I'm Trapped Inside a Prince as the Most Powerful Entity-Chapter 53: The Path to Headquarters

Oliver stand on the cold stone floor of the corridor, a perfectly circular, melon-sized hole gaping in his midsection. He stared blankly at the empty space where his organs should have been, a look of utter disbelief and confusion etched on his face.

For a few seconds, he didn’t seem to understand what had happened to him. Then, red blood began to well up from the edges of the horrifying wound, spilling onto the grimy floor.

The pain, delayed by shock, finally hit him with overwhelming force. A choked gasp escaped his lips. He knew, with chilling certainty, that he was dying. This was the end. He slowly began to fall backward.

Adam, walked calmly towards the collapsing Oliver. He reached him just as Oliver’s back hit the floor, and knelt beside the dying man. Adam’s white eyes, with their pinpricks of glowing light, looked down at Oliver without pity or any discernible emotion.

"I will ask you only one more time," Adam said, his voice quiet but firm, cutting through Oliver’s gasping breaths. "This girl’s parents. Where are they?"

Oliver’s glazed eyes struggled to focus. They shifted from Adam’s face to the figure of Alina, who stood further back down the corridor, watching with a mixture of terror and desperate hope.

Oliver was taking ragged, shallow breaths now, each one a struggle. The gaping hole in his chest made breathing nearly impossible. He knew he didn’t have much time left.

With an immense effort of will, drawing on his last reserves of strength, Oliver managed to speak, his voice a weak, gurgling whisper. "A few... a few days ago..." he gasped, his words punctuated by painful coughs.

"We sent... her parents... specifically her mother... to the main base." He struggled for another breath. "Her mother... and this girl... they both possess... unique abilities. Useful abilities... that the Syndicate... wanted to exploit."

He coughed again, a spray of blood flecking his lips. "The girl... she escaped from the Baron’s manor... but we... we already had her mother... and the rest of her family by then."

Hearing Oliver’s words, Alina, who had been holding her breath, let out a small, shaky sigh of relief that was almost a sob. Her parents, they were alive! They hadn’t been killed by the Baron! A wave of renewed hope, surged through her, giving her a reason to keep going despite the terror of her current situation.

Adam listened to Oliver’s dying confession, his expression unchanging. He glanced briefly towards Lucas, who was still leaning against the wall, watching the scene with a horrified but attentive expression.

Lucas immediately flinched under Adam’s gaze. "I... I don’t know anything about this!" Lucas stammered quickly, holding up his hands defensively. "This... this was all my father’s doing! He handled all these... these kinds of affairs! I wasn’t involved! Please, don’t look at me like that! I don’t know what happened to her parents!"

Adam turned his attention back to the dying Oliver. "It seems to me," Adam said softly, "that if I were to ask you for the location of your main base... you would likely refuse to tell me."

A faint, weak smile touched Oliver’s bloodstained lips as he heard Adam’s words. He closed his eyes for a moment, a look of grim acceptance settling on his face. Adam understood. His guess was correct. Oliver, even in death, would remain loyal to the Syndicate and protect its secrets.

Adam also smiled then, a cold, knowing smile. "No matter," he said, almost to himself. "I have other ways."

He leaned closer to Oliver and reached out with his newly regenerated left hand. He placed his palm gently on Oliver’s forehead, covering his eyes. A soft, white, light began to glow from Adam’s hand, shimmering around Oliver’s head and seeping into his skin, as if Adam’s fingers were phasing slightly into Oliver’s skull.

[System]: Memory Extraction.

[Commencing Scan of Subject Oliver’s Neuropathways.]

Adam closed his own eyes, though the glowing pinpricks within them remained. He delved deep into Oliver’s mind, sifting through the dying man’s memories, searching for the information he needed.

Images, sounds, and sensations from Oliver’s life flashed through Adam’s awareness with incredible speed. He bypassed recent events, searching for specific knowledge related to the Spider Syndicate’s command structure and hidden locations.

After only a few seconds of focused searching, Adam found what he was looking for. Buried deep within Oliver’s memories, was the knowledge of the Syndicate’s main headquarters.

He also found its precise location – hidden within the borders of the neighboring Roland Kingdom, the same kingdom Sir Karlos had just fled to. He saw maps, access codes, names of key personnel. Everything he needed.

Oliver, despite being on the verge of death, felt the strange, intrusive white energy probing his mind. He felt his memories being accessed, his secrets being laid bare.

His eyes, which had been closed, snapped open wide with a final surge of shock and horrified understanding. He realized, in his last moments, what Adam was doing. He knew that the location of their main base, the Syndicate’s most protected secret, was now compromised.

"What... what are you?" Oliver gurgled, staring up at Adam with eyes filled with ultimate terror and disbelief. "Who... are you? You... you are not... the Third Prince..." His voice trailed off into a rattling sigh.

Lucas and Alina, watching from a distance, heard Oliver’s last, desperate words. They looked at each other, then back at Adam, who was still kneeling beside Oliver, his hand on the dead captain’s forehead.

They both knew, deep down, that Oliver was right. The being in front of them, despite wearing Eric’s face, was not the Third Prince they thought they knew. But they had no idea who or what he truly was. The power he wielded, the coldness in his eyes, the impossible things he did... it was beyond anything they could comprehend.

Adam ignored Oliver’s last words. He had the information he needed. He withdrew his hand from Oliver’s forehead. The white light faded. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

[System]: Memory Extraction complete. Location of Spider Syndicate Main Headquarters in Roland Kingdom acquired. Coordinates logged.

Adam stood up slowly, looking down at Oliver’s now lifeless body. "I believe," Adam said quietly, as if speaking to the dead man, "that you do not have enough time left for me to explain who I am."

As Adam spoke, Oliver’s eyes, which had been fixed on Adam with that last, horrified stare, finally fluttered closed. His last breath escaped him. Oliver, the seasoned and powerful captain of the Spider Syndicate, was dead.

Alina and Lucas looked at each other again, then back at Adam, their faces filled with a mixture of fear, confusion, and perhaps a tiny sliver of awe. Adam turned his empty white eyes towards them.

"Girl," Adam said, his gaze fixing on Alina. "I have found out where your parents are. Or at least, where your mother was taken. She is being held at the Spider Syndicate’s main base."

Hearing this confirmation, Alina felt another wave of relief, quickly followed by renewed worry. Her mother was alive, but at their main base? That sounded even more dangerous than the Baron’s mansion. Lucas also looked confused.

He hesitated for a moment, then spoke up, his voice still a little shaky but more composed than before. "But... Your Highness," Lucas began, still unsure how to address this powerful being, "no one in this entire continent knows where the Spider Syndicate’s main base is truly located. It’s one of the biggest mysteries. How... how will we find it?" He looked genuinely perplexed.

Alina’s attention snapped from Lucas back to Adam, her eyes wide with the same question.

Adam looked at them both, a faint, almost unnoticeable smile touching his lips. "I know where it is," he stated simply.

Both Lucas and Alina stared at him, completely stunned. He knew? How could he possibly know something that kings and entire kingdoms had failed to discover for years?

"Where?" Lucas blurted out, his curiosity overriding his fear for a moment. "Where is the Spider Syndicate’s main headquarters?"

"It is located," Adam revealed, his voice calm and matter-of-fact, "within the borders of neighboring kingdom. The Roland Kingdom."

Before either Lucas or Alina could react to this shocking piece of information, Adam turned his attention away from them. He looked down the dark corridor in the direction Malkor, the terrified thug Oliver had sent with a message, had fled earlier. Adam knew that the escapees, Bryan and Billy, would be trying to reach that main base in the Roland Kingdom as well.

Scene Shift: Another Part of the Syndicate Base

Miles away through the winding tunnels, Bryan, Billy, and Malkor were running as fast as their legs could carry them. They had been running for several minutes, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the terrifying intruder. Malkor, his temporary energy boost long since faded, was struggling to keep up, panting heavily.

"Are we... are we going to make it... to the main base... just by running?" Malkor gasped out between breaths, looking at Billy. "I... I don’t even know where the main base is!" He had always just been a low-level thug in the Crestport branch.

Billy glanced back at Malkor without slowing down. "We’re not running to the main base, idiot," Billy snapped impatiently. "Not directly. We’re going to an emergency extraction point. A place with a way to get to the main base. Quickly."

They continued running, taking several more turns through deserted sections of the underground complex. Finally, Bryan, who was leading the way, skidded to a halt in front of a seemingly ordinary, rough-hewn wooden door set into the stone wall. It looked like a storage closet.

"This is it," Bryan grunted, breathing heavily himself. He quickly fumbled with a hidden latch, and the door swung inwards, revealing a small, dusty room beyond. He, Billy, and Malkor hurried inside, and Bryan quickly closed and bolted the door behind them.

The room was mostly empty, except for a large, strange object standing in the center. It was a tall, cylindrical crystal, at least six feet high, humming with a faint, dark energy. It was set within a metal framework, looking like some kind of tube. Strange, dark symbols were etched into the surface of the crystal, glowing faintly.

Bryan walked up to the crystal, placing a hand on its cool surface. "This is our only way out," he announced, his voice grim. "It’s an emergency long-range teleportation crystal. Very expensive, one-time use only. It’s keyed directly to the reception chamber at the main headquarters." He looked at Billy, then at Malkor. "We all have to go together. Activate it, and it takes everyone within a few feet of it straight there."

Malkor stared at the pulsating dark crystal with wide, awestruck eyes. He had never imagined he would ever see the inside of the Spider Syndicate’s main headquarters, let alone travel there via such a powerful and rare magical artifact. The fear of the intruder was still strong, but now it was mixed with a strange sense of excitement and anticipation.