Charles was worried, not because of the intruders, but because Isaac damaged his apparatus. “Be careful not to let the life force obtained from these slaves go to waste! All the juice is in this container so leave that part for me to fix!”

He climbed up a metal ladder. Once at the top, he started tinkering with the electrical panel. The breakers weren’t working.

There were two different circuits. Charles had to cut one of them to stop electricity from circulating. In consequence, the other components would be fixed safely by the workers.

The other circuit needed to stay activated so that the pool of red mana inside the container wouldn’t start pouring out abundantly.

‘Okay, that’s the one. I just need to cut it. Here we go-’

*ZAP!* A sudden burst of electricity electrocuted the scientist. “AH!”

*Poof!* He fell back down.

Charles discovered a red wire in his right hand. “Oh no!”

He had attempted to hold on to the circuit breaker to keep himself from falling. The string that he held in his hand was the one that needed to stay connected. “Oops….”

“It worked?” Isaac laughed, but his moment of hope quickly halted.

Red fluid suddenly started streaming from above him. “Huh? What is this red liquid? It smells awful!”

…

At the entrance to the laboratory, things weren’t going so smoothly either.

“Are you from the Tremblay guild?” Kraten inquired. Most of his guards were pointing at the three intruders with their weapons.

John nodded. “Yes, we are of the Snowrider faction. Perhaps you might have seen two of our partners a few minutes ago?”

Christiana looked around. ‘Damn, this place is dangerous. We should have brought more people,’ she regretted internally.

Kraten frowned. “Take them to the cell!”

And so the fighting began.

John was the first to act. Three guards abruptly fell to the ground. A black needle pierced through each of their brains.

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“Y-you!” As Kraten’s fury grew, his aura became even redder.

He grasped his fist with his other hand, trying to remain calm, but it didn’t work.

“RAAH!” Kraten jumped fist-first toward John.

*Bang!*

“Huh?” Kraten’s fist landed on a green transparent shield. It was Christiana’s. While the impact would have been enough to shatter John into pieces, it wasn’t enough to smash through the slightly curved shield.

Still in his cage, Alex watched from afar. The guards had left his side. Despite the alarm system, he was about to start using magic to break out.

However, a black needle appeared before him. It held a set of keys.

“John?”

*Splash!* Marc’s water jet hit Kraten’s face. What should have pushed the angry boss tens of meters away only made him jump toward Marc.

“He is way too tough! Chris!”

A shield once again appeared. *Bang!* This time, however, it shattered.

“Oh shit!” Marc could only attempt to resist the blow- it was too late to try to avoid it.

“BANG!”

Marc flinched. “W-what?!”

A big hole appeared in Kraten’s now barely recognizable head. One eye remained barely intact, hanging out of his visible bloodstained brain. A part of his skin was peeled, revealing the hypodermis and a few muscles.

Alex emerged from behind the dead man. “Wow. That shotgun is pretty good.”

…

Isaac’s body was about to be fully immersed in the fluid. He couldn’t move since the pipes were still attached to his body.

“This is colour… it’s red magic! The rumoured weapon of the Dark Faction, how can it still exist?!”

The hot, stinky, liquid, red magic was slowly swallowing his face.

“H-help!” No one heard Isaac’s last cry for help. He was now fully submerged in the fluid.

The four other Snowriders were a few meters away from him.

“Please, kill me! They’ll kill my whole family if you don’t!” begged the chemist.

Ignoring his comment, Alex ordered him to stop the machine. Charles pressed a button.

A metal door opened after a few seconds. Inside the small metallic room was Isaac.

The pipes spread on the floor. There weren’t any traces of red magic.

“Isaac!” Alex was joyous. His brother wasn’t dead.

“I-I don’t feel good….” The 15-year-old kid was sitting with his knees up, hiding his face.

“What?!” Alex was worried.

“My head…. It hurts.”

The older brother thought that he understood the situation. “Oh…. You must have used up all your mana.”

The others doubted the red magic incident. They found no traces of the fluid that Isaac told them.

Strangely, the scientist and the other workers mysteriously died soon after getting captured.

“It’s the Dark Faction!” Isaac shouted.

“No, we can’t come to that conclusion. The Dark Faction is gone.”

Isaac nodded. He wanted to believe that what he had experienced was just a strange hallucination.