Chapter 270: Where Is My Sister? Part I

As soon as Raiden reached there, he found himself coming face to face with an abandoned warehouse. He checked his phone again to confirm the location before taking a deep breath and kicking the door open.

Bang!!

The door flew off its hinges before it came crashing down a little distance away.

"All right, I am here. Where is my sister??"

The warehouse was dark and smelled like rust and old oil, but Raiden barely noticed. His eyes were fixed on the figure standing in the centre of the room, illuminated by a single hanging light that swung gently overhead.

Bai Zheng.

His old commander.

The man who had once led Platoon Four, his superior officer for the time being. Even though he only met him once, Raiden felt he was bad news, and his instincts had proven correct before. Now he regretted letting him go a little bit and not searching harder, for he came to bite him in the ass.

He just really wished that he could rip apart the man who had kidnapped his sister.

Bai Zheng adjusted his glasses with one finger, his expression calm and almost amused.

"Raiden. You actually came. I was half expecting you to bring an army."

"You’re just a coward who ran away last time," Raiden said, his voice flat. "And now you’re hiding behind my sister because you’re too scared to face me yourself."

Bai Zheng’s smile didn’t waver.

"I wouldn’t call that running away. I prefer the term ’tactical retreat.’ Besides, the outcome is the same either way. You’re under my roof now."

Raiden’s jaw clenched.

"Cut the bullshit. Where is my sister? Where are you hiding her?"

Bai Zheng shook his head slowly.

"Don’t worry. She’s in a very safe place."

"What safe place?"

"That’s not important right now."

"Don’t worry about it?" Raiden’s voice rose, and something inside him snapped. "You took my sister. You threatened her. You made me walk across an entire city alone. And now you’re telling me not to worry about it??"

His hand moved.

Blood surged from the small cut on his palm, twisting and condensing in the air until it formed a scythe. The crimson blade gleamed in the dim light, its edge sharp enough to cut through steel.

Raiden started walking toward Bai Zheng, each step heavy with purpose.

"Where. Is. My. Sister."

Before he could take more than three steps, a voice cut through the air.

"Don’t."

The girl, Lola, stepped out from behind a stack of crates, a lollipop sticking out of the corner of her mouth. Her expression was no longer playful. It was cold, with an almost fanatical smile on her face.

"He can’t even think about saving anybody. He just walked right in." She tilted her head, studying Raiden like he was an interesting insect. "Honestly, I expected more from the guy who came from the Ashford family. But here you are, walking into a trap without a plan, without backup, without even a proper weapon. I must say, I don’t know if I should applaud your bravery or your stupidity."

She clapped her hands in an almost childlike mocking of Raiden, who didn’t even glance her way and just kept moving towards Bai Zheng.

"Ohhh!! Such a scary gaze!!~ Protect me from the bad men, my cuties!~" Lola let out a shriek in an excited, exaggerated voice before a diamond-like sheen started shining across her body.

In the next second, three Terra Beasts emerged from the darkness, each one more terrifying than the last. A massive spider with legs like steel spears and eyes that glowed with a hungry red light. A serpent made entirely of black smoke, its body coiling and uncoiling like it was alive. And a hound with fur that seemed to swallow light itself, its jaws dripping with something that sizzled and smoked where it hit the floor.

No matter what angle one looked at them from, they wouldn’t qualify as cuties. All three were Diamond-Tier, and the pressure of their presence alone was enough to make the air feel thick and hard to breathe. Looking at Raiden, Lola smiled, and it was not a nice smile.

"Kill him."

The spider lunged first.

Raiden didn’t dodge the attack, he met it head-on, his blood scythe swinging in a wide, desperate arc.

Boom!!

The impact shook his entire arm, the force of it travelling up through his shoulder and into his chest, and for one second he thought the blade would shatter. But it held, catching the spider’s leg and forcing it back just enough.

The creature shrieked, a sound like metal tearing, but the other two were already on him. The smoke serpent wrapped around his arm, tightening like a vice, while the shadow hound lunged for his throat.

Raiden twisted, using the serpent’s own momentum to throw it off balance, and drove his elbow into the hound’s jaw. The creature yelped and stumbled back, but the spider was already recovering, its remaining legs skittering across the floor as it prepared to strike again.

Raiden’s blood sight activated, and the world shifted around him, sharpening into something brutal and clear. He could see the flow of blood in the spider’s body, thick and sluggish beneath its armoured shell. He could see the weak points in the serpent’s smoky form, small gaps where the black mist thinned enough for light to pass through. He could see the tension in the hound’s muscles, coiling tight before every lunge.

Then he moved. The blood scythe carved through the air, catching the spider’s leg and forcing it back. It tried to cut through it, but the Diamond-Tier shell was too thick, too dense, and Raiden’s scythe bounced off with a jarring impact that rattled his arm all the way to the shoulder.

But this was more than enough to give him a brief moment of rest. The spider stumbled, and Raiden used that half-second to twist away from the hound’s jaws. They snapped shut inches from his face, close enough that he could smell the acid dripping from its teeth, as the floor beneath them corroded with it.

"That’s it. Go Snaky!! Bind him!!"

The smoke serpent coiled around his leg, pulling hard.

Raiden stumbled and went down, hitting the concrete hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. The spider was on top of him before he could even breathe.

Its legs pinned his arms, its body pressing down with enough force to crack the floor beneath him, and its mandibles hovered over his face, dripping with something that hissed and smoked where it touched the concrete.

Raiden’s blood sight flickered, catching a weak point on the left side, third segment, where the armour was thinnest. He twisted, ignoring the pain in his ribs, and drove his blood scythe upward into the gap.

"Fuck you!!"

The spider shrieked as its legs loosened the hold around him.

Raiden rolled, got to his feet, stumbled, but stayed upright. The hound lunged again, and Raiden met it with a wild swing of his scythe, catching it across the muzzle. The creature yelped and backed off, but the smoke serpent was already coiling around his other leg, pulling him down again.

He hit the ground hard, and this time he didn’t get up right away. He lay there, gasping, his blood sight flickering in and out of focus, everything in him screaming at once.

His ribs, his shoulder, his arm where the serpent had squeezed too tight, his back where the spider’s legs had pinned him down. Every breath was a battle, and every moment, his body wanted nothing but to stop and give up.

Above him, Lola was laughing. "Hahahaha!! Is that all?? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of big deal. The guy who is from the Ashford family. The guy who was chosen by the ancient guardian. And here you are, getting pinned to the floor by my cuties. How disappointing."

Raiden’s fingers tightened around his scythe. He pushed himself up, slowly, painfully, one hand pressing against the concrete, his whole body trembling with the effort. But he got up. "Where," he said, his voice hoarse and ragged, "is my sister!!"