"Here you go," Dmitry offered the mana stone he bought back. "Now we're even."
"You didn't need to—"
Especially since he still couldn't use magic.
And who kept a tally, anyway?
The Captain had saved his life many times, and Konrad had done the same.
'Is this what the researchers would refer to as bromance?' the parallel brain asked. Talk about not getting in the way. 'Oh, if there's more, please, do go on.'
"Who are these researchers anyway?!" Konrad demanded, making poor Dmitry jump.
"I'll never get used to you talking to that thing," he muttered, picking up the pace again.
Yeah. He should've done it like he used telepathy. Keep things nice and silent inside his head.
But then he'd have to explain everything twice.
Even half a conversation was better than nothing.
'But if you held hands, he could hear my voice, too,' the brain offered.
Which, um, yeah. He did say that living inside Konrad limited his reach to what he touched.
But after that bromance comment, he'd rather not.
'Don't be like that,' the voice teased. 'It's normal these days. The researchers told me.'
"I have a wife," Konrad snapped back. In fact, he had two. "So who are those researchers?!"
'Two wives and an actual harem?' the brain whistled inside his head. 'Life in another world sounds a lot more exciting than floating in a tank for who knows how long.'
Ugh. And ever since they left the lab to walk towards the Duga, he's been like this.
Quiet for a while, digging through Konrad's memories, causing him to remember at random.
And now, he kept interrupting him or evading his actual questions.
'No, I'm sorry, you are right,' the brain backed down. That was the other thing. Since he lived inside his mind, he always knew when to do that. 'But your memories are extraordinary.'
"The researchers," Konrad repeated, "who are they?"
'You want names, their general affiliation, or all I know about their projects?'
"Anything you can tell?" he said. And the response was—
Silence.
"Having trouble with your new friend?" Dmitry asked. "You've been scowling since the bar."
"He's not as helpful as he promised," Konrad grunted, to which the brain protested.
'Untrue. But there's not much I can do right now. Other than analyzing your magic and trying to answer your questions. Believe it or not, though, my memories are not perfect.'
"You are your memories," he pointed out. "That's what you told me."
'Core memories. Memories that made me, well, me. You can't expect me to remember every little thing. Especially when you don't even remember your own name from your previous life.'
His parallel brain was a smartass.
As soon as he got his magic back or reunited with Lily, he would—
'Anyway, so the researchers, right?!'
That finally got him talking.
Thinking about how to expel him always worked.
'So, um, their main area of expertise was cloning. Not normal, regular cloning, but, like, separate organs. Developing useful mutations. And Psyonic powers.'
"Ugh, one second," Konrad grunted, repeating it to Dmitry. "You know what? Mind if I—"
He still refused to hold hands, but he could put his palm on his shoulder, right?
'Ah, Captain Dmitry Bandera,' the parallel brain greeted him with a smirk. Or it felt like he would be smirking. 'Good to feel you again. And sorry about taking over your body. Twice.'
"Holy shit, I can actually hear it in my head," the Captain yelled, then froze. "Wait. Twice?!"
"Never mind that," Konrad grunted. "Stay on topic. Who did these researchers work for?"
'Ah, so here's the thing. You would call them mad scientists, I guess. But most of them would conduct their research only for the sake of it. Experiment with no clear goal in sight.'
"But someone must have paid for it," Dmitry noted once he got over the strange experience.
'That's how it works? Well, you might be right. They sometimes mentioned The Group.'
"Couldn't you be more vague?!" Konrad complained, squeezing the Captain's shoulder.
'Sorry, Casanova, but these guys were always vague. Unless it was about their current research.'
"Casanova?" Dmitry blinked. "Why does he call you that?"
Ugh, if he brought up the harem now—
"Ignore that part," he sighed, trying to push further. "What do you know about this Group?"
'The Group,' the brain corrected. 'And they run the Zone as it is now. They created it.'
So it was a man-made construct after all.
"What? Why?!" the Captain demanded. "What's their endgame with this thing?"
'Unclear. But scanning Casanova's memories and matching them with mine, I've a wild guess.'
"Say it, then, and stop teasing," Konrad grunted, too.
'Well. As I said, it's only my theory. But it has a strong foundation now.'
Yeah, no. He would expel this parallel troll brain as soon as he could.
'Oh come on. Okay. Fine. They want to create magic on Earth, like yours.'
That gave them both a pause.
"What makes you think that?" Konrad tried to probe further.
'I mean, in a sense, I'm a wizard, too, right? And, fun fact, do you remember that dog attack right after you entered the Zone? That hairy dog that went missing. He was in that lab, too.'
Yet another logical somersault?
"What does it have to do with magic?" Dmitry asked, but Konrad already had a vague idea.
'Back then, this Casanova used lightning to kill all the dogs except one. Can you guess how many? Let me help. One dozen. That's it. All the rest was a mere illusion. Magic.'
Right. He did remember that, and has been wondering about it for a while.
'The basic principles are the same, but the building blocks are different,' the brain explained.
"But rather than manipulating the elements with mana," Konrad theorised. "They manipulate the human psyche. Does that mean that all the anomalies and artifacts—they're not real?"
'Sorry, I don't know much about those,' the voice claimed. 'But in the dog's case, yeah.'
Illusion magic that used Psyonic waves rather than mana.
Enabled by a bunch of sketchy researchers in a lab, using cloning and mutations.
'And yes, it does feel like the mastermind behind this all might be Lucifer's puppet.'
So now he was reading his mind faster than Konrad could talk?
But indeed, that seemed like a real possibility.
Could it be Strelok?
No. He would be ruling this place, not trying to reach its heart.
It had to be someone else. Someone he could use to seal away the fallen angel.
But even before that, one thing would not give him rest.
"Why go all these lengths when Earth does have mana, though?"
'Yeah, well, what can I say?' the brain shrugged in his mind again. 'It seems like they didn't know.'
Which was fair. Konrad had only learned about it by accident, thanks to Yuki-san.
The voice started to laugh.
'Imagine creating the Zone and putting in all the time and effort. And all they had to do was to become rockstars like you, Casanova.'
Yeah. But he wasn't in the mood to laugh.
And Dmitry wasn't either.
He wiped his hand off his shoulder as he doubled over to throw up.
"Fuck," he heaved. "If this is true, we have to find that bastard and put an end to this."