MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

AARON'S MIND

The three intruders head on over to the elevator as a group, but they are unable to access it since it requires an ID card to open. So, they wait there until one of the women in black comes to use it and they stealthily enter along with her without her noticing. She selects the floor she wants to go to and the others just stand silently as they descend even deeper underground.

"Why didn't we take her card?" Aaron questions the stalker angrily after the lady exits the elevator and the door closes behind her. "Are you trying to get us stuck in here?"

"You need to calm down. We won't be needing it where we are going to," the man responds as he presses the last button on the elevator control panel, taking them to the building's lowest level. "All we require is in here," he adds as he taps on his black bag, which in no way reassures any of Aaron's concerns on this mission.

It takes a few minutes before the elevator door opens up to an empty black room. The only thing here is another metal doorway at the opposite end of the room. Aaron slowly approaches it ahead of the other two and notices it has some sort of scanner.

"I told you that we were going to need the card, but you didn't listen. What are you going to do now? Lemme guess, Louane is going to teleport inside."

"That isn't even an option," Louane starts as she places her palm on the door to feel it. "The door's made of pure Palladium, so it'll repel my teleportation. UDAP definitely isn't joking about securing this room."

"Not having a card isn't a cause for concern, it's a retina scanner," the criminal mastermind tells the boy as he shoves him aside to take a look at the door. "Don't worry, I have the key."

The stalker finally unzips the bag he's been carrying and what he brings out of it instantly disgusts Aaron. It's Rudi Vervoort's head in the same fresh condition as when it was just cut off. Is that why the creep specifically asked the teen to decapitate the politician? Too irritated to utter another word, the boy watches mutely as the guy opens up the dead man's right eye for the device to examine. The machine immediately shines a green light to show the recognition is a success and the door rises up, making the room behind it accessible to them.

Strangely, there's only one thing in this new chamber. Resting perfectly on top of a metal podium in the room's center is a thick black globe that looks like it might be made of clay. From afar, the orb seems to be nothing more than a harmless inanimate object, but as the three zegens gradually come closer to it, Aaron feels something bizarre. It's almost like the whole ambiance around him just got denser. It's clearly not the effect of the stalker nor Louane's abilities, so does that mean it's the artifact that's causing this feeling?

'Is that orb alive?' Aaron wonders deeply as he stops his movement out of fear of what would happen if he proceeds any further.

"Are you frightened now, little baby?" Louane teases him as she walks past him. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything."

Aaron ignores the blonde girl's remark and goes on to ask the stalker the question that's bothering his mind. "What exactly am I looking at and why does it seem to be living?"

"So you noticed it already?" the demented man starts with another mischievous grin. "This right here is the essence of Feto, the Zomer's greatest achievement. Think of it as an embodiment of his heart and soul, and with it back in our possession, he'll be restored to his full glory."

Aaron already knew that the cult members were the farthest thing from sane, but this new revelation puts his previous ideas to shame. What the fuck is this Feto creature and what's so unique about it to warrant this much security? The more time the teen boy spends with these people, the more messed up everything seems to become.