Lucas fell on his butt when he saw Mason's lumpy body hanging over Jacob's bloody hand, which was coming slightly out of his chest. Mason's heart was clutched within Jacob's hand, and it was pulsing weakly.
'Squish…'
Jacob crushed the heart like a bug before his hand retracted, and Mason's corpse fell to the floor with a large bloody hole in his chest.
Lucas was filled with despair as he looked at Jacob, who was now probably looking at him since he couldn't tell anything because of Jacob's concealed face and eyes. But he does know it is now his turn.
"W-…." His words were caught in his throat as he started to cough violently, and this time he was literally vomiting blood with every cough.
"As I said, I'll relieve you guys, and I didn't lie. The thing is, your condition is terminal, and in my knowledge, there's no cure, no in this plain at least. There might be one in higher plains where the medical field is at a much higher level than this place.
"My deceased wife also suffered from such condition in the distant past, and she was in too much pain both physically and mentally…" Jacob's voice suddenly contains a hint of melancholy.
"Oh, forgive me, I derailed from the topic all of a sudden. Anyhow, death is the only solution, and it will come eventually. At least I can put you out of your misery painlessly since you provide me with this wonderful lab that will serve my needs for a while." Jacob chuckled coldly before he moved.
Lucas was still coughing like crazy, his vision was already cloudy, and his mind was filled with despair and misery.
The last thing he remembered was feeling a sharp pain in his chest before all that pain and misery faded away… he was really revealed!
Jacob looked at corpses with two holes in their chests without any hint of remorse and then averted his eyes, and they fell on the things Mason left.
He walked over and picked up the map scanner and stored it away since it wasn't of any use to him yet. Except for that map scanner, he found two other things which drew his attention. They were two jars of glowing liquid, one was green, and it was over half filled, and one was sky blue, and it hadn't been used before.
'Advance Type-1 Healing and Magic Recovery Potions? He even had over 1 liter of healing liquid and 3 liters of magic recovery potion. Just one drop of these liquids dilated in 1-liter spring water could heal any outer wounds and 20% mana below extraordinary rank.
'Don't tell me one of them was a potion alchemist. Well, that explains how these guys were alive all this time.' Jacob thought while putting those potions in his pendant.
Now, he was also a potion alchemist of Senior Grandmaster Rank, so he knew just how precious these potions were, not to mention their creation process was tedious.
Except for those potions, Jacob didn't find anything work talking as all of those remaining materials were junk to him. Mason probably used all the precious materials to create those two potions.
Nevertheless, Jacob's true prize on this trip was that big boulder of plutonium.
His eyes shimmered as he mused, 'Let's see how I can compress this huge lump. I should be done in a week or two before I get the reply from the dark city. Only then can I decide my next course of action…'
Without wasting more time, he got to work.
---
Three days later, in the dark city, noble circle,
Hallberg was looking at the hologram report with wide-opened eyes as if he was reading something horrifying.
"H-how is this even possible? Can one person really do all this?" He muttered with disbelief and a hint of terror.
"How accurate is this report?" He asked Dark Rose.
"80%. Dark Viscount Water Wave examined the battlefield herself, and she found over 500 corpses, and almost all of them were killed by beheading with a single sword slash.
"Through her connections in the star mercenary agency, she found that all those official mercenaries were on a secret commission to hunt Faceless Ancient. Even her friend Dark Baron Fire Cannon and two other Dark nobles were involved in this, and their Dark Badges are now voided, which likely means they are dead.
"Not only them, but there was another group involved in that attack since those extra over two hundred bodies didn't belong to any official mercenary. Still, this incident has caused huge losses to the agency, and right now, Bank manager Leroy has summoned a meeting between three hegemonies' upper echelons in the dark city." Dark Rose statically reported.
Hallberg found it amusing as he asked, "Did he know the Alchemy Guild Leader of the Dark City is probably the one who is behind this massacre, and they were the ones who were targeting him first? Is that idiot finally gone off his rails?"
"I don't know. But Leroy didn't invite Guild Leader Faceless Ancient; instead, he invited the former Guild Leader Braylon. He might've done this after knowing that the Guild Leader Faceless Ancient is currently unavailable in the Dark City." Dark Rose replied.
Hallberg chuckled coldly, "Dark Rose, you're still just an AI, so you don't know the matter of men. That Leroy is an old schemer and Braylon, and he is very tight.
"Since Braylon was forced to give away his position, he naturally considered Faceless Ancient his enemy. Now that the bank has suffered huge losses, Leroy would be the one who got blamed for this blunder, not the one behind that secret commission.
"If I'm not wrong, this secret commission has come from epic plains and from a very high-ranking member of the bank at that. Now, that person behind is using Leroy as a scapegoat, and that poor fellow had no choice but to become one.
"But what I don't understand is what that guy is now trying to do by summoning this meeting between three hegemonies. I never thought my last days in the dark city would be so entertaining, and all this revolves around one person."
Hallberg's eyes shimmered with great interest, "Maybe it's time for me to have a chat with this Faceless Ancient…"