When Konrad entered the control room, the first thing he noted was Strelok standing on the other side. Jaw hanging open, fingers twitching, and—yeah.
What the Paula-copy said about her original floating in a tank was no longer true.
She was in this room as well, tussling with Null and a group of scientists, and—
The same way she appeared in his mind, she was still buck naked here.
Well, let's say Konrad didn't have to worry about any impure thoughts now.
She wasn't the same brunette from earlier, but a corpse.
No hair; not even a scalp. Her arms, legs, and neck were all stitched together.
Her skin was matte and peeling, with a green fluid dripping off her, and despite all that—
She threw a researcher across the room like it was nothing.
And right when Konrad expected all hell to break loose—
The Stretsky twins' eyes locked together, and the entire room froze.
Not a figure of speech.
It was magic, not dissimilar to what Stella did in Halaima about a month or two ago.
Konrad even felt the tug on his soul as Paula tried to suck away his life force, but—
The moment the process actually began, she cut herself off.
"No," she breathed, and things returned to normal.
Well, if he could call them that.
"Hurry up and lock her down," Null barked, and his colleagues continued the struggle. "Damn it, we shouldn't have disconnected her before that magic safety thing was ready and in place."
Disconnected, he said?
That's when Konrad noticed.
There was, in fact, a tank in the control room, and not even one.
He counted twelve in a circular pattern like the spokes of a wheel, all filled with the same nasty dark green. Two were open, one with a fresh puddle below, and—
Now it wasn't that difficult to guess where Paula must have been until now.
She was still staring forward, by the way. Did she even notice Konrad?
"Pavel?" was all she croaked, ignoring the struggling researchers as well.
Her arm reached out, but despite throwing that guy before—
She might have lost that limb had she tried to reach too far.
Strelok was in shock.
But Null had finally noticed the intruders and let go of the woman.
"Ah. Right on time, gentleman," he said as if nothing had happened. "Thank you for the tip, Apostle," he even nodded to Konrad. "Once we disconnected her, the corruption stopped."
This word, disconnected, again.
From those green tanks? What were they there for?
And now that he mentioned corruption, when did the constant rumbling stop?!
Reaching for his PDA on instinct—
It was back in working order again, showing the usual all-clear sign. Which meant those bastards must have yanked her out of that thing, and that stopped the Emissions.
Right. Right. They called her Lady Origin, after all.
His brain went into overdrive, trying to put the pieces together.
But this was not the time.
Behind Strelok, a group of Monolith bastards entered the room, and before he moved—
BANG.
The familiar sound had fucked up his hearing all over again.
And he wasn't the only one spooked by the Gepard, either. Paula flew into a rage and threw the Captain across the room. His antimaterial rifle in pieces, and—
She even shoved all the shrapnel into the remaining soldiers' faces.
Konrad blinked. When did Dmitry even show up?! And—nope. Too late.
He almost missed the next round.
While distracted, the researchers injected the terrified woman with something.
She screamed, but still wouldn't stand down, casting another spell instead.
A Teleportation Artifact appeared, out of the blue, and—
This one wasn't static, either. It flew towards Strelok, Dmitry, and all the other soldiers.
And by the time Konrad and Pavel yelled "Wait" in unison, the latter was actually gone.
That was when whatever they injected into his twin had finally kicked in, too.
Paula went limp and collapsed, but tracing back the events now, it seemed like she knew this would happen. So that wasn't a desperate rage. She made sure at least her brother escaped.
Which he did, but—
Whether she forgot about Konrad or never cared, he was still stuck with the researchers.
"Well, whatever," Null said, clearing his throat. "Clean up this mess and restrain her. Don't want Lady Origin to go into another rage when she regains her senses."
And that was it. They went back to work, as if this was an ordinary Tuesday.
Not that they forgot about him, no.
Turning around, Null flashed him a cold smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"As for you, Apostle," he said as his colleagues carried off that living corpse. "For your help, you deserve a reward. Not only did we get our hands on a magic crystal thanks to you, but—"
He waved towards the now-empty green tank, where Paula must have been trapped until now.
"Your insight helped us fix one fatal flaw. Please, join us, and I'm sure we could clear the corruption from your system, too. And with that done, we should finish our research, and—"
"Hold your horses," Konrad grunted, finally finding his bearings.
Dmitry and Strelok were alive. He knew that.
Paula was unconscious, but by some miracle, she still wasn't dead, either.
He was in the control room, where he wanted to be from the start, and—
Even as two scientists had grabbed him from behind, an impossible calm washed over him.
They tried to push him towards that open tank, but they lacked the actual strength.
"Yes?" Null stopped to raise an eyebrow.
"Who said I came to help you?" Konrad asked, standing against the pathetic pushes.
"Well, I mean, why else would you be here?" the researcher scowled. "You went through all the trouble to bring your magic to us—even if that foul woman corrupted it. We'll soon fix that."
"Ah, right, about that," he said with a smirk. "You should have listened when I talked."
It was his time to cast a spell.
One he had planned for a while, and by the spirits—it felt great to let it loose.
"I did say that her Blowouts corrupted my magic, yes," Konrad noted. "But guess what? I've already sorted that out myself. I don't need you, and won't help in this monstrosity, either."
The air in the lab began to chill, but unlike before, it was real ice, not a necromancer's entropy.
"B-but—what?" Null stuttered, that fake smile finally faltering. "Y-you're Lucifer's Apostle like me. The master must have sent you to aid with our mission. There's no other possibility."
"Oh, but there is," he seethed. "The one where I was never his ally or yours."
Those two white-coated monsters who tried to push him?
They were actual snowmen now.
And he could have frozen Null, too, but he wanted him alive. Not to mention, who knew who else he had trapped in those tanks? Konrad would rather not kill his other victims.
Because, yes.
"You are, in fact, the fallen angel's Apostle," he pointed out. "And as his enemy, I actually need the likes of you alive, so that I can trap him. So rejoice—"
When Null finally realised he should have run, it was too late.
Konrad froze both his arms and legs, and while it must have been painful—
He only needed this monster alive, not unharmed.