It was an ordinary day like any other.
“Muria-25-03! It’s time for your experiment!”
As usual, one person was dragged away by the researchers for their daily experiments. A painfully routine occurrence.
But when Muria-25-03 returned after the experiment, something was drastically different.
“You useless failure.”
Thud.
“M-Three-Three!”
A researcher opened the second-floor door of the cage and roughly tossed Muria-25-03 inside. A girl inside the cage barely managed to catch her.
Muria-25-03 had returned, utterly battered.
Her entire body was drenched in her own blood, turning her skin crimson. Blood poured endlessly from her nose, refusing to clot.
But most devastatingly...
“Are you okay? Can you recognize me?”
“Ugh...”
Her mind was gone. Not just the intelligence she had gained from the experiments, but even her natural intelligence had vanished.
Her brain, unable to endure the experiments, had been destroyed, leaving her in a vegetative state.
Muria-13-07 and Muria-17-06 did everything they could, using their combined knowledge to try to restore Muria-25-03’s mind, but it was impossible.
Even with their advanced intelligence and vast knowledge, the feat was beyond them—something even the researchers equipped with state-of-the-art magitech devices had failed to achieve.
“...Those bastards did this to our Three-Three!”
“Damn it!”
Bang!
They kicked the sturdy iron bars in frustration, but the reinforced cage didn’t budge.
“Damn it all!”
“Aaah... ugh...”
Their enraged screams echoed, but Muria-25-03’s shattered mind did not return.
“Six-Six.”
The girl’s tear-stained eyes, reddened from crying, now gleamed with firm resolve.
“Seven-Seven... don’t tell me.”
“Tonight. I’m doing it.”
“...We haven’t figured everything out yet.”
Muria-17-06 knew that the girl had been analyzing the lab and looking for an escape route.
But they hadn’t uncovered all the details yet.
Over the past year, during each experiment, the girl had meticulously mapped out about 90% of the laboratory, save for one underground facility.
“...We don’t need all the details anymore. We can escape with what we have. The remaining 10% was just to ensure perfection.”
The girl bit her lip, her expression heavy with guilt.
This is all my fault.
I let fear of failure hold me back, growing complacent with our small comforts instead of pushing harder to escape.
“Damn it! If I had been just a little more diligent—if I had acted sooner—this wouldn’t have happened to Three-Three!”
Bang! Bang!
She pounded on the iron bars in frustration.
“It’s all my fault! I... I...”
“Aaah...”
“Three-Three...”
Muria-25-03, her body trembling, leaned into the girl’s embrace.
“Ugh...”
With a faint, instinctual motion, she patted the girl’s head.
Just as the girl had once comforted her, hugging her warmly to ease her pain.
“Three-Three... you...”
It was as if she were saying, It’s okay. Don’t be angry. It’s not your fault.
“I’m sorry, Three-Three... I’m so sorry...”
“Three-Three... you’re truly...”
The girls clung to each other, their sobs echoing through the cage.
Their sorrow, heavy and suffocating, pooled and swelled into something almost tangible.
A low hum filled the air.
The magitech components hidden throughout the cage reacted to the girl’s magic, gathering around her.
“We’re escaping tonight.”
And those responsible for turning Three-Three into this? They’ll pay the price.
Her eyes burned with a vengeance that could no longer be concealed.
Late at night, when the researchers had all gone to sleep.
The magitech components the girl had secretly smuggled and gathered began assembling in her hands, reacting to her magic.
“Seven-Seven, once we start this... there’s no going back.”
“I know. If we fail, there won’t be a second chance. But, Six-Six...”
The girl gripped the magitech key tightly.
“Could things really get any worse than they already are?”
“...I guess not.”
“For Three-Three’s sake, I’ll risk my life to get us out of here.”
“There’s no other choice. Let’s do it.”
While Muria-17-06 hoisted Muria-25-03 onto her back, the girl activated the magitech key.
Whirr.
A light flickered, and the door that had imprisoned them for so long opened with shocking ease.
Cautiously, the girls stepped out.
This was the first time they’d touched the floor of the outside space, except when dragged out for experiments.
The air was foreign, filled with the harsh scent of chemicals.
“Let’s go.”
“Right.”
They moved quickly through the darkened hallway, lit only by emergency lights.
A massive bulkhead separated Sector 1 from the other sections.
An obstacle impossible to move with the weak bodies of ordinary human girls.
But...
Whummm.
Magitech-operated devices couldn’t stop them.
“This way.”
“Got it.”
They breached five sectors in total.
Even though they ventured into areas they’d never seen before, there were no surprises.
Everything matched the knowledge and scans they had memorized and analyzed.
Whirrr.
“Yes! Just one more step!”
They had reached the final sector, where the exit was located.
Only one more barrier remained before they could leave this vile, suffocating lab behind.
As the girl reached her hand toward the control panel managing the final gate...
Click.
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Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The lights in the sector all flicked on.
“...No way.”
This was supposed to be a time when all the researchers were asleep, making such an event impossible.
Realizing something had gone wrong, the girl frantically began manipulating the control panel.
Time was running out.
ACCESS DENIED. ALL ACCESS TEMPORARILY LOCKED UNDER HIGHEST AUTHORITY.
The panel froze.
She could no longer operate it.
Whirr.
“Finally.”
Clink. Clink.
“Looks like the time has come.”
The elevator behind them opened, and a masked man stepped out.
“...The Director.”
The girl recognized him immediately.
The detestable overseer of Sector 1 and the chief administrator of the entire lab.
The very person who had initiated the Muria Project, reducing the girl to her current state.
“First of all, let me thank you.”
The Director, hands behind his back, approached leisurely.
A group of five or six researchers trailed behind him.
“If you hadn’t attempted to escape, I would’ve had to restart the project from scratch.”
His shoulders shook with laughter, as if he were overcome with joy.
“The culmination of all human knowledge... an artificial god, a Constellation of Knowledge! The time has come to create it!”
The lab trembled.
“...An earthquake?”
"No, this is far beyond something so trivial."
A low hum reverberated through the room.
A massive magic circle, etched with intricate runes, materialized in the air, large enough to fill the entire sector and then some.
The girl, armed with extensive magical knowledge, immediately recognized the sinister and arrogant human desires embedded in the spell.
Activating a magic circle of this magnitude without preparation? Impossible! Unless...
Horrified by the unfolding spectacle, a chilling possibility struck her.
"The underground facility! You’re using it as a power source and activation site for this spell?"
"Correct. This grand magic was prepared solely for this moment! None of the researchers ever noticed its existence, yet you caught on instantly. As expected of my greatest masterpiece and the pinnacle of my research!"
"So... Sir, what is this—"
"Wait, is this spell... your doing, Director?"
Unlike the composed Director, the surrounding researchers were visibly panicked, unable to grasp what was happening.
"Ah, you are no longer needed. Worthless worms without even a grain of talent."
Boom!
The Director clenched his fist, and every researcher’s head around him exploded in an instant.
"Now we’re entering the final stage."
The Director had enacted his secretly prepared spell and killed the other researchers. Whatever his reasons, it was clear he no longer needed to maintain his position or the laboratory’s hierarchy.
Grinding her teeth, the girl thrust her hands forward.
Her meager reserves of magic were no match for the Director, a grand mage.
But this wasn’t about magic.
Rumble.
The power born from her mind began to shake the lab.
A force rooted in intelligence—telekinesis.
"So, you do possess it! And yet you hid it so thoroughly throughout all the experiments!"
The Director laughed maniacally, elated by the discovery of her psychic abilities.
"Such an extraordinary talent, utterly undeserving of someone of your lowly origins! If I had more time, I might have even made you my companion."
Thud.
"However."
With one hand raised, he stilled the trembling air.
"Right now, time is not on my side."
Extending his other hand forward, a violent surge of magic erupted from his palm.
"After all, there’s only one thing I need. Keeping a troublesome girl like you alive serves no purpose."
Before the girl could react, the destructive magic hurtled toward her, intent on erasing her entirely.
A magic of obliteration, aimed at ending her existence.
Focused on using her telekinesis to counterattack the Director, she had no time to dodge.
...I’m going to die.
All she could do was watch, frozen, as the attack barreled toward her.
Her brief life flashed before her eyes.
To die without even seeing the outside world...
Without avenging my friends and Three-Three...
I wanted to visit Lyberhild...
I wanted... to become one with the prince...
At that moment—
Crash!
Someone stepped in front of her, intercepting the Director’s devastating attack.
"...No, no, Six-Six!"
"I’m sorry... Seven-Seven..."
With a weak smile, Six-Six collapsed.
This moment would become the girl’s most harrowing memory, one that would haunt her for an eternity of suffering.