“You dumb woman! You underestimate how directionally-challenged that idiot is!”

Unable to stop running from her pursuers, Zielle eventually reached outside of the castle’s left wing building. Even though they never talked much during the time inside, they had pretty much ran through the basics of their plans that night.

Don’t get caught.

Don’t let anyone see them enough to remember their features.

There’s no such thing as “No one left behind”.

She had no qualms about the first two but it sure damn hurts to actually think that she had to leave Aediva behind in a place chock-full of people who looked like they’re up to no real good that might involve human experimentation.

But for real though, how the fuck doesn’t anyone notice all the things going on in Efren Dorm?! What are the adults doing in their lives to actually miss an elephant in the damn campus?

Zielle felt like puking. She ran like hell but her heart fell to her stomach when thinking that Aediva probably is still in there being chased by the shady people who would fire painful magic bullets towards them. Not that they know they’re students but magic bullets of that caliber are no different than those expensive gun bullets.

She just wished Aediva is safe wherever she is as she conjured up a broom and leap off with a height only doable by mana burst to get a head-start from her pursuers. She didn’t want to even look back for the time being as she felt the cold graze of the magic bullets past her shoulders as she flew off with her broom and Cath in her hoodie - looking to the castle where Aediva probably still stuck inside.

She flies off, snapping the emergency charm given to her by Aediva earlier that day. Among the many charms that lost girl made in the current case they’re in. It’s an invisible charm - enough to cloak her for 5 minutes or so.

“Honestly, how did she even make these? Oh please dear gods, don’t tell me she ripped Master’s garden apart to get the ingredients to make these charms” Zielle said despite having that feeling that Aediva probably did since invisible charm is almost as hard to make as mana potion and requires hard to grow plants that as of now, easily found in Naffael’s garden.

“Oi, Zielle! Turn back and get her!” Cath said after a long while of silence while staring at the castle. Zielle remained silent, her curly green locks flailing in the air when her hood was blown by the winds as they flew on the broom high up.

“...”

Zielle wonders what she would do now as she pulled the hood of her hoodie back.

She did it again. Out of all the damn time to be lost, she just had to do it while they’re being chased by people who wanted to terminate them. The sound of magic bullets behind her made it no better. She ran as fast as she could but everywhere she goes, there are just masked people everywhere. And she felt like she’s also running in circles.

Agh, why is the dorm so hard to navigate?!

Aediva ran and with the pain earlier that mysteriously gone for one moment returning, she was at a wit’s end.

‘Should I destroy this place? Cause carnage? But what about the students?’ Aediva thought in her head as she fled down the stairs and into a random place her legs brought her to. The sound of her pursuers’ footsteps down the stairs made her nervous as she fled down the hallway. For a moment, she panics when seeing a bunch of students in what seems like a large lobby - fearing that they might get shot to death with the magic bullets she had to use protective charms to take care off.

Aediva stopped, hearing the incoming footsteps to her place and pants for air.

She looks at the one remaining Azroth charm with her. A life-protection charm which takes one fatal blow for her. If she had to use that charm, she would like to be out of the place. But it seems to her like the whole dorm was already in a lockdown.

Aediva leaned against the wall, the fatigue didn’t disappear from her shoulders. She flinched when feeling someone grabbing her from the back and it was truly lucky that she heard the familiar female voice telling her to calm down as she was pulled into the wall.

The girl blinked her eyes and saw the room and a wall in front of her - the sound of footsteps deafening her before they gradually disappeared. Her heart pounds in her chest and she is shaken out of her frozen state by someone who sounds a bit too happy to see her.

“Hah! Haha. Aediva! You actually came!” Arthur exclaimed with quite the excitement as Aediva looked at his handsome princely face. The cheerful beam felt slightly odd in her sight from not seeing it for the past few weeks. Aediva stared at Arthur, her eyes slowly widening as she grabbed his head and with a stern look, inspected him as he turned dumbfounded. She released him with a relieved sigh.

“Oh thank goodness, I only have one charm left anyway” she said and she looked around to find Eden, who to her surprise, is effectively naked in exception for a pair of white briefs. Not to mention he’s wet and unconscious.

Just like the vision flashed in her mind earlier.

“...” Silence fell to her as she inspected the unconscious male with shaky hands and gritting her teeth when seeing no signs of her charms she placed on them a while back on his body.

“Aediva?” Arthur called for her but she didn’t turn to look. Instead she hovered her hand with the charm in her fist over Eden and with a clear crack, the charm broke as a runic symbol appeared on Eden’s torso before disappearing completely.

Aediva fell to her back, her whole body shaking from a lot of things. Adrenaline, nervousness, fear, joy. Everything.

The young lady hugged her knees, breathing sigh of relief.

Thank gods… Her friends are still alive…

Unfortunate was the one who had helped the girl who was chased by a bunch of murderous strangers in masks. As soon as Aediva snapped out of her trembling adrenaline-ridden state, she lunged forth and Fay, became a victim of a livid girl who had been itching to destroy things and people.

“You” her usually casual nonchalant tone was gone, replaced with a voice similar to the growl of a beast instead - her canines looking a bit too threatening as her eyes wild with rage. Within the walls they are hiding in, the temperature dropped like it was struck by a raging blizzard.

“What the hell is going in this place? Why was Eden in life’s peril? What the fuck is that room full of people stuffed inside the large canisters?” Aediva asked, almost shouting her voice off until Arthur pushed her apart from Fay who was struggling under Aediva’s strong arm choke - subsequently shielding the second year student from his friend’s rage.

“Stop! Stop, Aediva! I get your rage but senior Fay helped me to save Eden from being confined in that place!” Arthur said yet Aediva growled at him. Arthur gulped, feeling the pit of his stomach churned at the sight of the girl.

He had never seen her this angry before but his adrenaline ran high the moment he saw her lunged at Fay. The instinct was to shield Fay yet he is also turning fearful of the girl. And to his relief, as if Aediva realized her uncanny behavior, she took a deep breath and the murderous air around her dissipates into the void like the freezing temperature that has also disappeared.

“... She helped make distractions for the researchers and guards so I could break Eden out of that ‘Battery Room’. But how did you know about that room? Even I just know a few days back when Eden suddenly disappeared…” the blond young male asked, baffled but Aediva scratched the back of her head roughly as she looked away.

“Dunno. But Eden’s alive so that’s a plus. Dammit, to think that I got separated from Z during the chase. But where are we?” Aediva asked - looking at the ginger hiding behind the taller guy shielding her from the one asking, A timid look on her face as she peeked at Aediva. Her hands clearly trembling after the first reaction of Aediva after her rescue.

“I-It’s my magic. Turning walls into portals to this room. A safe room--”

“A dimensional rift? Aren’t you supposed to be an earth-attribute mage?” Aediva cuts off her senior who flinched at her interjection.

“It’s an item that conjures a small room in the dimensional rift that I got from my brother. But using it requires a lot of mana and strength so to be honest, you’re probably stuck in here for a while until I regain my energy to use the item again” Fay explained as Aediva looked around.

The room was bare. A small cuboid space encasing them within its brown stone walls with no windows and a single door. The floor they’re standing on is simple wooden floor panels. The bunch of boxes filled with water and light food at the corner gained her attention for a moment.

Aediva closes her eyes, her head still aching after the series of flashes of vision she had seen before they had to run for their lives before. Her legs hurt after running without stopping for at least an hour and her adrenaline rush aftermath left her tired.

Yet relief washed over her and she sucked in a deep breath as she collapsed to her knees. Arthur quickly went to her side when seeing her panting for air as she clutched at the fabric of her hoodie above her chest.

Tired, relieved, angry and more importantly, she still feels her life being drained out of her body.

What they started that night hasn’t truly finished yet. She is still not safe.

While she hoped at least Eden and Arthur are, she knows deep inside, neither one of them are truly safe. Once more, a sigh escaped from her lips as she gathered herself - her silver orbs looking at the three Efren Dorm students.

“I never wished it would come to this…” she said, rummaging her pocket for the one tool she brought with her.

“And it seems that I have to resort to violence and destruction after all” she sighed.