Chapter 3872: A Rare Feat (Part 1)

"Luckily, I also knew that Azith would need lots of people to continue his experiments." Owl said. "So, I disguised myself as a healthy orphan and planted a fake patient file in all the flesh mines I knew about.

"My trick worked way better than I expected. This is the fifteenth facility I’ve been dragged into. The other fourteen were just perverts or lunatics holding slave auctions. Security was minimal, and it took me a second to blow them to smithereens."

"Did you save the people from those fourteen places before blowing them up?" Lilax stared at the small boy, finding his words hard to believe despite what she had just seen with her own eyes.

"Yes." Owl revealed another complex structure of magical formations locking the next door, but he unraveled them in an instant.

"Are you going to save us as well?" The young girl’s heart beat faster with hope.

"No." Owl’s deadpan tone stopped Aryk and Lilax in their tracks. "At least not until I find the person I’m looking for."

"Why? How is this place different from the others?" Aryk looked around nervously, expecting another warden or someone even more dangerous to jump out of the shadows at any moment.

"As I said, those were just slave markets." Owl replied. "Here we are dealing with Forbidden Magic."

"Forbidden Magic?" Lilax echoed in shock. "But that’s against the First Emperor’s law! It’s an inhuman practice that leads to the heaviest and harshest sentence in the Empire."

"The First Emperor forbade many things after establishing his rule." Owl shrugged. "Slave markets, theft, murder, and even for innocent orphans to struggle like animals in the streets of his cities. Is the written law enough to make something happen?"

"No, but, Owl, if you don’t save the rest of the prisoners, the guards will blame them for what you did. Many of them might die!" Aryk said.

"I know, but if I save them, a man called Azith will notice my presence and relocate to another base again." Owl said. "I would save the 314 people imprisoned here and doom thousands more. I’m sorry, but this has to end here."

"Is this what you meant when you said you needed a diversion?" Aryk asked. "Are we the diversion?"

"No, not you." Owl shook his head. "You are with me. Everyone else is. I’m pretty sure that a prison break is far from a novelty in a rushed operation like this. The guards will focus on recapturing the escaped prisoners first.

"When they notice our absence and question our former cellmates about our whereabouts, their answers will make no sense. It should buy me enough time."

"You freed the people in the cells just to let them be captured again?" Lilax was flabbergasted.

"Yes." Owl nodded. "Just like I crippled the guards instead of killing them. Smart people like Azith give all their lackeys a contact amulet. This way, he knows where and when they die the moment it happens.

"He can send more of his men to assess the situation and start the evacuation procedures long before the enemy gets too close, so that he loses nothing in the escape. This time, however, Azith has no idea that the enemy is already inside.

"I triggered no external or internal alarm, and the revolt started small, in the most insignificant place of his base and by the hands of those he considers far below his notice.

"The people he put in charge of the prison are too ashamed to admit to having been overrun by a bunch of starving losers, and won’t report the disappearance of three kids until they realize the truth. With a bit of luck, by then it will be too late."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Aryk moved in front of the young boy, grabbing him by the shoulders. "How can you talk about people’s lives like numbers on a chalkboard?

"What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?"

"Power, Aryk. I’m the only one who knows about this place with the power to do something about it." Owl replied. "Can you stop Azith from butchering everyone here, Aryk? Can you stop me?"

Aryk let go of Owl as if he had touched a live wire and stared at him with fear.

"But, you said you rescued those other slaves." Lilax hiccupped. "You punished their captors. That’s what a hero does. Letting innocent people die and bad people live, like you are doing here, is what a villain does. What are you?"

"I’m no hero." Owl said. "I’m not doing this out of honor or compassion. Both are meaningless to me. There’s no parade or glory waiting for me once I’m done here. No princess at the end of the rainbow. Just another mad mage to stop.

"I’m doing this out of duty. The duty to protect all the people in the Gorgon Empire, even if sometimes it means sacrificing an Aryk or a Lilax. Now get out of my way, kid." Owl pushed Aryk to the side, and the young man felt an enormous strength behind that simple gesture.

Yet there was also gentleness and control. Aryk felt as though Owl had picked him up and moved him instead of shoving him away.

"If it’s of any consolation, I’m no villain either." Owl sighed. "I wish I could send everyone to safety, but I can’t risk a dimensional opening triggering-"

"Kids?" A cold, inhuman voice that sounded akin to the grating of stones cut him short. "How did kids get so deep into the base?"

The creature to whom the voice belonged looked out of an illustrated children’s book, but one filled with cautionary tales for ill-mannered kids. It was so tall that it had to crouch to pass through the door and step into the corridor.

The creature had spindly limbs so long that its hands scratched the floor as it moved forward, resembling a giant four-legged spider. Its torso and head were humanoid, but long, black bristles covered its back like the quills of a porcupine.

Its pupilless eyes were pristine white, and its lipless maw revealed the presence of long, ivory teeth that changed in length and shape as the creature tilted its head around.

"I’ll make you a deal, kids. If you show me the secret passage you have taken to get here and prove to me that this isn’t just a waste of my time, I’ll give you a quick death. Not painless, mind you, but quick." The eyes and mouth of the creature smiled.

Not like a man would. The corners of the eyes didn’t wrinkle, nor did the creature’s features move. The eyes and mouth curled up into three crescents that twisted the blackness of the creature’s face into an expression of savage joy.

Aryk and Lilax jumped back in fright, and the smiles widened.

The Empowered Abomination moved fast, too fast even for the eyes of an Awakened. His limbs didn’t scuffle on the floor. One moment he was standing in front of the door, and the next he was behind the kids.

It was no dimensional magic either since the space-compressing arrays of the base were at full power. The Abomination had turned his body into a bolt of black lightning, cut the retreat path of his prey, and returned to its original form.

All in the blink of an eye.

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