John, Lena, Alexia, and Copper entered a hallway with weapons in each hand. Blood marks spread across the white walls. Pieces of flesh laid across the floor, definitely showing not everyone left without a scratch.

"We should remain quiet," John whispered, "we don't know what's in here."

"More possessed, I assume," Alexia suggested.

John believed there was more than the possessed inside the lab. Whatever released the demonic ghosts, it could still be inside a secured chamber. If the previous demon was bad, how much worse could the next monster be?

Lena raised her hand. “Shh! I hear something.”

John paused so his feet wouldn't distract him. Lena was right. Someone was shouting and screaming from down the hallway. Slapping and flesh ripping echoed too with bone-breaking sounds.

"It sounds like a violent battle is happening down the corridor," Alexia explained.

"We better check it out." John sprinted as the others followed him. Apparently someone didn’t leave the lab, or maybe it was someone John was expecting.

At the end of the hall, John stopped inside a large two-story floor lobby. Many possessed were charging toward a woman at the center near a stairway. She was biting, tearing, and slashing at the freaks with her claws. Blood rained through her hair, although it was red from the beginning. She swung her fist through a possessed's mouth, literally knocking his brain out from the back of his skull. She grabbed a possessed scientist woman and tore out the woman's throat with her fangs. Her eyes burned red, and she screamed all over the place.

“Is….. that…..” Copper’s words barely came out.

“Yes, that is Kara,” John answered.

“She’s….. Bloody hell!”

“Thank the gods we are on her side,” said Alexia.

Kara tackled another possessed and punched his face flat. Behind her, a fat possessed scientist grabbed her and wrapped his large arms around her neck. She choked while the possessed held her up off her feet. A possessed could instantly snap a woman’s head off, but Kara wasn’t normal.

She grabbed his ears and yanked his head off. Then she kicked it like a soccer ball, knocking down a running possessed. After she killed the last freak, Kara wiped the blood off her face and sighed. She stood on a pile of carnage, drenched in blood down her black armor suit. She licked the blood on her hands, moaning as she admired the taste. Then she paused when her eyes caught the sight of her squad.

John waved to her with a shocked expression. No matter how many times he has seen her brutal battles, his chills in his back never stopped. “Hey….. Kara….. Is this a bad time?”

Kara smiled, gritting her blood-covered teeth. “It’s never a bad time.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She raced toward him and gave him a big hug. “Mmmmmmmmmmh….. I miss you.”

John patted her back. “I wasn’t gone that long.”

Kara noticed Lena and hugged her next. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Coming to save your butts,” said Lena, “sorry for taking long.”

“But where were you?”

Lena shrugged. “It is a long story.”

“Well, I guess I will have plenty of time to wait.” Kara glanced at Alexia. “Did you fix the power plant?”

Alexia laughed. “If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “True.”

Copper hovered toward her. “Greetings, I’m Copper by the way.” He held out his hand to the vampire woman. “I am the one who freed John from his imprisonment.”

Kara shook his hand. “Thanks…..”

“Kara, the director wanted us to find the demonic source here,” John informed.

“Did you find anything?” Alexia asked.

Kara opened her mouth, but she paused when loud screams and roars reached the group’s ears.

From a corridor on the other side, a mop of possessed charged like screaming banshees. Guards, researchers, and office staff people charged while raging for blood.

Kara pointed at them. “That is all I found here. Run!”

John jolted up the stairs without looking back. He knew his friends can keep up with him.

On the second floor, he stopped and looked around for a moment. There were three corridors with doorways across the walls. The second floor could be where the labs were located.

Kara dashed past him. “This way!”

John and the others followed her through the central corridor. The possessed already reached the second floor as the SPD agents ran halfway.

“In here!” Kara stopped toward a double door on the left side and pushed it open.

She waited as her companions ran into the laboratory room. Then she jumped inside, closing the door, and she pushed the lock button on it.

Through the small window, the possessed crashed against the door and pounded their blood covered fists on it. They hissed furiously while trying to force the door open.

John sighed and looked around. “Wow!”

It was a typical lab with computers, examination tables, and scientific equipment. But there were glass cases at the back wall, containing stone tablets and small relics. One table has stones covered in runic symbols and the other has small horned statues, kneeling on flat square blocks.

“What the bloody hell are these?” Copper asked.

Alexia stared closely at one glass case. “Demonic artifacts.”

Kara sat near a computer and typed on the keyboard. She paused, watching the information scroll down the monitor. “It appears they found something beneath the lab.”

John approached her. “What did they found?”

“An ancient underground ruin. Bigger than the one we found on Zenus.”

John couldn’t believe his eyes while reading the log. “Holy shit.”

Prison miners discovered the chamber, believing it was some kind of alien tomb.

After its discovery, the SPD sent an expedition team to research the lair while they built a lab on top of it. They were still learning about it before they lost contact with the headquarters.

“Hey, guys! Look at this!” Lena called.

John approached her toward the corner. What she was looking at caused him to go breathless.

On a short flat table was a large stone container in an anthropoidal form. Yellow like sand with tons of demonic hieroglyphs across it. On the lid was a statue of a naked lady with horns and wings. Her eyes were closed and her arms crossed on her chest.

John has never seen that kind of relic before. Could that thing be the source of the demon outbreak?