Theater

Hera kept staring at Blue through the glass. Her friend was right there, covered in wires and wearing a hospital gown that seemed to be stained with blood. There was also something around her neck, but between the dim light and the amount of cables in the way, it was hard to tell what it was. It could be just a shadow, or it could be a tattoo of a Soldier of Strength.

The Empress didn't like that, but she knew that if the guild had threatened Blue's family, her friend would do anything to protect them. Even this.

Raising her fist, the Ophidianite was about to start pounding on the glass before she stopped herself. Quickly casting a soundproof barrier at the ends of the corridor, silencing the area before actually doing so.

"Blue! Blue! Can you hear me?!" Hera slammed her fist on the glass over and over again, trying to get her friend to hear.

In her frenzy, she failed to notice the chromatic aberration caused by her fist, and only once Twiggy pointed that out did the Empress understand. This was not glass, but a monitor. One that was the right size and the right perspective to make people think they were actually seeing inside one of the operating rooms.

Despite that, Hera was sure the image was real. Her friend was somewhere nearby. If they were trying to keep all the information contained to this facility, there was no reason for them to send a file or have a live transmission from anywhere that was not inside the lab. 

She dropped the soundproof barriers and told the snake holding the camera to continue moving. The moment she saw Blue, the Empress had told her companion snake not to record her friend. It might have been a bad idea, but she didn't want to expose Blue to something like that. Not before she could truly understand what was going on.

She turned around and continued heading down the hallway in hopes of finding Blue or something else. Not long after leaving that monitor, she reached another area with more similar screens. But instead of just one, there were a couple of dozen. Each of them showed a different person. However, none of them were in an operating room. They were all inside cells, bound with several chains and other restraints to make sure they couldn't move.

It took the Empress a moment, but she started to recognize some of the people she was seeing. They were all people who had participated in the attack on the centaur homeland. But every single one of them was in a horrible state. Malnourished, wounded, and covered in blood, sweat, and dirt.

On the biggest screen, the one directly opposite the entrance of this large theater-like room, was the one human that pretty much everybody in the MAZE recognized: the strongest person in the world, Insomniac.

He was not just bound by chains but also metal plates, and there was an IV connected to his neck with a pastel purple liquid dripping slowly.

"What the hell is this?" Hera gasped.

"What happens with traitors," a voice came from the side of the stage. A man came out. He was completely bald, with dark skin and a well-kept gray beard. He wore a beige suit with a dark blue shirt and a white tie.

"Traitors, you say? Let me guess, those are the people who didn't agree with what you are doing."

"In the larger sense of things, yes. They were not even aware of the projects present in this lab. They refused to understand that, as humans, the entire MAZE is our birthright."

Hera rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I heard that before. And since you are in the mood to talk, who are you? Why are you part of this?"

The man chuckled. "You truly do not know who I am?"

"Oh, so you are one of those? People who have their ego so far up their own asses, they think everybody should know who you are?"

The man shook his head, walking to the center of the stage and standing between Hera and the screen where Insomniac was. "I am Morgan Wabeeri, CEO of the New Dawn. And this is my lab. My pet project. It seems it was silly of me to expect any sort of knowledge from the Ophidianite Empress. You are clearly nothing but another monster created by the MAZE."

Back in the jail, the Harmony Guardians were still fighting the Soldiers of Strength. Flint had tackled the wine-colored woman while a Version 1.0 man was being held in a headlock.

Blade had just disappeared in a flash of light, sending the three people tumbling to the side. Yet, the dwarf refused to let his targets go. His power armor activated a spring lock that held the man in place while Flint started to punch the woman repeatedly with his free hand, even as everyone struggled to get back up. Each blow left metal dust that slowly started to interfere with her connection with a Daemon.

But he was not alone in the fight. Skyler did not let up, sending various types of sonic spells toward the two Soldiers of Strength. No one else could hear, but the man and the woman had a constant ringing in their heads as the sound waves bounced inside their skulls.

The man pushed himself up, spinning around and swinging his mace at Flint. The dwarf did his best to block but was too busy holding down the woman to parry the incoming attack. But the impact was not the only problem. The man also created numerous sharp spikes around his mace that exploded in all directions once the attack connected.

The shards pierced Flint's skin, and some of them hit the exposed cogs of his power armor, causing it get stuck in some movements. Others hit the woman that was entangled with him. A few even went as far as getting close to Skyler, but the elf was able to dodge in time.

The wine-colored soldier screamed and let out a wave of energy that pushed Flint backward, finally getting free from the dwarf and taking a fighting stance. Before anyone could react, she lunged at Flint, trying to stab him with her sword.

He ducked under the attack and quickly came up with an uppercut. Thanks to the pistons of his power armor, the blow landed straight on the woman's jaw. But his recklessness was not unpunished. The man slammed his mace on the dwarf's back once more, sending out another spray of metal shards.

Neria tried to heal and help, but the woman with the wine-colored skin had a strange aura around her that blocked all the heals and barriers she was trying to send. To make matters worse, Iris, Ivy, and Roan were also struggling against their opponents, forcing the healer to spread her abilities around. But that also meant she couldn't focus on someone, even if they truly needed her assistance.

Behind them, Vash also tried to help his team, but maintaining the buff that allowed everyone to interrupt the power of the Soldiers of Strength was taking its toll. He hadn't expected that this skill would cause such a mental strain, not to mention the high mana cost. This made his few attacks barely able to do anything, much less properly disrupt one of the spells the Soldiers of Strength were using.

The wine-colored woman saw Flint going for another punch and moved to the side, using her broadsword to block and pull the dwarf closer by grabbing the metal from his armor. The woman grappled him, making Flint unable to get away. As a follow-up, the male Soldier of Strength brandished his mace and went for a strike aimed directly at the dwarf's head.

The mace became covered in blood-red metal spikes filled with hooks, but before it could connect with the target, Skyler tackled the man. She used a wind spell to propel herself forward, so she'd be able to make the Soldier of Strength miss his attack. Considering the Soldier of Strength's raw power, that wasn't the smartest move. He didn't fall back, and she bounced off him like she'd just hit a brick wall.

Still, stopping the attack worked, as the man was no longer aiming at Flint but now at Skyler herself. She didn't have enough time to dodge, but suddenly a small white ball with green kiss mark appeared between them. The ball, courtesy of Grimm, exploded, sending the elf flying back before she could be struck. But the movement wasn't fast enough. The human swung his mace, triggering a skill that sent the shards flying off. They showered over Skyler, embedding themselves in her skin. One specific shard hit the corner of her face, ripping her left eyeball out of its socket and cutting the side of her head.

The explosion created enough cover for Flint to escape the grapple as the flames caused the woman to cover her face. Moving quickly, the dwarf detached the left arm and chest piece of his power armor, since they were already malfunctioning, and tossed it at the man who'd just attacked Skyler, staying only with the legs, right arm, and spine of the suit. The metal wrapped itself over the man's head, which had lost the red hue thanks to the combination of the explosion and Vash's buff, and clamped like a bear trap, crushing his skull in a quick move.

With the Soldier of Strength dead, Flint turned back to the wine-skinned woman only to feel the broadsword, covered in ominous red energy, sinking into his chest. The dwarf tried to take a breath, but his lungs had collapsed, and his blood started to pour out of the wound.

He grabbed the woman's hand that was still holding the sword and started to move forward. The metal legs let out some steam as they were put into overdrive. The woman wasn't expecting the sudden increase in strength and was lifted from the ground before being slammed against the wall between two cells.

With his right arm, the one that still had his power armor, Flint started punching the woman over and over again. Each impact was as powerful as the ones Blade and Frostbite were exchanging. Each strike leaving more and more metal dust that removed the connection between the woman and the Daemon. However, every punch not only started to bend the metal but also broke the bones trapped inside the machinery.

The rest of the team finally got enough breathing room in their fights for Neria to change her focus. But once the healer approached her friend, she could tell he was no longer there. Even then, the power armor continued to punch the woman, who'd also lost all the strange color from her skin, leaving the two corpses on top of each other.

Rushing across the laboratory, Blade was simply a beam of light. She paused for less than a second at every turn before continuing. Unfortunately, as Frostbite passed through, she changed the layout of the hallways, likely to make it easier for her to get to the security room. But the passages returned to their previous state right after.

This forced Blade to take the long way around. She had to go all the way back to the reception area and then make the turn toward the security room. Still, thanks to her movement skill and the fact that her fury was maxed out, it wouldn't take long for her to arrive.

As she was passing the entrance once more, a few guards were rushing inside. Most of them were regular guards, but one was a Soldier of Strength. Without even batting an eye, she simply sent a radiant slash aimed at their necks, decapitating most of them in a single quick motion. With the exception of one unlucky member of the guard who tripped just by the entrance, all of those humans died before even registering the flash of light.

It took Blade just another fifteen seconds to reach the hallway, where she could see the security room. From the moment Frostbite got help from the Soldiers of Strength to the moment Blade got here, it had been less than two minutes. But the scene was already a mess. Thorgrim, Koros, and Raxus were on the ground, being healed by Marina, who was behind them, while Zephyr let out a flurry of slashes. Each of them stopped by an ice barrier. Brok was nowhere to be seen, and Echo was being held by his neck by the human.

"It was fun, but I'm bored," Frostbite said as she punched Echo's chest, causing her hand to go completely through the triton, the ice that covered her fist now soaked in blood coming out of the other side of the triton.

Blade tightened her grip and triggered two more skills, one that made her faster than the speed of sound for barely a second. Frostbite noticed the light, but as she turned, she felt the radiant energy crashing on top of her. 

The entire corridor was illuminated by an orange light, forcing everyone to close their eyes. To everyone around, it was as if they'd just witnessed the sunrise.

Only after the attack was over did Blade's voice reach the group. The one skill she had to say out loud in order to use.

"New Dawn!"

There was no ice protecting the controller as the attack cut her in two, from the left side of her waist to her right shoulder.

The two pieces of Frostbite fell to the ground. The human was finally dead. There was no one who could survive something like this.

Blade took a few deep breaths and turned to Echo before shaking her head. "I'm sorry I didn't make it in time. I…" She trailed off, realizing something.

"There was nothing you could've done. She was toying with us the entire time," Koros stepped forward despite his injuries. He was about to check Echo, his dead teammate, when he noticed Blade's expression. "What's wrong?"

"The legacy… She didn't have it," Blade yelled and stabbed Frostbite's head out of anger. "That bitch gave it to someone else!"