Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

BOOM.., with a loud crashing noise, his three meters body fell onto the ground crushing the various equipment and machineries beneath him. Glenn immediately tried to stand up, but was hit by a cold blast of beam that froze a part of his skin and arm.

GRRRR… growling in hatred, he shot lightning bolts at his assailants and fixed his gaze on the golems.

RUMBLE… RUMBLE..

"What is happening? Why is the place shaking so much" Chloe asked feeling the tremble that reached till their room.

"It's Glenn, he is fighting those golems" Alice replied looking out of the room.

"What Glenn is?" An out of ordinary alarming voice sounded out from Bell and he willed his tired body towards the exit of the room. There he could clearly see the silhouette of his friend that had changed so much that he could barely recognise him.

However, rather than his form, what he was more concerned about was the golems he was fighting. Those Custodian Golems if he were to believe the words of those evil white suit men, they were made of Mythril, were incredibly powerful and never tiring constructs.

As long as the power source of this entire facility remains intact, they will never run out of energy. When he told the two of them what he heard from those people, their eyes couldn't help but cloud over with worry. They did not want Glenn to be injured and at the same time, if he lost there was no way they would be able to get out of here.

Recognising this, Bell glanced at his friend fighting for their sake and the two girls who were brave enough to risk their lives to come to his rescue. He immediately made up his mind and ran out of the room while leaving a few instructions for them.

"Run towards the assembly room at the end of the facility. There must be an exit point there, I will bring Glenn and meet up with you all there".

Although he wasn't sure if there was an exit there, but recalling the time when cardinal Royce visited this facility, he never exited from the same place he entered from. That is to say, there had to be a different exit separate from the entrance.

If they could find that exit, they wouldn't have to go all the way back to that room all of them were kept in and dwindle their time solving the winding tunnels of the cave.

"What do we do now?" Alice asked sceptically, now that the situation had become so chaotic, they had no other choice but to get away from here. With their power and levels, if they stayed, they would only get in their way.

Chloe observed the situation analytically for a while before running towards the room beside them where another one of their friends was held uncosncious.

"We cannot leave him here, let's carry him to the assemble room and leave this place together," she said looking at the unconscious boy who was brought here along with Bell.

The two of them shared his weight and carried him towards the door at other end of the chamber. Meanwhile, Bell who had joined the battle, saw the injured body of his friend and increased his pace.

"Glenn are you alright?!".

Glenn turned his head in surprise when he heard Bell's voice, he was just about to tell him to run away from here while he holds them down, when two beastly roars sounded out from the entrance of the chamber.

GROWWLLL:… two beasts more than three meters huge, entered the place and emitted their intimidating aura.

One was a huge buffalo with part rhino in the mix and the other was a spotted leopard with wings and having three tails. The only thing common between these two beasts was their crimson eyes and the thick bloodthirsty aura they released.

Their fangs and mouth were covered with the blood of the meal they just had. The moment they entered, all the attention was attracted to them. The place descended into complete silence and every eye focused on the two beasts.

"H-how did they come out of their capsules?" the eerie quiet was broken by one of the white suit men who was shooting at Glenn with an Ice blaster.

The old face of the deputy head contorted, from the looks of things, the situation did not look good for them. It was fine if it was just the host who had achieved a successful integration with the Doombringer Faun.

However, the two beasts before them, the Gale Demon Leopard and the Storm Charging Bull had clearly failed to achieve so with their hosts and were considered a failure. Test subjects that have turned into the beast that they were integrated with and had no mind of their own.. 

They were killing machines meant for slaughter, if they were not put down, they would end up destroying the whole facility. The deputy head ordered one of the golems to keep the two new beasts busy while he and the other officials took out their ice blasters and aimed for the Doombringer Faun.

No matter what, he cannot allow the first successful test subject that he had in dozens of years to hurt itself.

While he was mentally preparing himself to incur some loss, out from the corner of his eyes, he spotted the test subject 3093 who had shown the most resilience during the transplantation and was by far the most ideal subject, approach the Doombringer Faun.

As far as he knew, there was no way the boy could move away from that machine after the surgery unless someone releases him. At this moment, the old man finally realised that there was someone else other than them inside the chamber who had sneaked in.

'But who could it be? There is no way anyone would dare to intrude in a place owned by Cardinal Royce' while he was busy thinking who the main culprit behind all of this was, the two beasts started attacking the charging golem and quickly overwhelmed it with their numbers.

Although unlike the Doombringer Faun, they were fully taken over by the beast they were assimilated with, but the power they erupted out with, couldn't be underestimated. Even the ice blaster that managed to freeze a portion of Doombringer Faun's body, was easily shaken off by them.

Overwhelmed by the sudden turn in the situation, the other officials also tried to fire their ice blasters at the beasts only to get outmanoeuvred by them.

They were just about to fire a second round of barrage when two powerful beastly roars that shook the very foundation of the chamber, sounded out destroying the core powering their weapon. The scene was just like what had happened with the Doombringer Faun, the roar was definitely a skill that disrupted the mana around the surrounding.

Now that their ice blasters were rendered useless and their most powerful weapons, the golems were locked down in a fight, these officials who never had to worry about their life, started fearing the worst.

The deputy head threw the ice blaster in his hand and with an ugly face, he ordered the officials near him who were scared witless.

"Wake up test subject no 2777".

The moment they heard the deputy head bark those words, these people couldn't believe their ears. They blankly looked at him before asking for confirmation.

"But Sir, the subject no 2777 was deemed as a failure by you. If we wake it up, the tragedy from all those years ago, might happen again".

"I'm well aware of the consequences. However, we do not have the leeway to think about all those things if we don't contain the situation right now, we might not have a future to worry about. No. 2777 is the most powerful test subject my predecessors ever created, only it has the power to contain the at present." he shouted in annoyance.

The officials nodded and finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Two people immediately went to a certain corner of the chamber to execute the plan.

"What is happening? Where did those two beasts come from?" Bell asked perplexed by the sudden turn of events.

On the contrary, Glenn didn't seem all so well, when he looked at the stains of blood on their mouth and claws. Sophia who ran back to the capsule chamber must have come across the two of them, which could only mean that... his eyes had unknown sadness and emotions whirling within them. 

"They are not beasts but our friends who have been made to look like that" he said looking at the two beasts who were his friends. Them turning like that could only mean that they have failed to endure the pain. 

"What?! How can this be aren't they fully…" Bell's eyes widened as he stood stupefied.

"Not everyone is like you and me who can still retain their human form and memories. Those two were brought in the batch after me, I have seen them subjected upon and turned into something like this. I still had hopes that they would return to themselves when they were kept inside the capsule; however, it seems that I was far too naïve. There is no way to revert back the cruel changes that these people have done on us".

Glenn explained closing his eyes at the end of his sentence.

Bell did not speak, he observed his body that still looked like a human but he himself knew how much changes he had gone through in the past couple of hours he was here.

"What do we do? Now that those two are also here, if we team up we might be able to defeat the golems and get out of here" Bell suggested; however, his suggestion was quickly rejected by Glenn.