I Possess the SSS Skill: Future Sight-Chapter 70: Saint Hilarius Hospital (2)

The black wall split open from the middle, forming a massive gap.

Before us... an elevator appeared.

It wasn’t a medical or human elevator.

It was a massive freight lift, large enough to carry three military trucks at once.

Its walls were made of explosion-resistant steel, and its lighting was dim, blood-red.

"A slaughterhouse elevator..." Aiden whispered, his eyes trembling with fear.

"This is the path they use to bring down thousands of patients..."

"This is the road to hell," Valicera said coldly, stepping past me and entering the massive elevator first.

"Let’s go."

We entered one by one.

The air inside was extremely cold, filled with a strong chemical sterilization smell, as if they were trying to wash away the constant scent of death embedded within it.

As soon as we were all inside, the double steel doors slowly closed, producing a muffled sound that completely isolated us from the outside world—and from the lobby’s alarm.

The control panel inside the elevator had no traditional buttons.

It only had a palm print scanner and a small screen displaying in red: Descent to Purgatory.

"Aiden, activate your gloves and spoof the print," Valicera ordered.

Aiden stepped forward, his hands shaking.

He placed his tablet over the scanner and began injecting digital intrusion Etra.

"The system is encrypted with complex biological encryption... I need thirty seconds to trick it..."

"Faster!" Eva said, staring at the sealed door, afraid we might be surrounded.

I stood in the center, my magnums in hand, my senses at maximum alert.

This is too easy, I thought, my heartbeat accelerating for no reason.

The assault had been bloody, yes—but they let us reach the elevator.

Saint Hilarius knows we’re here. The Voliders know. Why didn’t they lock it down... or rig it?

"Hack complete!" Aiden shouted with childlike excitement as the screen turned green.

The massive elevator jolted violently and began to descend.

Wooooosh...

At first, the speed was slow. We descended in absolute silence.

B1... B2... nothing appeared on the screen—it was going deeper into the earth.

Damian exhaled slightly, relaxing his shoulders.

"Looks like we’re bypassing the upper floors straight to the bottom of the underground..."

"Don’t relax," I said sharply, a sense of death crawling up my neck.

"Something’s wrong."

Suddenly—

The elevator stopped.

Not gradually.

It halted with catastrophic force, throwing us all to our knees, our weapons flying from our hands and slamming into the steel walls.

"What happened?!" Sia shouted, trying to stand.

The red light inside the elevator went out completely.

We were plunged into absolute, suffocating darkness.

Then... a calm, mechanical, feminine voice echoed from the speakers above:

[ Unauthorized biological intrusion detected. Activating protocol: Free Fall and Spacetime Dismemberment. We wish you an enjoyable suffering. ]

"Free fall?!" Aiden screamed hysterically.

Shzzzzzzzz! KRAAAAAASH!

The sound of the massive steel cables holding the elevator... snapped!

The enormous elevator—tons in weight—began plummeting into the void!

Gravity vanished inside the cabin.

Our feet lifted off the ground.

We began floating in the darkness, screaming as we fell at unimaginable speed toward the depths.

I felt my stomach rise into my throat.

The air was ripped from my lungs.

"Valicera! Use gravity to slow the fall!" Damian roared, trying to swim through the air to grab onto the elevator wall.

"I can’t!" Valicera shouted in the darkness, her voice carrying real fear for the first time.

"There are spacetime stabilizers embedded in the shaft walls! They’re disrupting my energy!"

"We’re going to crash! We’ll be paste!" Eva screamed.

But the fall wasn’t the real trap.

As we plunged at insane speed—

Wooooosh... KRAAAAAAAAAAACK!

From the walls of the dark elevator shaft we were falling through, massive hydraulic laser blades burst out—tearing through the steel walls of the elevator as if it were made of cardboard!

The blades weren’t meant to kill us directly.

They were programmed to slice the massive elevator into sections!

"Kyle! Watch out!"

I heard Eva’s scream and felt her hand grab the collar of my coat in the weightlessness.

In the same fraction of a second, a massive red light blade split the elevator cleanly in half!

It passed between me and Damian by mere centimeters, its heat scorching the edge of my mask.

KRAAAAAASH!

The elevator split apart!

The massive cabin divided into three separate sections, each plunging into a different tunnel branching off from the main shaft—dark ventilation and drainage channels.

"Siaaaaa!" Damian shouted as he fell in another section.

"Leader!" Aiden cried out.

All voices were drowned beneath the roar of tearing metal and rushing air.

The floor beneath me tilted violently.

Eva and I were in the same shattered section.

Our section slammed into a rough concrete wall and began sliding down a steep incline in total darkness, sparks flying as torn steel scraped against concrete—briefly illuminating our terrified faces with violent flashes.

"Hold onto something!" I roared at the top of my lungs, dropping all my masks, grabbing Eva with brutal force so she wouldn’t be thrown out through the open gap, bracing my scarred back against the remnants of the metal wall.

We slid for seconds that felt like eternity.

Then—

BOOM!

Our section slammed into the ground, launching us into the air.

The steel structure completely collapsed.

I rolled across a hard, wet surface that reeked of a suffocating, disgusting stench—far worse than sewage.

A smell like... rotting flesh preserved in chemicals.

My head hit something solid, and I lost consciousness for a second or two.

When I slowly opened my crimson eyes, blood dripping from my forehead, I found myself lying on my back.

The lighting around us was extremely dim, flickering with a sickly green hue.

Eva lay nearby, groaning weakly, her sniper rifle snapped in half beside her.

I exhaled with difficulty and wiped the blood from my eyes.

The Voliders’ trap had worked.

They had shattered our greatest strength: our unity and tactical cohesion.

Alpha Squad had been scattered across the dark levels of the slaughterhouse, each of us cast into a different nightmare.

I slowly sat up and looked around me—and what I saw made my heart pound with pure, unfiltered terror.

"W-Where... where are we?" Eva whispered, trying to sit up, clutching her bleeding head.

I scanned the surroundings under the dim green light.

We were in a very long corridor.

There were no walls on either side.

There were cages.

Hundreds of hexagonal cages, suspended by rusted chains from a ceiling lost in darkness.

And from within those cages... human eyes.

White. Empty. Lidless.

Staring at us.

Sewn lips emitted muffled groans that blended into a symphony of absolute suffering.

I swallowed, my throat dry, tightening my grip on the handle of my tactical knife—realizing that my nightmares in the orphanage were nothing but a joke compared to this place.

"Welcome, Eva," I whispered in the voice of the Black Joker, my eyes burning with despair and madness.

"We’ve arrived... at Purgatory."