With the destruction of the main golem, our first problem was now gone. The people who run the factory are either captured or managed to escape. I didn't care whether some had escaped as it's natural we can't capture everyone. As for the siblings who are apparently the president and the vice president who governs and manages the factory, well, they are gone and reduced to atoms after the laser beam that accidentally got fired at them which resulted in their evaporation. Nothing was left on them, even their clothes and bones were not spared and everything disappeared.
As for the mass-produced golems, we have to manually destroy them, and since they are much easier to destroy compared to the big golem. Of course, Gamma was a big help in cleaning up the golems. With its abilities, it easily destroyed most if not all of the remaining golems.
There are plenty of rebels who are injured but thankfully, no one was in a life-threatening situation. No one died either which is good though that was due to the fact that we made a surprise attack on a factory that didn't get to prepare enough time to prepare for defenses against our attack which is understandable. However, this kind of flawless, no-casualty mission won't happen that easily again. With all the ruckus we did, and the fact that this factory is one of the main golem suppliers in the Luminous Continent, the other factories would also be on guard as well.
However, there is one problem...
The hostages we are supposed to save are nowhere to be found. Everyone who is still capable of moving went on to search alongside Sigma, Harmless Sparrow, and Alain to cover a bigger ground. I was busy healing the injured rebels so I didn't join the search since I thought it would be easy enough to find them but I was wrong since everyone was still busy looking and without any result.
Around an hour later, I finished healing everyone and while I chug empty a mana potion bottle, Sigma and Harmless Sparrow decided to approach me.
"Bladeheart. The hostages are nowhere to be seen. We couldn't see any traces of them escaping either!"
"That shouldn't be, aside from the other employees who managed to escape, there should be no one else who escaped. And even if they managed to sacrifice everyone and harvest their souls, there should at least some lifeless bodies scattered around." I started thinking on what is the most probable thing that could happen while we are fighting the golems.
However, nothing comes to mind so I stood up from my seat. My mana has been replenished and I am good to fight again. Gamma is also ready to fight again in case of another battle so I decided to help with the search.
"Let me help. Perhaps I can help out with this."
Instead of helping to the search, I went straight to the captured workers and grabbed one of the people who seemed to be one of the lead workers as he is wearing a lab coat just like the two sisters who got obliterated as a result.
"W-what do you want?! I don't have any money. I already surrendered so please don't hurt me..." the guy pleaded.
"I would not hurt you if you just provided me with proper information regarding the kidnapped people. Give me the info I needed and you won't get any kind of pain. Understood?"
He looks confused at first but I didn't care and decided to start asking him.
"Where are the captured people that you guys are trying to harvest their lives for the fuel of the golems?"
He looks away and started mumbling, "I-I don't know what you are talking about."
PAK!
A crisp sound of my slap landed to his face and his face was shocked at what just happened.
"If you didn't answer a question that I am going to be satisfied with the answer, we can say goodbye to your face and perhaps we can even harvest some of your teeth in the process too. I am fine with that."
"I-I already told you! There is nothing I know-"
PAK! PAK!
Two consecutive slaps landed on his face and he winced in pain as a result. I stare at him in the eye, sternly watching his emotions, evoking fear and taunting him.
"Where are they? We can just sit here all day without anything that will happen but I can't guarantee what will happen to your face either."
"NO! NO! SAVE ME! MOMMY! PICK ME OUT OF HERE!"
...
...
...
As a result of my interrogation, I managed to gather the information an hour later. His face was too battered and his pants are already wet after he peed in fear. He didn't die but he sure suffered like one.
"I can't believe they have an underground passage that allowed them to hide their products? Can't believe I didn't think of that," Sigma scratches her head.
"Can't blame you. I didn't think of that possibility either but since the guy decided to spill it, we can take a look whether he was telling the truth or not."
Since we didn't know what awaits us down there, Alain decided to bring a few able fallen with him to assist us in case things gets real bad.
The reason we didn't find the hidden area immediately is because the secret door to the underground was actually built on the lone tree growing high. It wasn't actually a tree, well, technically, it is still a tree but it was not a pure tree as they decided to convert it to an elevator to reach underground. It was clever of them to do so as we wouldn't be able to see this place without any clues andwe might have left the place without rescuing everyone we are supposed to rescue.
"The people here looks like they had quite some advanced tech to many things huh?" Harmless Sparrow explored her eyes inside the hollow tree as we entered the elevator that is very similar to the elevator in the real world.
"There are many great minds who helped worked in things like this to increase the convenience to the fullest. It's a wonder why they seemed to be less high-tech in the surface compared to what we can see underground," Alain answered Harmless Sparrow's random thought as the elevator went down to bring us to the bottom.
"Is there a big reason why the angels seems against to use the technologies so openly aside from the golems?" I asked. This is one of the main questions that I keep questioning myself in the past timeline that never got an answer since most of the ancient ruins of the continent has more tech than what was seen in the surface that people sometimes joked that the ruins in the Luminous Continent feels more advanced than the current tech shown and they even nicknamed the ruins as the Cyberpunk land as most of the tech there are just something you can find in a cyberpunk genre like robots, machines, androids and many more.
"Blame the church for that. Unless they promote that kind of tech, you won't see any kind of new tech used by the people in the surface without being labeled as a heretic. There is a reason why some of the inventors here would rather go into hiding rather than show themselves and risk themselves killed by the church and confiscate their lifetime work. That is also the reason some of the ruins in different areas are more high in technology due to that. To think they are using it under the populace's prying eyes, they wanted to just claim usage to the highest techs that can be used. I doubt they will allow civilians to see this. But since we are the rebels, that doesn't matter as it is our fate to cross swords with them," Alain explained.
KACHA KACHA KLANK KLANK
The elevator slowly stopped as we reached the underground and what we see there was something we didn't expect.
Below is a place that looks like a farm's cages where the animals are placed where they eat, sleep and sh*t. A place where freedom is nowhere to be seen. And inside those cages, are the kidnapped people, looking at us straight in the eyes. Most are children though there are some teenagers and adults as well. The place was not something we expected.
"What the hell are they trying to do. How can they treat other angels and fallen like they are livestock?" Alain couldn't wrap up the reasoning for this.
Just as we are trying to comprehend what we just witnessed, several people and some golems came out and they are confused on our arrival.
"Who are you people!? Entry here is forbidden to outsiders! Golems! Capture them and put them into the cages! We can't afford to have witnesses on our work here!" one of the men with glasses ordered which the golems immediately obeyed.
"Prepare to fight! Gamma! You take care of the golems!"
Our battle to free the prisoners has only just begun.