"There's… a device used for detecting clones." Drake managed to cough out.

Even though the flames around his leg had died down, the smell of burnt flesh still filled the room. "It's under the drawer."

Azel gave Lorraine a glance.

She nodded. The young woman moved toward the drawer, her boots scraping softly across the floor.

She crouched, took a deep breath, and opened the first drawer.

It was empty.

Her jaw tightened.

She turned her head sharply toward Drake, her eyes filled with hatred. "Empty."

Drake flinched under her glare, his burnt leg twitching. "S-Second one," he said quickly, eyes wide, sweat dripping down his forehead.

Lorraine didn't hesitate.

She yanked the second drawer open…

… and gagged instantly.

A wave of rot hit her in the face like a slap. The stench was thick, crawling down her throat.

It took all of her willpower not to drop onto her knees.

The drawer was filled with… ears.

Dozens of them.

Some were blackened and shriveled, others fresh enough that the veins still clung to the flesh.

A slow line of fluid dripped from the corner of the drawer onto the floor.

Her mind blanked for a second before the disgust hit.

'Sick fuck,' she thought, her stomach twisting.

What is this man… some kind of collector? Or worse…?

From her storage ring, she summoned a pair of gloves. They materialized around her hands with a glow of mana.

She swallowed hard, fighting the urge to vomit, and reached in.

Her gloved fingers brushed against cold flesh like wet fruit.

She rummaged through, muttering curses under her breath.

Something metallic clinked beneath the pile.

'That must be it.'

She grabbed what felt like a pipe and pulled it free and froze.

Because right next to it was the rotting stump of a man's sex.

It was half black, half gray and barely recognizable, but the shape was undeniable… well according to what she had studied in Biology textbooks.

"Eeeek!"

She screamed and threw it reflexively straight at Azel.

Azel's eyes widened.

Without thinking, he drew his blade and sliced the air once.

The object split in two before it could touch him, both halves dropping to the floor with a wet slap.

The smell worsened.

'What the hell…' Azel thought.

Why would something like that be under the drawer?

Lorraine stood there, shaking.

She was done with this.

Without another word, she ripped the entire drawer out of the cabinet and dumped it onto the floor.

A cascade of filth fell out…

Ears, eyeballs, bits of skin, nails, and more unrecognizable chunks of flesh.

The rot spread across the floor like black mud, and the smell made her eyes water.

But among it all, something metallic gleamed faintly.

Lorraine crouched again, trying not to breathe, and lifted the object. It wasn't rotting like the others.

It looked like a gun, or something close to it, though there was no nozzle.

The design was strange, there was just smooth gray metal engraved with runes.

Drake's eyes flicked toward it.

"That's it," he said, voice trembling but eager. "If you point that at a clone, it sends a surge through their mana pattern. It's Electric, harmless to humans… but to clones, it paralyzes them."

Lorraine's lip curled. "And I suppose we're just supposed to believe that."

He ignored the tone. "It'll knock them out for a few minutes at least. That's how you tell them apart."

Azel reached forward and took the weapon from her hand, with gloves of course.

He turned it over once, thinking.

He'd read the Diary of Blood.

From the first page to the thirty-sixth, the writer had decayed into madness.

His handwriting had turned from neat and organized to trembling scribbles, almost unreadable at the end.

So how… how could Drake… be the same person who wrote that diary?

Azel glanced at him again.

His face was pale, eyes darting between them and the door.

His breathing was quick, but not insane.

'Something's wrong,' Azel thought. 'Did he find medicine? Did someone… replace him?'

The idea crawled through his mind and Azel lifted the gun.

Drake froze. "What are you doing?"

"You said it yourself," Azel replied. "The shock only works on clones."

He turned the weapon toward himself and pulled the trigger. A brief surge of blue lightning arced across his chest.

The pain was nothing more than a tingle, like static. He barely flinched.

"So it shouldn't hurt you either," he said.

Drake's eyes went wide. "Wait—"

Azel fired.

The crackle of mana filled the room. A flash of blue light exploded from the gun and struck Drake in the chest.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Drake screamed.

The sound was inhuman... His body convulsed violently against the ground, chains rattling as his muscles bulged.

The veins in his neck stood out black.

His eyes rolled back, foam spilling from his mouth.

"Stop! STOP IT!" he shrieked, trying to break free.

His wrists slammed against the bindings so hard the flesh began to rip. Blood spattered across the floor as he twisted and screamed.

Lorraine flinched back, covering her mouth. "Azel!"

Drake thrashed again, one last violent spasm that almost tore his hands off then went still.

His head fell forward, he was unconscious.

Lorraine's voice came small, almost trembling. "So Professor… is a clone?"

Azel lowered the weapon slowly.

He swallowed hard. "Seems so."

And suddenly, the system window flickered into view before Azel's eyes.

[Ding… Hidden Mission Completed.]

[You have seen the Professor's Secret.]

[Reward: Lab Key.]

[You will only be able to enter the Professor's Lab after the 'Clone Wars.']

Azel froze. Did Drake truly have a lab here..?

Lorraine looked confused. "What's wrong?"

Azel's grip tightened on the gun.

'What the fuck?' he thought.

The "Clone Wars" were meant to be a small arc for fighting clones, since when did fighting clones get this complicated.

"Let's just get him out of here." He said, "And then look at our next plan of action."

He already had a solid idea on what to do… He just needed to execute it now.

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