The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 97: Give Me Back My Wife! (1)

Luciel quickly rushed towards the room, but once he was halfway there, an ache in his abdomen was screaming that something was wrong.

It had woken up his vampiric instincts, but worry overwhelmed them.

The atmosphere grew heavier by the second, darker, and ominous, resembling his inner thoughts. As the scent of blood grew stronger, haunting images started to flash through Luciel’s mind.

He was already seeing the possibility of Helen getting hurt or worse...

The most terrifying scene he imagined was seeing Helen on the cold floor, with her limbs torn apart, surrounded by a giant puddle of blood, and her head lying further away from her body.

He shivered at the thought once he stopped in front of the door, finally arriving.

He ran his hand across his raven black hair as his head pounded with tension.

"Please, be all right..." Luciel muttered, begging for all of this to be one of the bad dreams he was having lately.

Going to reach the doorknob, Luciel gulped, closing his eyes before finally entering, praying to the gods that the first thing he was about to see wouldn’t be Helen’s dead body.

"Helen...?" He called out, waiting for a few minutes before cracking his eyes open.

Peaking, Luciel saw that the room was empty, but the stench of blood increased slightly.

The nauseous feeling took over his body, becoming more prominent with each step he took.

He started to inspect the dark, dead silent room, running his finger across the furniture.

’I have to stay calm...’ His hands shivered with every long exhale. There was no telling what might have happened, but every second spent panicking might lead to something tragic.

Luciel took a deep breath, biting his lower lip with his fang to the point he made it bleed.

A system screen appeared in front of Luciel the moment he bit his lip, reminding him of his painful reality, and making him roll his eyes.

It informed him how he lost one point of his hp and Qi, but that hp quickly recovered as soon as his tiny wound had healed.

Walking right past the screen, it dismissed and Luciel continued to search the room, not allowing even one stone to be turned.

He couldn’t see any signs of resistance, making her disappearance even more mysterious than he thought.

Luciel went to her hematology analyzer and that’s when he noticed shattered glass covered with blood, along with the area around it, on the counter.

"Blood?"

He picked up a piece of glass, bringing it closer to smell it, it was definitely Helen’s blood, he could never mistake her smell.

"An accident?" He mumbled, scratching his chin, "No, that can’t be..." It didn’t feel right, she should be here if it was just a simple mishap and a bigger calamity would have more signs than just a broken glass tube.

"More blood?" Luciel asked himself after looking down, seeing drops on the floor.

Turning around, he could see more spills, leading out of the door. It was the first time he noticed it since he was always keeping his head up while in the room.

"Did she injure herself intentionally?" He pondered, letting, looking sideways before gasping and widening his eyes.

Luciel raised his head and sniffed the air a few times, aside from Helen’s, there was one more faint smell, barely noticeable.

Wanting to make sure, he smelt the air a few more times, but then he noticed that it wasn’t one, but two unknown scents.

"Helen!" He exclaimed. Fear was evident inside his voice.

In a flash, he rushed out of the room and into the hallway.

Getting a whiff of Helen’s blood, he didn’t hesitate to follow it.

At first, he was walking, but that soon turned into a sprint across the church until he reached the slightly open backdoors.

There was no time to ponder if they were supposed to be locked or not. He spread them far apart and ran out.

Once outside, he stopped for a moment to catch the scent again before starting to follow it again.

What seemed like an eternity for Luciel was only ten minutes, but eventually, he found himself in front of the old warehouse, close to the church.

A warm puff of air could be seen coming out of Luciel’s mouth as he huffed, but it wasn’t a breath of exhaustion, but worry.

Carefully, he placed his foot inside, scanning the area. It was pitch black inside, but that wasn’t a problem for Luciel at all.

’What is this place?’ It was some kind of storage place, but it looked like it wasn’t used for a very long time.

Did it belong to the church? Or some organization? - They were only a few out of a million of questions that flew through Luciel’s mind.

He felt an urge to call out his wife, but decided to resist it. The scents he detected earlier were way stronger now and he didn’t want to be noticed if he wasn’t already.

Following the trail, he arrived in front of the heavy metal doors and ran his fingers across it.

He could hear voices coming from the other side and wanting to hear what was going on, he placed his ear against them.

"Helen... We-"

"Dash?" Luciel frowned after hearing his party member voice and he definitely said his wife’s name just now. He kinda doubts that he meant some other Helen.

As the conversation continued, he could recognize George as well, of course they were together.

Luciel bit his thumb as the conversation continued, he wanted to go in right now, but it was too early.

First, he needed to try and confirm the situation in case that someone else might be in there.

After confirming that only the three of them were inside, Luciel backed away, starting to form the plan about how was he going to do this, but as a result, missed the part were George was setting up the trap.

He was alone and waiting for help could take too long and he doesn’t have a phone ever since the fight with Alukah. There wasn’t any room to get another.

And Nosferatu didn’t show him how that distan communication works he mentioned once.

He was barely above his Qi capacity, no divine arts and didn’t scratch the surface of his new mist ability, but even then, the final and only option he had was a head on confrontation.

Luciel attempted to open the door, but they didn’t budge.

Taking a step back, he raised his foot and went to kick them next to the keyhole, creating a loud bang that echoed all around.

He could tell that the doors loosened and went to strike them again.

The door was slightly bent now and they would probably break with the next attack.

Luciel hit the door with all his strength, not holding back, bursting it open.

He looked around and could see Dash holding his silver axe with red rubies and George was further away, holding his wife.

There was a feral look in Luciel’s eyes after seeing Helen’s hands being wrapped in chains! With cuts all over her body that were soaked with blood. They were holding her like an animal!

Not only that, but George was forcefully keeping her mouth open with a wicked smile, ready to pour a strange liquid inside of it it.

"Well, look who’s here... That was faster than expected," They barely managed to set up the trap in time, now it was all up to Luciel to do the rest.

Luciel observed the whole situation in disbelief with a strong desire to rip their necks apart, "Dash, George? W-what is the meaning of this?" He asked with a furious voice, extending his sharp, black claws. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Luciel! If you don’t want to see your wife sprouting fangs, I advice you to watch your steps!" George threatened, yanking Helen’s chains and bringing her closer, pretending like he was about to drip the blood down her throat.

Dash tightened his grip on the axe after seeing the scene, avoiding Luciel’s eyes.

"Luciel, just don’t make this worse, none of us want to hurt her," his voice trembled slightly as he spoke, wanting to mediate the situation between two angry forces to avoid the worst.

He cast a few worried glances at Helen, disapproving of George’s actions.

"Give me back my wife!" Luciel demanded, bearing his fangs at the two.

His heart was breaking apart after seeing Helen’s struggles... He couldn’t watch her being tortured like this, she didn’t do anything wrong.

Without any hesitation, he stepped in, right into the trap that had been set up.

Helen felt a fleeting sense of relief after seeing Luciel, he came for her... But that feeling quickly got replaced by fear.

She bit George’s finger as hard as she could, making him yelp in pain, but he finally let go.

"Luciel! Don’t!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, tugging on the chains, but it was too late...

"Luciel!!!" She cried out, her voice breaking after seeing the trap getting activated.

"Huh?" Luciel looked below his feet, seeing how the dark chalk started to light up below his feet.