(Chapter 2: salvation)
Bang! Bang! Crash!! The sounds of crashing metal can be heard as six figures drop from the dieing world above. They are met with complete darkness with the acception of the dim moonlight above them. Their eyes widened in surprise as they breathed in the taste of the closest thing to clean air they had tasted in the years since the maidens apocalypse.
"Holy sh*t! The place is still in one piece!" The resident firecracker exclaims. "What the hell you doing! Close that hole before anymore the place falls apart." The others nod in agreement, and Sugu starts spelling words in the air.
"Script magic. Rise! reinforce! seal! Harden! purification!" With a final flick of a finger, Sugu casted five spells that form words in the air. A light shines, and the eroded metal around them floats up to cover the hole above them. then the veryous materials compact and compress into a somewhat solid surface that blocks out the outside air. It then merges into a durable flat surface as the rust vanishes to reveal shiny smooth metal. Sugu then hunches over, taking deep breaths of air from the amount of Ki she had to channel into eather-nano.
They all sigh in relief. Almost a year after the monsters died out, the world started to decay at an astonishing rate. Forests turned to dust in hours, and all manner of resources began eroding. All signs showed that the sudden release of scream energy around the world formed a toxic gas that blanketed the planet. This theory was soon confirmed as places with canisters containing lust energy only started to die out as the contamination from other places spread like cancer.
"This place doesn't seem familiar to me. Does anyone know how far we are from the lab Sugu mentioned? Lucy asked as Chee-chee forms a ball of light in her hand.
The others with the acception of Sugu look at each other until Zoey rases a hand. " it isn't very far. I remember passing by that bench the few times a came down here to try out the new machines."
She's right. We got lucky. Enough of the building collapsed outside to make this place air tight. All the canisters in the emergency storage room should be intact. So long as we're careful we can use them like rechargeable batteries." Sugu spoke, getting to her feet.
A wave of excitement fills the hearts of those present. No one expected to find anything but ruins or an untouched laboratory. Instead, they get an entire level to themselves. After all, the rampage started from Randall's hidden passage, and that is the floor above them.
"I'll go see if the emergency generator can still be used." Sugu says. She quickly forms her own ki into a light and leaves the group.
"Lucy, Levy, how much magic have you managed to collect? Zoey asks the aforementioned two.
They look at each other and sign. "Not much. We managed to gather a small amount from the stars with celestial magic conversion but the amount is miniscule without ether-nano in the atmosphere. I could probably cast a low-level spell if I was lucky but it would drain everything I have." Lucy responds in dejection.
Levy looks down helplessly. "It's worse for me. Celestial magic is not something I am so good at. I have maybe enough to write a single letter but the cast would fail."
Suddenly, a sound somewhere between liquid and air can be heard throughout the facility. Power fills the pipes and soon the lights flicker on bathing everything in light.
" woo-hoo!" Zoey shouts thrusting a fist in the air.
"Come on you bimbos! Enough chit-chat, and let's find that big boob geeks playhouse!" Ryuko starts stomping down the hall, trying, and failing to hide her wide toothy grin. The group is lively as they follow behind.
The group walks through the dusty hallway until they bump into sugu, who had just left the storage room with a frown. Seeing this, the others start to worry.
"Why are you making that face. Please don't tell me something is wrong with the canisters." Zoey asked nervously.
Sugu shakes her head in the negative. "It's not that. The room shows signs of being used recently. All but a few emergency canisters have been used and scattered across the floor. Even worse, the non-perishable food used to feed the test subjects is almost completely gone."
Zoey mock gagged as the others took a second to realize the implications.
"Oooh no. You ain't tellin me someone else is living down here." Ryuko said in disbelief.
Sugu shakes her head with a sad expression. "No. From the looks of it we missed him by a month or two. His body should be in one of these rooms. Most likely the hidden lab." She wiped away a tear and bit her lip to compose herself.
Levy looks up in realization. "You don't mean?"
"Yeah."
"What are you trying to say? Spit it out already." Ryuko asks.
Sugu only muttered one word. "Fungus."
A mechanical hiss is sounded as the door to the laboratory opens to reveal its contents. Immediately a sickening pungent oder rushes out making everyone cover their noses. Doing her best to ignore it, sugu steps inside to observe the room. Veryous mechanical parts, trash, and papers litter the tables and floors. A half dismantled scream extractor can be seen on a workbench and the blast resistant, glass extractor testing room has been transformed into a makeshift chemistry lab. Colorful test tubes filled with familer chemicals line a shelf. Her eyes stop on a jar filled with several dozen marbles, bubbles in glowing blue liquid. Her shock at the knowledge of what those we're would have stunned her if not for what she saw huddled up in a corner of the room. Fungus lay there in a severely decomposed state. Next to him lays a vile of the same Ki awakening drug that gave her the power to destroy this world.
"Oh Fungus, you Idiot. You knew that stuff is poisonous to your kind." Sugu says in a sorrowful tone. Ignoring the others keeping there distance in the hall, Sugu enters the testing room to stand infront of Funguses corpse. Bowing her head she decides to say a few words. "You were always kind to me Fungus. You comforted me at my lowest moments and kept me from my despair. I wanted to thank you for that my friend. I'm sorry you're kindness cost you everything. I vow to remember you always, and not to let your hard work go to waste. Goodbye." Sugu raises her hand towards the body and releases a small blaze of ki, erasing the last remnants the species that once walked this world.
Sugu walks towards the Funguses final gift to her in a much better mood. After quickly reading through the notes left behind, She gets a better understanding of her late friends last project. The others slowly make there way in the room, and begin to clean up the messy workspace. The only one who doesn't is levy, who is more interested in the papers that sugu is so engrossed in. She looks at everything in interest.
"What have you found?" She asks.
In response, sugu tosses Levy one of the marbles. "modified Origin lacrima's. Swallow it and your body should produce magic on its own again."
Levys eyes widen and she looks at the marble in wonder. But before she puts it in her mouth the first part of what she said gave her pause.
"Modified? How exactly?"
"According to these notes, the origin lacrima in your hand Doesn't produce ether-nano like the one i got from your world. Eather nano is just a form of energy that is present in the atmosphere of your world. It is obsorbed into a special organ that only people from your world posses called an origin. Afterwards it is transformed into the Magical energy you are familiar with. However, this type of magic is biological in nature, and thus, not pure magic." Sugu explains after reading the notes.
Lucy walks up to stand next to Levy after overhearing Their conversation. Curious, she asks the unsaid question. "If that's true, then what does this Lacrima do?"
Smiling, sugu tosses another Modified lacrima to Lucy. "Simple. It produces Mana. The basic magical energy that is present in all worlds."
Soon after, Sugu, Lucy, Levy, Zoey, Chee-chee, and Ryuko go to work reconstructing the underground facility. With Lucy and Levys magic back in action, the group successfully builds a fully functional scream extractor. Construction of the first of many Unmirrored doors is set in motion and the extraction phase begins.
(End of chapter 2)