The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

What Nykos meant by breaking him apart wasn’t just a figure of speech. But the true breaking down of physical matter, turning his shadows into a force of entropy brought into real time by accelerating natural disintegration.

This was the ability that brought fear to all star systems and empires!

Yet the same power was now being used to forcibly obtain information from a man he never met before. All because Nykos did not want her hands to get dirty from handling him.

The dark shadows isolating Marlon also absorbed the sound of his painful screams. So, even as his fingers and skin were starting to crumble little by little, no one would know what kind of pain he was going to be under.

Aisha watched in fascination. If she had been a Sentinel with that kind of power, things would have been a lot easier for her to live in this world. No one would come looking for trouble with her. It was the most effective human repellent that has existed in both her two lives.

A minute passed.

Like what Nykos promised, Marlon had spilled everything he knew. Though the moment he came out of that dark mist, he was reduced to a full-body muscular manikin. His skin was stripped of him, not even leaving a bit of it to cover his private part or his heels.

He had died knowing what true pain was like.

She shuddered unconsciously.

Nykos shifted beside her, hand indifferently waving toward the swirling dark mist before they returned to him. He looked more like a devil than the devil himself. At least, the devil would hand you a tempting offer before claiming a life. But Nykos did none of that.

"This is surprising," Nykos said.

"What?"

"That man said something interesting. Even I find it hard to believe."

Frowning, she stared at him. If he didn’t tell her what he discovered, she’d storm off here and swear to never talk to him again.

As if he could read her mind through the glare she shot him, Nykos helplessly smiled. He thought he could get a bargain from her using the information he got from the man he had just killed, but it seemed he’d end up being hated if he did that instead.

"Your brother’s being held at the Association." Nykos finally revealed what Marlon had spewed before his death while pleading for mercy. "Specifically, he’s inside one of the smallest controlled contaminated zones that a merchant company bought off from the Association. It’s located within the island."

"Did he say anything else?" Aisha knew what merchant company it was. It was none other than Susa Merchant Corp! "But why a contaminated zone?"

Nykos stared at her for a moment. Then, he answered her question, "To avoid the law and hide what they’re doing."

Aisha nodded, fully understanding what his words could mean. A contaminated zone was where anything could happen, and no one would be held accountable. Unless it was owned by the Association, Federation, or the Empire, anyone could do whatever they wanted inside.

Zenick must have been placed there to avoid being found. No wonder even after Theon mobilized men to search for him, they found nothing.

Of course, they wouldn’t. No one would think Zenick would be inside a contaminated zone!

Standing up from her chair, Aisha said, "Thank you."

"You’re going to look for him even after hearing that he’s inside a contaminated zone?" Nykos asked, surprised.

He knew how unsightly and unsettling a contamination zone could be. No Guide or Sentinel could enter it alone without stepping their foot deep into their own death. That was why it was common sense to go in with a group and advanced equipment to avoid any mishaps. This was something Aisha should’ve already learned from the academy.

Even Nykos had to be careful when he entered a contaminated zone. Only after entering the zone with his men would he wander off alone on his own to make full use of his power to achieve their goal inside.

"Yes."

"Entering the contaminated zone can be deadly," Nykos warned her. "You’d best contact that stubborn admiral at the Association and report what happened to him."

Zeke would listen to her. Nykos had no doubt he’d do her the favor of finding her older brother. After Aisha left the shuttle with a warning that they shouldn’t cross her boundaries and not think of getting guided by her, Zeke had pointed a ridiculously murderous glare at him.

Nykos had never seen him show an expression like that before. And to make his point, Zeke kicked him out while telling him, "Don’t act so recklessly next time. Or I’ll kill you myself."

"He’s not answering."

Aisha explained that she had sent a few messages to Zeke, but hadn’t received any reply.

"That’s troubling..." Nykos rubbed his chin, thinking of something briefly. Then, he offered, "I’ll have my men investigate. Once we find what contamination zone number your brother is in, you’ll have to get Zeke to help you get in."

Only the highest order of authority can override ownership of a contamination zone. Hence, getting Zeke’s permission to enter the contaminated zone that the merchant company who took Zenick away was Aisha’s only way to get there.

They could only hope that Zeke was on the floating island of the Association.

"Is there another way?" Aisha asked.

Nykos thought about it before shaking his head. "There isn’t."

The room was filled with silence.

The two of them stood inside the room with the remnants of two corpses that no longer resembled a human. Despite this, Aisha showed no sign of discomfort. Guides who had never been to a contaminated zone or a battlefield usually showed revulsion and horror upon finally stepping into the fray.

Yet, Aisha showed none of that. She treated what happened to the two men with absolute indifference, as if it was something she had come across countless times.

But the investigation Nykos received when he looked for her did not hint at anything that could have possibly made sense of her reaction.

Because of this, Nykos’ fascination and interest in her have now crossed another threshold.

***

Deep within the dark chamber, bioluminescent blue light embedded in strips along the stone walls flickered erratically, casting sickly shadows across the space. The walls glistened with a thick, slimy dark moisture. A foul stench hung heavy in the air, thick with the disgusting odor of decay and copper that threatened to choke the throat with every breath. Beneath, the ground was swallowed by a layer of unknown, stagnant water, rippling with a dull blue sheen whenever the erratic lights caught its surface.

Upon looking closer, the chamber wasn’t a narrow passage at all. It opened up to reveal a massive cavern stretching hundreds of feet into the darkness, its ceiling lost entirely to the shadows and defined only by the faint blue lights bleeding from the distant walls.

Long metal chains were attached to the walls, dragging along the wet ground, before they wrapped around a figure slumped against the wall.

Zenick’s wrists were bound above his head. The restraints pulsed with static whenever he moved; a jolt would awaken him whenever he slipped into a slumber. He’d stopped testing the chains after the first few hours he was being held there. Now, he didn’t know how many hours it had been since.

He didn’t know how long he’d been here at all. Time had stopped meaning much the moment they dragged him off the dock and put a hood over his head. But he remembered being struck by a sentinel and tasting the blood in his mouth. He could remember Holden laughing above him before everything went dark.

And the thing he could never forget was the faces of his crewmates who had orchestrated everything with Holden and betrayed him.

Now, he was being held in this place against his will. At the start, Zenick couldn’t see anything when the hood over his head was pulled off. But after adjusting to the dim light, he realized he was in a room full of pods. Rows of them, more than he could count, were scattered in every corner. And each one held a person standing upright and naked.

Tubes were running from their necks and wrists. Their mouths were covered by a mouthpiece that produced dark liquids and was forcefully fed into their stomachs. Zenick thought they were at an unknown lab center, but he crossed that thought off his mind when he realized what they were being fed the moment it was his turn to have those tubes attached to him.

Dark liquid was pumped into their bodies from a huge glass container situated in the center of the cavern.

It was Miasma. Zenick remembered being filled with terror and disbelief upon realizing what it was. And they were being forcefully fed into these people, who were being held against their will like him.

When it was his turn, Zenick recalled thrashing and resisting with all his might. But with the chains restraining him and a tranquilizer shot into his neck, he could only watch as these people in lab coats attached the tube to his body.

"Don’t worry, you’ll become a good vessel soon enough," Someone said as the last tube was placed into his body.

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