Tower Spider, Third Floor.
The third floor of the Tower Spider, the work room, had become a gigantic jungle of storage containers, half-packed boxes, and sealed or abandoned projects. Crates were stacked to the ceiling in towers, some labeled neatly, others scrawled over with hurried notes and layered tags belonging to the ants. Glass tanks, metal cases, and rune-locked boxes were wedged together wherever there was space, forming narrow paths that twisted through the room like false alleyways.
In short—
They were already preparing to leave…
Yikes!
Other than just being a mess, it was also Petra's 'loot' from her trip to the western region. She skipped through the clutter, humming a little tune until she eventually stopped in front of a large display.
"Let's see… 3204 blood samples~ check! 32 flora samples~ 568 environmental samples~ 37 material samples~ Mm! Check! Hmm, and…" She tapped her chin, looking at the continuously growing wall of labeled containers.
Out of everything she'd collected from the western region, three stood out. They were blood samples containing the secrets of special abilities that she wanted to 'grow' for later.
A strange cat she'd found in the Grey Plains with the ability to turn vibrations into blades. A shapeshifting rock crab from the Black Forest with the ability to disguise both its form and its aura completely. And a mouse from the Dark Swamp that could mimic emotions and presence with an unsettling accuracy. Each was dangerous in its own way, but Petra was more interested in their abilities.
Ribbit!
Her frog croaked…
She giggled, twirling on her toes, then jumped over to some books before scribbling in them using her unreadable handwriting.
If compared to the tags written by the ants, it was not much different…
Again, she spun in place, then collapsed dramatically onto her butt, cheeks puffed out in exhaustion.
"Ugh. Being a genius is hard work~."
She poked the frog in the head. "You get it, right? You're my emotional support amphibian. Right~? Right-right-right-right-right-right-right-right-right??"
The frog: "..."
Petra snorted, jumped up, and moved on.
* * *
When Petra descended to the second floor, she found Dorothy and Bell sitting among mountains of books. They had unceremoniously claimed a large portion of the common room, turning it into a small library. The two bookworms didn't even look up, they were far too busy.
"Ah~ so diligent~" Petra hummed out loud.
Dorthy sighed, peeking at Petra from the corner of her eye. "We're running out of space—" "And parchment!" Bell added quietly from the side.
Petra glanced around and noticed that the shelves were almost bursting from the seams.
She nodded seriously. "I see. We need more shelves!"
Dorthy: "..."
Bell: "..."
Petra pouted, clearly seeing the disagreement in their eyes, and puffed out her cheeks adorably.
"My books…"
Dorthy and Bell: "..."
When no one responded, Petra sighed, collapsing theatrically over a nearby stool, and began to tear up.
Dorthy and Bell: "..."
Ribbit!
Her frog croaked again!
Petra gasped, jumping up, and pointed at it. "See?! He understands!"
Dorthy: "...?"
Bell: "...Does she not know?"
Dorthy: "…"
There was an awkward silence.
Petra tilted her head, confused~?
Then she looked down…
Petra: "..."
Random ass frog: "..."
"...Who are you?"
As it would turn out, Petra had been holding some random frog this whole time…
She tossed it—
Out the window…
Swoosh!
Dorthy & Bell: "..."
Random ass frog: "!!"
-
The real frog, the one on the first floor, was lazily reading a book while eating something froggy near the window, when suddenly…
Swoosh!
Suddenly, it saw a lookalike flash past from outside and shoot towards the ground…
The frog: "...?"
-
Petra clapped her little hands on her long skirt while mumbling about 'impostors', and 'that's not fair', and 'I need to pay more attention'.
Before she could return to bothering the two bookworms, an excited voice echoed from below.
"Little Master!!"
It was Mell…
Petra turned to see Mell, Lilly, and Luna beckoning her from the top of the first-floor stairs. Their little heads were poking out.
Petra blinked, then tilted her head curiously. "Mm?"
She hopped over, followed them down, then outside, and then...
Outside—
Petra looked up to see a small team of ants who were just returning from a mission. These ants were carrying two large balls of mental energy.
Petra hummed, "Oh~."
With a pop… swoosh-bang!
The two spheres of mental energy fell to the ground and burst open.
Immediately, two unconscious girls spilled out. They were pale, but still breathing… Lithra and Lethra tumbled out in front of Petra, Lilly, Luna, and Mell.
Petra hurried over while clutching the correct frog this time, she had nabbed it while passing by. She crouched down and poked the two girls, examining them not so carefully.
After a moment, she smiled faintly. "Take them upstairs."
The servants obeyed…
* * *
A few minutes later…
Outside, thunder rolled through the clouds, and the tower shook, as another wave of rain thumped against the glass. Inside, Petra had returned to the third floor, where a space had been cleared for the unconscious duo.
Petra trotted over to the two girls with her small legs.
She rolled up her sleeves.
Her hair had been tied up lazily to one side, and dozens of faintly glowing runes flickered into existence around her. These runes were formed from mental energy, and they were carved into the shape of small butterflies, with their wings possessing slightly different patterns and shapes.
Cough-cough, it was a toolbox…
Unlike before, her mental energy was now channeled through a small pendant that hung beside her butt. This pendant functioned the same way the avatars did, only instead of free-willed wanderers, this pendant was simply a funnel. With the 'torrent' restricted to a 'thin flow', Petra could now do the things she couldn't before, back when her mental energy was out of control.
At least, she could do the things that a beginner should have been able to do.
Looking down…
Petra began her inspection.
At first, she expected the usual, a few standard spells, maybe a curse or two, with some monitoring artifacts added in… But what she found made her pause.
Petra blinked, then blinked again.
Was this serious?
"Mm…" she murmured. "They really went all out, didn't they~?" Her voice was lazily cute, but her tone held the faintest hint of disgust.
She started with their 'bodies'.
The sisters had been stripped, cleaned, strapped down, and held in place so Petra wouldn't accidentally cause an 'explodey'. Petra looked them over from head to toe as her little claws combed carefully through their bodies…
-
First of all, both girls had extremely thin metallic needles piercing through their elbows and knees. They were carved with faint, hair-thin runes, similar to the elves, not the high elves, each one etched with the power to suppress the body when activated.
It was effectively a remote on and off button for the body.
Petra's brow furrowed slightly.
She moved on…
Next, in the depths of their sea of consciousness, buried beneath layers of mental fog, Petra discovered a somewhat familiar pattern. There, carved deep into their minds, was a rune almost identical to the one she'd found in Bell's mind, only a lot less complicated.
She had no idea what it did, but…
It was something like a possession rune, one designed to hijack the body and mind in a moment of extreme weakness.
Petra snorted and wiped it away.
After that, Petra's little claws got a tad touchy, and she brushed her fingers all over their soft skin, slowly making her way to the base of their spines. Her spiritual energy, what little of it there was, flared, illuminating the faint inscriptions that flickered beneath their skin.
It was some kind of 'seal' engraved directly into the layers of their skin.
This one leeched away elemental energy from their bodies, draining any 'abnormal' powers that intruded, keeping the two girls 'pure'.
Petra frowned, wondering if this was why they looked so pale.
Elemental Energy was what most of the physical body was formed from, only at a much higher level.
This was something she'd discovered not long ago.
The periodic table applied to the elements in elemental energy, only the elemental energy used by mages was at a very low level, not yet reaching into the true secrets of the microscopic world.
It was the equivalent of 'monkey see fire, monkey throw fire'.
Petra didn't want to touch this, because not only was it far more complex and mysterious than what was taught on Earth, but the secrets hidden within seemed to diverge from the path she intended to take.
At least, that was what her instincts told her…
Her attention drifted to their wrists and ankles.
Each of the delicate silver ringlets that wrapped around their limbs were not just simple ornaments. Every piece of jewelry they wore was brimming with micro-runes, tracking, monitoring, pain, and even remote execution runes, all linked directly to a central source that Petra couldn't track.
Petra's eyelid twitched…
Continuing, she noticed something even stranger.
Within their bones, something grew, faint and organic, but definitely foreign. She narrowed her eyes, poking a finger aggressively against one of their forearms. The surface of the skin almost rippled in response, producing a far stronger reaction than what was normal.
"Is this a… parasitic root…?"
Fine, hair-like threads intertwined through their skeletons like snakes. They weren't harmful, not directly, but they were connected to every bone, every joint, and every nerve.
That was troublesome…
"This root is… If I'm not wrong, it's 'that'. It should be very, very expensive," Petra muttered. "And nearly impossible to remove without breaking the host."
Her expression darkened. She wasn't angry, no, not really, but there was something about this kind of cruelty that left a sour taste in her mouth.
Still, she pressed on with her inspection.
There was a faint curse wrapped around their bodies and concealed through some unknown means.
It was barely noticeable at first, but Petra's extreme sensitivity to the darkness element also worked on curses.
This was a 'submission' curse, or the 'Curse of Submission'.
Its purpose wasn't destruction, but suppression, a spell designed to smother the will to resist. It didn't silence the mind, instead, it simply made disobedience feel pointless to the target.
Petra's lips pressed into a thin line. "I wonder if they do this to all their family members?"
Moving on…
There, deeper down, she found something that made even her stop for a moment.
Nestled within each girl's chest was a 'living creature'…
It was a 'Gu-worm'.
Its heartbeat matched its host.
Its body wrapped around their hearts like a serpent around a sacred tree.
"Ah… this one..." Petra's tone turned analytical again. "Another self-detonation fail-safe…? If they betray their family, the worm explodes, no no no, it tears them apart from the inside? No survivors, no deserters, that's what they're going for? No no no, Why is it so extreme? Hm, maybe… no…. could it be." She paused, then tilted her head slightly.
She was thinking about a way to collect the Gu-worm.
These were thoughts no sane person would have.
A Gu-worm wasn't something that could be removed, much less treated like a collectible.
At least, not if the person on the table had any value.
Levy, watching from the side, coughed dryly. "Petra, you should focus. Don't forget you don't know medicine, right?"
Mm?
Ah?
Oh, that's right, I don't…
Petra gave a tiny, mischievous smile.
"Fine, fine~ Later then." She would collect the little things after they were safe.
While Petra continued to investigate…
Levy's eyes shifted to the glowing 'mark' hovering above their heads. She turned to the oblivious Petra and nudged her shoulder before pointing. "Look closer," she said, pointing to a place literally outside their bodies.
Petra looked back at her, confused, then followed her finger in bewilderment.
She squinted, then adjusted her senses slightly.
Her pupils lit up, and the world around her dimmed. There, faint but undeniable, she found something inexplicable. It was like a 'mark' that hovered around their bodies like drifting smoke. Petra understood that this was a field she had yet to touch, much less understand, no, she didn't even know what it was.
Wait, no, could it be…
This was the kind of magic that didn't make sense.
It didn't bind them physically, nor mentally. It simply 'redirected' them. A quiet influence that kept their lives spinning along paths that would never lead to rebellion or escape.
"Is this fate manipulation…?" Petra asked, her tone a bit interested.
'Fate manipulation' was the technique used to set up the stage that was Pillomal. If she could learn it, could she set up her own game?
No…
Probably not…
Hopefully not…
What kind of sinners would the Tibon Family be if she could…?
Petra could feel fate a bit, but this was the first time she had seen it physically manifest.
She leaned back, arms crossed.
Her bright emerald hair settled on her shoulders as she looked intensely at the air.
Her gaze flickered slightly as she looked at the two girls again. At first, Petra was simply irritated, but as she discovered more and more layers of control, that irritation gave way to something else… It wasn't pity, but a kind of quiet irony, no, it was also really funny, really fucking funny, like the over-the-top kind.
"Ha!"
If this was what two random girls from the countryside had to experience, then she couldn't imagine what one of the Heavens' Chosen would face if they were ever captured.
After a long pause, Petra burst out laughing.
"Let's clean them up first!"
Her eyes glowed with a green light.