My Trash Talent Is Actually OP!
Chapter 49 - 49: Highgate Asylum For The Condemned [2]

The entrance of the Asylum was about a five minutes' walk from the gate, given the speed they moved.

But walking to the entrance was risky, and the only route into the building was an underground tunnel that Sinnett said led into the engine room, which was luckily where Zero was kept.

It would be easier—he and Asher could phase through the walls to get in—and faster, but then, as secure as the place was...

There were infrared cameras, lasers that detected movement, and tiles that, if pressure was applied, would generate energy and alert the soldiers.

Sinnett flipped the lid on the tunnel open and jumped in. Asher asked Nova to go ahead, and he would follow.

Once she was in, he climbed in as well and pulled the lid back over the tunnel. Surprisingly, the tunnels were clean, with passages for water that were also clean, and routes that led to who knew where.

Sinnett, however, led the way to where the engine room was located.

His pace was fast but measured, his translucent form flickering occasionally as he checked corners and possible surveillance points with practiced caution.

Nova stayed behind him, with her head low, while Asher walked casually behind them, his eyes constantly scanning the path behind them.

The deeper they went, the warmer the air became, and soon, the low hum of machinery began to echo through the narrow tunnels.

After about five minutes of walking through dim corridors and stepping over pressure-sensitive tiles that Sinnett marked with chalk, they arrived at a small, rusted steel door.

A faded sign above read: Engine Core: Authorized Personnel Only.

Sinnett glanced over his shoulder, nodded once, and phased halfway through the door to peek inside.

"It's clear," he whispered, reappearing completely and reaching for the manual lock. With a click, the door creaked open.

Inside, the room was lit by soft orange emergency lights and the flickering glow of large power coils.

Thick cables ran across the floor like mechanical veins, feeding the core that powered much of the facility. The space was empty, no guards, no drones.

Which was very suspicious for a place that had so much security. Or maybe they relied more on the detectors than doing it themselves.

In a sealed glass compartment at the far end of the room was a containment cell. Inside it, Zero was suspended by a metal brace connected to her spine.

Nova took a step forward, her brows furrowing. "That's her…" her voice broke; she could see how weak she was, even without seeing her eyes.

Asher followed slowly, staring through the glass.

Zero's body seemed lifeless, her arms loosely restrained, head bowed forward. One half of her face was pale, but the other half was horrifying.

Thick, pulsing purple veins ran from her temple down to her cheek, curling around her jaw and neck like roots.

Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was slow—if she was actually even breathing at all.

"What did they do to her…?" Nova whispered as she placed a hand against the glass.

"She's still alive," Asher murmured, moving over to a corner that was closer to Nova. "But that poison…"

"It's not spreading anymore," Sinnett noted, his voice unusually serious. "But it's dormant. Like it's waiting for something,maybe a catalyst to make it worse."

Suddenly, a sharp clicking sound echoed from within the room. Asher's head snapped up. One of the cables twitched, no, not a cable.

A mechanical arm retracted silently from the wall behind her, its needle-like end extracting something from her arm before disappearing into a hidden panel.

Nova took a step back instinctively, her eyes narrowing. "They're monitoring her… even in stasis."

Asher moved to the control panel beside the glass cell. The screen flickered to life, and lines of encrypted data scrolled rapidly.

He didn't need to understand all of it to know this wasn't just a containment room, it was a lab.

"They're experimenting on her," he muttered.

Sinnett frowned. "The tech here is military-grade… but some of it looks... foreign."

Asher's hand hovered over the control screen. "If I shut this down now, I might be able to wake her up. But if she's unstable…"

"We don't even know the amount of cinder they put in her," Nova warned. "Look at her face. It was red last time you showed me....now it's purple."

Sinnett stepped closer to the glass, tilting his head. "She's resisting it. Whatever this is… she hasn't given in."

That made Asher pause.

He stared at Zero. Her breathing was weak, he could sense that. Her expression was calm, which wasn't a shocker. He didn't know how long she had left, but they were running out of time.

Then suddenly, she raised her head, causing the trio to step back cautiously. When her blurred vision cleared enough, the first thing she did was smile.

"I thought you guys wouldn't make it," she mumbled, slowly adjusting her posture to sit up straight. "How long was I out?"

"We... don't know," Asher said as he stepped forward. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she replied, chuckling softly. Without hesitation, she slid her hands out of the restraints, broke the brace connected to her spine, and yawned while stretching her sore limbs.

"Break the glass or flip the switch. I need to get this poison out of me."

Asher only nodded, somehow dumbfounded by how strong she was despite how she looked. Or maybe she was just hiding it, he couldn't tell.

What he was certain about was that she was insane to have left the restraints on her even when she could have taken them off.

He even assumed she could have broken out of the asylum on her own.

Before he could reach for the override switch, another sound came from behind him, the sound of a metal door bolting shut.

They all turned, weapons drawn and ready to fight.

Then a slow clap… the kind that said both "You got me, Yes, I did it" and "Well done" echoed in the chamber, followed by footsteps that were too calm for the tension in the room.

"Well, well... So the prodigal Dragon and the Bloodline's last survivor return," said a voice smooth with amusement, but cold as steel. "And they came as friends."

From the shadows near the entrance, a tall figure stepped into the light, dressed in black, with eyes that gleamed like polished violet pearls.

"I was beginning to think you'd never come."