Chapter 21: Breaking Out of Hell (Part 3)

Chapter 26: Breaking Out of Hell (Part Two)

Seven fifty-five, five minutes before the operation began. An interrogation room.

What Jefferson had just heard from Tian Yi revealed a great deal. Of course, as warden, he wasn't about to take the man's word for it. But he had heard Zuo Dao's name. Though Tian Yi seemed merely to have used him as an example, without explicitly claiming they were accomplices, it was the only lead Jefferson could think of.

During their conversation, Tian Yi had never named the “three prisoners” he intended to rescue, explained how he would cut Hell Island's power supply, or specified when the operation would begin. He seemed to have arrogantly laid out his entire escape plan, but all he had really done was tell a story that hadn't happened yet. As for exactly how it would happen, he hadn't said a word.

Jefferson could only have Zuo Dao brought in and see whether torture would get anything out of him.

“Our torturer requested leave at short notice, and his replacement hasn't arrived yet, so...” Jefferson's opening words sent a chill down Zuo Dao's spine. “I'll have to take over his duties and torture you myself.”

“Warden... this... why so suddenly...” Sweat covered Zuo Dao's forehead. He thought, No way. Has the escape plan already been strangled in its cradle without my even knowing?

“Of course, I don't personally enjoy torturing prisoners,” Jefferson said. “Tell me everything you know about the escape, and save us both some time.”

……

Meanwhile, in another interrogation room.

The shock rings had been removed from Blood Owl's wrists, but strips of pure alloy secured him to an operating table. The air was filled with Hades's Divine Mist at the same concentration as in the high-security confinement area.

Butcher attached the monitoring instruments to Blood Owl one by one. Heart rate, blood pressure, brainwave scans, and so on—all the experimental data would be recorded as valuable research material for evolution.

“It took quite some effort to get them to clear out a room and convert it into this.” Butcher walked toward a corner of the interrogation room. “Every inch of Tidal Prison is worth a fortune. It'd be easier to fence off a patch of some noble's backyard to graze sheep than requisition a laboratory here.”

Blood Owl replied, “Providing resources to a scientist of your caliber is undoubtedly a waste.”

“Heh heh... I hope you can maintain that attitude throughout the experiment,” Butcher said with a laugh. His face, with its thick eyebrows and large eyes, had actually been sewn on, making changes of expression quite difficult. Even so, he did his best to produce an evil smile. “Where shall we begin? I suppose we should test your response to pain first. Heh heh heh...”

“If you can't control yourself and insist on cackling like the villain in a children's movie, I suggest you destroy my hearing first.” Blood Owl continued to regard him with contempt.

Butcher's anger slowly mounted. This bastard was completely at his mercy, yet his heart rate and pulse hadn't even changed. His breathing was steady and his temperature normal. Did he have no idea what fear was?

“You're getting angry, aren't you? That's not an emotion an experimenter should bring to his work. You need to stay calm and objective to obtain accurate data and conduct the experiment smoothly and precisely.” Blood Owl sounded like a university professor advising a novice graduate student.

By now, Butcher had wheeled a trolley covered with surgical instruments up beside the operating table. “I think I'll cut out your tongue first and preserve it in a jar for my personal collection.”

As he finished speaking, he picked up a scalpel. The next second, without warning, the interrogation room went pitch-black.

It wasn't just this interrogation room. The lights had gone out throughout Tidal Prison. Only the guards in armored uniforms could still see their surroundings through their helmets' night vision.

“What's going on? Guard! What's happened?!” Butcher shouted, assuming there was merely a problem with the laboratory's power supply.

Several sharp snaps sounded in quick succession in the darkness, coming from the operating table right in front of him.

Sensing danger, Butcher instinctively plunged the scalpel down hard at the operating table. He wasn't sure what Blood Owl was doing, nor could he judge exactly where the blade would strike. All he knew was that Blood Owl might be struggling to escape. The safest thing now was to stab him first. It wouldn't matter if he killed him.

But the scalpel struck a steel plate. The operating table was already empty.

Butcher's head rang. He did his utmost to control his breathing and moved away from where he had been standing, making as little noise as possible. He understood that he and Blood Owl were now sharing the same darkness. Whoever gave away his position first would lose the initiative.

Within the mist, Butcher still felt confident he could fight Blood Owl. Though his own rank was lower, his body had undergone numerous modifications by evolution, leaving him far stronger than an ordinary person even without his abilities.

As long as I can locate him, I can subdue... no... I can kill him! Butcher told himself. Unfortunately, this self-deception lasted only about ten seconds.

“This is a worthwhile experiment.” When Blood Owl spoke, he was barely a meter directly in front of Butcher. “In less than a minute, you've gone from surprise to extreme terror, then regained a little composure. This series of responses demonstrates...”

All Butcher wanted to do now was attack, but it took him about three seconds to realize something... both his arms were gone.

Blood Owl continued, “Demonstrates that you, too, are a piece of trash with little research value.”

In the darkness came the sound of something hitting the floor. Two sounds, very close together...

“Most abusers have been abused themselves, often suffering trauma in childhood. I imagine you're no exception. Beneath that sick exterior, you're just an ordinary person in need of psychotherapy. Of course, an ordinary person might still recover. As for you... I think you've gone to the other extreme. You seek a kind of pleasure, a kind of balance, in what you call your ‘experiments.’” Blood Owl had now become a psychologist. “Your hypocrisy and baseness sully two things at once: ‘science’ and ‘evil.’ Scientists pursuing truth would despise you. Born psychopathic killers would be ashamed of you.”

In an instant, Blood Owl clamped a hand around Butcher's skull, immobilizing him. “Without power, no sound can leave the interrogation room, and the door won't open. Calling for a guard just now was a complete waste of effort. Hmph... You don't even know that, and you have the nerve to call this your laboratory? I really ought to feel sorry for the specimens who died on your operating table. Unfortunately, I can only get something resembling regret from other people.” He spoke at an unhurried, even pace. Before he had finished, he casually crushed Butcher's head with one hand.

Brains, blood, and fragments of bone oozed between Blood Owl's fingers. When you couldn't see it, the sensation was actually much like kneading meat filling.

Blood Owl shook his hand, wiped the mess off on Butcher's clothes, then turned and walked toward the sealed door behind him...

……

A little earlier, at eight o'clock sharp.

The submarine had stopped beside Hell Island, at a depth of about three hundred meters.

On the bridge, Sorcerer kept his eyes on the console and spoke without turning around. “Resonance scan complete. A cross section of the island's prison is on the main screen.”

Gunsmith followed up. “Ready the main bow cannon. Target the artificial structures and hit the energy reactor at the very bottom.”

“Even a glancing hit will wreck that kind of power source. Won't it cause a massive explosion?” Accountant asked.

Marshal, already poised to fire, tilted his head and replied, “A big explosion is impossible. Hell Island doesn't use a nuclear reactor. That's a completely safe power source, as harmless as a hand-cranked generator.” As he spoke, he fired the submarine's main bow cannon.

A brilliant silver beam shot from the submarine's bow, pierced seawater, the body of the island, and alloy steel plating, punched through the huge energy reactor at the very bottom of Tidal Prison, then continued straight on and emerged from the island's far side.

Once the beam vanished, seawater poured in through the holes at both ends. But the partitions between Tidal Prison's various sections were extremely sturdy, and the water seeped upward very slowly. It would take at least several hours to drown everyone inside the island.

That one shot sent the prison into an uproar.

Jefferson and Zuo Dao were plunged into darkness at the same instant. From that second onward, another contest of wits and nerve began in their interrogation room.

“I can tell from the way your energy works that you're no ordinary Paper-rank ability user,” Jefferson said. “I imagine you could remove the shock rings from your wrists whenever you liked. Of course, it makes no difference whether you remove them now. They're already scrap metal. But...” He pushed back his chair and stood. “If you think the mist brings our strengths down to the same level, you're asking to die.”

Zuo Dao remained seated. He didn't even dare channel energy to break the shock rings, because the instant the room went dark, he had sensed something lethal: Jefferson's killing intent. The warden needn't have said anything. Zuo Dao wouldn't have considered making a move anyway. He didn't dare act rashly, for fear Jefferson would mistake it for an attempt to fight back and kill him on the spot.

“Warden, I don't think this interrogation can proceed normally anymore,” Zuo Dao replied. “Let me analyze the situation. Judging by what you just said, you must be well aware that this isn't a faulty light bulb. The entire prison's power supply has been destroyed.

“Under these circumstances, sitting here in a standoff with me is a waste of time, and ordinary guards couldn't keep me under control. So I have a suggestion. We leave and go our separate ways. I won't suddenly attack you, and you don't insist on fighting me to the death. Before the mist wears off completely, you can try to reach the special confinement area and bring things under control, minimize the damage, and do your job as warden. I'll do what a prisoner should do and try to escape without getting myself killed. We each go about our business and leave each other alone.”

“An excellent suggestion, but there's one problem... Wouldn't it save me more trouble to kill you before I leave?” Jefferson's voice was now behind Zuo Dao.

Zuo Dao was already drenched in sweat from fright, but his voice remained steady. “Are you sure? If something goes wrong here while you're killing a Paper-rank ability user from general confinement, or you waste too much valuable time...” He sliced through the shock rings on his wrists with his bare hands, letting them fall onto the table. “We certainly aren't on the same level. But until the mist's effects are completely gone, the gap isn't as great as you imagine.” With that last sentence, he had pushed this brief negotiation as far as he dared. What he meant was, if you really insist on fighting me, I'll have to stake my life on it.

“Coming up with a strategy that combines persuasion and threats when you're the weaker party shows some nerve. Whether or not you have anything to do with what's happening, I'll spare your life for now.” As Jefferson said this, his voice was actually coming from the corridor outside the interrogation room.

Zuo Dao's face went white with fright. The man had broken through an alloy door sealed shut by the power failure without making a sound! And without even a noticeable fluctuation in energy?

Both men knew perfectly well that Zuo Dao owed his life today to Jefferson's mercy. But there was one thing Zuo Dao didn't know. Even in this situation, Jefferson retained his clarity of thought and his code of conduct. His principles had long since sunk into his bones. As warden, Jefferson would not kill prisoners on a whim, nor anyone else for that matter. That was why, when Tian Yi attacked him, he had simply blocked the blow. He was an overseer, not a tyrant or a killer. Even in this emergency, his duties remained his first consideration.

……

By eight fifteen, Warden Jefferson, Head Guard Sean, and Blood Owl were all heading toward the special confinement area.

In fact, throughout their earlier conversation, Tian Yi had been feeding Jefferson half-truths. The Inverted Cross had no intention of storming the special confinement area or using the island's facilities to broadcast the escape live to the outside world. That would have required bringing a temporary power supply to connect to the relevant prison equipment, which would have been quite a nuisance. He had only said it to lure Jefferson toward the special confinement area as soon as possible.

Blood Owl alone could handle the operation inside the island. The submarine crew's main task was to guide the prisoners to the surface. There would be a broadcast, too, but it wouldn't use the prison's gladiatorial combat system to reach Tiandu's powerful elite. The Inverted Cross's broadcast would reach far more people...

For now, the special confinement area remained fairly stable. Every wall and door there was made of pure alloy. Even among ability users of Fierce rank and above, those who could deal with pure alloy through energy alone, as Blood Owl could, were exceedingly rare.

In general confinement, however, once the prisoners discovered that their shock rings no longer worked, they realized this was the chance of a lifetime. At this hour, the cell doors had yet to be opened, but the dark confinement area rang with the sounds of bars being shaken violently and cell doors being battered and kicked. A little over ten minutes later, many ability users noticed their powers gradually returning. One after another, they began breaking out of their cells...

The guards were powerless to stop this, since they couldn't open the computer-controlled cell doors either. Otherwise, if they had acted quickly while the mist still worked, opening the doors one by one and subduing the prisoners individually, they would still have stood a chance.

But now the guards couldn't even escape the confinement area. They, too, were throwing themselves desperately against doors, trying to break through the electronic exit doors and flee before the area behind them spiraled out of control.

……

By eight thirty, general confinement was almost entirely out of control. Prisoners who had escaped their cells and regained their abilities poured into the other areas. The higher-level ability users who had mastered energy manipulation could find their way in the dark and detect the approximate locations of the island's powerful figures. The others simply blundered through Tidal Prison's complex network of structures, searching for a way out.

Some particularly violent maniacs vented their fury by smashing every installation and piece of equipment they came across, hoping to force a path out. Unfortunately, their actions accelerated the inflow of seawater. Soon people noticed water pouring into the prison, its level steadily rising. Without needing to confer, the prisoners began moving toward higher ground. In the darkness, they were like rats in a sewer, scurrying upward wherever they found a route. The slightly cleverer prisoners left a few guards alive and took them hostage, forcing them to lead the way using their armored uniforms' night vision.

By this point, the special confinement area had finally slipped out of control as well.

For some reason, neither Jefferson nor Blood Owl had arrived, and even Head Guard Sean was nowhere to be found. The senior guards had been calling over their armor's built-in communications equipment for a long time without receiving any response.

The truly terrifying ability users weren't the cyborgs or mutants with altered physiques who fought monthly death matches in special confinement. They were the monsters kept in cells that never saw daylight, inhumanely “sealed” by all manner of methods tailored specifically to them.

In the darkness, a voice sounded in Divine Key's cell. “Aren't you going out for some fresh air? I can understand those so-called ‘thinkers’ and ‘reformers’ hiding in their cells to wait and see, but why are you sitting there doing nothing?”

“I think it's safer in here than outside,” Divine Key replied. “Come to think of it... you're hardly a thinker with no fighting ability yourself. Yet instead of rushing to escape, you've been using your control over electricity to open every cell in special confinement, one by one, waking people kept under year-round anesthesia or hypnosis and opening doors for prisoners unable to do it themselves... What are you after?”

“Heh heh... Making things as chaotic as possible, of course. Outside this prison is the Pacific Ocean. How many ability users can cross the sea and get back to land? I'd say in less than an hour, the navy will arrive to hunt us down, followed perhaps by lethal strikes from military weaponry. And that's without even considering someone like Jefferson. If he decides to start killing, there's no telling what the consequences will be. So even if the prison is out of control, its prisoners still haven't gained true freedom.”

Divine Key replied, “Since you've analyzed it so clearly and have your own plans, why concern yourself with what I do?”

The voice fell silent for a few seconds, then answered, “Because, of course, if you went out and ‘locked’ Jefferson while you were at it, the prisoners on this island would be much safer.”

“After all that talk, you just want to use my ability.” In the darkness, Divine Key's gaze pressed against the other man's throat like a blade. “Thunderfire, a word of advice. At a time and place like this, you'd best think about relying on yourself first.”

Thunderfire snorted. “Fine, fine. Then I won't trouble Your Highness. I've already woken ‘him’ anyway.”

“What did you say?” Divine Key raised his voice. “Do you know what you've done? Damn it!” He stood as he spoke.

“What? We're all prisoners here. Are you going to lock ‘him’ up again?” Thunderfire said.

As they spoke, they suddenly felt the floor beneath their feet begin to shake, as though the entire prison were moving.

“Is it already too late...” Divine Key sighed. “Thunderfire, you're so arrogant you don't even understand the difference between yourself and the w class. And you actually let that thing out.”

“Enough of your crap. We're both Fierce-rank ability users. You're in no position to judge me,” Thunderfire snapped. “That guy and Jefferson are both Mad rank. They should be evenly matched. Besides, he's only been kept asleep and imprisoned by a continuous IV drip. He's not insane. At the very least, he has no reason to turn against us fellow prisoners of the Empire.”

Divine Key gave a cold laugh. “Then I hope you take care of yourself.” With that, he hurried out of the cell. Maintaining excellent balance and speed even as the prison shook, he headed upward in search of an escape route.

……

Zuo Dao felt his way through the darkness. Having made contact with Blood Owl beforehand, his task was complete. Now he only had to escape the island and find the Inverted Cross's submarine, and he would more or less be safe.

He had first felt the ground shake five minutes earlier. It probably wasn't an earthquake, nor did it feel like tremors caused by ability users fighting inside the island. It felt like riding a very bumpy bus, as though the structure beneath his feet were moving continuously.

Zuo Dao didn't like this and quickened his pace. Having escaped death at Jefferson's hands, he couldn't go and get crushed in a collapsing building.

As this thought crossed his mind, he reached the end of a corridor and found himself at a dead end. There was a door, but rock and earth blocked it. The sight delighted him. If there was earth, he thought, then Hell Island's surface must be directly above him. He had reached the top level of the artificial structures inside the island.

He was just about to go over and dig his way through when he reconsidered. Something was wrong. If this place had collapsed, seawater should have come in along with the earth and rock, shouldn't it? Why was so little seawater pouring in from above?

“Hey! You!” A voice suddenly sounded behind Zuo Dao.

Only then did Zuo Dao snap out of his thoughts and notice someone approaching at high speed through the darkness behind him.

Divine Key didn't know Zuo Dao. He simply shouted, “Get out of the way if you don't want to die!”

...