I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 251

The old man emerged from the shadows, his gaze unblinking like that of a predator stalking its prey. I still got a feeling of danger from him, but his energy level was wildly inconsistent, and I had no clue what evolutionary level he was at. It was Tiffany who took the lead, though, taking a step forward and straightening out her clothing like she was speaking to a fellow paragon at one of their banquets.

“We were just planning on coming to free you.” She stated that her lie sounded exceptionally smooth.

The old man let out a low, guttural chuckle devoid of humor. “I bet you were. So thoughtful of you to take your time.”

Her lips tightened slightly, and her hand shook, but if I wasn’t looking for it, she would have come off as completely composed. “May I ask… how did you manage to get out of your restraints? Weren’t the chains unbreakable?”

“I encountered someone stronger than you.” He waved dismissively at the three unconscious men lying on the ground. “They were fleeing a group of madmen. If they helped me break my chains, I agreed to give them my permission and return them to the surface. Although they are mere Cro-Magnons, with our combined strength, I was able to break the chains.”

“Cro-magnons?” Tiffany’s lips tightened.

He seemed to notice the dispirited look on her face, and his smile widened without touching his eyes. “I do hope I didn’t offend you by asking another for help. One can never be too careful. We are strangers, and I had no clue if you would keep your side of the bargain, right?”

Tiffany forced a tight, uneasy smile. “O-of course. It’s good that this was all resolved. In fact, we happen to have arrived here with the three you protected. It seems like fate that we all can head to the surface together. P-perhaps we’re all meant to be fr-riends.”

“Friends?” His pronunciation was odd, as if he had never said the word before. “Yes, I suppose that is possible. However, before we deal with that, there is the matter of payment.”

Tiffany’s brow furrowed. “Payment?”

“I already requested that you give me a certain artifact from the lockup.” His eyes sharpened dangerously. “I sensed that its position has been disturbed. I can only presume you’ve acquired it. In that case, isn’t it best you keep your side of the bargain and hand it over?”

“I-I don’t have it!” Tiffany declared.

His smile slipped, and an unpleasant energy began to vibrate through the room. “The lantern is very important to me. A Cro-Magnon like you wouldn’t even understand how to properly use it. It’s a tool beyond your comprehension and ability. Give it over!”

Tiffany backed up in fear, bumping into me. It was only when she looked at me and realized she wasn’t alone that her fearful expression calmed somewhat.

I smiled at the old man and spoke, “You promised to help us escape. We got the lantern, but as it turns out, we don’t need your help to escape. Why should I give it to you?”

The old man’s face darkened, a flicker of raw anger in his eyes. He took a menacing step forward, his stare now boring into me with an intensity that made my skin crawl. However, Tiffany seemed to relax now that his gaze was no longer on her.

“You have it?” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “I thought she might be keeping it on that storage ring she has hidden between her breasts, but I do not detect a storage ring on you.”

Tiffany gasped, reaching for her chest, but then her face turned red as she realized she had revealed something she didn’t intend to. It turned out she had a hidden storage place. Well, it wasn’t like I cared. I had one too. Plus, he had revealed something to me. He could detect the presence of external storage artifacts. However, he couldn’t detect the presence of my luminal storage.

“It’s on me,” I told him the truth anyway.

“I’m definitely interested in the manner in which you store items. Such a skill that even I can’t detect must be high-tier. However, you would also do best to hand me over the lantern… now.”

I met his gaze without flinching, my expression calm. Although I had concerns, especially regarding Tiffany’s safety, I wasn’t all that frightened of this old man. Why did I keep getting feelings of danger from him, though? I was walking through my skills, trying to figure out what was putting me off as I continued our conversation.

“Why did you knock those three unconscious?” I decided to ask. “I only want to know that if I give you the lantern, what will stop you from immediately killing us?”

“I could kill you now if I wanted to!” He snarled, but when he noticed Tiffany had shifted herself behind me, hiding, his expression eased slightly. “I could not trust them. It was merely a precaution. I won’t need to do the same to you.”

“Won’t need to? Or don’t have to?” I pondered out loud. “I suspect that the reason you knocked the three of them unconscious is that you were worried. These three could pose a threat to you that we couldn’t.”

“One should never be too clever.” He warned.

I ignored his warning and continued speaking. “You’re weak right now. Weaker than you’ve ever been. That’s why you’re frightened.”

“He’s weak?” Tiffany asked, causing the old man’s glare to darken.

“Well, he’s at least only a little stronger than Lord Blanch. With Lord Blanch and his guard, he must not have been confident. Or… perhaps it’s not even that. If that lantern has been pooling energy for so many years, perhaps he was afraid of someone obtaining the lantern and absorbing the energy.” I predicted out loud, but when his eyes flashed dangerously, I chuckled. “Oh, I get it now. The lantern has been absorbing all of the energy from that sage beast. You want to absorb it all for yourself. If Lord Blanche had obtained the lantern, he might have been able to overpower you with it. However, Tiffany and I are too low an evolutionary level to fully use the lantern, so you don’t fear us, but you don’t know where I put the lantern, and you’re afraid it’s a space that will be destroyed with my death, stopping you from recovering it!”

The old man stared at me for a long moment, a slow, chilling smile spreading across his face. He began to clap, a slow, deliberate sound that echoed in the silent chamber.

“It turns out you are not as foolish as I originally thought.” The old man spoke coldly. “Still foolish. A smart man wouldn’t have explained everything he knows. However, I do have more than enough strength to deal with both of you. Give me the lantern, or I’ll make you watch as I kill her.”

“Ah!” Tiffany cried out as he pointed at her with a gnarled finger.

“Go fetch it then!” I removed the lantern from the luminal space and tossed it down the hallway.

Although it wasn’t visible, I had cells around it that further propelled it down the hall.

“You fool!” He cursed and then spun and raced after the disappearing green light.

I didn’t wait for him. I immediately turned to the platform.

“What are you doing?” Tiffany cried out. “Why did you give him what he wanted?”

“Get on the platform!” I told her. “I’ll rig it to take us to the surface and explode. He’ll be trapped down here.”

Tiffany stared at me for only a moment before she jumped onto the platform. I turned to the array’s control panel, my fingers flying across the ancient runes. I had already analyzed its structure, and I knew exactly which sequences to alter to overload the energy matrix. I finished the alterations.

“And we’re go-“

Just as I went to jump on the platform and trigger the platform, I felt a searing pain in my chest. I looked down in disbelief. A massive claw, sharp as a spear and thick as my arm, had impaled me from behind, passing straight through my body and out the other side.

[You have taken 1,000,000 HP in damage.]

Given my level of defense, that was an absolutely devastating attack. Blood sprayed from the wound, splattering across the platform and Tiffany’s horrified face. She let out a piercing scream as I felt the claw pulling me back. I grabbed onto the control panel to keep from being pulled away.

“Are you surprised?” The old man’s voice came from the darkness. “You underestimated me, you foolish boy? You seek to trap me down here? Nothing can trap me down here.”

I turned my head, my gaze meeting two glowing red eyes in the distance. He was still a distance from me. Whatever he was stabbing me with, it was something else, but still a part of him.

“H-how?” I asked.

“You made only one mistake.” The old man continued. “This body… wasn’t originally mine. My body is on the lowest level of this prison.”

“H-he’s the sage beast?” Tiffany cried out.

I gave all of my energy and sacrificed the energy of everything else in this prison. My will possessed that prisoner so that when the time came, I could reunite my power with my new body. You thought it would take me time to absorb the lantern, but the power was always mine in the first place! I’m merely gaining back what I had already lost, and when I’m done, I will rise from this prison and conquer the new world as a Sage King!”

“You… also made a mistake,” I responded.

“Oh? And what is that?”

“You let me touch the control panel for too long.” There was a beep, and although my hands hadn’t been moving on the panel, the teleportation triggered anyway.

There was a horrifying scream, and the claw through my chest broke into four and moved in opposite directions, tearing my body into parts. As Tiffany and the three unconscious men returned to the surface, my body being torn apart was the last thing she saw as she screamed. A moment later, the teleportation array exploded.

[You have taken 2,121,244,345,234 HP in damage.]

Was that all? It took more to kill me than that.