Returning to the Mysterious Era
Chapter 434 - Evil Mother

Chapter 434 - Evil Mother

The young man screamed as though he had suffered a mental collapse, pressing his back against the cold wall. He desperately ran toward the passage leading out of the hall.

At that moment, several guards stationed in the corridor heard the commotion and rushed in , colliding with the young man. The young man, panic written all over his face, stumbled and nearly dropped to his knees. Yet he quickly straightened, braced himself against the wall, and continued his mad dash out of the hall.

"What happened?" Three or four guards exchanged glances and decided to check the transformation pool first.

They only advanced a few dozen paces to enter the hall when they saw a dozen or so researchers in uniform shuffling away from the transformation pool toward them. Their faces were devoid of expression, and their eyes were as dull as puppets. Their limbs moved awkwardly, as though they had only just adapted to these bodies.

"This..." The four guards froze; even a fool could see something was wrong.

They quickly turned to run, intending to leave this eerie scene, but it was too late. The researchers, twisted by the black sludge, were becoming ever more adept in their new forms.

They charged madly at the guards in bizarre postures, especially the leader, whose neck and cheeks bore totems that flickered in and out of view. One could vaguely see a series of translucent threads stretched out behind his silhouette. These threads were as thin as a cicada's wings, faintly intertwined, and they formed what seemed to be an eyeball about half the size of a human head.

The eye remained shut until enough threads converged around it. Then, it suddenly opened, revealing a pupil. The four guards caught in its gaze stiffened as though shocked by electricity, their bodies taking on a strange translucent element, revealing their skeletons and organs.

They were quickly paralyzed in place. They were frozen in their sprinting postures, though their eyes darted about in panic, filled with despairing terror. Some shed tears as bloodshot lines crossed their eyes.

Footsteps drew nearer until a dozen mutated researchers surrounded the four guards, each wearing an eerie grin. Moments later, all that remained on the ground were four blood-soaked uniforms.

Having fully mastered their new bodies, these totem-mutated beings began slaughtering one another on the spot. Orderly, one-on-one battles ensued; the victors killed the losers, claiming their totems.

In a matter of moments, blood drenched the entire passageway and limbs were strewn across the floor. Only half of the mutants remained, each bearing two totems on their bodies. That meant they could now wield two abilities in a short span.

The corridor fell silent once again as the remaining mutants continued onward, eerily well-coordinated and disciplined.

Elsewhere, the young man fled upward, nearly exhausted. He felt as though a horde of monsters was pursuing him, raising every hair on his body. He had never felt such terror before. Though he had previously interacted with and even executed many mutated test subjects, nothing compared to the dread he currently felt. This experimental failure brought a fear beyond imagination.

In the blink of an eye, all his colleagues had turned into human-skin-wearing monsters, and he alone remained alive. The only survivor—the lucky one!

He gasped for breath, feeling as though his lungs could not keep up. Sweat covered his entire body, and his heart pounded violently.

"Cough, cough..." He clung to the grayish-white wall, hacking painfully as if his heart might burst out of his throat after such a frantic run.

He wiped the sweat from his face, finding it sticky and unpleasant, then took several deep breaths before continuing his dash to the upper levels.

On the level above the transformation pool, two patrol guards stood waiting in silence at a certain junction. They could faintly hear continuous rumbling from above, like a fight or perhaps running footsteps.

The commotion caused by the intruder was enormous. It seemed as though his sole aim was to tear down the lab itself.

Bang, bang, bang...

"It's awfully noisy up there."

"Zhu Hun went up to take care of it. Shouldn't be long now..."

The two exchanged words briefly when they heard footsteps from the ramp beside them. At the corner, a figure in a lab uniform emerged before their eyes. Both guards relaxed at first and began to avert their gaze, but one of them abruptly shrieked, pointing at the figure.

They saw a young man with distorted features staggering toward them. His nose had shifted sideways like an eel. Although his mouth seemed closed in a neutral expression, its corners reached nearly to his ears. The entire face was sloppily shaped like a hastily molded lump of clay.

"H-he... He's an escaped test subject?" In their astonishment, the two guards immediately drew their weapons.

However, the figure rushed at them even more frantically, muttering in a somewhat perplexed tone, "We're on the same side—why are you pointing blades at me..."

"Monster!"

"Die!"

Both guards lunged simultaneously, raising their long blades high.

Ten seconds later, the young man had consumed both guards, his form swelling into an even more grotesque and repulsive mass. His feet thumped heavily against the floor.

However, he was apparently unaware of this himself, and he mumbled the entire way, "Those two patrol guards were taken over, too... a widespread effect from a failed experiment? This is way too dangerous... I'm afraid most people in the underground lab have turned into monsters, leaving me the only human..."

The hideous expression on his face trembled with lingering fear. "Wait... how did I shake off those two guards just now? I can't quite remember..."

A minute passed. In the hall, Cassius fought four enemies at once as he finally grasped the essence of the Dominator Fist. Zhu Hun and the others were defeated. The rapier-wielding royal representative was severely injured, his will broken as he fled down into the deeper corridors of the test site. However, after a short run, he found a colossal and hideously misshapen creature blocking his path.

Cassius arrived in the spacious corridor, clutching the white-haired man under his left arm and gripping Zhu Hun in his right hand. He saw the rapier-wielder step back in tense, halting movements while facing a fleshy mound studded with human faces.

It resembled a crimson, wrinkled worm. A young man’s inverted face bulged near its head. The upside-down face kept muttering to itself.

"How could I be a monster? Look at me! Do I look like a monster? I'm human, a real human..."

"You're insane!!!" The rapier-wielding man cursed inwardly. Just like insane people never admitted they are insane, no monster would claim it looked like a monster.

"All monsters say they're human, but the truth is right here..." He said those words offhand, but suddenly felt a chill up his spine, as if a frigid gaze were piercing his body from behind. At that point, the rapier-wielder realized that while he had debated attacking this flesh heap, Zhu Hun and the white-haired man had already been devastated by Cassius.

After finishing them, Cassius came to hunt him down...

"I am human! I'm the only human survivor in this entire test site... Everyone else is a monster! Yes, every guard I encountered was monstrous, and you're a monster too!" The fleshy mound's layered hide wriggled in agitation, and the upside-down young man's face suddenly twisted toward Cassius.

"Right... and you..."

"Nonsense!"

Boom!

The mass of flesh blocking the entire corridor exploded. It took a fraction of a second for a colossal force to blow it completely apart!

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

A blurred figure punched relentlessly, forming a thin, translucent arc of pressure around his fists. It was as though timed explosives had been planted within the fleshy mass, causing it to burst into fragments. It seemed as simple as snapping a few dried twigs.

In truth, the totem aberration had not gone quietly. His totems had flared with power the instant Cassius's fist had made contact. Yet, it was futile in the face of absolute might. The totems were shattered instantly, along with the creature's defenses. The fleshy mass simply ruptured like an overloaded water pouch, scattering in all directions and dissolving into bloody gore.

Cassius stood impassively amid the crimson downpour. There was a looming menace about him, like a volcano on the verge of eruption; seemingly placid on the surface but seething with molten fury beneath.

Cassius pressed his right boot down on a contorted, agonized face, casting a cold glance at the rapier-wielder. Anyone who slandered him must die...

The rapier-wielder shivered. Cassius had attacked without warning, obliterating the monster before it could even finish speaking, as if the creature had accidentally poked at a sore spot. He was still reflecting on it when he suddenly met Cassius's deep blue eyes, and his heart plummeted as though dropped into an icy pit. His knees shook. Lifting his one intact hand, he struck himself on the neck, knocking himself unconscious.

He knew he could not defeat Cassius, and any chance of fleeing had vanished. So he surrendered, leaving Cassius the choice to kill or capture him. In any case, if he opened his eyes again, it meant he was still alive and of some use. If not, then at least he would depart painlessly.

Cassius stared at the unconscious rapier-wielder, surprised at his decisiveness. After thinking for a couple of seconds, Cassius tossed the already unconscious white-haired man on top of him and locked their acupoints with Qi.

Then, taking only the still-conscious Zhu Hun, Cassius headed deeper into the test site.

Tap, tap, tap... tap, tap, tap...

He sped through the gray-white corridor. There were bloodstains and torn garments at every corner. Clearly, the guards in the test site had been slaughtered.

Guided by Zhu Hun, Cassius reached the level containing the cells of dark creatures and the transformation pool. He rounded a corner slowly, finding the entire corridor shrouded in bloody mist and dismembered remains, as though a slaughter had taken place just moments ago. The stench was nauseating.

Cassius's expression did not shift as he walked straight into the hall. In an instant, he sensed that the calamity in the air was far heavier than anywhere else. He scanned his surroundings briefly, then advanced directly toward the transformation pool where he saw no one else in sight. Even the fluid in the transformation pool had vanished. Only a single tablet spun in midair.

There was a vortex of gray mist spanning half the pool around that tablet. It floating silently, emanating a deep sense of peril.

"What is going on here?" Cassius demanded of Zhu Hun.

Zhu Hun shook his head candidly. "Honestly, I have no idea! We've never had such a major malfunction before. That vortex leads somewhere mysteriously dangerous. I suggest you keep your distance to avoid the unknown threats that lie beyond."

Cassius judged his words and believed them to be genuine. It made sense Zhu Hun sincerely hoped that he would keep away from the vortex, given that Zhu Hun was currently slung over Cassius's shoulder. If anything especially dangerous happened, Zhu Hun would be the first one thrown in as cannon fodder.

After several seconds, Cassius moved away from the hazardous transformation pool. He was after the Gate Organization's data on their dark creature experiments, the research logs and records. Those materials were kept where the dark creatures were imprisoned.

The central corridor was on the same level near the cell block. A dark figure zipped by and then came to a halt. Cassius peered into an open room and found glass capsules the size of people. They were filled with a viscous, translucent fluid, and contained various bizarre organs and specimens.

Beyond that room, several chambers housed chilly mechanical apparatuses, surgical tables, and numerous dark creature skeletons piled alongside one another. Eventually, Cassius reached what appeared to be an archive room.

He was about to enter when he noticed that an iron door in a room not far off had been heavily damaged. He hurried over and stepped boldly through the doorway. On closer inspection, he saw two monsters locked in combat, and the outcome was already clear.

A gargoyle struggled helplessly, both wings torn away. Opposite it stood a humanoid creature nearly three meters tall. Its physique was balanced like that of a human woman, yet three pairs of dragonfly-like translucent wings protruded from its back, and it possessed multiple arms, each held in an odd pose.

When it attacked, each pose seemed to carry a bizarre power that was reminiscent of an evil mother. It radiated a dangerously strange allure. Its body was etched with interwoven black totems, emanating a primitive, savage aura.

When she suddenly sensed someone entering the room, she leaped down in an instant to rip the gargoyle to shreds and seize its totem imprint. Then she whirled around, crimson eyes locking onto Cassius.

And thus, she found herself face to face with another pair of fierce scarlet eyes.

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