The sound of the river was running in the background. Eislyn finally found a water source, but despair washed over her when she realised an important factor.
"I...I can't drink water from a river...!"
Who knew how unsafe the water was! She would need to boil or use magic to purify the water, but none was an option. She found her lighter in the pocket that she had forgotten about its existence until now, but what use was it if she didn't have something to hold the water and boil it.
Moreover, thinking about it, that son of a...no, an angel, must be fully aware of the fact, yet he still told her to look for one. He chased her away for whatever reason. Did he want her to suffer? Was it because she forced them to take a break?
"Ah...I suddenly feel like smoking."
It should've been six months already since she quit smoking, but she still occasionally felt the need to light a cigarette whenever a headache came uninvited. Carrying her lighter with her was one way to relieve her urges; solely playing with it with her hands, opening and closing, sometimes but rarely igniting out of boredom. It was a silver Zippo-style lighter with an outlined pineapple design on it. She couldn't trash something as cute as that, so she kept it with her.
After blankly staring at the river for a while, she let out a gulp. "It wouldn't hurt if it's just a little, right?"
The hot weather was slowly killing her; wouldn't she become a raisin if she didn't have water soon? She would make Sir Romero take responsibility if she got a disease from the water since he was the one who told her to find a river.
She squatted at the river's edge to scoop up some water from her hands, praying that she wouldn't get sick. She brought her mouth closer to the water in her hands, and a fat frog landed on her hands when she was about to take a sip.
"Woah!"
Caught off guard, she shook her hands wildly and flung the fat frog away to the river. Losing her balance in the process, she immediately stabilised herself, but her hands landed on the rocks in the river and moved them from their positions.
"Oh," she said when she saw the river splitting in half. "I didn't know my name was Moses."
The waters divided and revealed an opened entrance with a hidden staircase dug into the ground. She spotted a broken seal among the rocks. It was a seal in the form of an ordinary rock now broken into large pieces.
"Hm..." She picked up the broken parts of the seal. It didn't seem too old; the magic circle drawn on it wasn't fresh, but there was no sign of discolouration or fading. There wasn't enough impairment for the seal to be broken so easily.
Eislyn smiled satisfyingly at her conclusion.
"I still have my ability."
She had accidentally used her power and broken the seal. It seemed like her gift had stayed with her the whole time. Eislyn clenched her hands with delight. It was better than being magicless and unable to afford the lifestyle of a magic item user.
"Now." She shifted her gaze to the entrance. "Exploration time."
Underneath the river lay a large laboratory basement, to her surprise. Once she stepped inside, the place immediately lit up. Magic circles were drawn all over the brick walls, ceiling, and floor, some bigger than others. The research papers were either plastered on the walls or sprawled on the desks. Despite the spacious interior, it wasn't packed with unnecessary things as if it could be abandoned anytime.
But what surprised her the most was the dozen horrendous creatures standing in a line formation at the end of the room like a pack of soldiers gathering.
They looked like different wild animals had been chopped into pieces and sewn together with various parts to create a new set of animals.
Moreover...
This energy...!
She sprung up to them and inspected their bodies. None seemed to be alive. Their bodies were cold and hard. The energy that she had felt was gone when she had a closer look. She had mistaken it for something else.
"Ha." Eislyn was in disbelief. "If I hadn't known better, I would've thought they were demon beasts caught by someone to be experimented on. But this is worse... They actually captured this forest's animals and made them replicas of demon beasts. Whoever is behind this is clearly up to real fun."
Should she be glad they hadn't gone far enough to use humans instead of animals?
"Which madman does this belong to?"
Eislyn picked up the research papers and went through them. The data was thorough, most recorded the failures, and only a few recorded the improvements and successes. The researcher must have gone crazy trying to find a solution to create demon beasts with all these tests done. It was fascinating how they managed to pull it off and she wanted to know more about it, but she couldn't go through everything because of the time limit. She would be abandoned if she didn't return within two hours.
Although she couldn't find the researcher's identity, she learned that the test subjects weren't dead but alive. All she had to do was wake them up from their slumber by activating the magic cast on them or breaking the seal so they wouldn't go back to sleep unless a new seal was placed.
Eislyn couldn't leave them alone like this. It felt wrong if she left without doing anything about it.
"What should I do? Oh, what should I do?"
She couldn't leave to get Sir Romero here because the researcher might return before that. It wasn't like she could bring them all to him. With her current strength, she could forget to bring even one of them. They were too large and heavy.
There had to be another way.
Wait a minute.
"I almost forgot about the seal. Isn't this a good opportunity to confirm my magic? Wow, what a lucky day."
She had been worried that she wouldn't find a way to test her power without getting discovered. Whoever the researcher was, they had her thanks.
All she had to do now was locate the seal, which was easily found on the research papers. There wasn't one seal for all, but each had one imprinted on their bodies. If she undid them one by one, it would be too late because as soon as she broke a seal, the creature free from it would immediately wake up and attack her. She had no plan of only waking up one.
She was going to wake up all of them in one go.
"I don't know if my magic is as strong as it used to be, but I guess I will find out." Eislyn licked her mouth with excitement.
Before that, she collected all the papers with the most recent experimental results. They might land in the wrong hands after she ruins the place. Sir Romero surely had connections with the government, given his respectful treatment from House Tatian. Even if he wasn't, it was better to be safe. It would be a crisis if the empire resolved to develop it to create an army of artificial demon beasts to use in wars. Aglia would be one of the last empires to commit such an unorthodox act, so it would unlikely pose a problem. The real question was the current emperor's identity and his ulterior motives. If it were still the emperor whom she knew, it'd be safe, but that was only if it was.
Taking out her lighter, she lit the papers on fire and watched them get burned into nothing.
After ensuring nothing important was left behind, she took a few steps back and faced the artificial demon beasts; she raised her arms with both palms directed at the pack.
She closed her eyes and began to concentrate. The familiar energy force inside her was growing and amassed in her hands. Once she was ready, she opened her eyes, and as if a string had snapped, all the artificial demon beasts woke up simultaneously. They instantly detected her and started to growl.
That's my cue to leave.
She didn't have the time to examine her body after using her magic. If she didn't get out of here and run to Sir Romero, it was time for her to say farewell to life again. As for leaving the artificial demon beasts to Sir Romero, she believed in his skills!
And if she was wrong...she guessed both of them would just die there and then. But it wasn't something she worried about.
You got this, my talented child!
She sprinted back to Sir Romero to introduce the neighbouring raging pets to him.
...
"I was just curious and went down, but the moment I did, they saw me and started to charge at me for no reason, so I ran away with all my life. I ran to you in the hope of surviving. I was so scared. My child, you must console me!" Eislyn said unjustly, dropping her serious tone at the end.
After hearing the story, Sir Romero ignored her and thought deeply. An illegal experiment in a forest connected to Glenwell out of all places. It was in such a random, non-beneficial place that he couldn't tell what their true intentions were.
"Take me to the laboratory." He withdrew his sword. However, he felt irritated at her for how she explained but didn't know why. He kindly advised, "Next time, just don't run."
"But...I will die?"
Eislyn confirmed once more that the man wanted her dead.
They walked to the secret laboratory with Eislyn as the guide, getting lost once because she misremembered the way. But it was just brief, as there were traces of damage left by the artificial demon beasts that were made while targeting Eislyn leading to the secret base. Whether or not Sir Romero was aware of her actions despite the short distance and the traces was a debate. Ultimately, Eislyn wasn't sorry at all.
"So this is the place." Sir Romero inspected the destroyed entrance with water pouring down from the spilt river.
"It wasn't like that before. They broke out of the place," Eislyn clarified.
"Go sit somewhere away from here. You're in the way. Wait while I have a look inside." He was quick to dismiss her and entered the laboratory.
"Okay. Have fun, my child," Eislyn didn't protest and rubbed her eyes while she went up to a tree. She was at her limit anyways; using her magic, on top of running so much, tired her out.
Was breaking all the seals on those artificial demon beasts too much for this body?
Eislyn fell asleep without care while waiting; she had already done what she wanted. Although, she wasn't aware of the small amount of blood already trickling down her nose.
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