Chapter 7: Chapter 7

"Lidra! Lidra!" Hearing someone calling her name, Lidra opened her eyes. In front of her was the rugged face of the captain of her guard unit - the man who had served Lidra since the beginning of her life, and the only person she ever acknowledged.

"Vilgard? What-what happened?" Lidra said, her head dizzy from the concussion.

"Sigh…Thank god you're alive. Are you injured?" The captain asked, then breathed out in relief as Lidra shook her head. "You tell me. I just saw this thing - which I have no idea what it is, flying out from the worm's mouth, and when I went to check I saw you lying unconscious in a corner. What even is this thing?"

"No clue. It flew, so some kind of flying ship, I guess? But I couldn't sense any sign of magic when it activated, strangely." Lidra said as Vilgard offered her his hand.

"What's the deal with that, then?" Vilgard said, pointing at the conspicuous glass tube - or rather, the thing inside it that gave it the look of a freak experiment by a crazy alchemist.

"My guess is as good as yours. At least I don't think it's human, though. There's no way anyone can be that perfect." Lidra said, once more admiring the impossible intricacy of the doll.

At that moment, the unidentifiable voice spoke again, which made them both jump.

[Warning: Power reserve at 0 percent]

[Shutting down in: 25 second(s)]

[Scanning… Humanoid entities detected]

[Scanning behaviors…

      Hostility: False

      Curiosity: True

      Anger: False

      Anxiety: True

      Cautiousness: True]

[Calculating threat level based on behaviors… Threat level: <5 percent]

[Emergency ejection…]

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As the voice stopped, the glass tube was suddenly lowered into the floor - without first draining the liquid inside, and so it spilled all over the place. The doll inside was pushed along with the flow, and it fell sliding on the floor as Lidra and Vilgard stared in shock. Finally, all the lights went out abruptly, leaving them with only the sunlight invading through the entrance.

And to their surprise, the doll's limbs jolted. "Gurgh… Blehhhhh!!!" It gagged violently before throwing up the same muddled fluid in the tube. "Hahhh… Hahhh…" Slowly, it raised its body up and looked around. "Where…" It began to speak.

Suddenly, the doll widened its eyes in shock. "Wait… Hermes! Hermes, answer me! Hermes!!!" It yelled someone's name repeatedly, its voice filled with anxiety. However, the person named "Hermes" never answered, no matter how many times it called them.

"No…no way…" The doll staggered as it gripped the collar of its tattered shirt tightly. Then, as it seemed to have remembered something, it abruptly ran forth, brushing past Lidra and Vilgard who were still stunned, and down a staircase just behind the glass tube. The two, after blankly stared at the passing figure, traded a glance with one another and chased after the doll.

Once they went down the stairs, they found even more strange artifacts lying around in hoarded messes. Ahead of them were the doll, kneeling before a matte black metal box that seemed to have been yanked out from the wall. It pulled the front of the box open, revealing a web of wires, clear tubes and boards littered with tiny unidentifiable bits of metal. In the middle of all that was a palm-sized black metallic cube connected to the aforementioned wires and tubes. The doll ripped them off the cube and brought it near its face.

"There's no light…" The doll said, its hands holding the cube began to shake. "That means… He's really gone..." Its shoulder dropped as the cube slid out of its hands and rolled down the floor. From its sky blue eyes, tears began to flow.

Behind the doll, Lidra and Vilgard were speechless, having no clue what had just happened. Still, seeing the doll crying made their hearts sink. Taking a deep breath, Lidra approached the doll and crouched down next to it, holding its hands. "Um…"

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" It shrieked, ripping its hands of Lidra's and grabbing its head. "HE'S DEAD!!! I KILLED HIM I KILLED HIM I KILLED HIM!!!" It screamed maniacally, clawing its own face and pulling its hair.

Startled, Lidra panickedly tried to grab the doll's arms and hold it down. However, she found it was much stronger than she expected from its tiny body, and was barely able to overpower it. "Calm down!" She yelled.

"NOOO!!! IT WAS ALL MY FAULT!!! I DIDN'T LISTEN TO HIM AND HE DIED BECAUSE OF ME!!!" The doll screamed even louder and broke free of Lidra's hold - to her surprise. It hurriedly grabbed the black cube, clutched it on its chest with both hands and cried. "Please, Hermes… I promise I'll listen to you, so come back…" Lidra, unable to find a word to say, could do nothing but watch.

Suddenly, the doll jolted upright. From its mouth spoke an emotionless voice - a far cry from the shrieks it was making. "Warning: System overheat. Emergency shutdown in 3…2…1…"

The doll then fell over, eyes shut, its hands still holding the cube tight.

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