In the Garden of Flowers,
After hearing all the details of the situation,
Drip…
Drip….
Master stood there, staring blankly at the grotesque sight before him— A massive, headless, naked body standing tall, blood still dripping from its severed shoulder.
Alaric and the tiny hooded figure instinctively took a step back, their eyes widening in pure shock at the horrifying scene.
“M-Master…”
Slowly, everyone’s gazes lowered, and they saw it—a giant head without a neck, completely detached from a body, held tightly in the enormous hands of the headless figure.
The sight was straight out of a nightmare!!
But it wasn’t over!
The head was bald, its scalp covered in crude stitches and metal staples as if someone had carelessly pieced it together. It resembled something straight out of a horror film, an abomination stitched together from discarded flesh.
And it wasn’t just the head!!
The entire body, every inch of it, was riddled with stitches, as if different limbs and torsos had been forcibly sewn together. Some parts of its flesh were sickly pale, while others were a fresh, almost pulsing red, as if still alive.
The contrast made it look even more grotesque!
And…. where one would expect to see its groin, there was nothing—just a smooth, featureless slope.
It was as if whoever had created this monstrosity had no intention of making it anything more than a tool of destruction.
It looked like a walking corpse, a disgusting patchwork of stolen living/non-living flesh brought to life.
Master continued to stare at the decapitated head, his expression unreadable.
The head shared his pupil-less eyes.
“So… you failed?” His voice was disturbingly calm, but the weight behind it sent chills through everyone present.
The head fell into an uneasy silence as if it had both guilt and fear.
Master’s jaw clenched, veins bulging on his neck as his fingers twitched in barely restrained fury. “W-Why?” His voice trembled with rage, his body stiff as he struggled to keep himself from lashing out.
His plan was falling apart, and failure was simply unacceptable.
Even though Alaric was now safe, his identity had been exposed. That alone was already a disaster. And now…
“O-One…” The tiny hooded figure stepped forward, frowning deeply. “Y-You had the power to kill them all without hesitation. I know for a fact that Master granted you permission to slaughter them if necessary. So tell me… why did you fail?”
The head’s expression twisted with frustration as it answered in a low, dejected voice. “I… I don’t know. Everything was fine, and then suddenly… something went… ‘BOOM!’ The next thing I knew, my head was gone… I don’t know what happened, I…” His voice trailed off, filled with confusion.
Everyone exchanged uneasy glances.
This was unexpected.
Then Alaric, still reeling from the sheer madness of the situation, hesitated before asking, “Wait… what exactly is going on here?”
The answer he received left him completely stunned. Their captives had not only escaped, but they had also destroyed an entire research tower in the process.
Alaric could hardly believe it. “B-But how? How could they have possibly escaped from the cube? That’s not possible! The cube is designed to be completely unbreakable from the insi—”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Master cut in sharply. “Inside?” He let out a dark chuckle. “Haha… That’s exactly what makes this even more confusing. Only table members and a select few individuals had access to the passcode that could release the cube. So tell me… who betrayed us? Who betrayed me?”
The moment those words left his mouth, a suffocating pressure descended upon them.
Even Alaric, despite his own power, gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay standing. His Master’s overwhelming presence was suffocating, just like that of a Sovereign.
One thing was certain—there was a mole among them. Someone had given away the passcode.
Master had already begun narrowing down the suspects. Jack and another Table Member figure had been busy with their duties, so they were out of the equation.
That left only three possible traitors.
And realistically, this massive, brute-like creature—the stitched-up monstrosity—lacked the intelligence for complex schemes. He wasn’t capable of betrayal. That left only two options.
Alaric… and the tiny hooded figure.
Master’s gaze darkened. ‘Hmm… for now, I can’t let them suspect that I’m onto them. I’ll deal with this in my own way.’
Still, there was something bothering him…. something nagging his mind!
Alaric turned toward the head and narrowed his eyes, “You could have just destroyed the door, couldn’t you? Though it will destroy the chance to enter the academy temporarily… but still, That would have solved everything. Why didn’t you just do that?” His voice was calm, but there was something beneath the surface—something suspicious.
It almost sounded like he was starting to doubt this creature’s failure was entirely accidental.
The severed head blinked, then tilted slightly in confusion. “Oh? I could do that?” His expression was one of genuine surprise.
Master’s face twisted in fury, his entire body stiffening as a violent, almost tangible killing intent exploded from him.
Alaric immediately gulped, sensing the danger. He quickly tried to defuse the situation. “I-I mean, you can, right? It’s a simple solution. After all, the only goal was to stop them, wasn’t it?”
The head frowned, his tone utterly innocent, “But…. Master didn’t say I could do that?”
“…”
Silence.
Then, in the next instant—
“YOU FUCKING BAS—”
“Master, calm down!!” Alaric lunged forward, grabbing Master’s arm just as he moved, barely stopping him from tearing the stitched-up body apart in pure rage.
“Let me go, Alaric!” Master snappe. His entire body trembled with unfiltered fury.
His plan… ruined. His research… destroyed. His subjects… gone.
Everything he had worked for, everything he had spent years building—reduced to nothing.
And someone… someone was going to pay for it.
“Master… please calm down,” Alaric pleaded, struggling to restrain him while the huge figure trembled in pure fear, its massive body shaking under the intense pressure of the Master’s rage.
Sensing the tension reaching a dangerous level, the tiny hooded figure hesitated before finally stepping forward. It took a deep breath, then spoke in a cautious, measured tone,
“M-Master… You should know how his brain works… He only listens to your exact words and obeys them without question. I think… I think he didn’t do anything wrong here.”
Master’s eyes darkened… He turned his sharp gaze toward the tiny figure, “So what you’re saying is that I’m the idiot here?
That I should have spelled everything out for this useless pile of stitched-up trash?
That I should have given him step-by-step instructions, even for something as simple as closing a fucking door?” His voice dripped with frustration and anger.
The tiny figure visibly flinched, its body stiffening as it took an instinctive step back, clearly realizing that involving itself in this situation was a grave mistake.
Master let out a sharp snort before forcefully jerking Alaric’s hands off his arm. His empty, unforgiving gaze locked onto the severed head, his anger still boiling just beneath the surface.
But deep inside, he knew the truth… This failure was entirely on him.
He had planned everything down to the finest detail. He had crafted each step of this operation with precision.
He knew exactly what ‘One’ was capable of—its strengths, its weaknesses, its unwavering obedience. And yet, in a moment of pure frustration, he had given an order without thinking. He had entrusted a mission to a creature that lacked the ability to think beyond direct commands.
It was a careless mistake!
A rare misstep!!
And the price of that misstep was everything.
“Don’t worry, Master,” Alaric said, his voice steady but firm. He straightened his posture, his expression dead serious as he attempted to contain the growing storm.
“Our hard-earned research isn’t entirely lost. It wasn’t just the test subjects or the products we had there. We still have our core research, the most valuable part, in our hands. So there’s no need to panic just yet.”
Master’s gaze flicked to Alaric, Then, with an exasperated snort, he muttered,
“Those products are not something we can afford to lose. Do you have any idea how long we’ve been working toward this? How many years we’ve spent, waiting for the day we could finally bring forth the new beings?” His voice grew heavier, harsher, as he shot Alaric a sharp glare.
Alaric and the others lowered their heads in silence.
Especially the headless figure…. It hesitated for a moment before slowly placing its severed head onto the ground, its entire body drooping as if consumed by guilt and regret.
“I can’t just let this go…” Master muttered through gritted teeth, his fingers twitching slightly as his mind churned, working furiously to come up with a way to salvage this disaster.
He couldn’t afford any more failures… Not now!
Ding~
A sharp, hollow chime rang through the heavy silence.
‘Now what?’ Master groaned inwardly, his expression twisting in sheer annoyance as his jaw clenched.
The tiny hooded figure quickly pulled out a slate-like device and scanned the message before mumbling, “Master… It’s from Jack. He says… Victor is coming back.”
Master’s frown deepened instantly as he pressed a hand against his forehead, letting out a slow, frustrated sigh,
“Yeah… we baited him. Of course, he’d be furious when he realizes nothing actually happened there except Jack playing with him” His fingers curled into a fist.
Victor had been waiting—no, anticipating—a fight.
The plan had been to lure Dora into the Void Empire, leading to an inevitable clash between her and Victor and Master would come and kill her during that chance!
That was the entertainment he had been promised.
But now? Now, everything had been derailed, and Victor was left with nothing but disappointment.
And if there was one thing that the monster (Victor) despised more than anything… it was being denied his fun.
Victor returning to his empire was bad news.
Worse than bad news.
Master carefully tried to move someone from Victor’s territory for his own gain. If Victor found out, if he so much as caught a whiff of betrayal, things could go very, very wrong.
He could not afford to lose Victor.
Victor was unpredictable. A wild card. An irregularity in the grand scheme of things. And possibly… an invaluable piece in the future.
‘What should I do now…?’ Master frowned deeply, his pure white eyes narrowing as he gazed into the distance. His vision drifted toward the swaying field of flowers, their delicate petals caught in the gentle wind, dancing….
“Yeah… let’s kill both of them.”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Hmm?”
Alaric, the tiny figure, and even the severed head all blinked in unison.