The leader of the special forces quickly firmed that they had found the drug dealers' base hidden in the back mountain.

  "First, locate the surrounding surveilnce."

  "Split into three teams and advance from three different dires."

  The team swiftly divided into three units, each moving into position to ensure a synized, three-pronged assault. Their objective was simple: encircle the drug dealers and eliminate all resistance.

  These special forces were well-trained. In just a few minutes, all three teams had reached their designated positions.

  "ehe operation!"

  With the leader's and, the three teams advanced simultaneously toward the target.

  Biu!

  The soft crack of a suppressed pistol shattered the silence.

  "Shit! We're utack!"

  The panicked shout from within the base sent the entire drug-dealing operation into a frenzy.

  However, the drug dealers, armed with pistols, were met by a coordinated volley of submae-gun fire.

  Tat-tat-tat!

  Bullets tore through the night, and the drug dealers fell in heaps, their bodies riddled with holes before they could eveify the enemy.

  "Watch out! They're using submae guns!"

  The dealers had assumed their attackers were regur officers with standard-issue pistols. But now they uood the truth, they were fag a professional elimination team.

  And there had been n. No time to prepare.

  While the surviving dealers scrambled for cover, the special forces prepared their move.

  "Stun grenades, ready."

  From three sides, the teams lobbed stun grenades into the drug b's entrances.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The enclosed space amplified the cussive bsts.

  "Aaaahhh!"

  The white-hot fsh disoriehe drug dealers, while the deafening noise left them writhing on the floor, clutg their ears.

  After a brief five-sed wait, the teams stormed the building.

  Another round of gunfire followed.

  The noise ceased. The resistance was gone.

  The team's leader activated his unit.

  "and, we've secured the drug b."

  "We've ralized all hostile targets. Preparing to expand our search perimeter."

  "Uood," came the reply.

  "Leave two teams behind to secure the b. The rest of you spread out in three-man squads and sweep the surrounding area."

  iven, the team dispersed, moving into the forested terrain to ensure no one escaped.

  Hidden among the branches of a nearby tree, Ren observed the se with mild detat.

  As expected.

  Wild drug dealers stood no ce agaie professionals. Their outdated pistols were ughable pared to the firepower these special forces carried.

  Still, he didn't mht away.

  Instead, he retrieved his diary and jotted down a few lines:

  [Just as expected.

  A ragtag group dealers is no match for a professional tactical unit.

  The differeween pistols and submae guns is like night and day.

  And the stun grenades? Absolutely devastating in that fined space.

  Holy, this fight was over before it started.]

  Closing the diary, he leaped from the branch.

  A burst of gray mist surrounded his figure, dist his presehe hidden officers stationed around the b never even noticed his approach.

  The ground was slick with blood.

  Bodies y sprawled on the dirt floor, eyes wide open ih.

  Amamiya Ren didn't feel much sympathy.

  These men had willingly destroyed tless lives for profit. Dying here was a mercy.

  Stepping past the corpses, he reached the b's inner sanctum, a space separated by thick pstic sheeting.

  The pstic barrier was intact. To get in, one would have to tear it open.

  But Ren didn't o tear anything.

  He retrieved a pair of gloves from Sefirah Castle, pced his palm on the barrier, and maed a door.

  The ethereal doorway shimmered for a moment before swinging opeepped through aered the hidden chamber.

  The sight inside made his stomach .

  Dozens of bodies lihe boratory tables.

  Some were reduced to rotting husks, their skin sagging over exposed bohers were fresher, though their lifeless expressions spoke of horrific suffering.

  And among the dead… some were still breathing.

  The stench of decay was overwhelming. Only the gray mist shielding Ren's senses prevented him from vomiting on the spot.

  He ched his jaw and surveyed the victims.

  There were men and women. Elderly individuals. And—

  Children.

  A wave of cold fury washed over him.

  The bodies of two small children, no older than six or seven, y strapped to the tables. Their veins had been punctured repeatedly, test subjects for the drug dealers' twisted experiments.

  "These bastards… they really have no humanity."

  He forced himself to look away and took stock of the surroundings.

  Each body had a tag beside it, marked with various chemical positions a results.

  The drug dealers had been experimenting on living humans to develop new substances.

  Ren's fists tightened.

  He examihe faint spiritual signatures in the room.

  The stro reses came from the child-sized corpses, but he could feel four others clustered nearby.

  He followed the sensation to a side table.

  There, id out in a row, were the bodies of two adults and two teenagers.

  The entire family had been sughtered.

  Ren's mind raced.

  Tsukikage Isnd was a small, close-knit unity. If a family of four had gone missing, the parents would have raised the arm. Vilgers would have posted notices.

  But there'd been nothing.

  Not a single flyer.

  His eyes narrowed.

  These victims weren't kidnapped while walking the streets.

  They were likely sold out by someohey trusted.

  The realization deepened his disgust.

  He sed the corpses again and noticed something even more disturbing:

  The father's body bore signs of long-term drug exposure but his clothes suggested he'd once worked a respectable job.

  A poliformant?

  Possibly. Or perhaps just someone who asked too many questions.

  The child oable stirred.

  His heart nearly stopped.

  The boy's body twitched owice… then y still again.

  No breathing. No pulse.

  It wasn't life.

  It was the spiritual residue of the child's trauma, maing as a vengeful spirit.

  They died terrified.

  And that fear had kept them trapped here.

  "Damn it."

  Ren couldn't save the dead. He wasn't capable of reversing time.

  But he could release these spirits.

  He owed them that much.

  He k beside the table, extended his hands, and summohe gray fog.

  The haze swirled over the bodies like a thin, protective shroud.

  The spirits, sensing his i, drifted toward him—weak, exhausted, and ging to the trauma that had defiheir final moments.

  "You've suffered enough," he whispered.

  ***

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