Lysithea opened her eyes to a cold dark ceiling and a hard-stone floor underneath her body. She sat up and tried to take stock of where she was.

She was in a cell. A damp cell, with only a single torch from the hallway to light it. It was hard to discern much around her, not that there was anything there apart from her. The stone underneath her felt cold and looked warm. She couldn't quite recognize where she was, but she was probably somewhere underground due to the sound of water dropping above.

The walls were worn, but solid. There would be no breaking through them. No, the only way out was through a metal bar door that she most certainly did not have the key for.

It didn't take long for her to remember the circumstances that led to her being there.

Hopefully Flayn and Felix would've been able to escape. She could at least die in some comfort knowing that she had at least done something with the short life that she had.

She stood up and found herself dizzy from trying to do so. There was hardly enough strength in her legs to keep her up as she shakily made her way to tug on the metal door that blocked the one way out. Locked, of course, and sturdy. No way for her to physically pry her way out, not with how weak her body was feeling. Magic might do something, but she couldn't draw on any of it because of the collar around her neck.

There were plenty of tools used to prevent a mage from casting their magic and they often took the forms of things like shackles or other restraining implements. A collar was hardly the worst thing to be forced on her. Demeaning as it was it at least gave her some freedom of movement and it wasn't tight to the point where it was difficult to breathe. It was impossible for her to tear out with brute force though and it too needed a key to open.

She sat back against the back wall and closed her eyes. Seteth would help her parents, he would have to after she had saved Flayn after all. It made her feel guilty to hold that over him, but she had to make sure that her parents would be able to live a peaceful life.

Her classmates would grieve for a while, but they could move on.

Claude would likely have to find a new target for his antics. Hopefully Hilda would keep him company and stop Marianne from blaming herself over every little thing.

Leonie would train even harder from now on, make sure that this didn't happen to anyone else.

Ignatz would probably paint a picture of her or something. She hoped it would look good. Lorenz would commission or probably buy it off him if it was good enough. A nice memorial for a fallen noble she assumed.

Raphael would be sad, but he had been strong enough to live on after the death of his own parents. He could definitely move on after losing her.

Lindhart would have to find a new subject to capture his and Hanneman's interest. He had shown some interest in Marianne but hopefully he would show some restraint after the mistakes he made with her.

Sylvain, well he'd probably start hitting on another girl again soon enough.

The one person she wasn't sure of was the Professor. Would he be sad? Would he show any emotion? She had hoped she hadn't disappointed him. She had done her best after all, hopefully he'd at least remember her as his student. Even if he didn't feel sorrow after her death, he would at least have the strength to carry on for the rest of his students. They would grow and become adults under him, that much Lysithea could take comfort in.

It would be best if they all forgot about her eventually. She'd rather that, than to cause them anymore pain.

The sounds of footsteps echoed down the hallway and Lysithea tensed up. She forced herself to stand as one of her captors came into view.

"You," Lysithea growled as the Death Knight appeared behind her cell.

It opened the door and entered the room. She could consider escaping but it was blocking the one way out and she didn't like her chances of fighting it without her magic.

"Are you working for those mages? Those in the beak like masks and pale skin?" she asked. She had her suspicions, but she needed to confirm them.

"I am."

She tried to suppress the despair that was threatening to overwhelm her. The worse thing that could've happened to her had happened. Those mages had taken her captive again. "You've already implanted me with these two Crests, deemed me a failure. So, what more do you want of me?"

"They've drawn your blood, but that is it." Lysithea pulled up her sleeves and noticed the red marks on her arms. They had drawn blood, a lot of it for that matter. No wonder she had been feeling so weak. "They have no need for you now. They would kill you or use what's left of your body for whatever experiments they please."

"Then just start already." Lysithea tried to hold back the tears in her eyes. She could remember the table, the masks, the needles. She could remember the pain of being cut into. It was how most of her life began and it was now how it would end. "Just get it over with."

"I was under orders to ensure the capture of the green haired girl so that they could draw her blood." That only confirmed that their target had been Flayn all along. "I have received no orders for you, however. Certain experiments will be allowed but they will not kill you, I can assure you of that."

"Why? What do you want with me?"

The Death Knight stepped into the cell and walked toward her. Lysithea moved back and continued doing so until her back was against the wall.

"I sense fear, hatred, and anger in you. Where is it pointed towards?"

"You," Lysithea bit back and tried to stop her voice from trembling. "You and everyone you're working for! I won't stop until every single one of you is dead!"

Lysithea's eyes grew wide as the Death Knight actually chuckled. "Yes. That's all that matter for you. No friends, no family, just that rage that keeps you living. Let it fester. Let it grow in you until you can't hold it back any longer." It stood back up and towered over her. "And then once you have tossed away everything, until you are nothing but Death itself. Then you will be ready."

This thing was supposed to be a person. She had confirmed that when she had struck it and it had bled red blood. And yet at this moment it was more frightening than any Demonic Beast, than any Ghost that might've haunted her. This thing was truly and utterly insane.

Lysithea's heart frantically as he kneeled down closer until the skull it wore was just inches from her face. "I have a need for you in the future. And once we rid ourselves of everything including our weaker selves, then we'll finally be truly free to kill each other to our heart's contents."

She kicked it. Her leg bounced off the metal guard of its pants, but she had just kicked it. It was there, it was real, and she could most certainly kill it if she could get this collar off and use her magic.

The Death knight glanced at the spot she had kicked, shrugged it off as if she was an insect that had just tried to bite it, and stood up. He moved back, finally giving her the space that she needed. "Much farther into the future it seems, but there is another, the one with the sword that might satisfy my needs."

"You leave the Professor alone," Lysithea shouted. It was stupid. There was nothing she could do and the Professor hardly needed protecting. And yet she couldn't stand the thought of this thing threatening him.

"Then become even stronger than him and I'll go for you instead." The Death Knight then turned around, left the room, and closed the cell door behind it.

It wasn't until he was finally gone that she finally collapsed into a sweaty and shaking mess in her cell.

She would be left alive apparently, but for how long? And what did he have planned for her?

She held her knees against herself and cried into them. Either way, there was no hope left for her.

Time had no meaning in the dungeons. Lysithea had no idea how long it had been since they had resumed their experiments on her.

She was a child again. Taken to some dark room where they kept poking and prodding at her body with her tools, while all she was too helpless to do anything but watch. The drugs they gave her made it hard her to fight back as they strapped her to a table, but she was still awake to experience everything that they did to her.

This was no longer a nightmare or a memory fresh in her mind. She was actually here again. The stench of burning incense, the sight of their beak like masks, the stiffness of the table against her bare back, it was just as she remembered it.

"Subject's body is degrading as expected," one of the mage's commented. "The strain of her Crests is destroying it as predicted."

"High magical affinity though? Was that recorded in the previous experiments?"

Don't fight. There was no point in fighting now. Just think about something else. Recite the formulas for magic in her head, replay the tactical scenarios the Professor would give her, just think about anything but the feeling of getting cut into by these people.

"Subject showed some magical affinity as a child, though current levels are unprecedented. Is this the result of her Crests?"

"Perhaps but our other subject shows only adequate magical skill at best. Might just be an outlier."

So, there were more like her. Others who had gone through the torture that she was going.

"What is the expected lifespan then?"

"Five years most likely."

Wait. No. That was wrong. She had more than that.

"I thought it was ten?" one of them asked.

Exactly. It had to be a mistake.

"No. That was a lie we told her. We wanted to see if a psychological impression could extend the life of the subject. It doesn't"

"No! You said I had ten years!" Lysithea thrashed against her bindings in vain. It couldn't be. She had to have more time than that. She couldn't have just lost half of what little life that she had left.

One the mages glanced at her. "Subject is getting frantic, should we increase her dosage?"

"No let her vent. Nothing she can do to us."

"Let me go! I can't just lay down here with the time I have left!" Lysithea continued shouting. She didn't care if she didn't have her magic. She would rip her hands free and stab them with their own scalpels if she had to.

"Somewhat funny isn't it?"

"Not so funny when we'll have to deal with this from now on. Subject knows too much at this point, can't be allowed free, but we can't kill her anyway because of the Death Knight."

"Just do as he wants until the Flame Emperor arrives. Even he doesn't disobey orders from them."

"Flame Emperor?" Lysithea asked as she tried to catch her breath.

"Our success and the one who will change this world. You and those before you should be proud for leading the way toward that."

"Proud!?" Lysithea shouted once more. Whoever the Flame Emperor was, she would kill them too. "They all died because of you. I'm dying because of you and you expect me to be proud of that?"

"What are a few lives for a new world in which we can finally rule?"

"You're all insane. The Professor will hunt you down, I'll hunt you all down. I'll kill every single one of you!"

"We are eternal. We have been here since the founding of this false nation and we'll exist long after you're dead." He grabbed her by the throat forced her to look into the holes of his mask. "You are not special. You are an inferior specias, another disposable pawn in the grand scheme of things."

Lysithea spit onto his mask.

"Give me the extractor."

"I thought we were supposed to keep her alive?"

"The Death Knight never said anything about hurting the subject."

"Understood."

They stabbed something into her and soon it felt like her entire body was burning. No matter how much she screamed and how much she thrashed, they wouldn't stopped. The pain kept coming, wave after wave of it, until she couldn't even move. All she could do was lay there and whimper as her body continued to shriek from the pain.

"Not so tough, are you? You should be aware of who's in control here," one of the mages taunted her as he finally removed the tool from her skin.

Lysithea gasped in relief as the burning finally stopped.

"I expect you to be more obedient from now on."

Her response was to turn her head, catch her breath, and then spit onto his robes.

"A pity."

He pressed the blades to her skin once more and the pain returned. She lost track of how long it went, how long she let out a voiceless scream. It was only until her vision clouded over and the darkness took over, that she was finally allowed to rest.

That was preferable to the reality before her though.