Logan now had both of his hands pressed on the terminal, and his expression was one of struggle as he started to sweat a little. This was the first time Quinn had seen him panic like that. This only meant they were in a tough situation.
“I can’t open the door!” Logan shouted. “It can understand me, and it’s listening to me, but it’s the first time a machine has ever been able to outright refuse my request like this. What’s going on?”
He tried and tried again, but it was clear that right now there was nothing they could do to help Vorden. The two girls were not too far from the other doors themselves, and before anything could happen to them, Quinn quickly called them over.
“Come over here!” Quinn shouted. “We don’t want any more surprises.”
All of them were now carefully watching one of the screens on the terminal that clearly showed Vorden in the room.
Inside the room, Vorden had felt a very strong force pulling him by the back of his collar. He was practically chucked into the room, but as soon as the door closed, whatever that was pulling him had stopped. He immediately turned around and as he did, he drew out both of the black and white blades, ready for anything.
He had touched Cia before, so he also had her ability, but nothing else, and hers wasn’t an offensive one in the first place, so the only thing he could rely on right now were the weapons.
Now, standing in front of him, he could see one thing in the room. It was a robot. Although not a humanoid looking one, to say the least. Its upper body was like that of a human, having two hands and a chest frame with a head on top, but after that nothing else looked human. Where its head should have been there was a single eye that looked like a pair of binoculars and as for the legs they were non-existent.
Instead, it was a pair of triangle shaped wheels with the tire being a band that would move along with the robot. Emulating a treadmill. Since it was the only thing in the room, Vorden could only guess that it was this robot that had pulled him in.
Although it looked weak, for a brief second, he had felt its strength and was extremely cautious. As he backed up with his blades continually drawn, he didn’t break eye contact even for a second. Then when he felt his back go up against the wall, Vorden lifted his foot and hit it as hard as he could with his heel. But there was no response, he could not move it at all.
When Quinn had used his inspect skill, he had made a note that everything was made of galthrium, which was why he hadn’t tried to even attempt at breaking down any of the doors. And if Quinn couldn’t do it, then Vorden definitely felt like he couldn’t do it either.
“Trial one has been initiated.” A voice said from the Robot. “A new participant has been detected. Please state your family number.”
“Family number?” Vorden said, looking confused. ‘Does he mean my family name?’ “Blade family!” Vorden shouted.
The robot took a few seconds to reply back. “Error, Family Number not found, please try again.”
“What do we do?” Layla asked. “Is he going to be okay?”
“I’m not sure.” Logan replied. Usually the group always went to him for answers, but with the way things were, he was a bit shell-shocked and had no idea how to proceed in this type of situation. “The only thing I can guess is the robot said this is some type of trial, right? If he passes maybe he can get out. But the machine, it’s got a mind of its own. Usually my ability gives a life to things with a voice, it allows me to communicate and control them, but this machine, it already had its own voice. It was as if I was talking to another human and it’s refusing to do anything I ask it to do.”
Hearing this crisis and what the robot was saying, Quinn thought he might be the only one that would be able to help Vorden out of this trial. “System, do you know anything about this place? What is it?”
“I’m afraid not, this whole area is unfamiliar and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” The system replied.
Quinn did remember stating that when the system was alive, he lived on earth. So it would make sense to not know about this if the lab was relocated along with the vampires.
“You want a number right?” Vorden said, “Then my lucky number 77.”
“Error, family number not found, please try again.”
Hearing the robot speak again, Quinn had an idea. If they were in the vampire world, then it must be related to the thirteen vampire families. “Vorden, pick a number between one and thirteen!” he shouted.
Hearing this, Vorden replied. “10”
“Please state your current rank?” For the first time it had asked another question, and they were starting to make progress.
“Vampire!” Quinn shouted, assuming it meant the different evolutions within the vampire circles.”
“Vampire.”
The robot then started to move slightly. Out of its chest piece, a small door was opened and came out with what looked like a small tray. On it, a syringe with a green solution inside was displayed.
“Will you be taking the solution for this trial?” The robot asked.
This at least confirmed one thing to the others, the trial hadn’t even begun yet.
However, both Quinn and Logan were extremely interested in what was exactly in the strange green liquid. Perhaps it would give them answers to what this whole trial thing was about in the first place.
“Quinn, what do I say? You’ve been right about everything so far.” Vorden said. “But just to warn you, I have a feeling that if I say yes, there’s a good chance he’s going to force me to take it. Or won’t let me leave until I take the solution.”
It was clear by the question presented that this was an optional thing, and however much Quinn and Logan were interested in the syringe, they couldn’t just use Vorden like a guinea pig. Especially in extreme situations like this.
“Say no!” Quinn shouted.
“No.” Vorden replied, and the green solution went back into the strange robot. For the first time, the robot had moved from its place and went to the back of the room up against the wall.
All of these actions, and the anticipation of what was about to happen next, was making not only Vorden nervous but the rest as well.
Suddenly from above, a hole in the ceiling had appeared and then closed nearly just as quick. In the short time it had opened, something had fallen from the ceiling and made a loud thumping noise below.
The first thing that came to Vorden’s senses wasn’t the appearance of what had fallen, but instead was the smell. He had wanted to immediately lift his shirt to cover his mouth, but was aware he couldn’t. The smell was extremely bad; it smelled as if food had been left out for several days.
Then when looking at what had dropped on the floor and where the smell had come from. He could see something had been wrapped up in a black rag, and on the outside of it was blood.
Moving forward towards the black ragged item, Vorden pointed his black sword forward and reached out, pushing it with the side of his sword. The item had unwrapped itself from the rag and rolled out, revealing a severed arm.
Immediately outside, Cia had to look away from the screen. She could take all of the things Layla had said, but seeing this, reality started to hit her about what type of place they were really in.
Looking at the arm closer, Vorden could tell that it clearly wasn’t a fresh one, for it was very pale in colour and most of the inside looked rotten. After dealing with Peter, he had seen his fair share of fresh limbs that had been cut off.
“The trial will now begin!” An announcement was made.
Once again, one of the panels from the ceiling quickly opened and this time on the other side of the room, something larger had fallen to the floor.
It was curled up in a ball, but it looked to be human. Its boney spine could be seen, and it had no clothes, apart from a rag covering its privates. It was bald and almost grey in colour.
“Grgrgr…GRgrggr..Grgrg.”
Strange sounds could be heard coming from the figure, and Vorden proceeded to take a few step backs slowly, not wanting to make any noise.
Slowly, the figure started to uncurl from its ball-like shape and stood on its two feet. It was tall, nearly seven foot and looked just like a human. However, it looked as if the creature was made of nothing but skin and bones, as in its ribcage, knee caps and several other areas could be seen clearly, then when looking at its head, all that could be seen in its eyes was white.
“GRAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The creature screamed, and as it opened its mouth wide, it revealed several razor-sharp teeth. Similar to a vampire, only every single one of its teeth was just as sharp.
“Quinn..” The system said with horror in its voice. “That’s a Wendigo!”
*****
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