Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 868: Strongest - Final Part

Tap~ Tap~ Tap~

Kiernan kept walking down the long corridor, and it had been a while since he had seen anything else than the flickering lights above him.

'It sure is taking a long while to walk down this corridor. I wonder where this facility is even located because this place is enormous.'

He wondered.

In that moment.

In the distance, he was finally able to see a door—it was already open—and there were people waiting with smiles on their faces.

Kiernan kept his calm pace and soon enough stepped through the door and arrived at the control room.

He recognized it as some kind of control room because it was a room with hundreds of screens displaying various locations in the underground facility.

"Welcome, champion!"

The man said with a big smile.

He was the organizer of it all and also the one that funded the construction of this massive facility.

He was one of the richest people in the world—Johan von Rothe—and one of the most influential figures in the history of the world.

However.

The public wasn't much aware of his existence because he was one of the rulers of the underworld. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"…"

Kiernan looked around at the people and didn't expect to see just a bunch of nerdy computer geeks and scientists here.

They didn't look like people that would host this killing fest of a tournament.

"My name is Johan…"

Johan was about to say, but he was quickly cut off by impatient-sounding Kiernan.

"I don't care. Where is my prize?"

Kiernan asked.

With a stunned look, Johan didn't expect to get cut off like that, as no one ever dared to speak over him, but then he smiled with a twitching lip.

"Of course… Bring forward the chip!"

Johan waved his hand.

In that moment, two scientists came forward with a suitcase, and then they opened it, and there was some kind of microchip inside.

"With a quick surgery, we will install this chip on the back of your neck, and it will enhance every aspect of your body."

Johan said proudly.

It cost a lot of money to create, but he believed that with this chip and Kiernan, he would be able to make that money back in no time at all.

"The money?"

Kiernan asked.

"It will be sent to your bank account by the end of the week. We need to jump some loops so that the bank transaction won't look suspicious.

"It will raise quite a lot of eyebrows if you suddenly receive 100 million. But don't worry, you'll get it."

Johan said with a smile.

"Mmh."

Kiernan nodded.

In that moment, they led him out of the control room and took him straight to the surgery wing, where there was already a team of doctors waiting for them.

"We will put you to sleep, but the operation should be painless and very quick—when you wake up, you will be a new man."

Johan said.

"No sleep. I'll stay awake."

Kiernan said coldly.

"W-what? It will be…incredibly painful since we can't use any morphine on you, or the installation sadly won't work otherwise."

Johan said with shaky eyes.

"I don't care."

Kiernan lay down on the operating table.

The doctors looked at each other with concern as they didn't know what they should be doing now.

It was going to be a very painful operation, and nobody would be able to survive through that pain because they needed to reorganize some of Kiernan's DNA.

"The faster we do this, the faster I can get the hell away from here, so hurry the hell up already!"

Kiernan shouted.

The doctors looked at Johan, who rubbed his forehead and then nodded and said, "Go ahead with the operation."

Johan and the rest of the scientists went outside the surgery room and watched from the window as the doctors surrounded Kiernan.

They turned Kiernan to lie on his stomach, then ripped open his shirt to expose his back and added some metal tools to the table.

"We will begin."

The doctor said.

With a cold look, Kiernan didn't respond, and then he felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck as one of the doctors cut into his skin.

The scalpel cut through cleanly.

It was pain that would make most men faint on the spot, but Kiernan didn't react to it and looked silently at the ground.

In that moment, the doctors dug deeper into the back of his neck and started working on him.

Johan said it would be quick, but it was quite a lie, as the time was stretching and soon an hour had passed.

"I think we are ready to install the chip."

One of the doctors said.

Johan and other scientists watched with nervous expressions as one of the doctors carefully took the microchip into his hand.

In that moment.

They slowly lowered the microchip into the back of his neck and installed it into his spinal cord with precision.

'There is something wrong…'

Bael suddenly said.

'What?!'

Kiernan screamed inside his mind.

It was a sudden scream, but he couldn't help it because of the immense pain—he was feeling a lot of pain even if he wasn't showing it.

'This chip… is overwriting my existence.'

Bael said.

'Good, I won't have to deal with you anymore!'

Kiernan said inside his mind.

However.

It was something that he didn't really mean, as he had gotten extremely close with Bael, as they only had each other.

'I don't think this is a power-enhancing chip. It is a mind-control device. You will be taking my spot in this self-consciousness.

'They're planning to trap you here, and since two presences can't be here simultaneously, I will be erased!'

Bael said in panic.

'Then what the hell happens to my body?'

Kiernan asked with a frown.

'It will be in control of these motherfuckers. They're planning to make you into a weapon—your body will be nothing but a shell without conscience!'

Bael shouted.

"Fuck!"

Kiernan suddenly turned around, and one of the doctors accidentally cut into his back because of the sudden movement.

"What are you doing?!"

"Stygian Strain!"

Kiernan grabbed their heads and snapped them—the heads of the doctors turned around until they were looking themselves in the back—and then they all collapsed to the ground.

"What are you doing?!"

Johan shouted.

"No… What are you doing?"

Kiernan stabbed his fingers into the back of his neck, dug very deep, and then yanked the microchip out.

It was bloody, but then he crushed it between his fingers, and just like that, the device that cost hundreds of millions to create was gone.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Johan and the scientists screamed.

"Tight Binding!"

Kiernan forcefully closed the wound on the back of his neck and stopped the bleeding.

He then angrily looked at the frightened Johan and the rest, and they then turned around to flee.

Without further ado, he jumped through the window and sliced with his fingers through the escaping scientists.

Soon, only Johan remained.

He ran to the elevator, trying to press the button, but in that moment, Kiernan caught up to him and slammed his head to the wall.

"P-please…"

"Making me into your slave, huh? I knew this shit was too good to be true."

Kiernan lifted Johan from his throat and reeled back his left arm—his hand started to look like a spearhand.

He was planning to end him with Death Lance.

"W-wait… I-I have a question…"

Johan pleaded.

Since he knew that death was coming to me, he just had to know one thing, as it was nagging in his mind.

"What?"

Kiernan asked coldly.

"T-that thing in Cairo… D-Did you really see the Door of Hell… A-And did you really fight demons in the streets of Cairo?"

Johan asked with a trembling voice.

Kiernan looked at him silently and then scoffed.

"No, you dumbass. It was just some crazy idiots that thought there was a gateway to hell under the Pyramid of Giza. They wore demon masks and masqueraded as demons.

"The whole thing was a hoax."

Kiernan said.

"…S-So… N-No demons… S-Such things don't exist?"

Johan asked.

"They exist. I have a very annoying demon stuck in my head right about now. You will also get to meet many of them."

Kiernan then stabbed his hand through Johan, and he struggled to break free until he finally turned limp.

Kiernan pulled his hand out of his body, then took the elevator, and it took him straight to the surface.

When he stepped out of the elevator, he was in the middle of some kind of desert with no sign of civilization anywhere.

'What're you going to do now? You've been feeling that you are incapable of getting stronger for a while now, and even this failed.'

Bael asked.

"There are no shortcuts in martial arts. I understood that. A chip that'll make me ten times stronger… How fucking stupid.

"I don't know what the hell I am doing with my life. Am I planning to keep participating in these bullshit underworld events all my life?

"Will I keep killing and killing until the eventual day that I'll die? I am already going to end up in Hell, so I might as well, right?

"No… I am done."

Kiernan said.

'So, what are you going to do?'

Bael asked.

"…I will keep trying to reach the pinnacle of Martial Arts. It must be possible to reach, even if you said that Earthlings are the weakest race.

"I will keep trying."

Kiernan clenched his hands and, with determination, looked across the desert with burning fire in his eyes.