Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... "Oh god!"

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"Mr. 0, we have an interesting experiment here that might be of interest to you."

A lab assistant said, completely trembling in front of Zero. 

"Get on with it."

"Ah, yes, so we've discovered someone with the ability to increase the capabilities of the manifests of others. So right now our experiment is to try and forcefully extract that manifest to use it to boost our capabilities."

The lab assistant continued trying to gauge if Zero behind the mask had any form of expression. 

"So what is my purpose here? What do you want me to do?"

Zero replied in haste, he had plenty of things to do and doesn't like to be caught up in a research lab. 

"Well… we…"

The lab assistant stumbled as he couldn't find the correct words to speak to Zero, it was really intimidating to stand next to someone with such an intense bloodl.u.s.t, let alone speak to him. 

"Mr. 0, would you be so kind as to not scare my assistant?"

A young miss about 25 years of age walked through the door, her blonde hair waving in the wind. Her disheveled look, a far cry from her beauty. 

"We have another experiment here. As you know, you are the only person capable of withstanding experiment 01's nullification abilities, even though we have been trying to extract it, our results have come out inconclusive. 

This new experiment, experiment 32, is totally different. Its manifest stems from its emotions, therefore you are required to build a relationship with it. Unfortunately, it's too much of a waste of time. So we went ahead and extracted some fluids in her brain. It managed to help boost manifests for a short period of time. 

Unfortunately, there's too little a quantity and the quality is not that great. Therefore we want to try to take an alternative approach. I wonder, what will happen if you try to replicate its abilities. Would you have a stronger manifest, would the other manifests be stronger as well? Let's try it out!"

The blonde's laughter was creepy, as Zero felt a chill run down his spine, but he was not opposed to this kind of experiment, he wouldn't reject anything that would ultimately make him stronger than he was. 

Zero stepped forward as the blonde opened a hatch to reveal a shaved head, there were wounds on the head with some parts scabbed up more than the others. 

He put his hand on the head as he tried to draw on its manifest. 

"I can't replicate this manifest."

"Ahhhhhh, yet another failed experiment, oh well, time to go back to the drawing board. Oh right, here take this. It's an injectable power boost, courtesy of experiment 32 here. You can test it when you're on a mission. Oh, and be sure to endorse it so I can get more research funding."

The blonde continued laughing as she proceeded on with her experiments. 

Zero looked down at the vial in his hand and looked at the intricately crafted double helix pattern within the vial. He kept it in his satchel and went on his way. 

---------------

Snapping out of the flashback he looked at Sandra, her smiling face looking back at him. 

"Experiment 32…" 

He thought to himself as he hugged Sandra tightly. 

"Big brother! Was Sandra a big help to you?"

"Yes, you are. Thank you so much, Sandra. Big brother will protect you from now on."

"Tsk!" 

Ghostface watched from the distance as his well thought out plan was dismantled by a brat. 

Ice daggers shot at him but unfortunately passed through his body entirely. 

"All of you, watch out! For spoiling our plans, I'm going to have the boss do something about it! You won't have a day of peace in your life. For messing with the Snake Fang Gang's business."

Ghostface wanted to turn tail and run, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him, his cool-down had ended and he could go ethereal at any time he pleases. 

'Rip' 

The air trembled as it seemed like the reality was ripped open, a hole the size of a human appeared as a man walked out from within the hole. 

The man looked around as he saw the devastation that took place all around him, the kids crying, Z on the floor, and Daymas at the side with a Ghostface that was about to flee. 

"That is quite the commotion here, I suppose you all were the ones who saved the kids?"

Soli and Odrunn nodded looking at the man, they were both shocked and surprised because they had recognized the man as the one who slashed the target dummy in half in the training room. 

"I am the inquisitor of justice with the church and on behalf of the church, we would like to thank you for standing up to these heretics that would defile the church's name." 

He bowed politely and turned his head towards Ghostface. 

"You unsanctamonious bastard, you dare defile the church! I will deal with your punishment."

Ghostface immediately kicked it into high gear and tried his best to get out of there. But he was locked in space, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't escape. 

"Damn you, if my boss knows about this, even if you're with the church he will turn the world around to fight you."

The inquisitor opened a portal and reached deep into it, he picked up a ball-like object and threw it on the ground in front of Ghostface. 

'plop' 

it was a human head, it had its eyes opened and was staring directly at Ghostface. 

"Is this your boss? Quite annoying really, he refused to give up the location of the kids even when I justiced the entire stronghold. But no matter, I found you now. He said calmly unsheathing his katana"

Ghostface was afraid, but he knew that whatever the inquisitor was going to do, he could dodge it, he just had to time his ethereal properly. 

The inquisitor walked forward calmly as he walked towards Ghostface. 

"Justice for the church!"