Sponsored chapter! Thanks to Luoyuan again for yet another ko-fi! 😘😘😘
Under the glaring white light of the laboratory, Eno’s pupils constricted and his face was extremely blue.
He was in a trance, remembering all those times he had spent with Martin, pleasant or not, which were now flowing through his mind like water, until there was nothing left.
He hadn’t…had time to go to the haunted house with Martin, or to tell him he liked him and wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
All the emotions finally turned into a full blast of anger, the sound of the wind swelling rapidly in his ears, vaguely laced with Viktor’s muffled laughter, sharp and piercing. Heat capable of burning flesh and skin came from the chip on the back of his neck, yet he could barely feel the pain.
“Have I not spoken to you about the nature of that modified gene?” Viktor looked into Eno’s bloodshot eyes with an almost crazed smile, “The essence is for the experimental subject to gain a psychic ability, namely, to enhance their physique with mental energy.”
“The more agitated your emotions, the stronger your mental power will be, and the stronger your ability will be.” Viktor unhurriedly pressed the button under the armrest of the recliner, adding another layer to the confinement on Eno’s arms.
He looked at Eno, who was struggling frantically in front of him, and smiled: “Your father was a supreme genius. He broke through the rift between Omegas and Inhumans and created a supernatural ability that all Omegas are capable of possessing.”
“You are the perfect warrior.” Viktor’s gaze was enraptured, “As expected of teacher Ivan’s masterpiece……”
Just then, an ear-splitting alarm sounded through the base. Viktor’s communication terminal then rang and the panicked voice of a guard came from inside: “Your Highness, it’s bad…someone has opened the gate and the Silver Cross legion is coming in!”
“Impossible!” Viktor roared at the terminal, “Drake is already dead!”
“It’s Drake who’s leading the charge…it’s true!”
There was a muffled sound as the tip of the knife pierced into the flesh, and the sharp voice of the soldier disappeared, leaving only the panicked shouts of the crowd. Viktor whispered an expletive and at once took a tranquilliser from the lab table and stabbed it down on Eno, undoing the loops of restraint straps around his arms.
Immediately upon being freed, Eno threw him to the ground, his sinewy hands jammed around his neck, his scarlet eyes filled with murderous intent. A gasp of pain escaped Viktor’s throat, but he wasted no time in pulling out the controls hidden in his cuffs and waving them in front of Eno’s eyes: “Want to die with me so badly?”
The rapid tranquilliser took effect in a matter of seconds, and Eno’s eyes were still red with rage, but he seemed to regain a little of his senses and let go of him with a loose hand. His chest rose and fell sharply with rage and he stared dead at the controls in Viktor’s hand, and if his eyes were a knife, he would probably have already chopped off Viktor’s hand.
He mustn’t die here, he would crawl back to see if Martin was still alive, he couldn’t let Viktor trick him so easily.
Even if…even if Martin was really gone, he still had their child in his belly, he still wants to live.
“Very well.” Viktor gave a satisfied smile and patted his swollen red face contemptuously, “Get up and come with me.”
Without a word, Eno climbed to his feet. It was still silent and inaudible outside, but the active areas on the first and second floors should have already started fighting. Eno followed Viktor through the translucent hallways of the lab area and could see the scene of fighting downstairs from a distance.
There was blood and wailing everywhere, and the mental power of the guards burst out various offensive abilities in the air, constantly repelling the Alpha soldiers in white combat uniforms, until a bullet pierced their heads or a sharp object was thrust into their throats. It was the first time Eno had seen an Alpha and an Inhuman actually fighting, and he couldn’t help but slow down a little, being dragged forward by Viktor by the wrist.
The moment the alarm went off, the entire base had been activated with a level one defence system and all access to the third floor laboratory area and the first and second floor activity lounge was immediately locked and could not be opened without a code. Now, there was a dull banging on the door in the stairwell, which would probably not last long before it was blown off.
The lab covered an area of about two hundred square metres and was filled with numerous large and small culture tanks, in which nearly two hundred red-eyed Inhumans were sealed. Each one of these Inhumans was in a frenzy, hissing in the culture fluid, clearly unable to shake the encrypted tanks, but as if they were unaware of the pain and never tired of ramming their bodies against the glass walls.
At the deepest part of these tanks was a huge information processing table, and Viktor ignored the Inhumans, rushing towards it in a single bound. His fingers flew over the processing table as Eno stood beside him, his gaze heavy on the controller he had placed in his hand.
“Don’t have any thoughts.” Viktor said coldly as if he had eyes growing behind his back, “You’re already wanted by the entire Federation, and you’re dead if you’re caught.”
Eno chortled and took two steps back, half leaning against the culture tank. His gaze was distant and wandering, as if he were looking through the light screen at the green and grey tiles behind him. The progress bar on the light brain’s screen was advancing slowly, looking like it should be the data files Victor had stolen from Ivan’s lab in the first place. Eno was so anxious that he kept wondering why Drake hadn’t come yet and what he could do to leave clues for him.
Until the progress bar finished, Eno didn’t find much of a chance. Soon, a silver suitcase popped out of the bottom of the processing table and Viktor took seven or eight opaque sealed test tubes from a cooler to the side and put them in the suitcase when suddenly a loud bang of explosives was heard outside the door followed by a cacophony of soldiers rushing in.
The leader, whose voice sounded like Logan’s, barked sternly and told his men to kick open the door to check. Eno was thinking of how to make a little noise to get their attention when he was met with Viktor’s cold glare and then dared not move.
The sound of shuffling footsteps approached the lab and Viktor, carrying his suitcase, pulled Eno backwards and entered a series of numbers into the combination lock on the back wall. With a rumbling sound, the walls automatically parted to either side, revealing a lift hidden in the wall.
The two men stepped into the lift, but Viktor did not immediately manoeuvre it down. A wry and sinister smile played on the corners of his mouth, and he waited until the sound of footsteps had closed in on the door before chuckling softly, “I just injected them with a little more of your serum, and voila… just in time to save a few surprises for our Alpha friends who have travelled a long way.”
With a loud bang, the door to the white room was kicked right open. Eno just had a face-to-face with Logan and before he could open his mouth to tell him that there was something in the box, Viktor pressed the controls in his hand.
In an instant all the culture tanks shattered and the already raging Inhumans rose from the floor one by one, looking at Logan with open scarlet eyes. Viktor gave Logan a smile that could be described as kind, and bowed slightly with his right hand on his chest in a graceful gesture of farewell. Only then did he press the down button on the lift and lead Eno towards the basement.
Standing on his diagonal, Eno snorted and taunted: “Enjoy playing with limits so much?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had that kind of heart pounding, and when one gets bored, then one has to have some fun for oneself.” Viktor didn’t mind his rudeness, he had more ways to sneer back at Eno anyway, “The last time it was this exciting was when I set a fire before the police caught me… tsk, tsk, it’s still a sky full of fire-light that is pretty, don’t you think?”
Eno didn’t talk to him again and turned his head to stare at the lift’s control panel.
Viktor traced his features with his eyes with relish, looking as if he wasn’t offended at all, “Eno ah, who do you think drew the Silver Cross to me when I’ve been running this place calmly for nine years?”
“Look at me for what?” Eno didn’t show any fear, “Didn’t you spy on me to see if I contacted the Silver Cross? You will naturally have your retribution, and the time has come.”
Viktor smiled without anger: “I know that. I’m just wondering what part of my plan, which was obviously so perfect, went wrong and drew Drake in.”
He stared at Eno and said slowly, word by word: “How could it be such a coincidence that you came and Drake came with you?”
Eno’s nice thin lips pursed up. He had been thinking the same thing just now, how could it be such a coincidence that he met Drake in the frozen forest when only he and Victor should know about his visit to the base? Drake had said that Duke Kersi had given him the address of the base, but it was clear that nothing had happened to the Kersi family before he had left. How could it be that when he left the house, Drake, who hadn’t been seen for over two years, came to life and raided the Kersi house?
Where exactly had Drake been and what was he doing in those two years? Was he hiding somewhere like Viktor, watching himself all the time?
But he’d had such a hard time in prison, and Drake hadn’t reached out to save him. If he hadn’t been lucky enough to be matched with Martin, he really thought he would have been tortured to death in prison by Irene.
It turned out that he hated him so much.
Eno quietly rubbed his lower abdomen and thought to himself somewhat mockingly ‘but I don’t care anymore’. He said lightly, “Maybe it’s Kersi who’s ready to clean up his act and start over. How could I know about you big shot’s business?”
The numbers on the control panel quickly came to B1 as the two men talked, and the lift doors slowly opened to reveal a shadowy underground square.
“I have a snowmobile in the car park in front.” Viktor strides forward with his suitcase, showing no attachment to the base above him that he had been working on for close to ten years. “Come with me, Dad will take you somewhere else to enjoy life.”
Eno was surprised: “All those people in there…you don’t care?”
“It’s their pleasure to protect me.” Viktor looked as if it was a matter of course, “I’m the future of the Inhumans understand?”
Eno paused slightly in his steps, then followed him in silence, his eyes sharp as a leopard’s, waiting silently for his prey to reveal its weakness. However, Viktor had only been walking for a moment when he suddenly stopped and said: “Come and walk in front of me.”
Eno had to reluctantly take two steps forward and walk in front of Viktor. He was anxiously thinking that he couldn’t let Viktor get away, and if Drake didn’t come before Viktor got into the car, he would have no choice but to die with Viktor.
No matter what, he couldn’t let Viktor take the results of Ivan’s experiments away alive, or else all the years of hatred, all the blood of so many people who had worked for it, would be for nothing. As long as the flame was not cut off, there would be countless more ‘red’ bases in the world.
As Eno was thinking, a blue-purple, high-energy laser sawtooth poked out of the ceiling a short distance in front of his head, and in the following seconds made a huge circle. The heavy, large, circular slab of stone hit the floor raising a cloud of dust, followed by the handsome figure of Drake in his white battle suit leaping down from above and standing opposite Eno and Victor.
He held out his hand towards Eno, his cold brow stained with blood but filled with a rare tenderness: “Eno, come here, I’ll take you home.”
Eno shook his head at him and took a slight step to the side, exposing Viktor to Drake’s view.
Viktor looked at him with grim horror: “You didn’t even die after you crashed like that.”
“I’ve let you down.” Drake gave him a small smile, “Six months of lying half dead in the treatment cabin did almost kill me. Isn’t this coming to you for revenge?”
“I never understood.” Viktor’s eyes were playful, “You’re not married to Lea, why are you so obsessed with me?”
“Then I’m sure you’ve never loved anyone in your life.” Drake raised the pistol in his hand to Viktor’s forehead and said coldly, “Don’t move. Eno, come here.”
The scene was silent for several seconds, and Eno just stared at him in awe, not moving as if he had lost consciousness. Drake’s brow grew furrowed and he said sternly, “Eno!”
Viktor suddenly laughed out loud and held up the controller in his hand for Drake to see, his thumb pressed firmly on the top button: “Thanks for giving me time to activate the chip.”
Drake’s face paled and he subconsciously pulled the trigger, however it was too late. Viktor released his thumb and Immediately, Eno let out a low growl of pain and stood in front of Viktor with his crimson eyes wide open.
Viktor untied the dagger he had been wearing around his waist and tossed it to Eno, where he caught it securely in his hand. The tip of the blade slashed heavily and the bullet made a violent scraping sound against the blade, changing direction and smashing a deep, round crater in the concrete floor not far away.
A sharp scratch immediately appeared on the back of the dagger in Eno’s hand, yet he didn’t even look at it. He swung the knife and went straight to Victor, so fast that it almost appeared as a phantom. Drake couldn’t shoot at him, so in his haste he pulled his defensive three-edged army spike1
from the belt strapped to his thigh and held it to Eno’s dagger, shouting, “Eno!”
Eno didn’t seem to hear it, and there was only a terrifying murderous intent in his blood-red eyes. This was what he had looked like when he had killed little Kersi. The chip implanted by Victor recorded his hormone levels when he was provoked to the extreme of anger, and then forcibly turned him into what he was like then.
“I was going to say I’d be your companion for the rest of my life, so it looks like I’ll be alone again. But it’s not bad for you to stage the last good show at the time of parting.” Viktor chuckled softly behind Eno’s back, “Eno, kill him.”
With that he turned and ran towards the car park, Drake was just about to give chase when Eno stopped him. The small, sharp dagger glinted cold and ran straight for his neck, which Drake dodged, backhanding his dagger and slamming it away.
Holding on to his last hope, Drake shouted: “Eno, wake up!”
However, Eno turned a deaf ear and rushed towards him again with the dagger. Drake finally gave up on waking him up, and with a determined look in his eyes, he tightened his grip on the spike. The operation had been rushed, not anticipating the number of berserk Inhumans hiding inside this base. Unable to draw anyone out of the chaos above, he had to subdue Eno here and then go after Viktor.
Nine years of waiting couldn’t be abandoned here, he had to make Viktor pay in blood.
There was the sound of blades colliding in the air, and the two weapons collided violently, making a sharp and piercing friction sound, almost sparking. Drake was careful not to touch Eno’s lower abdomen, so he was limited in his movements, and Eno was now at a different level, moving with such ferocity and cruelty that he was momentarily overwhelmed.
Eno kicked Drake with such force that even the big, strong Alpha staggered a few steps. The two men wielded their weapons for a dozen more rounds, Drake not daring to hurt him at all, almost as if he were simply being beaten, so he struggled to fight, beads of sweat oozing from his forehead.
He finally had no way to retreat, and was directly forced to the wall by Eno. A cold light brushed against his ears and penetrated several inches into the wall, and Eno pulled out the dagger that had a fine gap, and was going to stab him again. Drake finally closed his eyes helplessly, and the moment the dagger was nailed into his arm, he hugged Eno hard and fell heavily to the ground.
The thick, fishy blood dripped onto Eno’s face, and the smell of Alpha pheromones filled the air with a familiar intensity. Eno’s eyes widened in confusion as Drake held his hands in a death grip, both thighs pressed hard against his writhing body, and lowered his head to kiss him without a word. A massive infusion of Alpha pheromones mingled with the agitated and boiling Omega pheromones, calming Eno’s emotions with a powerful suppression.
The rusty sweetness of the blood continued to spread in his mouth, and after an unknown amount of time, the struggling body in his arms gradually quieted down. Only then did Drake release his lips, his expression pained and guilty: “It’s me. I’m sorry.”
Eno was stunned for a few seconds and pushed Drake away with a jerk. He sat up on his feet and caught a glimpse of the long, deep cut on Drake’s arm beneath the tattered material, almost halfway across his upper arm, the blood soaking through his white battle suit, bright red and stinging. Drake’s face was covered in dust and blood, and his handsome battle suit was torn to pieces by the dagger from the fight. His entire body was half sitting on the ground from being pushed by Eno, blood collecting in puddles along his sleeve tubes, still hissing and drawing cold breaths, looking very aggravated.
He had done this to Drake, and his heart ached too much to be angry. Forcing himself not to think about anything, Eno simply took off his shirt and ripped out the hem to bandage Drake, saying as he did so: “You rest here while I go after Viktor.”
He handed Drake the dagger, took one of his hands and ran it over the back of his neck where the chip had been punched in, and said decisively: “Take it out for me.”
Drake took the dagger in silence, and Eno leaned his head on his shoulder, looking as good and docile as ever. Drake couldn’t help but want to rub his head, but knew he couldn’t delay business, and after a moment’s agitation said: “I’ll go, you wait here, I’ll send Logan down to get you.”
Eno then looked up at him, his clear pupils overflowing with determination: “Drake, you know I have to go.”
Drake stopped talking. Viktor carried the blood feud of Eno’s family, and he is the most qualified person to take revenge. Before Eno, anyone had to stand aside. With a final long sigh, he pulled his collar to one side to reveal light honey-coloured skin, then pressed Eno’s head against his shoulder, breaking the delicate skin with a single slash of his dagger: “Bite me if it hurts.”
A sharp, instant pain stabbed through his shoulder, but Drake felt a lot lighter inside instead. He carefully peeled back the flesh with the tip of his knife and picked out the chip buried beneath the skin. The chip had almost grown into the flesh after half a month of fusion, and as Drake plucked it out, he brought out a blur of flesh, accompanied by a gurgle of blood down Enoch’s thin, bare spine.
Eno yanked the hemless shirt over, found a clean spot and tore another piece of fabric off, hastily tying a comical bow around his neck. Drake grabbed his hand and forced his own pistol into his, pressing Eno’s index finger on the trigger and raising his hand to fire a shot into the distance before showing him the cocking motion again.
“Make sure you protect yourself.” Drake finally braced himself to get up and give him a warm hug, “Go ba. I’ll have Logan meet you in ten minutes.”
melon: 2 more chapters for the main story!
