The girl known as Olivier glanced at the (possibly) older boy in front of her. He doesn't seem to be wearing the same clothing as her close friends or even those who were like her.

Being trained here for 15 years made people around her feel cold at her empty gaze, but those who knew could just tell her what to do and she would mostly follow their orders.

She doesn't even know where they were. And she felt quite saddened of their departure.

Strangely enough, she doesn't even know what they were doing, other than knowing that she was being trained to become strong enough to defeat the terrible Demon King, Diabolos who was going to bring calamity to the world.

At least, that was what they spoke.

And now, the red haired boy sat in front of her.

"That being said, may I know who you are?"

"... Zero-Zero-One, that's the name I've been given, yet I think I'd prefer if you call me Olivier. I've been living here with my friends for years."

Even with barely any emotion, the girl naturally replied before Corneus proceeded to curtsy towards her.

"Well then, I'm... someone you should be able to know more later, but because of my sudden appearance, I'm technically going to be treated like an intruder so... Let's run when we get the chance!"

"...?!"

The next moment, the door to this room opened by sliding to the side, revealing several people in lab coats.

A few armed guards wearing vests also arrived, taking out batons that generate electricity as they glared at Corneus.

Olivier immediately hid behind Corneus as she glanced at the guards in fear.

"Who are you?! How did you get here?!" One of the scientists spoke, taking steps forward while glancing at the boy, who strangely grinned at their direction.

'... The cult of Diabolos looked like it had a massive upgrade in technology, have I really went back in time? No matter.'

Corneus crossed his arms before swiftly extending them, allowing his current choice of weapons or two heavy needles to appear in his hands.

"I'm here to take Olivier away from you monsters!" He declared, twirling the two golden needles before swiftly throwing them to the guards' eyes, damaging their brains and killing them immediately.

On the next second, Olivier saw him run towards the fallen guards before the other scientists could even react, then taking their batons away.

"O-Olivier! Help us- GAAAHH!!"

Sparks were made from the impact of the baton, stunning the other scientists and slowly but surely killing them.

And Olivier watched closely.

"Where are the others?" Corneus asked a stunned scientist, who could barely glance at him.

"I-I don't... Know what you're talking about!" The scientist replied, before a baton is plunged into his mouth, causing him to feel immense amounts of electricity that began frying his body.

This went on for a while until Corneus approached her.

Olivier wondered who he really is, and at the next moment, he lent out his hand.

"Were you... Like me too?" She asked, staring right towards his eyes.

And for a moment, he looked away. Which had made Olivier misunderstand that he really was, and due to this, she took his hand.

What was really inside his mind was:

'... Sheesh, I won't be actually able to take away this Alternate Timeline's Freya and Lili, I don't have enough time! Oh well... This cult will have to create another test subject.'

With those thoughts passed, they began to move out of the room, but without knowing where to go, Corneus decided to think of playing tag with the people in this room.

However, it seems like they would have a lot of company.

"That's Zero-Zero-One! She's out of her cage, and who in the great leader's name is that boy with her!?" One of the scientists of this facility spoke, before hastily going after a button which he slammed his fist on.

A loud alarm then began to blare all around the facility, alerting many guards and high ranked agents that were around.

"Zero-Zero-One has escaped! I repeat! Alpha Zero-Zero-One has escaped!"

Once they heard the loud blaring, Olivier tightly grasped Corneus' hand instinctively. Feeling a bit afraid, she allowed herself to move as fast as him.

They encountered knights who wielded swords, and even though they were actually inferior to her in terms of speed and strength, she doesn't even realize it.

"Let go of her if you don't want to die, boy!" One of the guards threatened, taking a fighting position.

"No way, you'll just beat us up if I do!" Corneus replied in a snarky manner, before fending them off.

They encountered traps, and with Corneus' abilities, they were able to safely go through them all.

Until...

'Fifteen minutes, I've got to keep this count.' Corneus spoke to himself, glancing at the two girls who were at his physical age stand before him in a wide area.

There was a brown haired scientist glaring at the two of them at the second floor, observing the battle that would happen soon.

Once noticed, Corneus glanced at him.

"Wassup, doc! Nice meeting you here, though this will be the last time we meet, sadly..." Corneus said, before glancing back towards the two children.

"Lili... Freya..." Olivier muttered, standing beside Corneus as she glanced at her two friends.

"002! 003! Make that boy feel intense amounts of pain as punishment, but don't kill him, we still have some things to exp... Er... Discipline him and don't hold anything back! And what are you doing, 001! Help your sisters!" The scientist yelled out, pointing at Corneus.

'... Is he really a failed experiment? No, it can't be! He's not possibly one of the earlier failures before her, right?! If so... how did he survive?'

Instead of fear, excitement and curiosity was oozing out of Nelson the Scientist, he wanted to see Corneus' capabilities.

A sword was tossed towards Olivier's direction, courtesy of her friends. By instinct, she managed to perfectly catch the handle of the sword with one hand.

"001! Attack him!" The scientist demanded, only for Olivier to stare at her reflection from the sword.

At the next second, 002 lunged forward, a large spear longer than her thrusted towards the prince.

And immediately as the two attacked, he rolled to the side to evade. 003 began to intercept with a loud growl, fists clenched tightly as she swung one of them with an incredible force.

Although it hit Corneus, she only hit an afterimage as her fist clashed with the steel floor, making a wide crater that damaged it.

"Boo! You're pretty slow, try again!" Corneus' voice was heard behind her, making 003 swing her fists again.

However it seems like he was too fast for her, meaning that she needed an opening.

Once she sensed 002 behind her, she immediately leaped to the air, causing Corneus to feel a bit surprised before blocking the blade of her spear with the back of his hand, stopping it from advancing as it seemed to clash against iron.

"How's that? That's one of my magics I made." Corneus bragged, even for a bit as he threw his fist up to the air, allowing it to clash against the fist of 003.

Then, the Therianthope girl slammed her foot towards Corneus' chest, making him cough up saliva as he was knocked away from the two of them.

With this, the two began to blitz Corneus, swiftly appearing right in front of him and doing a series of combos that could potentially break apart someone's bones.

'Freya is attacking me the fastest with her spear, while Lili hits the damn hardest. Hahahaha! Old times have passed once again... Ow, all my ribs have shattered.' Corneus was inwardly excited, even stopping himself from grinning as he definitely felt them all.

Then, with a wide swing from 002's spear, Corneus was launched to the wall, making another crater where he was planted on.

His arm and both legs were dislocated, his mouth bleeding, and blood was coming out from his back due to the wall behind him being bent in order for metal spikes to stab his back.

"Corneus!" Olivier yelled out, and while she began to approach him, 002 and 003 were in front of her.

"Target neutralized." 002 spoke, glaring harshly towards Olivier. "Next time, don't randomly trust strangers, everyone here is friendly, you know?*

"Now sister, let's leave before you are hurt, we only have a few years of training before we are sent out to fight Diabolos!" 003 continued, before the two of them walked towards Olivier.

But... Then his voice was heard around the room.

"So what? After Diabolos is defeated, what's next!" Corneus yelled out, before coughing out blood, glaring at the three.

With a burst of Magical Power, he pushed himself out of the crater, his body falling down to the hard, cold floor.

'... I think my nose fully broke! Doesn't matter, begin regeneration!'

At the next seconds, the blood he had spilled off began to return to him, the cracking of bones was heard all around the room.

The dislocated limbs snapped back in place and it actually still hurt. All damage Corneus received is gone, yet he looked particularly exhausted.

"Ha... Ha... As I was saying, what will you all do after slaying Diabolos? Do you believe everyone will be at peace for a long, long time?" He began his speech, which made the scientist, Nelson to immediately feel uncomfortable.

"Hey, all three of you! Don't listen to his words!"

Nelson was very worried, what if the three of them doubted them before they slew Diabolos for their own purposes? That would be catastrophic!

"No, the three of you wouldn't have a new purpose, the three of you will just become puppets without purpose, without anything to do but to follow orders!" Corneus continued, taking several steps forward. "That's why I wanted to free you!"

A few more seconds passed, and Corneus had let his Magical Power burst out of him, not to overwhelm them though.

At this point, several masked men and scientist looking people with artifacts entered the room.

"Capture him!" Nelson commanded, pointing at Corneus while he noticed that he was feeling quite unwell.

'Fuhahahaha! Damn it, kid! You've really pushed yourself to the limits, haven't you!' Nelson was very confident that he definitely will be captured.

After all, those items the other scientists have were supposed to seal a part of Diabolos for their research!

Corneus had a different thought process, however.

'Damn, I've only got 8 minutes left! I'm going to have to make it count... Those sealing artifacts needed 4 minutes to charge, so I have to do something about it!'

[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]