“How do you know my name?” Leo asked, still pointing his spear at Hera.
“It’s me. Hera. Why are you here? Are you with the guild?”
Before Leo could reply, Syrinx came flying from the side, trying to claw at the man. He blocked with the shield, and an arrow came flying towards the harpy. Nimbus created another barrier to stop the projectile before it made contact.
“Leo!” a male voice came from behind.
“Why the fuck are you attacking us!” another voice range, a woman’s this time.
“You are humans in this lab. That’s all I need,” Syrinx replied and started casting a spell, but Hera stepped in.
“Stop!” she turned back to Leo, “Are you with the guild?!”
“No,” he replied without lowering his spear.
“Ok then. Come with us, we are not with them either, obviously,” Hera gestured to herself.
“Why would I follow-“ Leo froze when his eyes landed on the man on the gurney. Even if he was trying to be stoic, his eyes quickly started to water, filled with relief, sadness, and anger.
Noticing the heavy emotions, Hera glanced back at the tattooed man. She could only think of one person who would make Leo come all the way here, “Holy shit. Is this your uncle?”
That line made Leo snap out of his state, “How do you know about that?”
Hera rolled her eyes, “Fuck me. It’s me. Hera. We became explorer together. Mr. Grayson praised you during our first test. You got a 23 I think. When we went inside the MAZE, you saved Tiger from a big ass frog, and I had to run to the guild and drag a healer out to heal him from poison. Your uncle raised you, and your parents suck. Trust me, I know a thing or two about having a bad parent. Do I have to go on?” she realized that she spilled the beans to Syrinx about being human before, but it wasn’t like she had an alternative. Not one that would let her solve this quickly enough, at least.
Leo’s face finally relaxed, swiping the intensity for confusion, “But how are you…”
“Long story. I’ll tell you later. Did you find anything back there?” Hera asked.
“No, everything is empty.”
“Great. Follow me. We are going back to my team, then we bolt out of here.”
“Leo! What is going on, who are they?” a third voice asked, another woman.
The hunter glanced back, “They are friends,” but when he turned around, Hera could see him mumble, ‘I think.’
“Let’s go!” Hera said and continued moving. Syrinx was staring at her, and at the humans as well, but she started flying either way.
After Tiger passed by the secret room, Viper and Crimson came out carrying the Daemon, which made the humans yelp. However, they didn’t attack once they realized they were all going in the same direction. Leo had climbed down from Tiger and was now running by the Ophidianite’s side, making sure his uncle was safely strapped to the gurney.
“What happened to you?” the hunter turned to Hera without stopping.
“Later. I promise I’ll explain it.”
“Ok… what about the others? Blue, Bonnie, Alex, Mark? Are they ok?”
“Bonnie and Alex are great. I don’t know about Mark. After he confessed to me, we drifted away. And Blue… she’s participating in the war. On the guild’s side,” Hera sighed as they approached the staircase. Nimbus moved ahead to pull the gurney from above.
“What? Why? Did she believe in them?”
“No, nothing like that. She’s being blackmailed. I’ll tell you the details later,” Hera said as they moved to the ground floor, “How did you figure out your uncle was here?”
“I found an old safe house of his a while back. There was a journal talking about him being bound to a Spirit. A Strength Spirit. When the war started and the New Dawn paraded the Soldier of Strength project around and mentioned that kind of Spirit I figured that could lead me somewhere,” Leo looked at the half dead form of his uncle, “I guess I was right.”
“I’m sorry about this. But we found him, and this time this is the only prisoner I have to worry about. I’m not losing another one. I promise,” the words that came out of her mouth surprised Hera, but the sentiment was real. Silah was the first and would also be the last person she lost because of these experiments.
Leo just nodded as the group continued moving until they reached the command center, where the rest of the Harmony Guardians had gathered.
“The fuck are they?” Flint asked when he saw Leo and his group.
“An old friend of mine,” Hera replied, pointing to Leo, “I trust him. And this,” she gestured to the gurney, “Is his uncle. This should be enough to understand where they stand.”
Seeing the state of the man, Neria rushed over and started casting some healing spells, it didn’t take long for the Triton to shake her head, “What did they do to him? His body is a mess. There are so many sigils, spells, and just random crap interfering with my healing that I can barely do anything.”
“He’s the first test subject for the Soldier of Strength project,” the archer who was part of Leo’s team said.
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“How do you know that?” Roan turned to the man holding a wooden bow with a green string and wearing a long black cloak with a hood.
“We found some documents talking about him. In all fairness, we can’t know if he really is subject zero, but we know he’s been here for at least 10 years. Maybe more,” a woman replied. She wore dark leather clothes that stuck to her body and had a pair of daggers on her waist. It was a classic assassin look, but her mana was more similar to Neria’s than it was to Alex’s.
Skyler just shook her head, “Fuck.”
The second woman frowned, her gear was more towards the stereotypical mage. But not the long robes and wise, kind, more the modern with short skirts and stockings, “Fuck? We tell you this is being going on for years and that’s all you have to say?”
“Sorry. We didn’t have that confirmation, but we kind of expected it. Projects like that take a while, especially if they have to start on the experiment phase,” Skyler explained.
“I guess you are high up in the Alliance to know that,” the mage said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been observed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hera frowned, seeing that notification, and looked to the humans. She wasn’t the only one as all the Harmony Guardians were now staring at the woman who looked like an assassin.
“Really?” Neria gave a blank stare.
“Sorry… I just wanted to confirm. But fuck, level 60? Even if she is just 56, I don’t think we can take any of you even if we tried,” she said.
“You think you have a better shot at fighting Hera than any of us?” Roan snorted, “Good luck.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the archer asked, only to feel the cold metal of a dagger pressed against his throat.
“It means that if you try anything, there is an army ready to kill you at any point,” Viper appeared behind him.
Hera shook her head, “Viper, stop that. We don’t have time. And they are our allies. But yeah, try anything and I won’t need my army to kill you. I’ll do it myself,” the Empress’ eyes turned to slits as she stared the man down.
Leo just looked at Hera with a confused expression, “What happened to you?”
“Got stuck in the MAZE again. Went to the past. Almost died. Saw a woman I loved die because of the guild. Actually died. Changed species. And in the mix of all that, I got a legacy. Oh, and did I mention I killed like five wendigos in total already? Yeah,” Hera shrugged while holding back a smile. It was fun to mess with a friend like that especially when she noticed the shocked expression of the other humans, but she quickly went back to business, “How about the Shadow Talons?”
“They are finishing up the third floor and will be here in a few minutes,” Vash replied.
“Human reinforcements?”
“None, as far as we can tell, but we will take at least 30 minutes to reach a branching path of the labyrinth. Also, if we are taking him, we can’t take the same route we used to get here,” Flint gestured to Leo’s uncle.
“Yeah, even if we can make him cross a doorway, he can’t take being underwater,” Skyler turned to Neria, “Can we make him cross a doorway?”
The triton let out a heavy sigh, “I think we can, but that will not be good for him. I have a spell that will forcibly wake him up, but that comes at a cost.”
“What kind of cost?” Leo asked.
“It won’t be good for him. It will be like I’m giving him a shot of adrenaline. I can try to lessen the strain on his body, but that’s about it.”
“I think he can cross without that. I’ve done that with Blue before. We were in a situation where she couldn’t physically cross a doorway, and she did. Even while unconscious,” Hera said.
Skyler thought about that for a moment, “I remember that, but it was a different situation. We can try, but it’s better if we have a Plan B.”
“Plan B for what… and who are they?” Liraelle appeared with the rest of the Shadow Talons.
“Taking this guy out of here,” Flint gestured to Leo’s uncle.
“Oh? That’s easy. We have something for that,” the elf turned to Borin, who pulled a pair of bracelets from his pouch.
The dwarf stepped forward and was about to put the trinket on Leo’s uncle, but the hunter stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“This will let him cross,” Boring replied and stepped to the side, ignoring Leo.
“You are not putting anything on him without explaining what is going on,” Leo shouted, but Hera simply placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Leo, breathe,” the Empress turned to the dwarf, “And Borin. A bit more explanation please. This is his family.”
Korrin was the one who stepped forward, “Ok, so this is something new. The Alliance created it recently, and it allows us to sort of bind two people together. Only when crossing the doorway. What the person who is wearing this,” he took the green bracelet from Borin’s hand, “does in a doorway will also affect who is wearing this,” he picked the white bracelet.
“What’s the catch? If it was only that, people would be kidnapping others right left and center,” Neria asked.
“The white bracelet only works if the person wearing it trusts the one with the green bracelet completely. Generally, that wouldn’t work, but when you just saved someone from being a lab rat, people tend to trust you more,” Korrin continued.
“Then let me wear the green one,” Leo asked.
Hera nodded, turning to the Harmony Guardians, “He is his nephew. It is more likely for him to trust Leo than it is for him to trust us.”
“I’m assuming the person needs to wake up to accept the link,” Neria turned to Borin who just nodded, “Ok then. Leo was it? Get ready. I’m waking your uncle up. Make sure he accepts the link. I’m knocking him out right after it,” She glanced at the human who gave her a worried stare, “It’s just a figure of speech. It’s going to be a sleep spell, not an actual blow to the head.”
Leo glanced back at Hera, “If you are not who you say you are. I’m killing you first.”
Hera nodded with a smirk, “I don’t think you can, but I understand.”
The hunter just stared at the Empress and shook his head, “You are not helping,” he glanced back to his uncle and gave Neria a nod. Using a spell that looked a lot like someone using a defibrillator, a flash washed over the unconscious man.
There was a small delay before his eyes fluttered open. He tried saying something, but he was too weak to do anything. He glanced at Leo, who quickly started talking.
“Uncle? It’s me. You’re ok. You’re going to be ok, but I need your help to get you out of here. We put a bracelet on you and it will let you move to the next room with me. Just accept the notification. Please, uncle Marco. Trust me.”
His uncle tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was a barely audible sound of wind coming out of his lungs. It almost sounded like someone’s last breath, but the man still lived. His eyes focused on Leo, and the corner of his lips twitched slightly. However, even that motion was too much for him, and he closed his eyes again. Neria glanced at the hunter, who nodded.
“He accepted it.”
With a quick spell, she put him to sleep again and turned to the Shadow Talons, “Ok. Do you have everything? We need to go, now!”
“We got everything, but go where? We can’t take the same route we took to get here,” Korrin gasped.
“We know a way out. One that the other humans don’t know about,” the woman wearing assassin gear spoke up.
“Can we take him there?” Skyler asked.
“We can, we just need to protect him on the other side.”
“Let’s go then!” Leo almost shouted and marched towards the exit of the facility, pushing the gurney with his uncle.
“Yeah. I don’t want to be here when the bombs go off. Burned hair does not go well with my look,” Liraelle followed the man.
Hera was right behind him, worried about Leo’s uncle, but also extremely happy with the success of this operation. Not only had they gotten rid of a lab, but they also helped one of her friends find a lost relative. Not just that, but for the first time, the Alliance had a chance to see one of the Daemon bound test subjects together with the Daemon itself, and that had to help them somehow.