37 Blood on Her Hands (2)

The little girl sniffed and wiped the torrent of tears running down her face. Her syllables came out choked but she still managed say his name again.

Michael's face crunched up in pain. He grunted and twisted on the bed. His usually smooth eyebrows were knit together. His hand fell from her face and left emptiness in its wake. Her eyes left his and stared at the numbers being flashed on the display screens. The beeping sounds were faster. The figures on the monitors were fluctuating like they did when Zain Amina was in pain.

373 held his hand her two smaller palms. His fingers were colder than they were a few moments ago. She felt useless. Weak. She could put him to sleep like she did with Zain Amina, she could make the pain go away with a single spell. But Michael Caelum would still die. Just like Zain Amina, Michael Caelum would end up dead.

373 ignored the tears falling down her cheeks. She squeezed his hand one last time and whispered in his ear.

"Somnum Diu."

His body relaxed. The crease between his eyebrows smoothened. His hand slipped from her grasp. Neither the shouting beyond the room nor the sounds of her barrier cracking caught her attention. The small female only listened to the beeping sounds in the room. She listened to the rhythm becoming slower, less urgent, while the numbers on the screens continued to go down.

373 looked at her hands which were dyed crimson red. Her body was frozen cold. She felt like time had stopped. She felt resigned. The girl couldn't care less about tears flowing out of her eyes. She couldn't care less about the rest of the world. She closed her eyes and tried to block every thought out of her mind until Astaroth's words echoed in her head.

Per Angusta, Ad Augusta. Through difficulties, to honors.

'...Your victory… can only be attained if you choose to fight your battles'

She exhaled. With a single breath, she felt time resume it's course. But with that single breath, something inside her had changed.

She turned her head to stare at the door she had destroyed. Her eyes were lifeless, void of emotion. Her blood-stained hands fell to her side as she studied the group of men and women in gray outfits were trying to break through her barrier with attack spells. They looked like blurry shapes through her tears yet she knew the people outside were people she didn't recognize. With a single look, 373 knew they were powerful – probably a group of high-level Spellcasters. It was impossible for her to escape from them, much more kill them all.

But 373 deactivated her barrier. And as soon as her protective screen was no more, she charged at them with all the attack spells she knew. Gusts of wind merged with waves of fire. Bolts of lightning crashed against blades of energy. Lightning cackled. Thunder boomed. Fire and wind raged as the throes of energy rumbled through the halls. The floor beneath them distorted as she weaved through the adults with her own modified version of fulcio. For the first time, 373 fought without holding back – without fearing the consequences of each attack.

Astaroth was right. She should fight her own battles – even the ones she knew she could never win. Her hands were already tainted with blood. Getting more blood on her hands wasn't something she was afraid of.

***

Asha Claire's blue hair whipped around wildly as she boarded a helicopter that was going to take her from the city of Granada back to the Great Apothecary's research lab in Salamanca. She had spent the entire evening traveling through the thick of the night just to make sure that her tracks were well-covered. The woman hadn't slept and her eyes were heavy as lead. She was trying to close her eyes and drift off to sleep in the noisy interior of the chopper when she felt a light vibration on her thigh.

She took out a white circular-shaped device from her pocket. It looked like an any lady's face-powder container. But instead of a mirror and beige-colored foundation, a small communicator screen was inside the device. The instant she flicked the white communicator open, a pair of striking orange eyes and blood red hair appeared on the screen.

A huge grin was on her lips. "Master! Miss me already?"

The man's already sour expression seemed to get worse by the second. 'You were wrong, Michael Caelum wasn't a threat.'

The grin on her face remained but her eyes were no longer smiling. "You're just playing with me, aren't you, Master?"

Asha Claire watched Silas Fidi massage the space between his upturned eyes. His sunken cheeks looked even more hollow. 'He wasn't the bug you sensed in the laboratory's hallways. You just killed his mother and captured him for nothing.'

"Tha- that's impossible!" She screamed into the communicator. Her face was flushed. Her lips drew into a scowl. "My calculations were right, and his patterns matched my assumptions perfectly! It couldn't be anyone but him!"

'I'm not calling you to hear you whine.' The man on the other end ran a bony hand through his dark crimson tresses. 'I'm simply informing you that your Talent was unable to come up with the correct answer simply because of an unknown variable that you would never have considered.'

Asha Claire's eyes widened. The adult woman nibbled on the nail of her thumb as she wracked her brain for other possible suspects. She was tempted to jump of the helicopter and use Adicio just to get back to Elisium and figure everything out. "Was it Maria Caelum? But I already took care of her. It couldn't have been another researcher…-"

'373.' Silas Fidi cut her off. The man's tone was impatient. His upturned eyes turned sharp. 'Michael Caelum indeed had plans to take her out of Elisium. But rather than the boy and his mother, subject 373 was a bigger threat than the two Caelum's combined.'

"The child…?" The woman couldn't believe it. Her mouth hung slightly agape while her jaw turned stiff. The Great Apothecary didn't wait for her to regain her wits and continued recounting the events that had happened in Elisium right after Asha Claire had left.

'She snuck into Michael Caelum's operating room, and after putting him to sleep, she went on a rampage, killed five researchers and three of our highest-ranking Spellcasters, and injured ten high-ranked Spellcasters. Among the ten, six are severely wounded and two are in a coma. They probably won't wake up.'

"That's not possible! Our researchers are all ranked Spellcasters. A single kid-"

Silas Fidi laughed and his laughter was enough to clamp the woman's mouth shut and send shivers down Asha Claire's spine. The Magno Deorum's face was dark like the chuckle that rumbled out of his throat. 'Do you remember the energy residue you sensed on the day you arrived?'

"O-of course," she hesitantly replied. She wondered why her Master was bringing it up when they were talking about 373. Was he hinting at something? The gears in her head clicked and turned. Her eyes widened and the red spectacles she wore slipped down from her nose. "But the energy signature – the spell – was a modified version of Celare! Only an expert-!"

'She's a genius.' Silas Fidi interjected without waiting for her to finish. 'I personally paid a visit to the hallways you've been investigating, and the traces match her energy signature. 373 was the one who set off a lightning spell to short-circuit the equipment in the operating theater. She was the one who roamed and toured the restricted sections of Elisium's laboratory undetected… not Michael Caelum.'

'The spells she used weren't taught in Elisium and she was capable of advanced spells half of our researchers couldn't even do. It took almost twenty of our men to subdue her. If we didn't have high-ranking Spellcasters in the vicinity, she would have done more damage than destroy a few equipment and a single operating room.'

"Where is she? How about Michael Caelum's body?" Asha Claire slumped back on her seat. She was already tired. But now, she just felt like all her energy had left her body.

'We managed to sedate the girl and she's presently locked up in a holding cell. Michael Caelum's body is also being preserved and kept alive in an empty cryogenic container,' was the man's reply. 'If you have no plans of using both, I suggest eliminating them as soon as possible.'

A cruel glint flashed through Asha Claire's dark blue eyes. She smirked. "I don't really care about the girl… but since she's from the Aquarius class, why not let her suffer a bit? She's a test subject we've invested our time, effort and resources on. She should see the role 'til the end."

'You want to use her for the Talent Implantation experiments.' The Great Apothecary quickly caught on Asha Claire's meaning and nodded his head. 'And the boy?'

"He has the Talent related to erasing memories." The smirk on the woman's face grew. "I'd like to test if his Talent can modify the memories of a demon or at least make the Duke of Hell a little bit more subservient to me."

The world outside the helicopter became bathed in hues of red and golf. Asha Claire sighed with emotion. "Ahh. It's good that both of them can still be used for the greater good. This way, even if they die, they can become part of a great undertaking that would greatly impact and change the world!"

Silas Fidi was silent at first. After a few moments, he shook his head and glared at the hopeless woman on the other end of the screen. 'You are truly hypocritical and ruthless.'

Asha Claire giggled like a lovestruck fool. The words were scathing but the Apothecary's disciple took it as a compliment. Her smile grew wider.

"I've been your disciple for ninety years, Master. Let's just say I learned from the best."