TO THE START AGAIN

The scientist started walking toward the Marjal and Karmal duo slowly and steadily while keeping his looks down as if he was going to do something eerie. Karmal was frightened when Marjal started to understand that because of the aura fluctuations of Karmal and also the acidic and poisonous breath from him escalating. So, he started slowly walking away and suddenly started to sprint just when his legs got tied down by some roots growing out of the soil. It was the scientist using magic manipulation arts(MMA) to trap him. Marjal immediately understood the situation and asked Karmal to leave but he refused and said:

"If this is going to be the end, then let's be together in it after all I don't have anyone in this world".

Marjal felt very happy and blushed to say

"Hey, y.. you know that am a male cat right?".

Karmal felt like he going to vomit and said

" Yo!, can't you be a bit more serious right now!!?"

They looked at the scientist walking toward them facing his head down. Marjal said

"Brother! I don't want you to die. So I will buy some time for you and when I tell you to run, run without looking back."

Karmal sighed saying

"Haa...Big Bro, I already told you I'm not gonna run because you called me a brother and you are the only one I can call my family".

Marjal felt happy for coming there that day because he met a little brother. However, it felt awkward for both of them to call themselves brothers as they are cat and mouse, which are said to be mortal enemies.

Marjal kept struggling to escape from those roots and then, Karmal got down to bite off those roots coming out of the soil. But, they were too late because the scientist had already approached them. They both felt a sort of pressure around them as the scientist was staring at them with a seemingly evil look. He immediately raised his hand and a weird magic circle appeared above his hand and an ice sickle appeared out of nowhere and he aimed it at the cat. Just in the nick of time, Karmal was able to free Marjal from his trap. The scientist missed the target. Then, Marjal and Karmal jumped at them with the intention of attacking. Surprisingly, the scientist was ready for it and caught the cat in his right hand and the mouse in his left hand. He then rushed into the lab.

Karmal and Marjal were discussing seriously on their way to the lab about the ways to escape from his grip. The lab looked like it was a small house from the outside but the inside was way bigger. It was temporal and space magical arts that were applied on the building's insides which is very rare even in that world. The inside looked like a long hallway that seemed like a corridor, at the start of the corridor after entering the door there were magic circles on the walls. The scientist had to say some weird words in order to move forward up to 10 meters. Karmal was able to sense some weird flow of magic in the walls and in the air. After 10 meters, the scientist jumped in a different tile pattern like he was dancing. And there are strange carvings on the walls from top to bottom. After 20 meters, there are golem knights on both sides of the hallway made of different materials. After 30 meters, the path split in two- left and right. The scientist moved left but while turning, Karmal looked to the right side ad he saw the brute guard that he had encountered previously( refer to ch-3 ) and the leg of a person who seemed like a small child and he could sense multiple people on that side in cages. The scientist came to the end of the left side. There are two doors on the left and right sides of the hallway. But the scientist ignored both of them and came to the dead-end of the hall and looked back to see if anyone was there and gently touched his head on the wall to a particular brick. They entered a room which is not the room Karmal was previously in. They understood that it was a secret room only known to him. There isn't much furniture in that room except for the stove, a kettle, two teacups, a sack with tea leaves, a desk, two chairs, a rack with many books in it, and a big blackboard with weird writings on it, metal swords and shield hanging from the wall beside it. The scientist placed both the mouse and the cat on the desk went near the teacups and said "RETAW" while keeping his hand on the cups.

He placed the cups in front of the beasts and sat on a chair facing both of them and looked at both of them with some expectations in his eyes. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds. Then, the scientist said " Ho yrros! evig em a dnoces". He raised his hand toward the wall next to them and said " APSNART". Then, a portion of the wall next to them became transparent and they could see a beautiful night scene which seemed like the back of the house they were in. It was a beautiful scene of 5 moons which are arranged in the shape of a distorted pentagon and are of different colors with a pink one at the top a green one to the right of the top followed by yellow, blue, and white with a black spot on it. And a lake with small patches of weird flowers and small dragonfly-like insects flying above the water and a gentle breeze making the trees around the lake dance to the tune of the wind.

Suddenly Marjal and Karmal felt very relaxed and wanted to drink something. They looked at the water in front of them but were hesitant to trust the scientist and drink it. Then Karmal remembered that he now had some level of poison power so he thought

'Even if there are any toxins in it I may not be affected'

and started drinking it and realized that it was just water and signaled Marjal to drink. After they both were satisfied and relaxed the scientist started to speak something which Karmal didn't understand. After talking for some time he got up from the chair and immediately grabbed both of them and took them to the lab that Karmal was previously in and he placed him in the same cage as he previously was in. Marjal was placed in the cage which is exactly opposite to Karmal's. Karmal sighed thinking that he had come to where it all began. Then he heard a slight groan coming from the cage beside him which used to be the cage of Shank. He immediately called out for Shank but heard no reply, instead, he heard even more groans. Then he heard some other mouse speaking to him from the other side of his cage saying

" Shank got overdosed on the magic and is now being affected by it. When he tried to gain the attention of the scientist, he held on to the cage for too long and the barrier had affected him."