat weapon that will never betray, brainwashed from a young age.
Plus, she’s young and pretty.
War Escort Many dirty jobs.
Or just a hobby.
Products are sold to numerous powerful people around the world. Pandemonium was trading with them and growing its influence throughout the continent.
Philip’s job is to bring in those products, find suitable buyers, and sell them.
‘I thought that if I continued to stick with this organization, I would one day secure a spot…’
It was when Daein appeared that the organization began to squeak.
As a result of Daein’s terrorist attack, numerous products and members died, and the organization had no choice but to move its headquarters.
After that, the organization suddenly infiltrated executives into the Earth, where the dimension was connected, and concentrated most of its power there.
The only news I heard after that was not very good.
Many of the executives and elite members of the organization had died, and the organization’s power was gradually weakening.
‘wait for a sec. Maybe this… could be an opportunity.’
Philip’s eyes shone coldly as he entered the storage room.
‘There is no more hope in this organization anyway.’
The existence of the Dimensional Allied Forces was already famous.
They are an alliance fighting the demon world, and several countries on the Gaia continent have already joined the alliance.
And Pandemonium secretly formed an alliance with the Demon World.
However, looking at this situation, the secret alliance has been discovered long ago and a large-scale attack will soon begin.
‘If it’s going to end anyway…’
Philip’s faith wasn’t that shallow, but if his life depended on it, he was willing to throw away his faith.
There are hidden labs and scattered assets scattered throughout the organization. Philip knew some of them.
‘If only I had a little part of it…’
I would gain money and power that are hard to imagine.
gulp.
Philip swallowed his saliva without realizing it. The more I think about it, the more I see this as both a crisis and an opportunity.
‘good. Let’s think of a way.’
After a while, he arrived at the deepest part of the Third Chimera Vault.
Ssaaaa….
That place was separate from the inside of the storage room. It was blocked by a door thicker than the entrance, and terrible cold air flowed through the cracks in the door.
In front of the door, there were people wearing thick winter clothes guarding the door.
‘There’s an ice witch in there.’
Philip observed from afar rather than getting closer.
He was one of the middle managers responsible for human trafficking and product sales, but he was not an executive.
Some ‘special products’, including the Ice Witch, were subject to direct management by executives, and Philip only knew the Ice Witch’s face.
‘The force guarding the door is one executive, but twenty gang members have undergone chimera surgery…’
From here, even personal connections don’t work.
Head-on breakthrough?
If I had that ability, I would have become an executive a long time ago.
Philip looked at the security forces in front of the door with an anxious expression.
‘shit. If things continue like this, there will be no porridge or rice…’
Fortunately, Daein came to his aid just in time.
Kugugugugung…!
The entire labyrinth began to vibrate.
The gang members with stiff expressions were wary of their surroundings, and the executive muttered and seemed to have connected with someone using communication magic.
“what? “What nonsense!”
‘Something happened.’
Phillip didn’t know that Daein was rushing to the Soul Eater, destroying the entire labyrinth, but he knew that he was doing something.
And after a while,
“You guard this place.”
Ten executives and gang members guarding the door disappeared in a ray of light.
Half of the people remaining.
I could feel that they were also taken aback by the sudden situation.
‘It’s an opportunity.’
Philip tore up the magic scroll that Daein had given him.
Wow.
The scroll was torn apart and Philip’s figure blended into the surrounding scenery.
Slurp….
A magic scroll that stores the great trait [stealth].
Philip, who completely hid his presence, approached the gang members.
The remaining numbers are ten.
Each member of the organization has undergone chimera treatment and has strong vitality and considerable fighting power.
Power that can easily take out at least one knight corps.
So Philip gave his all from the beginning.
Sigh!
Two gang members on the left collapsed with blood gushing from their necks.
“enemy…!”
A dagger was dug into the mouth of a Chimera member who noticed the surprise attack.
Phew!
Philip, who had taken care of the three in an instant, was embarrassed and swung his sword with all his might at the disorganized members.
‘Kill me before I call for backup!’
An aura formed on the tip of his sword.
Philip was not an executive of the organization, but was a middle manager responsible for distributing and selling products.
In other words, he was never a weak person.
It’s just that Daein, who defeated him in an instant, was as strong as a monster.
After a while,
“Whoa…”
After defeating the last Chimera member, Philip slowly exhaled.
Kugugugugung…!
The labyrinth was vibrating more and more violently.
The entire organization was taken aback by the sudden situation, and no one came inside the storage room directly guarded by the executives.
Philip searched the chest of one of the gang members and found the key.
Squeak…
When he opened the door, the bitter cold hit him. Philip took a coat from the corpse, put it on, and walked inside.
“…….”
The inside was entirely made of ice.
A strangely shaped magic circle was drawn on the floor, and a skinny girl was floating in the air with her body about a meter above the center.
“Ice Witch…”
Blue hair, almost white.
A body so thin that you can see the veins, white lips, and tightly closed eyes.
It was Philip’s first time seeing the Ice Witch so close.
Blah blah blah-!
The cold swirling around the girl was enough to freeze even a flame at once. Philip raised his entire body’s magical power and attacked the girl in one go.
When the girl was taken out of the magic circle, the magic circle stopped working.
“Ugh…”
Philip turned his mana around his half-stiffened body. Little by little, warmth returned to my frozen body.
“Such crazy cold…”
The girl lying on the floor was still asleep with her eyes closed.
Phillip trembled and put the necklace the Great Man had given him around the Ice Witch’s neck.
– Sweet.
The seams of the necklace came together and a subtle mana began to flow from the necklace itself.
The coldness flowing from my body seemed to have diminished slightly.
“hey.”
“…….”
“Hey. “Can’t you hear me?”
The girl with a blank expression had no answer. Philip frowned and slapped the girl on the cheek to check.
match!
The girl’s head jerked to the side. But there was still no reaction, like an inanimate object.
“I guess the rumor is true.”
“…….”
Philip heard rumors about the Ice Witch and knew about it.
Pandemonium’s most successful work.
A product that was evaluated as having higher potential than the Fire Witch.
But for some reason, the ice witch spent most of the day sleeping.
And it was getting drier.
It’s as if he knew that an active form of suicide was impossible and decided to die slowly and wither away.
‘They said that the limit is to stay awake for one or two hours a day even if you force yourself to wake up.’
That’s why Ice Witch is Pandemonium’s most successful work and failure at the same time.
But the lessor won’t know that.
‘If I use this information, I can make a deal with him.’
Philip’s eyes lit up.
They said he was a devil or something, but it was well known that the landlord was basically a ‘good human being’.
A person who is merciless only towards villains like himself, but is infinitely merciful towards weak and pitiful humans.
Philip planned to take advantage of it.
‘You idiot.’
At the point where the landlord asked to save the ice witch, it was as if he had revealed one of his own weaknesses.
If you don’t need the Ice Witch, there’s no reason to ask for it.
Philip carried the girl around him and ran out of there.
The scroll’s [Stealth] effect also applied to the girl, so the two were able to quietly escape from the storage room.
Philip was a middle manager in charge of human trafficking and product management and distribution.
Naturally, he knew many means and methods to control products.
Things like restraints that cause terrible pain, drugs that paralyze reason, and threats of torture that make you feel extreme fear.
Brainwashing a child is nothing.
“Let’s go to a quiet place first. “When you come to your senses, I will educate you from then on.”
Philip planned to thoroughly brainwash the Ice Witch before she met Daein.
So that the girl believes that she is her benefactor and the only person she can rely on in the world.
‘Then the landlord won’t be able to treat me carelessly. From then on, I used the ice witch…’
There was no sympathy.
After all, a product is a tool, not a human, and he has done similar work countless times.
Philip Morris was a monster who did not know that he was a monster.
“We don’t know when that guy will come back, so we need to find a safe place quickly…”
And the girl he kidnapped was the worst monster such monsters could ever create.
-Jeokjeok.
Philip had no choice but to stop. The soles of my feet were stuck to the ground.
Philip turned his head with a pale expression.
The ice witch was looking down at him with a cold gaze.
“Uh, when did I wake up…”
“Since you came into my room.”
Tuk.
Wendy got down on the floor and looked up at Philip. Cold sweat ran down Philip’s forehead and then froze.
“Now wait a minute! “I’m trying to save you…”
“I never asked you to save me.”
Damn it!
Philip’s body froze from below.
It was an instant. Philip screamed in horror as he looked down at his body, which had turned into ice up to his chest.
“Save me! “I will do anything…”
“Then die.”
After the girl’s cold words, Philip turned into a perfect ice statue.
“…….”
The girl looks around with empty eyes.
It’s a different place than usual.
There were no people watching, and a person he had never seen before was running away, carrying him around.
‘kidnap?’
Was this a place where something like that was possible?
No, it’s impossible.
If that were the case, he would have escaped a long time ago.
If he shows even the slightest sign of running away, numerous Pandemonium executives and Chimera members come to stop him.
This is something I have already experienced many times.
And Soul Eater.
There was no way that monster would leave him alone.
“But why…”
When the girl looked around with an expression of incomprehension
-grrrrrrrrr!
An explosion was heard from afar along with a massive tremor.
It was a phenomenon that had never been felt since the girl was moved here.
“battle…?”
It was clear something had happened. Either someone attacked this place or there was internal strife. As the battle unfolded, the entire Pandemonium fell into chaos.
A certain emotion fills the girl’s previously empty eyes.
hope.
‘Maybe I can run away…’
Until now, the girl was hoping to die.
I wanted to die rather than live as a monster.
But Pandemonium would not tolerate it. The only resistance the girl could offer was to suppress her strength and fall asleep for a long time.
But it’s different now.
The girl has escaped from the prison where she was imprisoned, and there are no people watching around her.
The girl started running recklessly.
“Huh, huh…”
As I moved my body, which I rarely used, I quickly became out of breath. But the girl didn’t stop walking.
There were two people that came to mind at this moment.
“Dad…”
I can’t even remember his face anymore, but I can see the warm image of my dad hugging me tightly and
“Lily…!”
The only friends who met in that hellish cave and supported each other by relying on each other.
Wendy’s heart pounded as she remembered those two people.
Until I heard Soul Eater’s voice in my head.
[Come to me.]
“I hate poetry…”
Wendy shook her head desperately. At that moment, a soft light flowed from the necklace the girl was wearing, protecting her spirit.
But the power of the voice was powerful.
[Come to me.]
“Ahh! no! no! “I don’t like it!”
Wendy covered her ears and desperately resisted.
But the more it did, the more persistently the voice called out to the girl.
[Come to me!]
Shake it off.
Wendy sat down, and after a while, the girl stood up again and looked into space with empty eyes.
“…….”
After a while, the girl’s body was engulfed in light and disappeared somewhere.
And now.
[Can you hear me?]
Wendy couldn’t do anything other than blink her eyes rapidly as she heard the man’s voice in her head.
But for Daein, that was enough.
[Okay. Listen carefully to what I say from now on.]
[Wendy] End
ⓒ Ganjjajang