76 4.2

Warning: GORE

"I am not kidding nor lying around. You get your ass in here, and see it for yourself!" Peter's voice seems irritated and frustrated as he shut his phone.

He took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling for a while. The white coat enveloped his body, highlighting his slender figure and few muscle structures. He was tall and quite pale, the soft and gentle features of his face glowed silently. But now, the visible annoyed countenance was deeply printed on his face.

It's been a week since they raided the tomb of the great Emperor, and few days also passed since he secretly took the corpse of the Emperor's sparrow hidden in his secret lab. A couple of days of examination, he still couldn't figure out what toxins and constitution had contaminated in the corpse's body.

Aside from the undecaying body, there is no other strange traits that could be used in his research. He even thought that they picked up the wrong corpse.

He was already frustrated enough to gambled so much money and if this won't work, he don't know how to start again.

It almost took an hour before the door to his office was pushed inside. A middle-aged man entered. He was handsome and sunny, the prominent smile on his lips seems radiant in sunshine. His presence was a fresh of breath air that even Peter, who was irritated a while ago, had slowly calm down.

Seeing him entering, Peter flashed his friendly smile, "It's been a longtime Copper."

The handsome man's smile widened, "If it weren't for your threat, I wouldn't come here."

Copper was one of Peter's few friends in college. He was a very knowledgeable historian and performed many achievements in their early years as well as now.

Peter needs help from a professional, and Copper was the best choice.

Copper stared at him for a long time before wiping the invisible dust on his black suit and asked, "So, why are you suddenly interested at the Crown of feather?"

Crown of feather is a movie about the history of the catastrophe in the late era. It tackles about the protagonist, who is in journey to defeat the greatest tyrant Emperor. It was a huge blockbuster hit in the industry, even until now, no other films surpassed that. And Copper also participated in that film as a writer.

What Peter interested was not about the film, but the information, whether valid or fabricated in order to proceed his next development.

He smiled, "I want to hear some information regarding of that film. Mostly, about the Emperor." He took a sit and also gesture the other man to proceed sitting.

Copper smiled turned sincere and peaceful, "Back in college, I never heard that you're interested about these things."

Peter only smirked and didn't response. He never really displays his deep obsession about the ancient history about the Emperor in the past. Afraid of being taunted as a weirdo, he hid his intense obsession inwardly. Although, he and Copper had a good relationship, he never intended to tell the latter about these things. But now, it reaches to the point that the matter was out of his hand, and thus he can only gamble and trust the friendship between them.

"Back in the past, the Emperor, Yong Guan was really a pitiful prince." Copper started and sighed, "He was only a prince born from a nameless maid, hence was treated harshly and experience extreme abused and neglection, he had no choice but to fight with his own strength. There are no information written on how did he manage to overthrow those abusers, maybe he killed them with his own hands, or they were punished. The history only said that, the young prince ran away from the palace and entered the military school."

"Some other book version portrayed him as a nice and sensible prince, that was only manipulated and tempted by the beauty of the sparrow. The other one also stated that the sparrow was the one orchestrated the whole event. She uses the fourth prince to rise from her rank as for the mere fact, that sparrow couldn't have an official title and couldn't produce an heir. There are many versions written in different perspective, and I don't have reliable source on which version could be considered valid."

Peter was taken back, "What? You mean the sparrow was a woman?"

"There is no absolute answer, the history didn't specify the real gender and even the appearance of the sparrow. It only said that the features could cause calamities and war, and the unusually immortality of the body."

Peter gripped his hands, "I want to show something." His only choice now was to rely on this man.

He took him from the lowest floor, where his secret laboratory was located. Aside from his cousins, Copper was the second one that will enter his lab, which made him slightly nervous. This man was a law-abiding citizen, if he were to perceive his illegal raiding of the tomb, Peter had no idea what will be the outcome.

The hospital where he currently resided was own by their family, and he had no problems building a secret lab underground. The only misfortune that he will experience was the moment this man will discern the unknown existence that he hid.

The door had strong and strict security, full of complicated password and patterns, which amazed Copper. After the large metal door opened, the cold breeze kept inside hugged their faces for a moment. The laboratory was full of medical tools and some computers, there are many high-tech gadgets which was shipped from other regions. Peter took him into another room. Compared to the entrance, this room was neat and organize. The design was only white tiles and a large incubator in the center.

Copper was slightly taken back, he stared at his friend deeply and was faintly anxious.

Keeping a corpse without notifying the government and association was considered illegal in the country. Although, he was unsure whether it was a corpse in the inside, his intuition tells him so.

"Peter this is...."

"I know. But hear me out, this corpse was no ordinary corpse." Peter interrupted and pushed a button near the door. The large incubator slowly opened, emerging white smoke and breeze from the outside. He added, "Will you believe me if I tell you that the corpse was the legendary sparrow in the history?"

Copper's eyes widened.

As the incubator opened and the glass framed gently lowered, eliminating the obstacles that was hindering them from seeing the figure on the inside, the bright crimson fabric reflected in their eyes. The amazingly beautiful robe with golden patterns embroidered around the hems down to the sleeves, which was usually used in weddings in the past. Pale and slender hands with fingertips shaved into a lovely arched, with miniscule blue veins that was faintly visible under the glowing and dazzling pale skin, that the fabric couldn't hide.

Peter almost lost his breath.

It was only the fingers, but his eyes was almost crowded with obsession. His dark eyes lowered and saw the brilliant toes and feet of the latter, it was not covered by any shoes or boots which allowed the man to indulge himself into his intense desire.

He hardly took a step forward and finally saw who was the owner of those gorgeous parts that almost took his breath away.

This face seems doesn't belong to mortals and could cause disaster in every country, even with the eyes closed, Copper could imagine how great this appearance could be. The elegant feature that coupled by an intense devilishly ambience was a strong contrast and exude severe fatal attraction.

"W-Who is this...?" It took a while before he find his voice.

Peter could understand him. He was also frozen when he first saw the remarkable appearance of the sparrow, "As I said. This is the sparrow of Emperor Yong Guan."

Copper thought it was impossible for his friend to find and retrieve a corpse like this, but seeing the face of the sparrow, he couldn't refute nor deny.

His eyes never left the corpse, "But how did you manage to track his corpse? If this is the legendary corpse of the sparrow, then you should hand this to the Government."

"No. I used my own methods and money just to find this corpse, and you tell me that I should just hand him to the Government? Are you kidding me?"

"Still—"

"Copper." Peter coldly called, "I call you here because I thought you are the best person who could help me. As you can see, I am a forensic pathologist. I want to investigate this corpse to find out how this body even with a hundred of years passed didn't decompose. If I succeed in my research and find the thing that I want, I will develop a medicine where corpse will no longer decay. Isn't also beneficial to the Government?"

Copper paused. Indeed. If Peter were able to succeed his goals, this will result them a good outcome and achievement. Except for being a good guy, Copper also likes a spotlight and honor. But there is some strange air exuding in the corpse's body that was making him hesitate, as if darkness would crawl unto him once he participated in this experimentation.

As if threatening him.

He cleared all his thoughts and accidentally touch the cold body of the corpse. Suddenly, hotness spread in his body which caused his sensitivity to collapsed and almost fainted. He retracted his hand and shifted his gaze to the young sparrow. Except for an undecaying body, he was no different from other corpses.

But why does he seem to see that the sparrow flutters his eyes?

"Copper." He was awakened by the call.

"Yes, I will cooperate."

"Good." Peter showed his smile, "With your information, I want to ask. Do you know the caused of death of this sparrow?"

Copper inspected his sea of knowledge, "There is no specific death written in every version. It only said that Emperor Yong Guan found the sparrow, already dead."

"If the sparrow was put into a strict confinement, how did he manage to die? Is it suicide?"

Copper's eyes widened, "No. It isn't suicide. As I recall, the time of death of the sparrow was the time when the first prince and Empress rebels against the Emperor."

"So it means, it was during war? Did the sparrow escape at that time? I was perplexed on why didn't I find traces of his caused of death from his body when I conduct full-body examination. But I only find strange tattoos." Peter picked up his phone and showed a picture to the latter, "Do you possibly know the meaning of this pattern?"

At first, Copper couldn't figure out the strange pattern on the picture, but as he saw furthermore, his face sank and his hair stood up.

"T-The upper one was... Eternal love, the lower one was a disaster."

Peter squinted his eyes, "Do you mean?"

"Once his eternal love was gone, disaster should fall upon the world."

At the same time...

"Come on, we stay in this valley for a whole week, we couldn't find their traces at all." The young military man whined.

His other comrade glared at him, "If you want, you can return now. Nonetheless, you already experience the wrath of our Captain."

With his words, the young man paled and almost suffer in fright.

The harsh and intense punishment that he suffered from their Captain was still a fresh experience from him. He could even imagine how cold and ruthless his Captain was, while calling him weak and useless.

No... He couldn't take that.

But this place was really boring. It's been a week since they set up a camp in this valley. Their mission was to catch the raiders from the unknown association who robbed countless fortune from the Government. Their information said that the raiders were sent to this place a week ago, but as they arrived, they didn't see any raiders here. Not even their traces could be found. They only manage to find a strange hole that appeared on the ground, and it was now under surveillance from his other comrades.

They were a group of ten, and six members entered that passage a week ago, and until now, they didn't return which slightly scared them. But the remaining four could only wait for them to come up.

The bonfire lightened up the night in the valley, with cold breeze from time to time would whisper into his ears like a voice of terror. The young military shivers and stood up, "I need to pee." He ran away and didn't bother to wait for their response.

As he was finished in his business, he suddenly felt extreme peculiarity in the surrounding. He zippers his pants and grabbed his gun in his side and looked around, only to see nothing at all. But his intuition tells him that something was wrong, and he turned around again, and positioned his gun.

Tug. Tug. Tug.

It was a footstep that came from nowhere. His hands trembled violently as he scanned the root of that footstep.

Tug. Tug. Tug.

The footstep was getting nearer and nearer, as well becoming loud and faster. He shifted his gun into his back and saw nothing again. He sighed and almost fainted on the spot.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

But then, he felt a drop of something into his cheeks. He touched it and inspected it.

His eyes widened.

B-Blood?!

He looked up and saw a huge tree branch in his head. The night was really dark, and the wind was cold.

Where did the blood come from?

Were his comrades playing tricks again?

As he was in relief, he felt a cold hand touching his feet. He looked down and saw something terrifying.

I-It's the dead body of one of his team members!

He pulled his gun and run away. He doesn't care whether he saw was real or some sort of prank, he only had one thing in his mind. He needed to escape. But the moment he arrived at the bonfire, two other dead bodies again greeted him.

He screamed and cried in horror.

The way they die was really brutal, like a beast that ripped their organs. He run again into another direction, but unfortunately, he fell down in the hole.

"Fuck. Damn it..." He murmured as he felt a great pain in his legs. He shifted his eyes into his ankles and saw the worst state of it. He panicked and grabbed the gun on his side but found that it was missing. "Shit. Shit... W-What the hell is going on?!" He cries and tried to drag his weak body into a huge rock.

But then he saw something sinister...

The cave was dark and the only light seeping through was the moonlight above the hole. But still, he could see someone in military uniform, eating fresh meat of another man in the same clothes.

He covered his mouth and stifled a sob. He knew who was the man chewing, it was Denver. He was one of the six members who entered the cave a week ago, and the one being chewed was the person he just talked to.

Why is this happening?!

Suddenly, the man eating creature turned his eyes into his direction. He bent down, hiding his body into the dark. His friend was already a monster. The appearance was extremely terrifying, as if the person he saw from horror movies. The flesh was barely intact in his face and blood dripping on his mouth. He only looks for a few moments before returning to devoured his lifeless food.

The young man shivers and find a sharp rock on the ground. He sighed and unexpectedly heard a loud roared into his back. His eyes widened.

Because in front of him, not far away, a huge crystal was leaning against the rock. He could clearly see his reflection into the crystal, and he also knew that the creature saw him.

He supported himself and stood up, the creature jumped into his direction, not minding the pain that he encounter. The young man cries loudly and pulled the sharp stones into the ground. The creature pressed him into the ground and attempted to bite his fresh flesh.

The young man hold the creature's neck, putting a distance between his flesh. The creature constantly pushed in and tried to devour his meat, his mouth was so wide that blood ooze into the young man's face.

"Y-You piece of shit...die...die!" The young man cried bitterly and grabbed the sharp stone, and pierce it directly into his opponent face.

The creature stumbled on the ground and the young man used the opportunity to flip the position around and stabbed few more severe stroke to the creature.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The creature roared as he slowly lost his voice. His face was ripped into pieces, flesh, and brains scattered into the ground horribly.

The young man cries and sobbed bitterly, pleading sorry countless times. As he escaped the danger, someone grabbed his neck and throw him into the other side. His back crashed against the hard rock. He vomited blood and stared at the one who attack him.

His eyes widened.

Compared to his comrades who turned into a monster, this one was no different from a man aside from the red eyes and strange clothes. But the young man knew that he was the one responsible for all of this.

He looked around to find a useful weapon as the man slowly walked towards him. The young man knew that he couldn't escape, but he saw a communicator device not far from him. He hurriedly grabbed it and opened.

Even if he dies, he should at least warned the government about this.

No one answers the communicator, and he was already anxious as the man almost reach him. He gnashed his teeth and shouted in a loud voice.

"T-There is some creature that turned my comrades into monsters! He was no different from humans, but he eats and devoured flesh from people! I am lieutenant James Robert of 8th Division under the leadership of—"

His throat was ripped apart and blood gushed out in his neck. He choked and suffocated as he fell down on the ground. Even if no one answer the communicator, it will leave a recording and the government will eventually find out about this monster. He looked up and saw the bloodless face and sinister eyes of the man.

His tired eyes widened.

No! Impossible!

How could this...

W-Why does he look like...

"Captain Kwon Hee-Ryang."