Athena could only assume the worst, with Leona motionless on the floor she could only come up with one conclusion after everything that happened.

‘Is this what happens when someone has mana shock?!’

The inventor quickly went over and checked for her vitals. After confirming she could hear the tactician’s faint breathing, she let out a sigh of relief while leaning with her back against the rocky wall behind her.

She only noticed how tired she was after letting her guard down as build up exhaustion hit her all at once, but she was well aware they weren’t completely safe just yet. Extended exposure to frostburnt silver was a hazard to their long term health and she wasn’t planning on dying too soon.

“Dammit it all.” Looking around the limited space they were in there wasn’t any sign of tools she could use to break down the ice wall aside from a couple of rusted pickaxe heads and rotten wooden handles of different tools. “What do I do now?”

She reached for her satchel to search for anything useful but there were only firearms related gadgets without much use against a solid wall of ice.

“Hmmm…” She grabbed the most sturdy looking handle, pickaxe head and tried to put it together to make a usable tool but unfortunately the size of the handle was different and therefore was useless. “Dammit, this is useless… wait…”

She left the tool pieces on the ground and removed one of the belts she wore and began to tie the pickaxe head to the end of the wooden handle with it. After giving it a shake and deeming it was solid enough to swing she approached the ice wall and winded up her arms back.

With an overhead swing she managed to break part of it but as a result the rotten wooden handle also snapped in half.

“Amazing, I’ll be here for a while…”

Meanwhile outside the mine, both soldiers were smoking outside the pod while doing some small talk. It was beginning to snow, though the fine flakes were nothing concerning, it was a sign that a storm was starting to form.

“They sure are taking their time there.” The driver had removed part of the balaclava in order to smoke and was leaning against the side of the large vehicle. “Do you think we’ll be back in time for lunch?”

“I don’t know.” The other soldier had just finished his cigarette and threw the butt on the snow. “Considering they are even using explosives down there, I think we’ll be here for a while.”

He was about to head in the pod before suddenly stopping on his tracks as he reached for his head with his right hand.

“Yes, this is Mark speaking. Yes, with lieutenant Athena and another woman. Wait… but sir, are you sure- no, no sir, I just- yes it shall be done.” After a few seconds of silence, he sighed deeply before turning around to look at the driver who just finished his smoke. “We got orders directly from Captain Oliver. We are to apprehend both passengers we brought once they come back.”

“What? Why? Isn’t that lieutenant Athena we’re talking about?”

“Yes but orders are orders. Get your rifle ready, we’ll take them into custody once they come out of that cave.”

“Still… something’s fishy with the first battalion. First the notice to leave the defense of the capital to them, second, most of the other battalions being sent all over the kingdom. Not even Captain Trish of the seventh battalion could do anything about it despite being the most influential amongst them.”

“Leave those things to the higher ups, no way foot soldiers like us can do anything about it anyway, as long as we get paid and don’t get shot, I’m fine with doing what I’m told.”

“Doesn’t it leave a bad taste in your mouth? I mean, why do we wear these uniforms if all we do is hunt our own countrymen?”

“I rather not talk about that. I’ve already had my share of troubles when our captain tried to stand up to Oliver…”

The driver shook his head.

“That’s what I’m talking about. He even assimilated us into the first battalion. Not even the colonel opposed him.”

“I think Oliver is using his connection with the minister or something, you can occasionally see them together in the city.”

“You mean in that accursed tower? That place gives me the chills…” The driver finished his cigarette and put on his mask properly again before heading inside the pod to fetch his gun regardless of what he was saying earlier. “Why do we have such a place in the middle of the city? I understand research is important and all but you’d expect those to be run inside the castle or somewhere with a bit more privacy.”

The soldier named Mark grabbed his rifle from the mounted wall rack inside the vehicle.

“This is minister Jakob we’re talking about.” He then inspected the gun’s ammunition by pulling the bolt back and chambering a round inside it. “If we don’t do our jobs, we might as well serve as test subjects for those weird experiments of his. As if we don’t have enough sleepless nights because of that damned death angel.”

“Do you think he has some kind of personal squad inside the city? I mean, there is no way other soldiers are doing this by their own volition right?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” He wore the weapon’s sling across his shoulder and began to walk outside. “I heard some nasty rumors about him using refugees for some gruesome experiments in that tower a few weeks back.”

“Ugh… just hearing it gives me the chills.”

Right after they went back outside the pod, Leona and Athena came out of the mine’s entrance on the other side.

“Haa… ah… finally fresh air.” Athena was breathing heavily as they took the final steps out of the musky cave as she shouldered Leona with her left arm while carrying a rather small leather sack on the other hand presumably full of frostburnt silver. “Are you alright Leo?”

“Just a bit dizzy, I should’ve remembered that releasing raw mana inside a cave full of that silver is dangerous due the reverberation it makes.”

“Eh? I don’t follow.”

“Think of what I did as releasing a pulse of mana, but since we were surrounded by frostburnt silver, all that mana just ricocheted back to me all at once.”

“Ah.”

“I’ll be fine in a few minutes. It’s just a very nauseating and headache inducing experience.”

They slowly made their way back to the pod where both soldiers were standing with their rifles loosely in their hands. While Athena felt something was off she didn’t want to be presumptuous and pull out her derringer, but Leona on the other hand quickly glanced around looking to find some clue as to why they were holding their weapons.

‘They didn’t have to deal with anything so the only conclusion as to why they have their weapons out…’

She discreetly put left hand behind her to charge a spell while also whispering to the inventor.

“Athena, I don’t think they are going to help us with those guns.”

“No way… but they drove us here.”

“Maybe that was their plan from the very beginning.”

After reaching about halfway to the pod, both soldiers raised their rifles towards them, the one in front who was keeping the engine running yelled.

“Raise your hands both of you, by orders of the captain you two are arrested.”