Chapter 510: All Hell Breaks Loose
Even having to see hundreds of naked women going in and out of the shower did nothing to distract Laz from his thoughts. That place underground had a haunted feel to it, something that made him twitch and not from fear. Instead, it was like a tickle in his chest that he couldn’t get rid of, one that was an annoying itch he couldn’t scratch.
With the lack of guards, Laz knew he would have to stay late, even while the second and third shifts were being called in due to the circumstances, it would take a while for help to show up. After all, they had to sleep sometime and anyone who has ever ran a business knows, calling someone in when they aren’t suppose to work isn’t a quick process sometimes.
"Hey sweetie. I have to stay late tonight. Do you think you could get your aunt to come stay over with you tonight?" Laz said into the obviously monitored line used for calling outside. Staff members were not allowed cell phones anymore after an incident occurred in which a guard let a prisoner make a personal call which resulted in someone showing up and trying to shoot their way inside, or at least that’s the excuse they used. No one remembered that ever happening but the rule came about shortly after the dead bodies found in the basement incident happened and everyone just made a connection.
"Sure Daddy. Is everything ok? How long do you think you’re going to be?" Jill replied, already sending a text to Dani to elevate the situation to critical. While they hadn’t set up any sort of a code system, Jill was smart enough to read into Laz’s otherwise normal wording that something really bad was going on.
"Sure baby. Sure. Everything’s fine. Just something completely unexpected happened and we need to wait for the other shifts to come reinforce us. As for when I’ll get back, it might not be until tomorrow so as long as she is ok with it, just have your aunt sleep over, ok? Tell her I’ll spot her some extra cash for the emergency situation. I know she still has though fucking vultures coming after her after all," Laz said, hoping Jill got the point of this message.
"Sure thing Daddy. Daddy... now be honest with me, you’re not meeting with another one of those special friends of yours... right?" Jill asked back, putting extra attention on the term ’special friend.’ Laz’s brain was working in overtime trying to get what she meant when the team leader knocked on the glass.
"Hurry up Nate. Tell your daughter you love her and you will see her tomorrow," the woman joked after seeing Laz get ’embarrassed’ by the question.
"No baby, no. Nothing to do with special friends. Let’s just say it involves a religious crisis, ok? Got to go sweetheart. Give your aunt my best and don’t forget to lock the doors. Good night baby."
Laz hung up the phone and walked out, seeing his team leader still smiling.
"Special friends huh?" She said with a smirk.
"Man’s got needs but she doesn’t need to know that," Laz said with a helpless smile.
"Sounds like a nice girl. How old is she? 11? 12?"
"16," Laz responded without much thought before heading away to his next post.
"16? She’s a teenager and she talks to her dad like that? Damn. She must have lived one sheltered life."
...
"I don’t know exactly. It’s not like we have a code system worked out. Whatever this is took him by surprise and it looks like not only are chosen involved, but even guards were pulled away before other’s could even come in to replace them. So whatever it is involves a third party," Jill said to Dani as she sat across from her at the table, two coffee cups between them.
"Did he say anything else that seemed out of context? Anything that was... strange?" Dani said back, thinking hard white taking a sip.
"No. He made it clear he wasn’t at risk... but..." Jill trailed off a little, her mind working.
Dani set down her cup.
"But what?"
"Well... he did say something a little weird. Although we haven’t known each other long, he’s never seemed like a religious type..." Jill said, the pieces seeming to come together but she couldn’t recognize the pattern.
"Ok. And?" Dani asked, knowing that right now her pocket was blowing up from the response teams on their way with nothing but a vague warning and no details.
"Well... he said something about it involving a ’religious crisis... But I don’t see how that makes any sense. Dani? Dani?" Jill noticed Dani’s face turned pale after hearing that phrase about religious crisis.
"Fuck... Fuck Fuck FUCK!" Dani got up and waved her hand at Jill before punching in a number on her phone.
When the other end picked up, Dani quickly said, "It involves a god," before she hung up and grabbed Jill’s hand.
"Come with me. We are leaving," Dani said and made to pull Jill to the door.
Jill, however, wouldn’t move. Even when Dani tried with all her might, Jill couldn’t be moved.
’What the fuck? I’m already close to building my Void Palace but I can’t even budge this girl..’ Dani thought, feeling the wrist of Jill having become hard like iron.
"I’m not leaving him so tell me what you know, right now," Jill demanded, her voice stone cold and her eyes glaring, one of them having turned as black as midnight.
Seeing this, Dani felt a shiver go down her back.
"I see. You’ve already broken through to the void palace realm? How old are you even?" Dani asked, not knowing what else to say but knowing that she had been ordered to protect this girl and get her to safety if anything happened to Laz.
’She’s stronger than me and I’m suppose to protect her?’
"18. Now tell me!" This wasn’t even her asking, this was her ordering as the power Jill contained began to leak out, ever so slightly.
"Ok. Ok. Since you’re one of us and stronger than me. A god is another realm, stronger than any human. Some come from different dimensions, other’s from ancient times back when there was a massive amount of energy in this world."
"I know that. I’ve met one before. I mean what’s happening with him at work? And when will the backup be here?"
"WAIT. WAIT.... You’ve met a god before?" Dani asked, her mind blanking.
"Yes. Hell... he even fucked her. So sorry if the mere mention of a god doesn’t really scare me like it does you."
"HE FUCKED A GOD? SERIOUSLY?"
"Well... goddess... but it’s the same thing..."
"Holy fuck..."
"You ok?"
Dani didn’t respond right away, sitting in her chair like her legs had suddenly shut off.
"He’s encountered gods before, ours and theirs. While we call them gods, it just a name for the realm in which they have reached, one that would allow them to live forever barring any accidents or such happening to them. But even then, gods aren’t something that any of us can contend with. Hell, as far as I know, there are only a handful of void lords within our organization. Most of us don’t even know what comes next after that."
"So how strong must one be to be called a god?" Jill asked, curious.
"Laz had been our best source of information regarding these things. If what he says is true, if a void lord is a level 5 then a god is at least a level 7, if not higher."
"But he’s fought them before and didn’t die..." Jill said, her faith in Laz unwavering.
"Even by his own words, ’he got lucky.’ So while I don’t know how strong this god is, he would still be far stronger than all of us together," Dani replied, trying to drum up the memories and briefings she had gotten about gods.
"Whatever. I’m not going to wait here for something to happen. I’ll be right here in case he has need of me," Jill said, her look not allowing argument.
"I guess I’ll have to stay right here then. I’m going to get into so much trouble," Dani said, quietly while rubbing the bridge of her nose.
...
"Who are you?" the blind woman asked while she and her partners surrounded Laz, preventing him from escaping.
Due to the lack of guards along with the lack of leadership, things weren’t exactly going well with the prisoners. Even if no one told them, they weren’t stupid and noticed the decrease in personal almost right away. This kept Laz moving from one place to another every time one thing got settled down, only to find another situation happening in another block.
As for what he was facing right now, Laz had been running from an incident in block C when he was told to report to black A right away. Because of this, he was going around by himself when Mercy had blocked his way with Jennia in tow. After he had stopped to tell them to get back to their cells, the rest of the group that had been hiding jumped out and surrounded him, their goal yet unknown.
Laz was kicking himself for letting his guard down, even if it was just a lapse in judgement as now he couldn’t go anywhere unless they decided to back off.
Or he decided to get violent.
"They just want to know if they can trust you or not. Maybe you should give them some reason to?" Jennia advised, neither hostile nor threatening.
"Yeah. That’s not going to happen. After all, I don’t know if I can trust them either, do I?" Laz said back, not really worried. While his hands were tied with trying to hide himself, he knew they couldn’t exactly go blabbing that he was something they had already ’confirmed’ he wasn’t.
"Attention. All personal. Please report to the armory now. All prisoners. Return to your cells within the next ten minutes for a lock down. This is not a drill. In ten minutes all auto defense systems will be engaged and anyone not within their cells will be killed on sight. This is your first and final warning."
The message blared over the loud speaker, shocking everyone.
"FUCK!" Laz said before spreading out his spiritual sense without restrained, coving the entire length of the facility before focusing on the second floor bathroom.
A ragged group stood outside, piling up whatever heavy objects they could find to block the door. Many of them were bloody, including the chosen. After a quick head count, Laz realized that there were only four guards present out of the forty that went down. As for the chosen, he noticed four of them standing there, but he had no clue how many had gone down.
Either way, one of the chosen was barking orders while everyone else was following them, their prideful nature no where to be seen as they started dragging tables and chairs while more guard teams arrived from the men’s side and started setting up blockades down both sides of the hallway.
Laz didn’t know what, but something really bad had happened down there.
Seeing the women standing before him, he suddenly knew that there wasn’t much time left for any of them in this place and leaving them powerless would just be a death sentence.
Before anyone could react to the announcement, Laz was standing in front of Jennia with a hand at her neck. She didn’t even have time to yelp as he brushed his flame covered hand over her collar, reducing the restrictive runes to ashes.
The shocked look on everyone’s face prevented them from saying a single word as he quickly did the same to everyone else’s collar.
"You... you’re him... you’re the real him..." The blind leader said, her now freed allowing her eyes to see past the illusions and right on to his real face.
"At your service."
All of the women, including Mercy, dropped to their knees and put their heads to the ground.
"WE GREET THE MASTER!"
