"Hello, neighbour." The seductive voice of the queen sounded from the prison next door.
But Neil, who had already gone through several lives, stayed completely silent.
He wasn't aware of the reason, but each time after he replied, that crazy woman would go berserk just after a few minutes.
Then she would kill him and everyone around.
And when he didn't reply, she would just keep trying.
'Maybe it is related to some ability of hers, but what is she even trying to do?'
Neil concluded, and it seemed she couldn't force him to reply either, otherwise such a powerful madwoman wouldn't be wasting her time.
Keeping silent, Neil focused on getting his bracelet back.
After all, all his slimes were inside it, which were the first step towards his plan.
The process was a bit harder than the first life in prison, but after many tries it wasn't all that hard.
Neil perfectly remembered even the moment when and which guard would turn or yawn, he remembered their patterns.
And unless he interfere or do something different, they acted exactly same in all retries.
It took a few extra minutes, but he finally obtained the bracelet and instantly began to work on the shackles.
***
In a big office room, dozens of Lizzard men sat around a round table, quarrelling about a big decision.
The high-ranked officers were divided into two sides, one of which wanted to instantly kill that dangerous monster.
While the second side wanted to subdue him and use the feared creature, let it grow and turn it into their personal weapon.
"There is no way we could let such a dangerous monster grow in our homes.
Once it has grown and is powerful enough, we would be the first to die." Someone from the first side said.
"Aside from being a phantom, he is also a human, and we had clearly seen that liquid nitrogen is his weakness.
We can't control a monster, but a human? We can. We can manipulate him, make him our weapon. Our strength will greatly-" the second side said, but got interrupted midway.
"What if that gas stops being his weakness? We all know the phantoms could adapt to anything very quickly, and he went completely berserk after his transformation-"
"We have to take some risk. He might be mindless when he turns into a phantom, but we can still make him obedient while he is in his human form.
And before he develops immunity to liquid nitrogen, we have enough time to completely change his mentality. He is very weak right now after all."
Someone from team two chimed in:
"Yes, haven't you heard of that old story? An elephant, despite becoming all-powerful, still remains tied by a weak rope just because he believes he can't break it.
It's all about mentality. If we do this right, then a phantom will be our servant!! Our strongest killing machine."
"And what about the chances of him still going berserk, you thick brained idiot?
What if he accidentally breaks the rope and finds that we can no longer control him? We would be the first to be destroyed." Another person shouted.
BANG
"Silence!" The person seated at the main seat, who was the head of this Lizzard settlement, hit the table.
The leaders of settlements are called Wardens; the strength of settlements is mainly based on their strength.
This was a 3rd Origin settlement, which also meant the Warden was at the same rank though the class could vary.
"Sir Warden, what are your thoughts about this? We can't just let such a powerful weapon go to waste, we can accomplish so much if we use him right."
"But Sir Warden, a phantom is too dangerous of a creature to be nurtured and trained, and if others hear what we are doing, they will surely attack-"
"So what? Why don't you go hide behind your mummy and s-"
"Enough!!" The strongest Lizzard man in the room, warden, glared at everyone as they finally quieted down, then clearing his throat, he spoke:
"This decision is too big for us. We can't decide this on our own.
Send this information back to the main settlement, our ranks are too low for this. And have you identified that human yet?"
"…No sir, his face wasn't recognizable, and somehow there were no recordings of the time when we brought the humans here." One of the officers answered.
They all were surprised, how could there be no recording? Warden instructed to check out the issue.
"Sigh. Equip all our guards with liquid nitrogen, we will wait for our orders. We need him alive, until ordered otherwise." The Warden commanded.
And a few of the officers instantly got to work, changing the weapons of all guards and giving them additional cylinders.
They needed to keep that human alive for now, so if he goes berserk again, they could just use liquid nitrogen to put him to sleep.
"For now, I will go and see him personally." After discussing some more, the leader said.
And soon, along with a few officers, he headed towards the prison.
***
Inside the prison cell, Neil had just removed the shackles and noticed the changes outside.
The guards were now equipped with liquid nitrogen cylinders, all of them.
"Human, how did you end up here?" The same voice sounded from the other side.
Even though she was trying to get him to speak, the arrogance and pride could clearly be sensed.
'Just a bit more…' It was now a battle against time.
Neil had reached this point many times and died, this time he had calculated almost everything.
'Nemo, are you ready?' He asked, as some of his essence regenerated.
"Yes master, just give me the signal and I will start." Nemo said.
Hoo…
Neil released a long breath and finally replied to the charming snake queen.
"Well, hello."
And without wasting any time, Cynthia activated her skill, which would tell the name of his ability.
'Why did he take so long to respond? He almost made me angry, his skill better be worth it or…'
The tattoos began to glow on her arm as Cynthia waited patiently.
Neil's heartbeat rose with each second ticking by.
On one hand, Cynthia was about to go berserk, and the Warden and other officers were also approaching.
While Neil barely had a few drops of essence in his cores.
For a couple of minutes, he just remained seated on the floor, while counting time in his mind.
But then he hurriedly got to his feet and turned around, startling the guards.
"W- Where are the shackles?!!" They spoke in shock and got ready to shoot him with liquid nitrogen in case he suddenly transformed.
"Relax." Just then they heard the calm voice of the Warden, who was walking towards the prison.
"Sir!" The guards hurriedly made way for the group, calming down.
The Warden and the officers paused before the first cell and gazed inside, where Neil stood without any shackles on his limbs.
"Did you not put the shackles on him?" The Warden asked.
"S- Sir Warden, we carefully tied both his arms and feet, b- but…"
One of the guards stepped forward and replied fearfully.
"Hmm. But I don't see any shackles in the prison, oh!" The Warden paused midway as he saw the bracelet over Neil's wrist.
"How come he still has his bracelet? Did you not check properly before locking him up?"
The Warden glared at the guards, who didn't dare utter a word.
'But then again, he could use it to store the shackles away, but how did he get himself free without any essence?' The Warden thought and turned to face Neil.
It seemed this phantom in human skin hid quite a lot of secrets.
He could finally see the human's real appearance, but god knows what he had put around his face, he was truly unrecognizable.
After a moment, the Warden finally questioned:
"Human, how did you-"
Yet right at that moment, the human in question started walking forward, surprising them.
Then he raised his right leg as if he was about to kick the door.
'What is he doing? Is he going berserk again? Or does he think he can break through this cell?'
The Warden wondered while gesturing for one of the guards to come forward and ready the cylinder.
Neil's heart was beating like war drums now.
He had gone through this many times, but controlling the whole situation while being the weakest was really quite difficult.
In the next moment, everything started to tremble, and thin lines started to stretch over the walls.
'It has begun!!'
❖❖❖
Thanks for reading...