It started with a few fingers twitching but soon enough feeling began to return to Dante’s muscles. His wrist slowly stretched while his ankle regained its mobility and although it took excruciatingly long, bit by bit, Null regained the control over his limbs. Eventually, he managed to sit up with the support of his still stiff arms and look around. Besides the stupendous amount of explosives and the lab equipment, the researcher’s corpse was still numbly lying on the ground.

As he waited for his motoric abilities to return, Null realised it must have been the researcher Dante who released the paralysing ward. The man had, after all, decided to take him with them on their escape before Rebecca stabbed him in the back. The moments before that happened, the researcher had been about to disable the wards around the cell.

Unfortunately, Null was still stuck behind the bars and quite likely also behind the barrier that could stop and melt bullets. But there had to be a way to get out. He had seen with his own eyes that Rebecca had disabled the magic when she had taken a sample of Null's blood, though she had done so from the outside.

Dante’s mind raced, trying to come up with any solution. He couldn’t use magic as far as he knew, yet he saw no other way out. He felt fear creep up his spine again but with his still rising desire to survive it was pushed back as he thought deeper. Despite being caught off guard by the Syndicate, Rebecca seemed to be otherwise very cautious, almost paranoid. She had said that there were traps in place that her colleague didn’t even know about and went as far as to re-enable the barrier of Dante’s cell before turning her back to him. Moreover, she even said herself that there was a backdoor made for her.

Dante attempted to stand, the control of his legs having returned, though they were still stiff and he stumbled, falling to the ground and nearly hitting his head on one of the crudely cut bricks which extended a bit too far from the wall. When he looked up at what could have split his head open, his eyes shone instead. The bricks were not factory-made, instead, someone cut them shabbily and even the laying was a bit irregular. A fake brick would be a perfect place to hide something.

So Null pulled at the nearest brick with no result. But that could not discourage him as he tugged at each brick within his reach, one by one. Soon enough he had inspected all within arm's length so he rolled over and continued a bit to the side. At some point he ran out of bricks he could reach while lying on the ground so he sat and once that was no longer enough he stood up, this time stable, and continued. Dante had lost any sense of time as he systematically pulled at those bricks when finally, one gave way.

One of the bricks fluently slipped out of the wall as Null tugged at it, revealing a socket with a relatively small terminal beneath. The screen was active and displaying: _-_-__ while there was a small keyboard with only the 10 numbers right beneath. Not losing any time, Dante filled up the screen with 1-1-11. He could not afford to lose even a moment if he were to guess the code in time.

‘wrong,’ the screen flashed with red ‘2 attempts remaining,’ it told. Of course there are not unlimited attempts. Dante wanted to curse but he realised that if he had any hope, it was to think. What had he seen or heard that would fit the code or at least hint at it? Only that, he took just a moment to recall the words Rebecca had said while she had likely thought he had already fallen asleep. To be precise, ‘Hatchling 5-3-19 to the Cuckoo’. And so Dante quickly entered those numbers, knowing it was his best shot.

And the screen flashed with green before turning off. Dante almost panicked only to feel something shift from the direction of the bars. He turned to look but nothing seemed to be happening, at least at first. After a moment layers of various colours manifested in front and behind the bars before they were torn and sizzled out of existence at various paces. Once they were all gone the bars begin to move, a mechanism of some sort pulling them upwards into the wall above and giving way. Dante did not immediately rush through, instead, he picked up the most hollow brick by his feet and tossed it through the new opening. He still vividly remembered a bullet being melted in seconds by whatever barrier there was and he didn’t want to experience that with his body in the case it was still present.

Only when the brick passed through and fell on the laboratory floor did he sigh with relief and rush out. He spared one glance to the researcher’s corpse, by disabling the paralysis magic, the man had saved Null’s life after all. Perhaps keeping the name ‘Dante’ was the least he could do to thank him. It was not like Null had any better alternatives. Next Null passed by the detonator, showing just over 15 minutes left until the detonation. He definitely lacked the knowhow necessary to even try defusing the device so he noted the time and rushed out through the main entrance.

A long corridor lead to the lab, ended by an open blast door. The trio had apparently not even bothered closing it. Beyond the door, the scenery changed. From the pristine white tiles of a well-maintained research site, he jumped headfirst into a grey and dirty cellar. The only reason Dante could even tell that the place was a cellar was because of the light coming from behind the blast door. He could barely see the cobweb-covered wooden crates and furniture or the metal stairway leading somewhere upwards.

His heartbeat still fast, Null sprinted up the stairs, feeling the metal biting a bit into his hollow feet. Even when the light from below faded completely he did not stop, relying on his memory to blindly try and follow the pattern. That stopped when he hit something headfirst, not finding another step but rather a stumble as he headbutted open the doorway, cracking it in the process. When Null next regained his wits, he could see again, kneeling on the side of the warehouse, the full moon showering him in light through the large windows near the ceiling.

He made it out alive. As that realisation struck him, the adrenalin rapidly withdrew from Null’s body, making him too weak to move, much less stand back up, for a few moments. But Dante couldn’t care less at that time, overcome by sheer emotions. He had been dancing tango with death, yet he made it out alive. He couldn’t stop the tears of relief as Null allowed himself a few moments of respite.

A minute or two had passed by the time he managed to stand up, the fresh bruises finally starting to sting and the chill of a winter night also biting into him. At that point Dante finally realised he had been utterly naked the entire time, the thing closest to clothing on his body being the bit of cotton stuck with a plaster to his wrist. Also, the earlier chill had turned into an increasingly cold sensation. Thankfully Dante was inside a warehouse, the many crates and boxes lining the storage racks were only proof of a full stock.

Although stealing was not something he wanted to do immediately after stepping into the world, it was far preferable to running through the streets naked. Also, considering the number of explosives about to go off downstairs, some missing clothes would be the least of anyone’s concern. Walking into the aisle, Dante immediately noticed a crate which had fallen over from the racks and was cracked open, possibly by the trio. Inside the box there were actually textiles, sparing Dante the trouble of searching for something he could wear. He did not take long to select some underwear, an unremarkable white sleeve-shirt as well as brown pants and jacket. Finally, he put on socks and some brandless grey shoes after going through 5 that didn't fit him.

And then he ran. He really did not want to be anywhere near that place when the explosives would inevitable go off. He understood that he could not stop them, even if he were to tell someone they would inevitably just laugh it off. And even if they didn’t, there wasn’t enough time. At the very least, it didn’t appear there were any people in the general vicinity. Dante was once again lucky as he found the exit almost immediately, a backdoor which had been clearly forced open rather than unlocked, but Null cared very little as he rushed into the snow-covered parking lot and then disappeared into the night. Running as far away from that place as possible.