Chapter 15: 9th Grade Chemistry Part 2

Aiden was frantically searching his pockets for the keycard.

Thirteen had a black helm that blocked his facial features, but even so one could still feel his annoyed gaze.

After frantically searching for the keycard he managed to find it in hid coat pocket. Aiden slowly took out the keycard and handed it to Thirteen.

He hastily grabbed the keycard and took out a device from his back it look like gray stone tablet with beautiful and artistic patterns craved on it's surface. It indeed looked magnificent but quite out of place, everything about this place sreamed advanced technology but that single tablet look ancient and mystical.

Aiden was studying the table trying to figure out how it works. He could tell that it was not an electronic device, but what really court his eyes were the symbols them were identical to the one he had seen on the keycard he had given Thirteen.

"Was it some kind of language." As Aiden was in grossed in his own thoughts and theorys of how the stone tablet function, he failed to notice Number 13s question.

When Thirteen took the card, he placed it on the tablet. The stone tablet was indeed different because it was not created by the Dark Triad it was a mystical item that once belonged to the Council.

The Dark Triad first came into possession of this tablet nearly 300 years ago during the fall of the Council. The constint assault of the church forced them to abandoned their main base of operations, leaving behind some of their artifacts. Most of the arifacts were taken by the church.

They told the people that they would destroy these evil artifacts so they would never again corrupt people's minds, but some knew the truth of the matter.

The church wanted to study the arifacts inorder to see how they function and if it was possible to create replicas. After years of studying the witches artifacts they were finally able to find out the source of their power and how to recreate it. They called their new creations holy artifacts.

The church understood how powerful the arifacts were, so after creating their own they chose to destroy the original artifacts made by the witches. As for their holy artifacts they were not concerned, not only would the arifacts only be given to the highest ranking priests which had a large pool of divine power. At the slight possibility the arifacts were somehow stolen the church placed a trap spell on them to ensure that even should they lose any of the arifacts they could not be used by others.

As the years went on the church started to create different grades of arifacts, low grade, middle grade, and high grade artifacts respectfully.

Over the years those artifacts would end up being given to the soldiers of the Holy Federation.

.........

When the Dark Triads founder got hold of the tablet they attempted to study it and unlock all its secrets, but to no avail. The founder's theorized that it was most likely encrypted with some kind of magic, and finding a way around the encryption without much magical knowledge would be almost impossible.

Even after years they couldn't get much information out of it, all they could do was to use some of the inscriptions on it to make replicas that could only be use as a detection device. They knew there was much more to the arifacts than what they could gather, but they couldn't access that information.

There were only two means to decrypt the information in the arifacts but they were both nie impossible. The first metod would be to have a member of the Council decrypt it but they were all, and the second one would most likely result in the complete destruction of the organization. That method was to try and steal the information from the church.

.....

Thirteen took the white keycard and placed it on the gray slab, as soon as the card hit the tablet ; the inscriptions on the tablet started to shine in a pale white light.

The spectacular light show didn't last long though. The lights faded as soon as quickly as they appeared.

Aiden could not make any sense of it , he started to wonder "Did it fail" He wondered as he looked at it. However he was soon taken out of that thought when he felt Thirteen's gaze on him.

When Thirteen saw the information about the owner of the card he instantly knew this youth before him was most likely trying to trick him.

The keycard belonged to one Eric Stanley a young researcher working as an assistant for Doctor Gerald. He didn't know who this young man in front of him was but he most definitely wasn't Eric.

It could be that he there was a mix up with the keycards or he could be a spy. Number 13 had to think of any and every possibility before he decided to end the young man life.

Because if he was wrong and the youth in front of him is indeed Professor Henry's assistant then he was sure that his fate would be sealed.

Number 13 looked at the young man in front of him before asking a simple question.

"Your name is Eric Stanley correct?"

It may have seemed like a simple question to most but both of them knew differently. It was a test, a simple one but tricky no doubt. No matter what answer Aiden gave it would still have consequences.

"If I picked yes then he will most likely just shoot me without giving me a chance to explain, and it's not if saying 'yes' would solve the problem either. I would still need to explain why I have someone else's keycard.

Well I knew this situation would become more troublesome when he asked for the keycard." Aiden thought to himself.

He put that thought at the back of his mind and answered with a confused look on his face.

"No, My names James. He said "James Sterlin"

"Then why do you have his keycard?" asked Number 13 in a serious tone.

"Oh! that's Eric's keycard, we actually ran into each other not that long ago." said Aiden in a voice that sounded genuinely surprised.

"He was headed to the room 206 to fetch one of the specimens for further testing, we must of accidentally switched them when we ran into each other. He most likely still there."

Number 13 stared at the nervous looking young man in front of him. His instincts honed from years of experience were tell him to be wary of the youth in front of him. "For some reason he seems eager for me to go there." He thought to himself.

Most people would simply play it of as a young man trying clear himself of any suspicion. But Number 13 wasn't foolish enough to believe that was the case.

"Very well lead the way" replied Number 13 as he placed his hand on his gun holster.