"Arghh!" The boss of the gang screamed in pain as Reign stared at him in hatred. He suddenly extended his hand at the boss and used his soul manipulation, creating many fine blades before launching them to dissect the enemy's soul.
"Wait, boy, we need the soul intact in order to get information!" Aethion yelled as Reign suddenly clenched his hand, stopping the blades. He stared at the man before spitting at him and dispelling the blades. He then ripped his soul out of his body and left him for Aethion.
"Bastardly pieces of … argh!" Reign shouted in anger as he took his swords before unleashing his fury at those that were still alive. Every person that wore leather or a white lab coat was cut down by him and the others until the only living beings left in the giant warehouse were them and those in cages.
Reign and the others quickly destroyed the doors of the cages, allowing the people that had been kept inside to get out, as for the cages that held monsters in them, they simply slaughtered them all.
"So this is what the Butcher is doing, huh?" Wolf asked as he stared at the giant machine that was in front of them. It was still working, but it was slower compared to before, while the other one, the one that produced the black liquid was barely functioning at all.
"It seems like the machines can operate by themselves, but without people channeling their mana and controlling the fine parts of the machines manually, they are much slower and less efficient." Aethion suddenly said.
"This guy is quite eager to talk, he doesn't like pain at all," Aethion said with a chuckle as he continued prying out information from the boss of the gang.
"Finally, the conversation you overheard from those three makes sense, they can finish the production of that potion much faster if they want to, but it is less effective and doesn't give the Butcher as much of a boost as it would if they didn't slowly operate the machine, allowing it to such in as much soul power from each victim," Aethion said with great enthusiasm.
"How marvelous, the Butcher had managed to get the blueprints for these machines somehow, nobody knows how, but the way they function is incredible, as evil and demonic as it might sound to you, these machines can make sure that even people with abysmal talent can improve their strength, but not just that, the potion actually changes their body in a way an evolution does, just much less drastically, of course."
"Their body constitution, their talent, everything gets improved upon drinking this, allowing for one to rise to the very top if they don't get caught."
"Boy, I'm afraid the only thing you can do is kill the Butcher, otherwise, if he is allowed to continue, his talent will become even more monstrous than yours, nobody on this planet will be able to stop him."
"And god knows how many innocent people will die because of him." Reign added as Aethion nodded hurriedly.
"Of course, that as well, the innocents, many of them will die."
"Wolf, burn it." Reign said as he took the bottle of black liquid before handing it over to Wolf who nodded at him.
"Wait, why not drink it, it's already done, the ones that have died in the machine are gone, why not use it to your advantage?" Aethion asked Reign whose face changed and anger became visible.
"I won't drink people, no matter what happens, I won't do anything like that!" Reign said with anger as he glanced at the bottle.
He could sense incredible power in the liquid, but he was also able to sense souls inside of it. He couldn't sense souls, to be more exact, but one soul that was formed from over a hundred different souls that were forcibly fused with it. It had no consciousness, no life, nothing, it was just a blank soul ready to be consumed by someone in order to strengthen their own.
"Souls, I see, the soul power is concentrated in the potion, allowing one to actually reinforce the soul as well, this guy had no idea about it, and the other bosses probably have no idea as well," Aethion said before slightly jumping as Jared appeared behind him.
"This is most troublesome, records show that similar things have occurred in the past, but it seems these machines are new, they are highly efficient and allow even these weaklings to perform tasks that should be impossible for them."
"Sir, if I may have a request."
"Yes, Jared?"
"Please place the machines in the storage area, we should study these machines, that way, we might find traces of who created them, as well as potentially be able to disable them or even create countermeasures against those that had used the machines to become more powerful."
Reign stopped and thought for a bit. He wanted nothing more than to completely destroy the machines. The blood, the flesh, and bones of those killed inside could still be seen, but he knew that Jared was correct.
Even though Reign didn't want to have anything to do with the machines, studying them would indeed bring them more benefits, and he could destroy them later anyway.
He came to the machines and touched them, and in an instant, the two machines were gone, transported to the storage area.
Reign glanced at Wolf, whose flames had completely covered the bottle as steam started coming out. The liquid was being boiled and started disappearing, but it was much slower than they thought it would. Wolf added more mana and made his flames hotter and hotter until the liquid was gone and the bottle itself had melted.
"What do we do next?" Elijah asked as he looked at the hundreds of people who were currently standing in the warehouse around them.
"We go up, and we kill every single member of the gang, allowing these men to be free." Reign said with little emotion as Wolf and Elijah glanced at each other.
"Maybe it would be better to leave some food and water to them and have them stay here until we manage to kill the Butcher, after all, we might trigger some sort of alarm if so many people are allowed to get out suddenly," Wolf added from the side while Reign shook his head.
"This was not all of them, more members of the gang will come down here, and if they see them, then they will find out about us anyway, so we have no other choice." Reign said as Aethion had told him more about the base from the boss of the gang.
This was not all of the men that had access to the basement but about two-thirds of them. Those that had been kept in the cages were weak, they had little to eat or drink and were incapable of fighting, not to mention the mental scars they had from being kept in the cages here.
If they left them here, then nothing good would happen to them.
"Let's go, I know the way out, even though it will be a bit tough for all of them to go with us, we shouldn't come across any enemies." Reign said as they started making their way back.
Instead of going around or using secret passages like before, Reign and the others simply used brute force. Reign knew exactly where to go and where the secret passages were, so they would destroy the walls or the doors of the secret passages and continue walking straight.
As they were making their way back, they suddenly came across one man who was dragging the two that they had previously saved. Before the man was able to do anything, Reign arrived in front of him and decapitated him before taking his soul.
They took the two men who were beaten up and started making their way out. As they made it to the stairs that led out of the headquarters, Reign nodded at Wolf and Elijah before moving.
He and Wolf would be responsible for clearing the first floor while Elijah was to make sure that the people would stay safe. As Reign got to the door, lightning started flickering around him as he opened the door before killing the four guards immediately. He looked around, and upon noticing that there was nobody nearby, he quickly brought the bodies in.
"Wait, let me call for Shadow and the rest, then we attack." Reign told Wolf who nodded before cloaking himself. Reign then took out his swords and cut a portion of the wall before getting out and making his way over to Shadow and the others.
They were all relieved to see him, but upon seeing his serious expression and the fact that Wolf and Elijah were not present, they thought of the worst, only for them to relax once he told them that they were waiting for his signal in the base.
Reign told them what was happening and how they were going to bring the prisoners out. They all agreed with his decision and got ready to attack. Nobody in the base would be left alive.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel