Both Henry and Auran were dragged into the prison cell. It was dirty and filled with a rancid smell. The floor and walls were covered in dust, showing signs of not having been cleaned for years.
"Please, hear me out for once. This was all a big misunderstanding. We don't even know how we ended up in your secret flower garden in the first place!"
At the last moment before the officer left, Henry tried his best to persuade the man. But alas, the officer acted as if he hadn't heard a single word Henry said and walked away with loud steps.
Looking at the officer disappear into the distance, Henry turned back to look at the prison cell he and Auran were trapped in. Auran remained the same as before—like someone with brain damage—his eyes unfocused, mouth open, with drool dripping from the corner.
"He doesn't seem like he'll get well anytime soon. Maybe I should have asked them to check on his condition...
But I doubt they would even listen to any of my requests."
Once again, Henry looked outside and met the gaze of the other inmates in the surrounding prison cells. Some looked similar to humans, while others bore distorted, inhuman appearances.
"What are you looking at?" one inmate, who had a face resembling a scaled fish, growled at Henry as he noticed him observing.
"sorry, my deepest apologies," Henry quickly apologized for his mistake and took a step back, avoiding the gaze of the inmates.
"This really is a prison full of criminals. Although the question remains how I got here, my first priority now should be figuring out a way to get out of here."
Ciiing!
At that moment, an unpleasant sound echoed through the jail cells.
"It's the alarm—go to sleep now, all of you!" came the voice of the warden from afar, shouting while checking every prisoner in each cell.
The surrounding prisoners near Henry's cell all calmly began to act as though they were lying on their beds. Accepting the situation he was in, Henry first walked into the cell and inspected the two beds stacked on top of each other. Though they were dirty, after a few adjustments and flipping the mattresses, Henry managed to make them somewhat tolerable to sleep on.
"Come on, Auran. I requested them to check your medical condition tomorrow, until then, try to get some rest."
Pulling Auran by one hand, Henry guided him to the lower bed while he climbed onto the upper one.
After Henry got into bed, the lights that lit the cells began to go out one by one, and the prison was soon drowned in darkness.
. . . . . . . . . .
Ah!
In an unfamiliar place, Auran opened his eyes. However, after a few moments to adjust his mind, he realized he was seeing what was happening inside his own body.
Still, there was something strange about his situation.
"What is that?"
As he observed further, he realized that he could step out from this space and go beyond. As he did so, and looked back at what he had just exited, he saw the figure of a human being.
On its head, he noticed two circles and the flowing time between, spilling mana outward. A minuscule amount of that spilled time was being absorbed into his brain.
"Is this... my body? And is this the current situation inside my brain?"
Observing more and analyzing the state of his mind, Auran realized that although it appeared stable at first glance, his experienced perception allowed him to notice something alarming. When The rate of the flowing time-mana was slightly increasing between the two circles, the spilling mana that couldn't be absorbed into his brain was gradually becoming more. That excess mana was putting immense pressure on his brain—enough to potentially cause death in a matter of seconds.
"The situation doesn't look good. If this continues, eventually the amount of spilled mana will increase, and my brain will explode from the contact with such profound time-mana.
Shit!
If only I had a brain deceleration potion..."
Auran fell deep into thought, trying to find an alternative solution to his problem. While he was thinking, he turned his attention to his body—and as a result, he noticed something he hadn't seen before.
"A collar?"
Around his neck, Auran observed something extraordinary. He couldn't fully identify what it was, but it was clearly attached from the outside and was sending mysterious mana into his body. This mana ignored his natural resistance and flowed in a patterned way—
Like a circuit in a mana system, guiding mana in a specific direction.
"It's embedded too deep into my body... and it's preventing me from channeling my own mana, which would help me cast spells.
What an interesting piece of equipment. I think I read about this kind of field... somewhere before."
The more Auran observed the properties of the object, the more intrigued he became.
"This looks similar to the theory I built for Henry's curse suppression...
??!!, could it be possible to use this thing to prevent—or at least reduce—the effects of the two mana circles in my head?"
A thought rushed into Auran's mind. As his interest in the subject deepened, the two circles in his head began to shake more violently, spilling more time-mana. A tiny portion was also absorbed into his brain. As a result, Auran felt an immense pain—but somehow, alongside that pain, a few ideas and methods that seemed viable appeared in his mind.
With this new inspiration, combined with his own intelligence and experience in the field, Auran prepared to act. However, the first problem he faced was how to alter the circuit-like veins that spread from the external object into his body. To address this, he spent time thinking deeply, and after a while—between several trials and some practical testing—he noticed something crucial.
Whenever he attempted to cast a spell, the amount of unknown mana that poured in to block his empty mana increased. It rushed through the veins, actively searching for and obstructing the flow of mana.
Through this observation, Auran realized that the unknown mana was reacting to the sensation of mana within his body. Whenever there was a surge in mana flow—as during spellcasting—the foreign mana would quickly move to the area with the strongest mana activity to suppress it.
After this realization, Auran had the theory in his mind to guide this unknown mana to his use. But the problem was the undertaking of this process.