"What do you think you are doing? We need to save Shizue right now. Hey, let go of me right now or else-"
"Shut up. Stop speaking for a second so that I can focus on what is going on around us. These forces will not leave us alone if we are not careful."
Diantha quietened Benetta before she could cause a problem and they were found out by someone. The guards were starting to come out of their hidden chambers already. It was not a good spot to be for anymore.
But more than that, they had no way of saving Shizue currently. The black-haired female had already been picked up and taken out of the hallway.
"Bernetta, please calm down. Currently, we still have a way to save Shizue if we can break into labs later on. But if we are caught here then all our plans would come to a halt."
Diantha knew that there was a slim chance that she would be able to convey her to Bernetta. Especially with how angry she looked, it seemed to be a pipe dream currently.
But contrary to her beliefs, Bernetta calmed down a little bit once she heard Diantha's sensible words. Her eyes were still full of resentment as she looked at the white-collared workers taking her partner away.
"The energy from Shizue managed to break apart the illusion we were in. Since we are out, we should make sure the others are out of their illusionary traps as well. Then we can go and save Shizue, alright?"
Diantha purposed the plan but Bernetta did not seem to agree with her. Especially with how angry she looked right now.
"Fuck you and your plan. You can wait here for the others while I go after Shizue. Once we are all out, we will regroup in front of the base. I will give you two hours to make your way out."
"Hey, wait for a second"
Diantha tried to stop Bernetta but it was already too late. Bernetta did not listen to anything once she was out of her seat and ran after Shizue and her captive. With this, she had managed to lose her hold on Bernetta.
It sucked how things had progressed but Diantha was certain that she would be able to overcome this problem in the future. Especially if she had Yohan with her. He would know what to do next.
"Stop right there and surrender. Who are you?"
The guards were right on her heels which was a problem for Diantha. Due to her public image, it was worse for her if she was to get caught. But since she could not use her conductor, there was not much she could do.
Luckily for her, she managed to take the shortest route possible to get to Yohan. And Yohan's white hair came into her view before the guards could catch up to her.
"Yohan, help me out."
Diantha was not sure what Yohan could do to help her out. But she was sure that he would be able to help her out in some way. And true to her feeling, Yohan raised his arm, and the corridor behind Diantha raised.
It managed to block the way of the soldiers following after her and Diantha could finally breathe a sigh of relief. She was finally able to get rid of her persuaders and it felt liberating. Diantha felt her body sag in relief as she finally managed to fall into Yohan's arms.
"I hope you will be able to tell me what happened here, Diantha. I am a little lost on what is going on here."
Diantha thought of lying to Yohan at first. She did not want to tell him that she had lost Shizue and Bernetta s well. But that thought was scrapped in the end. The more she looked at Yohan's face, the more she was not able to lie to him.
It felt like she would die if she answered wrong here. She had to speak the truth or she was done for. Her relief was being overtaken by dread and fear in a single second.
"I-it is all Shizue's fault. She ended up taking an unknown shiny stone and then she was taken away. And Bernetta went after her and-"
"Take a deep breath Diantha. There is no need for you to force yourself to speak about what happened. Anyway, I can guess what happened here so relax. I guess that the 'shiny stone' Dianthan found is the central cord."
"Huh, is that even possible? No one should be possible after taking control of such a thing, right?"
Normally Yohan would have agreed with Diantha. But he had his reasons for believing why Diantha had been successful in managing to touch the central cord. And the most important one was because she had been genetically modified to do so.
"Let's gather up with Liza and Khole first. Then we can discuss what to do next.
/////////////////////////////////
"Hey, if you could always take care of the illusion, then why did you wait this long to do so? You could have gotten rid of it eons ago, right?"
Liza complained as she walked behind her brother. They were both getting out of the white-walled base as soon as they could. There had been a signal from Yohan to assemble in front of the station.
Khole did not respond to Liza's interrogations, not interested in answering what she wanted to ask him. The device in his hand was beeping loudly and then it fell silent all of sudden.
"Shit, someone managed to mask the central cord. And I am willing to bet that it was not Yohan. No wonder this place is starting to feel so creepy all of a sudden."
Instead of replying to Liza, Khole had his priorities in place. Namely, to uncover the secrets of this base as well as the central cord.
He had no sooner finished speaking when the guards began to emerge out of everywhere. There were too many people and Khole managed to mask himself and Liza in time to not be noticed.
"Sir, the enemies are being located. ETA for encountering the intruders is two minutes."
Liza wanted to curse at their lack of luck. Not only had they been trapped in an illusion, but they had also been cornered by the enemy. What could they do in such a situation? Liza was not sure about it.
However, unlike her, Khloe's mind was moving a mile per minute. He already knew what needed to be done and he took out a small capsule.
"Close your nose. This is going to sting."
Liza was barely able to follow Khloe's advice in time before he detonated a smoke bomb. It caused everyone to start coughing and then fall unconscious. Liza could only watch in wonder as her brother cleared their way out.
"Do you always carry such dangerous things on your person? You could hurt someone by doing this."
Liza complained even as she was grateful for her brother's assistance. Khole just gave Liza a side-eye as if to say that she was stupid. But seeing as how Liza seemed to have no idea what was happening, he ended up sighing.
"It's better to be prepared than to be caught off guard. Having these small toys in situations where we cannot use conductors can turn out to be beneficial."
Khole explained as he finally walked out of the base. He could see Diantha and Yohan standing in front of the building but there was a lack of a third body at their side.
That at least told Khole who was responsible for this mess. He had already known that Shizue had changed her place with Bernetta. It had been a quick decision that had surprised Khole but he had not thought much about it.
"So, are we going after the central cord right now? I assume that it had appeared and that is why we are all gathered here, right?"
Khole summarized the situation as soon as he was in audible range. He did not want to beat around the bush when his target was so close to him. He wanted to head out and have a look at the central cord right about now.
But with the troubled look, Diantha had said that there might be some complications in the process. And that was Khloe's least favorite word to know.
"Yeah, we are going after the central cord but we might need to face Bernetta and even the whole base in the process of taking over it. If you are ready to comply with me, then come along."
Yohan warned everyone about the wrong time but he was barking in front of the wrong tree. Everyone here was determined to see things through and they had already come too far.
"Might as well see the end of everything for myself. There is no point in holding back now."
With those words from Khole, everyone knew what they needed to do and what needed to be get done. The group headed back into the facility for one last attempt to retrieve the central cord.
And inside the facility, Bernetta tried to track Shizue down but it was getting more and more complicated for her. The white walls were repelling her as she tried to make a break through.