The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

The woman continued screaming at the top of her lungs after seeing the man she was just talking to suddenly have his head twisted in the other direction.

She stared at Aisha with bewildered and fearful eyes.

”Who... who are you?”

But her question was met with a blade striking her shoulder, pushing her backward and sending her back against one of the tanks. At the same time, Aisha approached her and gripped the handle of her dagger.

”Where is the man Holden brought in here?”

The woman was still groaning in pain, trying to pull the dagger from her shoulder, but Aisha didn’t allow her. Hearing the question, the woman could only answer, ”Who are you talking about?”

”Don’t lie.” Aisha pressed the blade deeper. ”I heard everything.”

The woman’s eyes widened. She bit her lip and looked around, but there was no one else around. The other man she was walking with was strangely floating in the air, clutching his throat with his legs flailing around. Even the other researchers around were croaking as though something was holding them by their necks.

What she didn’t know was that the darkness of that cavern helped disguise the shadows strangling every single person inside that room aside from her.

”He... he’s below.”

The dagger in her shoulder eased, but Aisha wasn’t done questioning her. She didn’t fully trust the woman, so she asked, ”Describe him.”

If the woman described Zenick incorrectly and blabbered about someone else, she’d have to kill her as well.

Fortunately, the woman did not try to deceive her.

”He has a mole under his eye, and he has blonde hair. His name... Ze... Zedrick... No, I’m sure it was similar to that.” Her words quickly tumbled over each other as she tried to recollect what she could remember about the one they were keeping below. Remembering something, she continued, ”He’s the only one who succeeded in the processing, so he was moved below for careful observation!” ℯℯ𝑙.

Since only one of their Vessels succeeded in carrying two types of miasma in his body, they immediately moved him to the chamber below ground so they could give him special treatment, prioritizing him for the Order’s selection.

She even heard that once they arrived at the main branch, they would continue processing him and injecting another type of miasma before the Elders could take their time to choose which part they wanted from his body.

”Why three phases?” Aisha asked.

The woman’s eyes widened, surprised that Aisha knew that. But thinking about it again, she did say she heard everything, so that was unsurprising.

Against her will, she answered, ”There’s usually only one phase. But Holden... Holden suggested continuing through the subsequent phases. The Order approved it after observing that he could carry through to the next phase.”

”Why are they inside the tanks? What are the tubes connected to them?” Aisha knocked her knuckles against the glass behind the woman, where a human was floating.

Hesitation flashed across the woman’s eyes, but a single press of the blade against her shoulder made her spill what she knew. ”They inject the miasma directly through the tubes, and the tanks are filled with special liquids that can contain miasma within the Vessel.”

Aisha narrowed her eyes.

As she glanced past the woman’s shoulder, she could see rows upon rows of those tanks stretching further into the cavern than she had first realized, each one holding a body suspended in that strange liquid, tubes snaking from their arms and necks like parasites feeding on them slowly. Some of the floating figures still twitched faintly, a sign that whatever was being pumped into them hadn’t yet stolen every last bit of life from their bodies.

It was a sight that turned her stomach, and for a moment she wondered just how many of these people had been taken the same way Zenick had, dragged into this place and reduced to nothing more than containers for something they never asked to carry.

Worse still, she felt sick thinking that Zenick had undergone the same treatment and perhaps even far worse than them.

At the same time, Nykos’ shadow form returned to her side. He gazed at her silently, and a hint of a smile appeared. He didn’t intervene in her interrogation, watching her dotingly and feeling impressed with how she did her things prettily.

The current Aisha looked extremely murderous. Under the dim lights, her entire body was covered in killing intent and coldness. The more she heard, the colder and angrier she was.

”When does the ship leave?” Aisha looked at the woman.

”The loading of Vessels should be starting now.” The woman swallowed hard.

That could only mean that time was running out. Aisha had to find Zenick as soon as possible before he was loaded onto the transport ship and it became too late for her to reach him.

”Is Holden there?”

The woman shook her head.

Aisha nodded and let go of the dagger.

”And the Order, tell me what you know about them.”

The woman opened her mouth, but no words came out.

She stared at Aisha for a second before her lips suddenly spread into a strange smile.

”The Order is the true ruler of the universe!”

Before Aisha could stop her, the woman took the dagger from her shoulder and swiped the blade across her neck, opening up a big gash as blood gushed out into the open air and onto Aisha.

The gurgling sound that came from the woman was the only sound that could be heard in the area, resembling a laugh filled with joy.

Aisha did not expect the woman to kill herself after uttering those words. When she took the dagger out of her shoulder, Aisha was prepared to kill her with it as well. She couldn’t understand why she would choose to kill herself for an organization that treats human beings as mere vessels for miasma.

But it wasn’t the first time she had witnessed something like that.

What the woman did made her recall the man she faced on the upper floors before she fell unconscious. That man was also muttering something while holding his corrupted hand preciously.

”What a bunch of psychopaths,” she spat under her breath as she stood up.

It seemed the Order was a force she needed to watch out for and be careful of.