Accompanied by crimson lightning descending from the sky, a meteor smashed through the roof.
Before Jeffries could react, a steel eagle talon clamped around his body and lifted him into the air.
Only then did the man finally see the enemy's true form—a gigantic eagle made entirely of steel.
Its eyes were like two blazing torches, its beak resembled a massive pair of steel pincers, its wings were like two enormous steel blades, and its talons were as sharp as steel knives.
Behind the giant eagle lingered a mass of low-temperature plasma lightning that refused to dissipate.
Someone on the giant eagle was begging for mercy nonstop. "Ow, spare me! This is way more exciting than when Vill-V took me bungee jumping! My poor little heart can't handle this!"
Following the voice, Jeffries saw a cat-eared girl huddled behind the giant eagle's wing, her two cat ears twitching uneasily.
"Um... Big Bro Odin, didn't you say you were taking me to find Vill-V? No matter how I look at this guy, he definitely isn't Vill-V. Unless Vill-V is playing another disguise prank? Eek, Big Bird, let me hide behind your back for a second."
Immediately afterward, a man whose entire body was plated in metal emerged from the dazzling lightning behind the giant eagle's wing.
His physique was powerfully built. Even beneath the covering of metal, there was no concealing his muscles.
He completely ignored Pardo's complaints and merely raised a hand in front of her, making a "quiet" gesture.
Remembering the bloody scenes she had witnessed earlier, Pardo immediately covered her mouth obediently, not daring to say another word for fear that the man might suddenly develop an interest in making meat paste.
She had no idea whether this man taking her to find Vill-V was a good thing or a bad thing.
No matter how she looked at it, this really did not seem like something a good person would do.
Pardo could only pray that Vill-V had some way to deal with this guy.
With her own skinny arms and legs, she could forget about trying.
The moment Jeffries saw that strange man, his eyes nearly split with rage. "It's you, Odin!"
There was no other reason. The iron-masked man before him, draped in a blue lapis-colored cloak, was none other than the former director of Heliopolis Life Sciences' Strategic Security Division—his own former superior, Odin.
"You failure, what did you come back for? Are you planning to betray Heliopolis Life Sciences?"
At those words, Odin's right eye lit with cyan light. "Do you really think you were promoted to director of the Strategic Security Division because you slandered me a few times in front of our superiors and successfully forced me out? Is that what you call success?"
Jeffries twisted his body. "Wasn't it?"
"No, no, no. Completely wrong!" Odin looked playfully at Jeffries, still trapped in the giant eagle's talons. "They drove me away because they were afraid of me. And I left because there was no longer any value in remaining at Heliopolis Life Sciences."
"Afraid of you? Hah, impossible. Looks like you still haven't grasped the true foundation of Heliopolis Life Sciences." Jeffries sneered. "Aside from Awakening Serum and the fact that every member of upper management is a vampire,
Heliopolis Life Sciences also possesses technology far beyond anything you can imagine. Everything you've seen and everything you know is only the tip of the iceberg, you frog at the bottom of a well!"
"And you, frontline commander!" As he spoke, Jeffries glared at the man leaning against the wall and wiping down his mantis blade. "You chose the wrong person to follow, but there's still room to turn this around. I order you to kill Odin right now! If you do, I can still show you leniency!"
The frontline commander curled his lips into a mocking smile, completely ignoring Jeffries' dying struggle.
The man could not even remember his name. But it did not matter. Jeffries was already a dead man.
Although he had no idea who this suddenly appearing man was,
it was obvious that the enemy of his enemy was his friend. This man had come to help him kill Jeffries.
"Thank—"
Before the word could leave his mouth, a beam of golden light shot from Odin's palm and struck the man squarely in the forehead.
"Aaaargh—!"
The next second, the captain was reduced to a puddle of minced flesh.
"The enemy of your enemy isn't necessarily your friend."
Odin's outstretched hand twisted like the gnarled roots of an ancient tree. It was both powerfully thick and utterly withered, an ancient wooden hand thicker than a steel pillar yet devoid of the vitality a plant should possess.
Seeing this, Pardo swallowed from her hiding place behind the giant eagle. "That hand... is it some kind of treasure?"
Treasure appraiser Pardo could tell at a glance.
Jeffries, however, felt a chill crawl down his spine.
He certainly had never known Odin possessed an ability like this before.
"You bastard... you got a supernatural ability too? Weren't you unable to obtain supernatural abilities?! Ngh—"
Seeing Jeffries' disrespect, the giant eagle tightened its steel talons, squeezing him until his face turned a painful liver-red.
Odin answered with arrogance, yet also casual indifference:
"A frog at the bottom of a well. Well said. That ancient Shenzhou saying truly is an apt description of all of you."
"You think I don't know the truth you've buried thirty-three floors underground?"
"You... you've been to the thirty-third floor?!" Compared to the pain, Jeffries' face was now filled with shock.
"No. But I do know what is down there now. That is also why I left. Remaining under the surveillance of 'those things' inside Heliopolis Life Sciences would have made it impossible for me to contact GDO."
"Those things... what are they..."
Squelch!
Odin's ancient wooden hand pierced straight through Jeffries' abdomen, running him completely through.
Immediately afterward, Odin pulled his hand free from Jeffries' abdomen. Not a single drop of blood stained that dry, decaying hand.
"This..."
Clutched between his fingers was a pearl-like beetle with a glowing red eye. The beetle was as large as two fists and covered in hard alloy scales.
Even if Jeffries had been torn limb from limb, this mechanical beetle probably would have remained completely intact.
"A Heliopolis surveillance robot..."
Jeffries stared in disbelief at the insect that sent chills down his spine.
When? I was obviously so careful. How was this disgusting thing still implanted inside me?
Crack! Odin crushed the surveillance robot in his hand, but inside it was a glass bead that remained unbroken.
Odin's hand transformed into ancient wood once more.
Crack.
This time, the glass bead finally shattered completely.
Jeffries was not dead. Countless strands of granulation tissue writhed from the wound, attempting to construct a new body.
But the moment those strands approached the ancient wood, they recoiled as though they had encountered their natural predator.
"So you're what they call a 'half-machine, half-vampire.' Hmm... Still, the information has already been transmitted. You're useless now. Goodbye."
Rumble!
A torrent of crimson lightning engulfed Jeffries.
Within the brilliance of the lightning, an invisible soul screamed.
The lightning illuminated Odin's hollow right eye. "Oh, right. I have absolutely no interest in your thoughts. You aren't qualified to return to the great ocean of consciousness."
A moment later, not even a speck of Jeffries remained.
Odin's metallic face showed not the slightest fluctuation, as though he had merely stepped on an ant passing beneath his foot.
Throughout his conversation with Jeffries, he had never even looked directly at him.
His head had remained raised the entire time, as though he were speaking to the empty air above Jeffries.
And in truth, that was exactly what he had been doing. The one behind Jeffries had plenty of ways to hear every word Odin said.
Though calling it a person might still have been somewhat of a stretch.