Chapter Six
The room was awfully decorated in Victorian style. But the disappointing thing was how the room's design was held with a purpose to look dark, such that only light was shone like an experimentation platform.
This room was a conference room, a very dark one, the curtains heavy and had wavelengths from 300 to 400 nanometers. Only a small amount of visible light was shown, and it was directly from the window. There was a ray of light, as thin as a stick, coming towards the room. The light has stopped right on the floor, and in between the light were dust particles flying everywhere. Lots of bacteria might be in it but also lots might have just died from the heat.
"Sir," a man in a dress suit walked into the conference room. The hallway was bright, but after he closed the door, the dark had won again.
The man who was referred to as Sir turned his head around after having standing before the light for a quick, 30 minutes. "Speak."
The young man nodded and handed over a couple of files to the man referred to as Sir. "Here are the files on record. Enigia College orders two teams to go to the Maldives."
The older man began to look at the files, and suddenly, he threw them down onto the conference table. He was enraged and evilly laughing at the same time. "Hahahahaha! If Enigia College wants to play it hard, then I will make it happen!"
"Sir," the man voiced up, "What are we going to do about the Maldives?"
"You don't have to worry about that," the older man responded as he clutched his fingers all together into one. He walked to the window and stared at the outside. "We will have a change of plan. Enigia College thinks they are ahead of us? Hahahahaha, they are far from being ahead! Our founder has just told me the first phase has begun. Now..." he began to hold onto the curtains and carefully he slide them to the side. This time, the light was shining everywhere in the conference. There was no need for a candle or lights turned on. "Let's make Enigia College have some fun."
Fun meaning chaos.
The young man nodded and went to collect the files from the table. The files were all scattered and ruined. It was best to throw them away since the older man threw them down like a piece of trash.
"Book the most luxurious of the hotels and resorts of Maldives. And also, make sure Enigia College gets the best hotel there is."
The young man did not quite understand. Why would he want the enemy to have the best place to stay? He figured maybe it was part of the plan, or maybe because this was a sign of fooling the college.
"Yes Sir, I'm on it," the man hurriedly said and walked out of the conference room.
Once the man was out of the room, the older man, in his business attire, stared at the window.
He could see his image reflected from the window. His hair was turning white and his beard was forming. It was time to become an old man, and he evilly smirked. Being an old man with lots of plan and knowledge, that was usually rare. Only masterminds came to the front when they were young, and to be able to continue to their old age, it was an achievement.
"The First Phase of Blight won't be as easy as you think, Enigia College. I won't make you think it is the first phase… there's more than that. You think it only happens at the Maldives? Hahahahaha, scumbags fall for the trick easy!"
The man began to touch the glass window with his gloves over his hand. No wonder how glass was an amazing medium, he would surely like to try using glass to fight. "Enigia College is such a fool that they don't know they have been keeping him, I'm very astonished they haven't figured out his true identity yet. He does a really good job at hiding, but that sick boy is getting in the way. I need to make sure he comes back to the founder and Mephitic Circle."
In the small island country of Maldives.
It was 6:30 a.m. in this small country. From the airplane of Enigia College, passengers could see a vast ocean surrounded by a small island. The Maldives are made up of many other islands, but their destination was the main island. As anyone who were flying to the Maldives, they could see the opening of a huge ocean trapping a small landmass, like it was trying to eat up the country. Statistics do reflect that the Maldives was going to be in danger because too much water will eventually have the country submerged. The likely cause might be due to global warming.
Inside the plane were two teams of students, AND Team and LIE Team. The plane also consisted of other people, but they were not the instructors.
"Bright, look at this!" Bunny exclaimed as she showed the blind girl her tablet. Bunny was sitting next to Bright to her right, and her left was a window, which meant Bright was sitting by the aisle. Since Bright was blind, there was no need for her to sit by the window. Bunny was the one who could see, so of course, she could enjoy the view of the outside.
Bright faced to the tablet. She could sense that the tablet was right in front of her now, but she was not able to figure out what Bunny was trying to let her see. The only thing she was able to feel was the excitement in Bunny. There was no way she could feel the inside of the tablet and the motherboard because they do not have senses or feelings.
"Bunny, I can't see, remember?" Bright stated.
Bunny gasped and took the tablet away. "OMG I completely forgot. I was mesmerized by this stupid comedy!" Bunny apologized by explaining. She closed the tablet and decided to just stare at the ocean from the window.
"What's so stupid about it?" Bright questioned.
"It's nothing," Bunny shook her head as she answered. If Bright cannot see it, then what was the meaning of telling her? Words cannot explain the picture at all perfect. When someone sees it, they will know how to react. But when someone hears it, they do not know what to react because they are missing the sight component.
Meanwhile, the other team, the AND Team, they were completely silent. This was unusual because Mitch and Princess always have interactions going on. The one who was always annoyed was Mitch, but right now, the annoyed one was Princess.
Both were sitting by each other, Princess by the window, and Mitch near the aisle. Princess had her head cupped by one of her hand. She kept viewing the scenery of the ocean from the window. At this moment, Mitch could tell she was thinking. Thinking so that the presence of him was gone.
When the plane reached the Maldives, they stopped by the airport. When they got out of the plane, they could feel warmth and humidity of the place. They got their suitcases and luggage and went straight to the booked hotel.
Mitch and Princess shared the same room while Bunny and Bright shared their own. Each room consisted of two beds, a couch, a television, a closet, and a restroom. This was always the case for them. In Princess and Mitch's case, they had been working for seven semesters now, so it was not new to them. While Bunny and Bright was in their third semester, they had always been in the same room unlike Believe and Bling.
"Wow, you can never tell if this place was good!" Bunny commented on the designs of the interior.
"If good got you to be working on a mission here, then I guess you have that dream fulfilled," Princess said as she unlocked her room from the key. When she entered, she just walked in.
"Don't mind her," Mitch said when he saw Bunny's confused face. The two teams has worked before, and Bunny knows Princess's behaviors so well to the point that today, it was different compared to the previous ones.
"How did she get all emotional?" Bright questioned as she dropped her suitcase by the wall. "Today, she's unusually odd."
"But wasn't she always emotional towards Mitch?" Bunny asked the question differently to Bright. Clearly, both of them had no clue how to answer their own versions of question. Bunny walked right in to the restroom to see the designs. "OMG, this is so good! The Maldives is one of the best places on my list now!"
Bright unpacked her belongings as she listened to Bunny's comments on everything nice she has seen so far.
"OMG, Bright! If you could see, you would be so amazed by now!" Bunny screamed as she walked out of the restroom to the bed. She laid on the bed and covered her head with the blanket.
"No thank you," Bright rejected as she continued to unpack. "I would rather live with blindsight than to see good and bad together at once."
"Bright, you're no fun," Bunny mumbled in the blanket. She loves Bright as her friend, but sometimes talking to a blind person was boring. There were so many things Bunny needed to explain to Bright because she has never seen the actual world with her true vision. Everything that was common sense to others and everything that was enjoyable, all of them of which Bright could not even see at all.
"You just realized that?" Bright asked.
"Ugh, I meant it sarcastically," Bunny rolled her eyes as she complained. She stood right back up to see Bright finished unpacking. "Bright, can you help me unpack too?"
Without second thought, Bright walked to get the purple eyed girl's suitcase. She began to unpack Bunny's stuff after she opened the suitcase.
"You are the best!" Bunny screamed as she hugged her best friend. There was no other person who could do something for her than Bright. Maybe the advantage of having no eyesight was good that she can do things for Bunny. With eyesight, she probably would want to do her own things because doing something creative requires good eyesight and to be able to use vision.
"We better get going in an hour. They have us on mission today." They just got out of the plane and they have a mission in two hours. The college did not even gave them a break. The college assumed they slept on the plane, so that was a rest.
Bunny nodded as she dressed on her usual mission outfit. It's fabric was made closer to metal. Students were not allowed to wear skirts or dresses but long protective pants. Professor Borraw likes to have his own style for his students' clothing. He designs the outfit himself and has the manufacturer create them. Bunny had her name tag on her right shoulder while Bright had hers on the left. The name tag was made out of gold and had carved letters of their names.
When both of them got out of the room, they saw Princess and Mitch waiting for them. Bunny scratched her head. Were they already late?
Princess and Mitch's mission uniform was also made of metal-like fabric. Their color was black and brown. When Princess is in the outfit, she looks way too skinny. If they were to call Princess something by just the look on her outfit, she would be called Agent Princess.
"Let's go," the rich girl ordered and walked to the elevator.
Bunny and Bright followed along. Mitch just walked casually to the elevators.
None of them talked. Princess was not in the mood and will never be. It was the wrong time for her to be moody. If it was not for what happened to her and Mitch a week ago, she would be so prepared for the mission. Well, she was still prepared, but her mood was way too down.
They reached the mission center that was built in the Maldives. The center was Hypergen Corporation, one of Enigia College's research partners. The motto for the corporation is "discovering chaotic memories", one of the funded projects Enigia College has been trying to capture. The idea was that Principal Mayor wanted to find a piece of memory he encountered years ago that he could not remember. It was episodic and he could never forget the day he felt intense fear. The event was tragic but he was unable to retrieve it. Hypergen Corporation is in charge of finding memories, and there are lots of people who volunteer to be experiments for conducting brain activity during test scans. The experimenters also had to undergo a memory loss and they were given the task to retrieve it. So far, none has ever reached to that step yet. The part of erasing their memory before going onto the experiment platform was supposed to be something tragic. Scientists selected random memories of the brains and erased them, having them to find it… was just intimidating.
The four walked in to the laboratory to meet a few scientists plugging in machines and screens.
"Welcome, students of Enigia College. The Mephitic Circle has disclosed us the location of The Sleeping Surrexerunt."
"What's that?" Bunny asked. She thought the mission was to take down the group who started the first phase of blight from Mephitic Circle.
"Apparently," the scientist began to explain, "We wouldn't be able to catch them that easily. We don't know their faces yet. If they disclose us information, we need to grasp on them as quickly as possible without losing to them. At this point, it's an important piece of information we need to hold advantage onto. If they disclose us this, then that means they are trying to find the Surrexerunt."
"What's that, now?" Bunny found herself to ask using the same words for a different question.
"It's a Latin word," a scientist said as he wrote the word down on a chalkboard. He spelled the word out and wrote the meaning of the word. "It is the Latin word for rose. The Sleeping Rose. This rose is said to have a unique power. If you were to acquire it, you would gain the power from the rose. The rose has been untouched for centuries, that's why it's called the Sleeping Rose."
"It's dangerous to go down there," another scientist said.
"Where… What do you mean… down there?" Princess asked, a little now confused. She needs to know what she will be expecting for this mission.
"Unfortunately, it's under the sea. Actually, under the Indian Ocean. It's deep down… like an abyss. Nobody is able to come back up."
Princess had no words to say anymore. She did not know if she was afraid or what.
Mitch could see Princess's expression. The all perfectionist was finally getting scared of dying or… something relevant.
Bunny thought of changing the atmosphere so she started to suggest something, "Wait, why do we need to get this Rose? We could just have the Mephitic Circle get it themselves and then we fight them."
"Not that easy, young lady," the scientist who explained earlier said. "Every information disclosed to us we need to hold on to it. We cannot just sit here and have Mephitic Circle get what they want. They will want the Rose for their own purposes, that is why we need to stop them. We do not need to get the rose, we must protect it from having them steal it."
"Isn't it better if we take it instead?" Mitch asked.
"And what will you guys be doing with the rose?"
Mitch smirked. "Our principal loves collecting ancient material. It's what gives us the college a specialty. This rose can be used for research purposes."
All the scientists in the laboratory looked at Mitch. Even though Mitch brought up an interesting topic for the research, it was still wrong to steal the rose. The only thing that was against humanity was stealing, so even if they could use the rose for research purposes, it would be the same as what Mephitic Circle wanted to do with the rose.
"We will have to think about this with Mister Mayor."
"But for now, let's focus on the mission," one of the scientist began. "We have provided a ship for you four to enter. You four will enter the ship at 9 a.m. Once the ship has reached the middle of the Indian Ocean, two of you will need to jump down to the ocean."
"What if… someone here doesn't know how to swim?" Bunny asked as she pointed towards Bright.
"She can not swim?"
"Well," Bunny pauses for a few seconds. "She's blind."
"Then she will take care of the ship from up there," the man responded. He then gave the four of them passes. "Here are the passes. It will get you to the ship. They will know you are the students in the mission. You guys better get going now. We have set up the screen and soon you will be able to connect with us and your instructors. The ship has two screens. One screen to connect with the instructor and the other screen to view what is down there."
As he finished explaining, the four were ordered to leave. They got inside the car they provided and sat there for two hours straight.
At 9 a.m., the car reached the location of the ship. Four of them got out of the car and ran as fast as they could to the ship only to be stopped by someone.
This person came up to them out of the blue and attacked them.
He was a pretty short guy and dressed in black. He held onto an evil smirk that gave them the thought that he was waiting for them for a long time. This person did not want them to get on the ship!
"Princess! Mitch! You guys go on ahead! We can handle this guy!" Bunny shouted as she began to attack the person.
The person laughed. "All of you won't be able to go onto the ship that easily!" And the next moment he punched Bunny in the stomach and kicked Bright out of the way.
Later, he reverted the place, and the two seniors were gone. Bunny and Bright stood up to see Princess and Mitch gone. What in the world just happened?
"What did you do!" Bunny screamed.
"They were sent to hell!" the person exclaimed.
A moment later, Bright whispered something under her breath as she closed her eyes. She chanted a few words and suddenly she opened her grey eyes. Her eyes were darker than before. There was wind blowing around her and it got bigger as it formed into a tornado. Immediately she controlled the wind through her eyes. The tornado traveled towards the boy and hit him in the chest.
"Bunny, your turn!" Bright shouted as she continued to control the tornado.
"Will do!" Bunny said and began to use both of her hands to place onto the ground. She felt the harden rock underneath and finally she cracked the cement. The purple eyed girl raised her arms up, leaving the ground to keep breaking. In the next second, she manipulated the movement of the cement and caused more ground material to break. As the fault reached the boy, she stopped it and suddenly put her hands into a fist. There, huge rocks began to come out of the ground and struck on the boy.
The boy was sent flying but was brought back down. He landed onto the ground to see Bunny running towards him. She knelt down and grabbed him up like she was going to throw him somewhere far into space.
"Now tell me where did you send them!" she yelled.
"Heh," he chuckled evilly. Even if he was defeated, there was no way he would expose it. "Why don't you figure out that yourself?"
"You are part of Mephitic Circle are you?!" Bunny grabbed onto his collar. "Answer me!"
Bright walked over to Bunny and stopped her. "Don't pressure on him."
"How can you be so calm! Princess and Mitch is gone!" the purple eyed girl directed her attention at Bright.
Then, the boy laughed. He laughed and laughed until he finally stopped for good. "You want to know? They will be back soon, they are just in their little test I created." Before Bunny could ask more, he poisoned himself to death so he would not expose more information.
"No!" Bunny said.
"He was trying to buy us time," Bright said, "Is the ship still here? I bet it's not."
Bunny looked at where the ship was supposed to be at. The ship was not there at all. Bunny stood up and opened her watch. Five minutes later, she was able to connect to her instructor.
"Professor Borraw, we are at the deck but the ship is not here. We got carried away by one of the Mephitic Circle's member."
"Bunny, the ship isn't supposed to leave until you guys are on board," explained the instructor.
"But it's gone!" Bunny showed the scene to her instructor.
"Crap," Bright said. "Do you think that the Mephitic Circle was trying to buy us time off and get one of their members to the ship? They can easily lie to the people at the ship they are from Enigia College."
Bunny looked at Bright. "You have got to be kidding me."
"That might explain why the ship is gone," Professor Borraw said.
Point of View of Bling
There was light in the room, I can feel it. Wait, what? I immediately woke up to see the morning light of the day. OMG, what time is it now?
Nine in the morning! Shoot, I didn't even set my alarm to seven? Oh no, I will get punished.
I quickly dressed to my usual school uniform and cursed to myself all morning. I just knew it, I just knew it! The moment someone sets the time for a mission or test or wherever, it happens whenever I am always late! Great, so what punishment will I get now?
When I got out of the dormitory I found myself at the cafeteria. I am so hungry I needed someone breakfast before actually going to the whatever place we were supposed to go. I hope the principal won't get mad at me for being late… though I have a record for being late all the time… let's just say I love sleeping.
Nope, I hate sleeping.
Hurrying to the main office, I noticed Professor Utonium in there. He saw me and gave me a look. That look was what am I doing here.
I shrugged and he shook his head. I honestly don't know where this room was supposed to be at. I thought it was in the main office? But no, it's not, I'm in the very wrong place.
Professor Utonium walked out of the room and asked me why I was even here.
"I don't know where the room was," I answered.
"The principal sent you all where it was located," the professor said.
"What?" Oh shoot, so I was at fault. There was a mail to me earlier in the watch and I just didn't want to open it. Okay, maybe I was making up excuses but I seriously didn't know there was a mail! Until Professor Utonium just told me now.
"Bling, were you sleeping?"
"Uh… Yeah," I scratched my head feeling ashamed.
The professor looked at his regular watch for the time. He then focused right back on me. "You still got a little extra time. You should be heading there right now."
"But I don't know where it is."
"I will walk you there since I am supposed to be there in an hour," the professor said.
I began to walk with my instructor. He sees to be a little worked up. He was looking down at his watch several times. He must be really busy today.
When we were almost close to the room, he said, "Go on in, I still need to print something."
I nodded and went to grab onto the door knob. I opened it and walked inside. The room was gigantic. It was like a normal lecture hall and the seats were elevated, something I really enjoy. But the seats all were empty except a few in the front. The students in the front had computers. I assume I was supposed to take a seat where the computers were located.
I walked to a nearby computer table and I saw the familiar blue hair. This must be Believe.
Normal Third Person Point of View
The blue hair girl who sat by the computer saw Bling coming closer to sit near her. She looked at the time and rolled her eyes. "Why are you late?"
"Sorry I overslept," Bling said as he pushed his chair closer to him.
"Next time you better wake up early. I don't want to get docked points off because of you."
"Then call me," Bling said. "Call me to wake me up."
"Ugh," she growled and ignored his words by getting back on topic. "Before, the professor up there announced to us that the mission hasn't started yet so he explained what we were supposed to know."
"So what were we supposed to know?"
"The scientists sent us the information on The Sleeping Surrexerunt."
"What's that?"
"It's technically a rose that has been sleeping for centuries."
"What's that got to do with the mission?"
"There is a change of plan. Long story. You should have been here at 8 to hear the whole story."
Eight? That means he slept for one hour and missed one hour of information.
Believe shook her head and logged onto the computer. She was going to ignore Bling because he has just made her look embarrassed. Other teams right here in the room were already on time, but the only person who was not here was her partner. That was embarrassing.
"Want to be useful?"
The atmosphere changed like a droplet of water. No, even worse. It was like a droplet of blood.
Believe looked around the room but can never find that person speaking once again.
"You again?!" Believe shouted out confidently. She knows now that the entire atmosphere was only her and him. Others would not be able to hear them speaking at all. Time has stopped.
"Who were you expecting, then?"
"I'm not expecting anyone to appear in my mind," Believe complained.
Butch smirked evilly and floated around the atmosphere so freely. "There is something you will encounter later. You should use what I will have given to you when it's necessary."
"What do you mean?" Believe asked. Can this Butch be trustworthy? What was going to happen? Why did he have to tell her this? Was he trying to do this because he wanted to initiate the trade?
"A password is what you will only need."
Believe did not get it. Sometimes Butch explains in so little details. She knew he was not going to say a lot.
"What password?"
"Show the path."
"What?"
Butch smirked again. It will be a hard time to have Believe trust him, but he could wait. As long as she was still in contract with him, even until she gets old, she cannot even escape this contract. "Remember this password, you will need it."
"When will I need it?!" Believe exclaimed.
"When you use it, a map will be unlocked. You will be led to a path."
Believe still did not get it.
"But you cannot use it multiple times. If you do, you will be caught."
"Then why do I have to know this password?" Believe asked. Was she seriously going to believe in this guy?
"Use it when you need it."
And with that, time has resumed. Believe cannot speak with him once more. Only he could appear and disappear however and whenever he wanted. She can never be the first one to reach out to him.
Believe still had no clue why she had imaginations of this in the first place. At first it seemed fake but when he appeared again, it was all real. She remembered Brick was able to walk while time has stopped. Brick must have known who Butch was.
A minute later, the screen of the projection was on. The students in the room could see Bunny and Bright in a different ship. The ship was a smaller ship than the one they were supposed to go on, but as long as it has the machines inside it was good.
"We found Princess and Mitch," Bunny spoke to the screen, but she was more directed to Professor Eugene.
"Thank goodness, how are my students?" Professor Eugene questioned.
"They are fine!" Bunny responded.
"Good, let's begin the operation."
The moment they started, all of the students in the room has logged onto a server system Robin has provided. It was a system where the students could locate The Sleeping Surrexerunt. This system was top secret and only Robin was in charge of it. But since they were to find the ancient rose, they will need the help for the upcoming maze.
As the operation had just begun, Mitch and Bunny jumped in to the Indian Ocean.
It would take hours and hours to get down there, so currently there was nothing to do.
Princess and Bright on the other hand was on the ship. They were sitting by the machines and handled the controls.
"Will they be able to find it?" one of the students in the lecture hall asked.
"Not sure," Professor Eugene responded. "There is a gate, though I don't know where exactly."
"If the Mephitic Circle reaches there first, they should know where it is."
"I'm not too sure about that."
An hour later, the brunette and the freckled boy reached to somewhere that could be said as ground floor.
Bunny spoke in her diving helmet. "I think we have reached the first location."
"Bunny, can you put the flashlight on?" Professor Borraw asked. "Check to to see if there is some sort of opening."
It was good to see how other professors instruct their own students. Professor Borraw did not need to be like Professor Utonium. Bunny and Bright would have assumed to know what to expect after working with their instructor for two semesters already now.
"On it," Bunny said and turned the flashlight on. When light was turned on, all they could see was water and waves.
Mitch began to swim away, trying to reach for the dark area. When he swam even farther, he knocked onto something like a barrier.
"Bunny, look over here. There's a wall."
Bunny swam towards Mitch to see the wall appearing in front of her. The flashlight reveals a beautiful design of the wall.
"What's the language?" Professor Borraw asked the students in the room.
Some students began to scan the illustration from the wall rapidly.
"It's in Latin."
"Quick, someone read off what it says!" Professor Eugene ordered.
One student began to read off from the scanner, "You have made it. What is there next?"
"That's what was written?" The professor asked, hoping it was not a joke.
"Yeah, that's what it says," all other students agreed.
Bunny gulped and began to touch the wall. It was a flat wall with nothing on it. She knelt down to touch the bottom of the wall and nothing was coming up either. Bunny decided to go to the right and away from the wall only to find a button.
"Mitch, do you think this is a button?" Bunny asked.
Mitch swam over to where Bunny was at. "Yes, it looks a like button!"
The two professors in the room finally jumped up. "Quick, go back to the system and try typing a secret passcode!"
Everyone began to go back to the system Robin provided. Each student tried lots of passcodes but none of them seem to work.
Bling typed up some random words and it did not work either. Every single one of the students could only think of useless things.
Believe did not know what to type. Suddenly, she remembered something. "Remember this password, you will need it." The voice of Butch came into her mind. Was this what he meant? Password to unlock the map? Wait. Believe looked up at the screen and examined the wall again. When a button appears, it means the wall was a door to somewhere. That means, this must have been a map!
Believe looked around to see if anyone was looking. When nobody was looking, Believe began to type her first try. Everyone has tried multiple of times, and the only person who has not tried on a password yet was Believe. She typed in SHOW THE PATH. She gulped before she pressed enter.
A second later, a message popped up: Success.
Suddenly, everyone in the room was unable to type anything. The system has directed to Believe.
All of the students, even Bling, was looking at her. She felt a sweat had dropped. Why was everyone looking at her? She looked back at the screen to see the answer: Password unlocked by Believe.
What the heck. So if someone who gets the answer right, it will show who got it right? This was so funny and made Believe feel uncomfortable.
On the screen, Bunny and Mitch was so happy that the password was unlocked. Bunny pressed onto the button and the large wall has split into a half. There was an opening, which led a new path.
"Let's go in!" Bunny said.
Mitch nodded.
Before they both got to swim in, someone from behind had called them out.
"Oh no you don't," a voice of a masculine person spoke under his water helmet. "We can't let you go in there first."
"Shoot, they were waiting for us to open it!" Bunny said as she backed off.
"Everyone, Princess is gone," Bright delivered the message to both the watch and the screen.
"No, at a time like this?" Mitch complained.
"Thank you for opening the wall," the man thanked both of them. He then ordered a few subordinates to go inside.
Bunny turned around to see many of them swimming inside. They had multiple people and Enigia College only had two people. How was this going to be fine?
"Mitch, you go in after them!" Bunny ordered as she pointed towards the pathway.
"But what about you?" Mitch asked.
"Don't worry about me! Just go inside! I'm going to hold off these three!"
Mitch felt guilty, but he had to stop the others who went in as well. He has responsibility. He looked at Bunny one final moment and went right in.
"Hey, you! I will be your opponent!" Bunny pointed at the man who seemed to be the leader.
"Interesting," the man said as he smirked.
Bunny was now in her battle position. It was not very comforting in this swimsuit mission outfit, but she had to take down these three people.
"Your Adhesive Earth will not work on us," the leader claimed.
"You know I have that power, huh?" Bunny asked. "Well you asked for the wrong person. I know other kinds of power, not just controlling the ground and cement."
"I assume you wouldn't be able to use them during water," the man said.
"No, I can!" Bunny shouted. They were right, in water it was useless to fight. But she had to do this because it was the right thing to do.
At the college lecture hall, there were now three screens showing. One with the ship, one with Bunny, and one with Mitch. Princess must have turned hers off or else the people would have known where she was at right now.
The students watched whichever they wanted to. The ship was less interesting, the fight between Bunny and the Mephitic Circle was interesting but the clear win could only be the enemy. While Mitch was just chasing after the enemy, that was not really interesting to say the least.
As the students were watching the screen, the door to the lecture hall opened. A female student walked inside to see three screens. She looked at it and folded her arms. She was later followed by another student, this time a male.
"This is not what I had expected," the blonde student said as he watched the screens.
"Good thing that they know what they are doing," the female student replied.
"Why don't you just tell them you have a solution?" the male student said while rolling his eyes.
She sighed and traveled to the girl with blue hair. She looked at what Believe was doing from behind. "So, you bored?"
Believe jumped up. "OMG you scared me!"
"Did I?" the female student asked herself.
"Yes, you just came out from the back. And… why are you here?"
"Is this your way of greeting your senior?" the blonde male student appeared next to them and said always in that serious tone.
"Oh sorry," Believe apologized.
"Boomer, stop scaring her," Bubbles shot back at the blonde young man.
"Whatever."
Bubbles smiled in an instant and patted onto Believe's shoulders. "Don't worry. So what has been going on so far?"
"Bubbles," Boomer said, "You already know what's happening. You're wasting time." But he figured he should be the one asking the professors instead. Bubbles always has the habit of losing track and get carried away.
Boomer walked over to the two professors and they began to talk.
"Bubbles, can you come over here?" Professor Borraw asked after they were finished with the conversation.
The blonde female student nodded and stopped by them.
"As far as I am concerned," Professor Borraw started to say, "You and Blossom are the only people at the college who is good with the element water."
"Sure, Blossom works mostly on ice, but yes, that's an element of water," Bubbles explained.
"So, would you happen to know a way to help Bunny out?" Professor Borraw kindly asked.
"Is the water very deep?"
"Very deep."
Bubbles bit her lip. She does not know any other way beside being in water with them. Though, seeing Bunny fighting against three people in water, that was difficult.
"Um, I guess I can try using Body of Water."
"Have you master all the levels to that?" Professor Eugene asked.
Bubbles nodded.
"Is it possible if you could use the source of water from the individual, then?"
Bubbles gulped. "I'm sorry, that can only be done if I am the one fighting in the scene. I cannot use the water of an individual from a far distance. All I can do is use the real water to manipulate from far distances."
Bubbles did not have to ponder about this. She knew her skill too easily. There was no way she can use the ultimate level in this way. There were always limitations to a skill or power.
"That would be nice."
"I could try," Bubbles said. She went to a particular screen and began to call for the water particles. She could sense the liquid screaming in her ears. She sends the water in a streak down at the location Bunny and the enemies were standing.
The form of water suddenly appeared on screen and moved towards the enemies. Bubbles began to control the direction of the water as if they were only directing at the enemies.
However, it was stopped short when a member of the three stopped it. Bubbles widened her eyes the moment her power was able to be stopped by someone. Sure, there were others who can win over Body of Water, but that was rare!
Bubbles stared at the person who ended the manipulation. This person was a caster. She could cast a spell to stop it!
Bubbles bit her lip again and saw Boomer watching. Boomer must be very angry she lost.
"What?" Bubbles asked.
"You weren't trying hard."
"Who said that? You said that." Bubbles was tired of arguing with him. "I was trying. Why don't you learn this skill and see how difficult it was to control water in another body of water?"
"There's something else you are good at," Boomer stated. "Something you can easily do instead of water. You know how to control liquid, but Body of Water was just another example of it."
Bubbles eyed on Boomer. She was about to complain to him but she heard Bunny cough, which indicated that Bunny was nearly being defeated.
"I got to do something," Bubbles said.
"Try the other method, the one you are best at," Boomer suggested.
The blonde female student looked at the ground. Was she really going to use this other skill? This skill was dangerous. This skill, in the name of Enigia College, has categorized into one of the dangerous powers that has yet discovered. Number 114 of the Vicious, the skill she acquired before coming to the college, Blood in Strain.
She looked at Boomer one last time before deciding to use it. She could see Boomer was desperate about it. She finally sighed and looked at the screen once again. She began to stretch her arm up and locked her target. Fingers crawled. And the caster began to scream.
This could mean death. But Bubbles had to continue it. She resumed controlling the veins and hardening the blood of the caster. When she could feel the caster almost out of breath, Bubbles released her fingers.
"Ahhh!" The caster screamed and dropped to the ground.
"I didn't kill her," Bubbles said.
"Why not?" Boomer questioned.
"Killing is not in my dictionary."
"Or is it because you follow this oath from where you came from?" Boomer asked in a serious tone.
"You can say that however you want," she said and rolled her eyes.
"Fine, do that to the rest," Boomer ordered.
"What? I don't want to hurt anymore people."
"They are our enemy, they are hurting us!" Boomer pointed at Bubbles.
He was right. But Bubbles did not want to use Blood in Strain again. This was supposed to be used when she really needed to.
Before she got to use it again, a familiar voice was heard.
"Bunny!" it was the voice of Princess.
Bunny looked up to see the senior swimming towards her. "Princess, you were gone because… you came down?"
"I'm so worried I just couldn't watch," the redhead said. She held onto Bunny, and this time, she was going to fight the two for her.
"So what is she going to do?" the leader joked.
It was not a minute of reaction. There was a pause for the leader, followed by an action of his arms. He quickly reached for his neck and tried to hold his breath. He tried so many times that he was unable to release both of his hands from his neck. He choked and choked, causing the other enemy standing there without knowing what to do at all.
"You—!" the leader boy choked as he dropped down on the ground. If he died in this state, he will be eaten up by fishes.
Bunny turned her head to watch Princess. The redhead had not moved a single bit, though her eyes were all directed to the leader. Bunny wondered if she caused him to choke. He looked like he was going to die just by touching his neck and when desperate for air. For one, the water helmet was the only source of oxygen, and if he died inside that, it meant the oxygen has been taken away.
"Conviction," Princess called out, and as soon as anyone got to see what happened, the leader stopped holding onto his neck.
"Hahahahaha!" the man laughed inside his water helmet. "Why didn't you kill me?"
"No need," Princess stated, "Unless you want to try Adjudgment."
Upon hearing Adjudgment, he backed off. His team members also followed him without knowing the reason. He had enough of Conviction, he was no way going to try with Adjudgment, it will certainly kill him if he was weaker than her.
But this was not the reason why he was here. Mephitic Circle sent them here to prevent Enigia College to claim The Sleeping Surrexerunt. They needed to get to there first, and by getting there first, some of the members will need to hold off the other students.
Thus, the leader abided by the rule. He will surely make it out of the ocean later on with two dead students. He will fight them until the end of his life.
The two enemies approached Princess and Bunny and attacked them right in front of their faces. Since the caster was in the state of unconscious, she was unable to fight. Staying injured at the bottom of the Indian Ocean will not be good for the health, so it was possible she might die in just an hour.
The fight began with no winner. Princess gave him a lesson but he still tried to defeat them. Mephitic Circle will never learn, will they? Who was really the one behind this? Was this founder so powerful that this was just some trick? These were pretty weak enemies, which means there were more enemies who were even powerful. It also meant that the students were little people compared to them. Yet Enigia College will not tolerate it, they will grow and succeed, and fight to the very end, and unveil Mephitic Circle by fighting against Mephitic Circle's founder and everyone lower.
The fight lasted so long that they still has not yet given up. Whoever was the last person standing would continue onto the path. Though when they were fighting so hard that they did not even realize the wall from earlier had just begun to move. The wall, with the beautiful designs and the words in Latin, was slowly in the process of closing.
The four of them who were fighting now heard the loud noises from behind. All their heads focused on the wall. They stopped fighting and watched the wall getting closer to—
That was the moment when all four of them noticed they had been fighting for decades. Four of them reached for the wall like herds of sheep trying to get food. They were fighting to get inside the pathway and whoever got in was the winner.
Before the wall closed, they were pushing and shoving to get inside. This would have been the absurd scene on the screen.
"Believe, type in the password again!" Bling demanded.
Believe nodded and both of her hands touched the keyboard. When her index finger hit the letter "s", she stopped. "But you cannot use it multiple times. If you do, you will be caught." Believe bit her lip, her whole body shaking. Butch said she cannot use this password so many times. The only thing she did not know about was if she got caught, what was going to happen. Even so, a password could leak out when typing too much. Maybe the password was given only once and only one chance to open the wall, so now it would have been considered ineffective and nulled at this point.
She cannot tell them though, so she needed to think of a reason. Finally, she decided to lie. "I forgot what the password was I put in earlier."
Bling has not moved even the slightest inch after she said she forgot the password. He studied to see if Believe was joking, how could she forget? But when he saw Believe made no reaction, he cannot tell anymore of it was even a joke when something bad like this happened.
"You serious?" Bling ultimately asked.
"Yeah…" she responded knowing lying was not good, but it was to save herself and others. If she uses it again, who knows what will happen? Side effects like forever locking the path and never return to the surface? If that was the case, Mitch would not be able to come back here. Believe would not want that, and if that was going to happen, she was the cause of it!
"Look!" one student from the lecture hall called out. "The four of them were able to make it!"
"Are they going to fight?" a student asked Boomer for no particular reason.
Boomer folded his arms. Right now, there was no way a fight will start again. After they just witnessed the wall closing, they must go on to the path. They need to get farther and farther. Having a fight again would be useless. What if Mitch needed help? If they continued to battle, nobody could be there for Mitch.
The worst case… what if Mitch died?
"No, they won't," Boomer answered.
It was good to say that to feel relieved. The meaning behind it could be tragic, but hope was always in the realm, so all they could do was wait to see what they will be encountering.
Mitch has not been able to connect back to the watch and the screen as he got farther into the path. The people who were watching could feel that the signals were getting worse and worse.
Just when they felt it, the server they were on had completely blacked out.