27 Aftermath

The sight that greeted Amon and the rest when they left the restaurant left him speechless. It had taken under thirty seconds to deal with the guards inside, but the situation outside had changed drastically.

Bel, who was previously fighting in a mad rampage, was now collapsed on the sidewalk, parts of his body severely burnt. The two Holy Knights were nowhere in sight, and the remaining guards had fled the scene.

The two Ravens looked at each other and Ven could see a trace of grief in Amon's eyes. She didn't know how well he got along with Bel, but to see him dying in such a manner had to be a shock to him. As Ravens, they were used to death and the loss of a comrade, but it never got any easier.

From where they stood, about five meters away from Bel's body, they could tell at a glance that the level of burns he had suffered was fatal. Since they didn't hear him yell from inside the restaurant, they assumed that he must have been killed in an instant.

Amon walked towards Bel while shouting orders to the operatives. "We have no time to lose, quickly finish evacuating everything from the safehouse. Don't forget to avoid leaving by the emergency exit; there are surely still guards stationed there. Two Holy Knights managed to flee, so we need you to evacuate as soon as possible."

The operatives nodded their head, and without taking any time to grieve the comrades they lost, they went right back inside the restaurant to finish the evacuation. By now, they were mostly done and needed only a couple more hours to either dispose or relocate sensitive material.

With the city guard severely crippled, it was more than likely that they would be able to finish their work in peace, as long as they were quick enough. If there was anything they couldn't transport afterwards, they would have to destroy it.

As Amon was directing the operatives, Ven kneeled near Bel and examined his injuries. Most of his exposed skin suffered severe burns, and his charred skin exhaled a strong smell of cooked meat. Ven steeled herself against the nauseating smell and reached to move the body.

Right now, Bel was facing the ground, hunched over himself. As soon as her hand landed on the exposed skin of the man's shoulder, a hand grabbed her. Bel raised his head, and his bloodshot eyes stare at Ven as if trying to pierce through her soul.

Ven was startled and tried to move back, but Bel gripped her hand like a vise. Ven was surprised to see that Bel was still alive. That level of burns was enough to kill a man, but when she saw that the light in eyes was getting dimmer by the second, she realized that he was barely hanging on.

"Amon, He's still alive! He's barely hanging on, he needs some emergency medical treatment."

When he heard her words, Amon was facing the operatives. He immediately turned around and was startled when he saw Bel staring at Ven. However, he immediately realized that the only reason Bel could survive his injuries was that he had enhanced his augmentations. The boost to his physical abilities had evidently improved his endurance.

Without waiting, Amon went to Bel's side and silently pried his hand open, liberating Ven from his grip. He glanced quickly at Bel's body and only got more and more worried as his eyes scanned him. Bel's silence also worried him. Normally, he would make a quip about the current situation but now he was only staring at Ven with death in his eyes.

"Help me lift him, we might still be able to do something for him.

-Is there a medical facility that is safe for us to use around here?

-Not really, but there should be some medical supplies we can use for emergency treatment inside the safe house. Moreover, we need to get out of the street. The guards' warning at the beginning of the operation has kept people away, but that won't last long. If we don't want to be swarmed, we need to move quickly."

Ven nodded her head and she moved to grab Bel by the ankle. Amon slid his hands under Bel's armpit and lifted him in the air. The latter let out a pained grunt as Amon's hands were rubbing quite severely against his burnt skin, causing him severe pain. Amon ignored him, and with his partner's help, he moved the injured man inside the restaurant.

The two Ravens carefully avoided the bodies piled on the floor and were careful not to slip on a puddle of fresh blood. Amon went towards the kitchen and pushed a heavy metal door that was left slightly ajar with his feet.

A drab concrete staircase laid behind the door and Ven and he carefully made their way down. When they reached the bottom, a vast concrete basement laid before their eyes. By this point in the evacuation, there wasn't much left inside. Nonetheless, the surviving operatives were busy organizing some files and moving them in labelled boxes.

When they saw the two Ravens carrying Bel's burnt body, they let out a startled gasp. One of them, a short middle-aged man with a bald head and deep blue eyes, approached them. "Is there anything we can do to help you?

-He might not seem like it, but this man is still alive. I need to know if you have any medical supplies that we could use to quickly treat his injuries."

The bald operative had a complicated expression on his face as he thought deeply about Amon's request. He was just about to express his regret, as most medical supplies had already been moved elsewhere when another operative raised his voice.

"We might not have the necessary medicine and expertise to save him, but we could surely keep him alive long enough to seek appropriate treatment. As long as we can get him to Prague we should be able to save him."

Prague was one of the biggest operational centers of the Ravens and was also where their laboratories were located. Their exact location was one of the best-kept secrets in the Ravens, but it was without a doubt that they would be able to cure him.

The Ravens would pull no stops to save an assassin, as it took many years of training and massive resources to train one of them. As such, if Bel could make his way there, they would definitely help him.

"Don't speak nonsense, replied the bald man. There is no way he has any chance to survive the five hour trip by magnetic train with injuries like this.

-Maybe in his current condition, but don't we have some of that weird derivate of adrenaline that we have yet to move?

-I see. I guess we could use that, but he would be in severe pain. According to central intelligence, a dose of this stuff drove one test subject insane."

Amon looked pensively at the man he was carrying and made his decision almost instantly. Bel was no stranger to pain, and if it could save his life, it was worth a shot.

"In that case, I'll leave him with you. Please make haste in treating him, he is a valuable asset for the Ravens.

-You're not going to take him there yourself? The bald man expressed his surprise.

-As much as I would love to, we need to finish off the two remaining Holy Knights. Our mission is still to eliminate them and I have no intention of going back until it is done.

-Alright, we'll take care of him for you. For now, just lay him on the floor. Sadly, we don't have anything more comfortable for him."

Amon complied with the bald man's request and laid Bel on the floor. Now that he was done here, he led Ven up the stairs and closed the heavy metal door behind them when they left.

The two of them were wearing bloody and tattered clothes and they needed to flee the scene as quickly as possible. Their trip to the basement had already delayed them and Amon fully expected the streets to be full of curious citizens gazing at the macabre and bloody scene outside.

As they were now, they would stand out like a sore thumb. Simultaneously, they couldn't stay in the restaurant forever and needed to make their exit somehow.

Amon judged that the best way to leave this predicament was simply to make a run for it. In the confusion that was bound to be created when the citizens would find the bodies, they would make be able to leave subtly. Even if they were noticed, the crowd would ensure that no one would be able to follow them.

The two Ravens waited until they could hear a commotion outside, and when a sizeable crowd seemed to have formed, they exited the restaurant. Just like Amon had predicted, nobody really paid attention to them, as most eyes were focused on the carnage.

After leaving the mass of people, the two Ravens evaded the public eye by sliding in the dark and empty labyrinth of alleyways that occupied so much of New-Paris' territory. When Amon judged that they were at a safe distance, he stopped walking and turned to Ven. His tone of voice was grim and his frowning face revealed the predicament they were in.

"We've lost trace of The Lion and Stormbringer. What do we do now? We have no way of finding out where they went.

-That might not necessarily be true, said Ven with a slight smile."