Chương 125: The Man Who Snapped

The door tore free. Kichan looked into the open examination room. A dark green coat on the floor. Riphiel, stripped and covered only by a thin examination drape. Metal bands pressing down on her wrists and ankles. A guard's hand holding her arm. A needle descending toward it. Riphiel struggled, chair and all.

"Kichan! These ugly bastards--" The researcher holding the needle turned.

"Wait, let me explain--" His fingers bent first. Bone cracked. The needle fell to the floor. The collection tube was empty. A guard raised a gun. Kichan did not look at him. His fingertips caught the metal in the floor. Chair anchor pins, gun springs, the doorframe, table legs, and ceiling pipes rang at once. The gun folded inside the guard's hands. Metal pierced his palm. He screamed. Another guard tried to hook an arm around Riphiel's neck. Batu sprang into the room.

His fangs barred the space between the arm and Riphiel. A forepaw pinned the guard's chest to the floor.

"Spare--" He never finished. Kichan raised his hand. Since reading the Voynich Manuscript, he could sense how water, blood, and wounds connected inside a human body. Those were the connections he normally touched only to save a life. This time, he took hold of them the other way. The guard stopped breathing. The supervisor ran for the rear door. The handle melted around his hand. As he screamed and turned, his eyes met Kichan's.

"We were conducting research--" A brief sound came from inside his chest. He collapsed. Two researchers pressed against the wall. One tried to remove his gloves; the other clutched a recording device to his chest. Kichan looked at the coat on the floor. Riphiel's bare shoulders were trembling. `First blood draw` glowed on the recording device. Kichan did not lower his hand. Pulses in the examination room stopped one by one. Running footsteps in the corridor stopped too.

A hand reaching for the alarm fell to the floor. The driver of the vehicle that had taken Riphiel, the person who fired the electrified net, those who prepared the examination, and the guards at the doors fell in turn throughout the facility. Argaon landed at the entrance. No one got out. Valkyrie raised a thin wall of water around Riphiel. Spreading blood and liquid from broken vials could not cross it. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Dust went under the chair. Click. The right wrist band opened. Click. The left. Only when he heard that sound did Kichan lower his hand. The room was quiet. Riphiel's was the only living voice.

"You are late." Kichan could not answer. He picked up the coat from the floor and first wrapped it around her shoulders and body.

"Did they take blood?"

"They did not." He checked the empty collection tube himself. There was no blood on the needle tip either. Only then did he free her ankles. Riphiel tried to stand, but her knees buckled. Before Kichan could catch her, Batu moved against her and took her weight. She pulled the coat closed and gripped his armor. Her lips were trembling, but the first thing out of them was still anger.

"All this for going out to buy one ice cream." Kichan did not look back at the people on the floor.

"Let's go home."

News of the facility's lost contact soon reached another branch. The cameras were dark, and the field team did not respond. Only a few seconds of the last transmitted video remained. A door crumpling. Han Kichan's face. Then nothing. New orders appeared on the command screen. `Reacquire the otherworld entity. ` `Eliminate Han Kichan and his family. ` When the front door opened, his mother looked at Riphiel's coat before her face. The buttons were fastened crookedly, and the clothes beneath were not properly closed.

Metal-band marks circled both wrists. His mother came to her.

"Come in." She did not ask what had happened. She straightened the front of the coat and seated Riphiel at the table. His father brushed gray dust from Batu's armor. Kichan brought the medicine kit.

"Give me your hand."

"Food first."

"The wounds first."

"They gave me porridge there."

"That's the third time you've told me."

"They bought the wrong ice cream too." Still complaining, Riphiel held out her wrists. Kichan spread a thin layer of ointment. His fingers stopped over a red mark. His mother set down soybean-paste soup and rice. Pork belly sizzled in the frying pan. Riphiel picked up a piece of meat with her fingers and put it straight into her mouth.

"Slow down."

"Everyone who tied me up had an awful face." A second piece vanished.

"One man's mustache was not even the same length on both sides." A third.

"Another had mismatched eyebrows." Argaon climbed onto the opposite chair.

"Does that matter?"

"Get abducted yourself, and you will start with their faces too."

"I don't get abducted."

"You are small enough to fit in a sack." Argaon's tail struck the table. His mother placed fresh meat between them.

"Stop fighting and eat." Riphiel finished a bowl of rice. When his father tried to take the empty bowl, she held it down.

"I will have another." His mother opened the rice cooker. The paddle scraped through the rice. Only after receiving the second bowl did Riphiel lean back in her chair. Batu lay in his place by the entrance. For a moment, there was only the smell of food in the apartment. The lights went out. The rice cooker's indicator and the refrigerator's hum stopped together. Batu stood first. The elevator chimed. The stairwell fire door opened too. More than once. His father picked up his phone. No signal.

Outside, three black vehicles entered the complex. Something moved on the roof of the opposite building too. Kichan rose from the table.

"Mom, Dad. Bedroom."

"What about you?"

"Stay away from the door." Riphiel put down her bowl.

"I was still eating."

"I'll make sure you can finish." She took up her sword. Argaon shed his cat form. Valkyrie rose from the water bowl and wrapped around the window frame. Dust darted under the table toward the entrance. Kichan stood near the door.

"Leave now and I won't follow." An answer came from outside.

"Send out the otherworld entity."

"Her name is Riphiel."

"Hand over the saber-toothed tiger and dragon as well. Cooperate and your parents live." Riphiel's sword tip scraped the floor. Batu bared his fangs. Kichan touched the door.

"You came to kill my family, and now you're offering to let them live." The lock burst from the outside. Dust emerged with an internal part in its mouth. The mechanism spun uselessly without opening the door. A suction device attached to the balcony glass. Valkyrie pushed water inside it. Sparks flew, and it stopped. White vapor seeped beneath the front door. Batu pressed a forepaw against it. Riphiel stood before the parents' room.

"Your mother will be angry if we overturn the table."

"Then fight around it." The door forced inward. An arm in black tactical gear came through. Batu bit the wrist guard and pulled. A black terminal fell from the attacker's hand. Its screen lit as it struck the floor. Operation windows for several locations opened at once. The apartment. Outside the hospital his parents visited. Kichan's old workshop. Vehicles waiting on the outskirts. Above every window was the same line. `Family elimination authorized. `