*Chapter 12: Trapped with Allies?*
The trio huddled in the dark, unforgiving room, their surroundings felt pressing in on them. Charlotte pressed her hand on Astaria's back, and Kagami tried to think and figure a way out of their situation. Astaria knelt, her hand on the wall as she attempted to unravel the mysteries of this place. Kagami refrained from trying to frighten Astaria by jokingly suggesting this was just a "starvation" cage, given the stress they'd been through. There was no room for dark jokes, for now.
Astaria drew on some of Charlotte's power, extending her reach into the magical powers within the domain and continued trying to go deeper and deeper. Her connection began as a murky haze, but she somehow managed to clear it up a bit.
"This is strange," Astaria remarked with a tinge of unease and stress.
Kagami crouched down beside her, inquiring, "What's strange? Did you find some complex mechanism or something? If so just break it up, it works Everytime."
Charlotte chimed in, relactant and her frustration evident, "Is there no way out?"
Astaria hesitated for a bit. "No, it's just... There's someone watching us," she said with a concerned tone, shifting the atmosphere in the room to one of greater gravity and somewhat darker and even more serious.
Unable to contain her anger and panic, Charlotte quickly withdrew her hand from Astaria and started hitting the wall, calling out and cursing the person to open the way, but to no avail.
With a somewhat "gentle" bump on the head, Kagami made sure Charlotte kept giving her energy to Astaria for the time being.
Kagami Asked, "Can you get any kind of information on that person?"
Astaria replied, "Well, I can try," before concentrating intently. After a brief moment of silence, she said, "It's no use. I can't reach him, no matter what. He doesn't seem like he wants me to reach him... I don't know why, but I think this person could be dangerous."
Kagami pondered the situation. "I see. So we can assume that whoever is on the other side is the one who placed the red button outside and is in charge of this place. They might even have the girl we are looking for." He gazed up at the sealed ceiling and continued, "It's too early to say, but I feel like this individual is testing us, possibly waiting for us to weaken or even die. Is it because he's weak or because it's just his style? It's to early to say. But I think it's some sort of a test, nonetheless... that's what I think, at least."
Charlotte was about to express her anger, but Kagami intervened and stopped the action, advising her to save her energy for now. Astaria watched them, her face filled with concern, waiting for guidance from Kagami.
"... Now that I think of it, how did you know it's a 'he'? You said you couldn't reach him, so what if it's a 'she'? Like some Ara Ara type Onesan that would be interesting." Kagami asked Astaria. "He told me." she responded.
Her response left both Kagami and Charlotte puzzled, Questioning if she was that dumb, And wondering why she had overlooked such a crucial piece of information during Kagami's entire speech.
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With a "light" tap on the head, Kagami expressed his displeasure at Astaria's oversight. He might have acted a bit impulsively but he didn't really care. Surprisingly, Charlotte found this amusing, laughing for an extended period because the hit had not landed on her head this time, and it was rather comical. She fall on the ground when she saw Astaria trying to hold her tears up.
Despite Astaria's continuous efforts, she couldn't establish contact with the person watching them. She left her left hand touching the wall while she turned around and addressed both Kagami and Charlotte.
"He doesn't seem to want to talk to me," Astaria explained. "No matter how hard I try, I only sense... hatred? I can't be sure, but my attempts are basically futile."
Reflecting on the powers she once had, Astaria murmured, "If only I still had my powers..."
Kagami interrupted her, urging her to continue, emphasizing that they had no alternative and were relying on her. He sounded sincere, and he even exchanged glances with Charlotte, encouraging her to drop the attitude and be supportive as well.
It was during this moment that Astaria made the conscious decision not to share her initial full thoughts: "I would've just blasted all three of your asses up, and escape to have some tea!"
As she turned around, Kagami's “guilt” became apparent. A “soft”, “friendly” smile appeared on his face.
Time ticked on. A voice suddenly appeared in front of Astaria, "[You... Still... there?]" His words seemed like a speech bubble in an infinite black space, leaving Astaria to respond. It felt as though she was floating in a void while conversing with an invisible interlocutor. After a few minutes, she said, "Okay... okay, I get it. Yes.... Thanks."
Astaria was polite and expressed her gratitude to the unseen presence in the wall, and the conversation ended. She tried to relay the information she had obtained to Kagami and Charlotte. But Kagami and Charlotte behind her had come up with a “brilliant” plan to escape from that place. By having Charlotte break through the roof, as it had served as their point of entry and was therefore presumed to be a weak point by Charlotte. Their genius and IQ combined has already exceeded 1000(Self proclaimed) by coming up with this plan.
Kagami launched Charlotte upward, repeatedly slamming her into the roof more than she end up hitting it. Unfortunately, their efforts yielded no results. The only outcome was a disoriented Charlotte, while Kagami appeared almost completely nonchalant with an entirely unsuspicious smile on his face. Charlotte was too dizzy and beaten up to notice.
Astaria intervened, halting their futile and stupid efforts by expressing her disappointment, partly because they should have focused on what was clearly important. She then informed them of her progress. Long story short no progress, and a lot of weird voices and sounds she couldn't make up, till the end when the voice said he will return later.
Some amount of time passed.
"[You... Still... there?]" the voice returned. This time, Astaria experienced it as if she were inside a darker void, engaged in a conversation with the black speech bubble once again. After a few minutes, Astaria responded, "Okay... okay, I get it. Thanks."
Astaria explained to Kagami and Charlotte that she had been in contact with the enigmatic presence once again. She had two pieces of news, one good and one bad.
Charlotte was quick to ask, "Tell us the bad news first."
Kagami, on the other hand, jokingly requested, "Hmm, can you just tell me the good news? I'm not in the mood for bad stuff right now."
Astaria decided to be angry at Kagami for his lack of seriousness, lecturing him for a while. Kagami promptly apologized, expressing his desire to have a bit of fun before the inevitable bad news hit them.
He knew they were screwed so he tried to have fun and lighten the mood a bit, an effort that yelled no benefit other than, Charlotte laughing her ass up at him being lectured and him being pissed about it.
Ultimately, Astaria delivered the news: "He told me we can escape... but he thinks it's better for us to just stay here and die."
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As always thank you for reading!