Phloria used one of Orion's spells, which revealed the relays of the keycard lock mechanism and allowed her to open it simply by sending a mana pulse to the right spot. She opened the door and ran into hiding.
They had chosen a place at the end of a corridor, so that there was only one way in and one way out, requiring just a single Golem to trap them.
As Phloria had predicted, the construct Warped at the end of the hallway to block the only escape route available. The Golem was surprised seeing that there was no human in front of itself, nor its sensors could pick up any energy signature.
Yet the door was open.
Phloria and Quylla were on the opposite end of the corridor, waiting for the Warping Array to open and Blink through it. Once on the other side, Phloria was surprised to discover that not only did the surveillance devices have already been destroyed, but also the cells were all empty except for the one holding the Assistants.
The Golem reported its failure and stepped back inside the Gate, getting struck by both sisters with their respective Clean Slate. The tier four Forgemaster spell required physical contact and had no permanent effect on something as complex as a construct.
Yet it could temporarily stop its functions. Two Clean Slate at once were enough to turn the Golem's power core off for a split second, which made the dimensional corridor collapse.
The Construct was only halfway through, so it got cleaved in half along with its power core. Phloria's plan had been a complete success.
"Please, don't abandon us here as the Professors did!" The Assistants started sobbing the moment their jailer was gone.
"I don't have much time, so I need you to be honest with me. Which one of you is a Warden?"
They all started to yell "Me! Me!", making Phloria curse.
"We should take with us both Asera and Onma." Quylla said while opening their locks with Clean slate. They are the Assistants of Neshal and Ellkas. I spoke with them more than once, so I know that they are respectively a Warden and a linguist.
Onma was actually an Alchemist, but that information was useless in their situation.
The two remaining Assistants started to scream so hard that Phloria had to Hush them.
'Is this how Lith felt during Balkor's attack?' Phloria thought. 'Knowing that you can't save everyone and that even bringing one more person along might doom us all?'
Lith had never felt anything like that. He had just pretended so to not be burdened by people he didn't care about, but Phloria had no way to know it. She regretted leaving two innocents to a fate worse than death, but at the same time, she couldn't kill them in cold blood.
"Great thinking Quylla, we must…" Her words were interrupted by another Warp appearing. She and Quylla had expected that the destruction of a Golem might alert the others, so they had a contingency plan for that.
What they didn't have a plan for, was the man accompanying the construct. Tired of losing their precious Flesh Golems, Jiira had decided to personally take care of the latest disturbance. His eyes lit up with joy when he saw the two young women.
\u003c "Well, well, well. Finally our luck it's turning."\u003e His smile creeped all those presents out. They had seen multiple Odi pictures, but even that wasn't enough to prepare them to meet the real deal.
Just like all his colleagues, Jiira was the embodiment of perfection, but only according to Odi's standards. He was 1.70 meters (5'7") tall, with long purple hair and blue translucent skin.
It allowed them to see every single twitch of his muscles and organs since he was almost naked, wearing only a loincloth to cover his genitals. His body was comprised only of muscles and what was visible of his face could have been considered handsome, if it didn't appear completely unnatural.
He looked more like a statue come to life rather than a living being.
Phloria attacked the Odi with her estoc the moment he appeared. She had no idea what he was capable of, but she had to stop him from casting spells. Jiira grabbed her blade with just three of his fingers.
With a wave of his hand, the Golem disappeared inside the Warp, while a green array formed around Jiira. Phloria gasped recognizing by its color the spell that the dying Flesh Golems had warned Lith against, so she promptly unleashed the spells stored in her rings.
Jiira just pointed his forefinger, generating a ray of light that pierced through Phloria's spells and chest, leaving a hole the size of a golf ball. His finger flashed one more time, striking Quylla down before she could do anything.
He then chained them where once the Professors had been, letting the red chains' properties to heal and restore their bodies before the procedure.
\u003c "Finally! We have our interpreter and enough bodies for our most useful members. We only need to retrieve the boy to start our plan. The old coots and the non-humans can die, we have no use for them."\u003e
The other Odi welcomed his proposition with an applause. After being prisoners inside their own home for so long, they could finally see a way out.
***
Lith and Morok walked through the door and ran along the corridor, to avoid falling in another ambush. Lith kept revealing and destroying the surveillance devices along their path until they reached a large, circular room from which branched several corridors, each one with an arrow-shaped tag to identify their destination.
Lith looked at the sign pointing from the direction they had arrived and noted down the Odi word for stairs. Then, he searched the remaining tags for another one containing the same characters that was supposed to lead them further down.
Yet he stopped halfway for two reasons. The first was that he recognized the character for "Meat Shields". It was identical to the one he had found with Phloria in the tunnels departing from Kulah.
The second reason was that his revealing spell couldn't find working surveillance devices in the room nor in the corridor leading to the magical beast breeding center.
"One of ours went this way." Lith pointed with his finger.
"It was Yondra, her Assistant, and Ellkas." Morok said after sniffing the air. "That's not all. The soldiers and Gaakhu went that way."
He was pointing at the warehouse, but Lith didn't recognize the character and his spell confirmed that the surveillance devices in that corridor were still operational.
"All the Professors seem to have managed to escape. How long ago did they pass from here?" Lith asked.
"Not much. A few minutes tops." Morok replied. "If we make haste, we might be able to catch up with her. After all, she had to slow down to clear her path, whereas we can just follow into her footsteps."
His idea was interesting, but not for Lith. If they actually found Yondra, Morok wouldn't need Phloria anymore to escape nor could Lith say them anything to stop them from leaving him alone in that nightmare.
Yet he nodded and used Life Vision to scan the area ahead. If he found Yondra and a dimensional rune leading to safety, he would know where to Warp to as soon as he rescued his friends.
Also, if he managed to convince Yondra to teach him how to operate a dimensional rune, their escape would proceed even smoother.
