Nights in the Lower District of Iron Cross Street were always noisy, the air thick with a stench that combined garbage, sweat, and various other elements.
Levi walked down the street with a light step, while keeping a cautious eye on his surroundings.
He believed Samira wouldn’t let him get very far.
However, before Samira appeared, he was first targeted by two ragged vagrants.
Levi pretended not to notice the two men and continued walking down the street.
The vagrants drew closer and closer, soon approaching Levi from behind to launch an attack!
“Samira must be watching me from somewhere right now, or perhaps these two vagrants were simply hired by her.
If I resist now, I’m afraid I’ll expose the fact that I’m a Beyonder…”
After a moment of contemplation, Levi decided not to resist and to wait and see what happened.
A few seconds later, one vagrant suddenly wrapped an arm around his neck from behind, while the other pinned his hands and covered his mouth.
Together, the two vagrants exerted their strength and dragged him into a nearby alley.
Once in the alley, Levi quickly launched a slight counterattack.
He swung his arm to break free from one vagrant’s grip, slapped him with a backhand, and then stumbled away at the speed of a normal person, attempting to escape.
The vagrant quickly lunged forward again and pinned him to the ground.
He was putting on a performance.
Samira knew about him killing Luca.
Although killing an ordinary person was nothing in the eyes of a Sequence 8 Beyonder, he feared he would be suspected if he didn’t show even a little bit of resistance.
After he was restrained by the vagrants, the sound of rhythmic footsteps echoed from the other end of the alley.
Levi looked up and saw Samira slowly approaching, her boots clicking on the ground.
He feigned a look of pleasant surprise and shouted:
“Madam, please, save me!”
Seeing Samira approach, the two vagrants also stood up joyfully:
“Lady, we’ve caught her.
Where’s the reward we agreed upon?”
Samira said with a smile:
“I’ll give it to you right now.”
She pulled several green 1-pound notes from her pocket and threw them on the ground.
The vagrants immediately bent down greedily to pick up the money.
At that moment, the muscles in Samira’s arms bulged.
She lunged forward and grabbed both vagrants by their necks simultaneously.
With two crisp snaps, the vagrants’ necks were twisted and broken.
Their eyes bulged out, and they stopped breathing.
Levi feigned a momentary stun and muttered in terror:
“Ma…
Madam…”
Samira knelt before him and smiled:
“As I thought, I still can’t bear to let you leave.”
Immediately, she grabbed Levi’s long hair and yanked him up.
“Madam, what…
what are you doing!”
Levi struggled frantically like a lamb to the slaughter.
His two arms were seized by Samira’s pincer-like palms and bound behind his back, and his mouth was gagged with a handkerchief, preventing him from making a sound.
Samira shoved Levi toward a manhole cover at the end of the alley.
She familiarly moved the cover aside, kicked Levi down into the hole, and then jumped down herself.
She hauled Levi up and pushed him forward.
The sewer was filled with a rotting stench so thick it felt tangible, lingering heavily in the Darkness.
It was pitch black, but with his Assassin’s night vision, Levi could still take in the general layout—a wide sewage trench ran down the middle, the water dark and murky, seemingly bottomless as if hiding something unspeakable.
There were narrow paths on either side of the trench, barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side.
From time to time, creatures like rats and wild dogs scurried through the shadows, splashing the turbid water and adding a touch of eerie liveliness to this place of dead silence.
Levi walked silently ahead.
If his pace slowed even slightly, Samira would give him a violent shove.
Before long, he reached a crossroads.
Samira signaled for him to take one of the paths.
This direction was uphill; as they walked, the sewage gradually disappeared, leaving only the dried bottom of the trench.
Decaying things, their original forms unrecognizable, clung to the bottom, testifying to the lingering power of past floods.
Levi found it strange that as the sewage decreased, the putrid smell in the air grew even thicker, mixed with a strange scent.
The temperature also seemed to be rising.
After walking a bit further, Levi finally realized it wasn’t the temperature rising, but his own body gradually becoming hot and restless.
The black mark on his chest also grew faintly hot, bringing waves of stinging pain.
“Strange, I haven’t been stimulated in that way.
Why would I have this kind of reaction…”
Levi noticed that he wasn’t the only one; Samira’s breathing behind him had also become hurried, as she panted heavily.
In the dim sewer, a few spots of lush, new greenery had miraculously sprouted, seemingly indicating an unusual vitality in this domain.
Finally, after turning another corner, a putrid stench so thick it felt solid hit him in the face, causing Levi to gag uncontrollably.
He forced himself to look up and examine the layout: ahead was a passage barely ten meters long, with a ladder leading upward at the end.
One side of the passage recessed into a space where, under a faint light, dense swarms of flies buzzed incessantly—this was the source of the stench.
Even though he had already anticipated it, when Samira shoved him past that recessed space, the horrific sight and the overwhelming stench still made his stomach churn, nearly making him vomit:
There were rotting corpses piled together.
Some still looked human, while others were highly decomposed, leaving only a mass of rotting flesh clinging to pale white bones.
The corpses were entwined with vines covered in disgusting, moist nodules.
Some nodules had already bloomed into flower buds with gaping mouths dripping with pus.
Samira paused for a few seconds to admire them like a masterpiece, showing an intoxicated expression amidst the air full of decay.
There was no doubt that these were all victims she had sacrificed.
“Don’t worry, you will soon join them and become nourishment for the Great Master.”
Samira laughed fanatically, her eyes filled with devotion toward the Great Master.
The disgust in Levi’s heart was beyond measure.
He wanted nothing more than to break free from his restraints and pull out his pistol to fight Samira to the death, but his remaining reason told him to stay calm and not let a momentary impulse ruin the entire plan.
He forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, allowing an expression of despair and terror to show in his eyes.
Samira was very satisfied with his reaction.
She flexed her muscles and, like a strong gorilla, hoisted Levi onto her shoulder and climbed the ladder.
Opening the manhole cover above, the two entered a cold basement.
Samira continued to carry Levi up a hidden and narrow three-story staircase, pushed open a secret door, and walked into a storage room.
In the room sat a large trunk—the very one Samira had used as a footstool when Levi first met her.
Levi knew that Biki was inside.