Styx Institute - Control Room
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...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 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. |
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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. |
| Do any of you know where Grim is? | I haven't seen Grim anywhere... |
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Grim? he was brought here as well? |
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Yessir. We saw them carting him off after they captured Vil and Jamil.
We thought he'd be with the rest of you. |
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Well, I didn't see Grim during any of our examinations, or at any other point since we've been here. |
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...Wait a minute. |
Flashback Start
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Who was in the room at the end of the hall? I'm gettin' a whiff of some vaguely familiar magic... |
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I haven't the faintest idea. The door was already destroyed by the time I got out, and no one was in there. |
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Whoever they were, they blew a door made with anti-magic materials clean off. They must be quite the formidable mage. |
Flashback End
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There was that subject who blew off their door and escaped before we did. Was that the furball? |
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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. |
| I wonder what's happened to him. | (Is Grim somewhere in this place all by himself...?) |
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Tell me something—who was in the room at the end of the hall where we were staying? |
Technician A |
That was Subject F, the direbeast brought in from Night Raven College. |
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...So it WAS the furball. |
Technician A |
But his test results for magic performance were all subpar compared to an average mage.
As Subject A pointed out, we had no indications he had the kind of power it would take to destroy that door. None at all. |
Technician C |
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 levels no matter how many tests we ran. |
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What does that mean? |
Technician C |
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 direbeast was in stable condition. We were going to keep him under observation and run further analysis... |
| A curse...? | A blessing...? |
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Blessings and curses are essentially the same thing. People just categorize them differently based on their effect.
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... |
Technician D |
Oh! Tartarus' 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. |
Technician B |
But why'd he go there? |
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Ortho described it to us. Tartarus is a really dangerous place, right? |
Technician A |
Absolutely. It's a containment facility that holds over 10,000 Phantoms.
And all its freezing systems have been shut down. The Phantoms could awaken at any moment. |
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At least we know where Grim is. It's actually better that he's in Tartarus.
We'll pick him up on our way down to the Underworld. |
Technician B |
That's absurd! It's much too dangerous! |
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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. |
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- sigh* It does sound like the only way, but even so...
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You say it like it's no big deal. |
Technician B |
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! |
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...So how long 'till all the Phantoms in Tartarus thaw out? |
Technician C |
Um... About six hours. |
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And how likely is it that you'll restore communication and get help in that time frame? |
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You've got barely any hope of rescue, and most of the people here are helpless researchers.
Ortho's taken over all your fallbacks—your Charon power armors 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. |
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It's true that we're not licensed mages yet.
But we've all been trained by our school as first responders in the event of an emergency. |
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And then there's the fact that we're all here because we've overblotted. |
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What was the criteria for overblotting again?
"You have to be a 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? |
Technician B |
Well, ah, I suppose... |
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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 worse-case scenario. |
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I'm ready to go down there too! |
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Then I say we strike while the iron's hot. Let us be off—to Tartarus! |
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