Silas could sense the atmosphere of the Experimentation Labs change as he followed Scylla down a different branching corridor than the one Charybdis had taken him down. He thought about Saya, remembering the warmth of her body on his, suddenly noticing the stifling heat that permeated this new air, pressing his breath out of him. He felt isolated from her, knowing she was somewhere else in this labyrinth of corridors, as lost as he was, with only the three menacing dragon ladies to guide them.
Scylla herself turned the entire area into something entirely different. The stare that she gave him was just as piercing as Charybdis', but it was stifling and hot compared to Charybdis' cool gaze that drowned him like an endless ocean.
To Scylla, Silas was a bug caught under a magnifying glass.
The deeper they ventured, the more alien the scenery began. As Scylla punched in passwords and keycodes, and waved her claw in front of devices that tested her magical signature, iron and steel doors opened automatically before Silas' eyes. Behind each door, the walls of the hallways became less refined and the smell of sweat and metal became stronger. The rectangular lights that hovered over their heads gave way to flickering lightbulbs and ominous glass lights that gave off a hazy, green.
It was almost as if Silas was entering the belly of some beast. After another door, the scenery morphed once more. It was terrifyingly dark, the only light source being dim, green lights and LEDs attached to the panels of several pieces of machinery protruding from the walls. Pipes, levels and handles of various contraptions stuck out like vines, industrial foliage. This hallway was always plunged into eternal twilight, despite the brightness of the outside world.
Scylla turned a corner nonchalantly, taking out a protein bar from her pocket. Silas tried to get a glipse at the packaging, but it was all indistinct due to the lack of lighting. He followed the sound of Scylla's teeth crunching, vicious and sharp. Silas supposed he should respect the fact that Scylla could make eating a snack sound intimidating.
Scylla crunched up the wrapper, kicking open a door on her right with her metal boots, making a concerning clang sound. It opened as she twisted a rusty metal wheel with one gloved claw. As it swung open, she tossed her wrapper lazily by the full trash can she'd already known was there. It bounced off the rim and landed by Silas' feet, but Scylla didn't deign to pick it up.
The inside of the room smelled faintly of a sewer. The stench of musk and wet moss in the air wasn't helped at all by the faint green tint of the stagnant air inside. There was a desk at the back of the room, a torn leather swivel chair, frayed at the backside, behind it. It was stacked to the brim with books and papers that lay unorganized on its surface, along with several futuristic-looking bottles and wrappers. A half-drunk coffee cup lay, lukewarm. Behind Scylla's desk was a great map. Several holographic projections of photographs and faces hovered by locations on the map.
Adorning the brown-green walls of the room were several large weapon racks. There were so many odd-looking arms that it looks like a veritable torture chamber.
Silas kept his eye on the weapons and he slipped behind Scylla's desk, pressing his shoes on the damp carpet rug. He leaned in close, looking for one particular word: Lachlan.
He found it in the center of the map, inside a small area labelled Leagionis. Leagionis, which Silas assumed was the country he was in currently, covered a small area about the size of his hand. It was on a large peninsula as long as his forearm. Lachlan was but a speck in a sea of labels of cities, mountain ranges, countries, seas, and more. But before he could take in the names of all the places around the world, he felt a strong arm tug him back, jerking him off his feet as he stumbled backwards.
"You aren't supposed to learn that yet," Scylla spat. "Don't waste my time. Charybdis will be the one to teach you about geography, not me. Come here."
Scylla practically dragged Silas along through a door to the right of the small room. She used her boot to kick the door open once more, but her magic was already opening it as she approached.
The room past her office was immense, many times larger than it. It looked almost like a small arena, and a holographic projector projected a scoreboard at the top of the far wall. The walls were surrounded with metal bars, making the entire room look like a giant green-tinted cage. At the center of the room was a large carpet, devoid of any furniture. Small waist-high metal walls enclosed the perimeter. Behind them were benches and cubbies with several weapon and helmets poking out of the shelves.
Silas squinted at the scoreboard, his eyes hurting as the bright blue glow of it juxtaposed against the dull darkness of the surrounding area burned into his skull. The letters read:
AGILITY:
Rekka: 190
Evelynn: 175
Axel: 170
Macy: 165
"I was going to test your agility and your magical powers," Scylla began, contempt wriggling through her words. "But Charybdis thinks she can just tell me on such short notice that I have to train you, too." She stopped in place, yanking Silas to hit feet. Even though he was a little taller than Scylla, Silas couldn't bring himself to stand straight in front of her. She looked down on him with a deathly glare.
"You do earth magic, huh?" she snarked sarcastically, backing up. Suddenly, a small boulder materialized as she held out her claw. It hovered over before she caught it tossed it lazily towards Silas. "Here, catch."
Silas realized the heavy rock was making a beeline for his toes. Panicking, he stepped backwards so that it would hit the ground, then channeled his mana. He wasn't able to get it all together in time, but he was able to use his third hand to catch the rock. It wobbled unsteadily in the air for a tense second before settling into his magical grasp.
"Hmmph. Congratulations. You're about as powerful as I was at three," Scylla said, tapping her heavy metal boot on the ground with loud clunks.
"I honestly can't believe this. Who does she think she is?" Scylla scoffed, refusing to make eye contact with Silas for more than a second.
"Well, first we're going to test your magical abilities. But based on what I've gotten from Charybdis and what I can sense in you, you're just as talentless as a regular human. Dead weight, basically. Which means there's no reason why we should keep you alive."
Scylla leaned down, her wavy blonde hair falling and dangling like yellow chemical vines as she drooped to Silas' chest. With strong, lethal claws she pushed the taller boy down, easily thwarting his balance and pushing him down on his knees. He stumbled backwards as Scylla placed her claws on his shoulder, digging them into his skin through his clothes. He felt the tension and torsion on the fabric begin to tear it. His eyes grew wide as he stared into Scylla's swirling twin maelstroms, yellow as the setting sun and shimmering like an ocean of flame.
"Charybdis wants to keep you alive for some reason. She still thinks you have value. I don't understand how she has the patience to restrain herself around you. I don't understand how anybody here has that sort of control. Me, I want to rip that smug, privileged face off your simpering skull," Scylla snarled, her claws digging deep. Silas felt the fabric rip as her claws became heated, fire magic channeling through the keratin. Silas gasped in pain as the sharp points of all ten of her nails pressed into his skin, testing its limits.
"You killed my mama. You know that? 'Course you didn't. I can smell your ignorance. It reeks to high hell. You wear a face that hasn't seen true pain. You wear a face that's led the easy life of a spoiled pig. Your kind murdered her in cold blood. And now I'm expected to train you. I swear, I want to burn this whole place down, starting with you."