"The person can also be an anomaly. Don't they, princess?" Lysander turned towards Gwen with a wide grin on his face.
Every eye in the room was now turned towards Gwen, who had a discomforted frown on her face.
'What is the meaning of that? Don't tell me...'
Gwen gave an indifferent reaction to his words.
Dr Turner found himself tormented by the mounting suspense and the implications they were piecing together.
"What is the meaning of those words, Gwen?" Dr Turner asked as his mask of calmness was fading away.
"It means exactly what he is trying to say, Doctor," Gwen answered in her usual indifferent tone.
"Sneha is behind all of this," Lysander said, looking towards Dr Turner.
'What? I thought… well, at least I didn't say it loud. Sneha… oh yes, even she has omensight, but what could be her motive to hurt Emily? Doesn't matter, if I find her, I'll mess her up.'
"Sneha, but what could she gain from that?" Dr Aria's composure slipped the moment she heard that name.
"That doc is something, she is going to spit. Once I beat it out of her," Lysander clenched his hands.
Dr Turner looked visibly discomforted by that statement.
"But that makes me wanna praise you, Princess." Lysander turned towards Gwen with a grin.
She was as still as a marble.
"So you kept quiet. You already knew none of the wardens could be trusted, didn't you?" Lysander asked with a frown on his face.
"That, along with my intuition," Gwen answered calmly.
"Ah, yes, that stupid alarm clock of yours." He mocked her.
"But still, what could force her to do something like that?" DDrTurner was unable to shape the information.
There was a loud silence.
"Hey brat, do you have something else in your Pandora's box, or is that all?" Lysander tried to break the silence by asking the question.
Emily wasn't even listening to all of that; she was in her own world.
"Emily?" Emil asked her softly.
"Huh? What? What happened?" Emily was flustered.
She looked around, saw the expressions on everyone's face, and maybe concluded what was going on.
"No. But today, we at least have a chance to find out why she's doing all this." Emily said while trying to rearrange herself.
Lysander looked at her as if wanting to say something. But the words never escaped his mouth.
"What did you see, Emily?" Gwen asked softly.
"I saw her meeting with someone, though I could not get a good look at his face. They were talking about the end of the facility."
"Did you get his name?" Lysander asked coldly.
"Xaoc." She stopped at the name, like she knew how the chaos of that bell was going to sound.
Dr Turner's face paled; one could tell that if it weren't for the worldly laws of the body, he would've burst from listening to that alone. Dr Aria could not handle the name that struck such fear in her heart that it could have been heard by someone standing in the hallway. She started losing her footing.
Even Gwen, carved from cool marble and light, found herself stirred by the name.
The smiling maniac may have had more of a reserved reaction, but that arrogant smile was nowhere to be seen on his face.
'What the hell? Even that arrogant bastard got scared? What kind of a monster is that guy?'
For some moments, all the sounds of beeps or clanks could be heard from the different rooms of the facility. No one dared to speak as if someone had stolen their voices away.
"Let's go get that wretch. What are we waiting for? Lysander said in a cold, ominous voice.
"We can't do that," Gwen said, regaining her composure.
"And why that, Princess?" Lysander said, irritation bleeding through.
"She is right, we can't do it right now, if we do, then we are going to be answerable to too many people. Especially the Wardens. If Emily is right, then that means the wardens are being controlled by Sneha." Dr Turner said in a dark tone.
"So you conclude that, despite all we know, we can't cut her?" Lysander was boiling.
"Can you? I don't doubt your abilities, Lysander, but no matter what, she's not someone you can handle alone. Her Omensight is something that even The Essentials are wary of. Though if there's a confrontation, she will never make it out alive. But things would be different if we did catch her with that other person and prove our point." Dr Turner tried to make his point.
"So this is how it's going to play out… It's going to be a long night." Lysander let out a sigh.
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
A man with a big white coat, probably in his late 40s, was standing beside two people in wheelchairs. His glasses were shining because of the light that was emanating from the big white sphere in the sky.
'This world is really beneath our real world, huh?'
Emil was sitting in one of the wheelchairs. He was constantly looking here and there, being amazed by the sheer existence of the world. It would have been impossible for him to imagine a few days ago that there was another world just beneath their world.
'That Albert would've gone crazy if he knew about this. It's a good thing I have another one here.'
He smiled at Dr Turner, who gave him a confused look but quickly moved both of his eyebrows upward. Emil, while smiling, shook his head.
'That moon surely looks just like our real one. So, this was created by one of the Essentials. Can't even imagine what kind of monsters those guys will be. And meeting them in three days.'
Emil's hair on the back of the neck stood up, and a cold feeling grasped his heart.
"Hey, Dr Turner," Emil called Dr Turner.
The man must have been diving in the depths of endless calculations, as something unintentional escaped his mouth.
"Harbour key… uh… oh, Emil, what is it?" The Doctor asked with a bit of shakiness in his voice.
Harbour Key? What's that? Not that I could figure it out.'
"Umm… nothing, doctor, if you are busy, just related to the facility and the city."
"Oh…no, it's completely fine. You must be curious about many things. We've still got time."
'Yeah, I don't even know when that bitch Sneha is gonna come out.'
"How big is this city actually? You told me during lunch that our world and the underground city are two patties between two buns, the buns obviously meaning the two hemispheres. This city is directly beneath our world." Emil asked while trying to remember all the details that Dr Turner shared with him during lunch.
"You are right, just like I said, it's like an upside-down world under the ocean and the landmass of the Earth. And as for its length, the entire city is of the length of the big 5 continents, leaving only Antarctica and Australia." DDrTurner answered with years of wisdom.
Emil was dumbfounded.
'What the hell, why call it a city then? Surely there are some naming issues here.'
"Who's the stupid person who named this city?" Emily, who was leaning on the wheelchair, with her golden hair, was dancing in the air, asked.
"Um… I don't know if I can answer that. As I don't even know. Truth to be told, nobody knows. As this city was founded, not built." Dr Drunner said while trying to laugh off the bluntness of Emily.
"Yeah, yeah, you told us that. But isn't it stupid to name something this big a city? Not just that, the 9 countries here are actually called towns. I mean, this place is called a facility, but damn, it's the size of a town. You were worried about 10,000, on earth 100,000 people live in this much amount of space." Emily carried on with her rant.
"Well, it's not like those abominations are small, you know," Emil said with an awkward smile that died with one look from Emily.
"Yeah, maybe we should leave the names, I guess." Dr Turner said, forcing a smile.
"I think it's about time," Emily said in an even tone.
Emil and Dr Turner checked their positions.
Trrng. Trrng.
It was a call from someone to Dr Turner.
He put on his ZetCon earphones. He tapped the earphone.
"Yeah, we got to know." Dr Turner said while turning his back towards where he previously faced.
"Well, damn the oracles, Doc. Target's on the way." Lysander, who was on the other side of the call, informed them.
The whole facility was part of a big town named Arianrhod. The town lived under eternal darkness, a constant, suffocating presence that erased the very idea of time. Day and night were distinctions no one bothered to make anymore. The facility itself was quiet. Surrounded by tall walls looming all around the facility. There were 9 buildings in the whole facility, which, when looked at from above, formed a circle.
In the middle, there was a tenth building. Where the Savants lived. And Sneha was supposed to come through the building now.
'This sure is a big place. Where would she go to meet that person? It's not like she's some lowlife. Well, the only reason we came here is that DDrTurner wanted to talk with her for the last time.'
The wind was really playing its part today. It was one of those days where you knew something beautiful was about to unfold, like a secret the world was ready to reveal. Emil's heart was racing. Was he excited? Was he scared? It's not like those things mattered now.
From the entrance of the building, a girl emerged—draped in a red top and worn-in jeans, as if she carried a quiet defiance stitched into every thread. Strands of her thick black hair kept slipping free, her hands chasing them in a losing battle against the restless air.
Her face seemed sculpted from brown clay—smoothed, refined, almost too deliberate to be real. There was a stillness to it, the kind that didn't ask for attention yet stole it anyway. One look at someone like her could cause someone to lose their sense of time.
'She is beautiful… No… No… She wanted to hurt your sister, remember?'
Even the steps she took were mesmerising. The sway of her hips, her enchanting smile, were creating a chain of unspoken promises that lingered in the air, binding every gaze to her passing shadow.
"Hey, Emily, are you sure that her only ability is Omensight. There's a certain magic about her presence?" Emil asked in an even tone, maybe he also wanted to tease her a little.
Only a complete idiot like Emil could joke in a situation like this; maybe this is what Emily thought before answering.
"Well, she has two more abilities, but it has nothing to do with her face, dumbass." She answered with a slap to the back of his head.
"AAwwwwwch!" Emil screamed from the pain.
'Not that hard, genius. Plan or not, I've still not fully recovered.'
Sneha, who was probably planning to go in the opposite direction, was arrested mid-step by the scream.
"Emil, you do remember, right?" Emily said, now her tone had completely changed.
Though the scream was part of the big plan they had made. There was something else that was only between the siblings.
Sneha noticed Dr Turner and waved a hand towards him. Dr Turner did the same.
Sneha started walking towards them.
Emil was now lost in a memory.
***
"Emil, how many abilities do you have?" Emily asked.