Chapter 351. Lilith
Swiftly ridding the irrelevant thoughts in his mind, Charles turned to Audric and asked, "Did you detect anything? What's inside?"
"It's a rather large compound that's circular in shape. But because of the glass exterior, I can't detect what's behind the windows?"
Are there rooms inside? Charles narrowed his eyes as he looked at the massive building in the distance.
While the other areas were abandoned and dilapidated, this single architecture had remained so pristine. There was no way he would believe that there were no clues within.
Charles turned to face his crew. This was a perilous mission, and it wasn't possible to bring the entire group along since that would only be burdensome. If the weak sailors tagged along, it was tantamount to suicide for them; they had already fulfilled their duties by carrying the supplies over.
Soon, he decided on the team to enter the compound: himself, Lily and her mice, Bandages, Linda, Dipp, and Tobba.
He had a reason for choosing each of them. As for the old lunatic, Tobba, Charles was hoping that there might be a possibility of communicating with those sound creatures. He also felt that the old man's eccentricity might come in handy.
Charles led his selected crew members forward toward the circular, white building in the distance. They all moved cautiously, in fear of making any noise.
It didn't take long for the five humans and a group of mice to reach the entrance of the giant building.
As the distance between them and the massive structure narrowed, Charles could pick up the finer details of the building. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that the building resembled a museum. Even the steps leading to the main door played a part in the similarity.
Pushing open the sleek, black revolving glass door, Charles and his party entered the building. A spacious lobby that branched into various pathways greeted them. The floor tiles gleamed without a speck of dust, mirroring the solemn expressions on the group's faces with perfect clarity.
"We start searching from the left first. Try to make as little noise as possible. We don't know what else is inside here apart from the killing harmony," Charles whispered.
Certainly, the murderous music wouldn't have been able to maintain the pristine and immaculate condition of the entire compound; there had to be something else within these walls.
The group nodded collectively. Sticking along the wall, they slowly and cautiously move down an empty hallway. They didn't have to walk for long before they reached their first room with a thick steel door.
The door was secured with an electronic lock, and Linda's corrosive stomach acid came in handy at this moment.
The room behind the door was divided into several sections, with each housing different types of machines. The various sections were arranged in an organized manner, with the final section having the highest security level.
Through the glass panel of the final section, Charles noticed a peculiar dried-up corpse with a peanut-shaped head. He wasn't sure if it was a living relic or an experiment subject of the Foundation, but he was certain that it wasn't what they were seeking.
The group promptly retreated from the room and continued to search the next room.
They arrived at the room adjacent to the one that contained the peanut-headed corpse. Stepping in, they found the interior strikingly similar to the previous. However, the glass panel of the innermost cell had been split into two halves to reveal two prominently displayed glass chambers.
One of the glass chambers lay shattered, while the other housed a skeleton. It was a clear indication that the former prisoner that was held here had long escaped the Foundation's containment.
Just as Charles was about to turn and leave, something unusual about the skeleton's skull caught his eyes. It wasn't an ordinary human skeleton; it had sharp fangs on both its upper and lower jaws.
Piqued with curiosity, Charles leaned against the glass chamber wall and crouched for a closer look. He noticed fine, straw-like structures within the lower fangs.
"Mr. Charles," Lily called out while standing on his shoulder. "This mister is like Mr. Audric. He has those blood-sucking little vampire fangs."
Ignoring Lily's remarks, Charles circled around the chamber to find more clues. Eventually, he discovered a label at the bottom of the glass chamber and the name written on it.
[O—Type 3 Sideroblastic Anemia Porphyria Patient: Hades.]
Charles turned his gaze toward the label at the bottom of the shattered glass chamber.
[O—Type 3 Sideroblastic Anemia Porphyria Patient: Lilith.]
"Porphyria..." Charles muttered to himself as his finger lightly grazed his own sharp fangs. A sudden realization dawned on him about the fate of that missing patient.
What was it that Audric said previously? Their Mother was invited to this subterranean realm by a mysterious entity or something? It seems like this Mother of theirs has slightly beautified the story to maintain her dignity before her offspring...
Just that, Charles noticed his crew's fixated gazes on him; he could sense their curiosity about his actions.
"This place is probably a confinement facility for living creatures. If we find more rooms like this, we can just skip them."
With that, Charles led the party out of the room.
Charles and his team methodically moved from one room to another, quickly entering and then withdrawing as they navigated the labyrinthine building.
The design of this museum-like building seemed intended for the confinement of humanoid beings. Within the rooms they searched, some of these beings were missing, some remained, and some had perished.
After searching the compound for thirty minutes, Charles led his team to another door.
The door opened with a soft click, and Charles' pupils shrunk briefly to the size of fine needles upon the sight that greeted them. Intricate machinery filled the vast space, which was within Charles' expectations.
His astonishment had stemmed from the absence of walls on the right side of the room. Instead, they had been replaced by full-length windows.
Through these windows, Charles observed a spacious circular plaza that was about the size of four football fields. This was the building's heart.
An enormous, multi-hued tree stood in the middle of a plaza. Its trunk measured close to a hundred meters tall and had twisted burls of varying sizes.
Charles slowly inched toward the windows, his keen hearing picking up the mosquito-like soft music outside the windows.
Even if he couldn't see them, Charles could sense that the killing harmony was right beyond the windows and circling the giant tree outside.
He wasn't sure if there was any link between the tree and the killing harmony, but regardless, he had no intention to engage or attract the attention of invisible and intangible opponents.
He slowly retreated and whispered, "Search quickly! We can't stay here for long."
The mice dispersed and scoured the room while the team members rifled through the contents with minimal noise.
Soon, some papers were brought before Charles, but they were inscrutable records. They couldn't find what he needed.
Time trickled by, and beads of sweat started to form on their foreheads. Every so frequently, they would need to close their eyes and listen intently for unusual sounds just in case the killing harmony decided to strike.
The tension was palpable and torturing; they felt as though they were dancing on knives' tips.
However, the killing music outside remained unaware of Charles and his party. The discordant melodies continued swirling around the trees in their own positions.
On one side of the windows were the extremely dangerous entities; on the other were the humans in a desperate search for information. At this moment, a fragile equilibrium was maintained.
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