"The fan jellyfish jelly that we took that allowed us to have this hivemind is used in a much brutal way. It is also used amongst 500, instead of twelve,"
Our jaws dropped after hearing this.
500…
"Yeah. They make quote-on-quote loyal ȧssassins, but in reality, they're just brainwashed into thinking we're their saviors. The training they go through repeatedly torchers their bodies and mind, strengthening themselves as a whole,"
"Isn't that just like normal training?" Electra asks as Mia's face goes pale.
"Is cutting off someone's arm and then healing it back on normal?" Mia asks.
Everybody gulped down a significant drop of saliva.
"I wasn't kidding when I said it was torture. They literally cut off their limbs, and as they had achieved full hivemind, everybody shared each other's pain…. Multiplying their suffering by 500 times,"
What the hell… There was something like that in New York.
Even the most brutal of countries now don't go that far.
"Hey, you also said that they worked together with the Monster Paradise… What is that?" Electra asks, but Mia continues her story.
Her eyes stared blankly at the blanket covering her waist and below.
"Their screams rang through the cave. The alter was disgusting… It was littered with limbs that were used as a sacrifice to feed the Fan Jellyfish that we had kept. They're dead now, but we used to have hundreds of these things,"
Mia began to hyperventilate, so I hugged her tightly, allowing her to calm down a bit.
"Were you struggling with this the entire time?" I ask, and all I received was a nod as tears flowed from her eyes… but it was enough.
I see… So it's not only greed and power that corrupts the younger generation, but the family itself is at the core of their corruption.
Those corrupted children then grow up and treat their children the same way their parents treated them.
"Let's ask questions later and lay back a bit for now. Everybody has to relax… because we're going to be attacking the head of the Write family in a few hours," I announce.
Everybody was still cuddling up next to each other to try and get warmer, so they didn't hear anything of what I said, but my following sentence caused them to flinch a bit.
"You're finally free," I mutter with a smile before getting out of the blanket and walking down the long metal hallway.
…
(Back at the couch)
"W-were free?" Aria stutters.
"I never thought I'd become free like this… It's satisfying yet sad… It's really sad…" Clio mutters, tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.
"Ah, Mia is asleep," Ethel says.
"Lucy! Get your girlfriend!" Charna shouts, and most people notice how she doesn't seem all that sad.
"You're not sad?" Electra asks while tightly gripping Ethel's hand.
Ethel seemed to have ȧssumed the big sister role after getting a notification that most of their family had died.
Some managed to escape, but they were family members they had never even met or spoken to before, so essentially, they were just strangers.
Electra was also tightly gripping Ethel's other hand as she couldn't stop crying.
"Not really… None of my close family members died. Maybe because our family isn't that big but… yeah. I mean, most of my family is still in Korea anyway," Charna shrugs but soon realizes how insensitive she was.
The glare from some of the girls crawled on her skin, so she immediately apologized.
"Anyway, why does Lucy want to attack so soon? Shouldn't we be trying to gather our forces?" Ethel asks the group while rubbing Electra's hands softly.
"I want mom and dad to come back," Electra mutters.
"They won't be coming back,"
"I-I know, but I want them to…"
"I think Lucy just wants us to attack the head of the Write family, not with everybody else. It makes sense as it seems the entire Write family is out killing the other families," Charna answers.
They might still not have the best of expressions, and Electra's eyes were puffy, but it was enough… I think.
I began to second guess whether trying to take down the Write family head was a good idea now due to the state of all the other girls.
"Hmmmmm… We should get a heater installed," I mutter to myself, my thoughts shifting as I continued to walk through the same long hallway.
The base wasn't too big nor was it too small, unlike the young mistress's mansions which had way too many rooms than necessary.
If I had to describe the base, I'd say it is a cube with a hallway winding around it that leads to smaller rooms.
The cube's inside had a loft that we still couldn't access as there were no ladders or stairs.
"Didn't we invite an interior designer or some shit?" I muttered.
"I tried, but he rejected," I hear Mia's voice come from behind me.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I knew we'd get rejected anyway,"
An awkward silence grew between us as Mia was embarrassed that she had cried so much.
It even looked as if it was the first time she had cried in a while.
"Want to eat something?" I ask Mia.
"S-sure," Mia says, but as we were walking back to the centerpiece of the base where a small kitchen was shoved to the corner of the room, Mia wrapped her arms around me.
"I love you," Mia mutters, and I feel her hand trail down from my stomach to my back and then slowly approach my…
I jumped slightly in shock and scampered forward.
"Pervert," I say and run to the kitchen.
…
(Mia POV)
"What's wrong?" Celestine asks as she chews a mouthful of instant ramen noodles.
"I folded," I replied bluntly.
"What'd you do?" Celestine chuckles as I place my ramen in the boiling pot of water.
"I tried to… nevermind, it's too embarrassing," I brush off the subject, but it seems Celestine didn't accept my answer.
"Come on… Is it because of Lucy?" Celestine asks once again.
"Lemme gets some," Aria says, taking Celestine's chopsticks and eating some of her noodles.
"Yes, it's because of Lucy,"
"You can have the bowl if you want," Celestine addresses the first problem.
"Nah, I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep again," Aria replies, jumping back onto the couch where Amanda looked so done with comforting her.
We both chuckled to ourselves a bit.
"Well, I could've already guessed it. She's glaring at you like you're a pervert or something,"
I blushed slightly at her comment.
"Ah, it seems I was spot on…"
"Hey, girls, I'm gonna go to Mia's house for a bit. Don't come out, and I'll make sure I won't die," Lucy says, and before any of us could refute, she warped using the necklace.
…
(Lucy POV)
"Oh, it's more than I expected," I mutter looking through Mia's bedroom window.