"Hey! Hey! You're leaving me behind!" Vian shouted as he ran after 6.
Ignoring the faint shouting behind him, 6 continued ramming through the walls in front of him in succession, smashing his own path through the maze.
He crashed through another wall, finally finding himself surrounded by scenery that didn't look identical to the halls he had smashed through up until this point.
Greeting him was a room full of an assortment of strange people, all wearing a similar aproned uniform.
They looked at him in terror, backing away from him like he was a wild anima breaking into their cute suburban home, ruining their happy game night with their family.
This image was betrayed by the screens hanging throughout the room, showing himself, showing the destruction he had caused on his path here, and showing the insides of several cells, including the prisoners held inside of them.
None of those prisoners looked to be in good condition.
All of the sported injuries or malignant tumors of some kind across their bodies.
Several of them were hooked to life support devices, clinging desperately to life as tumors seemed to make up over half of their bodies.
One of these screens showed a totally destroyed cell, one that 6 could clearly tell he had recently passed through.
He hadn't noticed anyone inside of it, but on the screen was a disembodied limb sticking of of the rubble of the wall.
Clearly, he had accidentally killed a prisoner on the way here.
6 didn't blame himself, even if he was the direct cause.
He owed the other prisoners nothing, and if anything, he likely saved the poor soul from the suffering that would follow had they lived.
There was no way he could save every prisoner here, and he wouldn't delude himself into believing he could.
Whatever he killed, it was the fault of the ones who put him there.
His warped thinking and hero complex wouldn't allow him to blame himself for the death of someone he could have saved. He would sooner pretend it didn't happen or blame the ones who kidnapped the adventurers to begin with.
Even without that damning evidence to reveal their identities, 6 could tell who the people in this room were.
Even without the uniforms and the lab equipment around the room, without the displayed research notes and data in clear view, 6 could still find a reason to kill each and every one of them.
And that was the man locked in a chair in the back of the room, forced to see every single screen in front of him.
He was laughing madly, with a crazed look on his face as he stared at the terrified researchers in the room.
"These are the bastards who brought you here, it was them!" Delithe shouted at 6. "They were planning to use that construct you killed to beat you within an inch of your life after you tried your best to fight back."
"They were making bets, as they do with every new adventurer brought here, about how you would fight the construct and how badly it would injure you before you lost your fighting spirit."
"Shut up! God, your voice is deep and soothing, but your words make it worse than nails on a chalkboard." 6 shouted back.
"I don't care. Kill them, kill them and I can tell you everything I know about this place, everything." Delithe stopped laughing, staring seriously into 6's eyes.
"Boring. Can't I figure it out on my own?"
"I don't care, as long as you kill them. Or free me and I will do it myself."
"Why would I even trust you? This is a textbook situation, if I help you kill them or free you, you turn into some freakish demon and I will have unleashed an ancient evil upon the universe, and I'll have to go on an epic quest to vanquish or seal away the evil, only to end it with my own tragic death to deal you away- You know, this doesn't sound half bad." 6 said, trailing off at the end of his rant as he began fantasizing.
"This is not a joke. These men have killed and tortured hundreds of innocent people." Delithe spat out.
"I never joke, but I'm flattered that you think I'm funny."
At this moment, Vian finally caught up, their voice ringing from behind 6 as they joined him in the room.
"Hey! It's here, you're here." Vian said, their voice faint from the running.
"Are those guys the researchers you were talking about?" 6 asked Vian, not breaking eye contact with Delithe.
The researched huddled on the other side of the room were quivering in fear as 6 pointed at them, praying for salvation from the nightmare that had taken them.
"Yes. I don't recognize all of them, and there are some that I've seen that aren't here right now, but they all wear that same garb." Vian said, the whistling of them refilling their incorporeal form with air tainting their voice slightly.
"The air elemental." Delithe said, bringing Vian's attention to him.
"Who the hell is that?" Vian asked 6.
"I am Delithe-"
"Ah, ah, shut your trap. They asked me." 6 interrupted, stunning Delithe. "His name is Delithe. I'm pretty sure he's another prisoner here, but clearly a very important one. Alternatively, he might be an ancient evil seal here to protect us all."
Vian rolled his eyes at 6's words, knowing he was just taunting Delithe. "What do we do about him?"
"We do whatever comes to mind whenever it comes to mind."
"Young man, I implore you, please kill them. If you let them live, they will only go onto kidnap and kill more innocents." Delithe said, trying his best to convince 6 that the researchers needed to die.
"I personally think it's naive to assume that the other adventurers here are innocent. Maybe they only kidnap wicked people." 6 said.
"They kidnapped you." Vian pointed out.
"Fair point, but you never know, I might be wicked too. And what if these guys are also kidnapped and forced to conduct these experiments?" 6 asked.
"They are not! They freely come and go, they have families on this world, they do this willingly and happily!" Delithe screamed, his voice growing hoarse.
Boldly, one of the researcher's sensed that this was their chance.
"He's lying! We can come and go as we please, and we do have families here, but they've been kidnapped as well! We only do this to keep them alive!" The researcher shouted.
In an ethereal realm, The Untraced was conversing with a large group of cloth clad lifeforms.
"If you are truly unable to do anything about this, then we must begin tally the damages." The group of cloth clad lifeforms all spoke in unison.
"I will rebuild the facility for you as well as provide a batch of test subjects for free" The Untraced assured them.
"The Sor Acan is not worried about the facility or the test subjects."
"Rest easy. I am sure that the child will be too consumed by his own power to think about vengeance. He will likely try to steal as much as he can during this time."
"This does not set us at ease. You know naught about this man; you cannot presume to know if he is one who holds grudges." The collective individuals known as the Sor Acan said.
"He is a child of Trivrium. She would not take in one who is full of hatred. She is too full of the curses of love and kindness to bear the burden of a child who would massacre your scientists just because they were going to experiment on him."
"You believe he will be forgiving?"
"I do. And your men are smart, they have seized the chance to pull the wool over the foolish boy's eyes." The Untraced said as the researcher spoke up to deny Delithe's words.
"Let us see."
As the researcher jumped forward while shouting, 6 drew his knife.
Pointing it at the researcher, he stared the man down.
Stunned, the researcher froze, backing up once more.
Thoughts of that same knife easily passing through the head of the construct flashed through the researcher's mind, imagining what would happen if that was his own head instead.
Picturing the knife easily running through his forehead, a shiver ran through his body and sweat dripped down his back, terrified.
"Alright, which of you is in charge here."
All of the researchers turned toward the same man, the dwarf-like researcher who was the most senior of all of them.
The swarf-like researcher himself just sat still with his eyes closed, knowing he couldn't escape whatever 6 had planned for him.
"None of them are the head researcher. He only rarely comes by to collect results and appoint specific instructions."
Pointing his knife toward Delithe, 6 said, "Quit talking for others."
"Kill me if you want, I don't care." Delithe said.
"I don't care either, but you're wasting time here. Maybe I would've already killed them if you didn't keep interrupting."
Delithe closed his mouth angrily, realizing that 6 wouldn't work with him on this if he didn't listen to him.
"S-sir, if I may, Avin has the highest position here, and he is often in cha-" A piece of rubble pierced the skull of the lanky researcher who began speaking before they could finish their sentence.