I'm sitting on the roof of the old power plant, out of sight of the ground. I can hear the sounds of the city, far away into the distance, but my immediate area is very calm. Nothing is moving aside from the cold autumn wind and the distant cars that can be heard but not seen from here.

I'm bored. Waiting around has always been part of my job as a monster hunter, but at least I used to have a phone with a few games for when I needed to pass the time. At the vampire castle, I'd usually carry a book around for idle moments like these, but there was no way to bring the library back with me here.

I'll just have to find some way to make money again so I can buy a new phone. Ironically, I'm doing exactly the opposite of that by getting involved in the affairs of some criminal network without having been contracted to do so, but I can't just let them do whatever they want. At the very least, I need to get a solid lead to send to the authorities before I move on.

As I look at the occasional cloud passing overhead, I hear the sound of an engine approach. I get up in a crouching position and poke my head over the small wall next to me to check the situation out.

A black van is approaching. The windows are tinted, preventing me from seeing what's going on inside, but I can tell it's the one I saw in the thugs' hideout yesterday.

It parks around the middle of the complex, just under my own position. Two guys come out of the front, which I recognize as the leader and one of his bodyguards. A few thugs and the other bodyguard come out of the back, pulling out a Wool who's all tied up and ready for delivery. I guess they went back to their original plan of selling him after waking up. Sorry my guy, but you refused my help and now here you are. I'll still save you though.

Some thugs also start unloading plastic boxes, but their contents are a mystery to me. They pile them up next to the van and wait. It only takes an additional minute or two for a large glowing orb to appear. It quickly expands, taking on a flat circular shape, before opening like a door leading to a faraway destination.

Teleportation magic? This whole thing promises to be even more complicated than initially expected. Very few people can effectively teleport around, and I'm not one of them. It's also extremely hard to trace back the origin of a portal spell like this, usually requiring specialized training I did not receive. This means that I'll lose trace of whoever is about to come out if I let the portal close without me crossing it first, which will then put me directly in unknown enemy territory with no immediate way out.

I smile at this realization. I've barely come back, and I'm already about to put myself in mortal danger. Still, it's been a while since I fought humans, and I need to shake some rust off. I received plenty of training from my mom in my vampire form, but I haven't fought as a human since I was brought to the castle.

I know I shouldn't be, but I'm excited. This promises to be exactly the kind of exercise I need.

A couple of figures wearing masks obscuring the bottom of their faces come out, accompanied by an elf in a white coat holding a notepad. The former seem to act as escort, as the latter approaches the criminal boss and asks:

"I hear you have some goods for us today."

"I sure do."

He signals to his men to bring everything forward.

"Here's a living prisoner, and in those boxes are the disembodied remains of a victim we, unfortunately, were unable to capture alive. I hear you still deal in corpses though."

"You hear correctly."

He approaches and opens one of the containers.

"Still fresh, very good."

He takes a few notes on his pad then, with a wave of his hand, orders the two guys escorting him to grab the boxes and drag the poor and panicked Wool in the portal. One of them comes back out with a bag, which he opens to show the money contained inside to the boss. The scientist says:

"Normal rate for a living body and a dead one. Enjoy your reward!"

The criminals grab the bag and load it into their van as the scientist and the remaining guard go back in the portal. It's now or never!

I wait a few more seconds, until the portal starts closing. I then jump down, land, and dash into the opening that's now barely large enough to allow me to cross. I hear it close behind me as I see the scientist and the two guards turn towards me, eyes open wide.

I wave, more to see their reaction than anything else, which causes the two guards to rush towards me and the scientist to run away. No fun!

I can tell that the two men running in my direction are using magic to enhance their bodies, making them a lot faster and stronger than an average person would be, but I'm not average. To me, they're painfully slow.

Without even pulling my hunting knife out, I dodge a punch, slam a throat, avoid a kick from the other guard, grab his leg, and slam his head against the concrete floor. The first guard tries to come at me again, but I punch him hard enough to knock him unconscious. Then, I sprint towards the running scientist and tackle him.

"Woah! Who are you? Why are you here?"

I point my knife at his throat.

"I'm the one asking the questions here. Where are we?"

"In an underground complex, I don't know where. We have to use special teleportation devices to get here."

So possibly outside of the megalopolis. Security must be taken very seriously if even the people here don't know their location. And teleportation devices? What kind of money is funding this thing?

"And what do you do here?"

"I'm a monster mutation researcher, and there's a clandestine lab here where my skills are valued. I'm doing my part to advance our knowledge without any of the pesky ethic committees who branded my previous research as 'harmful'. I will finally get to etch my name into history!"

He's starting to shout a bit too loud, so I put him to sleep to shut him up. However, I can hear from a nearby commotion that he still managed to alert some people. There isn't anywhere to hide in this corridor, with its only features being a number of pipes running along the ceiling and cement walls, so I run in the direction of the voices. I can't let them find the people I knocked out if I want any chance at being able to explore the place without it being locked down.

I stop at an intersection and listen to the direction the footsteps are coming from before placing myself against the wall, out of sight. I hear two people, should be easy enough to take care of.

As soon as they run past me, I hit their heads in quick succession from behind with the handle of my knife. They fall with a thud, but make no more sound. I stay there, silent and immobile, until I'm certain no one else is coming this way.

Once I'm confident the crisis has been averted, I drag the two new guards to the other ones. Neither the boxes containing the body parts or Wool are around, so someone else must have been here to receive them initially. All I have to worry about are five unconscious people. Should I kill them? It does seem like the safer option, but I'm reluctant to take their lives when they might know more about the place.

This corridor is a dead end with green glowing scribbling on the wall, likely connected to the teleportation device. At least, this reduces the chances of someone accidentally stumbling upon them, but I'd feel much better if there was a locker or trash container I could stuff them in instead.

Well, there's nothing in sight, so I'll have to go forward and hope for the best. I'll simply slash my way through everything if they're found and someone alerts the rest of the place.

As I blindly walk around, making sure to avoid the patrolling guards by listening to their steps, I realize that this is some kind of old underground military base. Whoever decided to get a clandestine lab up and running down here must have had some pretty solid connections in the government, and some way to not be scrutinized. I can tell from the guards' uniform that they're not active military, at least, so this place must have been abandoned at some point. They're usually very diligent about destroying their old unused installations though, which makes this place even more of a mystery.

There are many parallel corridors, likely to still allow passage if some of them collapse. A lot of the rooms I come across are completely empty, while others are locked. I'll only come back to them if I can't find anything else.

Eventually, I manage to reach the central room of the base. Back in the day, this was likely where high-ranking officers would receive information from the battlefield and send out their orders, but now, it's an impressive laboratory full of high-end machinery, diagnostic equipment, and test subjects.

I'm on an elevated platform that goes around the whole room, with multiple staircases going down. I crouch to make myself harder to spot, then take a look.

Multiple people, all wearing the same white coat as the scientist I put to sleep, are working on different things. One seems to be injecting substances directly into organs floating in vats of liquid, one is taking notes while inspecting the body of a dead child, another is dragging a live child who seems barely conscious to a table equipped with all the restraining straps you'd need to prevent all movement, and the last one is mixing various red substances together.

Not any red substances though. Blood. Different types of it.

What could possibly be going on here? They killed a kid, so that alone is enough for me to justify going down there and decapitating every single one of them, but rushing in would put me in danger. I can tell that the few guards keeping an eye on the area are better trained than the ones I've come across so far, and there could be reinforcements ready to rush in.

As I ponder what to do next, I hear a door open on the lower level, and a tall man with gray hair, a well-maintained mustache, and a suit walks in.

"So, what's the news?"

The scientist who was taking notes about the dead kid signals to the others that he'll take care of it, then approaches the man.

"Unfortunately, mister president, our current hypotheses appear to be flawed. Previous data seemed to indicate that children might have a better resistance to some of the mixes, but none managed to survive the injection so far."

"Well, that's not too much of a setback. We found a formula that works on adults anyway. Still, did you manage to learn anything new?"

"We're still trying to replicate Duncan Amière's findings, but we'll need more time. All the data we gathered is on procedures that did not produce the desired results."

"That's still something. Make sure to send a report to the headquarters soon."

"Of course, sir."

The scientist runs to a computer installed in a corner on the room and starts frenetically typing. Meanwhile, the elegant man starts touring the installation, checking on the work of the other scientists who all clearly wish he would leave them alone, judging by their reactions.

He mentioned some headquarters, which might imply that this isn't the only installation running experiments like this. And then, there's this Duncan Amière...

Memories of when I was a young kid resurface. I'm walking the streets with nothing but rags to cover my body and a small kitchen knife to defend myself. On the newspaper stand, the first page reads:

"Scandal! The great scientist Amière behind a deadly, illegal experiment? All the details on page 4!"

I clench my fist as I remember the feeling of his skull collapsing under my punches. He was the first person I ever killed, and the first monster I ever hunted.

I grab the small cloth bags containing my few belongings and start walking again. I do not know where I'm going, I only know that I must live on, for all those Amière killed before me.

The memories flow back out of my mind. I have the power to put an end to these tragedies now. If the people here are trying to bring back that madman's research, it's my duty to eliminate every single one of them.

I silently pull my knife out of its sheathe, just as the man I assume to be in charge of the place decides to put an end to his little inspection. He goes back to the door from which he entered, then turns back towards the lab.

"Keep up the good work, everyone! I'm sure it's all going to pay off very soon! And don't forget, we're doing this for the good of humanity. Without these experiments, we'll soon be overrun by the smarter and stronger monsters that keep appearing. As such..."

I've heard enough. Even if this is dangerous, I can't let these lunatics go any further.

I get up and point a hand at the leader. His magic is weak, he barely has any built in defenses to ward off spells others cast on him.

How sad.

The next second, he's falling on his knees, screaming. I could have killed him immediately, but that would have been too lenient. His screams get louder and louder as he writhes in pain and blood starts flowing out of his eyes and ears. The guards and scientists are all mobilizing around him, trying to understand what's going on. Time to make my entrance.

I jump over the railing and land on the lower level. As everyone turns towards me, I say:

"Sorry, I seem to have misplaced my spell. Could you help me find it?"

The guards all run towards me as they draw their weapons. Individually, they're weaker than me, but I learned to never underestimate a group. As the screams of the leader still fill the air, I pour energy into my knife, causing a sword blade to materialize around it, and I dash forward.

A spear lunging at me, I move aside. An axe aimed at my head, I cut the arm off and land back on my feet. A sword trying to pierce my chest, I push it away and jump back.

As I avoid, parry, and dance my way around their weapons, I strike back with my own, causing a larger and larger pool of blood to form on the ground. I slash limbs and throats, letting the anger in my chest out with each strike.

How dare they protect people who torture children? How dare they stand in my way as I seek to punish them? How can they have any sympathy for those willing to sacrifice any number of lives in their mad quest?

With each new slash and each new life taken, I see the faces of the children who all died around me, long ago. As I remember their screams and see the dead body still laying on the table in this room, my executions slowly become more brutal. Soon enough, I'm standing in a large circle of blood, my clothes stained red, and countless body parts surrounding me.

The screams of the leader devolved into whimpers during my battle. Blood is pooling around his head, and he almost completely stopped moving. He probably doesn't have more than a few minutes left to live, and nothing but the most powerful of healing magic will bring him back from that state. I have no reason to worry about him anymore.

The four scientists who were in the room are looking at me, clearly panicking. They probably trusted the guards to deal with me, so they didn't run away and now regret that decision. I look at their boss, then at them again, and threaten:

"If you don't want to end up like him, you better stay put."

That sends another wave of fear through them, even causing a faint smell of urine to fill the air as their legs give out under them. I smile as menacingly as I can manage before walking to the corpse of the child.

I can tell from the state of her skin that her blood vessels exploded as the magical energy forcefully added to her body started destroying it. She's completely covered in bruises, just like the other kids in that basement where Amière kept us prisoners. I clench my teeth and fist and look away as the memories come back. There's nothing I can do for her, I got here too late.

I then walk to the other kid who was brought here, the one still alive but barely conscious. He looks like he hasn't eaten in weeks, with barely anything covering his bones. He's wearing dirty rags and seems to have an infected cut on his shoulder. He needs immediate medical attention.

As I slowly walk back towards the scientists, I grab a few syringes full of the substances they were testing. I then ask, with a tone that doesn't even attempt to hide my anger:

"So... what were you doing to these kids?"

The scientists look at each other, clearly unsure of who should speak, or of whether they should even speak at all. Losing my patience, I slam the wall above their heads and shout:

"What were you doing to them?"

The one who was talking to the leader earlier responds:

"We're trying to create a formula that makes humans stronger! Someone managed to do it many years ago, but their recipe was lost, so we're trying to recreate it."

"And that involves killing children?"

"Unfortunately, death is assured if the body rejects the process. It's... an unfortunate sacrifice we have to make."

That comment causes my anger to explode again, and I scream without any restraint:

"None of this is necessary! You're nothing but monsters, sacrificing unwilling participants in the sick and twisted game of a dead madman!"

I take a few steps back and breathe deeply, managing to bring my emotions back under control, at least a bit.

As I'm about to ask my next question, I notice a guard entering the room, weapon held high.

"Intruder! Prepare to be defeated!"

That one's wearing armor in the form of metal plates covering his chest and limbs, and a helmet providing protection for the head and mouth but leaving the eyes exposed. The others were wearing fabric armor, so he must be special. Maybe higher-ranked.

I move my sword to my left hand, with which I'm still holding the syringes, then do a finger gun in the guy's direction with my right hand.

"Sorry, but I'm busy right now."

As I pretend to fire, his head explodes, causing some gore to be expelled through the front opening and the rest to start seeping out from the bottom of the helmet as he falls to the floor. Seeing this, one of the scientists starts screaming, even more panicked than he was before. I shut him up by slamming my fist against the wall right next to his head.

I'm surprised by how woefully unprepared these guards were to fight back against someone capable of casting powerful spells. Preventing the energy in our own body from being manipulated is really simple, and one of the basics immediately taught to any aspiring dungeon delver or monster hunter. Due to how prevalent magic-using monsters are, anyone incapable of steeling themselves against instant-kill spells gets sent back home. And yet, I just used two such spells with great success, one against some fancy-looking snob, so that's not much of a surprise, but the other against a high-ranking guard. Whoever these guys are, they're neither delvers or hunters.

Well, I guess I'll ask the scientists.

"Who set this place up?"

"We... We don't know. We're part of a broader network that's kept as decentralized as possible to avoid information leakage in the event of an attack on one of our facilities, like you're doing now. We know who our boss is, or..."

He looks at the older man who's now definitely dead.

"... or was, rather, but we have no idea who he answered to."

That's not unexpected. Considering how they're set up, with highly-advanced equipment in an old abandoned military base, there must be some serious money and power behind it all. They probably made sure to limit lateral communication to instead have information travel up and down vertical lines that can be cut off at any time. I might have made a mistake by killing the boss of the place so soon, but I'm sure he and everyone above him have little tricks to make sure no betrayal can happen.

How infuriating.

"And how did you and the guards get recruited?"

"Each of us was contacted individually and offered a job. For safety reasons, we're not allowed to discuss anything other than work while we're here, so we know almost nothing about each other."

In other words, there's very little I can learn from anyone here. They're experimenting on and killing kids, and there are more like them out there, but none of them knows who or where.

This whole thing just keeps making me angrier and angrier.

I undo the blade of energy covering my knife, causing the blood on it to fall on the ground. I then put it back in its sheathe and split the syringes between my two hands before crouching, putting myself at eye level with the scientists.

"You're lucky, I'm feeling generous today, so I'll give you a chance to survive. The same chance you gave the kids who came through here."

I lift the syringes up and continue:

"How kind of me, you'll get to feel the fruit of your experiments for yourselves."

Screams of pain echo through the hallways as I delve deeper into the military base. I haven't found Wool or any of the children who are probably being kept here, so my job isn't over. I had to leave the malnourished kid behind, but I'll be back for him soon enough. I wish I could have someone stay with him, but I'm alone and not at all in a position to call for reinforcements.

I take a few turns to stay around the lab. In all likelihood, the test subjects are being kept nearby, so I'll try to avoid getting too far. As I make my way through this place I know nothing about, I come across a group of guards who seem to be rushing towards the lab, possibly in response to my earlier actions. They freeze for a second when they see me, but I sprint into them, knife drawn, and keep running as dead bodies fall to the ground behind me.

Soon enough, I find a staircase going down a level. I jump, landing on the lower floor, then start running again towards the room under the lab. I find the door, open it, and end up in a large room, likely originally meant for storage. Rows of cages leave little room to walk around. Some of them contain people, some are empty, and most only seem big enough to welcome children. A larger central walking path extends in front of me, with an individual holding a scimitar standing there.

He's wearing standard equipment for a dungeon delver, with an armor made of interlocking metal pieces meant to provide as much protection as possible without hindering movement. The plates seem rather thin, indicating that he was concerned about the weight, which probably means he's more of a rookie. However, finding him here means he got an illegal side-job.

"I knew you would come here, intruder, so I waited for you! Prepare to be defeated by the raw power of a true dungeon delver!"

He takes on a goofy stance with his weapon placed far behind him and his free hand pointed at me, then bends his fingers twice to invite me to approach. I shrug and shake my head before taking a step forward, causing a magic trap to activate.

A large glowing glyph appears on the ground as a Slow spell hits me. That explains why he seemed so confident, he knew the trap was there. My movement is greatly slowed, but...

The delver dashes towards me for an attack, a satisfied expression on his face. Without hurrying too much, I move my knife and effortlessly parry him, causing his smile to fade away.

"You slowed me down this much and still can't keep up with me?"

My provocation worked. My opponent jumps back and, without reevaluating the situation, comes back for another hit. My body is slower, but not my mind, making it easy to read straightforward frontal attacks and react accordingly.

I parry his attack, then his followup. He's easy to read and unoriginal in his style, but the speed at which my body moves right now prevents me from properly countering. I can feel the magic shell around me hindering my movement, but I can't focus on breaking it with a spell of my own while I block my opponent's attacks. Still, he's bound to eventually make a mistake. He's getting more and more angry with every attack, after all.

However, our little confrontation is interrupted by an energy javelin going straight through his chest, from one side to the other. He drops his sword and stumbles back a few steps, Trying his best to cover the wounds and stop the blood flow. I turn in the direction the javelin came from, and see a young woman calmly walking in our direction.

She has relatively short black hair, barely reaching down to her shoulders, and very dark eyes on top of a slightly darker skin than average in the megalopolis. In contrast, her armor is a clear blue color, similar to the sky, with rose gold accents. Her demeanor exudes confidence, and I can tell that she's an experienced dungeon delver.

The rookie is also looking in her direction and asks:

"Who... are you?"

With a voice full of authority, she responds:

"You've been a delver for three years, so you knew that going rogue would get other delvers sent after you. I'm here to collect your bounty. If you surrender, I'll make sure you don't die from that wound."

"Ah! Like I need your help to get through this! I'll just beat both of you up and get my own reward for having defeated intruders instead!"

I take a step forward and intervene, asking the rookie:

"Wait, are you aware of what they're doing here?"

"Experiments of some sort, I'm not too interested in the details."

"Did you see the children's bodies?"

"Yeah, I know they die a lot of the time. Science guys said it was necessary, though."

I feel my anger spike back up. Even if the other delver here wants him alive, I'm going to fucking kill him.

I break the Slow spell on me, then dash forward. Seeing this, the female delver also starts running, but a sudden shockwave stops both of us. The rookie's bleeding stopped, his eyes look completely empty, and he's taking on a savage stance, devoid of any attempt at self-preservation.

I recognize this. A forbidden spell which makes you lose control and minimizes the impact of injuries until your energy is completely drained. Hunters and delvers aren't allowed to use it because they take so much damage while under its effect that they generally die on the spot once it dissipates. Still, because of the way it removes any survival instincts, it greatly increases combat prowess.

The other delver already started running towards him again, spear in hand.

"Watch out! He's under a spell's effect!"

She ignores me and tries to impale her opponent, but he dodges and swiftly strikes back with a quick punch. To my surprise, she sees it coming and avoids it before countering with another spear attack. I figured she was experienced, but she might also be very talented.

The rookie ducks to avoid the attack coming his way, then jumps back, landing next to his scimitar. He grabs it, then rushes wildly forward.

I should probably intervene. While I'm convinced she can take care of him, it wouldn't do us any good if she got injured in the process. I create an energy sword blade around my knife and join the fray just as the delver clashes with the rookie again.

He's surprisingly fast and agile now, managing to avoid most of our attacks, with his spell keeping him completely unbothered by the few we do land. We need to strike a lethal and disabling hit as fast as possible. Our weapons clash a few times, until I finally see it: the delver does a quick spear movement to push the rookie's weapon out of the way. I increase the flow of energy in my body, speeding myself up, and use this opportunity to aim at his throat. No time to hesitate!

Everything stops as his head goes flying. Even if he's impervious to pain, he can't keep fighting without a brain to control the body. We stay in this position for what feels like a very long time, until his head lands on the floor and his body begins collapsing. Only then do I let out a sigh of relief and relax my pose.

I'm with a complete stranger right now. We teamed up out of necessity, but I don't know what she's doing here, and she doesn't know what I'm doing here. At least I can be honest about the whole thing, since it's not connected to me being a vampire.

She cleans the tip of her spear, then says:

"I was told this was going to be a solo mission. Who are you, and why are you here?"

"I'm Eniré, former monster hunter. I stumbled upon these guys half by accident and figured I'd take care of them."

"I see. Name's Amalia, dungeon delver, and I was sent here to collect that guy's bounty and, if possible, shut down this whole operation. Since the authorities won't take care of it, it falls to us vigilantes to worry about it."

"Wait, they already know about this?"

She shrugs and takes a few steps, taking a look inside the cages surrounding us.

"Yeah, they do. People who hired me have been trying to tip the police, the hunters, and even the delvers about this whole thing, to no avail. Apparently, any information they receive gets lost on the way up."

She smashes the lock of one of the cages, opening it and letting two kids who don't seem to be older than eight out. They look completely terrified.

"This could explain why they're allowed to use old government facilities. They have connections in the right places."

"That's what we believe too. Whoever is behind this has an immeasurable reach and control over... everything."

She breaks another lock, letting a single kid out this time. I decide to follow her example and start breaking cages on my side.

"As far as I can tell, no one here knows anything. Information is entirely controlled so that the grunts at the bottom can't spill the beans."

"That's correct. Even the head of this facility had a bunch of spells put on him, such that any attempt at divulging 'protected' information would result in an instant death."

I feel a bit better about having killed him without thinking it through.

"They're taking this very seriously."

We're now walking along the cage lines, opening the ones we find containing people. We eventually find Wool, but he doesn't recognize me, so I pretend I've never seen him before.

Most cages are empty, but we free a number of children, all aged between five and fifteen. Some are too weak to walk by themselves, so the others, who presumably haven't been held prisoner for quite as long, help support them.

Unfortunately, during our sweep, we find a cage containing two bodies. As far as I can tell, they died of thirst very recently. I feel my anger rise, not just towards the people who did this to them, but also towards myself for not having gotten here fast enough to save them.

A few guards on patrol spot and attack us here and there, but they're no match against Amalia and I. Seeing just how strong we are, the children even begin cheering for us.

Eventually, we reach the final cage. Inside, I see something completely unexpected: a very young horned ogre, and a slightly older demon shielding her as best he can with his body. The latter shouts at me:

"I won't let you hurt her again!"

I raise my hands to show that they're empty and that I mean them no harm.

"I'm not with the people who hurt you before. I'm here to get you out of here."

"Liar!"

I feel a movement behind me and react just in time to catch Amalia's spear mid-thrust.

"What are you doing, Amalia!?"

"They're monsters. We kill monsters. Did you forget what your role is, monster hunter?"

I push her back before turning in her direction.

"These monsters aren't dangerous! They're just kids, for fuck's sake!"

She pulls her spear back, ready to attack again.

"Kids who will grow up to become dangerous adults. Monsters are a destructive force of nature, constantly looking for people to kill. Did you even forget why your job exists in the first place?"

"They're not all like that! I spent a year and eight months living among vampires, and I'm fine!"

She changes her stance, now pointing her spear at me instead.

"Are you really? You're a hunter and you protect monsters. Something has to be wrong with you."

I grab my knife and take on a defensive stance. I can't blame her for this, I would have killed them without hesitation myself before having been turned into a vampire. But now...

"If they can't be allowed to live, then neither can I. If you're going to treat a demon protecting an ogre as a danger, then treat me protecting both of them the same way."

She sighs and shakes her head before relaxing her stance.

"Fine. I'll leave you in charge of these two, and I'll pray that we don't come to regret our decisions today."

I put my knife away.

"I'm sure we won't."

I break the lock on the cage and extend a hand inside, causing the demon to shout again:

"Come no closer! I will attack!"

Now that I see them a bit better, I can tell that the ogre has blue skin and a single horn poking through her bangs in the middle of her forehead. She looks like a six-year-old human girl in terms of proportions, but that doesn't really help me determine her actual age.

The demon, on the other hand, has red skin, two small black horns poking through his hair on the sides of his head, and ferocious-looking fangs. He also has a tail similar to a lizard's, but it appears to be broken. He has the look of a child 11 or 12 of age, but that's also not an indication of how old he really is.

Horned ogres emerged as a mutation of ordinary ogres a long time ago, and as such are all mutants by default. The demon being able to speak is an indication that he's also one, which could explain why they were being kept here.

With a voice as gentle as I can manage, I say:

"Please, calm down. We're here to save you, not hurt you."

He throws a fireball at me, but I block it with my arm without taking any damage. He must be really tired if that's the best he can do.

"I won't let you... I won't let you hurt her anymore..."

I point at the large blood stains on my clothes.

"Look, I already killed a lot of the people who hurt you. You'll be safe with me."

The horned ogre opens her eyes to look at me, and with a very weak voice, asks:

"Safe?"

"Yes, safe. I'll get you out of here, and protect you for as long as necessary."

The small child looks at her protector and nods. Seemingly defeated, the demon gets up and grabs her hand.

"Fine, we'll follow you."

As we walk, I ask the two kids:

"So, what are your names?"

The little girl proudly shouts:

"Saezu!"

Seeing that his protégée so enthusiastically answered, the exasperated boy shakes his head, then says:

"I'm Belzal."

"I'm Eniré. Happy to meet you!"

I nod, satisfied to have made this first step with them. With a bit of luck, I'll get them to trust me as a human and, by extension, teach them to not distrust all non-monsters as a result of what they went through here. I feel a bit bad about it since I'm actually a vampire and a real human tried to kill them just now, but I know they're not all like that. Even Amalia, a dungeon delver, ended up being reasonable after all.

Still, I can tell that the kids are wary of her, as they hide behind me whenever she comes back in view.

As we reach the laboratory where I killed a bunch of people, Amalia asks:

"You're the one behind this mess?"

"Of course I am. Kid on the chair there is still alive, we should bring him with us."

As she lifts him on her back, she explains:

"I also went through a similar laboratory, but it was smaller and only had two scientists. As far as I can tell, that's everything in this facility. Now, we just need to find a gate and get out of here."

"I'll guide us to the one I came through, it's not very far."

"Perfect, lead the way."

We make our way to the gate with all the prisoners we saved, and Amalia uses a small device to open it, revealing the old power plant on the other side. We slowly get the kids through, then Wool. Once everyone is outside, I say:

"I just need a minute, got something to finish."

Amalia shrugs, then moves away from the portal. I go back a few steps and slit the throats of the guards I knocked unconscious earlier before waking up the scientist. He looks at me in surprise, then says:

"You! Did you put me to sleep? How dare you? As soon as the guards here find you, you're done for!"

"Look, look, I'm just here to give you a little parting gift before leaving."

He looks at me in confusion, and I quickly jab a syringe full of red liquid into his neck.

"That's how I killed the others, and I felt bad about leaving you out of the experience. Have fun!"

He touches the injection site, then starts asking:

"What did you..."

He doesn't have time to finish before the excruciating pain begins, turning the rest of his sentence into a loud scream as he falls back on the ground. I walk through the portal, then signal to Amalia that she can close it, cutting off the sounds emitted by the dying scientist.

Amalia approaches, then says:

"The people who hired me will be here soon to take the kids and bring them back to their homes. That doesn't apply to the monsters, though."

"I promised I'd protect them, so I'll bring them to my own place for now. I'll figure something out later."

"That sounds like a lot of trouble to me, especially for just two monsters... But anyway, good work today. We should exchange contact information, just in case."

"Ah, well... It's a bit embarrassing, but I don't have a phone."

"Seriously? Give me your address then."

She notes it down, then says:

"It's probably better if you get the monsters out of here before the others arrive. Still, I'll tell them about you, they might be interested in working with you in the future."

"Thanks. It's paid, right? I could definitely use the money, my trip to the vampire kingdom left me with not much to my name."

"Yeah, they pay me, but I don't know where the money actually comes from."

She shrugs, then continues:

"They haven't hired me to do anything that goes against my values, and we did just free a bunch of children who were being experimented on, so I think they're good people."

"I'll wait to hear more then."

I grab the ogre and demon by the hand and begin heading back to my apartment while Amalia and a few of the children wave us goodbye.