Children of Elisium
Chapter 15: Blood on Her Hands

The hallways beyond the thick white walls of Elisium’s were as busy as always. Adults wearing white laboratory coats were walking in and out of the seemingly endless maze of pathways that wove throughout Elisium’s laboratories. Unknown to the adults, a single eight-year-old girl was weaving through them in a panic, her small body hidden from their gazes with a complex concealment spell.

373 took a deep breath as she stopped to study the leftover traces of Michael’s energy in the surroundings. She had started her search in the male’s room, but the moment she arrived in his bedroom, the anxiety she was feeling increased by ten-fold.

The already-bare room had been stripped of all personal effects. The clock on his wall was gone. The sheets had been replaced. The clothing in his cabinet had been cleared and the flower on his bedside table was nowhere to be found. Even the familiar scent of him had been erased. Her heart thumped painfully in her chest. The traces of his existence in his room were older than a day. He hadn’t returned to this room since yesterday night.

The girl had left the room and headed for the secret path Michael had told her about. His traces there were stronger – fresher. She retraced his steps and found herself going aimlessly around Elisium. Then, she stopped. There was nothing significantly different about this corridor that separated it from the rest of the halls she had passed. But Michael Caelum’s energy signature was all over the place. 373 could clearly make out a Fulcio spell that belonged to the youth with bright hair and the beginnings of another spell that never managed to form.

The girl with obsidian orbs studied the scene with a sense of urgency. Although there were multiple energy signatures in the hallway, a single energy signature stood out from the rest. It interacted with Michael Caelum’s energy signature and seemed to follow the boy everywhere he went. The brown-haired child took a step back. Her back pressed against the cold metal wall. 373 recalled the violent energy signature that had disturbed the flow of magic in Astaroth’s room. The blue haired lady’s energy signature matched the signature 373 found in the hall.

373 used her Talent and ran.

She stopped caring about bumping shoulders with the adults. The little girl ran as fast as she could while tracking Michael Caelum’s energy signature. The weaker it became, the faster her feet carried her. Her hunt led her to the holding cells underneath Elisium’s laboratories then back up again to the hallways of Elisium’s research facility.

Whether it was how her legs were starting to hurt or how the voices in her head had turned into a mess along with the sounds she heard with her ears, none of it mattered to her. She only allowed herself to take a breath when she found a closed room where Michael’s traces stopped. The room had a big glass door that opened in the middle whenever someone went in and out of the room. Aside from the boy’s energy signatures, 373 could feel the signatures of three other people.

The small female gathered her wits and tried to make sense of the voices in her head. She used her Talent and tried to look into the three adults’ memories. When she did, her hands automatically pressed on her mouth. She swallowed the disgusting substance that rose to her throat. 373 swayed in dizziness. She felt her heart stop for a split second.

Through the adults eyes, she could see the open wounds on Michael Caelum’s chest. Through the adults ears, she could hear Michael’s screams. Through their thoughts, 373 could understand what the young man was about to go through.

They were thinking of taking his Talent away.

They were thinking of ways to make him suffer.

They were thinking of outright killing him.

They were waiting for him to die.

Her body moved faster than her thoughts. In a blink of an eye, she was in front of the sliding door with a fulgur spell was on her hand. Glass exploded as it came in contact with her palm. The adults in white coats watched in shock as an unseen force knocked destroyed the door and sent shards flying inside the room. A single adult rushed outside. The other two remained in the room. But before they could do anything, 373 aimed her palms at them and used another spell.

“Aer Gurges!”

Torrents of wind formed whirlpools which swept the researchers out the door. 373 quickly formed a protective screen around the room and ignored the sound of hands banging on her barrier. She deactivated her concealment spell and quickly made her way to Michael’s bedside. The astringent odor of disinfectant and something foul assailed 373′s nose. His eyes were closed. His complexion was a few shades lighter. His face was contorted in pain. His mop of amber hair was unkempt. His chest was stripped bare. Open wounds covered the exposed skin of his torso. Crimson blood was flowing freely from the gashes. Some of his wounds were fizzling and reacting with an unknown liquid that smelled so bad it made 373 want to retch.

A foreign emotion stabbed into her heart but the girl ignored the scents and sensations. She found a deep wound and pressed her palms on Michael’s chest to stop the bleeding. Her hands were shaking, her breathing was unsteady. She felt lightheaded, like none of the air she breathed went into her body. She tried to swallow her panic with the moisture in her mouth.

“A healing spell… which healing spell,” she muttered to herself as she mentally flipped through all the spells she knew. She took a breath to steady her nerves.

“Cosano… Cosano should work.”

A soft white light enveloped her hands and spread through the youth’s body. She observed Michael Caelum’s face and prayed that he would open his eyes. The heavens seemed to grant her wish. His long lashes fluttered and his eyelids flew open. She finally saw the familiar pair of multi-colored eyes that always seemed so warm. But he… didn’t really look happy to see her. Worry and surprise were reflected on the young male’s face. His bigger hand covered hers but there was barely any strength in his grip.

“You… shouldn’t be here,” he said. His voice was weak, almost inaudible. He coughed a few times. Every time he did, pain flashed in his eyes.

Her dark orbs met his gaze, but she instantly looked away. The expression on his face made her heart wrench. The little girl pursed her lips. She focused on her hands and at the rate the wounds were healing. But the bleeding didn’t stop. The wounds refused to close. Her eyes tried to search his for answers, but the boy didn’t look at her. Instead, he looked at the monitors lined against the wall.

Her eyes swept the multiple machines that looked exactly like the machines the adults had hooked on to Zain Amina. Her eyes followed Michael Caelum’s gaze and she found herself staring at the numbers that were reflected on the monitor screens. She finally heard the dull beeping that matched the beating of his heart. She finally noticed how the numbers were going down. 373′s entire body turned cold. It felt like her blood had frozen in her veins. Michael squeezed her hand.

She looked at him. He shook his head weakly.

“Forget me and leave. If they replace you, change their memories. If you don’t, they’ll do worse things to you.”

The child still didn’t move an inch. “I won’t go. I’ll save you.”

“You can’t. I won’t... last long,” Michael gasped for breath and squeezed her hand again. “I’m dying, Aria. You have to… go.”

373 used more energy on her spell. “I won’t let you die.”

“Aria…” Michael called her with the name he said belonged to her. 373 honestly felt zero attachment to the name. She kept her lips sealed hoping he’d do the same and shut up.

“Aria…,” he coaxed with a voice that was but a whisper. “It’s okay.”

The small girl’s eyes grew moist. She glared at him. “It’s not okay!”

The male’s bigger hand left hers and slowly reached for her face. His cold fingers traced her nose and then her cheeks. His thumb wiped the tears slipping out of her eyes. 373 stared at his orbs which seemed to contain both the sun and the sky. He didn’t say anymore. The boy simply cradled her face in his hand and stared at her with kindness and warmth. Her lips quivered. The cosano spell on her hands finally ended. The rhythmic beeping sound in the room slowed down. The dam holding back her tears broke.

373′s sobs escaped her quivering lips. “Don’t die, Michael - you can’t die...”

The young male’s eyes widened and the hand on her face stilled. A heartfelt smile crept up his lips. 373 saw sparks laughter and sadness in his colorful orbs. His voice was soft. Melancholic.

“You finally called me by my name.”

The little girl sniffed and wiped the torrent of tears running down her face. Her syllables came out choked but she still managed say his name again.

His face crunched up in pain. He grunted and twisted on the bed. His usually smooth eyebrows were knit together. His hand fell from her face and left emptiness in its wake. Her eyes left his and stared at the numbers being flashed on the display screens. The beeping sounds were faster. The figures on the monitors were fluctuating like they did when Zain Amina was in pain.

373 held his hand her two smaller palms. His fingers were colder than they were a few moments ago. She felt useless. Weak. She could put him to sleep like she did with Zain Amina, she could make the pain go away with a single spell. But Michael Caelum would still die. Just like Zain Amina, Michael Caelum would end up dead.

373 ignored the tears falling down her cheeks. She squeezed his hand one last time and whispered in his ear.

“Somnum Diu.”

His body relaxed. The crease between his eyebrows smoothened. His hand slipped from her grasp. Neither the shouting beyond the room nor the sounds of her barrier cracking caught her attention. The small female only listened to the beeping sounds in the room. She listened to the rhythm becoming slower, less urgent, while the numbers on the screens continued to go down.

373 looked at her hands which were dyed crimson red. Her body was frozen cold. She felt like time had stopped. She felt resigned. The girl couldn’t care less about tears flowing out of her eyes. She couldn’t care less about the rest of the world. She closed her eyes and tried to block every thought out of her mind until Astaroth’s words echoed in her head.

Per Angusta, Ad Augusta. Through difficulties, to honors.

‘...Your victory… can only be attained if you choose to fight your battles’

She exhaled. With a single breath, she felt time resume it’s course. But with that single breath, something inside her had changed.

She turned her head to stare at the door she had destroyed. Her eyes were lifeless, void of emotion. Her blood-stained hands fell to her side as she studied the group of men and women in gray outfits were trying to break through her barrier with attack spells. They looked like blurry shapes through her tears yet she knew the people outside were people she didn’t recognize. With a single look, 373 knew they were powerful – probably a group of high-level Spellcasters. It was impossible for her to escape from them, much more kill them all.

But 373 deactivated her barrier. And as soon as her protective screen was no more, she charged at them with all the attack spells she knew. Gusts of wind merged with waves of fire. Bolts of lightning crashed against blades of energy. Lightning cackled. Thunder boomed. Fire and wind raged as the throes of energy rumbled through the halls. The floor beneath them distorted as she weaved through the adults with her own modified version of fulcio. For the first time, 373 fought without holding back – without fearing the consequences of each attack.

Astaroth was right. She should fight her own battles – even the ones she knew she could never win. Her hands were already tainted with blood. Getting more blood on her hands wasn’t something she was afraid of.

Asha Claire’s blue hair whipped around wildly as she boarded a helicopter that was going to take her from the city of Granada back to the Great Apothecary’s research lab in Salamanca. She had spent the entire evening traveling through the thick of the night just to make sure that her tracks were well-covered. The woman hadn’t slept and her eyes were heavy as lead. She was trying to close her eyes and drift off to sleep in the noisy interior of the chopper when she felt a light vibration on her thigh.

She took out a white circular-shaped device from her pocket. It looked like an any lady’s face-powder container. But instead of a mirror and beige-colored foundation, a small communicator screen was inside the device. The instant she flicked the white communicator open, a pair of striking orange eyes and blood red hair appeared on the screen.

A huge grin was on her lips. “Master! Miss me already?”

The man’s already sour expression seemed to get worse by the second. ‘You were wrong, Michael Caelum wasn’t a threat.’

The grin on her face remained but her eyes were no longer smiling. “You’re just playing with me, aren’t you, Master?”

Asha Claire watched Silas Fidi massage the space between his upturned eyes. His sunken cheeks looked even more hollow. ‘He wasn’t the bug you sensed in the laboratory’s hallways. You just killed his mother and captured him for nothing.’

“Tha- that’s impossible!” She screamed into the communicator. Her face was flushed. Her lips drew into a scowl. “My calculations were right, and his patterns matched my assumptions perfectly! It couldn’t be anyone but him!”

‘I’m not calling you to hear you whine.’ The man on the other end ran a bony hand through his dark crimson tresses. ‘I’m simply informing you that your Talent was unable to come up with the correct answer simply because of an unknown variable that you would never have considered.’

Asha Claire’s eyes widened. The adult woman nibbled on the nail of her thumb as she wracked her brain for other possible suspects. She was tempted to jump of the helicopter and use Adicio just to get back to Elisium and figure everything out. “Was it Maria Caelum? But I already took care of her. It couldn’t have been another researcher…-”

‘373.’ Silas Fidi cut her off. The man’s tone was impatient. His upturned eyes turned sharp. ‘Michael Caelum indeed had plans to take her out of Elisium. But rather than the boy and his mother, subject 373 was a bigger threat than the two Caelum’s combined.’

“The child…?” The woman couldn’t believe it. Her mouth hung slightly agape while her jaw turned stiff. The Great Apothecary didn’t wait for her to regain her wits and continued recounting the events that had happened in Elisium right after Asha Claire had left.

‘She snuck into Michael Caelum’s operating room, and after putting him to sleep, she went on a rampage, killed five researchers and three of our highest-ranking Spellcasters, and injured ten high-ranked Spellcasters. Among the ten, six are severely wounded and two are in a coma. They probably won’t wake up.’

“That’s not possible! Our researchers are all ranked Spellcasters. A single kid-”

Silas Fidi laughed and his laughter was enough to clamp the woman’s mouth shut and send shivers down Asha Claire’s spine. The Magno Deorum’s face was dark like the chuckle that rumbled out of his throat. ‘Do you remember the energy residue you sensed on the day you arrived?’

“O-of course,” she hesitantly replied. She wondered why her Master was bringing it up when they were talking about 373. Was he hinting at something? The gears in her head clicked and turned. Her eyes widened and the red spectacles she wore slipped down from her nose. “But the energy signature – the spell – was a modified version of Celare! Only an expert-!”

‘She’s a genius.’ Silas Fidi interjected without waiting for her to finish. ‘I personally paid a visit to the hallways you’ve been investigating, and the traces match her energy signature. 373 was the one who set off a lightning spell to short-circuit the equipment in the operating theater. She was the one who roamed and toured the restricted sections of Elisium’s laboratory undetected… not Michael Caelum.’

‘The spells she used weren’t taught in Elisium and she was capable of advanced spells half of our researchers couldn’t even do. It took almost twenty of our men to subdue her. If we didn’t have high-ranking Spellcasters in the vicinity, she would have done more damage than destroy a few equipment and a single operating room.’

“Where is she? How about Michael Caelum’s body?” Asha Claire slumped back on her seat. She was already tired. But now, she just felt like all her energy had left her body.

‘We managed to sedate the girl and she’s presently locked up in a holding cell. Michael Caelum’s body is also being preserved and kept alive in an empty cryogenic container,’ was the man’s reply. ‘If you have no plans of using both, I suggest eliminating them as soon as possible.’

A cruel glint flashed through Asha Claire’s dark blue eyes. She smirked. “I don’t really care about the girl… but since she’s from the Aquarius class, why not let her suffer a bit? She’s a test subject we’ve invested our time, effort and resources on. She should see the role ’til the end.”

‘You want to use her for the Talent Implantation experiments.’ The Great Apothecary quickly caught on Asha Claire’s meaning and nodded his head. ‘And the boy?’

“He has the Talent related to erasing memories.” The smirk on the woman’s face grew. “I’d like to test if his Talent can modify the memories of a demon or at least make the Duke of Hell a little bit more subservient to me.”

The world outside the helicopter became bathed in hues of red and gold. Asha Claire sighed with emotion. “Ahh. It’s good that both of them can still be used for the greater good. This way, even if they die, they can become part of a great undertaking that would greatly impact and change the world!”

Silas Fidi was silent at first. After a few moments, he shook his head and glared at the hopeless woman on the other end of the screen. ‘You are truly hypocritical and ruthless.’

Asha Claire giggled like a lovestruck fool. The words were scathing but the Apothecary’s disciple took it as a compliment. Her smile grew wider.

“I’ve been your disciple for ninety years, Master. Let’s just say I learned from the best.”

Two days passed in a blink of an eye. But for Leon, the last two days were the longest days in his life.

He had spent the last 48 hours in a daze. 373 didn’t drop by at all in the last two nights and he had started to worry.

Maybe she was angry at him? Leon rejected the thought. Even when the little girl was angry at him, she had always visited him with a piece of bread in hand.

Maybe she had already escaped? The thought alone made Leon a little angry. If she had already left, couldn’t she at least have given him a heads up or say goodbye?

Maybe something happened? On the times that she didn’t visit him, something big had happened. But 373 had roamed Elisium without any incidents or whatsoever. She was good with spells. There was nothing she couldn’t handle.

She couldn’t have gotten into trouble, right?

There was no way that could happen, right?

The boy with blonde hair and bright electric blue eyes spent his days wondering and worrying about 373. In the last 2 days, he would wait for the girl to appear, yet he would always replace himself wrestled awake by the white-coats the next day. The young boy didn’t even know when and how he had fallen asleep. Leon was listless. He sincerely hoped she had at least escaped Elisium with that intern called Michael. At least the little girl wouldn’t have to worry about getting killed in Elisium, much less someone like him.

Day 3 arrived.

Today was the day 373 was supposed to escape Elisium with the researcher-boy named Michael Caleum. A pair of white coats used a special key to remove the chains from his hands and feet and carried him to Elisium’s long operating theater. One looked younger than the other. They were talking about a defective intern and a new test subject. Leon had long grown numb with these kinds of conversations. Researchers and the children in Elisium were as expendable as the light bulbs on the ceilings.

Oh? A kid stopped breathing? Just throw it out.

A researcher quit? Somebody died? Don’t worry. Find a replacement.

However, the blue-eyed male found himself listening into the researcher’s idle chatter. The older researcher looked quite calm as he narrated the events that happened a few nights ago. The younger researcher had a dumbfounded expression on his face as he listened to his senior.

“What? There was actually an escape attempt in Elisium? I can’t imagine what Miss Asha Claire plans on doing next,” the younger researcher said. He cringed. “What happened to the intern and the girl?”

The older male secured Leon to a metallic trolley before answering the question. “The boy’s on life support and is probably going to be shipped to one of Asha Claire’s private laboratories. And the nightmare of a girl, well-,” he pointed his chin to a certain direction. “She’s right here.”

The younger researcher lightly tapped the trolley with his shoe. “Damn. Can’t believe that a little kid like that could kill our Spellcasters. She’s flipping crazy.”

The older researcher laughed. “Women are crazy, kid. You just haven’t seen enough women in your life to know that.”

Leon stayed quiet the entire time. He couldn’t completely erase their words from his head and he kept replaying them over and over again as the two men pushed the cart towards Elisium’s long operating theater. They strapped him on the large metallic frame and started doing the usual ‘tests’ on him. Leon stared at the syringe needle a female researcher was attaching to an injection when somebody yelled. The researcher who was about to get a sample of his blood stopped what she was doing at the commotion.

“Hey! It’s the girl from the betting pool!”

‘Betting pool? What in the world is a betting pool?’ Leon wondered. His eyes followed the throng of people that were gathering around a single bed. A child was being wheeled and strapped on the operating table. Leon couldn’t see the girl because there were too many adults surrounding her. But the moment a man with silver hair and dull steel blue eyes approached the table, the other researchers made themselves scarce and started returning to their stations.

The young boy could finally make out the outline of a small petite girl with brown hair on the operating table. There was soot all over her clothes and her skin was deathly pale. The girl slightly resembled 373. Leon internally shook his head and tried to ignore the panic welling up in his chest. 373 was supposed to be out of Elisium by now. There was no way that girl could be her.

Leon couldn’t shake the dread that settled in his chest. Just like the rest of the room, his eyes were on the the man with silver hair. The said researcher ignored the glances cast his way and proceeded to inspect the little girl’s body. He took a metallic folder on a table, read over it, before placing it back on the table. He took out a small black device from a table and spoke to it in a deep but monotonous voice.

“This is Reiner Caleb, ID number 4801782,” the man said crisply. “I will now perform Talent Implantation using of Talent of Poison Immunity on Subject number 373 from Class Aquarius.”

The entire world seemed to slow down. The boy could hear his breathing and the sound of his heart beat. Shock reflected in the boy’s bright blue eyes. His heart sped up in panic. Concern quickly turned into anger. A growl erupted from his throat.

“Get away from her!”

Heads turned to face him. A hundred pairs of eyes met his frenzied glare. The man with steel blue eyes stared at him blankly before returning to his work. Leon felt his blood burn as the silver-haired researcher injected something into 373′s bloodstream. A bout of laughter echoed in the hall. The researcher who wheeled him in snorted.

“You’re actually sticking up for a girl? How stupid!”

The statement triggered another round of laughter inside the operating theater. Leon didn’t care. He struggled against the fetters ignoring how the metal scrapped against his skin. He summoned all the energy he could and tried to break the restraints. Slowly, his skin glowed a faint reddish hue and fire exploded from his entire being and lapped at the shackles keeping him in place.

“Don’t just stand there, stop him!” One of the researchers yelled and pointed to the gigantic machine that was located at the back of the room. “Turn the generator on! Someone shock him!”

Someone hurriedly took the steel rod from its container. Sparks of electricity glinted from the metallic rod and Leon could only yell as the conductor made contact with Leon’s skin. But the flames neither died nor weakened. The boy could feel his body growing hotter as tongues of flame licked at the floor and threatened to burn everything in sight. The metallic fetters began to melt. He fell from the metal frame and landed on his knees. He stood on his feet and screamed at the top of his lungs. The fires jolted with his voice. A chain of explosions burst from his feet.

Alarm bells roared throughout the halls of Elisium’s operating theater. Leon ignored the frenzied shouts of the white-coats. All rational thought was slipping through his fingers. A voice inside him told him to lose himself to his desires. The flames on his body glowed brighter. His consciousness faded. His entire body turned numb.

There was only one thing in his mind: to burn the entire world and himself along with it.