"She was both too violent and hostile, but also too useful for our research."
That scientist, Null, was the only one talking now.
No voices in his head—and Konrad didn't like the words at all.
"While risky, we decided to take her apart and study her elements one by one," Null said. Like, as if that was the most natural thing to do to a living, breathing human. "But don't you worry—"
The stranger in the white coat smirked, waving his hand around.
"We also put Lady Origin back together."
Shit. They were lucky he split with Strelok, and he wasn't here to hear this.
Konrad had enough experience to play captive by now.
But the old Stalker? He would have already razed this place to the ground.
Which—yeah. He considered it, too.
"Now, with the war outside, we had to speed up the process, but you couldn't arrive at a better time. One more brain in our Shared Consciousness project would—"
"Wait, wait, wait, hold on," Konrad protested, turning from side to side.
He had a limit to his acting skills, too, and they were far beyond that now.
"Who said anything about me joining you?" he gritted out. "And also, your men tied me up. Is this how you treat people you want to cooperate? Or did you plan to take me apart, too?"
While he planned to fight these guys, Konrad wasn't ready yet.
Not even close. And what he needed wasn't even time alone.
He needed calm. Quiet.
And all he got was this crazy scientist spouting creepy nonsense instead.
"No, as I said—I wouldn't dare harm one of Lucifer's Apostles," Null stated. "Well, not until they'd harm us first. But even then, I'd attempt to solve our misunderstandings before—"
"Before tearing me from limb to limb," Konrad grunted, his brain working in overdrive.
And it worked alone again for the longest time.
Where the hell had his parallel brain gone when he finally trusted and relied on him?
Was it something to do with this poor Lady Origin?
"That'd be our last resort. In case you threatened our research," the scientist meanwhile claimed.
And yeah. That was exactly what Konrad planned to do.
But it seemed that even if these people realised what he was, they had no idea who exactly Konrad was. Did Maou Midori do such a great job?
Not only banishing Lucifer, but cutting off communication with his puppets here?
No. That couldn't be it, either.
Strelok, Roach, and Soap got fresh instructions long after he was off-planet.
"Could it be that your master had already forgotten about you guys?" Konrad concluded.
And on Null's face, surprise gave place to confusion, then anger.
"He would never. That's impossible," he raised his voice. "He gave us the most important mission, and we are so close now. I'm sure he's still watching us from the heavens, and—"
"Yeah, no," Konrad shut him up. "He's definitely not doing that."
Not when Lucifer was hell-bent on sieging Kasserlane for some reason.
And also not when he ordered all his puppets in the area to fight him in Tokyo earlier.
These guys, while they seemed to be dangerous—
"You're all under Lucifer's radar," he summarised.
And if the scientist's face looked angry earlier, now he was seething with rage.
"How dare you, Apostle?! What do you even know about the Master's priorities?!" he cried out, a vein about to pop on his tall forehead. "H-he gave us the most important mission of all, and—"
"I'm sorry, but was that mission to bring basic magic to Earth by any chance?" Konrad asked.
And yeah, seeing him lose his shit like this might have entertained him a little too much.
"If so, there's a much simpler way to do it," he said. "And cheaper, too. Faster and better in every way, without needing years or keeping an army around. What are you even doing here?"
He could see that vein pulsate and get even larger.
Doctor—Professor?—Null was definitely biting for his bait.
But his face mirrored so many emotions at once, Konrad half-expected him to explode.
Did he doubt him? Believe him? Hate him? Wanted to beg for his teaching?
"How?" was all he gritted out, his arms trembling. "Don't tell me you have this magic, too?"
"Oh? So you can't even feel it?" Konrad asked, actually surprised.
Not like he had mana sight, or the fine senses of Maou Midori, but—
Yeah, he could detect magic quite well when not suffering from corrupted mana.
"If you do, we have to—"
"Ah, sorry," he protested before they'd torn him apart. "I could cast magic, yes. Until one of your Blowouts—whatever monstrosity you guys created—messed me up."
And now, Mr. Null went pale, showing genuine regret.
He almost felt bad for lying to him now, but, well—
Still not quite.
"Yeah. What you do is not creating magic," Konrad claimed. "You create monstrosities and suffering—and corrupt even the little mana Earth has. No wonder Lucifer forgot about you."
And while he still didn't think of himself as a good actor—
Seeing the despair on the researcher's face made all the effort worth it.
"Corrupting the mana?" he muttered, nails clawing his own face. "W-we did that? No. It had to be that woman. It had to be her revenge for us taking her apart and putting her back together."
Which—actually, he might have been right on the money there.
If that were the last thing Konrad could do in a situation like that, he would have done it as well.
"This is why you shouldn't treat human beings like that," he grunted.
But even this rage-baiting couldn't change the fact that he'd been in ropes from head to toe.
And when Null finally pulled himself back together, he didn't let him go, either.
"That's an Apostle's insight," he panted, adjusting his hair. "Yes. I'll have to look into this. Thank you. And, and yes. If Lady Origin had sabotaged our program, she'd have to pay for it as well."
Wait. Hold on.
Konrad wasn't trying to fix their terrifying programme.
But the scientist was about to leave, and leave him there, bound and alone in his concrete cell.
"Hey, what about me?" he protested, but couldn't get the rope off himself. "Didn't you come here to ask for my help? Or want me to fix it or something?"
Null paused only for a moment, looking back from the rusted metal door.
"Didn't you say our mana corrupted you?" the man asked. "I'm sorry, but I have to fix up Lady Origin first, then—I hope you'll take her place by our side. Until then, if you'd excuse me—"
Crap.
His acting might have been too solid, after all.
The strange captor was gone, leaving the door wide open, but—
That didn't matter, either, as long as his ropes were everywhere.
"Oh boy," Konrad mumbled to himself. "If Strelok gets to this idiot before I do, we won't have an extra puppet for the upcoming fight, for sure."
And he planned to distract whoever was responsible for this mess a little longer.
But right as he finally settled into the eerie silence—
Familiar noises broke it again.
And soon, some familiar faces appeared where he least expected them, too.
"Konrad, you're here," Dmitry yelled, rushing in to cut his ropes. "I thought we'd never find you."