Chapter 157 Acceptance

Nina followed the master's instruction. She walked towards her left and stopped in front of the wall. Her eyes narrowed then she touched the wall and that's when she felt that there was something coating the walls. She took a step back and punched the wall.

A ripple formed and spread through the entirety of the wall. "Looks like cloaking magic. That explains why there are no guards. Whoever breaks that long corridor will find themselves in an empty room and will eventually leave."

"Then let's break it down," one of the magic users with her, suggested.

She became a bit overconfident and was about to go and attack the wall but fortunately one of her teammates pulled her back. The woman turned around and glared at the person who held him back. She was also going to show off and yet, they stopped her then they heard Nina's voice.

"Do you think that it's that easy?" Nina turned around. "This kind of cloak cannot be easily broken because if you attack it using magic, your magic will only bounce back and it may hit any of us. Just now I used physical strength so the force only created a ripple."

She shot a bomb towards the wall and instead of exploding it bounced off and returned to them. The bomb exploded but they were unharmed because one of them summoned a shield to protect them all.

"See," she looked behind her, "my bombs are designed to explode upon touching anything but it just bounced off from the cloak because this barrier is sensitive to mana."

Her explanation made the members of her group rethink their words. This only showed that most of them were new to this kind of work. There were some magic users amongst them who had experience but they were distributed to each group.

While they were stuck on what they should do next, the mages behind the cloaked room remained relaxed even though the punch from Nina shook the room where they were in. One of the mages spoke with worry written all over his face.

"Will they be able to destroy the cloak?" His voice was trembling as he asked that question.

"Even if they are capable enough to destroy the cloak, we will not go down with a fight!" One of the courageous ones declared. He even patted his chest with confidence.

The others were not sure because they knew that if the person on the other side of the wall could break the cloak, they must not be weak. They were only there under the command of someone higher than them. These mages were tasked to carry out the experiments from those who were above them without questions.

Not all of them willingly joined that group. Most of them were threatened and forced to work even though it was against their conscience to hurt innocent people. It was a vow they all took when they became official mages and now that vow was broken.

"We are going to die anyways, why worry if the people or person on the other side is strong?" One of the calmest in the group spoke from where he was leaning.

The timing was also right. The attack happened just as the higher ups were not there, of all the chances, they took that day to come. This only meant one thing, the location of the laboratory was leaked and there was someone who knew the schedule of those people who would come to visit their progress.

From that moment already, they were already doomed. On the other hand, the calm one was glad that someone came to destroy the laboratory and kill them all. It was the only salvation he could think of after everything they did.

Even if they did it willingly or with a knife on their necks, they still did it with their own hands. He could only look at the ceiling and blink a few times then the inevitable happened. The screams of agony and growls of anger filled the room where they were in.

All of them were startled when they heard those noises. It was a familiar sound but to hear it in such a close distance meant that they were here. Panic started to rise from the hearts of the mages as they scrambled to barricade all the doors.

"What's happening? Why are they out?" One of the mages shouted. His pupils were unfocused as he looked around. "Who did it!?" His voice was so loud that the entire room was filled with it.

His eyes landed on the calm man and in anger he stomped towards him. He lifted the calm man's collar and pushed him hard on the wall. The calm man coughed as he lifted his hands and held the man's arm.

"What if I did? We are going to die anyway so why not let those kill us instead. Our hands created those things, we killed people, do you really have the right to complain? No one will be saving us anyway. Our only direction is death." He smirked then his shoulders shook as a small laugh emitted from his mouth.

His laugh grew louder and the man who was pinning him loosened his hold and took several steps back. The banging on the steel doors continued to grow louder. Some of the mages started to cry and cover their ears as the noise did not stop.

From then on, no one from their group spoke. They already lost any hope. The calm man was right, no matter where they go, death was the only end remaining for them. Those mages already resolved themselves to their deaths.

The banging on the doors suddenly stopped which made the mages tenser because they knew what's going to happen next. They waited and waited but nothing happened instead they heard several thuds from behind the doors. It sounded like things hitting the hard wall.

Before they could process anything, the ground started to shake and then there was a loud bang as something hard hit the steel door. A dent appeared on the supposed to be indestructible door, then another bang and another dent. The barricade they placed on the door all fell down on the third bang and a hole finally appeared.

"Oh it is finally here," the master's voice broke through the silence of the room.

The grin on his face widened and there was the red glint on his eyes. His grin made him look like he was someone crazy which unnerved Linius but he held himself back from commenting. He instead returned his focus on the projection they were watching.

From behind the door, a flash of light appeared and blew it away. The fear in the atmosphere reached its peak as the mages tried to defend themselves from the enemy. They tried even though they knew that there was nothing they could do against their monstrous creation.

It was a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old. He stepped inside the room and received a barrage of colorful magic but all of these were nullified. An invisible shield surrounded the young boy which absorbed all the attack thus rendering all of them useless.

Once all the magic disappeared, the mages who tried to attack backed away in fear. The boy was clearly not himself. He swept his gaze at the room and as if a trigger was pulled, the boy shouted. His anger rose and so did the unstable mana inside his body.

A circular wave of something dark came out from the boy as it spread through the room. Those who weren't able to evade the wave were killed and it even damaged the wall as it left a deep mark. Blood from the dead bodies started to stain the white floor as the other mages started to shout and run around.