The following day, the moment Darian woke up, he suddenly noticed a wonderful smell filling his room. He was still dizzy as he opened his eyes, so he didn't immediately understand what was happening around him.
"Mhmm…" Darian was slowly blinking when a strong scent hit his nose. A warm, buttery fragrance drifted through the entire room; its beautiful aroma was slowly waking him up.
Darian, who wasn't used to waking up to such a smell anymore, immediately opened his eyes in a panic. "What? Am I back in—" Darian looked around, only to see the same ugly, grey laboratory surrounding him.
Darian had been used to waking up to this scent when he lived in Paris in the years before being sent to XERBAB-7; every day he had been awakened by that beautiful smell. Now, experiencing it again, it felt as if he had returned to five hundred years ago.
"It wasn't a dream after all…" Darian realized it would have been too convenient if his current life were the dream. "Still, where is this smell coming from?" Darian looked around for a moment and immediately spotted a beautiful, freshly baked croissant on the table in front of him.
'Is this Zrelekai's work?' thought Darian. As he got out of bed, he suddenly realized his stomach was growling; he hadn't eaten anything for dinner the night before.
Darian walked closer to the croissant and found a letter. He picked it up. 'I can't fucking read this thing the moment I wake up.' Darian looked at Zrelekai's extremely ugly handwriting; for someone who had just woken up, it was nearly impossible to decipher.
"I'll read it later…" Darian carefully set the letter back on the table and sat down on the stool. On the plate in front of him sat the beautiful croissant.
"I haven't eaten anything like this for such a long time…" Darian realized that the last time he had eaten a croissant was right before he was sent to XERBAB-7. Seeing one now made his heart beat extremely fast.
Darian grabbed the croissant and slowly brought it to his mouth. The moment he took the first bite, he realized it wasn't empty; inside, there was jam. Don't tell me… Darian realized the jam inside the croissant was watermelon.
'It's not that this is bad…' Darian looked at the croissant, which was literally full of jam. 'But there are tons of other, better jams to put in such a beautiful croissant.' Sadly, Darian could only eat this, as it was his only breakfast.
The moment Darian finished the croissant, he was about to get up from the stool until he remembered the letter Zrelekai had left for him.
Darian grabbed it. 'I can read it a bit better now…' Darian was still a little sleepy, but after eating, he was finally able to fully wake up, so he started to read the letter aloud.
"Hello, my friend! :D I hope you're enjoying the croissant I left for you! From what you told me about living in Paris, I remembered reading a book saying it was very common for people there to eat this type of food for breakfast, so I've left this for you! I don't know if watermelon jam was common…" 'No, it definitely wasn't…' Darian added in his mind while reading.
"Still, I'm sure you'll enjoy this croissant, as I've put all of myself into it! Now, talking about something else: after you've finished eating, I'll come and pick you up so I can finally show you around the whole laboratory. Today I'll let you see many things, starting from the simplest experiments I'm doing… to some more important stuff :>. The moment you've finished eating the croissant and reading the letter, you'll find me waiting for you at the edge of the door."
'Does it end like this?' Darian noticed once again that the paper was extremely long with a lot of empty space, until he found one more sentence at the very bottom.
"If you've eaten the croissant first… look behind you, heheh :DDD." Darian read the sentence aloud and started to turn toward the door.
'Nah, this is impossi—' The moment Darian turned around, he couldn't even finish the thought, Zrelekai was already there, waiting at the entrance of the room. Darian, unable to believe his eyes, looked at him in confusion.
'I thought he was joking…' Darian stared as Zrelekai entered the room.
"So? Have you enjoyed the croissant?" Zrelekai grabbed the empty plate from the table and slowly placed it back inside one of the drawers.
"How did you arrive here already…" whispered Darian, confused. Zrelekai looked at him with a creepy expression that made Darian gulp in surprise.
"Have you already forgotten what I told you the first day we met?" said Zrelekai as he sat down on the bed.
'What he told me? I can't remember…' thought Darian.
"That you'll never be alone as long as I'm here."
Darian remembered; it was the last thing Zrelekai had told him before leaving him alone for the first night.
"Well, we should not lose any time. C'mon, we have a long day ahead." Zrelekai jumped from the bed, headed toward the door, and waved for Darian to follow. Darian got up from the stool and trailed behind him.
'I didn't give much weight to that sentence at first…' As Darian walked with Zrelekai, he started to think about those words.
'But I don't get how he was able to know the exact moment I finished the letter… maybe he can see inside the room?' Darian considered the possibility but immediately excluded it.
'If he could do that, it would mean he has another power… but that isn't possible. As far as I know, no human has two magics…' Darian looked at Zrelekai's hands and noticed the pistol was no longer there; instead, it was poking out of his pocket.
'He doesn't seem to have another power… then what could it b—' Zrelekai and Darian turned a corner, and Darian saw something that made his heart race.
In the long, metal hallway, Darian spotted what was clearly a security camera. "Is that a—?" Darian spoke too loudly, and Zrelekai heard him, immediately understanding what Darian was referring to.
"I think you just need confirmation… and yeah, that is a security camera. But that isn't anything new for you, right? You must be used to them," Zrelekai answered as he kept walking.
'Don't tell me…' Darian felt he was reaching a conclusion, but he couldn't form it before Zrelekai called to him.
"C'mon, we have important things here!" Zrelekai called out. Darian, who had been left behind, rushed toward him. As he ran, two robots passed him. They didn't wave at him like they had with Zrelekai the day before; they simply moved past without even noticing he was there.
Zrelekai stood in front of a huge window. "C'mon, look at them." Darian positioned himself next to Zrelekai and looked through the glass. Below them was a massive room filled with machines and tons of humans working.
Darian immediately saw the similarity to a factory. The workers were dressed identically, each wearing a blue uniform with a small number on it. They worked with their heads down, while robots nearby kept an eye on them.
"It's thanks to them that we've been able to create many things," Zrelekai said in a commanding tone, looking down at the humans as if they were simple ants.
"I can't…" whispered a voice from one of the workers. He suddenly moved his hands away from his work and clutched his head as tears began to flow.
"I can't do this anymore… AHHHHH!" he shouted. One of the nearby robots started walking toward him. The other humans did nothing; they simply remained still with their heads lowered and kept working.
"No, robot… you'll not catch me!" the man shouted as he started to run away. As the robot was about to shoot, he pointed his hand toward it and created a small fireball that hit the machine directly, setting it on fire.
"Ah, I'll be fr—" Suddenly, about five robots pointed their weapons at him and, without hesitation, fired as many times as they could. The worker's body was riddled with bullets, and soon he was full of holes.
The body lay on the ground, lifeless, as blood pooled on the floor. The other humans' expressions didn't change, most were used to this, so they stayed still. Others started to sweat and stared at the body, while the people working nearest to him began to shake uncontrollably.
"Tch… it's always so annoying when that happens." An annoyed Zrelekai started to walk away. Darian, wanting to scream in terror, put his hand over his mouth and stared with wide eyes at the lifeless body being dragged away by the robots.
'What?' Darian couldn't process it. "How can you act like this…" he whispered angrily. Zrelekai didn't hear him, so he stopped and turned around.
"Did you say something? I know it's awful when people want to rebel like that." Zrelekai returned to Darian's side, but stopped when he heard Darian's reply.
"How can you treat someone like that?" Darian shouted, breathing heavily as he grew furious.
"What do you mean? It's for the sake of science. You've done the same, haven't you?" Zrelekai asked. Hearing those words made Darian even angrier.
"Don't you dare compare me to someone like you!" he shouted, pointing a finger at Zrelekai without fear. 'I don't care if he takes the pistol… I can never trust someone like this!' his legs had started to shake, but the moment the thought finished, they steadied. He remained still, glaring at Zrelekai with a serious expression.
Surprisingly, Zrelekai didn't reach for the pistol; instead, he laughed softly at Darian's outburst. "Ahaha… you've done the same, Darian. You studied Krukin bodies like they were simple laboratory guinea pigs. It's for science." Suddenly, Zrelekai turned his head toward the window to look at the workers. Realizing how Zrelekai had answered him, Darian slowly lowered his finger.
"It doesn't matter how many guinea pigs we have to use. We are scientists, we stand above them!"
Zrelekai closed his fist and spoke in a louder tone. "And because of this, we are the only ones capable of discovering important new things. Our objective as scientists isn't to change their way of living, but ours. Our lives need to be full of discoveries. I'll never accept living in ignorance like them; because of that, these people are the perfect guinea pigs for our experiments." Suddenly, Zrelekai moved his eyes and fixed them on Darian again.
"And just as you've done with the Krukins… I'm doing it with the humans. There isn't much difference, as both are simple objects for our experiments." Finishing his sentence, Zrelekai turned around and kept walking.
"C'mon, this is barely the best part of the laboratory."
Darian started to follow him, but the more he thought about those words, the more his stomach turned.
'No, no… we aren't similar. I haven't done it like him. I haven't exploited them…' Darian kept telling himself he was in the right, unlike Zrelekai.
'I studied the bodies of the Krukins that attacked me first. I never went out to take their bodies…' Darian suddenly remembered one of the first days after returning to the base. He had just finished studying the Krukdills and wanted to study more Krukins.
With the sole purpose of obtaining bodies for his experiments, he had reached the mainland and killed a few Krukins so he could study, catalog, and rank them. 'It really isn't much different from what he's doing now with humans… But no! I act in the name of science!'
Darian believed he was right because he acted in a scientific way, unlike Zrelekai. But the more he thought about the exploited people and Zrelekai's behavior, the more he realized they were both acting in the name of science.
'But I don't act only for myself… I want everyone to have my discoveries…' As Darian and Zrelekai passed the laboratories, Darian didn't notice they were passing windows through which other humans could be seen.
They wore darker uniforms than the ones he had seen before and, like Zrelekai and Darian, were performing all sorts of experiments.
But Darian didn't notice them, in fact, he couldn't even see them as he was completely spacing out. 'I'm not like him… I don't treat my experiments as objects… I simply open their bodies… I simply make them suffer… I simply don't let them return to their original place… I simply ask Rusty to grab Body F of one of the Krukspies I killed the day before…'
The more Darian thought about it, the more he realized that, in the end, he wasn't much different from Zrelekai. 'I killed them first, it's true… but I've completely ignored every ethical law regarding living creatures…' Darian kept walking and didn't notice Zrelekai had stopped in front of him.
'No, no… No… nO… NOO! I'm not like him!' Darian thought as he suddenly bumped into Zrelekai and snapped back to reality.
"Hey, are you doing alright? You look a bit pale," Zrelekai said, turning around. Darian, annoyed, answered, "No, no… I'm fine…" As he spoke, his face began to return to normal, but the moment he noticed what was in front of him, he turned pale again, worse than before.
In front of him was a window, and he could see Catripple in a chair, with her hands and legs restrained. She was half-naked, and behind her, many of her wings were missing.
"We've finally been able to catch her. I can't believe I'll finally be able to study her body and those weird wings!" Zrelekai suddenly looked at Darian and realized he'd left something out. "Oh, right, us buddy. Sorry," he said, placing a hand on Darian's shoulder. Darian turned his head with a look of absolute horror.
"Oh, I didn't think you would look like that seeing her condition… I thought that you would look like this when you'd see this instead?" After seeing Darian's face, Zrelekai pointed toward the window behind him, and what Darian saw there made his heart pound with rage.
Snowy was lying on a table. His body was filled with syringes draining the snow from him, and on top of his head were several other devices piercing into his body that Darian couldn't even recognize through his anger.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?!" he shouted, rushing toward the window. 'Where is the door?' Darian thought, clearly losing control.
Darian noticed a metal door to the right and understood it led directly into Snowy's room. "OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR OR I'LL DESTROY IT WITH MY HANDS!" He began to slam his fists against the door as hard as he could. It didn't matter that he was hurting himself; he wanted to get in there and save Snowy.
One of the humans looked at Zrelekai, wondering what to do. "Open the door," Zrelekai invited gently. The human at the control panels nodded and opened the door. Darian immediately rushed inside to help Snowy.
"Let's get out of here, Snowy!" Even though he was moving extremely fast, he carefully removed the syringes from Snowy's body. The creature was still unconscious. 'He's not fully awake yet…' Darian thought. Suddenly, he heard the metal door closing behind him.
'I'll break the glass. I've got this table,' Darian thought, looking down at the table Snowy was lying on.
Just as he was about to put Snowy on the ground so he could lift the table with both hands, Zrelekai spoke. "Can you hear me, Darian?" Darian looked at the window and saw Zrelekai speaking into a microphone at the control panel.
"You idiot! I don't care about anything anymore! I never cared at all! Let me out of here!" Darian shouted. Zrelekai whispered something to the person next to him and then spoke to Darian again.
"Don't worry, I'll let you out…" Suddenly, the walls around Darian opened, and a strange gas began to pour out. Darian, caught off guard, inhaled the gas and felt an immediate wave of exhaustion. "But you'll come with me." This was the last thing Darian heard before his eyes closed and he collapsed to the floor, unconscious.