The Strangeness Continues

Meanwhile,

"President. President? Can you hear me?" Fira tried to contact him as she felt her magic weakening. "What is happening?"

"Fira!" She turned and saw Grecia running to her with Leon.

"What happened?" She asked, eyes widening as she struggled to maintain her magic. "Where is the president?"

"We don't know," Leon said, shaking his head. "He contacted the Council room with the crest and we turned on the orb to record what he saw."

"And then BAM!" Grecia clapped her hands together. "The feed was gone. We could not get in contact with him anymore. That is why we came here."

"I don't know anything." She said, slowly losing her strength. "I don't know how long I will be able to hold this up for also."

"What are you doing, Fira?" Grecia asked, looking at the girl being surrounded with little wisps of little flakes of green.

"Illusion. I am also casting a spell to make him ... agitated. Bring out the worst in him."

"Why?"

"So that he will reveal his true colours," Leon said, pushing his glasses up. "This is the best we can do on such short notice."

"Yes. But I am losing strength and I worry that pulling this down could cause problems for president." Fira said feeling the strain take a toll on her body.

"How much longer do you think you can still hold it?" Leon asked, looking at his tablet.

"How much time do you need?" She asked, turning to Grecia.

"Just thirty seconds." She said, smiling brightly at her. "You are doing great, Fira. Just focus on that. Ok?"

She turned to Leon, "If you are going to do something, you should do it now."

"I am trying as fast as I can," he said, tapping away at his tablet with the quilt. "I can't seem to find where the President is."

"What do you suggest you do?" She asked, furrowing her brows. "Should we go down there?"

"No," Leon said firmly. "Unless we can pinpoint where he is, I suggest that we do nothing just yet. That could cause more problems for him."

"Then?"

"We will have to help Fira as much as we can," he said, tapping the tablet as the entire layout of the school appeared on the screen. "She is the only one keeping this school stable at the moment."

"Ok," Grecia said, walking to Fira. "Take my mana when you need it. Ok?"

She only nodded, not having too much strength to speak anymore.

Leon continued to try and find any trace of Ace using his tablet to search his mana trail.

Come on. Where are you, your highness?

__________________

"Beatrix!" Silas shouted as he continued to run as fast as he possibly could, turning corners after corners that seemed to stretch on further and further.

"Silas! Wait!" Ace called running after him as quickly as he could.

The boy was not listening to him though. His eyes were filled with frantic worry as he continued to try and follow that sound that he heard only for a split second.

What is going on here? Ace thought. Why does it seem like the system is trying to take us out?

No. That can't be possible. They can't think that they should be rid of us just yet, right? I was not that active ... was I?

He thought back to what he had been doing for the past two days and chuckled to himself slightly. Yeah, I am slightly not being subtle, am I?

As he continued to run after Silas, he shook his head. I am not going to die here just yet, him neither. But I can't say the same thing about Beatrix.

Is she even here?

He thought back to the paper he was reading when Silas stormed into the Student Council office.

" ... please help ... I worry that something is wrong ... I don't know if I will be able to tell this to anyone else ... I trust you ... Beatrix Longbow."

His sister was not seen after that day and that made him slightly more agitated as each day passed without a word from the student council.

Wait. Ace paused. How do I know this? I thought his sister was alive. Is she here? What am I even saying? The story is so incohesive.

The system is rebooting. Cleo's voice came in his head and he nodded.

So that's it.

As Ace was busy inside his own mind, Silas had stopped running as the boy bumped into him, causing the two to topple over to the ground.

"What was that about?!" Silas snapped at him, shoving him off.

"You tell me." Ace said back, trying to push himself off the ground and dusting his uniform off. "Why did you suddenly stop running?"

"Couldn't you?" Silas asked, standing up. "Were you blind or something?"

"My vision has nothing to do with this," he said back. "Whatever. Let's stop this for now. Why did you stop?"

"It's a dead end." He said, pointing to the wall in front of them.

"Ahh~." Ace said, looking at the wall. "IS there anything we can do?"

"What do you suggest? Punching a hole through the wall?"

"Yes." Ace said holding his fist up as a dull ache throbbed on his knuckles. "Do you want to do it?"

"I don't think we should," Silas said, looking at the wall. "There is something putrid on the other side."

As soon as he said that, an awful smell filled the tunnel and Ace was ready to throw up from the smell.

"Hey, you ok?" Silas asked, keeping his distance from Ace. "You don't look so good."

"You think?" He managed to force out before gagging. "This smell is awful."

"What smell?" Silas asked, looking around him blankly.

"You don't smell it?" he asked, looking at him with envy.

"No." He said nonchalantly. "Should I be smelling something?"

"Never mind." Ace stood up and took a handkerchief from his pocket and using that to block his nose.

That did not do much but it was much better than before.

"We should leave," he said, remembering how the man appeared after this putrid smell burst around him. "I have a feeling something bad is going to happen."

"If you are right shouldn't we stay?" Silas asked, frowning as his fists clenched. "What the hell is happening here?"

"You tell me." Ace coughed. "What do you know and what did you see?"

"Mana being drained out of a person's body," he said, looking at Ace. "I do not know who that man was but it seems that he is not entirely human."

"I believe that." Ace remembered how his neck extended at him with his face breaking. "He was ... interesting."

"I don't know what he is but when I went down with him, he took me to a room and I felt myself slowly losing a sense of myself.

"Then he took me to a room and I saw a girl being eaten alive. He still looked like a human when he swallowed her whole.

"His mouth cut open and he just swallowed her like she was nothing. It was horrifying to watch at the same time ... I was slightly impressed."

"It does seem impressive." Ace nodded, handkerchief still pressed against his nose. "What happened then?"

"He went to sleep." He shrugged. "I took whatever sharp thing I could and pierced it through him. I then took the dagger the girl gave me and cut his stomach open."

"Not a moment of hesitation, eh?" Ace chuckled. "Was the girl still alive?"

"Yes," Silas said, suddenly realising something. "Where is she?"

"You rescued a girl and forgot about her?" Ace laughed, accidentally taking too big of a breath and starting to choke on the air as well as the smell again.

"It's not my fault. We were wondering around here for a while." He said, frowning. "Then I heard voices, familiar voices, and followed it just to see you almost getting attacked by that man.

"Like an idiot, you just stood still. I had to do what I could."

"Aww~ You were worried about me." Ace teased through watery eyes.

"Shut up. Why were you even here? Why didn't you do anything?"

Ace shrugged as the smell grew even worse and his knees gave way, "Ugh. This smell is going to be the death of me."

"As it was supposed to." They heard a voice and the man Silas impaled earlier stepped in front of them with a girl right beside him.

Ace tried to make himself invisible again but his magic would not respond for some reason.

"What are you doing there?" Silas asked the girl as she looked at him from a tear-stained face.

"I'm sorry." She sobbed as the man smiled at her kindly.

"There. There." He patted her head. "You did what you were told to. Very good job. You may go now."

He snapped his fingers and the space behind them morphed and a stairwell appeared.

The girl, happiness filling her face, ran up the stairs frantically and the wall closed behind her.

Silas and Ace looked at each other with concern just as they heard a blood-curdling scream all around the walls before silence followed.