"What is that? What is going on?"
No matter how much he rubbed at it, the black stain wouldn't come off. He came closer to the desk lamp and looked at the hand. Whatever this was, he could see it spreading through his veins.
"Poison? But how?" he muttered, angry at himself. How exactly had this happened? Just then, he noticed the golden flickers within one of the objects inside the safe. It looked like a horn.
"Damn it," he cursed as the numbness in his hand grew worse. He knew he didn't have much time left. He had already taken what he came for, so he needed to get out immediately.
But there was another problem. For the first time in his life, he could feel his energy being drained away. When he turned his gaze toward his own body, he realized there was something wrong with the flow of golden energy within him.
His energy would soon be depleted, and he wouldn't be able to use his siuni. If that happened, escaping while exposed to everyone would be impossible.
Without wasting another second, he left the office and began walking toward the exit quickly. Maintaining his siuni now required an extraordinary amount of effort. But at some point, his control over it slipped away.
As he get close to the exit, he noticed several people glancing in his direction. He had grown so used to remaining unseen that those sudden looks made him feel as though he were under attack.
Forcing himself to calm down, he slowed his pace to blend in with the crowd; he didn't want to act differently from the others and lose the last bit of support his siuni provided. Just then, a young man passing by stopped him.
"Sir, are you alright? You're sweating" he said with concern.
"I am okay, propably I coming down with cold" Ezra replied politely .
"I haven't seen you here before. Are you a new researcher?" the young man asked, didn't lelt Ezra pass.
"Yes I am... I'm sorry, but I have to leave now. I'm not feeling very well," he said, politely trying to keep his voice under control.
'Just what do you want from me? Get away, please,' he thought desperately, still maintaining his gentle smile.
This time, the young man also nodded politely and let him pass.
"Take care of yourself. It got cold so quickly this year," he said with a kind smile as he went on his way.
Ezra exhaled deeply and headed toward the exit again. He hadn't felt this kind of fear in a long time. He had always done his work as quietly as possible, without the fear of getting caught. But now, the fear of being caught in a research center where everyone was aware of siunis had taken over his body.
'If I get caught... if I get caught, they'll do the same things to me again. I have to escape, I have to get out of here.'
The numbness spreading through his body and the overwhelming stress made every sound around him, even the pounding of his own heartbeat unbearably loud.
Thinking he had managed to brush the young man off, he took a few quick steps toward the exit when he suddenly felt a hand grip his shoulder. But it wasn't the same man. This hands definetely belonged someone different. He tried to defend himself, but his body refused to respond, and he was thrown to the ground in a second.
"There is an intruder!"
"Sh*t…" he whispered. Sweat streamed down his forehead as he wiped it away with the back of his hand and tried to stand up.
But several people had already drawn their guns and aimed them at him. At this point, even if he managed to use his siuni again, it would be useless. Everyone's attention was already fixed on him.
Everyone was looking at him.
More than anything else, he hated those stares.
"Stay where you are! Don't move!" shouted the guard who had thrown him to the ground.
Ignoring the shouts of the men surrounding him, Ezra stood up. Fighting was out of the question in this state. Even if he could fight, it was an obvious fact that he was outnumbered.
He was going to do the only thing he could to get out of here. If one of the things he hated most was people looking at him, the other was seeing how they looked at the world, to see into their minds. If he failed to pull this off, he would likely collapse right here, only to be placed next to one of the mummies in those rooms.
He gathered the last remnants of his energy, as he looked into the eyes of each person pointing their guns at him, one by one. Then, he closed his eyes and whispered a single word: 'Dream.'
When he opened his eyes, the men surrounding him lowered their weapons one after another. They had stopped shouting, their expressions turning vacant. It was as if their gazes were no longer fixed on him, but on another world—different scenes, different faces, distant dreams.
He had mostly avoided using this siuni. To use it, he had to see—even if only for a second—the thing a person desired most, the thought lingering deepest in their mind at the moment. What had truly driven him away from people was seeing the kinds of horrible, disgusting thoughts they carried even while simply walking down the street in broad daylight, eating a meal, or reading a book.
With one last effort, Ezra erased his presence once more time and run towards the door. The danger was far from over. He no longer had enough strength to distinguish who possessed a siuni and who did not. As he reached the entrance, the sound of footsteps chasing him echoed behind him. The moment he threw himself into the street, a sharp, searing pain tore through his shoulder. Something had shredded it. But he knew he didn't have time to check his wound.
He kept running without looking back. After running through the back alleys, he finally managed to lose his trail. Only when he stepped out of the narrow passages and into a crowded, brightly lit main street did he finally allow himself a sigh of relief.
The festival on the main street was very lively and crowded. In fact, this was the exact reason he had chosen today for the getting inside of the research center. Once he blended in with the festival crowd, even the last drop of his strength would be enough to make him completely invisible.
He had always found this ironic. No matter how much he disliked crowds and people, he was strongest among them.
He saw a few men run past him. He didn't even know if these were the ones pursuing him or not. But no one had noticed his presence.
For a while, he wandered through the crowd on the street, barely able to drag his feet. But by then, moving had become difficult. Aside from the poison spreading through his body, the blood loss had left him utterly exhausted. Soon, he realized he could go no further. He slipped away from the crowd and searched for somewhere to take shelter.
He found an old, abandoned building and went inside. By then, even the last fragments of strength within him had faded.
As he collapsed onto the dusty, worn-out couch, his final thought was how he was going to survive this.
Then everything went dark.