-= fallen =- (Book 0.5 Of Angel Devourers)[WangXian FF]

15

The inside of the old building was so old and sad and it didn't even show any sign of life anywhere.

Wei Wuxian walked first as he tried to detect his surroundings without being noticed by Lan Wangji, and somehow, he finally could feel a couple of weak life forces from down under.

And it seemed like Lan Wangji did too.

"There's something down there." He told Wei Wuxian. "We should find a way down to see if it's one of the angels that were missing."

Wei Wuxian nodded since he also felt the faint life forces of creatures that were about to die, so he looked around in a hurry and that was when he found another barrier that concealed a door.

He quickly scanned the surroundings and found no trap so he quickly dismantled the barrier and opened the door – which revealed stairs that were going down into pitch black area.

"Hurry, I can feel that they're not going to survive for long." Wei Wuxian did not wait for Lan Wangji's response as he jumped into the darkness and ran downstairs until he found another strange door that glowed in red – and this time, the barrier was a very strong one.

He did not have time to hesitate as he just snapped his fingers and the barrier was destroyed in a second and he entered the underground hidden facility – and gasped.

Inside the surprisingly sterile and high-tech facility, there were cages alongside the walls, and he could see the various states of the creatures inside – from depressed to dying.

Lan Wangji – who entered shortly after him – couldn't help but gasp at the sight before him.

"Go and look for your angels, while I look around." 

He quickly contacted Xie Lian to help with his medical skill, and he started to methodically check them one by one – until Xie Lian arrived not long after.

When Xie Lian went inside, he couldn't believe his eyes. There were so many creatures inside, and he saw how Wei Wuxian was enraged by the situation and he sneaked a peek at Lan Wangji – who thankfully was busy opening the cages and helping them all out one by one.

"I've informed Dottore and the others and they will come soon with help."

Wei Wuxian nodded as he held three white kitsune babies in his arms. One of them was smaller and obviously younger, and the three of them looked like they had been through hell.

Xie Lian opened the cage beside it and he found a wounded winged white lion cub and a kirin cub, and he gave them all his potion as a first aid before he put them all inside his pocket dimension.

After they did the same to some other mythical beasts around it, they started to move to the section where Lan Wangji was at, and they noticed that there were no angels around. Instead they saw many small vials with glowing white liquid inside, and Lan Wangji stood in front of them – his body was shaking – and Wei Wuxian saw that he was angry, by the sheer amount of energy that he released.

"Lan Wangji?" Wei Wuxian tried to call him softly. "Are you okay? Did you find your fellow angels?" He then looked at the vials and suddenly he understood.

The vials with the glowing liquid were actually the angels' grace, the very essence of their being. And if it was extracted… well, it sufficed to say that the owner of each of those graces had already perished.

"Yes. I found them." He looked at the vials without any expressions in his eyes. "Or what's left of them anyway." Then he turned around and looked at Wei Wuxian. "We need to search the rest of the place if there is anyone else…"

Before Lan Wangji could finish his words, they all heard the loud scream from the deeper part of the basement, and Lan Wangji was the one who moved first toward the sound, followed by Wei Wuxian while Xie Lian stayed behind to take care of the babies of the mythical beasts. 

They ran to the source of the scream and found a door at the end of the dark corridor. The door was slightly opened and Lan Wangji kicked it open – to find someone was being choked by some kind of a… chimera.

The monster was ugly, and it was crudely made from stitched body parts. The main body was from the winged white lion, but it had a snake-like tail and instead of the original white wing, it was black wyvern wings. 

But the most horrifying thing was not it. 

The face of the chimera… was a human's face.

And from closer inspection, they could see the many humans' faces on the body – wailing and crying and cursing – and on each of their foreheads was an ancient rune that would make sure that the face would suffer and not die as long as the host did not die.

They also could see a skinny, naked human with long hair in front of it, and it was trying to swallow the human – probably to make the human become one of the faces in its body.

But before Wei Wuxian could move, Lan Wangji unsheathed his sword in a flash and with one powerful slash he split the chimera in two.

Wei Wuxian whistled in admiration.

The man moved like a work of art – with his all white clothes and long black hair and his perfect face and perfect body…

He slapped himself mentally.

This was not the time to do this.

Wei Wuxian quickly checked the trembling man and saw that he was shocked. He also had a few dark bruises and minor lacerations that were still bleeding all over his body – like he was cut by a thousand knives.

"Hey, you're safe now. What's your name?" Wei Wuxian tried to talk to the naked man, but he did not answer him. The man did not even look at him, instead he watched Lan Wangji with his big and watery eyes.

Lan Wangji – ever the gentleman – he took off his outer robe and covered the man with it, then he gently healed the wounds on the man's trembling body.

"What's your name?" Lan Wangji asked with a low tone that people used to not scare a wounded animal.

The man's lips quivered, but he opened it and answered with a small and soft voice.

"I'm Meng Yao. Thank you for saving my life, Childe."