18 The Storm rages on

Persephone found herself trying to wade through the crowd of panicked students. Together with Maximillian she simply tried her best not drown in the sea of bodies. Kathina was already called by a professor along with all the other healers to tend to the wounded. Amidst the crowd she can hear a voice calling their names. Specifically Maximilllian's name.

"Maximillian?! Maximillian where are you?"

Realising that the voice belonged to Atticus, Maximillian immediately questioned him on why he was calling their names.

"It's Justicar! She was originally with us but she just suddenly left us! While we were evacuating she just stopped in her tracks and said "I have something to deal with" before running sword-first into the chaos beasts! We thought that she was trying to buy us time so we just left her!"

"You just left her? You cowards!"

Persephone was unable to keep the words in her mouth and shouted spontaneously at Atticus, causing him to flinch suddenly in fear. Before Persephone could even continue ranting Maximillian spoke up.

"Calm down, for all we know that's exactly what she wanted. That being the case... Atticus."

Atticus reflexively straightened his back upon hearing his name.

"Is there any particular reason why you told us and not the professors? I'm sure they are better suited to handle this kind of thing, no?"

"You think I didn't try? They were so busy trying to control the situation that they just ignored me!"

"If they won't do anything, then we've have to!"

Persephone once again blurted whatever was in her mind, this time more assertive than before. In reaction Maximillian turned and looked her in the eyes, after a short while he sighed helplessly. Perhaps he saw that there was no point fighting against her unwavering determination. Instead he just asked Atticus another question.

"Did you know where she was headed?"

Atticus stuttered for a while before answering.

"Erm... uh... She went down the west corridor, there is no doubt that she was somewhere within the western block."

"That's not too bad. I'll try to get the attention of the academy's staff, Persephone... you already know what you want to do."

While Persephone nodded in confirmation, Atticus seemed a bit hesitant."

"But..."

"But what?"

Surprisingly, the two people who are virtual opposites replied the same sentence simultaneously.

"But all the hallways are virtually blocked by the chaos beasts. How are you going to get to Justicar with all the paths blocked?"

In response Atticus' question Persephone smiled brightly answering.

"I'll make my own path."

...

The specimen groaned in pain as it was being carefully examined. The screams of pain of other 'research materials' echoed throughout the hallways while Marrionette and Alucard 'prepared them for examination.' The 'research materials' in question were the chaos beasts that arrived at the school in huge numbers and the specimen that Geraldus was examining was among them. While he would normally examine them within the confines of his lab, he decided to take an 'unofficial checkup' on this specific one while waiting for Marriontte and Alucard to finish their business.

The specimen could only lay still in agony as it was being thoroughly examined. After all, Geraldus had already severed all it's limbs. It's sticky black blood was exactly what intrigued Geraldus. These were the only blood of any creature, human or animal, monster or demihuman which had such characteristics. This excited Geraldus as fresh chaos beasts' blood was extremely rare to come by. After all fresh chaos beasts are inherently rare to come by... not forgetting to mention that they're also illegal.

It has been a long time since he had come across a specimen which he had barely conducted any research on and now, he came across such a specimen, in huge numbers too. [Ah.. How luckily convenient incident this is... while researching these creatures may not prove to have any benefit to my true goals, they can still help me strengthen my medical knowledge and thus my combative capacities.] Geraldus turned to look at one of his prized masterpieces, Marrionette who was currently effortlessly subjugating multiple chaos beasts with her arcane chains.

Marrionette had been under the service of Geraldus for the longest among his... assistants. Strengthened with potions and surgeries at the young age of six, her potential strength grew exponentially, especially since the potions supplemented her with extra stamina allowing her to participate in extra rigorous training while the surgeries realigned her bone and muscle structure in order to 'maximise body efficiency.' The result being this physically and magically enhanced human being that calls itself Marrionette.

Of course Geraldus himself had quite the reasonable amount of magic power, how else would he be able to keep any of his patients alive during their 'surgeries'? That being said he is still a far cry from Marrionette and Alucard in terms of magic power and especially strength.

Alucard on the other hand, instead of being slowly cultivated from a young age was instead given artificial strength thanks to the vampire blood as well as the standard body strengthening procedures. The result was that Alucard, despite still being considerably strong before the transformation took quite a while before he got used to his newfound strength. Likewise unlike the all-rounder Marrionette, Geraldus speciallised Alucard to be physically unstoppable, after all his primary calling was the steel sword before his 'transfomration.'

Alucard also had quite a different backstory to Marrionette who Geraldus found half-dead in the slave market. It was during a 'business trip' to one of his acquaintances when Geraldus found Alucard. Literally crawling out of the forrest, the carriage would have run the poor man over if it weren't for Marrionette's quick reflexes. [From what I remember, he literally begged me to save his life, he said he'd give me everything... and so I did. I saved him and now, he gave everything to me. Forever, bound to my service he will continue to carry out orders to repay the debt he owes me.] Apparently before Alucard's encounter with Geraldus, Alucard was only a wandering traveller who sought thrills in battle and expected a glorious death as the result of an epic duel. [Well now... he can seek those thrills under my service.]

After completing the short check up, Geraldus looked around to see that everything had already been dealt with. Dozens of chaos beasts struggled in vain to break the arcane chains holding them in place while dozens more littered the corridors with their mangled flesh and blood.

"Well done. You two never cease to amaze me"

"This one is but a humble servant of my Lord, it is only to be expected for this one to carry out the will of my Lord. To be commended for such trivial actions, My Lord is truly generous."

Out of the two, only Marrionette spoke up while Alucard simply nodded in confirmation, albeit somewhat awkwardly. Afterall, unless you are 'her lord' why wouldn't you be a little bewildered by the robotic emotionless words of praise given by Marrionette? While her emotions are barely visible that doesn't mean they don't exist. The surprising thing was that her emotionless expression wasn't even induced by Geraldus' surgeries but rather something Marrionette developed herself in her 'path in becoming the perfect servant.' Nevertheless Geraldus did not mind her attitude, as long as she wholeheartedly devoted herself to him why should he mind her emotionless expression?

"We shall now move all specimens, dead or alive to the lab immediately. If any more specimens show up during the transport, consider them expendable."

"As you wish my Lord."

"Yeah sure boss."

Listening to the words of confirmation, Geraldus felt the warmth in his heart as a new batch of experimental materials will soon enter his operating room. Looking at the fearful eyes of one of the specimens, Geraldus let out a light chuckle.

"Ahhhh... feels good to be alive."