Arthur and his group gathered around the central lift.
They murmured among themselves, their voices echoing softly across the platform. Then, with a dull metallic clang, the elevator, which had been level with the floor, rose up from the shaft and opened its gates with a 'dong'.
Arthur gave a few short commands before stepping inside.
The others followed.
The elevator descended with a low rumble, the sound fading into the darkness below, until the last flickers of light vanished completely.
Petra was left alone, standing there like a lost child.
For a moment, she didn't move.
The silence stretched.
She should have known that Arthur wouldn't take her with him. There was a limit to his patience, and he had probably already guessed that they were here for the same thing.
Petra grumbled in a small, lazy voice filled with annoyance, then she turned around and looked towards the deep pit that stretched endlessly downwards into the darkness.
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
Then…
She jumped!
With a 'swoosh', she shot down.
The wind rushed past her like a blade. The endless shaft blurred around her, as she fell at a terrifying speed, her small form cutting through the air like a shadow. Her cloak fluttered violently, and her bag swung from side to side.
Woosh!
Just before the bottom came into view, two faint, translucent shapes burst out from her back, stretching out and barely missing her bag.
They snapped once, then… began vibrating so fast that they left an afterimage.
The wind that exploded outwards threw dust into a spiral, as she slowed abruptly, jolted up, and then plopped down softly on the cold floor like a feather.
What, did you think this ant wasn't special? Did you think she wouldn't have wings?
Bah! She just likes walking!
It definitely didn't have anything to do with a certain green-haired little girl having an immense fear of heights. Such a thought was simply ridiculous!! Impossible! Don't even think about putting that in a Wiki!
Moving on…
Petra straightened her cloak, dusted herself off, and looked around at the extending metal halls that continued in all directions. The air down here was different. It was lighter, colder, and carried a faint metallic scent, something that Petra didn't particularly like.
Looking up, she realized she had beaten the elevator down. Not only had she arrived first, but she also had a head start… a few minutes, at least.
Petra hummed.
With arrogant steps, Petra walked forward and entered the core laboratory as a victor!
-
Unlike the upper level, this area was colder and far more technological. The metallic walls from above were now a compound material mixed with concealed runes, all built together in layers to produce a flat and smooth surface.
It was the difference between a public laboratory and a military base.
Even on Earth, this place would fit in. The halls were sealed, doors reinforced, and glowing security runes ran through the floors like the lights on the ceiling.
Petra skipped past all of it.
None of the runes reacted to her presence.
She walked like a ghost through labyrinthine halls, her steps light and quiet, leaving only the occasional tap of her shelled feet.
-
The first chamber she entered was a massive testing hall used for some kind of experimental generator.
The air was sharp with the scent of ozone and the sound of static.
Dozens of shattered tanks, each nearly five meters tall, lined the walls like broken giants. Thick glass tubes had burst open, their contents long evaporated. Heavy metallic cables sprawled across the floor like tangled tree roots, all of them connected to a cluster of large reactors near the center of the room. Those reactors still flickered weakly with condensed elemental energy.
Blue arcs jumped between the coils, throwing faint sparks into the air, while thin red streams clung stubbornly to the pipes, forming the final traces of elemental energy that refused to fade.
In the center of the chaos stood a raised platform, and on it lay the remains of an experiment.
Petra climbed onto a nearby chair and peered over its back.
Torn blueprints were scattered across the table, burned in places by the radiating waves of wild energy that had carved through the void uncontrollably when this place went out of control. Only one page had survived intact, protected by some other method, likely a high-level spell.
Petra crouched down and peeked at the fragment.
'Elemental Correction | Objective: To stabilize the elemental energy instability within a transplanted individual - [Redacted]: Failed.'
Petra stared at the page for a few seconds, then blinked. She had no idea what any of that meant. She could understand the words, but not the implication. After all, this wasn't her field of expertise.
After a moment to think, she stepped down and moved on, leaving the generator room.
* * *
Time passed.
After checking almost half a dozen more rooms, she finally crossed paths with Arthur's group. Arthur froze the moment he saw her swaggering past. "…You—"
There was a staggered growl.
Petra tilted her head, gave him a polite nod, then walked straight past him and into the next room.
Arthur just stood there, his mouth half-open, not understanding how she had somehow arrived before them. After their last encounter, he had thought about it for a while and quickly came to the conclusion that she didn't possess the same teleportation ability as a puppet.
So then… How did she beat him here?
Was he wrong?
How was that possible?
And why had she waited for him to fix the elevator in the first place? It made no sense! He didn't realize that his inability to see someone's future was actually clouding his judgment. He had only obtained the foresight ability around two years ago, but Arthur was already very reliant on it.
Petra didn't bother explaining.
She disappeared into the shadows ahead.
* * *
The next room she entered was a storage space. Shelves lined the walls, with row after row of empty containers. This had once been the facility's treasury. This was the place where they stored rare materials, research samples, artifacts, test results, and of course money, but now it was all gone, presumably taken during their evacuation.
Everything worth looting had already been moved away.
Petra poked her head in and scanned the room one more time to be sure, then left without another word. In truth, the ant army that was silently scouring the western region had already discovered where the Black Lion had moved to after uprooting all of their facilities.
If she really cared, then it wouldn't be too difficult to catch up with them.
-
At this point, Arthur's team had split into six smaller groups.
Petra passed one of them in the hall, and they froze when they saw her. Petra could tell from their 'fidgety behaviour' that they suspected something, but the number of things that could be 'suspected' was endless. Before they could ask anything, she was already gone, turning down another corner.
The occasional 'crossing of paths' had happened a few times.
Petra could feel their confused and conflicted gazes behind her. They clearly didn't understand what her relationship with Arthur was, or how to treat her.
Arthur's suspicious behaviour didn't help either, it just functioned as fuel for their gossip.
Petra moved on…
-
The air grew heavier in this next part of the laboratory. Her next stop was a sealed chamber for experimentation, specifically targeted at 'human testing'.
This one was… different.
The lights flickered weakly overhead, casting uneven shadows along the corridor. The walls were scarred with blade marks and deep scratches, some of them far too large, or too twisted, to be human.
Rows of shattered glass pods lined the walls, each one big enough to hold a person. Their interiors were coated in a thick black residue, and whatever liquid they once held had long evaporated and condensed into this toxic sludge. A closer inspection showed that the dark substance pooled at the bottom of each pod was a mixture of many things, everything from chemicals and medicine to processed biological materials, er… humans.
Preservation circles were carved beneath each pod, but their runes were cracked and unstable, half-erased by whatever disaster had torn through this place.
Petra looked down.
Faded notes and unclear comments were written across the metal frames of each pod with rough, uneven handwriting left by the researchers.
'Phase Removal: Success Ratio — 2.4% | Next Iteration: Full Bloodline Element Extraction. Test Subject Prepared: Successful.'
'Phase Reintegration: Success Ratio — 1.2% | Next Iteration: Null Bloodline Element Injection. Test Subject Prepared: Failed.'
'Phase Recovery: Success Ratio — 63.1% | Next Iteration: Null Bloodline Element State – 'Stasis'. Test Subject Prepared: Failed - Note: Disastrous level of Incompatibility detected, recommend termination.'
Petra frowned.
She had heard something about this from Rose before.
Apparently, this facility existed for the purpose of transforming individuals into geniuses through bloodline manipulation. They were injecting powerful beast bloodlines into human hosts to increase their innate potential.
According to Soryn, this was a taboo topic in many parts of the world.
Rose was an early victim of this, but the beast blood that had been used on him was from a female beast, resulting in the androgynous appearance he had when Petra first met him.
Petra's mind turned…
The Upper Laboratory was 'stabilizing' something.
The Core Laboratory was 'extracting' something and 'preparing test subjects with a null bloodline'.
That could only mean one thing…
There had to be a Lower Laboratory, and this was the place where the new bloodlines were 'injected'.
"Mm… the basement?"
This place didn't have any records of one… but come on, what evil organization didn't have a basement? Now… how to get there, that was the question.
Petra looked around.
She tilted her head because she had no idea. She derped around a bit, before she tapped her tiny fist into her even smaller palm and nodded to herself.
"Ah-ha!"
If this were her real body, she'd never try this while underground, but here, as an avatar, she could attempt the basic technique, 'Spiritual Sense'.
Spiritual Sense was a technique that turned a cultivator's power into a radar. It could be used in three ways, through 'spiritual energy', 'mental energy', or the 'soul'. Regardless of the method, the process was simple, and that was to extend a wave of energy beyond the body, maintaining it as thinly as possible, and extending the five senses through this.
It was a fundamental technique that would scale alongside a cultivator as they continued to grow.
As for the reason Petra didn't learn this 'free technique' earlier, it was naturally because her mental energy was a bit dangerous.
Petra focused, then sent a wave of mental energy from her main body, through the link connecting her to the avatar, and expanded it outwards like a wave, spreading it through the entire underground laboratory.
* * *
Arthur's eyes shot open as a terrifying wave of mental energy swept across the facility. His entire body froze as the oppressive power swept over him and crushed down.
This was at least a sixth-level Controller!
How was that possible!?
He had fought this thing?!
Cold sweat ran down his forehead.
* * *
The green tide spread outwards, pressing against everything like an unrestrained child. What should have been an invisible wave, even while restricted by the avatar's limit, was still a massive cloud that rolled out like a sea. The walls groaned, the ceiling trembled, and the air became heavy as the mental energy enveloped the entire structure.
-
Now, what was the difference between using the Soul, Spiritual Energy, or Mental Energy to perform this technique?
The soul was the most vulnerable, because extending it outside of the body, even for a short period of time, exposed one to a countless number of threats.
Spiritual energy carried a vast amount of information about its owner. Scanning with it was by far the safest, but it had the problem of behaving differently depending on the person. If a person was naturally very aggressive, the wave of spiritual energy could carry a destructive effect. At the same time, if a person was very lustful, those exposed to the spiritual sense may feel an innate sense of disgust. This wave could also linger around a source for some time, so it was possible to read a person's recent state from their remaining aura if not controlled properly.
And finally, mental energy…
Like the soul, overextending one's mental energy left one's Sea of Consciousness in a vulnerable state. If an enemy was capable of traversing the waves of mental energy, then it was possible for them to enter someone's mind by tracing it back. In addition, the mental energy extended could pierce deeply into another's consciousness and cause unintentional and serious damage if not controlled properly.
Fortunately for Petra, this was only an Avatar.
Petra didn't need to worry about breaking the facility or the people within it, because the channel that throttled her maximum output limited her enough.
* * *
Not long after she finished scanning the entire lab, Petra retracted her spiritual sense and appeared near a collapsed wall, one that may or may not have been her fault. Without hesitation, she stepped forward and walked directly into a flickering teleportation circle that still glowed faintly on the ground.
Whoosh!
-
When Petra emerged from the teleportation circle, she immediately felt bad. Without needing to see, Petra could tell that—
This was where the real horrors began.
The moment her feet touched the ground, a strange wave of stagnant air rolled across her face. It was warm, thick, and moist, carrying the stench of blood, rot, and disinfectant. It was an eerie combination that immediately formed goosebumps.
Her eyes adjusted quickly.
The teleportation circle flickered once behind her, then dimmed, dead. The room she landed in was small, square, and uncomfortably clean, especially considering how bad it smelled. It looked like a landing chamber, the kind meant for short-distance teleportations, but Petra could feel that they had gone very deep into the earth.
There was a single bridge ahead, stretching across a vast drop into absolute darkness. Petra stepped forward slowly, her small feet clicking faintly on the metal surface.
She didn't look down.
Instead, she crossed as if it didn't exist, ignoring the abyss below.
The walk from one end to the other felt long, too long. What should have been a few seconds seemed to stretch into minutes. At the end of the bridge, a large door waited silently. It was sealed, with a smooth silver surface and faint runes that flowed in intertwining patterns that didn't make sense.
It was locked, and clearly used a lock far more complex than the one from before.
Petra tilted her head, then reached into her satchel and pulled out a small glass vial filled with a swirling grey poison. She tossed the grey vile against the large gate, then swaggered forward.
The reaction was instant.
Hiss! Crack! Pop!
The poison corroded through the door like a piece of paper in the rain. The Tower Spiders' Venom was the undisputed King of siege warfare. There wasn't a wall that it couldn't melt through.
Hoong!
With a low groan, the massive door crashed open. Bang! The loud bang that resounded from the collapsed door shook the air.
-
Petra stepped inside.