Strings [2]

Seeing the man reach for his coat, Lilya moved instinctively. She then immediately gave a warning to Isaac.

"Move!"

A burst of golden light detonated from the professor's hand — a suppression flare. At that moment, Isaac's fog hissed and evaporated near the blast, forcing him to reel back.

"What the...?!" Surprised by this attack, Isaac grumbled under his breath. "That's gotta be from Laplace..."

Only they knew how to intricately incorporate modern science with arcanum, after all.

Then, from his other hand, the professor hurled a palm-sized device. It clattered at their feet and pulsed once before detonating.

- Ting!

The two of them expected some kind of explosion, but instead, it was a stun grenade — it didn't release any white flashes, but a high frequency sound for a moment that that caused their arcanum to destabilize.

Isaac staggered slightly as his Arcanum was slightly muted. Lilya, on the other hand, clicked her tongue and leapt back, flinging her keychain into the air.

"Su-01ве, airborne!"

Her broom that resembled a fighter plane, notified by her call, soon came flying by from the outside. But as it flew in, the professor pulled a small firearm — its barrel bordering between science and arcanum.

Isaac's eyes widened. "He's armed!"

- Bang!

The bullet flew — not at them, but at Su-01ве. It sparked midair, and Lilya clenched her teeth, steering her craft away. "That round was laced with suppression! Damn it!"

"I told you to leave." The professor growled, adjusting his stance. He wasn't fast, but every movement was tactical — Measured, even.

He wasn't just a scholar. He was trained.

Isaac ducked low, slipping into his lingering mist after recovering. He couldn't use his teleportation or illusions for now due to the stun grenade earlier — but he could lead.

"Lilya!" He called her in Russian so the professor won't understand what he's saying, while circling around. "Distract him!"

She didn't need to be told twice. With Su-01ве providing covering fire, she vaulted back and hurled a small item toward the professor. It erupted in a blinding flash.

She, too, had a stun grenade.

By the time the professor blinked away the flare, Isaac had already re-engaged from the side, his fist connecting with the man's rib — not a hard hit, but enough to unbalance him.

"Ugh...?! Persistent little parasites...!" The professor muttered, pulling another item — a curved, glass-like blade that shimmered with dampening energy.

Lilya whistled. "Guy's loaded for war."

"He's seems to be a normal human, but..." Isaac muttered, ducking another strike. "They know we can't be killed easily. So they build toys like that to mimic us."

The fight stretched through the corridor and spilled out into the open school courtyard. Students were nowhere to be seen — curfew had cleared the area.

Now free of the effects of the stun grenade earlier, Isaac's mist returned with a vengeance.

Fog swallowed the battlefield, and with it, Isaac's full mobility.

He blinked from shadow to shadow, confusing the professor's aim, while Lilya pelted him from above.

Still, the man held his ground. His movements were precise and ruthless.

He had trained for this.

...But he was still human.

Isaac disarmed him with a well-placed mist-strike from behind, knocking the blade from his hand.

Lilya then fired a concentrated blast from Su-01ве, and the professor took it full in the chest.

He stumbled back, knees giving out.

With a grunt, he dropped to the ground, his eyes fluttering.

Isaac and Lilya cautiously approached, still alert. The man coughed, blood flecking his lips, but there was defiance in his eyes.

Lilya grabbed his collar and yanked him upright. "Hey, don't lose your life on us right now. Who are you and who do you work for?"

"I..." The professor wanted to confess but soon shut his mouth, as if what he was about to say would cause him his life.

Seeing him keep the information, Isaac thought for a moment before suddenly having an idea.

Then, reaching out to his coat's pockets, he suddenly took out a vial with a white substance inside.

Then, he lowered himself and began to loosen the lid to distribute it to the man.

"What's that?" Lilya asked, not stopping him.

"A little happy substance I accidentally got a while ago." Isaac grinned as he opened the lid and let the professor smell it.

This substance, of course, was the very same thing Sotheby accidentally made that he was sure was an illegal drug in the streets.

A few moments later, the professor soon began to slow his breathing as if he calmed down

Seeing this, Isaac knew that the effects were already setting in. Before the man could fully succumb to the effects, he decided to ask a question.

"Tell me honestly. Why did you attack us? You should know that attacking arcanists and vice versa is prohibited within the Foundation unless sanctioned."

The man lingered in silence for a few seconds before answering. "I... What I did... was my own volition. The Foundation... has grown too lenient with you arcanists."

"You should be put on leashes and be brought under stricter control. If not... then you all would just conjure another tragedy for us humans..."

Hearing this, Lilya scoffed. "So it's another supremacist... I should have expected that, to be honest."

"Which narrows this case down further." Isaac nodded imperceptibly. Then, he asked the professor another question.

"Tell me, are you part of the Mankind Caucus?"

"Yes..." The professor almost immediately agreed. "I... We... will bring power back to humanity's hands. Not... to you..."

With that short speech, the man soon succumbed to the effects of the white substance and entered what seemed like a euphoric state, drifting off into sleep.

With the professor now unconscious, the courtyard returned to eerie silence — mist clinging to the stone like a memory refusing to fade.

Lilya straightened, letting go of the man's collar with a quiet scoff. "Figures. One of those lunatics."

Isaac exhaled through his nose and stood up, brushing off dust from his sleeves. "Mankind Caucus… so the Foundation's radical faction have even embedded themselves within SPDM's faculty — where young arcanists learn and reside?"

"It's rarer still to find one bold enough to start a fight inside Foundation grounds." Lilya muttered. She looked down at the unconscious man with narrowed eyes, then gave him a small kick in the side — not to injure, just to make sure he was fully under. "He's coming with me. I still have a lot of words with him — and by 'words,' I mean interrogation."

Isaac gave her a look. "You're going to drag him yourself?"

"I'll call retrieval on the way out. They can collect him near the side gate. I'll carry him there for now." She said, then crouched beside the man.

"How are you gonna explain his... battered state?" Isaac asked.

"Well..." She paused before pointing at the vial Isaac was holding. "I can just say he got too high and smacked some sense into him. Works most of the time, doesn't it?"

"Can't argue with that." He shrugged.

She nodded then hoisted him over her shoulder with ease, the weight barely seemed to bother her.

Before she turned to go, she glanced at Isaac. "You sticking around?"

He gave a faint smile. "Yeah. Just for a bit."

Lilya stared at him for a few seconds, as if reading something in his face. Eventually, she gave a small nod and walked off, boots thumping softly against the stone as she disappeared down the corridor.

Then, Isaac was alone.

The courtyard, now empty save for the fading mist, felt different somehow. He let the silence settle. The fog, reacting to his lack of focus, slowly began to dissolve into the night.

He sat on the edge of a bench, arms resting loosely on his knees, eyes trailing toward the cracked stones where the scuffle had ended.

"A human loyalist in an arcanist-influenced academy..."

That wasn't just prejudice or paranoia — it was a move. Perhaps even by the enemy he was facing.

He leaned back, gazing up at the moonlight streaking through the misted trees.

He remembered the words that the professor spoke of, and how he wanted to bring power to humanity with his delusions.

To be totally fair... even if Isaac didn't want to admit it, he understands the man's point of view and where he's coming from.

Throughout this world's history, many tragedies were rooted back to arcanists.

Cities caught in arcane backlash, experiments going wrong, and power unaccounted for... The list goes on.

The man had valid reasons.

And maybe… just maybe… somewhere in that man's words, there was a fear worth acknowledging. Misguided, sure. But fear, nonetheless.

Still. Violence wasn't the answer.

It never was.

Eventually, Isaac looked toward the direction Lilya had taken. He rubbed the back of his neck, his mind buzzing with half-thoughts.

A faculty member aligned with the Mankind Caucus… If he was here, then how many more were embedded across the Foundation?

...would this be the people they'll be fighting in four months' time when the fourth chapter of the storyline commences?

He stood up and pulled his coat tighter and began to walk, mist curling back into his shadow like a silent companion.

Investigation closed — but questions only multiplied.

As always.