The door got unlocked before she even attempted to evaluate the enormous usage of Anigon, and Mana froze in her current stance. Mana's mind was deciding whether to fight or run away from the room. In this state she approximated Anigon usage according to her gut feeling and slowly landed the tab back to the table.
"Lady Mana," Harun's voice came from behind.
"Oh," Mana said and turned behind. "Harun, I was just looking for you and wandered off here. How are you?"
"Maybe you entered the back door or something, I was just around the front."
"Oh, there was a back door? I did not know that. Could have been easier that way," Mana smacked her lips in dismay.
"Why do you doubt me on these things? I would never harm any of you."
"But people are making you to? I know those kinds of dialogues. I'm experienced."
"Um… what do you mean?"
"It just was a pun in ways, look into that," Mana sighed.
"You are way far inside, you could have messed up something without your knowledge."
"Yeah, yeah, you would have. Now turn the girls over to me already," Mana warned.
"Oh it is that way then."
"Maybe… reading mind is not one of my powers."
"Good."
"Uh… creepy," Mana scoffed.
Mana felt dizzy all of a sudden and realised that there was a gas leaking out of the vents and before she could think of reacting, she fell to the ground. Harun's feet nearing her, is the last thing she could see.
"Pity that it is not the sheep I expected it to be," Harun said.
*
Mana was lying on a bed in a larger room than before. Three people were around her looking at devices ahead of them and barely keeping an eye on Mana, but she was a good girl who kept an eye on them.
A low and quick sound of something travelled through the lab and into the room Mana was in. A guy (in Mana's room) seemed to get alert by that sound as it went by and looked around the room, suspiciously.
"Did you hear that?" the suspicious guy asked to another guy beside him.
"Hear what…?" the second guy asked, still focused more on the screen ahead of him.
"There was like a noise of fast going by wind," the first guy explained.
"Yeah… and it was the wind, so shut up on that topic now," the second guy sighed and cursed in his native language.
"She is not awake, right?" the first guy asked.
"Yeah man, they bought her in tranquilized," the second guy sighed.
"Her vitals say otherwise," the third guy finally spoke staring into a tab.
"Wait, what?" the second guy asked.
"She is doing something!" the first guy said backing away.
"Relax, she is just one girl either way," the second guy said and walked up to the third guy. "It really does show she is awake, maybe these are the REM sleep patterns. Is this tab broken?" he questioned shaking the tab.
"Guys run away already," Mana sighed, getting up from the bed.
"How did you…?" the third guy asked, shocked but still.
"I said…" Mana said and stood up "…run," a sword suddenly showed up out of nowhere in her right hand, and she gave a deadly glare to the three scientists.
"Go, go, go," the third guy said pushing away the second guy.
The second guy tripped and fell, the other two guys rushed out of the room and escaped.
"Please… I unknowingly was still supporting you," the second guy faintly smiled, gasping heavily.
"No worries man… no violence," Mana said, raising both her hands half-way up.
Mana pushed her sword backwards, it turned into a purple disc-shaped thing and it floated to the fallen guy and stuck to his neck. The guy seemed confused of what was happening. A surge of electricity hit him, making him fall unconscious.
"Just being cautious though," Mana said.
Mana then ran out of the room as the disc came back to her and stuck to her right shoulder.
There was no one outside, to her luck. Seemed like every other person present there, didn't care about two scientists running away for their lives. Either that or they ran away silently too, as she didn't hear anything or anyone.
Mana just sighed and made way to nearby rooms and searched for her friends. She finally caught sight of New-Gal who was still in her bed.
"Wake up…" Mana said shaking New-Gal's head slowly but continuously, but she didn't seem to wake up. "Those things… what are those called as…?" she questioned herself and looked around, her eyes caught hold of a stretcher just past the bed. "That!"
Mana transferred New-Gal into the stretcher after removing the tubes connected to her. Mana pushed the stretcher out of the room and calculated where Magpie's room could be, making way towards it.
As she neared her destination, she felt colder and colder. She glanced inside Magpie's room and an unexpected scene caught her eye.
Just then, Mana got pushed against the wall. As she tripped back towards it, the stretcher got pushed a bit further away. Mana looked at the pissed off person ahead of her, it was Lanthalos.
"You are ruining this!" Lanthalos complained.
"So will I your face," Mana smirked.
The disc which was stuck on Mana's shoulder moved again and now against her knuckle, as she clutched her fist. She rushed her fist up and smacked Lanthalos' chin upwards and a loud crack sound was heard, the guy just fell unconscious on the ground.
"I guess you must've trained harder man," Mana said shrugging.
Mana heard a loud crashing sound from Magpie's room. She hurried to look into Magpie's room again, it was a complete mess and whatever she had seen before, wasn't there, maybe just a mirage.
At the centre of the messy floor was Magpie, holding her head with one hand and the other was loose on the ground. The floor was slippery and cold, which could be felt even through Mana's shoes.
"Hey… hey, you alright…?" Mana asked approaching Magpie and knelt down to her.
"My head is hurting, that's all," Magpie said still holding her head, and with tightly shut eyes.
"Well, can you walk? I mean it would be hard for me to push both you and New-Gal otherwise," Mana said placing her hand on Magpie's shoulder.
"No, no, I'm fine. What happened to New-Gal?" Magpie asked, finally looking at Mana.
"I don't know, was unconscious and didn't answer when I tried to wake her up."
"Is she breathing? Please tell me she is," Magpie asked, now fully alert.
"I didn't check actually," Mana said, horrified.
Magpie rushed outside to check on New-Gal, Mana followed too. Magpie curled her palm around New-Gal's hand.
"Ok she is alive, safe," Magpie said happily and took a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, nice," Mana said. "Oh and I couldn't find Tacy, we must search for her."
"Oh that is still pending," Magpie said, frowning.
"I already searched," a voice came from behind them, it was Kara. "She is not here anywhere."
"Well, you sure…?" Mana asked.
"We can search again, but you can find literally no one. No guards, Harun or Tacy," Kara said and stood beside Mana. "Except for that guy…" she said as her sight got hold of Lanthalos.
"Everyone left…? That is weird and soon," Mana said.
"Don't say 'the storm's coming' dialogue, that will be weird," Magpie said.
"But it is… well, good to know you are fully awake," Kara gestured to Magpie.
"I'm not actually, feeling really dizzy. Maybe Tacy could have escaped faster to the castle," Magpie suggested.
"Maybe… she is capable of doing that, so let's go," Mana said patting Magpie's back. "Well, how did you come inside, Kara?"
"I used the back door," Kara said, gesturing back to the way she came from.
"Oh wow, everyone has an idea and a head," Mana sighed.
*
They reached the castle, with the New-Gal still on her stretcher. Magpie was supported by Kara, and Mana was still the one pushing the stretcher.
They went inside to the throne room and found no one in there. The castle was very silent, which seemed usual but unusual. They moved in slowly, cautious of any danger which could have been waiting for them.
"Ok, we need to find the guards or something… anything," Kara suggested.
"Yeah, we need some help against these scientists or something. Surely some of them could be the freaky Psycho-blades too, in disguise or something," Mana said.
"Surely says that all the scientists were involved. The Psycho-blades couldn't have just escaped from the blind of the eye, with their creepy presence and all of that. You and me must go and find people, while Magpie looks after New-Gal," Kara said.
"Sure," Mana said.
"No… I need a walk dude. Mana can look after New-Gal until we comeback," Magpie stated.
Kara looked at Mana for confirmation.
"Anything is fine with me," Mana said shrugging.
"Great, let's hurry then," Kara said patting Magpie's back.
Magpie and Kara went away, leaving New-Gal and Mana alone. Mana pushed the stretcher to near the throne and curled her hand around New-Gal's wrist, for her own assurance. New-Gal seemed to be fine but didn't react to any of the things which had happened until then.
Mana just sighed to herself and sat upon the single throne which was at the end and wished her friends to be back soon. She concentrated for any possible sound she could hear and she heard one after a while… far but approaching. She waited patiently to see who it could be and finally Harun showed up, and looked at Mana.
"That is the queen's throne firstly and secondly, I expected Lady Kara to be here. You break my expectations yet again today," Harun said blankly, approaching Mana calmly.
"Well, I could be a queen. If her loyal faithful servant would allow me to be," Mana mocked.
"I do sense that is sarcasm, but unsure of how."
"At least you understood that it was sarcasm," Mana scoffed.
"Why are you here…? Was the experiment successful?"
"Why are you here…? Were you not supposed to watch if the experiments are successful?"
"Well, they didn't allow me to be there."
"The Psycho-blades you mean?"
"The scientists I mean," Harun corrected.
"I couldn't see any of them on my way back," Mana pointed.
"They went… home."
"You need to too," Mana said and got off the throne, ready to battle Harun, with her fists raised.
"Yes, this is where I live… the castle," Harun said blankly.
"Even you are so dumb… uh!" Mana let a breath out.
"I can talk."
"And you can fight, Kara said you trained her. Let's see how good you are."
"If it is a fight you wish, a fight you get," Harun said getting ready to fight.
+++
Chapter footnotes:-
1. "I… kind of am quantum-ly entangled to these discs":- A lie