Kotori's eyes pried open, instantly making eye contact with Shoka. "Sup, you awake now?" Shoka asked, seeing Kotori groggily sit up. "Where am I?" Kotori observed her surroundings. They huddled in a dark lane where the icy rain was pelting them, but they were protected by the awning of a building with a rear door. Shoka had swapped the music on her phone, her face full of shame. "I tried to bandage you the best I could; sorry if it's shoddy work." She says, still staring down her mobile device. Some rain splashed onto her phone, but Shoka not minding one bit. Before Kotori could speak, Shoka cut her off moments prior. "They're gone. Elmira, Keisha, and Niantha. They all made themselves a distraction just so I could take you and escape." Nearly on the verge of tears, she says. "I'm unsure if it was even worth it."
Meanwhile, Elmira and Keisha both struggled in the bloodridden chambers of an underground base. Their bodies are both under constant pain as medieval torture instruments are forced upon them. As blood spurts over the floor, Elmira lets forth a painful cry. "Heal her again." the solemn voice spoke. As her wounds regenerate, a harsh spiked clamp slams against Elmira's abdomen again, releasing another splash of blood that covers the room. "Heal her again." it said once more. As Elmira fell to the floor, trembling in the mental torture she suffered, she looked at Keisha, who was already unconscious. Even though they were being healed, it was never a full healing, so the pain eventually stacked up to immeasurable amounts. "Keisha, I'm sorry you have to go through this again..." Elmira said, tears trickling down her face as two crow-masked men stood before her. "Cecil, do you think we should give them another round?" asked one of them. "No, let this process repeat over and over; let despair clutter their minds as they realize that nobody is coming to save them." Cecil knelt and grasped Elmira by her hair, forcefully yanking her head to face him. "Their minds will shatter at that point, and they will transform into the soldiers they were meant to be—servants whose only goal is to serve us." As he dropped her head, she could feel her consciousness slowly fading away. "We'll continue within the next hour," Cecil says, walking out with his assailant.
As her vision turned black, the thoughts swarmed her head.
"The Cerrux Squad; that's what their squadron will be called." The voice echoed. "A squadron of orphans, groomed into becoming the perfect soldiers. I love the idea already!" The voice enthusiastically commended the idea; a devious smirk could be heard through its tone.
"We were just seen as animals, trained repeatedly to meet expectations." Elmira had thought.
"Our mana vessels forcefully widened and our mana storages artificially experimented on daily; the pain was unbearable."
"We were forced to stay together, as that was the only thing we had left."
"That was until the Continental Wars began 5 years ago, causing the Terrestria underground base to be attacked."
"We all managed to escape amidst the chaos and happily settle in."
"But how did it all come crashing down?"
Elmira awoke, still in the cold chambers of torture. Immediately, she shuffled over to Keisha and shook her awake. "Keisha, Keisha, we need to go!" Keisha barely motioned, causing Elmira to shake her again. Finally, Keisha spoke, her head still facing towards the bloody floor. "Elmira, I want to give up." she told her. Elmira had hesitated for a moment, taken aback by this statement.
"What do you mean, Keisha? We still have our chances to escape!"
"It's what Terrestria would always say. We have no future at hand; we were just meant to be the Cerrux Squad—a group of orphans whose sole purpose was to become super soldiers for Terrestria. Why should I keep struggling for a future that doesn't exist in the first place?" Her defeated voice rattled Elmira; it was something that she had never heard come out of Keisha's mouth. The despair that etched the air simply from Keisha's willingness to give up made Elmira also have internal conflicts. "W-What's the point, you say?" Elmira said, realizing the words that Keisha said were true. "There is no point. Even dying is better than struggling to move onto the future." Self-doubt—a turning point of this debate. Even the strongest wills have some sort of doubt in their actions; it's always just cast aside. That doubt seeped into the cracks of Elmira's heart and started to make it shatter. "K-Keisha, we can still do this! All we have to do is keep trying! The future is never something that you could determine!" Elmira angrily yelled at Keisha, almost like a dog barking for its life. But even then, as Keisha sat up, her somber look broke Elmira. "Elmira, give up. The President and Kotori lost, and you got us captured. We have no other way to escape this situation, and we're at our wit's end. Just admit it, we're the losers." Elmira's heart was palpitating at an incredible rate. Panic sets in, and her chest tightens. As her breathing accelerated, dark thoughts filled her mind. "How will we manage our lives in the future? How will we even find a place to live when we're constantly on the run?
How will we experience the joy that we've had in the past 5 years...?"
She awoke, looking at her surroundings. Her breathing was heavy, and over the puddle of blood that she lay on, a massive puddle of sweat mixed in. Looking around, she saw Keisha, unconscious. "W-What was that...?" Elmira asked herself, her hands still trembling. "W-Was that just a nightmare...?" As she spoke to herself, Keisha awoke, barely able to move. "E-Elmira... it hurts." Keisha said, struggling to sit up. As she jerked her head up, she saw Elmira, a nervous wreck. Her breathing was in shambles, and her face appeared to be in utter distress. Seeing this, Keisha pushed her body to limp to Elmira, making harsh grunts as she pushed through the pain. Through her broken and fractured bones and endless blood that spilled everywhere, she somehow made it to Elmira. "E-Elmira, what's wrong...?" Keisha asked, kneeling to hug her. She didn't respond; she only grasped Keisha's hand. It was very odd to see Elmira act like this. Even in their darkest times, Elmira always stepped up to lead them with a smile. That's why seeing her so defeated was odd to Keisha. "E-Elmira... p-please respond." Keisha pleaded. For the next 25 minutes, the only thing that made a noise in the room was the heavy breaths that Elmira gave out.
The only thing that broke that cycle was the entrance of Cecil and his assailant once again. "We'll get back to reconfiguring your mana storages after we've finished fixing your mentalities. The entire Cerrux Squad needs correction after what you've done for the last five years." Cecil said, coming in with the medieval torture instruments once again. "This time, you all won't be so lucky."