CH - 32 [ Scramble ] 3

He's bleeding. He's weak."

"So are we." Kazuki pointed out. "We can't just go off chasing after them."

"We don't have a plan. And not having a plan is what got us into this mess in the first place," Grey pointed out.

Halcen felt his arm hand throb. He looked down. This is the price I paid for being careless. Halcen nodded slowly. "You're right. I'm sorry. I got us all in this mess by being impatient. The only thing I got by leaving early was captured. They didn't start to try anything until you were already almost here. How did you find me anyway?"

"Same way you found her."

"So what do you think they're going to do with her?" Kazuki asked, still unsure.

"I heard him say something about a bride?" Bo mentioned.

"Yeah… they were going to make her Kumajin's bride," Halcen answered.

"Bride? To a God?"

"He's not a god," Kazuki pointed out.

"No, he's a Zoan," Halcen spat.

"So that's what that shit was," Bo sighed. "Devil Fruits. Fucking hell, man. The craziness never stops."

"Yeah, but they think these fruits make them gods. Domian had one too. Must have been a paramecia," Halcen said.

"Yeah… he's got some weird powers," Grey confirmed.

"So, what are we going to do about them? They escaped with Valentina."

"And the fruit," Grey said.

"We're gonna find out where they went," Halcen said. "And then we're going to kill them."

"How?"

"This place has all kinds of weapons and shit. We can put something together to kill them. Maybe we can force them into the ocean. I don't know for sure yet. First, we have to figure out where they are and stake the place out. They'll likely go somewhere to lick their wounds."

"A lab," Bo said quietly.

"What's that?" Halcen asked not quite hearing him.

"Domian… said to go to his lab."

"A lab?"

"It makes sense," Grey said. "They'd likely have a place where they can easily work with his powers. He said he creates the mixtures he uses himself."

"So he's gotta have a safe place to experiment in." Halcen said. "So we'll find this lab."

"How?"

Halcen looked around once more at the grizzly scene. "We extract the info from these guys." He nodded his head towards the bodies. Dead pieces of fallen foes were scattered all over the place. Halcen picked out two of the living cultists from the bloody mess; the most well preserved two that seemed the most alive. "We'll kill the rest."

They dragged the two cultists away from the scene, and in their view, as they were being handled, they watched the brutal slaughter of the rest of their fellow worshipers. Kazuki and Bo put a bullet in the head of each of the survivors. They were dead instantly.

When their captives began to struggle, Halcen and Grey knocked them out.

One man woke up with his body tightly bound. What was holding him, he could not be sure. He looked around after finally being able to open his eyes to find himself chained to the same cross that he had helped Domian chain the man who had intruded on their party earlier that night. He looked up to see that same man, sitting across from him on the same altar where they were going to sacrifice the woman to Kumajin. The man was coated with blood, but not his own. "What's going on?" he roared. "What are you doing?"

"I need to know where Domian's lab is."

The man looked panicked. He hesitated. "What lab?"

"You're a bad liar." He stood up and cracked his knuckles. "We know Domian has a lab where he experimented with his powers. Where is it?"

"Why would I know something like that?"

"Because you're all a bunch of freaks that have a sick and twisted bond, serving the same tyrannical monstrous master."

"Like you're one to talk!" he shouted angrily. "You have all left waves of blood in your wake. Just look at you! How many did you kill for the blood all over you? Hm? Who's really the monster here?"

"You took my friend. We didn't have a choice. You did."

"Do you really think any of us had a choice? On this island, we serve or we die."

"Why not just leave? If it's really so horrific?"

"We don't get to leave. Those that try, die. They know everything. Everything. They'll find out I'm alive. And if they find out I talked, everyone I care about will die too. That's how it works here. We don't get a choice. We're slaves."

"Hmmmm… well that's not what you're friend seemed to think."

"Friend?"