Chapter 159: Behind the Glass Tanks (1)

"Swallow."

The voice reached her before her senses fully returned. Something cool touched her lips. Aisha frowned and tried to turn her head away, but a hand curled beneath her jaw, holding her still.

"Open your mouth."

Her brows twitched. The voice was familiar. She just couldn’t remember who it belonged to, with the ringing in her ears still bothering her.

A bitter liquid touched her lips. Aisha’s expression darkened. Even half-conscious, she wasn’t particularly fond of swallowing something given to her by an unidentified person. She tried to pull away again, but the hold beneath her jaw remained firm.

When the cold, wet substance touched her lips, Aisha instinctively tried to spit it out.

"Don’t." Her jaw was held firmly, and there was enough force behind the grip for her to understand that struggling would be pointless. "Swallow it."

Aisha’s lips parted slightly, and the bitter liquid slipped into her mouth. Her first thought was that it tasted terrible. Then she swallowed.

The liquid slid down her throat, leaving behind a faint cooling sensation. It didn’t remove the exhaustion weighing down her body, but the burning pain in her throat gradually eased. The pounding in her head had also vanished, no longer feeling as though her skull was being slammed against a wall.

"Again," the voice said.

Aisha frowned.

"No." Her voice came out hoarse and weak.

The person beside her fell silent, and for some reason, she could almost picture whoever it was staring at her. Then a low chuckle reached her ears.

Aisha took a slow breath. Her eyelids fluttered, and the darkness before her eyes began to recede. At first, everything remained blurred—the ceiling, the walls, the faint shapes of people lying across the floor, and the remnants of what her battle had left behind.

Her memories returned gradually.

She remembered entering the contaminated zone, coming across the room with the woman in it, the Sentinel, and the man with the strange corrupted hand. Then she was—

Aisha’s fingers twitched. Her eyes snapped fully open. Pain immediately pulsed through her head. She frowned and slowly pushed herself upright.

Something moved beside her.

Aisha turned. Darkness had gathered along the floor. It stretched upward, shifting and twisting until a vaguely human shape stood beside her. The edges of its body remained unstable, occasionally dissolving into thin streams of shadow before gathering again.

Aisha stared at it for several seconds. Her eyes slowly narrowed.

"Nykos?"

The only person she knew who could control the shadows was him.

A quiet sound came from the shadow. "Awake now?"

Aisha glanced around the room. The man who had attacked her before she lost consciousness was nowhere to be seen. Did he escape?

Her gaze returned to Nykos. "What happened?"

"I’m not fully sure what happened either. But I can tell you I already killed the man who was in this room with you," Nykos explained. Then he proceeded to add, "When I arrived, I saw him standing over you with a knife in his hand. So, I killed him. You won’t hold a grudge against me because of that, right?"

Aisha looked at him. Nykos’ form didn’t completely capture the beauty and charm he always exuded, but nonetheless, it didn’t reduce the majesty he held despite the intangible form he had taken. And there was no need to hold a grudge over him killing someone she would have killed herself. She only felt it was a shame she didn’t get any information from that man.

But if Nykos hadn’t arrived and killed him, she would have died. So, in the end, the information he held no longer mattered. Aisha could search for them when she wanted to, since she already had the name of who they were... The Order. Such a grand name for an organization that did unlawful and evil things.

Aisha lowered her eyes to the bodies of the guards scattered throughout the room. None of them were moving. They had already been dealt with before she lost consciousness.

She raised her hand and turned it a few times. Her body felt heavy, but she could still move. That was good news.

Feeling slightly better now, Aisha placed one hand against the floor and stood. The moment she shifted her weight forward, her knees softened. The shadows curled around her waist and chest before she could fall.

Aisha stopped and looked down at the shadow-shaped hand that had landed on her breast before turning toward Nykos.

"Let go."

"When you’re standing properly."

"I am."

A brief silence followed.

Then Nykos’s voice came from beside her.

"Very convincing."

Aisha stared at him. The shadows over her chest thinned out until only the shadows around her waist remained. After several seconds, the darkness finally loosened. Aisha took a step forward. Fortunately, this time, her legs didn’t betray her and held up.

Behind her, Nykos gave a quiet hum that sounded disappointed. She ignored him.

The guards were already dead, so it was easy for Aisha to search through their bodies.

She found a notebook device on one of the men. The device was locked. Aisha searched through his uniform until she found a thin identification chip hidden beneath his collar. She inserted it, and the screen lit up.

Nykos moved closer. "What did you find?"

Aisha scrolled through the information. "Nothing yet."

Most of it consisted of routine notes. Supply deliveries. Shift changes. Internal schedules. Her eyes continued moving down. Then she stopped. Several entries contained the same designation.

They were for transfer access.

The details were limited, but the timestamps suggested regular movement through another part of the facility.

Aisha looked toward the corridor. "There’s another section."

Nykos followed her gaze. "You know where it leads?"

"No." Aisha slipped the communicator into her pocket. "But it should lead us to where my brother is."

Nykos was silent for a moment. Then the shadows around him shifted. "You’re not going to stop here?"

Aisha didn’t answer, dusting off her clothes and looking around for more things she could bring with her.

Nykos remained quiet for a moment longer. "I thought so."

Aisha turned to the cages. The people inside were still unconscious, but their state was much better now after the miasma had cleared from the room. So, there was no hurry to save them. It would be better to keep them there for now.

But just in case...

Aisha threw the keys onto the ground near an unconscious man.

Finally, she turned around and headed to the door.

Unexpectedly, the woman she had left outside the room using her ability was still there. However, she was also unconscious, collapsed on the floor next to the door.

Aisha decided to place her inside and then closed the door behind her.

Finally, she took the corridor on the opposite side while Nykos continued to follow her.

The deeper they went, the more the facility changed. The artificial walls gradually disappeared. Metal structures gave way to rough stone, though cables and pipes continued running along the cave walls. Some were newly installed. Others looked old enough to have been there for years.

Aisha’s expression darkened. The place was much larger than what she had initially seen. Someone had built this beneath the contaminated zone and continued expanding it without anyone outside noticing. Perhaps, the Association had also been kept in the dark for a long time.

A faint sound reached her ears. Aisha stopped, and Nykos did the same. The sound came again—a deep mechanical hum, steady and low enough that it blended with the silence of the cave.

Aisha slowly approached with silent steps. The passage sloped downward. The farther she walked, the heavier and colder the air became. Her steps gradually slowed. Something felt wrong.

Not dangerous in the immediate sense. Rather, it felt familiar.

Aisha frowned.

Aisha continued walking. The passage eventually opened, and she stopped at the edge. For several seconds, she stared in awe and disbelief.

The space ahead opened into something far larger than the tunnels behind them. Machinery and metal walkways stretched through the darkness, but Aisha barely looked at them.

That wasn’t what made Aisha stop.

It was what was being kept inside that place.

Large tanks stood throughout the cavern, filled with dark liquids so dense that not even the light from the luminescent stones could penetrate them. At first, the dark liquid inside them made it difficult to see anything clearly.

But then something moved.

’Bam!’

A hand abruptly pressed against the glass.

Aisha’s eyes narrowed. Someone was inside the tank.