42 Unexpected Allies (2)

Jeorge Marcus Grin stood at the amphitheater's stage, his unshaved face the perfect example of why some men didn't grow beards. Beside him was an inconspicuous mop of short brown hair that belonged to the girl who had a pair of bright black eyes that glimmered like opal.

He stared at the mob of dazed researchers that stood in the audience seats with blank expressions on their faces. His voice was terse and slightly edgy after another sleepless night. "What are you trying to do exactly?"

The girl looked up at his haggard face. "Destroying Elisium."

Bob scowled. "From the looks of it, it seems that you'll destroy your brain first and suffer from your Talent's backlash instead of getting what you're trying achieve. You're using your Talent too much and stretching it beyond its capabilities-"

"Beyond your capabilities", he emphasized.

The female child blinked at him innocently. "What do you mean?"

"Don't act dumb." The man scratched his chin and glared at the kid. "You have the Talent over memories, not the Talent over mind-control. You're manipulating people through their memories but your body's state is telling you to stop."

When Jeorge Marcus Grin saw red liquid dripping from the girl's nostril, his gaze turned even harsher. "See what I mean!? That's what you get for controlling someone like Silas Fidi and Asha Claire and for modifying the memories of everyone here in Elisium! Even after this, you'll just be a kid in Elisium and you'll probably be killed off like everybody else."

The adult man huffed like a six-year old. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever witnessed in my eight years here in Elisium!"

The child wiped the blood off her nose with the sleeve of her shirt. "Then why aren't you stopping me?"

Bob looked away and tried to hide the surprise from his face. He cleared his throat and straightened the wrinkled white coat that hung loosely on his bulky body. "I'm too lazy for that kind of stuff."

"You're not lazy," the girl rebutted. "You just enjoy the challenge of doing things on a deadline."

"You, you-! Stop looking into my head!" Bob turned around and gave the female a scathing look. "What did I just say about overusing your Talent, huh?!"

When the brown-haired child didn't move, Jeorge Marcus Grin decided to rapid fire. "Erasing your data and making everyone forget is easy. I already erased as much of your data as I could. I even went out of my way to fabricate the surveillance camera's data!

You already made everyone forget. But how do you plan on getting out of Elisium, huh? As I said before, you'll still be stuck here and you'll be lucky if your memories are the only things missing. Your brain might stop working and your body might lose its basic functions. What makes you sure that you'll survive, huh?"

"It's fine if I forget," the girl murmured. "And I'm sure I'll be okay since you're here."

Jeorge Marcus Grin stared at her with eyes the size of saucers. His incredulity was written all over his face. He could only spout a single syllable. "HUH?"

"You'll help me, won't you," she said. Although it was posed a question, to Bob, it sounded more like a statement.

Dark eyes looked at him. No matter how hard he squinted, couldn't see the flow of her logic. He couldn't guess what she was thinking. He cleared this throat and adjusted his collar. "I won't."

The girl's black orbs twinkled with a knowing light. "You will."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha…" Bob laughed in an exaggerated and mocking manner before his face turned serious. "No, I won't."

"You will."

Jeorge Marcus Grin was irritated. His bushy eyebrows knit together. "Brat! What makes you sure that I will, huh?!"

"Because unlike Maria Caelum, you never liked this place," she explained. "You're just too lazy to destroy Elisium on your own. You're waiting for a perfect chance that will ensure Elisium's destruction…"

Her voice trailed off before she added, "And I also know you took up Alchemy with a Major in Research because it had the shortest lines during enrollment."

His face flushed. His thick yet half-assed beard wasn't able to hide how his cheeks looked like tomatoes. "You- you…! That secret, err… I just left that to fate! Fate!"

Her black orbs were laughing. "Then, I'll leave it all to fate, too."

He stomped on the floor like a kid throwing a tantrum. "For the last time, I'm not helping you!"

The girl ignored his statement and wiped the blood away from her nose. She smiled. "Thanks, uncle!"

Jeorge Marcus Grin could feel the veins in his forehead twitch. His already red face turned a few shades dark. In the loudest voice he could manage, he yelled:

"Aria! Who the hell is your 'Uncle', huh!?"

Jeorge Marcus Grin's eyes snapped open. His butt suddenly slipped from his seat and the resulting momentum made him crash into a glass container his body was leaning on. His head slammed into the side of the transparent storage tank with a loud thunk.

"Ow! Fu-"

The man cursed. By now, he was fully awake from his dream. The spacious container van's shiny interior focused into view. He could faintly hear the blaring alarms resonating throughout Elisium. Bob rubbed his cleanly shaven jaw and massaged his forehead. A lump was beginning to form on the side of his head. His lips twitched.

He massaged the tender part of his scalp and summoned an ice spell on his fingertips. He didn't need an incantation. Ever since he learned he could cast spells without uttering their names, Jeorge Marcus Grin decided to save his saliva and summon all the spells he knew without muttering a single syllable.

The male savored the cool sensation on his head and wondered just what the girl with black orbs was doing right now. Because of boredom, he decided to research on a way to wake her up. And since he had no way to get her out of Elisium, he sneakily placed her in Elisium as a student called 373 and left her there to fend for herself.

As expected, she woke up with no memories.

She was lucky enough that her body was working fine with no signs of brain damage. The genius she had lost with her memories quickly resurfaced. On the other hand, he set up the betting pool. Bob knew that some of the meddling scientists would do something to delay her relocation to the lower levels of Elisium. He might have played with the surveillance footage every now and then. But that was beside the point. He wasn't doing it to help the brat. He was doing it because he was bored and it seemed fun.

Or at least, that's what he told himself.

In the course of two years, her talent reawakened, Michael Caelum had come to Elisium, she had managed to make friends with the golden-haired boy called Salamander, and had managed to throw Elisium into utter chaos.

She left it to fate. He wondered if that was really the case. His eyes studied the contents of the glass tube. He leaned back on the the cold surface of the car and muttered to himself. "Is this the work of fate then, brat?"

Michael Caelum was sound asleep in the tube filled with a viscous liquid. Wires were hooked on to his bare body and a set of machines were connected to the preservation capsule kept him alive. The electronic devices filled the transport's interior and made it too cramped. Bob tapped on the glass's surface and imagined the red-head opening his eyes. His fingers froze.

"On second thought, let's not. I'm not in a horror movie. That would just be…Gah..." Bob didn't continue and instinctively shivered. "Ah… I just hope Asha Claire doesn't figure out I tampered with the surveillance footage in Elisium. Now that would be scary."

Beside the transparent container was a black coffin that was chained to a gigantic crucifix. It was sealed with multiple artifacts Bob didn't bother to look at. Nobody knew what was inside the black case except for Silas Fidi, Asha Claire and him. The Apothecary's successor would probably be livid when she realized that the demon's body looked more lifeless and inanimate than a lamppost.

But that was none of his concern. He already had a lot on his plate. He didn't want more work.

The sirens continued to blare outside the van's walls. Two hours had passed since Elisium's pandemonium had started. By this time, the researchers in Elisium should have started evacuating the building and loading all the equipment and children into the other transport vans. Bob expected the van to start moving in a few moments. But to his surprise, the noise outside got stronger.

Unintelligible screaming and cursing started to ring in his ears. The senior researcher could sense spells being summoned continuously by approximately forty people. He got up from his seat with scrunched brows and left the confines of the vehicle to see things for himself. His white coat fluttered as he jumped out the doors. As he did, a stray fulmen whizzed past his head and almost slammed into the van he had just dismounted.