Jumping Down?

Secretly, Katherine rolled her eyes. The pretentious grandeur of this Ve was, in her view, plainly annoying. She couldn't understand why people followed him at all. However, it was better to let him go on and on about his research because that would stop him from actually conducting it. So, she forced a smile. "A godly being from another plain? Like the phoenix god?"

"Oh, no, no, no." For the first time, she heard Ve laugh, a laugh full of disdain as if she was a dumb little child. "Of course not. The phoenix is just fiction, an imaginative construct for the weak-minded crowd. The godly being I met is much more real - it isn't omnipotent or benevolent, of course. The thought of an omnipotent entity that saves us all is plainly ridiculous, in a scientific sense. No. I call it godly only because of the deathly power it possesses and the fact that, though it can think and communicate, it isn't human. It is from another plain, not from this world."

Gazing at Katherine's face, he sighed dejectedly. "I knew you wouldn't understand. Nobody really does. Just know that you will serve a bigger cause than your tiny brain can comprehend. Together with my childish acquaintance, you will be the one to connect our plain to that of these godly beings. A great feat, so to say. Humanity will be forever thankful for your sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?" The word slipped past Katherine's lips with appropriate horror. After all, Ethan had let it seem like she had a chance to survive the experiment. But 'sacrifice'? That certainly didn't sound like it.

There was not a hint of pity in the researcher's grey eyes, only calculated coldness. "Why, yes. We are dealing with godly beings after all. When your ability is not enough to protect yourself, their might will naturally eradicate your existence. Your calculated chance of survival is about five percent, including the two percent chance of a successful escape before the experiment. That is not very high. However, even if you die early, the chances to complete the gateway beforehand are about twenty-seven percent, which is a fourhundred-fourty-two times the estimated success chances of the experiments before. It is certainly an improvement we wouldn't see without your involvement."

Katherine's mouth turned dry, lost for words. These numbers... what they implied about the failed experiments... had the chances always been this slim? Knowing that what person in their right mind would try such insanity? Well, contrary to the conductor, the subjects most likely had no choice. Just like her.

However, if the chances of survival were only one percent better than trying to survive fleeing... she gazed down into the black river. Should she just jump nonetheless?

Just then, she noticed something strange, and that momentarily distracted her from the gnawing need to make a decision. This river - it seemed like water from above, but also too placid for a mountain stream. Was it even flowing? And wasn't there also a mass discrepancy, as if one side of the river was bludgeoning as if underlaid by a giant bubble?

Then there was the lack of luster. Though it was afternoon and the sun low, there should inevitably be some glitter of sunlight on the water. Yet, there was none. A chilly breeze made Katherine shiver for a moment. This darkness reminded her of something... another moving black mass, in another space.

She'd almost forgotten about the dream she had while near death, the flying gauze creatures, her own bubble of light. After waking, it all seemed strange, as if it could only be a figment of imagination, nothing more than a dream. Yet the color and slow, strange movements of the river below reminded her of another creature she had met in that dream space, the only creature that was vastly different. But that couldn't be. Blacky was not real.

"Now, if you would be so kind to climb down, we can begin this experiment."

Shook out of her trance, Katherine opened her eyes wide as she turned her head. Someone had lowered a ladder of rope and thin wooden rungs down into the canyon, ending a bit above the black mass. She'd hoped the leader of Loki would just keep talking like the pompous braggart he appeared to be. Him reaching the point where the experiment was actually conducted, was out of the question.

"W-wait! You didn't explain everything yet!" Her mind raced to find a new question and it didn't help that she only listened with half her attention up till now.

But before she could find anything, Ve waved his hand dismissively. "There is no need. You would not understand it anyway."

Now, anger mixed with panic. "I-I might be inexperienced in this regard, but I'm not dumb! I know that you want to be a god yourself!"

Surprised for the first time, Ve's slim eyebrows rose. "A god myself? Yes, that was the goal of someone before... An interesting one, if I may say. However, it is not my goal and never was. Reigning is troublesome. Power, meanwhile... who wouldn't want it?"

When Katherine didn't react, too confused by Ve's answer, the researcher sighed and raised the hand with the ring with the three diamond stars on it. "I guess you thought so because of this one. No worries, it is just a memento to another, well, inspiring acquaintance of mine. When we studied together in the towers of magic, he invented a secret circle, but it crumbled with his death. The third person to wear this ring is long dead, too. I didn't know anyone still remembered the sign of the three gods. But, no matter. We are about to conduct an experiment after all."

With that, he pointed at the ladder with such decisiveness in his eyes that Katherine knew she could not distract him again. "You can take this one or jump, but the latter would maximize your risk of dying, and also increase the possibility of failure of the experiment. So I would rather you take all the help you can."

Despite her unfavorable situation, Katherine raised her chin and defiantly crossed her arms. "To do what, exactly? You should give me more instructions than just a 'go down there' if you want good results."

A scornful smile, one people reserved for the dumb folk that thought itself smart, shortly surfaced on Ve's face. "The results will be the same whether or not you know. Now go. You don't want my subordinates to get impatient, right?"

The last sentence was what convinced Katherine. Somehow she had the feeling that them 'getting impatient' would result in her being shoved off the cliff. Was it not ironic that she thought about jumping before? Unknowingly, she would have done exactly what they wanted. Now, they were bringing her down themselves. However, that meant that the cliff was never an escape route, to begin with. She should have retreated to the tunnels instead, Katherine realized with regret.

Gazing at the guards standing around the room, and at Ethan, who just smirked back knowingly - making her suppress the childish urge to stick out her tongue - she finally sighed and uncoiled her arms. It seemed the moment of her escape had not yet come. Maybe she would find it down below. It didn't seem like anyone else would bother following her, after all.

Positioning herself on the ladder, Katherine wondered idly how far the range of Ethan's fireballs might be before she started climbing.