SSS-RANK SUMMONING WEAPON SYSTEM-Chapter 32: Mayfair [3]]

The chamber was suffocatingly dark, its stone walls slick with damp and the stench of rot. A single torch flickered weakly in the corner, casting jagged shadows that seemed to mock the man at its center. Theron, once the brilliant and feared scientist, now knelt in chains.

Iron shackles bit deep into his wrists and ankles, the skin raw and blistered from days of restraint. His lab coat was gone, replaced by rags soaked in blood and grime. His spiked orange hair hung limp, matted with sweat, dirt, and dried blood. His face—once sharp with arrogance—was swollen, bruised, and streaked with cuts. His lips trembled, cracked from thirst, his breath shallow and uneven.

He had been tortured. Badly.

The marks of cruelty were carved into him: burns along his arms, lashes across his back, and puncture wounds that oozed faintly. The nose ring had been removed from his nose with so much force that part of his nose had come along with it. His right eye was so swollen it had turned the colour of a plum fruit. His body shook with every movement, too weak to resist, too broken to stand. The chains rattled whenever he shifted, each sound a reminder of his captivity.

Theron’s eyes, once gleaming with manic brilliance, now flickered with fear. He stared at the floor, unable to meet the torchlight, as though ashamed of what he had become. His mind, once a storm of invention and ambition, was fractured by pain. Every breath carried the weight of despair.

Suddenly, the metal door to the chamber opened and two figures walked in. As they walked, the air in the room went completely still.

Theron’s left eye widened as he registered the two individuals before him. The taller of the two wore an intricate robe designed with many colours, his hair was white, and he looked and resembled a human, but he was no human. His eyes were red and beady, like a depraved, ferocious creature that hadn’t eaten for months. His skin was the colour of grey and a black symbolic tattoo was etched on his chest.

The other figure in the room was also grey, but his hair was a shocking shade of magenta, and he had a nose ring stuck in his nose. The same nose ring that had been violently pulled out of their prisoner before him. He had a sleek, chiselled jawline and he would have been considered human if not for the red eyes that stared at Theron like it wanted to tear him out to pieces.

"I will not ask again, Theron." The taller figure spoke for the first time, his voice deep and smooth like a smooth surface. "Where is the project?"

"My lord Vardos! Please!" Theron pleaded, struggling to make words with his broken teeth. "Just give me more time! I’ll find it. It must have escaped!"

He tried to continue but was met with a sudden blow to the gut by the second individual, which made him throw up blood onto the cobbled floor.

"Do not spew nonsense about time, you wretched animal!" The second individual snarled. "If you were not useful, I would have killed you by now. My sister is dead because of you!"

"Control yourself, Daik." Vardos interrupted. "I am right here when you’re doing something I didn’t order you to."

Daik stepped backwards, remembering who he was in the presence of. "Forgive me, my lord."

Vardos ignored him, focusing back on the pardthic animal chained before him. "I suggest you start saying the truth about what happened in Carragis, or else I’ll allow Daik to have his way with you."

Theron gulped down his saliva for a moment before he began to speak. "I had just finished with the ’project ’ in my lab when Bignath called me she had captured another F-rank. It was only one."

His eyes warily glanced at Daik who looked like he wanted to tear him to pieces right there and then."

"I went to the mutants’ chamber where I underwent the process of placing the F-rank into the Nixatrine pod. But....."

"But what?"

"Somehow, he broke out of the pod before the mutating went through, and in a panic, I ran."

Vardos frowned in confusion. "He broke out. That should be impossible, unless.....he wasn’t an F-rank in the first place."

Theron shook his head rapidly. "No! No! The kingdom only banished F-ranks to Carragis. I’m certain of that."

"But yet," Daik spat. "He escaped and killed my beloved younger sister and must have taken the project with him."

Theron was sweating bullets right at thus moments, his intellectual mind was rapidly trying to think of something that would alleviate the situation he had brought upon himself.

’Danm it, Bignath!’ He thought bitterly. "You crazy bitch! Even in death, you still torment me!"

Then he remembered something crucial.

"I just remembered!" He screameded on a panic, struggling against the chains. "I really just remembered something!"

"What?" Daik asked, glancing back at him.

"The F-rank," Theron announced. "He was black!"

Vardos eyes snapped back to him. "What! Are you sure of what you’re saying?"

"I’m positive, my lord," Theron replied, wincing at his right swollen eye. "I saw his skin colour. He was black, or even brown, in the right definition. But there’s no doubt in my mind. He’s part of the black race."

"Then that explained it," Vardos muttered, after a deep contemplation. "It really explains how he was able to break out of the Nixatrine pod easily."

Daik was staring at Theron. "My lord, what do we do with this imbecile of an animal. Do we free it?"

Theron’s heart leaped at the realisation he may be released, but cold water was poured on his entire body.

"It failed with what we ordered him to do," Vardos spoke, shattering Theron in a heartbeat. "It’s no longer useful."

"My lord, please!" Theron panicked, struggling more against the chains. "I can still help with the mutations. My lab in Carragis may be destroyed, but I can still find another place. I can still be useful to you!"

Daik turned to Vardos. "My lord, I have a request?"

"You want to kill him?"

"I really want to, but it won’t feel that satisfying," Daik replied smoothly.

"Then what do you have in mind?"

"Our women have been feeling frustrated since we started this siege to conquer Earth. We have not been attending to them at all."

He glanced at Theron, a cruel smirk on his face. "Why don’t we send him to them, let our women use him for their.....’ activities ’. How about that?"

Theron’s eyes widened in fear and realisation. "Please, my lord! Don’t listen to him! They’ll kill, me there. I can still be useful to you!"

Vardos completely ignored him, turning to leave. "Do it! My wives have been angry with me lately."

Vardos and Daik walked out, closing the door on Theron high pitched screams and pleading.

They walked down the large hallway together, demaranians and higher each going in different directions.

"Something is strange to me, my lord?" Daik began, his tone hushed. "Do you think the Black Race wants to wage war against us. They disappeared for a long time, and now one of them is in carragis and is now with our ’special project.’ Do you think it’s a declaration of war?"

"I’m not sure," Vardos replied, honestly. "But if it is. Then thus conquest just became a lot harder. We’re already facing the five kingdoms combined; now the Black Race has reappeared. The emperor won’t be happy about this."

"Then what do we do?" Daik asked, waiting for an answer.

"He must have escaped from Carragis, but he must not have gone far. The closest to Carragis is Mayfair Town. He may be there."

"That means I should send a Higher Demaranian there."

"No need. One is already there, I’ll send him new orders to find the black one and our ’special project’. Two birds with one stone."

"Do we kill them?"

"No, we bring them back," Vardos replied. "And that means that we have something against the Black Race. "

"And that," he continued. "Will be a very good advantage. "

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A/N: Thank you, Jerry_Brion for the golden tickets. Means so much to me. Thank you so much.

This Chapter is for you.