"Zrelekai doesn't surprise me anymore," murmured Tyel angrily. "I've already heard about the things he has been doing to his experiments; I'm lucky he has gone easy on you," he added.
"What other worse things can he possibly do?" shouted Vane, surprised. Orechin positioned his hand over Vane's shoulder and shook his head. "It's better that you don't know. No human should ever do that."
"Now that I think about it!" said Lily as she clapped her hands together, noticing the air in the room becoming heavier. "We haven't introduced ourselves properly to each other yet. You know our powers, but for example, we don't know yours," said Lily cheerfully, looking over at Orechin and Syrmax.
"Yeah, I'm curious too. I've seen you creating crystals in the fight against Corvinus, but what are they supposed to be?" asked Liro curiously, looking at the red crystals in Orechin's hands.
"My power lets me create three different crystals, each of a different color and with a different purpose," said Orechin while smirking. Suddenly, he created a small blue crystal in his hands and opened his palm to give it to Liro.
"Take it," offered Orechin. Syrmax and Tyel, who already knew this trick, both sighed heavily. As Liro moved his hand to grab it, the others noticed that his hand was moving slower, while everything around him was going faster.
Right before Liro could take it, the crystal disappeared into Orechin's hands. "What? Everything was going faster… how is this supposed to work?" asked Liro with multiple sparkles in his eyes.
"It felt like he was moving slower than normal," pointed out Darian. He was still lying on the sofa and had started to pet the unconscious Snowy while the creature lay on top of his chest.
"Exactly. The blue crystal makes time go slower for the people next to it," he said, creating a green crystal in his hands.
"But for us, it was moving normally," pointed out Vane.
"The range of the crystal is determined by how big it is; a crystal this small will never create any problem." Then Orechin moved his hands toward Vane, and the moment the human opened them, the green crystal fell into Vane's hands.
Vane remained confused for a few seconds until suddenly he felt part of his strength being drained. "Hey!" he shouted angrily, dropping the crystal on the ground. "It was draining my strength," he added as the crystal shattered into multiple parts and disappeared.
"This green one lets me drain strength from other people's bodies and give it to mine. And for the last one…" Orechin grabbed the last crystal he already had in his hands, which was red.
"This one can either create a warm temperature…" Orechin smashed the crystal in his hands and the room became warmer, "...or it can store kinetic energy and explode whenever I want." After that, Orechin looked directly over at Syrmax, who realized it was his turn and coughed once before speaking.
"Yes, my power isn't as difficult to understand as Orechin's. I can simply store energy from the sun into my body and launch it in the form of an explosion," said Syrmax as he adjusted his monocle.
"Oh, that is why before, when you saved us, you looked different," pointed out Liro. Syrmax nodded his head. "Exactly. I had a lot of energy stored in my body, so my muscles were bigger than these," he answered.
"So are you basically useless in a dark place like this?" asked Darian. Syrmax looked down for a moment before answering. "Yes, and that is why I always help whenever the sun is up in the sky."
Darian then suddenly turned toward Tyel. "And what is your power?" he asked, as he didn't know the truth.
"You should not ask that…" whispered Liro next to Darian's ear. Suddenly, Tyel got up and spoke with a reassuring tone. "Oh, don't worry, he doesn't know." With that, Tyel sat down in front of Darian and started to speak again.
"It's just that… I don't know what my power is. It feels like it hasn't awakened yet." Hearing these words, Darian felt extremely surprised. "Really? Is it possible?" he asked.
"Then you're like me; I don't have a power as long as Snowy isn't with me," said Darian while smiling. Tyel did the same.
"But I will not remain powerless forever. Like a hero who arrives in the moment of need, my power will do the same!" shouted Tyel as he closed his fist. Orechin and Syrmax both laughed softly. The moment Tyel gave them an annoyed look, they slowly turned quiet.
"By the way, I'm curious, Darian. How were you able to survive for this much time? You said it was called a black hole, no?" asked Orechin, turning toward him curiously.
"Can you explain it, or do you feel too much pain?" asked Syrmax as he adjusted his monocle while looking at Darian, who moved his body and sat up on the sofa rather than lying down.
"I can explain, there is no need to worry," he said, continuing to pet Snowy, who was now on his lap. Everyone turned their attention toward Darian, and with that, he started to explain how a black hole works, and the whole night passed by.
"It's too hard to follow… I couldn't understand anything," said Orechin the moment Darian finished explaining everything. "It doesn't matter how many times I listen to this; I never get used to this explanation," whispered Vane. He had already tuned out after the first five seconds and just enjoyed looking at Orechin's confused expression.
"That's great, and now sorry to interrupt you, Darian," said Tyel as he slowly took the attention of everyone in the room. Seeing that, Darian turned quiet and invited him to speak. "Go on," he said.
Knowing that Tyel was about to be the next one to speak, Syrmax and Orechin turned quiet, understanding that he was about to talk about the plan for the next few days.
"As we all know, they have brought Catripple to another sort of laborator—" Tyel couldn't even start to speak before Darian, hearing those words, became confused and immediately shouted, "What do you mean Catripple has been taken away?" shouted Darian as he started to glance around.
'Now that I think about it, she actually isn't here…' thought Darian, confused. "Isn't she sleeping in another room?" he asked. The others didn't even need to answer him; Darian understood the answer just by looking at their sad faces.
"Me and Tyel heard from other guards that a prisoner had been sent somewhere else, and after we weren't able to find her…" answered Liro as he looked at the floor with a sad look on his face.
"…We realized that she has been taken away. While you were speaking, I had time to think… and I was able to remember one of the most forgettable things about this prison, even for us guards." Hearing these words, attention immediately returned to Tyel, and everyone else listened to him.
"Another thing? I don't remember you telling us something like this ever…" whispered Syrmax as he started to remember what Tyel might be talking about. "I don't remember either…" added Orechin.
"I didn't have any reason to tell you about this yet…" said Tyel. "Especially because I completely forgot…" he whispered while looking away. The others, not being able to hear what he had said, looked at him confusedly.
Tyel coughed and started to speak again. "The day I joined, I heard some of the guards saying that a prisoner was sent to this special prison. I curiously asked what that was and if there were other prisons, and they answered that extremely dangerous prisoners are sent to this place, which is the same place in which Ashikunz is supposed to be living."
Hearing these words, Orechin smashed his hand on the table. "If Ashikunz really lives there, that means he's definitely waiting for us there…" he pointed out. Tyel nodded his head.
"I don't know yet, so I might be wrong, but tomorrow I'll try to inform myself and I'll bring news as fast as I can," said Tyel. Everyone else in the room nodded their heads.
"I think that for now we can all go to sleep, as I'm extremely tired…" said Orechin while stretching. "I agree. It's too late, and if I don't pay attention, the guards might spot me," said Tyel as he got ready to go outside.
"Wait, what will happen if they spot you?" asked Vane, confused.
"They will definitely ask me where I've been all this time, and inventing an excuse is too hard… I'd better be going. I'll see you tomorrow, guys." With that, Tyel waved at the group and went outside.
"For your rooms, you can follow us. We've got a single room for all of you, so you don't have to worry," said Syrmax, understanding that Orechin was already too tired to lead them there.
"Thank you for doing it, Syrmax," said Orechin as he entered one of the rooms in the long hallway next to the big room.
"Wait, I need my backpack," said Darian as he slowly returned to his feet. While his whole body was still crying in pain, he searched with his eyes until he found the backpack next to his sofa. The moment he took it, he immediately pulled the phone out and noticed that Rusty had spammed tons of texts.
'Are you alright, Master?' Darian noticed that Rusty had spammed different texts over multiple days. Seeing that Darian had never replied, he understood that Rusty was definitely getting worried.
'Are you alive, Master? Do I need to immediately send the others when they arrive?' Seeing all these texts, Darian remembered when he forgot to tell his mother that he had arrived in Paris and she was getting extremely worried; Darian had found himself with multiple messages all over his phone.
"Oh right, you told us that Zrelekai had taken that picture of yours…" said Liro as he started to get closer to Darian. Suddenly, when he was close enough, Darian took a picture of Liro and sent it to Rusty.
Liro, who didn't expect that, made a sort of scared face. Seeing that, Darian laughed softly. 'I'm alright, I'll explain it to you once I return.' After that, Darian took a new picture of himself with his thumbs up and sent it to Rusty, who replied immediately.
'I'm glad to hear that. I'll be happy to hear your story after you return,' answered Rusty, and Darian smiled. "Hey, take a picture of me too!!" shouted Vane as he stuck out his tongue and made a stupid face.
Darian laughed softly and immediately took the picture of Vane and sent it to Rusty. "Let's see how he replies…" whispered Darian.
'… At least you've remained the same.' Seeing these answers, Darian smiled warmly, turned off his phone, and put it back in the backpack. With that, he grabbed Snowy in his hands again and started to walk toward the others.
Syrmax looked at them confusedly, as he had never seen anything like that. "Let's just say that it's an object that lets you talk with someone far away and you can send them what you're seeing," said Darian as he noticed Syrmax's confused look. "Alright…" he said, though he was mostly confused by Vane's reaction.
"You can follow me; the rooms are this way," said Syrmax as he started to walk down the hallway, followed by the others. "This is the first room," he said, pointing to a room on his right.
"Ladies first!" said Lily warmly as she entered the room before waving at the group. "Well, good night, guys," she said before closing the door.
"There surely are tons of empty rooms…" pointed out Liro as he realized who they might have belonged to.
"They all belonged to the old rebels before they got killed… you can pick any other room except this one, which is mine, and this other one," said Syrmax, pointing to the doors in front of and behind him.
"This one is mine, while the other one belongs to Catripple," said Syrmax.
"Understood… well, good night everyone. I'm extremely tired," said Vane as he entered one of the rooms and closed the door behind him.
"I'm feeling really tired too; I'll do the same," said Liro as he entered the room right next to Vane's. "Well, I'm going to sleep too… thank you for everything," said Darian with a warm smile.
"There is no need to worry, Sir Darian. We are the ones who are grateful," said Syrmax, adjusting his monocle, as he looked at Darian, who entered the room before closing his door too.