Chapter 82

Once the group had defeated the first wave of Charon a second wave would replace them.

"Tch, we keep dropping them but more just keep coming." Leona muttered.

"20 more power armors inbound." A technician announced from behind the group. They were monitoring the Charon on the screen.

"Hmm maybe I was too hasty in rejecting Ortho's invitation. Perhaps it would've been smarter to pursue a blue ocean strategy in their new world." Azul mumbled.

"Are you mad? Their new world would be teeming with blot and Phantoms would run rampant. How long do you think it would take to rebuild society to the point where you could run a business?" Riddle snapped at him.

"As the Housewarden of Pomefiore the most storied dormitory in all of NRC I'll say this some forms of technology and beauty can only be achieved through dedicated study over time. To reset and revert everything to nothing would be utterly beyond the pale." Vil said.

"Power armors are 100 meters away and closing fast." The technician reminded them.

"Can anyone else here fight?" Jamil asked looking around the room.

"Most of us working at Styx aren't mages they hire people with small magic pools because we're less likely to go out of control from blot exposure." Another technician informed him.

"Well, that does make sense." Leona shrugged.

"Ortho's got control of all our technomantic weapons none of them will turn on." The second technician added.

"Power armors are now 30 meters way. Mh? Wait, what in the world." The first announced. "What is it?" The second asked looking over the first shoulder.

"2 of the armors just went inactive. Now there's more, 5, 7 they're just stopping." The first shouted over the few approaching Charon.

"Target acquired. Eliminating." The Charon stated.

"They're here get ready." Vil announced.

"Your eyes will close, your breath will still, Crimson Slumber." A voice called out as the Charon were encased in glass coffins.

Everyone in the room gasped in shock.

"Got'em by golly, I absolutely mailed the targetin this time." The voice cheered.

"I recognized that accent anywhere." Vil explained as he looked over to the door.

Epel appeared in the doorway huffing a bit then jogged up to Vil. "Vil, we finally found you!"

"Epel!" The rest of the group exclaimed.

"My dear Roi Du Poison! How I've missed you." Rook sang as he appeared in the doorway then made his way to Vil.

"Whew, thank goodness we're all together now. I'm glad you're all safe and sound." Odette said following Rook.

Odette looked so happy to see them all. She went to Riddle first and gave him a hug. Before he could react she had moved on to Leona who caught on quickly and gave her a pat on the back. Azul was a bit quicker than Riddle and was able to reciprocated the hug a little. Jamil reacted similar to Leona and hugged her back. 'She wasn't this affection during the VDC training until the end. She must have been so worried about us.' Jamil thought as she finally hugged Vil.

"Rook! Odette as well I'm glad to see you're uninjured." Vil said once Odette had finished hugging him too.

"What are you guys doing here of all places?" Leona asked as he looked over the trio.

"My dear friend was in dire peril so I flew to his aid." Rook explained.

"This building's practically a labyrinth. How'd you manage to find us?" Jamil asked.

"Let us save that for later." Rook answered.

"My spell's gonna wear off soon. They're coming." Epel informed them as the Charon began to renominate.

They battled the newest wave of Charon, once they were defeated Rook explained how they got there.

"And that's how I used my signature spell to follow you from Sage's Island. Once we made it in I was able to to track you down thanks to Vil carrying my 'special' serum I didn't enclose a note lest it draw suspicion that was a rather discerning guess on your part Vil." Rook praised.

"I normally never use enchanted skincare products it wasn't hard to put two and two together. It's nice to see my 'good luck serum' working its magic so soon." Vil smiled.

"Do any of you know where Grim is? I haven't seen him." Odette asked as she looked around the room including under tables.

"Grim? He was brought here as well?" Riddle asked as she stood up straight.

"Yes sir, we saw them carting him off after they captured Vil and Jamil. We thought he'd be with the rest of you." Epel explained.

"Well, I didn't see Grim during any of our examinations or at any other point since we're been here." Azul informed Odette who turned a shade paler.

"Wait a minute…." Leona muttered as he thought back to when they had escaped their isolation rooms. "There was that subject who blew off their door and escaped before we did. Was that the fur ball?"

"Don't be ridiculous Grim's even more unskilled with magic than Ace and Deuce. There's no way he'd be able to destroy a door made with anti-magic material even we had trouble with them." Riddle remarked.

Odette gulped as she thought back to the last time she saw Grim, when he attacked her. 'Is he back to that? Is that the bad feeling I've been feeling since I woke up from my nap? It's just been getting worse since Epel put me in that coffin. What the hell is going on?' She thought as she felt a cold sweat break out across her skin. "I wonder what's happened to him, is Grim somewhere in this place by himself?" She finally managed to choke out.

"Tell me something who was in the room at the end of the hall where we were staying?" Vil asked as he turned to the technicians.

"That was Subject F the dire-beast brought in from NRC." The first technician answered.

"So it was the furball." Leona grumbled.

"But this test results for magic performance were all subpar compared to an average mage. As Subjects A pointed out we had no indications he has the kind of power it would take to destroy that door, none at all." The technician added.

"His name is Grim and his name is Riddle." Odette snapped as she pointed at Riddle.

"Hold on what about that one note in Subject F's file. Here, I found it, we were unable to get an accurate reading on his blot accumulation level no matter how many test we ran." The second technician said as pulled up his file on the computer.

"His name is Grim, just how many tests did you run on him?" Odette asked her tone hard even as Rook put a hand on her shoulder.

"What does that mean?" Epel asked hoping to deescalate the situation. 'Put her through hell she doesn't blink but mess with her friends and she'll tear your head off.' Epel thought as he glanced over at her.

"We couldn't find any other instance of this in Styx's entire database. We performed a thorough examination but still couldn't identify the cause. Our analysis team found layers of ancient sorcery cast on him. They couldn't figure out the effects of it, but they concluded it was likely some sort of curse, or perhaps a blessing that triggers when certain criteria are met. The dire-beast was in stable condition we were going to keep him under observation a run further analysis." The second technician continued.

"A curse or blessing?" Odette asked trying to hide the anger better. 'More observation, I don't think so. He's coming home with me asap.' Odette thought as she glared at the technicians.

"Blessing and curses are essentially the same thing people just categorize them differently based on their effects. My signature spell can produce positive effects as well depending on the terms I set. Basically a practitioner's emotional state can dictate whether a spell is positive or negative. I have no clue why Grim would have such a thing cast on him though." Vil explained as he stand up to her.

"Oh! Tartarus's internal sensors have logged Subject F's collar. But how? Oh of course! There's been free access in and out of Tartarus ever since its security went offline,. According to this log Subject F went through the Tartarus gate immediately after the emergency started. But why'd he go there?" The technician asked as he pulled up a log.

"Ortho described it to us Tartarus is a really dangerous place right?" Epel asked.

"Absolutely it's a containment facility that holds over 10,000 Phantoms, and all its freezing system have been shut down The Phantoms could awaken at any moment." The second technician answered.

"Oh no Grim." Odette gasped. She felt her chest tighten as her heart beat began to flood her ears. 'This isn't good.' She thought as she placed a her hand over her chest.

'These people are not helping her.' Vil thought as he gently placed a hand on her face pulling her out of her revive. "At least we know where Grim is. It's actually better that he's in Tartarus. We'll pick him up on your way down to the Underworld." Vil said.

Everyone in the room looked at him shocked.

"That's absurd! It's much too dangerous." The first technician exclaimed.

"That's where Idia and Ortho are right? If we want to stop their reset plan our only option is to go down there. Regardless of the danger." Vil reminded them.

"It does sound like the only way but even so." Azul sighed.

"You say it like it's no big deal." Jamil finished for Azul.

"Now hold on you're students none of you have your mage license yet we can't let amateurs handle an emergency like this. We need the pros the Arcane Response Unit. I say we wait for help to arrive from the outside." The first technician urged.

"So how long til all the Phantoms in Tartarus thaw out?" Leona asked.

"Um about 6 hours." The technician answered.

"And how likely is it that you'll restore communication and get help in that time frame?" Leona continued but received no response.

"You've got barely any hope of rescue and most of the people here are helpless researchers. Ortho's taken over all your fall backs, your Charon power armor and technomantic devices they're totally useless and your response is to just cower together and hope for a miracle? Don't make me laugh." Leona hissed.

"It's true that we're not licensed mages yet but we've all been trained by our school as first

responders even in the case of an emergency." Riddle informed them.

"And then there's the fact that we're all here because we've over blotted." Jamil added.

"What was the criteria for over blotting again? 'You have to be capable mage with a pretty big magic pool for it to happen at all. Did I get that right? I believe that proves we're not your average mages. Wouldn't you all agree?" Azul smirked.

"Well ah I suppose." The second technician muttered.

"I came here because I wanted to make sure I did all that I could and there is still much we can do to prevent the worst case scenario." Rook said.

"I'm ready to go down there too." Epel spoke up.

"Then I say we strike while the iron's hot. Let is be off to Tartarus." Vil said leading the group out of the room.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for sticking around. I just realized that I dropped another hint a few chapters back and forgot to mention it. I thought I tripped my hand too much with that one but I guess not. I think I'm showing more of her original personality in this chapter. It is a bit of a stressful situation so I think most normal people would be a little snappy in this situation.