Inside the underground laboratory, a sharp alarm suddenly sounded, echoing throughout the entire enclosed underground space.
"The room number of the accident is 4419, activate the emergency procedure!"
Inside the main control room, a man dressed in white also stared solemnly at the black screen of the monitor in room 4419, feeling an unignorable chill rising in his heart.
...There have been many unusual movements in the laboratory, but this time, it seems to be different from usual.
Want to use your talent to see it?
After hesitating for a moment, he cut his finger and smeared a drop of blood on his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again——
“……!!”
He suddenly fell back into his chair, blood instantly flowed from his eyes, and even a warm current flowed out of his ears and nostrils. His brain was buzzing as if someone had hit it with a metal rod.
“Huh…huh…”
His eyes were bloodshot.
He intuitively felt that he had just seen something extremely horrible, but he could not remember anything. As soon as he had the slightest thought of recalling something, his entire head felt like it was about to explode.
The intense fear almost overwhelmed him, leaving him completely unable to think.
——But one thing is certain.
——They will die here.
No one can escape alive.
…
…
[Absolute Sanity State·Triggered]
Feeling the signal coming from his mind, the black-haired boy just tilted his head slightly, with no trace of human emotion on his face.
He knew where he was and what he should do now. He knew everything he should know.
He even knew that under the influence of [Absolute Reason], there was something wrong with his current state.
He looked at the outside world through his [eyes], but it was as if he was looking through a [screen]; his senses were clear, but he could not receive any emotional feedback.
It's like... looking down from a great height.
He was too far away.
Finally, the heavy door of room 4419 was opened.
The pitch-black guns were pointed at him, and several A-level talent holders were on guard against him, but he didn't even have the slightest change in his micro-expression. He just raised his eyes, and his gaze swept across the guns and the talent holders without stopping for a moment.
Until his sight came to the space outside the door.
——The door was opened from the outside.
He could get out of here without any effort.
The black-haired boy stood up and took a step forward.
——Compared to using "Still Life Manipulation" to open this door made of special metal, it is not difficult to kill everyone present.
Following the actions of the black-haired boy, Aiden, who was also in the team of A-level talent holders, felt an increasingly strange feeling in his heart.
He originally followed the second administrator, but on the day when McCann died, the other party suddenly gave up sniping and targeting César.
He could still clearly remember the face that was filled with fear when talking about Cesar.
He didn't understand the actions of the No. 2 administrator at all. He was an A-level talent holder, and was considered to be the top combat power in the Federation. Even if Xizel could kill McKen, what would it matter?
You know, McCann's ability can be easily restrained. Maybe this supervisor was just lucky and his talent happened to be able to restrain McCann.
——What's more, there are three people with talents of different categories blocking his way at the door.
But……
When his eyes fell on the black-haired boy who was walking towards him step by step, he couldn't help but feel inexplicably flustered.
If the César he met a few days ago was calm, gentle and introverted, then as long as he didn't want to, that strange sense of danger would not be noticed at all.
Even he, an A-level talent holder, misjudged this supervision. It was not until he heard that the other party seemed to have killed McKen easily that he suddenly realized that perhaps the other party was not as harmless as he imagined.
——However, the current Xizel gave him a particularly strong sense of inhumanity.
Even if the other party is very quiet... no, it's too quiet, so quiet that it's particularly weird.
"Don't resist in vain," Aiden warned quickly, as if to cover up something, "You are a valuable experimental subject. If you surrender now, we won't hurt--"
“Sizzle.”
Just a moment.
Under the pale light of the laboratory, Aiden's head, which was still moving its lips, flew up and completely separated from his neck, then, as expected, hit the ground and rolled around.
——Not giving the person any chance to react, when they came to their senses, all they saw was a corpse.
The blood splattered out but failed to attract the black-haired boy's attention.
The black-haired boy raised his hand and continued to activate his ability without hesitation, but his misty blue eyes stared at the door calmly from beginning to end, as if everything around him was a bubble -
Even the person standing in front is just a corpse that poses no threat and naturally does not need any further attention.
"Be careful! This is Mikan's still life manipulation!!"
As if realizing something, one of the gift holders stared at Xizel with fear and fanaticism: "Just cut off his hand--"
Before anyone could react, a translucent giant axe chopped heavily at the black-haired boy's slender wrist.
The owner of the giant axe showed excitement in his eyes. He could almost imagine the scene of those hands flying up with blood just like Aiden's head before.
But the next second, his smile froze on his face.
...What's going on?
Why can't I cut it down?!
There was still horror on the man's face, but due to human instinct, he involuntarily raised his head and looked at the black-haired boy who did not match his perception.
When he was under real attack, the other party finally gave him a moment of attention as if giving alms.
Just a moment.
But at this moment, the man suddenly felt as if his mind was filled with many things. The pair of misty blue eyes that seemed to hide endless unknowns that made it impossible for people to peek into them lingered in his mind like a virus.
However, the more he thought about those eyes, the more intense the stinging sensation in his brain became, and cold sweat almost instantly soaked his clothes.
And when the tangible impression of the blue eyes finally faded, all he could feel was extreme, inhuman indifference and separation.
Cesar withdrew his gaze.
He noticed that the man in front of him rushed up to attack him, and when he [looked at] the other person, the man in his eyes was just [a male human with the gift of a blood axe].
As for now, even though the other party was curled up on the ground with his head in his hands, with a ferocious and painful expression, and blood was faintly flowing from his eyes, it had nothing to do with him.
The rejection reaction of "Still Life Manipulation" has not yet passed, and his use has far exceeded the danger threshold. He can even clearly feel that the effect of the ability "You will be a god who does not bleed" is temporarily covering the damage to his body.
Once the time is up, he will instantly lose all his fighting power and return to his weakest physical state.
Cesar was well aware of the consequences.
"Crest's Fairy Godmother"
"Time remaining: one minute"
——But he still used this ability without any hesitation.
He didn't care about the backlash his body would suffer, and calculated the time with great precision. His purpose was simple and pure, and absolute rationality completely dominated his thinking.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
But he still couldn't generate the slightest emotional fluctuation from it, as if he was looking down at everything on the stage from too far away, unable to understand or empathize.
Just like playing a game, you need to find the optimal solution and then execute it without any impact.
The black-haired boy walked slowly out of the operating room numbered 4419, stepping on the corpses of the three gift holders.
The researchers in white coats were holding weapons and confronting him as if they were facing a formidable enemy, because they had no way to retreat.
——In order to ensure that even if something goes wrong in the experiment, everything in the laboratory will not be leaked, as long as the emergency system is activated, the entire underground laboratory will be completely sealed from the inside out.
With the strength of these researchers, it is impossible to get out.
The black-haired boy's gaze did not even linger on them, even though he noticed the frightened and desperate expressions on their faces.
He stretched out his hand and touched the snow-white wall beside him.
Things follow the heart.
A sharp knife that could take someone's life was evolved in an instant and stabbed at the researchers without any hesitation.
However, just before these people were about to be killed,
"Crest's Fairy Godmother"
"Time remaining: 0"
Cooling time: 13 days
"Absolute sanity state has been lifted"
The black-haired boy, still maintaining the gesture of touching the wall, blinked slowly.
——Suddenly, the strange, vague position surrounding him was suddenly broken, as if the person outside the glass wall had finally crossed that barrier and truly appeared in this world.
Even though the black-haired boy usually gave people a feeling of emptiness and fragmentation, in contrast to his previous state, even the occasional truth revealed by him seemed particularly approachable.
The effects of the special status faded quickly.
After returning to normal, Xizel: "..."
He calmly withdrew his hand.
Well, after my body couldn't hold on any longer, my abilities were completely overdrawn, and I couldn't use "still life manipulation".
His current state can be summed up in one word.
It hurts everywhere.
Xizel started straight away, tilted his head slightly, showed a completely harmless smile, raised his left hand that had just come up with a killer move, waved it, and said in a friendly manner: "Hello."
However, even if one is dazzled by this face and this smile, the fear that penetrates deep into the bone will not subside in a short time.
The leading researcher's hands were shaking as he held the gun, and he obviously had not yet recovered from the fear he had just experienced.
But because he was too frightened before and did not pay too much attention to César, who was in an absolutely rational state, he now obviously still had the energy to think of something particularly bold.
——No matter how powerful one's ability is, it has its limits. The stronger the ability, the greater the limit.
The black-haired boy could have killed them instantly just now, but he stopped at the last moment. This was completely inconsistent with his previous performance of killing without hesitation.
...It didn't seem like he stopped at the last moment, but rather like he didn't have the ability to attack again.
Looking at the black-haired boy's face again, it was as pale as a dead person, as if he would die on the spot in the next moment.
——This demon is exhausted!
A strange feeling of joy appeared in his heart. He was secretly proud of his keen observation, as if he could see the infinite glory after his meritorious service. He said with a tone of confidence, sneering:
"You probably don't have the strength to use your talent anymore, right?"
Hearing his words, the black-haired boy nodded, his tone was calm, but with a barely perceptible smile.
"You're right. I really can't use my abilities anymore."
Although he admitted it, his expression was not panicked.
Without noticing César's panicked expression, the leading researcher panicked.
His guess was absolutely correct, but why did the other party behave like this?
Something must have been overlooked...
What other tricks does the other party have that everyone is ignoring?
The man no longer dared to show off his strength, nor did he dare to let the passage of time add more variables. He simply exerted force on his fingers and pulled the trigger of the gun.
"Bang!"
Gunshot.
However, even at this time, the black-haired boy still slightly bent his eyes and seemed to be smiling, but his misty blue eyes were unusually calm, as if he didn't care at all that what was coming towards him was a fatal bullet.
——Then, as expected, the bullet grazed his hair and shot past the tip of his ear.
"……What?"
The researcher who fired the shot murmured in disbelief.
Is this hit point meant to be funny?
He clearly aimed before he fired!
But soon he understood why he missed the target.
——Because the earth was shaking violently.
Not only the ground, but even the walls of the entire laboratory were shaking, as if someone was high up, carrying out an extremely violent demolition from top to bottom.
The black-haired boy also raised his head and looked at the snow-white yet depressing ceiling.
There was a genuine smile in his blue eyes.
The next moment——
Along with the sounds of falling gravel and cracking stone slabs, the entire ceiling was slowly torn apart from the middle, bit by bit.