Chapter 68: I am coming

Floor 51. The maintenance shaft.

Dante pushed the grate open and pulled himself out into a narrow service corridor. It was dim and warm, lined with pipes, and humming faintly from a generator somewhere. He closed the grate behind him and stood very still, listening.

He unfolded the map again and studied it by the weak light. The red circle at the bottom sat under a tall tower marked ARENA COMPLEX, FLOOR 55. There were four ways in. Three were heavily guarded. One, a tunnel off the east wall, was marked with a small question mark.

’Four more floors’, he thought.

He folded the paper and slipped it away. Then, without any warning, the crystal bead in his sleeve pulsed.

Dante froze. It was Brann’s bead, the dark one he had taken off the dead man’s ear. and a faint thread of blue light crawled across its surface.

The bead hummed. Then a voice came out of it, small and it belonged to a woman.

"Brann," it said. "You’re late reporting."

"Brann, answer me. I know you went into the smith’s tunnels. The squad outside said you never came back."

"...."

"I told you not to go alone." The voice was calm and a voice Dante knew well. It had once said good morning to him every day for two years.

"Brann?" Elena said softly. "Is anyone there?"

Dante lifted the bead slowly to his lips.

On the other side of the line, a long breath was drawn, then released.

"...I see so it’s you," Elena said.

Dante held the bead to his mouth and didn’t say a word.

"I know you’re there," Elena’s voice came through the static. "Brann was too greedy to keep his mouth shut."

"Where is she?" Dante asked.

"Ohhoo, Cell 9. We’ve had her for three weeks and she hasn’t said a thing. The stupid cat Yenna just sits there muttering ’I agree, I agree,’ like a dog waiting by the door."

The bead creaked in Dante’s grip.

"She cried yesterday," Elena said, laughing a little. "Said she was sorry she couldn’t help you. You picked the weak member dante."

"Like you few years ago? Right? "

Do you think we are still the same as back now? You don’t even know who is backing us, it doesn’t matter if you are alive and thinking of taking revenge on us, you will just die at our hands again like back, hahahaha, " she laughed.

"And also that bitch, uhmm... What was her name again? Ohh yeah it was Yenna, right, she will also die, do know why? It’s because of you dante, she is suffering every day, do you know what i do to her when i bully and torture her. Want to hear it ?"

"You dare to Say her name again." Dante said his eyes were now looking scary and terrifying with rage.

"Yenna~ and most importantly let me tell you what i do with her, when she was locked in cage i ******************....."

"You understand what I just said right?" She laughed like a crazy woman

"You fu***ing crazy bit*h, i will fu***ing kill you,no i will torture you that you will beg me for death."

"Sure. You know We had a good laugh about you after the funeral, you know. Marcus said you were the best investment he ever made. A tool that never asked for a cut."

The metal pipe under Dante’s hand started to buckle. He didn’t even realize he was squeezing it.

"You were very useful back then dante." Elena sighed. "Just come to the arena. Watch her die. We’ll put you in the cell right next to hers."

"You won’t get that chance because you will be dead, be ready for your death I’m coming for all of you."

He crushed his fist closed.

The bead shattered. The glass cut into his palm, and blood ran down his wrist. He drove his other fist into the wall pipe, bending the metal straight in half. Steam burst out in a loud, white cloud.

He stood in the mist, breathing hard.

He wiped his bloody hand on his clothes and kept walking.

On Floor 36....

The stairwell was full of smoke. Eight Radiant Dawn hunters were down on the steps. Thin black flames were still burning through their armor. Only one man was left sitting against the wall, breathing, with his shattered sword lying next to him.

Esabella stood on the step above him. Only her fingers showed anything strange—black fire ran over them .

"You said something about an arena," she said.

"Floor 55," the man gasped, pressing away from her. "Public execution in three days. A cat-kin tracker. Because She helped Dante Grey."

Esabella stopped moving.

"Yenna," the man added quickly. "That’s her name."

’A girl’, she thought. ’Someone he knew before me’.

Something twisted in her chest. She forced it down.

"A old man with the bone staff.do you Where is he?"

"You mean Gideon, right ? Holding cells. Floor 55."

She turned and started walking up the stairs. On the landing, she stopped without looking back.

The man scrambled up and bolted down the hall. Esabella stood there with her hand over her chest, feeling her core beat slowly.

’Who is she to you, Dante?’

She pulled her hood up and took the next flight of stairs three steps at a time.

Meanwhile on Floor 51. The maintenance shaft ended at a door. According to the map, it led to the stairwell for Floor 52, and the lock was supposed to be sealed . But it was open.

The hallway was white and completely empty. Right in the middle of the floor lay a folded piece of paper with a red wax seal.

Dante picked it up and tore it open.

’I know it’s you. Come alone.’

— E.

Under it, in smaller handwriting:

’Cell 9 is still open. For now.’

Dante crumpled the paper into a tight ball inside his fist.

" Nobody can save you this time," he said to the empty hall. "I’m coming." And then He walked in.