OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 381: Poor Bastard II

Snap...

The darkness receded, revealing a lightless room.

My body was strapped to a cold chair made of metal.

Voices whispered before me, but I couldn't understand them.

"....you... think.... talk?"

"... Maybe... it..... too much?"

"Probably..."

My mind was still there.

That nightmarish place.

I tried to detach myself from it, but I couldn't.

The fear was ingrained in my bones, like a disease.

Illusions materialized around me, even though I could barely see, my vision blurry.

Every shadow seemed to dance, taunting me.

The air was thick with a feeling of death.

It was a jarring contrast...

"Can... hear me?"

My head slowly rose, meeting a familiar figure in the distance.

He was quite the giant, looking like a beefed-up version of my Exec's security personnel. And

like them, he wore shades indoors, which I still didn't quite understand.

Behind him were six people, each with a distinct appearance.

They certainly stood out from the average operatives around the plaza.

No metal adorned their bodies...

This plaza was not their home; they were guests.

I scrutinized their features for a moment, trying to identify them, and then I suddenly realized who they were.

My heart sank much more than earlier, almost leaving my body.

These people were not just any operatives.

No, not run-of-the-mill at all.

They were members of the eleventh Hunter Group, Azazel.

Everyone knew about them.

Such a young hunter group rose through the ranks in what felt like days, becoming a colossal headache to many.

They've found more ruins than any of the other hunter groups combined.

Their exploits were legendary, solving many mysteries that hounded the wasteland for years. The kind of stories told in pubs across all sectors.

There was a time when they unearthed the Lost City of Nefarius, an ancient underground metropolis. The only clues found for this ruin came from The Silent Archive, a ruin that had long since been plundered of all its worth, so it was a wonder how they managed to find it. They not only mapped the entire city but also recovered relics that rewrote history and filled in the blanks of some of the Missing History.

Then there was their daring raid on the Fortress Of Metal, a ruin infested with Cubs.

It was once an outpost used by the UEF, but it got run over by escaping constructs that somehow managed to pass through the front lines unnoticed.

They cleared it in a single night, rescuing an entire platoon of Army combatants.

And who could forget their breakthrough in entering the Unseen Vault, a place where many thousands had tried and failed?

They navigated its corridors and brought back technologies that revolutionized modern engineering. Out of the loot, there were a few research papers that even helped me with my project.

'Just... what are they doing here?'

The woman with the black cape had to be Amanda, the Shadow Binder and strategist whose plans never failed.

Next to her was Kiera, the one who led every battle.

Behind them were Leo, the techie genius who could hack anything; Sarah, their fearless, scarred healer; and Jack, the sharpshooter who never missed.

Hiro, known for his quick close combat skills, stood next to Evan, the muscle of the group. Only when my gaze left them and turned to him-the giant figure, the man in shades-did I realize that the devil I saw was Emir.

..

I froze, my thoughts still. The stories about him were the most terrifying.

The man was never seen much with his cohort, but when he was, people, no matter what rank and profession, knew that shit was about to go down.

The idea of becoming his enemy was a nightmare no one wanted to entertain.

'...Seriously, what the hell is going on?!'

'What do they want from me?' fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

'What did I do?'

My thoughts raced, fear gripping me as I realized the gravity of my situation.

These were not people to be trifled with, and I may have stepped on their toes in some way. How? I didn't know; all I knew was that I had to beg.

"P-Please-"|

But as I was about to, my eyes widened in terror as they all approached.

In a moment, they stood directly behind Emir, who, in the time I hadn't looked at him, had somehow gotten closer to me.

He sat on the 'air,' a small distance above the ground, with one leg over the other, staring me

down.

"Do you know who we are?"

His heavy voice echoed in the empty room, and after many breaths, I managed to reply:

"Y-you're... Azazel..."

Gulping down my forming saliva, I built up my courage and asked:

"W-why am I here? What do you want from me?"

***

Emir smiled, leaning back on his Aetheric Construct as his eyes lingered on Gabriel.

'I might've scared him too much...'

Though it was his plan, seeing the man shake so much brought him slight displeasure.

Was he really that scary?

He didn't think so.

But he knew that Gabriel's reaction wasn't solely due to how he looked.

In fact, it was a minor factor.

Besides his Death's Shadow, the main factor was their reputation.

Emir had built his hunter group with a certain thing in mind:

'Show yourself as so dangerous that the idea of becoming your enemy would inspire dread

and chaos.'

He really took that to heart, making sure that no one ever tried them, tested them, unknowing how far their roots ran or how deep they held.

And if Gabriel's reaction was any indication, his tactic had worked.

In the eyes of people with a similar status to his, Emir appeared to be an unbridled menace.

That was nice to know... but him being a 'fan' wasn't about to change his fate.

'I guess it's time to end this poor bastard's life.'

Standing up, Emir unsheathed one of his swords and asked:

"Have you tried sending a distress signal yet?"

Gabriel, realizing he hadn't, immediately attempted to connect to his terminal.

But as he did, his neural network twitched unsettlingly.

Trying again, he found his terminal unresponsive.

Panic surged through him once more; something was terribly wrong.

'Wait-no!'

"I'm in."

Lyra's chilling words cut through his dread.

And before he could even grasp their meaning, two others followed swiftly:

"Kill him."

Frozen with fear, Gabriel strained against his chains, the cold metal biting deep into his

wrists.

His entire body trembled as raw desperation clawed at him, each futile tug against the restraints echoing his escalating panic.

"I don't want to die! PLEASE-ugh! ...I have so much to live for."

He tried his hardest to get out, yet with his meager strength, he only hurt himself.

"Why me?!"

His mind raced through memories and regrets-images of faces he loved, moments of joy and sorrow, his once-in-a-lifetime chance at freedom-all flashed before his eyes.

"Please someone help me... help me... someone... please... ahhhhhhh.... ughaaaaaahaaa Why?!

Why?! Why?!"

He gasped for air, his voice croaking, his chest tight with the weight of impending death.

"There are worse people out there."

Gabriel pleaded, knowing that his words mattered not.

"Kill them! They deserve to die, not me!"

The chains rattled as he pulled hard against them, almost breaking his bones.

"I'm flawed; of course I fucking am, but who isn't?!"

They dug deeper into his skin with each frantic struggle, blood trickling down his arms.

"NOBODY! NOOOOOBBBBOODDY!"

Tears welled in his eyes as he continued to scream, his voice a broken mess.

"PLEASE AHHH!"

His body convulsed, vomit gurgling out his mouth, the pounding of his heartbeat defeating

as he bellowed even louder:

"PLEASE! PLEEEAASE LET ME-"

Schwing!

Emir's sword cut through the air, silencing Gabriel's anguished plea as it died on his lips.

The head flew clean off, bloodlessly, leaving only a chilling silence in the wake of his futile

struggle.

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""

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"...

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No one uttered a word.

Kiera was impassive; Sarah's eyes darkened, reflecting a suppressed sympathy; and Jack's jaw

tightened, his expression resolute.

Evan trembled, shook from the viscerality of it all; Hiro felt the opposite way, hyped almost;

and Leo, the last of them, had his head down, showing respect to the headless man.

He was usually the one making jokes, but death was something he held in high regard, especially the deaths of 'named' people and techies like himself.

Each member processed the scene in their own way, but their reverence for Emir was shared

between them, unmistakable.

They watched him clean his blade and unsheathe it back to its holster on his augmented suit. Meanwhile, Lyra, who showed no change in emotion, walked up to the head that slowly tumbled across the room, then picked it up with a cloth, wrapping it tightly and putting it in a

small bag.

She looked at Kiera, who just snapped out of her daze, then gestured for her to clean the place

up.

Nodding, she signaled for the rest to move, and they began to work.

The previous her would've never done something like this, especially not those under her

command, but after that accursed day, she changed.

Her principles were no more. Long gone was their naivety.

Stealing from other hunters? They did that in spades and were doing it right then as well.

Harming civilians? They tended to avoid it, but if it wasn't possible, they had no issue involving them.

While it did leave a sour taste, they did anything and everything they were asked.

They were monsters in human skin, no worse than any other Corpo rat in the plaza.

At least, that was what they thought of themselves.

Emir didn't care about morals and whatnot, that word was deleted from his vocabulary a long

time ago, like how 'loyalty' was deleted from the Corpos.

Now all that was on his mind was to relax a little, so once his cohort was done with the

cleanup, he asked:

"Whose down to go drink?"