Chapter 1475: A Deeper Level to The Case.
1475 A Deeper Level to The Case.
A few moments later, Nidam and Ravager, stepping through the doorway, halted for a moment, allowing their eyes to adjust to the dimness.
The cold stone underfoot, slick with moisture, sent s.h.i.+vers up their spines. But it wasn't just the chilling atmosphere that made them uneasy; it was the sight before them.
Rows upon rows of spirits lay on the ground, their bodies battered and bruised, their chains clinking softly with each ragged breath they took.
Some seemed barely conscious, while others looked like they had fallen into a coma...The stench of despair hung heavily in the air.
It's real...
Ravager's fists clenched so hard that his knuckles turned white. Every ounce of him trembled with rage, and his eyesnormally a calm seawere now stormy and filled with fire.
"This... this is monstrous," he growled, his voice echoing through the chamber.
Even when he was already informed and prepared himself for a mental shock, he never imagined it would be this horrible..
Nidam, usually the more composed of the two, felt a similar surge of anger. His jaw set tight, eyes narrowing into slits.
The aura around him darkened as a crimson glow emanated from his being, a visible sign of his boiling fury.
"How could someone do this? What's the goal here? Even if there is a goal, how can anything be worth putting already dead spirits in such agony?!" he hissed. "Most of them must have suffered in the living world and they suffer even in the afterlife."
"How can this be allowed?!"
The last statement came out of Nidam's mouth with so much venom directed at no one but the G.o.d of the spirit realm...Lord Hades.
"Enough useless whining, no one will save them but us." Felix said indifferently as he carried Carbuncle's wife on his back. "Pick up as many spirits as possible and let's bring them to the surface."
As he flew upward, he channeled his telekinesis control to lift more than twenty spirits and then took them with him outside of the dungeon.
Realizing that it wasn't the time to let their emotions run amok, Ravager and Nidam followed his lead, saving as many spirits as they could.
After a few trips, no one was left in the dungeon and the mansion's biggest hall was packed with rows upon rows of slumbering wounded spirits.
Hazel almost fainted from the horrifying sight, but she managed to catch herself for their sake.
"I am going back," Felix said. "We need to investigate the machines and their purpose."
"I will go down with you." Ravager tagged in.
Nidam gave them permission with a head nod and continued talking with the approaching reinforcement.
He had requested a reinforcement directly from the headquarters. Since he used the enforced emergency call, no one could reject responding to the call unless the chief himself canceled it.
In a short while, a silhouette of a ma.s.sive, gleaming airs.h.i.+p with the emblem of the Law Enforcement Department could be seen descending from the skies.
As the s.h.i.+p landed, its bay doors opened, releasing teams of law enforcement officers, dressed in their pristine uniforms and bearing the insignia of their elite ranks...Alongside them, medics carrying emergency medical kits rushed out.
The officers stormed Sharky's mansion with precision, entering through every door and window, ensuring every corner was checked.
They were prepared for a battle, but what greeted them wasn't the resistance they had expected. Instead, they found that heart-wrenching scene.
Captain Frederick, leading the operation, surveyed the scene, his face a mask of controlled fury.
"Medics!" He shouted, waving his arm in a sweeping motion toward the spirits.
The medical team moved swiftly, setting up emergency stations, and tending to the spirits. Soft, comforting words were spoken as medics tried to a.s.sure the spirits that they were safe now.
They attended to their injuries, administered vital essences, and did their best to alleviate their pain.
"What the h.e.l.l happened here? And where is Charles?" Captain Rashford asked with a suppressed tone.
Captain Quentin, Frederick, and the rest of their squadmates went straight to Nidam.
Even when Nebula saw him and knew that this case was related to Felix and Ravager, she didn't let her compet.i.tive spirit run amok.
The sight of the tortured spirits made her just as mad as everyone else, forgetting completely about anything related to their compet.i.tion.
"Sirs...This is what happened."
Nidam came forward and narrated their entire operation from A to Z, filling them with all the details related to the fallen Spirits organization, Sharky's involvement, and so much more to the point everyone began to question its legitimacy.
Alas, the nightmarish sight before them supported Nidam's absurd claims.
"Captain Charleson has taken Sharky and his people to the station. While the rest of my team are inside the dungeon, continuing their investigations." Nidam finalized the report with a respectful salute.
"I..."
Captain Frederick had so many things he wanted to say like why he hadn't been informed about this much sooner, how could this situation occur in the heart of the capital, and how Sharky get away with this for such a long time.
In the end, he reached out with his hand and tapped Nidam on his shoulder. "Good job, good job..."
"Just doing our duties." Nidam gave him a slight head nod and went to a.s.sist the medics.
"Escort everyone back to the hospital if their conditions become stable!" Captain Frederick ordered out loud. "You guys, let's head downstairs."
...
A couple minutes before the reinforcement arrival, Felix and Ravager were seen standing before one of the machines in the dungeon.
Felix was smart to cut off only the chains and leave the machines in perfect conditions, so they could investigate them properly.
"I don't know why, but it makes me feel erratic and uncomfortable the closer I get to it." Ravager commented with a deep frown.
"It's detrimental energy,"
Felix said calmly while a.n.a.lyzing the machines, unaffected by such an aura...He had experienced true evil energy against Lucifer, something much deadlier and abhorrent than this.
'What's this?'
When he approached the machine, he noticed a dark gemstone embedded in its back...It was the one releasing a black aura around the machine.
As a precaution, he requested Ravager to cover his hand in water gloves and he did as he was told.
"Be careful." Ravager warned.
Felix reached out with his hand and extracted the jewel from the machine using force. After plucking it from the machine, it started peeping noisily, sounding an alarm...Ravager shut it down instantly with a single punch and focused back on Felix.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" He asked with knitted eyebrows after seeing Felix's stunned expression as he stared at the gemstone.
Unresponsive, Felix's enlarged pupils reflected deep writings on the gemstone's surface...A writing with a language he could recognize from thousands of kilometers.
A language that accompanied him his entire new life and was one of the reasons for his achievements.
'Universal Codex...Why are there writings on the gemstone with universal codex?!' He exclaimed in utter shock, but no one was there to answer him.
The writings appeared like this:
x.x.xX o x.x.x S, x.x.x COM MMMN,
CVPAD, O XX , x.x.xo RRR.
Fo x.x.x, o o, x.x.xM PAN, o.
W oAA , x.x.x DA , OOO o XXPAND x.x.x
He kept turning the stone over and over again until he managed to memorize all the letters on it.
He knew that he had absolutely no clue what's the translation for those sentences, but he still memorized them to see if others matched.
"Traveler?"
With a slight push from Ravager, Felix woke up from his daze and replied. "There are some weird writings on this, and I have no idea what they mean."
Felix handed him the jewel and went to check the other gemstones.
When he realized that all of them shared the same writings, he reached an uncertain conclusion. 'Are those enchantments to remove detrimental energy from spirits, like some sort of a spell?'
'If so, how could anyone write enchantments with the universal codex in the spirit realm when even primogenitors and Asna struggle to understand them?' Felix narrowed his eyes, 'Is this really just a simple case of turning spirits into slaves for profit?'