Beyond The Crimson Gate-Chapter 42: Kale Is Fine

Miss Cayenne put aside her lack of investment in the situation and butted in.

"Romero, what exactly do you think you are doing?" Her tone was serious and her eyes fixed on him.

Axel looked at her and replied calmly, "I am trying my best to make sure that my best friend survives this situation."

She looked at Greg and the conviction on his face to help him.

’Just what did he do for you to owe him this favor?’ She asked in her head knowing full well that Greg could hear.

’That is irrelevant. I won’t go around spilling information about him.’ His reply made her suck her teeth.

She turned to look at Axel, "Irrespective of whatever deal might have been made, there’s no active serum to administer."

Axel looked at her.

"You should know more than anyone how long it takes to make a single beast serum." Her words cut through his hopes.

And as much as he didn’t want it to be true, he knew that Miss Cayenne was right.

"The few that have been made are for specific soldiers who have earned it through merit and not by dying due to sheer incompetence." Her voice was cold and detached.

Axel ignored the meaning behind her words and looked at Mr. Stone, the latter having his eyes fixed on Miss Cayenne.

Miss Cayenne looked at Mr. Stone and furrowed her eyebrows clearly trying to do something.

’If E is equal to the product of mass and the velocity of light squared, then...’ Various formulas filled Miss Cayenne’s mind.

All these were attempts to prevent him from hearing her thoughts. It had taken a while but she eventually got the hang of it.

Giving up, Mr. Stone looked around before sighing and closing his eyes.

A strange energy left him and spread in all directions. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"What about the beast serum you made from that incomplete beast crystal?" Mr. Stone suddenly spoke as he opened his eyes slowly.

He had just scanned the minds of everyone in the military base and had barely turned up with results.

All that he could find were faint and fleeting thoughts about a beast serum that had already been made with no one to receive it.

"I wouldn’t advise you to use that serum. Like you said, the beast crystal it was made from was badly damaged and not complete." Her eyes traced to Kale.

"The chances of survival are less than 5%" She brought her eyes back to Axel.

Mr. Stone also looked at him, awaiting his decision. Axel had brought him here so his decision would determine what would be done.

’If I don’t help him, he’ll die or worse become a beast but if we try, he might still die.’ Axel chuckled lightly.

’What am I even saying, 5% chance of living is enormous compared to certain death.’ His mind was made up.

"Do it."

Miss Cayenne walked to Mr. Stone, "I am only letting this happen to collect data on what his reaction will be to the procedure."

"Next time, don’t mistake my compliance with subservience."

She turned to the doctors before tapping on a microphone hidden in her clothes, "You heard everything. Bring the serum."

A wave of relief hit Axel; he wasn’t cocky enough to assume that Miss Cayenne would just let him and Mr. Stone walk over her.

The fact that it was about to happen showed her genuine interest in the matter.

"I must warn you though. While I admire your bravery, do not ever bring an external body to interfere with standard procedure." Her words were directed at Axel.

The latter mentally nodded in response, he knew he had crossed a dangerous line.

_________

Three men in lab coats stormed in through the doors holding a lead briefcase.

Miss Cayenne took it from them, opened it, and revealed a syringe with three needles. The fluid in the syringe was green and squelched around like it was alive.

She approached Kale’s body, which had grown a pair of horns from his head and more tentacles from the stump in his arm.

Her eyes were fixated on his bare chest, watching it rise and fall slowly.

She waited for it to rise before plunging the syringe into his heart.

The fluid was released into him and Kale started to convulse.

White foam bubbled out of his mouth as he let out an inhumane scream.

Mr. Stone, Axel, and the Doctors watched in silence as he twisted his body trying to stop whatever was happening to him.

Miss Cayenne, on the other hand, was recording real-time data on a tablet she had gotten from one of the doctors.

"Interesting. He seems to show a more violent reaction than most... but then again, it could be because the crystal was incomplete." She muttered as she typed.

Kale twisted his arm and it let out a sickening pop, dislocating.

"Make it stop!!" His voice was different, beastial.

The tentacles that had grown out of his arm slowly decayed until they fell off. The muscle started to squelch and grow.

The bone creaked and began to regenerate, while new nerves formed instantly.

His arm slowly grew back, the scales vanished and his horns retracted.

Axel let out a small smile, his friend was returning to normal.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

More scales suddenly burst out and covered Kale’s body, tentacles, claws and other animalistic parts sprouted out of his body.

The appendages surrounded him and coated him like a cocoon made of flesh and blood.

Seeing this, the doctor looked to Mr. Stone, hoping that he’d kill the beast before it emerged.

Axel’s eyes widened and shook, unwilling to believe what was happening, ’Kale is gone.’

He was already expecting Mr. Stone to act yet Miss Cayenne and he remained calm.

"He is fine. I can hear his thoughts, he is fine." Mr. Stone revealed with a small smile.

Miss Cayenne tapped away at her tablet, taking her time to listen to as many hypotheses as she could.

Axel felt such relief that his legs almost gave out, ’He is fine. He’ll be fine.’