"Can't believe it worked," Konrad muttered as two bulky Monolith men dragged him away.
'Define working,' the parallel brain scoffed, fading in and out of his consciousness. 'I lost contact with everyone outside; the pressure is increasing, and all you can say is you're still alive.'
"Yeah, well, I still take that as a win," he whispered back.
And would have shrugged, too, had those soldiers not tied him up the way they did.
But if nothing else, his plan allowed Strelok to slip past them all. That the parallel brain could confirm, too. So when not too busy giving snide remarks, he also guided him within the CNPP.
Meanwhile Konrad—
The men took him somewhere deep underground.
They wouldn't say a single word he'd understand, but didn't beat or kill him, either. So far.
Hell, those grunts wouldn't even bother searching his stuff.
They only dragged him along, letting him keep his weapons and the guitar case on his back.
With his blade inside, that was finally—
"Hmm, yeah. There's no mistake," a stranger's voice shook him up. "You're another one of our Savior Lucifer's Apostles. Good job taking him in, men. You can now leave us. Begone."
Konrad could only blink.
"I'm what?"
And better yet, who the hell was that guy?!
Until now, he had only heard the Ukrainian muttering he couldn't make out, but—
This stranger used English.
And at his command, the guards left them alone in a small, underground cell.
"Lucifer's Apostle, like me," he repeated, offering a cold smile. So cold, the winter outside couldn't even compare. "The name's Nolan Carmichael, but the rest of us call me Null."
Huh? No. It didn't ring a bell.
But if by Apostle he meant he was also Lucifer's puppet—
"Young man?" Nolan asked, giving him little time to think. "Or, sorry. I should assume you're much older than you look, too, huh? Counting both lives, I'm also over a hundred by now."
"A hundred?" Konrad scowled.
But with those ropes still tight around him, that was all he could do.
And, well, if he thought about it—
He died in his fifties and was nearing nineteen in Kasserlane, so—
Yeah. He wasn't that much younger, either.
"You seem confused," the man noted. "But I can't be the first Apostle you've met. In fact, I'm certain this one who infiltrated the Dome is also with you somehow."
And it seemed like they had already found Strelok. Great.
'They know he's here, but he's not as easy to catch as you are,' the voice filled him in with a jab.
As if his plan wasn't sound.
He talked to a stranger in a pristine white coat and grey necktie, who must have been the one running this place. Not that he knew what to say or ask, but—
This was already better than he had expected.
"We met," Konrad ended up admitting. "And he claims you hold his sister hostage."
He tried to keep his voice neutral.
There was no need to be hostile before he even knew what he was facing here.
A scientist? An evil mastermind?
Or yet another puppet Lucifer lied to and left confused?
Okay, sure, the army and all those Anomalies were a telling sign that he wasn't someone nice. But even then, if he wasn't in love with the fallen angel, they could have used him in the fight.
"Hostage? Sister? I'm not sure about that," Null pondered.
He turned his back to him like it was no big deal, scratching his jaw as he paced back and forth.
"I don't like to call our helpers hostages," he said. "Sure, not everyone joins us of their own free will, but we always compensate them all. And as for this sister—do you have a name?"
Uh. Did Strelok ever mention it?
He had only read his real name once, too, and had long forgotten.
"I don't," Konrad admitted. "But she has the magic you've been chasing, and the same as—ow."
Okay. He might've almost blurted out something important there.
But that was still no reason for the parallel brain to give him the mental version of a shin-kick.
'Faster than explaining why it's a terrible idea,' the voice claimed.
And indeed, the eyes of that odd researcher lit up in a rather strange way.
"Magic? Same as? What? Who? Where?!" Null demanded. "So you know about our research? Magnificent. We're so close. I thought losing contact with Lucifer would be the end, but—"
Right. Because Maou Midori banished him during their last visit.
And that was enough to make his followers lose contact with him?
Good to know.
Also, he had no idea about any of that, but as long as this idiot kept monologuing—
"The sister you speak of could be no other than our Lady Origin," Null concluded. "And yeah, I'm afraid we can't give her back yet. She's our most valuable asset, despite, you know—"
He waved overhead.
And no, Konrad had no clue what he was trying to convey with that.
'Guess, man. It's not that hard,' the parallel brain scoffed, feeling stronger inside his head again.
"The Blowouts?" Konrad asked, furrowing his brows.
"Hmm? That's what they call it on the outside?" Null pondered. "It's a good name. Blowout. Yes."
He never even explained what it was, and the man rolled with it?
Not the most scientific approach.
"She's volatile," he explained anyway. "Even after we deconstructed both her body and mind. But she has everything we're looking for. If we could make her function only a bit longer—"
"Hold on, what?!" Konrad scowled.
And if it weren't for his restraints, he would have done a lot more, too.
"Deconstructed? And make her function?"
Those were some scary words, even for a mad scientist this monologuing idiot seemed to be.
For some reason, Konrad could only think of Stella in that moment.
Yes. Both the volatility of that woman and—
Her necromancy.
"Why, yes," the man noted with a shrug. "It was necessary. And Lord Lucifer gave us his blessing, too, since she wasn't one of his Apostles. Only adjacent, you see."
Konrad had all the pieces, but he was too terrified to put them together.
Null must have talked about Strelok's sister, who was not the fallen angel's puppet.
Meaning, they had torn her apart and put her back together.
Yeah. He understood the words, but wished he did not.
And with Strelok on his way—what would he even find at this point?
Could he have warned him before something irreversible had happened?
'I can still reach him for you, but—'
It was obvious that even the parallel brain hesitated.
But it also had a sudden revelation, almost exploding Konrad's head.
'Lady Origin, he said?!' Thoughts and memories flashed through his mind.
None were his, and no images or sounds belonged to them. They were the pondering of a brain without a body or a past, created from scratch, using nothing but a seed from—
A poor, kidnapped girl with unexplainable magic.
Paula Streletsky. The twin sister of Pavel—or better known to them as Strelok.
And while this created more questions than it gave him answers—
For the first time in a while, Konrad's mind felt like a lonely place again.
All thoughts, voices, and the now-familiar oddity that was the parallel brain—were gone.