Meanwhile, in Bern's laboratory.
While organizing his data, Bern happened to glance at his phone—and saw the official livestream capturing Perlman's gruesome death.
In the eerily quiet broadcast, the trembling footage carried Perlman's final words, faint but unmistakable.
[The… CEO… is researching… Sacrifice. He wants to… overthrow… New Eridu!]
Bern's eyes flickered. He snatched up the phone from the desk. The face hidden behind his raised collar stirred slightly as he listened to Perlman's dying declaration, his gaze trembling.
"The plan…" he murmured. "…Hm?"
Suddenly, a sharp sound of surprise escaped him.
His brow knit tightly as the door to his private lab was slammed open. The TOPS's CEO stormed in, followed by a large group of people.
Every one of them wore heat-resistant suits and carried flashlights.
More than a dozen beams snapped on at once, converging on Bern in a blinding swarm. He let out a piercing scream as high-intensity ultraviolet light scorched his body.
Bern hurriedly raised his arms to shield his face from the glare.
Even so, black smoke began curling from his skin. If this continued, it wouldn't take long before he was burned to ash.
"Heat-resistant suits… specifically for vampires?" Bern ground his teeth. "No wonder I didn't detect them…"
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of their footwear—completely concealed beneath the white trousers of the suits.
No heat signature meant total invisibility to a vampire's perception. How ironic—the very advantage of vampires had been turned against them.
"Weapons that are nearly indestructible. Regeneration through bloodlust," a low voice mused. "Yet terrified of exposure to sunlight—something everyone else enjoys. Vampires really are strange creatures."
Part of the blinding light was suddenly blocked as the CEO stepped forward. His gaze locked onto Bern, brimming with killing intent, his mouth opening to speak.
But enduring the searing pain, Bern suddenly cut in, speaking with disarming seriousness.
"Enjoy?" he said. "Sir, prolonged exposure to that kind of light can cause skin cancer."
"Uh…"
The CEO froze for a moment—then, without thinking, retreated behind his bodyguards. He cleared his throat, and the guards immediately withdrew their odd glances and resumed blasting Bern with the flashlights.
"Anyway…" the CEO said.
For reasons unknown, being interrupted seemed to dull his killing intent slightly. One hand hovered at his chin as he spoke in a low voice.
"For the sake of our time as colleagues, I'll give you three seconds to sum up your last words. Start thinking, Bern."
Bern answered solemnly, "I don't want to die."
"I told you to think of your last words, not to daydream," the CEO replied coldly. "You know very well that betraying TOPS and siding with the city's upper echelons never ends well."
He waved his hand sharply.
"Do it."
At the order, half the bodyguards lowered their flashlights and reached to their waists, drawing flamethrowers.
They raised them, pulled the triggers, and streams of fire surged forward like long serpents, licking greedily at Bern's clothes.
Once the flames burned everything away—once Bern was left fully exposed—that would be the moment he turned to ash.
But then—
A black shadow burst up from the floor.
With its back to the CEO and the others, it flashed with an eerie black glow the instant it appeared, blotting out every other source of light.
A violent gale erupted at once. The weak flames from the flamethrowers were completely overwhelmed, snuffed out in an instant.
"Is that… a Sacrifice?" the CEO raised an arm, struggling to keep his eyes open against the sudden pressure of wind.
Was this something the vampire faction had developed?
Then why was it facing away from them—and why did it look like it was about to attack Bern?
If it wasn't created by the vampires, then what was—
Wait.
Suddenly, realization struck. The CEO's pupils dilated as understanding crashed down on him.
But it was already too late.
The Sacrifice roared at Bern, then lunged straight at him.
Freed from the flashlight glare, Bern finally relaxed his guard. Seeing the Sacrifice charge, he looked genuinely shocked, his voice trembling with fear.
"You actually managed to create a Sacrifice? When did that happen?!"
Before anyone could react, the Sacrifice's massive hands clenched into fists. Enormous Ether energy erupted in an instant, crashing down like a mountain collapsing onto Bern.
Bern raised his arms to block, but it was futile. The overwhelming force drove him to one knee, cracks spiderwebbing across the laboratory floor.
Pfft!
Bern lowered his head. Unable to suppress the pressure in his chest any longer, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
"You—" he struggled to look up, his expression twisted and feral as he glared at the CEO, delivering his lines with exaggerated venom.
"You actually researched something like this? How many hearts did you rip out for your experiments?! Eight thousand? Or ten thousand?!"
What?
Hearts?
What did that have to do with a Sacrifice?
The CEO froze for a split second, then quickly recovered. He slammed his cane against the floor.
"I—"
"You what?!" Bern roared, throwing himself into the performance. "I'll fight you monsters who've abandoned all humanity!"
Even as he shouted, Bern could feel his own face trembling. One slip, and the act would fall apart.
This needs to end quickly, he thought.
In the next instant, a pair of icy blue wings unfurled from his back.
As Bern threw his head back and roared, the wings expanded in a heartbeat—growing to more than three times their original size. Energy surged, swelling to its absolute limit, until it could no longer be contained—
Boom!
A deafening explosion erupted at the center of the lab. Endless, bone-chilling cold burst outward from Bern like a shockwave.
The Sacrifice abruptly retreated, then spun around and wrapped both arms around the CEO.
Boom!
The aftershock faded. The thunderous echoes died away.
The CEO shoved aside the lifeless Sacrifice draped over him and crawled out, shaking, his eyes filled with terror as he took in the surroundings.
The sink. The lab benches. The shelving. The air conditioner.
Every exposed surface was now draped in long, jagged icicles.
As for the bodyguards he'd brought with him—not one was spared. Every last one had been frozen into an ice sculpture.
Trembling, the CEO extended his cane and lightly poked one of them.
To his horror, the guard's arm snapped off and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Startled, the CEO stumbled backward, tripped over the Sacrifice's corpse, and fell straight into its embrace.
He clutched his chest tightly. His shaking hands fumbled for a long time before he finally pulled out his fast-acting heart medication from his inner pocket. After trembling for what felt like an eternity, he poured out two pills and shoved them into his mouth.
"Huff…"
Only after a long while did his breathing finally steady. His eyes—sharp and vicious like a wolf's—snapped up as he roared:
"Bern!"
"Bern Kunmutu! Get out here!"
No one answered.
The explosion had come too suddenly. Bern had blown apart his own wings—whether he was dead or had escaped was impossible to tell.
But that wouldn't remain a mystery for long.
The CEO staggered out of the lab, step by unsteady step, and into the corridor.
The female secretary who had been waiting there lit up at the sight of him. She nearly burst into tears, rushing forward despite her high heels. Without hesitation, she thrust her phone in front of him.
"Chairman, look! A video just went up online. It shows the Sacrifice protecting you—fighting Bern with everything it had!"
"People are saying the Sacrifice you created through human lives drove your own chief scientist to his death!"
"The situation is extremely bad. The video's been up for less than ten minutes, and the mayor has already announced on his social account that you will be brought to justice!"
The CEO's eyes widened. His right hand clutched his chest in agony.
The next second, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed unconscious in the corridor.
The secretary screamed in panic, "Chairman! Chairman!"
...
Outer Ring, Blazewood.
Phaga slowly swirled his hot milk, his fingers idly scrolling on his phone.
Suddenly, he let out a long, weary sigh and slumped back in his chair, the back of his hand pressed to his forehead.
"New Eridu…" he muttered.
"This is going to be huge."