"You want to be strong, don't you?" Hydra said with a knowing smile. She rounded the corner and came to a large door that spanned the space from the floor to the ceiling and was several times wider than Silas' wingspan. It was sealed horizontally with two great plates of metal, meeting with a great crack in the middle. Hydra stood in front of it, gesturing for Silas to stay back. He willingly and instinctively withdrew, anyway. Hydra put her hands out and channeled her magic, and slowly the door began to open.
It opened slowly, with great a laborious drag. A giant arena and gym court peeked out from behind the giant metal door. The plates must have weigh much more than Silas could ever hope to move with his own magic. Even an experienced and powerful dragon monster like Hydra had to exert a significant amount of her energy to open the door.
Silas supposed this was purposeful. It meant that only the strongest monsters were able to use to facility freely. Otherwise, they had to be let in by someone like Hydra. It was both a test and a security measure, to make sure weak monsters couldn't hurt themselves in training without supervision.
Silas felt a chill run through his body as he entered the expansive arena. The floor was pure white and smooth gym flooring with a circular outline in the center – an intricate printed design not unlike a mandala. It pulsed with energy as Hydra stepped on it. It began to illuminate itself, light radiating out through the outline out from underneath Hydra's feet. As Silas followed Hydra's lead to the outer rim of the circle, a faint glow appeared underneath him. Compared so Hydra's luminescence, his magical power was barely visible.
He sighed in disappointment. It was one thing to realize he was weak and useless, but did he really have to have a magical circle prove it to him, too? He'd already been shown how pathetic he was by Scylla, Charybdis, and all of the Last Stand members who had went before him and scored better scores than him.
It was so unfair. Who had spent all of his time in the oasis in the Badlands training? Everybody else already had a grasp on their magical abilities. Saya acted as if it was second-nature to her. She didn't even bat an eyelash when fighting Scylla. She'd made it look so easy. And yet, she'd spent all of her time goofing off while Silas worked hard. Why was he the one who was left in the dust?
Had everybody else just been born with more natural talent? That meant Silas had just been wasting his time. What was the point of even training him then, if he had no magical aptitude? Everybody else would always be leagues above him. He just didn't have it in him. He'd let humanity down by being the only one without strong magical powers. He stood no chance. He was defective.
"Intimidated?" Hydra said with a smirk. She was wearing a grey trench coat with tan undertones. Inside it were various sharp weapons that reminded Silas of Evelynn. In fact, some of them that Hydra purposefully showed off looked very similar to the ones that she had. Suspiciously similar.
Hydra took out a flask by unbuckling it from a strap on her hip, then downed it. Silas licked his lips, realizing how thirsty he was. He felt his chapped lips. The soup had been nice, but the saltiness of it had only made him thirstier. When was the last time he had water?
"Today we'll be working on your earth magic, since it seems to be the element you're most proficient in."
With a simple snap of her fingers, Hydra commanded to floor to open suddenly. There had been no outline of trapdoors anywhere – the floor simply dematerialized in an instant. Suddenly, large pillars of rocks and boulders rose out from the pits. They pushed forward like great giant swords until they stretched many times Silas' height. Some of them just stopped short of the ceiling. Where the monsters could possibly find the space to store such massive monoliths were beyond Silas' comprehension.
"I want you to try and move these rocks, starting with this," Hydra smirked, tossing a pebble at Silas' chest. Silas caught it with his hands a second before realizing it would've been much more impressive to use his magic to stop it. Now he looked like a fool.
He placed it on the ground, too afraid to throw it and have it drop embarrassingly. He stared at it, feeling the little mana in him come towards his chest and reach outward. His third hand scooped it up, holding it between his fingers and rolling it around inside his palm.
"Now try this," Hydra said, tossing a slightly larger pebble at Silas. He carefully caught it, unsure of the extent of his abilities. In a sense, he was just as uncertain as Hydra that he would be able to catch the rocks.
After catching two rocks with his magic, Silas was starting to get his hopes up, despite himself. At least he could do something. Even if it wasn't powerful, at least it was proof that he could use magic, however little it was.
Hydra tossed another rock at him, this time just a little too big to fit in the palm of his hand. If Silas were to pick it up, he'd be able to do so with ease. But as it flew towards him, he reached out his third hand and felt the impact ripple through it, through his bones. He gasped in shock and pain as the rock weighed heavily on his third hand. It dropped suddenly and smashed against the floor, disintegrating in a flurry of invisible pain along with Silas' fragile pride.
"Hm… only the third rock?" Hydra said, sounding somewhat disappointed. She looked down at him condescendingly. "I was able to lift that rock when I was eight, and I don't even specialize in earth magic."
"Yeah…" Silas admitted. Why had he even thought he had a chance, really?
"That could be a problem. I mean, I thought Scylla was exaggerating when she said–" Hydra started, interrupting herself. She pretended to just notice that Silas was right there, but even someone as stupid as he could tell she was doing it intentionally.
"I mean, this doesn't give me much to work with. But I will try and help you train your abilities. After all, if there's even a sliver of gold left in an endless desert, it's worth an attempt to extract it. Wouldn't you say?"
"I suppose so," Silas mumbled. He knew Hydra was leading him on. If only he had Saya's perceptive abilities. Maybe then he'd be able to get a guess as to what she was thinking.
Being the weakest link in a world unwelcome to him made him feel small and insignificant. He felt his weakness day in and day out. He knew how vulnerable he was, and he hated it. He'd tried to manipulate the situation to his advantage when he'd first met Saya, but that had quickly grown downhill. Now Silas was haunted by the fact that everything was out of his control. He couldn't pull any sly tricks or outwit anyone. He simply didn't have that power.
"Say, speaking of gold, I've heard you humans have a certain affinity towards it. Is that true?"
"Not always," Silas said, before realizing he had no way of knowing that for sure.
"Oh, but it's in your blood. Because gold is the gateway to something you all crave – power."
Silas stepped back as his broken mana began to replenish itself. Hydra stepped closer. Like Scylla, even though they were the same height, she towered over him as he cowered beneath her, shaking. His eyes grew wide as he realized he'd fallen straight into her trap – and even while he was caught out, he still had no idea what that trap was.
"Don't act like you'll just lie down and accept this," Hydra smiled. "You're afraid. You're ashamed and embarrassed, aren't you? I heard what Scylla did to you. I know your pride is wounded. Did you see the leaderboard? Every other human scored much higher than you. Every other human can operate the projectors, and they're all intelligent and resourceful. They adapt. Especially the tall girl… Rekka, I think."
She laughed as her words cut deep into Silas' soul. He knew she was just trying to get at him. For some ulterior motive, she wanted to make him desperate. Desperate for something. Suffering for something. It was a classic trick. Why was Silas falling for it? He knew better. He wasn't just some idiot. Or was he? Because only an idiot would deny the evidence when it was presented to him in such a clear manner.
"But what do you have? Nothing. You want to get stronger, don't you? You crave power. Just like every other human. And you justify it by calling it self-defense. You want to protect yourself. But you want control. You want control over us, over all of us monsters because we threaten you. Is that right?"
"Even as a tiny human kid, alone and frightened, with no memories and no family, these values are still instilled within you. Do you realize why we had to eradicate your species? It's because of this."
"But you know, I think it'll be ironic if I train you like this. For this entire month, you'll spend every waking moment knowing full well how little control you have over the situation. Your entire environment is completely monitored and dictated by us. Now you are nothing more than a lab experiment. You are an object to be examined and profited from. How ironic is that?"
"But I never did any of that stuff," Silas protested. He felt heat grow between his cheeks. But in the back of his mind, a dark voice told him that maybe he had.
"Oh yes, you want to use your childlike innocence to get out of it. But you are already almost an adult. Did you know that I was born and raised in a lab? That I was created artificially? That someone like me shouldn't even theoretically exist? This has been my life ever since I was a child. Your age doesn't matter me. It certainly didn't matter to my 'caretakers'," Hydra smiled as she spoke softly, never raising her voice or wavering from her calm tone.
"It'll be fun to watch you improve over time. To suffer in anguish as you try and salvage your pathetic pride by becoming more proficient at magic. But when you start to feel like you've gotten some control over the situation, just because you've honed your meager talent a little bit, I'll be here to tear it all down. And then you'll realize that it's all futile. The more you try and gain control, the more we profit. Because you're only making yourself that much better a lab rat."
Hydra curled her terrible, slimy tail around her leg, placing a hand on her hip and raising a finger to her lips. The sunlight caught her frame perfectly, illuminating her in holy light. She seemed otherworldly, a monster too powerful and dangerous for Silas to even touch. It hurt him to even look at her jet-black wings and omniscient Cheshire grin.
"Silas. I want you to remember this," she said, stepping forward and shoving Silas down. She barely needed to exert any force – Silas practically fell on his own. He felt hot tears come to his eyes as the traumatic experiences from both dragon ladies hit him full on.
"You made this world in your image. You've crafted tools and laws and armies, waged war and slaughtered families to hide your insecurities. But once you strip away a human's pride, once you place him in the hands of something that he cannot bend to his will, once you make him realize that he is but a virus, a disease that feeds off of anger and hate, then he is nothing but an animal. Without his fancy gadgets and parasitic brain, a human is a piece of meat to be devoured. Remember that, Silas."
"You. Are. Weak."
Silas tried to get up, only to find that he couldn't. Some invisible force was holding him down. His body locked in place, he couldn't move a muscle. The only thing that he could move was his gaze. As he lay helpless on the gym floor, Hydra bent over him. The overhead lights caused a glow to appear around her silhouette, almost as if she was an angel enveloped in holy light. She reached out her gloved claw to him. She took his hand in hers. She hooked her index finger around his and easily pulled him to his feet with the strength of it alone. Suddenly, Silas found he could move again, the invisible weight lifted from his body. The message was clear.
Silas scampered out of the training facility as Hydra opened the door. He dashed through it as fast as he could, fearing Hydra would slam it shut and squish him between the great metal panes. When he saw Charybdis' face standing by the entrance, he practically leapt into her arms.