As the elevator doors opened, bright light streamed in, revealing a corridor flanked by heavy metal walls, with pipes of unknown purpose running overhead. Louis sent cold air drifting through it and discovered that the place was far more complex than it seemed. Many sections even had walls of quinque steel apparently made from ghoul kagune.
This clearly was not the laboratory's core area yet.
Kurona Yasuhisa walked forward, and the heavy electronically locked door before her opened in response. Louis followed her inside.
The smell of disinfectant grew stronger. As the last door opened, the view suddenly widened into a vast circular space.
At the center of the circular space stood an enormous pillar of unknown purpose, which also supported the second level.
Up on the pillar, a white-haired, middle-aged man stood at the edge of the second level, apparently recording something on a computer. When he noticed someone entering, he looked over.
Louis sensed no killing intent or malice. Upon seeing his visitor, Kanou Akihiro put down what he was holding and offered a faint, kindly smile.
"You've finally come, Light That Pierces the Gloom."
Just as his appearance suggested, his voice was gentle and refined. Yet the more he acted that way, the deeper Louis's hostility toward him grew.
"I don't like people giving me nicknames. They never seem to come up with anything good."
Louis quietly released cold air to probe every corner of the room. Sensing the change around her, Kurona Yasuhisa leaped back to Kanou's side and warily watched Louis's every move.
Kanou began recounting what had happened earlier.
"One day, Little Black and Little White suddenly brought something back. It was a broken mask with bits of flesh still attached."
A mechanism slowly raised a transparent jar from beneath the floor. Although the