Lord of Annihilation

Chapter 399: Escape from Alca--Tartarus. Part 3

Wearing their respective disguises, the duo immediately moved on to the next step of the plan; going to the Transfer Room. 

Joining with the ever-flowing crowd, they quickly arrived at one of the teleportation nodes installed within the facility. The teleportation node was a circular column of white light. It was 5m wide in radius and radiated a tremendous amount of spatial energy. It was the only effective way to traverse through this enormous facility which occupied the entire tertiary dimension. 

Stepping onto the column of light, the duo was immediately greeted with the appearance of a semi-transparent light screen. The light screen displayed a simplified map of the entire facility.

The nodes themselves were presented using glowing dots with some shining brighter while the others flickered dimly. Lines connected each node to six others, while each of those six branched into channels of their own.

Looking at this screen, Prometheus immediately noticed something that made him sigh.

"We are quite far from the Transfer Room," he spoke with a different voice, having copied it from the average-looking Magus.

"Indeed," Lucius softly replied, nodding 'his' beautiful face.

Taking a second to draw up a route-map within his head, Prometheus then communicated it with Lucius. After confirming that his route was without any flaws or delays, Lucius nodded his head in affirmation.

Having confirmed their actions, the two simultaneously pressed on a particular glowing dot on their semi-transparent screens and disappeared. 

In an instant, the column of light in a different location brightened for a second before instantly dimming. The disguised figures of Lucius and Prometheus walked out of this column of light and quickly entered another by the side.

Rinse and repeat.

After performing the same action a dozen more times, the duo finally exited the teleportation node at their intended destination. 

Leaving the large room containing the multiple columns of light, Prometheus turned his head to face his beautiful companion and asked with surprise.

"Are you not feeling dizzy?" 

"I'm fine."

"Oh, okay," Prometheus shrugged his shoulder while feeling inwardly surprised.

He was once again surprised by Lucius' specs. He recalled that a Stage 4 entity performing too many teleportations within a short interval without any rest would start feeling groggy and nauseous. 

Simply put, their bodies weren't strong enough to handle the pressure imposed by the Rules during teleportation.

However, his new companion seemed to be completely unaffected by this norm. In fact, he even seemed to be faring better than Prometheus himself. 

(AN: Excepting his garbage-level of combat ability, Prometheus was a genuine Stage 5 entity in all the other aspects.)

Walking a few meters forward, the duo was instantly greeted by a transparent wall of glass halting their advance. Stopping before this wall of glass, the duo heard a cold voice instruct them.

"Restricted Area! Please display your ID for verification."

Having expected this, the duo quickly whipped out their respective, stolen IDs and displayed them. A line of blue light appeared from the center of the wall of glass and scanned the two IDs. 

"ID confirmed. Access granted."

The wall of glass slowly parted and allowed passage. The duo quickly stepped past the glass wall and entered the long, lonely corridor behind it. Upon their entry, the glass wall immediately closed behind them.

Unlike the previous corridor which the duo had walked, the recently entered corridor was very empty. Lucius scarcely counted a dozen or so Magi Officers dressed up in a uniform similar to theirs, lingering around and conversing with each other. 

Some pairs seemed to be heading in the direction of the glass wall and the teleportation node, while others headed towards the Transfer Room which lied in the end.

Turning to face Prometheus, Lucius saw the former nod his head and saw his gaze say, 'this is the place.' He, himself was quite sure of the veracity of this location, owing to his prior visit.

Taking a step forward the duo walked side-by-side and followed the passage. They took care to lower their heads in order to avoid conversation with the surrounding Magi. 

Unlike the case with the lower-levels Guards, the number of Officers within the facility was quite limited. As such, it was expected that the Officers would be quite familiar with each other.

Prometheus' Disguise Runic Formation could near-perfectly mimic a person's appearance, voice, and demeanor. It couldn't, however, mimic their memories and abilities. As such, when facing a person familiar with the disguised target, it counted for an awkward interaction.

Still, the duo could not completely avoid interaction. 

Some of the Magi walking down the corridor greeted the duo as usual, to which they replied with a simple nod. Prometheus flashed a smile alongside his nod while Lucius kept an expressionless face.

The greeted Magus' eyes flickered with confusion at the duo's odd reply. However, they couldn't be bothered to dig deeper at this oddness and attributed it to a bad mood.

After all, who wouldn't have the occasional case of the Monday blues?

Traversing the majority of the mostly empty corridor, the two men arrived at the entrance of the Transfer Room. There wasn't any door or obstacle to hinder their advance. Instead, the entrance to the Transfer Room was an enormous stone archway that was nearly 10m tall and 30m wide.

It had to be mentioned that the passageway through which the disguised duo had just finished traversing was also quite large and wide. The path that they had followed was towards one of the sides and so was the glass wall entrance. 

Much of the passageway was instead occupied by rail lines that extended from under this stone archway to a point beyond the horizon. Rather than calling it a corridor or passageway, an underground train tunnel would be a more accurate description.

"Those lines are used for transporting supplies and prisoners that arrive here through the channel," Prometheus explained. "They start from here and nearly cover the entirety of this facility."

"I know," Lucius replied. 

He could not be more familiar with their rail lines since he had used them to act as his guidelines in his previous life. Lucius had followed the rail lines and traversed the entire facility, before finally ending up in the Transfer Room.

After appreciating the vast sight for a few seconds, the duo turned around and stepped into the Transfer Room. Taking a proper look at its interior, their eyes were immediately drawn to the enormous sphere-shaped ball of light floating at the very center of the dome-shaped room.

The Transfer Room was a HUGE hemispherical area with a ceiling that was at least 300m high and a diameter of 500m. The centerpiece of this room was the gigantic ball of light that floated in the air at the top and the large metal platform which was built under it.

The spherical ball of light seemed to have a radius of 80m and pulsed with an enormous amount of energy. Going by the faint stinging feeling that Lucius felt atop his skin, he estimated that the spherical ball of light contained energy equal to an entity halfway to the Stage 6 realm.

The metal platform that was constructed directly underneath it was square in shape and had even 30m wide sides. Tall metal towers extended from the four cardinal directions of the platform, the tips of which reached the halfway point of the gigantic ball of light. 

The four metal towers had innumerable pipes and wires covering their bodies, connecting with various machines and terminals spread throughout the room. Dozens of Magi Officers could be seen moving back and forth, busy as bees, as they went about their respective duties.

Scanning across the room with their sights, Prometheus and Lucius simultaneously let out quiet sighs when they noticed the absence of the Stage 5 Wardens.

"Seems like our luck is quite good, eh?" 

Just as Lucius was about to nod at his words, he heard a voice call out to him.

"Linda! What are you doing here? I thought you already left to meet with a friend."

The voice was accompanied by a handsome face, who quickly made his way towards the duo. 

"Oh, dammit!" Prometheus cursed under his breath while Lucius furrowed his eyebrows and turned to face the caller.

The caller, a handsome-looking Magi wearing a similar Officer uniform, held a sandwich in his hands as he made his way towards them. His radiant face sported a smile as he arrived next to Lucius.

"Why are you back? Didn't you say that you were leaving to have lunch with a friend?" He leaned forward with his face, reaching in for a kiss. 

Lucius immediately stepped back and shot a gaze filled to the brim with murderous intent towards the handsome newcomer. Prometheus immediately facepalmed while inwardly cursing to the seventh heaven.

Missing the kiss with his fianc, the handsome newcomer grew confused for a moment before being hit by an extremely ferocious murderous intent. His body stiffened for an instant, triggering his flight-or-fight response. 

Owing to his abundant combat experience, the handsome newcomer immediately retreated backward while dropping the sandwich in his hands. The confusion on his face grew more intense as he asked while stuttering.

"L-Linda! What is the meaning of this!?"