The thunder from Bell's widowmaker faded, swallowed by the chaos.
The formation of the Agnus' force continued to hold as blades clashed with the abominations and shields blocked their attacks.
They were now fighting two separate battles against the Droselmire guards and the creatures, but the same applied to the Droselmire guards, who had to watch their backs because their former allies had been turned into creatures that could attack them at any given moment.
Keeping a tight grip on the widow maker, Bell's voice was cold and commanding as he said, "Continue pushing forward. Leave no one standing. Only let those who surrender live."
""Yes, Young Master!"" they responded in unison.
Driven by the words of the 4th son of the House Agnus, their faith, fear, and courage intertwined as their energy surged.
Turning to Jerman, who didn't let his guard down for not even 0.1 seconds, he told him, "We're heading to the laboratory."
Jerman's expression tensed. Although it was dangerous to separate from the group, it would be he who would die first if anything went awry, which would give his young master time to escape. "Understood, Young Master."
"Keep up," said Bell as he walked calmly through the hall that had become a battlefield.
Stepping over the piles of corpses that were both human and otherwise, the floor was slick with blood and sweat.
The air was thick with the metallic tang of iron and the bitter scent of rot.
Every few steps, a Droselmire guard who recognized that Bell was the master of the forces that had suddenly invaded their mansion would throw themself at him.
Each time, Jerman cut them down with his twin daggers that were attached to chains connected to iron bracelets on her wrists.
Bell didn't waste his energy. He wasn't here to fight everybody. That was why he brought all these men and women. He didn't shoot all the bullets he had. That would be a waste.
He was here to end the cause of it all.
Advancing through the mansion's east wing, or what was left of it, as the walls were cracked and shuddered from explosions and barrages of attacks.
When they reached the end of the corridor, Bell paused for a brief moment as the sound beyond the door was different than the rest of the mansion.
Placing his index finger gently on the trigger, he was prepared to aim and fire it at any moment.
"Open the doors," Bell ordered Jerman, who kicked the door open not even a second later.
The air around him felt instantly colder. With each step forward, it only grew colder and colder.
Wet with rot and chemicals, that was the easiest way to describe the laboratory.
Steam was hissing from broken pipes and tanks that once contained liquid were shattered.
The floor was littered with glass shards, syringes, chunks of human parts, and liquid.
At the center of the chaos stood a creature. No. It wasn't like the other creatures his people were fighting against at the moment. Creature wasn't enough to describe what he was looking at. It was a monster. An absolute monster.
The monster standing before them was Dr. Debronx.
After the mansion was engulfed by total chaos, he knew that there was no choice but to fight for his life. He had given Count Vorath all the potions he had that could transform humans into hideous, powerful creatures.
Well, almost all the potions. He kept one for himself, but unlike their potion that would permanently steal away their humanity, his potion was not only more potent, but it would also let him return to his human form once it ran out.
He was swollen with muscle, his body a bright crimson.
He was taller than three adult men stacked on top of one another, and his mind was still intact.
Maya was on the ground, coughing blood. She'd managed to roll to her side, her dagger raised in anticipation of another attack, while her other hand was pressing tightly against the cut on the side of her stomach.
"Jerman," Bell said without a single change in his expression.
Understanding what Bell was saying without him saying anything other than his name, Jerman rushed forward and blocked the attack that was coming in Maya's direction.
"More vermons!" Dr. Debronx yelled as he tried to grab Jerman, who was nimble like a cat, dodging the swipe.
"You don't look okay," Bell said as he stood above Maya.
"Was it obvious?" Maya sarcastically asked.
"Is that the scientist?" Bell asked. He only asked because there were signs that the monster had once worn a white lab coat before the transformation.
"Yes. He was a human when I arrived in the lab, and just as I severed the tendons in his legs to prevent him from running away… he did something while I was distracted with the guards in the room with him, and now… now he looks like that."
Although Maya would eventually become the most feared assassin on any battlefield, he wasn't surprised to see that she was in this state.
Her first time killing another human would take place much later on in the novel.
And she hadn't unlocked the star ability in her skill tree that would make her a fighting machine even once her invisibility turned off yet.
"Can you go invisible and take yourself somewhere safe?" he asked.
"In a little bit, I should be able to do so," she answered as the attention and aggro of Dr. Debronx was now focused on Jerman.
"Alright. Do that then. I'll handle the rest," Bell said as he turned around, shifting his eyes to the monster who was still trying to catch Jerman out of the air like a fly. "So… that's the one responsible for those children?"
He closed his eyes for a brief moment, and the images of the underground lab rushed into his mind.
Opening his eyes, he lifted his widowmaker and pulled it.
BANG!
The bullet entered the abomination's head, but it didn't dig deep enough to pass through the skull and into the brain.
Dr. Debronx turned and looked at him, ignoring Jerman, who sliced him a few more times with his daggers.
"Hello, Doctor," Bell said as he aimed the spear he was holding in his other hand at the monster. "Nice to finally meet you."
"And who are you?" Dr. Debronx asked.
"I'm Bell Agnus. Also, none other than the one who exposed your underground lab to the rest of the world," Bell answered, provoking him.
"It's you? You're the son of a bitch who did that?!" Dr. Debronx screamed, saliva spewing from his mouth with each other. His voice was a trembling fusion of human pain and monstrous echoes. "Die!"
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
"You dare show yourself before me after ruining my paradise!"
"Your paradise? If that's what you consider Hell to be, then, yeah… I ruined your paradise," Bell responded as he leaped into the air, twisting his body just enough to avoid the punch.
Thrusting his spear forward, he stabbed a shallow hold into the monster's body.
Dr. Debronx's jaw stretched too wide to be considered a grin. "You wouldn't understand. None of you can ever understand. You think that I don't understand the laws, rules, and morals?! I understand! But understanding won't save my daughter!"
Bell said nothing as Jerman got in front of him and parried Debronx's attack.
Drawing his spear from the floor, its tip still wet with blood, Bell thrusted it again, traveling past Jerman's ear, and he poked the scientist in his chest.
"They called me crazy when I told them my theory about kaijus. Yet now, now it's commonly used all around the world! But when I warned them, they ignored it! And now, my wife is dead and my daughter is cursed to suffer for the rest of her life!" Dr. Debronx screamed.
'Why is he handing me his tragic backstory as if I care?'
At the end of the day, Bell saw him as nothing more than the person responsible for all those children's lives being ruined or ended.
Lunging forward, faster than something that size should've been able to move, Bell and Jerman had no choice but to sidestep smoothly.
But they didn't just dodge. Bell's spear didn't forget to slice across Debronx's ribs, and Jerman's twin daggers hooked themselves onto the monster before pulling back to its wielder using the chains.
'All of the wounds we deal regenerate themselves.'
He watched as the gaps in the monster's body where the black blood was pouring from closed up as the tissues knitted themselves back together.
Dr. Debronx roared, swinging both arms down like hammers. Bell ducked under the blow, but when the floor underneath him cracked from the impact, he lost his footing.
"Young Master!" Jerman screamed.
Bell watched as a giant fist approached him closer and closer.
As if it were in slow motion, he observed it and allowed it to get closer rather than attempting to avoid it.
Only when it was just a mere half-inch away from ramming into his body, did he activated his star ability, the only available ability in his skill tree.
[Unbound Step]: To be liberated is to be free — free from the chains of mortality itself. For a fleeting moment, even the concept of harm holds no meaning. For 0.1 seconds, all damage is nullified, passing harmlessly through the user's body as though they do not exist within this world.
* * *
A while ago.
Once the first star in Bell's skill tree lit up, it was like the ability had been a part of him his whole life.
He knew the general description, how to activate it, how much star energy it required, the mental stress it would cause him, and how long it would last.
But the thing about an ability is that if you're creative enough, you can use it in ways that it wasn't intended.
Not everything about an ability is one-dimensional, and there can be aspects of it that you haven't considered.
One person could use an ability for offense, while another can use it for defense.
Based on the description he had of the ability in his mind, it just sounded like attacks would go through him. But that didn't answer the question of what would happen if the timer ran out while the attack was inside his body. Would it repel it away? Or would his body solidify, and would there now be a foreign object in his body?
He had to test it.
Grabbing a knife, he tried to stab his own palm, activating the ability just in time to avoid the damage, but not enough time that the entire attack would go through his hand.
And when the ability was deactivated, the hand wielding the knife was pushed back in the direction that it came from with so much force that it felt like twice or even three times the amount of energy was being returned.
"Interesting."