263 Chapter 258: A Not So Loyal Servant Part 1

After roughly 9 minutes of waiting by the cliff, Raven and Arias could see the compound's alarms flashing in the distance, a sign most likely, of a successful breach. 

At this time, Arias put down the glass he was holding in his hand and turned to Raven, "Let's go. See if you can get us right there." Arias pointed toward a spot and Raven followed his gesture, and once she saw the spot he was looking at, she uttered, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." 

A dark portal opened right in front of them, right at the edge of the cliff they were on. Arias stepped through first, and Raven followed before it vanished and reappeared near a helipad on the vast compound in the valley.

Their figures emerged from the portal on the helipad. Now, more clearly, they could hear the sirens blaring from all directions and the sound of panicked individuals rushing and firing guns. 

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" 

Ignoring the sirens and alarms, Arias turned to the only door present on the helipad that led deeper into the building. "This way," he said to Raven, before leading the way.

Entering through the door, they found themselves in a small room with a single elevator. 

Two guards guarding the elevator saw Arias's figure appear and immediately raised their guns, yelling, "Hands in the air!"

Arias, however, only tilted his head slightly, his eyes glowing ever so slightly with a lethal intent. In the next moment, both guards felt all the bones in their body crack and break as their entire figures contorted in an unnatural manner, quickly causing them to drop to the ground while yelling in pain. 

Arias didn't bother to stop and only retrieved one of the key cards hanging off the waists of both men before entering the elevator. As he did so, though, he looked at the bodies and said to Raven, "They can't be allowed to live, witnesses and all."

This was a very sudden request for Arias to make because thus far, she had yet to take a life with her powers, something she had pondered before. If in the future, she too would need to be like this and take the lives of others. 

However, considering how casually Arias stated this, she felt like he expected this from her. 

Looking at their now disfigured bodies, Raven showed a little hesitation but eventually, her eyes glowed bright, and she extended her hand while muttering, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." In the next moment, two large dark bubbles engulfed the heads of both men, and they could be clearly heard trying to gasp for breath.

It was an unusual way to go about killing when one could just do it quickly, but Arias felt that this was perhaps Raven's way of saying she was willing to do this. 

Arias did indeed ask Raven to kill the two men as a test to see where she stood on the matter and if at all she would be willing. Her current response was very satisfying to Arias, as it meant he didn't really have to worry too much about how he went about things around her. Soon, both men no longer made a sound, and their bodies went limp.

After, Raven retracted her hand and entered the elevator before standing alongside Arias. Arias then put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Sometimes, in order to grow, you have to make very hard decisions, and as unpleasant as they may make you feel, they're necessary. Your mind must be hardened, so you've done well." 

Knowing how much Raven had familial complexities, Arias knew that taking the approach of a mentor was best with her. He knew providing her some form of praise and acknowledgment would likely go a long way to help her psyche, which wasn't used to praise at all.

Arias would be right. 

Inwardly, although Raven felt great anxiousness after killing those two, she also felt incredibly happy to be told she had done a good thing. It was only for a moment, but she did indeed enjoy the praise and acknowledgment.

Having said that, Arias used the key card and punched in the lowest floor, immediately sending the elevator down. As it went down, the lighting would occasionally flicker madly, while the resonant sound of gunshots and explosions rang from the exterior. 

Arias ignored this until the elevator stopped on the ground floor. 

However, the buttons on the elevator indicated that there were several more floors below, making it clear that special access was needed to go even further. Raven was about to point this out, but the elevator's doors opened, and the flinching figure of a middle-aged man in a white lab coat could be seen. His face was ashen with fear.

Raven was about to raise her hand to launch an attack, but then a bullet shot right through the man's head, and his body thumped, half of it going past the elevator's door with blood now trickling in from his head. 

As this happened, Slade came from behind and reached for the man's corpse, taking out another key card before dragging the half of his body that was in the elevator out. "Sorry about that, boss. You wouldn't believe how many of them were there," Slade said as the sound of more footsteps and shouting could be heard in the distance. 

But he didn't look the least bit fazed. Instead, he put the key card into the slot near the elevator buttons and clicked on the bottom floor before. As the elevator doors closed, the sound of bullets hitting the door was resonant, but no one, except Raven, looked the least bit bothered.

"They're persistent, I'll give them that," Slade mused just as the elevator began to descend into the lower floors. 

As it was doing so, Arias couldn't help but ask, "Do you have a manifest of the people being held down here? I would hate to overlook a potential asset." 

Slade gave a nod, but rather than take out a folder this time, he lifted his finger and tapped his head, saying, "Right up here."