I Hate You, Devil!

Chapter 297  Final Arc Part XV

"We've been hunting you for a long time now, Zero. Our master had kept us under his control and disposal for many years since that day." One started talking, his voice in a singsong tone that caused goosebumps to crawl over Zaki's skin. "Then our time was coming to an end, and he had callously handed us over to the military. Just like that." A self-depreciating laugh broke out from One's lips, but the gleam in his eyes was filled with madness.

He smiled wickedly before snarling. "After using us for so many years, he had the audacity to throw us away now that we're about to be expired goods. And the military had the face to say that they'd save us from the pain. But I know better. They were just trying to create a copy of us. And that is the ultimate and only reason why they are still keeping us. Once we served our purpose, they'd get rid of us too.

"So, we decided to break off on our own after I stumbled over some intel about you, Zero. What a providence of fate, don't you think?" He chuckled in a terrifying manner. "Who would've thought that the rejected product ended up being the one the whole world recognizes and is actually looking up to right now? We have been hiding away for so many years in the shadows… just like rats in the sewers. While you… YOU are up here living a perfectly happy and normal life." He scoffed and sneered, as though mocking the military. His eyes glowed with a crazed light as a soft chuckle echoed within the living area. It was an emotionless chuckle that sounded more petrifying than any hysterical laughter.

"Was it enjoyable? Huh, Zero? Pretending to live like you are one of them? A normal human?" he mocked. His soulless eyes narrowing with a flare of emotion as he stared into Zaki's eyes. "Oh… or maybe I should change to calling you Zaki now? Tsk, tsk… you even changed your name, huh? How quaint." One continued mocking Zaki who was staring at One with a stony face.

"Seven once mentioned that you were lucky. Well, I guess, he was right. You were, after all you're the very first one who was taken out of that lab. Even though you were the rejected one." A sickening bloodlust filled the living room and encroached on Zaki as One took a step closer.

"You know… it was supposed to be me. I should be the one chosen first at that time. Not you, Zero. Not YOU!! And now…" Another soft laugh followed, a hollow and broken sound. "And now, you have a genius scientist who has successfully found a way to treat you… What's her name again? Dr. Davi Chen?" One flashed an evil grin after throwing out that name.

Pure terror filled Zaki's eyes in that instant. He snarled like a cornered wolf. "ONE! Don't you dare touch her!" Zaki's roared out furiously as his eyes blazed with the lethal intensity of a death threat.

However, only an eerie chuckle floated through the space between them. One then shrugged indifferently as he gestured to the outside with his head.

"Well, Seven and Three had gone over to the sanatorium while I came to visit you here. My guess is they must have arrived…?" He shrugged as though he did not care about it. But a wicked smile slowly spread across his face. "So, I'm not exactly sure what's going on over there right now –" The implied threat and danger in that sentence nearly drove Zaki insane with worry and fear as his whole frame the living room.

14:57

***

shook with barely suppressed fury.

Not allowing One to finish that statement, Zaki charged furiously at him without any warning. He moved so fast that the best human fighter could not have possibly stopped the attack even after realizing the move had been made. Unfortunately, One was not a normal human in the first place. He was a monster – the worse kind there was.

That very same monster blocked Zaki's oncoming attack and with that, the two clashed fiercely in the living room.

***

Zaki could feel that this battle would be the last and most significant one between them. Though he was not prophetic, he could somehow tell it in his bones. And at the end of this battle, it would be either One or himself who would be left standing.

This was it. The story that had been abruptly cut short since a time from before. One that was long forgotten, from a far and distant land that seemed to have originated in a different life. However, there would be a conclusion to that unfinished story today. One way or another, it would end. He would end it, here and now. Enough of the past. It was time to close that chapter and fully embrace the present and future.

Nevertheless, Zaki was quite reluctant to have their last showdown right here, since it would cause considerable damage to the mansion. And it was not even his.

'Sorry, Chen! I'll compensate you later, I swear!' Zaki told an imaginary Yu Chen in his mind, sweat-dropping as he imagined Xiaolei's face once she sees the utter destruction that was sure to happen to their home. In his mind, he gave imaginary kow-tows to both of them, especially to Xiaolei. 'Sorry, sis-in-law! But this is an emergency!'

In the next second however, he thinned his lips, tsked and shrugged his shoulders as he accepted that there is no way around it. One was all ready and primed for battle. He can apologize and make up to the couple later on. But to do that, he needed to survive. Thus, he must emerge the victor in this battle! There must be no other outcome that was acceptable.

As Zaki looked up after taking an unnoticeable deep breath, he looked over at One who threw him a taunting sneer. In a blink, both were lunging at each other at speeds surpassing even the best athletes with world records. They leapt about as dark blurs, catlike in movement as each bounded off the walls, summersaulting over tabletops, and vaulting the tops of the sofas, their blades never resting from trying to gain a hit off the other. Every time the two men met and clashed, their blades swung and arced around viciously, each trying to carve off any body part of their respective opponent. Their powers were so destructive that any furniture that were not built of sturdy material got smashed to smithereens. Even those that were made to last, sustained significant damage.