Extra’s Rebirth: I Will Create A Good Ending For The Heroines - Chapter 282

Chapter 282: Curiosity Kills The Erblim
Terisha ran through the halls with a squad of gang members behind her, their footsteps pounding hard against the stone floor.

Their target was the private office where Ranal, the three-eyed demon manager, stayed.

‘I can’t believe it…’ Terisha thought as she dashed forward.

Her limbs… the crimson ones sprouting from her head twitched in irritation. She could already sense something wrong even before she saw it.

They reached the sealed door.

It was Ranal’s office so usually, she wouldn’t be able to access it without Ranal opening it but this was an emergency…

She pressed her palm against the cold surface and took a deep breath.

“Overwrite,” she muttered.

A crimson glow spread from her hand, crawling across the door like living veins.

A blazing red sun appeared and the door vibrated then slowly slid open, releasing a gust of hot air.

The sight inside made Terisha freeze.

Ranal was lying on the ground, her skin marred with black burn marks.

Two of her eyes were burst open, the third was sealed shut. One of her arms was missing entirely, it looked to be torn cleanly off.

The air reeked of scorched flesh.

‘Fuck…’ Terisha clenched her jaw.

The limbs on her head lashed wildly. ‘They should’ve made sure Azel was dead. Because they didn’t, Ranal ended up like this…’

She bit her lip until she tasted blood, rage mixing with guilt in her chest.

Sure she liked taunting Ranal… but she didn’t want her to die.

Slowly, she stepped toward the desk in the corner.

Papers were scattered everywhere as usual but on top of it all was a small folded note.

She picked it up and opened it.

[I hope you like my gift.]

Her red eyes widened. ‘Gift?’

She looked up instinctively and then her heart dropped.

From the ceiling hung dozens of small papers that released mana…

Paper bombs.

And on the ground, half-hidden behind the desk, were bottles of resin…

‘Fuck—!’

The explosion tore through the room before she could even move.

The crimson sun on the door shattered into blinding light as fire engulfed the chamber, the shockwave sending the flames all over, burning her and her men.

…

‘Nice,’ Azel thought as the blast rumbled far behind them.

He, Ravik, and Erblim were once again cloaked in silence, the glowing veil of magic rendering them invisible.

Gang members rushed past them with their weapons drawn, heading straight for the explosion site.

None even looked their way.

Azel smirked.

‘They took the bait,’ he thought.

They kept moving, following the directions on the map he’d taken earlier.

Every corridor was marked with red lights and alarms now, but the Exotin lab… the deepest section of the underground facility was surprisingly untouched.

There were no guards which was strange.

They arrived before a massive steel door that had several seals on it…

“Alright,” Azel said. “Now to open it.”

Ravik stepped forward, holding out something wrapped in cloth.

He unwrapped it… Ranal’s severed arm.

He grabbed the cold limb, pressed its hand against the center of the door, and watched as the same crescent moon symbol appeared.

It pulsed and then just like before, the entire door dissolved away into air.

They stepped through quickly, and once all three were inside, the door reformed behind them.

Then Azel reached out and placed his own palm against the surface from the inside.

The door responded with a sharp electronic beep.

A series of lights blinked red along the edge.

It was going into Lockdown…

‘Can you believe that the instructions to use this thing were literally on the table?’ Azel thought, shaking his head with a grin. ‘Maybe fate’s actually favoring me today.’

The lights in the room flickered for a few seconds before fully coming with mechanical shutters.

Azel finally saw the place in full.

The Exotin lab was massive… a wide underground chamber stretching farther than he could see.

Cages lined the walls and rose in stacks up to the ceiling.

Thick pipes ran across the ceiling and into tanks filled with shimmering blue fluid.

It looked like a mad professor’s lab.

Rows of desks were cluttered with syringes, glass bottles, and notes scribbled in several languages.

‘I wonder what this CGO means,’ Azel thought as he looked through the map while walking through the aisles.

He glanced up at the cages and his expression darkened.

Inside each cage were humans or at least, what had once been humans. Their skin was pale to the point of translucence, and their eyes were dull.

Their bodies twitching unnaturally.

Some still clutched the metal bars weakly, while others sat unmoving, drool hanging from their mouths.

They looked… Hollow.

These were the mindless soldiers that they aimed to create… victims completely consumed by Exotin addiction.

“Let’s just do this thing and get out,” Azel muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Lockdown will only last until someone higher-ranked comes to override it. We need to move before that happens.”

Ravik nodded. “Understood, my lord.”

Azel scanned the nearest worktable. It had nothing that looked like the main reservoir. There had to be a core storage unit somewhere deeper inside the lab.

Only then did he notice the weight on his shoulder was gone.

He blinked. “Erblim?”

He turned, and there the crow was, standing proudly beside the control panel near the far wall, one claw lifted dramatically above a large red button.

Azel’s stomach dropped. “Don’t push—”

“But Master—”

“Don’t,” Azel repeated firmly, pointing at him. “You don’t know what that does.”

The crow froze mid-pose.

Azel gave a quick glance at the map he’d memorized earlier, searching for any mention of a control panel.

“It’s not here either,” he muttered. “So definitely—”

“…Okay.” Erblim sighed, shoulders drooping. He lowered his claw in defeat, ruffling his feathers.

And then, for reasons that would forever escape logic, the moment he flapped his wings to take off, both of his clawed feet landed squarely on the red button.

Click.

The sound was followed by complete silence.

Azel’s heart sank.

For a brief second, nothing happened. Then the entire room shuddered with a deep metallic groan.

All around them, the cages began to vibrate.

One by one, the locks on each cell disengaged with a heavy clank. The bars rattled violently, gears screeching as mechanisms shifted.

“Erblim…” Azel said slowly, eyes narrowing.

The crow let out a nervous chuckle. “Master, I can explain—”

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the sound of dozens of cages opening at once.