On the Ark.

“Don’t worry, Captain,” Bonner said. “We’ve been through so much, how could we die in a place like this?”

……

"Hemo, Hemo".

The third floor of the factory building.

Engulfed in flames, Ifrit pushed aside a charred corpse and murmured as she walked forward. Before her lay dozens of infected, burned to death. They had been consumed by the flames the instant they tried to fight Ifrit, their bodies not even preserved intact.

Kado witnessed all of this, and at this moment, he no longer had the ambition to revive the Rhine Life; all he felt was fear, the fear of becoming the next dried-up corpse.

At this moment, he realized once again just how powerful that woman named Saria was, that she was able to suppress Ifrit in this state.

Kado knew very well that he was still alive not because of luck, but because he was in control of Hermes, who had already fallen into a coma.

"Ifrit!" Kado pressed his knife against Hermes's neck, suppressing his fear, and roared at Ifrit, who was slowly walking towards him, "Stop right there!"

Ifrit didn't stop.

"You bastard! Can't you hear me?! I told you to stop!" Kado had already retreated to the corner. "If you take another step forward, I'll kill your Hermes!"

Ifrit didn't stop; she walked forward numbly, as if she hadn't heard Kado's words.

Damn it, has he already lost consciousness?

At this moment, Kado wished he could kill Himer in his arms. It was all because Himer had raised this monster that he had been driven to such a state! But he dared not kill Himer. He knew very well that once Himer died, he would be the next to die.

"I fucking told you to stop!" Kado, in a frenzy, threw the knife at Ifrit.

But the knife failed to touch Ifrit before being stopped by the flames.

Ifrit looked up, her golden eyes reflecting Kado's despairing face. She was like a demon from hell, born to slaughter humanity.

However, the next second.

A thin arrow shot from the opposite floor.

Ifrit sensed the arrow, raised her hand, and flames swept towards it, but she was too late.

The arrow pierced Ifrit's shoulder.

Ifrit lowered her head, looking at the wound on her shoulder. The savagery in her pupils slowly faded, leaving only confusion and sorrow.

“No, no,” Ifrit whispered. “Hime, Saria… don’t leave me, please, don’t leave me…”

She knelt down on the ground, murmuring to herself, and then raised her hand, trying to pull the arrow out of her body. But it was as if all her strength had been drained away by an invisible hand. She failed and finally collapsed, blood flowing all over the ground.

"do not leave Me."

She spoke softly, her face streaked with tears.

Faust on the opposite floor slowly lowered his crossbow.

His eyesight was excellent, and he could clearly see Ifrit curled up in the blood, crying, before finally losing consciousness.

He remained silent.

Because he didn't know whether he was attacking a demon or a girl.

Chapter 185 It is my duty to guard this place.

Lin Ye and the others arrived at the second floor of the factory, only to find that the staircase leading to the third floor had collapsed.

ACE looked up at the gap in the stairs and said, "It was blown up. The door to the third floor is also blocked. You can't get up from here."

El said, "Then let's try another route. There should be other staircases. It doesn't make sense for such a large factory to only have one emergency exit."

“You’re right.” ACE nodded, then looked at Lin Ye. “There’s no movement on the third floor. I wonder what’s going on.”

"No movement shouldn't be a bad thing, right? It also means that Ifrit hasn't continued her rampage." Although Lin Ye said this, he was still very unsure.

“Without external help, Ifrit shouldn’t be able to stop her rampage on her own,” ACE said. “If that external thing is Himer, then there’s nothing to worry about, but if it’s someone else… that guy named Kado, we haven’t found his body yet.”

Lin Ye's heart sank again.

"Alright, hurry up. El is right, such a large factory can't possibly have only one emergency exit." ACE led the way out of the emergency exit and into the center of the second floor. "Logically speaking, the two emergency exits shouldn't be designed too close together. We should go to the other side of this floor and look around. Don't stray too far from me; we can't determine whether this floor is safe yet."

Lin Ye and El immediately caught up with ACE. At this moment, Lin Ye was still tightly holding the Colt Python with only two bullets left in his hand.

He had originally intended to retrieve the bullets from his backpack, but the backpack was inside the car, which had been smashed by the red-haired giant, with the entire driver's seat damaged. Unable to find the backpack quickly enough, he had to give up. He didn't know how the two remaining bullets in the magazine would help him, but they were still something to rely on.

The second floor of the factory used to be where the workers worked, but it was now abandoned, filled with old and broken equipment covered in thick cobwebs. The three of them walked through the equipment, tore the cobwebs apart, and a black spider fell to the ground, motionless, clearly already dead.

El said in a low voice, "I feel something's not right. Didn't you hear anything?"

ACE stopped and turned to look at El: "What did you hear?"

"I don't know what it is either. It's making rustling noises, like something is crawling on the ground."

Lin Ye found El's words somewhat unsettling. They were both wearing gas masks, and the loudest sound they could hear was each other's breathing. Heavy breathing echoed within their masks, filled with a sense of oppression. Lin Ye tried to hear more sounds, like El, such as the so-called "rustling" sound, but he didn't succeed. He only felt his own breathing growing louder, as if thunder was constantly exploding in his ears.

"Damn it!" ACE muttered, as if he had discovered something. He slapped Lin Ye on the shoulder. "Keep moving forward! Don't look back!"

Lin Ye sensed the tension in ACE's tone; this was the first time he'd felt ACE was nervous, and this feeling naturally seeped into him. After ACE finished speaking, he ran forward without looking back, then watched as ACE raised his shield and stood behind him.

A few seconds later, an explosion occurred behind him.

The impact of the explosion knocked him to the ground. Only then did he dare to turn around and see flames flying everywhere, sparks falling like rain. ACE, on the other hand, stood at the source of the explosion, using his shield to absorb most of the impact.

"It's those bugs!" El shouted. "This entire floor is full of them!"

At this moment, Lin Ye finally saw them. These so-called "insects," or rather, giant spiders, were each the size of two or three soccer balls combined. Their bodies were covered in pale golden Originium, and their six legs crawled rapidly, making a rustling sound. As they approached, the pale golden Originium expanded at a visible speed, exploding a few seconds later, spewing pale golden gas from it.

"Back up!" ACE shouted. "Find the emergency exit, quick! Don't stay still, move!"

ACE's words woke Lin Ye up, and Lin Ye immediately got up from the ground. Then he heard ACE shout again.

“El, protect Dr. Lin! Take him to the third floor!” ACE said. “Whatever happened on the third floor, the rampaging Ifrit has definitely cleared out anything like that.”

Lin Ye wanted to say something, but the next second, El grabbed Lin Ye by the back of his collar and practically dragged him away.

"I can walk by myself!"

Lin Ye shouted, and only then did El release him. Then Lin Ye saw a flash of sword light, and El sliced ​​one of the swarming insects in two.

But that still couldn't stop the insects from exploding.

El took the blast head-on, letting out a muffled groan before collapsing to the ground, covered in blood.

"El!" Lin Ye tried to pull El up, but a thick arm beat him to it.

ACE picked El up with one hand, and with the other hand took a black can from his backpack and threw it on the ground. Green smoke instantly spewed out of the can, and the frenzied insects stopped in their tracks the moment the smoke appeared.

"Hurry up and follow me!" ACE carried El and ran forward, and Lin Ye quickly followed.

The green smoke didn't hold back the insects for long; less than thirty seconds later, Lin Ye heard a rustling sound behind him. He couldn't hear it before, but now he could because there were just too many insects. They chased after Lin Ye and ACE like madmen, their hushed cries like the whispers of death.

Fortunately, they finally found another safe passage.

"There it is!" Lin Ye noticed the emergency exit sign first. "Just go in there, there's a door, we can keep the bugs outside."

ACE didn't say anything, just picked up El and ran towards the safety exit. Lin Ye was also running, but he couldn't keep up with ACE. Even though ACE was carrying a bulging tactical pack, a heavy shield, and a heavy black steel hammer, and was also dragging El along, Lin Ye still couldn't outrun him. This made Lin Ye realize even more how poor his physical abilities were, so he gritted his teeth and kept up with ACE, thinking that when they got back, he would definitely add long-distance running to his daily sword practice every night.

During this time, the distance between the insects and them continued to shrink. It was the first time Lin Ye had ever seen spiders run so fast... Could these things even still be called spiders? Lin Ye didn't know. He only knew that the closest one was less than three meters away from him, and he really wanted to raise his hand and shoot this disgusting thing. But reason told him that he absolutely couldn't do that. Putting aside the possibility of an explosion, if he turned around, he would be caught up by even more spiders in an instant.

Finally, they rushed into the emergency exit.

ACE first threw a few of the green smoke grenades they had just used at his feet. Lin Ye didn't know what kind of gas it was, only that these insects didn't like it; they didn't want to pass through it and would just wait outside the gas to dissipate.

The three were then able to run into the safety passage.

After entering the emergency exit, Lin Ye instinctively wanted to close the door, but ACE stopped him.

"You expect this wooden door to stop them?"

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment, staring blankly at ACE.

He discovered that ACE's gas mask was damaged.

ACE removed his gas mask, revealing half of his face covered in blood.

He tossed the gas mask aside, put El down, then picked up his shield and stood between the two doors of the emergency exit, saying, "Take El upstairs, I'll guard this place."

"Are you crazy?!" Lin Ye exclaimed incredulously. "We're already here, why don't we all go up together?!"

“Leading these bugs up to the third floor would be incredibly irresponsible,” ACE said calmly. “Besides, these bugs can’t kill me; I’m not that fragile.”

"But……"

“Alright, Dr. Lin, if you were more suitable for this position than me, then I would have let you stand here.” ACE looked at the slowly fading green mist, his eyes slightly narrowed. “But you are not. Your profession is a doctor. As a doctor, you should go to that seriously ill little girl right now, take her hand, and tell her not to worry because you have come.”

Lin Ye was speechless.

“As for me…” ACE held his shield up in front of him, looking at the insects that had crossed the green mist, and said slowly, “It is my duty to guard this place.”

Chapter 186 Why Won't You Answer My Calls (Part 1)

Kado cautiously walked towards Ifrit.

Strictly speaking, that was the first time he had seen Ifrit in her berserk state. Years ago, ifrit went berserk in the laboratory and was immediately subdued by Saria. As the director, he only had a blurry video recording of it, in which flames engulfed several rooms. Back then, Kado only thought the video was exaggerated, but just now, the almost scorching heat made him fully appreciate how despairing it was to see Death wielding his scythe, and how terrifying it was to see a demon tearing through chains.

Although he knew that Ifrit, under the influence of the special sedative, was unlikely to stand up, Kado still dared not touch her rashly. Instead, he picked up a charred iron rod from the ground and poked Ifrit's body from a distance. Only after confirming that Ifrit was indeed unconscious did he feel slightly relieved.

Then, an angry and weak female voice rang out behind him: "Bastard! Don't touch my Ifrit!"

Kado turned around and saw that Himer had woken up and was trying to get up from the ground by supporting himself with his hands.

"You woke up so quickly." Seeing that Himer was awake, Kado was quite pleased. After all, having seen demons firsthand, he found mortals incredibly endearing. "I thought you would sleep for much longer."

"...What did you do to Ifrit?" Hamer saw Ifrit lying in a pool of blood, her body pierced by an arrow, and felt her heart being torn apart. "Bastard! What did you do to Ifrit?"

“What did you do?” Kado smiled, then slowly said, “Nothing. We just wanted to use her to revive Rhine Lab.”

"She is my child!"

“Your child? No, no, no, Himeru, Ifrit is the property of Rhine Lab.” Kado sneered. “I don’t care if you’re overflowing with maternal love or something else, Ifrit led Rhine Lab to its destruction, so it should be Ifrit who leads Rhine Lab to its rebirth.”

Hamer struggled to her feet: "You're absolutely unreasonable! If you don't want to die, get away from Ifrit!"

“You don’t seem to understand the situation, Himer.” Kado looked at Himer with pity. “As one of Rhine Lab’s most outstanding researchers, you must know what drug I used on you, right? Lie down on the ground right now, do nothing, say nothing, and you might live a little longer. If you don’t know when to stop, when the drug takes effect, even a god can’t save you.”

Hamer gripped his arm, barely managing to stand, then gritted his teeth and said, "Even if it means going to hell, I'll take you with me before you hurt my Ifrit!"

"Tsk tsk tsk." Kado couldn't help but shake his head. "If it were Saria who said that to me, I would leave immediately, or rather, run as far away as possible. It's a pity that she's not here. She ruined the entire Rhine Life for Ifrit back then, but now, she can't save this little one either."