Extra’s Rebirth: I Will Create A Good Ending For The Heroines - Chapter 281

Chapter 281: Two Sides Of A Nightmare
Azel was grateful that he had managed to study Stella’s rune.

While this was far from what Stella had wanted him to use it for… specifically having sex with her daughter, it was still good enough for him.

‘I didn’t spend all that time walking doing nothing after all,’ he thought, sighing as he studied the trembling demon woman before him.

The rune paper glowed at the side of her neck… she hadn’t even noticed it was there and he preferred it like that.

‘I really need to learn how to engrave runes directly from Mynes. That would make all this easier.’

The blood from her ruined eye ran down her cheek in slow thick streams, painting the ground like a puddle.

Azel squatted down so he was eye level with her, raising his dagger up.

“So, are you going to talk?” he asked casually, twirling the blade in his hand.

The demon woman flinched and instinctively pushed herself away using her leg, dragging herself backward until her back pressed against the cold wall.

Her mouth opened to scream, but only silence came out…

Again and again, she tried to scream.

Her body trembled violently, and her throat strained until she began coughing out thick, black blood.

The blood pooled beneath her, spreading like oil on the stone ground.

Her remaining eyes were wide and terrified, darting between the dagger and Azel’s calm expression.

Azel sighed softly and moved closer.

“I’ll make sure you can talk,” he said. “But if you try to scream, I’ll kill you immediately.”

Before she could even react, Azel’s form blurred.

The next second, he was right in front of her again, and the paper that had been stuck to her neck was gone.

The magic around her throat faded slowly.

She could feel her voice return but fear kept her silent.

She didn’t dare test him. He had already taken one eye without a hint of emotion… what would her life mean to a killer like that?

Besides, she had promised her sister she would live for her.

Her chest rose and fell shakily.

“W-what do you want?” she managed finally, her voice was weak from the constant tries at shouting.

She was ready to talk now. Whatever pride or loyalty she had was gone, crushed under the simple fact that she wanted to survive.

Azel leaned the dagger on his shoulder.

“Are you under a bind like the civilians?” he asked.

He needed to make sure. If she was under a binding curse like the others and she tried to speak, she’d die instantly and that death would definitely alert the whole base.

The woman shook her head weakly.

“No… I’m a manager here,” she choked out. “I’m not under any bind.”

“Good.” Azel nodded slightly. “Then tell me what you know about Exotin and where the main production is being held.”

The moment he mentioned Exotin, her eyes darkened.

“Exotin is weak because of you…” she hissed, her voice trembling with anger and pain.

Azel raised an eyebrow.

“Princess Naelia’s blood was supposed to be collected in abundance,” she continued, glaring at him, “but you interrupted. We only had a small amount to work with. The original professor of this project already sent that portion away before you arrived and killed him.”

She spat black blood on the ground, then wiped her mouth. “Exotin was meant to get you addicted after one use… but now, because of the interference, it takes multiple doses. It’s incomplete.”

“I know all that,” Azel lied easily, though in truth, this was all new to him.

Still, her reaction confirmed something… he was already considered an enemy to their entire operation. He liked that.

He took a step closer. “Tell me where Exotin is being manufactured. Is it only being made here?”

“Yes…” she started, but her voice cracked halfway. “We found another component, which is Ery—”

Suddenly her throat seized.

Her lips kept moving, but no sound came out.

Her body jerked violently.

Her two remaining eyes popped like bursting glass, splattering dark blood down her cheeks.

The smell of burning flesh filled the room.

She clawed at her throat, unable to breathe as her veins lit up like molten cracks beneath her skin.

Azel’s eyes widened.

She was burning from the inside out.

Her body convulsed, skin darkening as smoke began to rise from it.

Her voice… if she still had one was gone.

‘I was marked…’ she realized, her thoughts echoing in terror.

They had told her she wasn’t.

They had promised she was free from the binding since she was a manager from Exotin. She had believed them because she had felt nothing unusual but now, as her body burned away from within, she understood.

She had been lied to…

In her last moments, the fire stopped just short of devouring her entirely.

One of her eyes, the one that Azel stabbed earlier regained vision.

Through the haze, she saw Azel kneeling beside her, a faint golden light in his hand as he poured healing magic into her chest.

He was saving her.

‘He’s… not really bad,’ she thought with peace in her expression.

Maybe it was just circumstance… they were just two people on opposite sides of a nightmare i the end.

She gave him a small nod and forced her lips to move.

“…Thank you,” she whispered.

And then her body went still.

The fire died with her heartbeat.

Her remaining eye dimmed, her limbs fell slack, and she fell onto the ground completely lifeless.

Azel exhaled slowly and closed her eye with two fingers. He wore a complicated expression…

‘And there goes my answers,’ he thought bitterly. The only person who could have explained everything had just burned to death right in front of him.

If she was marked… that meant the others were marked too, so this just became far harder.

And as if to mock his frustration…

WEEEOOO WEEEOOO WEEEOOO!

The alarms began blaring.

A harsh red light filled the entire underground base, flashing through the cracks of the door.

The sound reverberated through the walls like an angry beast.

Azel rose to his feet, wiping the black blood off his blade with a torn part of her cloth before putting it in his storage ring.

‘Just as I expected,’ he thought grimly.

He had known the chance of an alarm trigger was high. If the bind had killed her, it meant the base’s surveillance was already aware.

Behind him, Erblim landed lightly on his shoulder, the feathers on his head ruffling with agitation.

“Master… we’ve been found, haven’t we?”

“Yeah,” Azel said simply. “We have.”

Ravik stepped forward, his claws flexing as his yellow eyes flicked toward the sealed office door. “My lord, should I take point?”

Azel shook his head. “No need. We’ll move quietly until they make the first move. Then we strike.”

He walked to the woman’s desk… a broad wooden table scattered with papers, glass vials, and half-finished tools.

He scanned through the clutter, his eyes catching on something that looked out of place: a folded paper with clean, precise lines and unfamiliar symbols.

He picked it up and unfolded it carefully.

It was a map.

A detailed, layered layout of the underground base… every corridor, chamber, and checkpoint drawn with near-perfect precision. There was somewhere circled too… It looked like an exit.

It seemed she wanted to run away.

“Jackpot,” Azel muttered. The base might have been massive, but with this, navigation would be trivial and he could see where the Exotin was being done.

He rolled up the map and tucked it into his cloak.

Then he turned to face Ravik and Erblim.

“Let’s go.”