There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 308 - 300. A Loud Storm

Chapter 308: Chapter 300. A Loud Storm

The moment the camera was turned off, Lex could see Bassena’s face turned sour. He knew his boss had been annoyed with this job because he didn’t want to be away from his sick boyfriend, so he couldn’t scold the esper for not maintaining his public image.

Not that he had a good one in the first place.

This time, though, Bassena looked even worse. He immediately got away from the set, refusing anyone trying to talk to him, and just went straight to the dressing room.

"I don’t feel good," Bassena frowned on the way to the dressing room.

"Are you sick? Did you get it from Zein?"

"No, I just have an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach," he stopped walking, and, instead of the dressing room, he turned toward the exit. "Let’s just get back quickly."

He opened his commlink to call Zein and told the guide he’d be back soon, but instead, his screen flashed with a message from Radia.

[Come directly to the guild]

Radia had always been someone who said less through text, because he was too busy to type long stuff. If he had to convey a lot, he would rather do it through a call, or directly face to face. So Bassena thought Radia had something to talk about regarding the project, and didn’t think much about it.

At least, until Zein’s commlink kept going through voicemail after the fifth time. That didn’t sit right with the uncomfortable feeling in his gut. After the fifth unanswered call, he tried his nanny’s link, and it still went unanswered. Lex could feel his boss’s anxiety go through the roof, and tried to go as fast as the air traffic permitted. It was like a deja vu when Bassena jumped off the helicopter before Lex even landed, making platforms in the air with his darkness.

By the time Bassena burst into the Guildmaster’s office, he caught Radia looking into several screens altogether, with a serious look on his face. Still, the summoner addressed him calmly. "Break it down next time, will you?"

"What happened? Why can’t I connect to Zein’s..." Bassena stopped, his eyes landed on the pure black commlink in front of Radia’s desk. "Why is...his commlink here?"

It was then that Bassena realized Radia had called out all of his high-rank summons--all eight of them, standing around the room in a perfect interval to subdue him. It was twice the number he used to subdue Bassena when Zein was going to the Temple.

"Radia..."

"Bas, I’m going to need you to calm down," Radia said as he stood up from his seat and walked toward Bassena. He still maintained a safe distance from the other esper, however, because Bassena already looked like he would explode anytime.

But how couldn’t he, when Radia even had to take a deep breath before spelling it?

"Someone abducts Zein from your apartment."

Was it because he had already expected something bad to happen, or because it was worse than he had predicted? Because instead of flaring up, Bassena looked like his life was flashing in front of him. He did not blow up like before, too shocked to do anything but looked blankly at the other esper.

His lips parted, but nothing was coming out, not even a wisp of breath. He had expected something along Zein’s condition suddenly worsening, but...this? What kind of...what is this?

"When?" he managed to speak after a few minutes of trying to hold onto his last strand of sanity. "When did this all happen?"

"While you were doing your live show."

And just like that, that last strand was snapped. "How could you," as the wisp of darkness came out of the esper, all eight summoned phantoms moved; two shielding Radia and three already readying their restraining spells. "How could you hide this from me for hours?!"

"Because I don’t believe you can stay level-headed enough to wait for our search."

"Wait..." Bassena gritted his teeth, lips quivering in anger. "You...expect me...to wait?" he clenched his fists, and the wisp of darkness solidified into barbed whips. "While my lover is out there getting abducted?!"

Lex, the unlucky assistant, opened the door at the same moment those barbed whips of darkness struck the barrier in front of the Guildmaster. Dazedly, he looked back and forth between the high-rank espers, contemplating whether he should stay or book it.

But while Lex was getting anxious, Radia didn’t seem to be fazed, just looking at the younger esper with an unchanging calm gaze. And with that gaze, he replied dryly. "And even if you come back earlier, I’d still going to tell you to wait."

"You fucker!" it wasn’t just whips anymore; the darkness had been turned into dozens of flying stakes. "I had been tolerating you so much all this time, but--fuck!"

Bassena gritted his teeth as triple-restraining spells bound him in place and two phantoms snapped a mana-sealing bracelet on his wrists. He watched his children of darkness flicker and vanish before letting out a low, mocking laugh.

"Hah! What can I expect from you, you cold-hearted bastard!" he spat harshly as the phantoms retracted the barrier protecting Radia. "Just because you know nothing about losing someone you love, doesn’t mean you can--"

SLAP!

It wasn’t just Lex and Bassena that was surprised by the slap. Even the summoned knights looked at their Master in shock. It was because Radia had always been calm and collected through everything, even if he was distressed inside. He had never used his hand to make his point, because he had other people’s hands to be used.

But now, even the summoned creatures could feel the high fluctuation of their Master’s emotion, so there was no way they wouldn’t get surprised.

"Shut your mouth Bassena Vaski," the voice that came out was still uttered in a calm tone, but there was a clear pain behind each word. "I don’t even know where the man I love is right now!"

The amber eyes widened and flickered in shock. A man...Radia loved? A figure was flickering inside Bassena’s mind, but before he could bring himself to think about that, Radia already grabbed his shirt.

"I haven’t even heard anything from him for more than a month! Don’t you dare say anything about not knowing how it feels!"

"What..."

For all the years he knew Radia, he had never seen the summoner wearing that expression except once; when Han Joon decided to leave for the military.

When Han Joon...decided to leave...

Just as comprehension filled the amber eyes for the first time, Radia took a deep breath and turned around. "Haa...we don’t have time for this," he returned to his desk and flipped the screen around. "Jock, have you found the place?"

[Yes, Sir] the familiar heavy voice came from one of the screens. [There’s a van with the same delivery brand. We’re hoping it’s the correct place this time]

"This time?" Bassena tilted his head.

"Sush," Radia raised his hand to shut the now calmer esper.

It wasn’t easy to recognize they were using a delivery van to transport Zein in the first place, not to mention following the said van which was so good at dodging the street’s recording. It was a common delivery van for a common company, so they had to follow every van out there, and check what kind of ’package’ they were sending to their destination.

That was the best they could do on that short notice, aside from flagging every exit point in Althrea with Zein’s ID and the said company’s van--and making sure everything was kept under the radar.

So yeah, it wasn’t something that could be found in one try, Bassena.

"Do you sense any movement?" Radia asked again.

[Is that Bas?] They could hear Han Shin’s voice from the screen, although all they could see was the image of a plain office building with a detached warehouse surrounded by a tall wall.

The screen captured the van in question parked in front of the building, and some agents checking said van. As the camera panned toward the closed door, they finally hear Jock’s voice again. [Not yet, it’s particularly quiet from the outside. We’re coming in now]

Radia signaled for his summons to let go of Bassena so the esper could come forward and look into the screen together. The two summoned knights--one of them was Nyx--beside him were still there though, looking at Bassena cautiously.

They watched the screen together, as the crew walked through the typical office hallway. It was so quiet that they could even hear the sound of a ticking clock since the rest of them wore rubber soles. There were some chairs that seemed to be provided to guards, but there were no guards in sight, and they saw no one even after they climbed up to the second floor.

It was suspicious, but their worries lay in the possibility that they had already moved Zein at this point. But there was no sign of a car leaving through the gate after the delivery van, so they still held on to hope.

Until they reached the third floor.

[What the hell...?]

* * *

The moment they stepped onto the third floor, they could smell it; the metallic scent of blood.

And then, for those with heightened sight, they could see three figures lying down at the end of the hallway. There was no blood in those figures, as they had just fallen unconscious from concussion after getting smashed head-on against the wall and sucker-punched in the face.

The hallway was turning into another short corridor, where they found another unconscious one-star esper. At the end of a four-meter hallway was a room with a slightly opened door.

And the scent of blood was coming from that room.

Jock told Han Shin to stand back, and Rina, who also came with them, took the vanguard this time. She opened the door wider and paused, blinking at the scenery.

"What...is this?"

As Jock came forward to capture the room, he too, had to pause and hold his breath.

In front of them were six bloody figures--bodies, who knew. They knew at least one of them was dead from the widely sliced throat that was no longer churning out blood, everything already pooling beneath the lifeless body.

The ones closest to the door were two two-star espers, each with bullet wounds to their limbs, but not in lethal places. Just as the three outside, they were unconscious due to blunt force trauma to their head. A gun with bloody print on the grip was lying empty not far from an esper with crushed arms and sliced wounds all over, while another one with similar condition had fallen unconscious while trying to crawl out of the room. Too bad that he had a dagger nailing his leg to the floor even now.

But the last two espers had the worst condition. One of them was the one with the sliced throat and stab wounds on his heart and gut, while another one had their limbs sliced open until their bone could be seen; barely hanging on his life. On these two people, there was something in common; their exposed genitals were cut, leaving a gory image that even Jock couldn’t help but grimaced upon, as he quickly panned the camera to somewhere else.

Because there was something else they still needed to do.

Han Shin, who came inside and had to cover his mouth as he looked around, voiced the question they were all having while looking at those bloody figures.

"What--where is Zein?"

Because Zein wasn’t there.

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