Chapter 345
“Heh, what’s the rush? I just want you to see your own fate first,” Valeria sneered, pushing open the door to the first room.
As soon as the door creaked open, a foul, burnt smell wafted out, sharp and repulsive–like something rotting.
Karl frowned, his curiosity no match for the stench, but Valeria wasn’t having it. She dragged him forward, forcing him to see the horrifying scene inside.
It was horrifying, indeed.
Even someone like Karl, who had seen his fair share of blood and gore, couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down his spine.
The figure inside–no, it could no longer be called a human–w
a grotesque creature: missing limbs, bald, with its eyes gouged out, its body
connected to an eerie machine.
The burnt flesh? That likely came from the place where the machine met the creature’s head, the skin so scorched it had turned black and was nearly falling off.
The creature seemed to sense someone’s presence. It gave a muffled, almost silent noise–perhaps a sound made by a mouth that no longer had a tongue.
But Karl didn’t need to guess who this was. In fact, it was strangely familiar.
It was Rowena, the same woman who had slipped through his fingers the other day.
Now, seeing her like this, Karl couldn’t decide whether to pity her or feel disgusted. After all, his method of dealing with enemies wasn’t nearly as… floral as this.
“What’s wrong? Feeling sorry for her?” Valeria asked, crossing her arms with a mocking grin, watching him closely.
Karl felt a chill down his spine and opened his mouth to deny it, but Valeria beat him to it, chuckling. “You’d better start worrying about yourself. You could be next, you know.”
She then dragged him to another room, where another familiar face awaited–Althea.
The scene was just as brutal.
For someone like Karen, who had been wronged by her, no mercy was spared. Though her limbs were still intact, each of her fingers had been crushed under the heel of a high–heeled shoe–just like how she had treated Valeria. It was tenfold revenge.
Like Rowena, Wang Juan was also connected to the same grotesque machine. The smell of burning flesh lingered in the air. But Karl wasn’t interested in asking what that device was for, nor did he care. Honestly, this was the kind of scene he could enjoy.
“Alright, let’s move on.”
Valeria led him through the remaining rooms, finally reaching the end of the corridor. A heavy door slid open automatically with a soft beep after a
retinal scan.
A white figure in a wheelchair slid past them, turning its back to them without a hint of concern for their presence.
There was no doubt it was Stellan. What surprised Karl was that Stellan was sitting in a wheelchair.
‘Could it be that Valeria was the only healthy one left in this entire place?‘ Karl thought.
“I’ve brought him. How’s your research progressing?”
At the sound of her voice, Stellan slowly turned his head, eyeing her with disdain. “What’s with that face? Didn’t I tell you to change it?”
Valeria, clearly irritated, wanted to snap back, but she restrained herself. She had to hold her temper for now–once everything was done, she’d send them all straight to hell.
After a deep breath, Valeria replied briefly, “The doctor won’t arrive until tomorrow.”
Only then did Stellan look at Karl, sizing him up with a sneer. “A worthless piece of trash thinking he can be buried with Elysia?”
It was as though he was mocking Karl’s bedraggled state, drenched in rain.
But Karl ignored the derision in Stellan’s words and glances. He approached, lowered his gaze, and asked in a deep voice, “Do you have a way to bring her back?”
From a distance, it was hard to tell which one of them was truly the useless one. But sitting in the wheelchair, Stellan’s face had darkened considerably.
Karl, of course, noticed the shift, and he knelt down, lowering himself to Stellan’s level with humility.
He even seemed to be pleading as he softly spoke, “You can take my life, or let me help you with anything. Just tell me, can you bring Ava back to
life?”
When Stellan heard this, his expression softened a little. But his dismissal of Karl’s offer was quick and cold. “I will make you die one day, but…”
“My real goal was never to bring her back. It’s to get in… and be with her, forever…”
The last part came out as a mix of a sigh and an almost wistful longing.
He then gestured with a wave of his hand, and the virtual world he’d created appeared on a screen. It was so realistic it was almost unbelievable. If it weren’t for the empty sky and the barren, uninhabited ground, Karl might have mistaken it for a photograph of an actual city.
“What is this?”
Karl, still in shock, asked, though he already had a hunch.
But… how did Stellan know?
The only ones who knew about that day were…
Karl’s gaze landed on Valeria, standing near the door. The answer was clear. Who else but her could have told Stellan?
“Traitor!” Karl muttered, repeating her words with cold precision.
Valeria, taken aback, was left confused, unaware that she had just been labeled a traitor.
From the corner, Stellan smirked slightly, his eyes shifting to the taxidermied cat in the corner. He said nothing but smiled faintly, then turned back to the screen, fully engrossed in the creation of his new world.
And it wasn’t just about him.
He planned to pull everyone in–everyone–and return everything to the beginning.
The end.
