"Young Master! Wake up!" Krylian's desperate voice cut through the haze as he shook Asthon's limp body.
A groan escaped Asthon's lips. His eyelids fluttered open; his vision was blurred but slowly improving.
As his vision returned to normal, he looked around, finding himself with Krylian in a small empty room with no light, surrounded by only black metallic walls and a cold metallic floor.
Asthon tried to sit upright and asked, "Where are we?"
"I am not certain, young master, but we are captured…."
Hearing this, his memory cleared, and he remembered the last thing he saw: being surrounded by aliens.
This could only mean one thing…
"We have been imprisoned by aliens?"
Krylian sighed and said "I am not certain but all signs point towards it"
"Then wh….." Before Asthon could finish his sentence, the doors slid open, and footsteps echoed through their ears.
They turned around, seeing a figure wearing light armor that covered his entire body except for his face.
The alien's face mimicked humanity, yet felt wrong, skin too tight and sliverish, eyes void-black and blinked sideways.
The inhumane look confirmed their suspicion, "It's an alien," Asthon mumbled as he stared, standing up, going to a defensive stance immediately.
The alien was probably not here with good intentions in mind, probably to kill them or worse. But he had no weapon, nor did he know how or even if he could tap into that power.
"How should I protect us?…."
As Asthon thought, Krylian took something out of his pocket to avoid getting the alien's attention.
Then he tapped lightly on Asthon's hand, getting his attention, and said, "Take this, it's a spy communication device." Krylian whispered.
"Don't let them see it"
Asthon took it, keeping it hidden in his pocket, and said, "But what's its use?" He asked.
"If we get separated, then we still keep in touch, allowing us to plan our escape together."
"It's only useful if we survive! What if they kill us right now.."
"We just hope they let us leave..."
"....."
Asthon fell silent not knowing how to respond to Krylian's words. Krylian, not doing anything, just hoping for mercy from the aliens, showed how helpless they were.
"Damn it"
As they were speaking, a cold mechanical voice echoed, followed by metallic footsteps growing louder, grabbing their attention and changing the environment itself.
"Sit, humans.."
Instantly, they felt their bodies becoming heavier, so heavy that they fell on their knees, pinning them to the ground.
Asthon let out a grunt of pain as he said "They have altered the gravity around us"
"It's…. It's…. obvious"
As they struggled to withstand the increased gravity, a piece of metal on the floor moved, and from it rose a metallic seat hovering a few cm above the floor.
The alien sat down on it, looking down at them like a predator looking at their prey. The alien snapped his fingers, and gravity around them returned to normal, freeing them from their agony.
"My name is Voric and you are at my mercy so answer my question"
Asthon gritted his teeth and said "Fuc…" Before he could finish his words, Krylian whispered in his ears "Just corporate young master, please don't do anything that will get us killed…."
Hearing this, he gritted his teeth, glared at Voric, and asked, "What do you wish to know?"
"Tell me how you harnessed the power of mana to kill our comrade!"
At first, Asthon was confused by the foreign word 'mana', but then he remembered and his last word provided enough clarity to help him connect the dots.
"Mana is probably that power I gained while fighting.."
But he didn't know how to harness the power of mana so he didn't have a response. It looked like the alien had more information on this topic than him.
So he decided to return a question with a question and asked "What the hell even is mana?"
Voric glared at him, then gravity around Ashton and Krylian increased tremendously, pinning them to the ground.
"Ahahahahah!!!!!" Asthon roared in pain as he felt his bones cracking under his own weight.
Voric rose, strode toward them, and seized Asthon by the hair, yanking his head up until their eyes locked. "Don't play dumb, human," Voric snarled.
"You just harnessed the power of mana to kill one of us a day ago, yet you claim ignorance? Don't make me even more furious than I am!"
Asthon clenched his fist and said, "I really don't k…." Before he could finish his words, Voric slapped him several times causing Asthon to spit up a mouthful of blood on the floor.
Krylian could only watch Asthon getting tortured as he couldn't even talk under intense gravity.
"Don't lie. How are you using mana? Our intel says your kind can't. So tell me how you can use mana!!" Voric demanded.
He was frustrated, utterly clueless about mana or this so-called evolution, with no answers to the alien's accusations.
Yet the alien refused to believe him, tormenting him for knowledge he didn't possess.
"What a dumb animal,"
As he was thinking, an inhumane voice resounded through the entire room grabbing their attention.
Asthon slowly turned around seeing 5 aliens wearing the same armor as the alien he killed earlier.
"@$@$#_#_@_@¥¢¥¢•π^§x" The alien holding him uttered strange words that neither he nor Krylian could understand.
"They are probably speaking in their native language" Asthon guessed.
"##!$@&$!#&@#&$" The other alien said
Nodding the alien said "@&$@&$@&#@&?"
Then, without warning, the alien threw him towards the group. The aliens caught them completely restraining him. Two aliens rushed towards Krylian, got him on his feet, and restrained him too.
"What are you going to do to us?!" Asthon questioned as they tried to break free with force.
Voric smiled sinisterly, "You two are going to be imprisoned separately until we reach our mothership, where Commander Kaelor will personally integrate you two!"
"Who is Kaelor?"
"You don't have to know everything about him just know if you fail to satisfy him with your answer then your entire body will be dissected for Intel"
"Wh….." Before he could ask another question, Voric issued an order "That is enough, take them to their cell now!"
Then the aliens dragged him and Krylian, taking them to somewhere unknown to them.
*************
The doors of a dark, silent chamber creaked open, its cold metallic floor littered with chains dangling from the walls. A group of aliens dragged Asthon in and hurled him inside.
He slammed into the metal floor, receiving minor injuries. He glared at the alien who threw him inside with eyes full of rage.
"I… will kill you all"
The aliens ignored his threats and said, "Stay there quietly." As they closed the doors, leaving him alone in the dark.
As the doors shut, Asthon tried to rise, intent on striking the alien's face.
But pain from his wounds forced him down before he could move. Worse, the moment he entered the room, he felt energy leaking from his body
"Why do I feel energy leaving my body?"
That is when strange lines of notification began to flash in his retina once again…
(Mana is being sucked out of your body slowly. Mana recovery is also impossible)
"What is the development system and these strange notifications?"
He didn't know how, but one thing was clear, he had to learn to harness mana to survive and fight the aliens.
The system's mention of mana meant it likely held relevant information. Dozens of notifications had flashed in his retina during the battle perhaps reading them could provide the answers he needed
"Let's read them," Asthon thought to himself.
So he began to carefully read every single notification he had been ignoring up until now, from the first to the last.
As he read, his eyes widened, his mouth parted in a silent gasp, and his brows shot up in disbelief, shaking with shock
"This…"