There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 309 - 301. A Red Sunset

Chapter 309: Chapter 301. A Red Sunset

Just as they were wondering where Zein was, one of the agents called out to Jock. "Sir, I managed to get the building’s CCTV recording," the man said while turning around the screen on top of the office desk so the others could see it. "I’ll play it from the moment they come inside the building."

Jock, as well as Han Shin and Rina immediately crowd around the desk, didn’t care even if they stepped on some of the unconscious bodies on their way. The screen in front of them showed the scenery of the gate, just as a delivery van came and parked in front of the building. They watched as two people alighted from the front doors, and Jock pointed at a person in a hooded cloak.

"That person, the one in the cloak," even through the recording, he knew it was the person who managed to breach the apartment’s security. "Track him."

"Yes, Sir!" another agent answered while making a quick screenshot of the cloaked person, who immediately went out of the gate while the others went inside with Zein slung over one of the perpetrators’ shoulder.

Han Shin watched the image--now shifting toward the inside of the building--while biting his nail, staring infuriatingly at Zein’s condition. He was sick! He was sick and they took him in just a plain sweater and sweatpants!

"Gods--he’s not with his mask!" the healer gritted his teeth. He knew how much Zein’s mask mattered to the guide; to be without it in front of strangers who had bad intentions toward him...

"Is there any audio?" Jock asked the operating agent, who immediately tried to fiddle with some options, but eventually shook his head.

"No, Sir."

They sighed and continued to watch as those people brought Zein inside the office where they were now, and threw the guide harshly into the couch--which made Han Shin slammed his fist on the table and glared at the unconscious, bloody people on the ground.

The audacity of these people!

"Why are they crowding over him like that?" he looked back at the screen, and saw the three kidnappers standing around the couch; talking, sneering. At one point, one of them kept on touching the guide’s face, who was clearly tensed but couldn’t do anything with bound arms. When the now dead esper, who was initially sitting on the desk, started to move toward the couch, Han Shin stepped back and shook his head. "I don’t feel good about this, I can’t--oh, God!"

Han Shin remembered he used to watch those crime and investigation shows on the television when he was bored. He remembered feeling flabbergasted and confused at how people could be so evil when there were dungeons and monsters outside. He was perplexed at how those people hurt other humans.

He remembered that feeling, but now, when he saw it happening to someone he knew, someone he held dear--it was no longer confusion or questions. It was just pain. And it was like his body wanted to shut down; he didn’t want to see it, his mind wanted to run away from it. Responding to that impulse, Han Shin reflexively closed his eyes and turned around--

Only to bump into a solid chest.

When he opened his eyes in surprise, he saw a familiar three-piece suit, the same one he saw Bassena wore to his talk show. Dreadfully, he looked up, at the amber eyes staring into the screen playing out an abominable act.

"B-Bas..."

Immediately, things were clattering as they tried to shield the screen from the amber eyes.

"C-Commander, this is--"

"Sir--"

But no matter who they were, they couldn’t hold their power against the quiet fury shoving them out of the way, out of the path of the amber eyes.

Have you ever seen someone whose world was crashing down? Have you ever seen someone getting paralyzed from so much fury and sorrow? Have you seen someone’s eyes slowly lose their light as if their life was being vanquished?

They couldn’t even hear Bassena letting out a breath, as the scene of his beloved being defiled was playing in front of his eyes. The esper was such in a great shock that he couldn’t even muster his darkness as usual.

"Bas..."

Han Shin tried to grab into Bassena’s sleeve, but before he managed to do so, the esper abruptly looked up, staring hard at the ceiling, and disappeared in a wisp of darkness.

"Is Zein..."

Han Shin was about to move out, but he paused before his legs could swing. He took a deep breath and looked at Rina, who gave a nod of approval for his reservation, and held his hand for comfort. Comfort for him, and comfort for her too.

"I...I’ll just skip this part," the agent quickly fast-forwarded the recording, trying to avert his gaze from the screen as much as possible while doing so. "Oh..."

Han Shin and Rina shifted their gaze back toward the screen--now that they decided to give Bassena time to find his missing guide first--right when Zein suddenly raised his upper body, broke his binding, and snatched a dagger off one of the espers, before using it to slash the neck of the esper still inside him. All in two seconds. In the next second, he plunged the dagger into the esper’s heart, lung, and stomach.

Four seconds. Four seconds before the strongest esper in the room gurgled on his own blood and stumbling back, falling to his last breath with his genitals in the open. The one mercilessly getting sliced later.

"What even..."

That was probably what those other espers thought too at that moment, as Zein wobbled forward, crashing into the desk. It was clear to them that four seconds of vicious attack was taking almost every ounce of Zein’s energy--which shouldn’t be high in the first place.

Almost.

Because in the next moment, Zein grabbed the blade leaning against the chair and turned around to face the three espers that had regained their senses. The spectators had no idea what kind of words were exchanged during that time due to the lack of audio, but their eyes were drawn to the light blue glow coming out of the guide’s nape. During the next sequence of actions, the source of the glow was getting clearer for them.

"The mark of Setnath," Han Shin muttered under his breath.

And yes, it was the mark of Setnath. It was the only way for Zein to get out of the whole situation; to regain magic power and tap on the inherent ability that belonged to the Arms Master. He had a choice of waiting for rescue whilst getting ravaged by four people--and maybe more, or letting the strongest one enjoy him so he could absorb the esper’s miasma and turn it into mana.

For Zein, the option had always been to fight, even if he had to give up first.

But in this way, he reasoned, he only needed to do it once; just enough for him to snap the cable ties off, snatch the dagger, and kill the four-star esper. Kill. It was his only choice if he wanted to survive in front of a high-rank esper.

It wasn’t his first, but it still made his ears ring. He had no idea what those espers were shouting at him, he just knew he should incapacitate them right away. So he just started to move, following the instinct coming out of the power he had drawn, and slashed his opponent. He slashed, grabbed them to absorb more miasma and turned it into mana, slashing again, and kept repeating that until the room was reeking of blood.

And yet it wasn’t the end. Just as he managed to pick up his pants and wear them, the guards from the first floor finally arrived, and Zein was too tired to use anything but the handgun that belonged to the driver to shoot the guards’ limbs. But as expected, espers couldn’t be beaten with just a normal gun, so he punched their face too until they fell unconscious.

Once he was done, he stepped out of the room, and all the spectators could see was a room with one dead esper and six unconscious ones.

"Oh my God, Zein..."

* * *

The sky was darkening, and Zein slowly realized the passage of time. So it had been that long. He must have passed out for a bit after he reached the rooftop and took a seat on the only ’bench’ available there. And by a bench, he meant a pile of crates.

He blinked, feeling like he heard some commotion downstairs. It could be his friends, it could be his enemy. Who knew, Zein was too tired to try finding out. He would rather be here, staring at the disappearing sun.

Dazedly, Zein realized there was something in his hand. A pack of cigarettes he took from the office desk. Curiously, he took one and put it in his mouth, lighting it up just to cough in the next second. "Ah, this is nothing like the golden needle," he grumbled, throwing the cigarette to the ground. "Why are they even smoking something like this?"

"Zein..."

Blinking in a momentary surprise, Zein glanced toward the rooftop door. He was so busy coughing and grumbling that he didn’t even realize someone was there. Someone he had been waiting for. Someone he had been dreaded to meet with.

For a second, Zein was filled with a vortex of emotions. Guilt, shame, relief. He leaned back against the pile of crates and let out a wisp of retrained breath. "Ah, you’re here."

And then he stopped. His heart, his mind, even his lips were too damn tired. He looked down, at the drying blood on his hands and clothes, and realized his arms were still trembling. He clenched them, leaning back and closing his eyes.

He looked so weak, so vulnerable, and yet so tough. Bassena, on the other hand, felt like he had no strength left in his body. To see the man he loved in such a state, while he was far away talking to a camera...he was beyond devastated that he couldn’t even walk properly toward the guide; wobbling, stumbling, choking on his tears.

"You know I have to do this, right?" slowly, as the blue eyes opened, Zein spoke dryly. "There’s no other way for me to get power otherwise."

Bassena didn’t know. He couldn’t think of anything. All he knew was that his guide was hurting, and he was incapable of stopping it, of preventing it from happening in the first place.

"And I want to crush them with my own hands, so..." Zein clenched his fist again, looking at the reddening sky. "You’ll forgive me, right?"

Stumbling to reach his guide, Bassena shook his head. What forgiveness? Why was Zein apologizing when he did nothing wrong? No--Bassena shook his head, scrapping his knees as he hugged the bloody waist, burying his face on the guide’s thigh. "I’m sorry..." Bassena choked out a shaking apology. He was the one in the wrong. He was the one who left Zein alone. "I’m sorry..."

"Idiot," Zein sighed as he watched a flock of birds flying across the sky, caressing the trembling head on his lap. "It’s not even your fault."

"I’m sorry," like a broken record, it was the only thing Bassena managed to eke out from his burning throat. "I’m sorry."

"Haa..." Zein let out a warm breath, staring at the violet sky and the burning setting sun.

It was beautiful. And now that his esper was here, everything should be beautiful again, even in this dirty, filthy, bloody place.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.