Chapter 6: -it’s healing (2)

Episode 6 – This is Healing for Me (2)

‘They’ve prepared quite thoroughly.’

Freed from her restraints, Elena was moved to the 88th floor under strict surveillance, her mouth still gagged.

Upon arriving, she looked around with interest.

The 88th floor was the lowest level where complex magic-engineering devices could be operated, free from the interference of residual magic that grew heavier with depth.

This was why the 88th floor was chosen as the magic extraction labor room.

It meant that precise and enormous magic-engineering devices were required to extract Elena’s magic.

“Using this machine, we can forcibly extract the magic from your body, you hag.”

[Who’s this shorty?]

The person who had renovated and constructed the floor, large enough to fit an entire small training ground, filling it with massive machinery connected by various gears and pipes, was none other than a dwarf engineer.

Elena let out a snicker, looking at the rough-faced man who barely reached her chest.

Despite her mouth being gagged and covered with a mask, her voice echoed in his head, causing the dwarf to contort his face, pick up the short rod he was holding, and jab it at Elena’s leg.

“My name is Bargon. Bargon Lethan!”

The rod was a suppressive magic tool that could instantly generate powerful lightning at its tip, electrocuting the target.

This dwarf, who revealed his name without hiding his rage, saw Elena, who didn’t even bat an eye after receiving a shock strong enough to make an ordinary person faint on her bare leg, and his abundant beard bristled.

[Does he have a story?]

Elena gave a wry smile at the genuine resentment and hatred visible in his eyes.

When Bargon, further provoked by her words, tried to rampage, Lunara quickly rushed out, grabbed Bargon by his body, and dragged him away to restrain him.

She was afraid Elena might kill someone again.

“Bargon, separate your public and private affairs!”

“But that witch…! That hussy…!”

“I know the prisoner is your enemy, but there’s nothing we can do. Please follow the orders from above.”

Lunara desperately tried to calm the enraged Bargon.

Elena was clearly restrained by the highest-grade restraints they had devised.

In Lunara’s view, the equipment currently restraining Elena was several times stronger than the restraints used when Krasen was killed.

‘But what if that’s not enough? What if the Empress is intentionally showing a weakness?’

Nevertheless, Lunara could not feel at ease.

After being restrained, Elena hadn’t resisted as if she couldn’t use her power, but she also wasn’t controlled as they wished, as evidenced by her not even flinching at Bargon’s electric shock just now.

Elena had already planted the seeds of doubt and paranoia in their minds.

Is it enough? Is it not enough? Is it real? Is it false?

Even if Elena did nothing with no particular thought, Lunara and the other administration personnel felt like they were walking on thin ice and through a thorny path every day.

The mental effort expended in that process was immense.

It was almost impossible to tell who was observing and restraining whom.

“It seems pointless, so release her mouth. I at least want to hear that witch scream.”

“…Understood.”

After a moment, Bargon succeeded in calming down, and Lunara sighed, nodding her head.

Simultaneously, the mask covering half of Elena’s face was removed, and the gag was taken out.

“The magic circuits and their flow are quite intricately made. Is it to intentionally collide different types of magic, then use the power core to amplify the spell’s output and naturally guide one type of magic in another direction?”

Afterwards, Elena was seated and restrained in a steel chair at the center of the machinery that surrounded her.

Magic-reinforced chains from the straitjacket and the chair were connected, and her pale thighs and legs were firmly secured by numerous belts made of monster hide.

At this moment, the only part of her body she could move below her face was her toes.

Despite this, Elena saw through the structure and function of the device and commented on it as if it were fascinating.

Behind the chair where she was restrained, a main power unit designed with the latest magic-engineering glowed and rotated furiously, and numerous pipes slowly extended from two devices on either side, approaching her body.

They didn’t insert needles into her body. It seemed unlikely to work anyway.

“Hah, are you trying to act relaxed?”

‘How in the world…’

Bargon, who had placed a steel tube with magic-conducting wires connected to it on her head, scoffed upon hearing her words, but inwardly, he was flustered and stammered.

It was because Elena had merely glanced at the machinery and magic structure he, a self-proclaimed top dwarf magic-engineer, had designed, and instantly seen through it.

To Elena, who had already fully fused with the Devil’s Heart and transcended humanity into a half-human, half-demon state, most magic flows were as clear as the palm of her hand.

Since he had no way of knowing this, Bargon, who had been researching this for years, couldn’t help but feel nervous.

“But if you operate the device like this, it seems it will be very painful? The shockwave from the tube on my head will directly hit my brain… and when my forcibly moved magic is extracted from my body and flows into the extractor, I’ll feel the pain of my flesh being torn in the process. It would be less painful to just insert needles.”

“Oh, you know quite well! Of course, there’s no reason to show mercy to a criminal like you. Repent in endless agony!”

Having completed all preparations, Bargon returned to the safe zone where Lunara was waiting and activated the extraction device.

Simultaneously, the immense energy flowing from a power unit capable of pulling even heavy trains began to shake Elena’s body violently with a powerful repulsive force.

‘As she said, it’s a technique to forcibly extract a target’s magic from a distance. It can never be gentle or smooth.’

Bargon watched the extraction chamber where a strong magic field was generated with crackling sparks.

According to his calculations, Elena’s stimulated magic should have been forcibly expelled from her body and flowed into the extractors, which were thrust forward like gun barrels.

And from the immense pain felt during that process, Elena should have writhed and screamed.

“Engineer! Magic extraction is impossible! It’s not coming out even at maximum output!”

“What?! That can’t be!”

But Bargon’s calculations were off from the very beginning.

The most crucial part, magic extraction itself, was blocked.

‘Yes, I knew this would happen.’

Meanwhile, Elena yawned amidst the chaotic field and looked at their flustered faces.

She already knew that the technology, level, and output of the completed equipment were insufficient to manipulate a demon’s magic as intended.

Like blood blocked by a clot, her magic, which should have been extracted, was unable to pass through the narrow parts of her magic pathways and remained stagnant.

In the first place, they didn’t properly understand the power of a demon.

After all, it was the protagonist party’s mission to find clues and solve the mystery of Elena’s power and how to break it down and purify it.

“What’s going on, Bargon? Haven’t you always said your machine could definitely do it?”

“W-well, yes, but… this can’t be happening. Designing equipment with higher output than this is impossible right now…”

At Lunara’s flustered urging, Bargon slumped down with a blank expression.

This extraction machine was Bargon’s masterpiece, to which he had dedicated everything.

If the target hadn’t possessed the special power of an ancient demon’s magic, even the strongest individual would undoubtedly have been unable to withstand it and would have had their power drained.

“The extraction of the witch’s magic was one of the achievements the higher-ups particularly emphasized, but if this happens…”

As Bargon, losing his composure, fell silent in despair, Lunara pressed her throbbing temples and sighed.

The labor imposed on Elena was the result of various intentions from the republican government.

The magic of the witch, a former Empress, was unprecedentedly strong.

They had rejected this magic, accumulated by exploiting and massacring the imperial citizens, as wicked and horrifying, but now that magic-engineering had ushered in a new era, they couldn’t help but covet that special and highly concentrated power.

If researched well, it might bring immense wealth and power.

The publicly declared reason was that it was a punishment for the witch and would be used as research material for the public good, but some in the upper echelons of the republican government intended to divert Elena’s power and use it as a valuable resource for their private gain.

‘Already? This is going to get interesting.’

Seeing them through the glass window in the partition, and having overheard their entire conversation by listening intently, Elena faintly curved the corners of her lips.

She had expected that no one else at this point would be able to fill the void she left.

She wanted them to truly feel the burden she had carried and regret it.

If the republican government, established around Equitas, could even properly hold its ground, that would be remarkable.

She had thought it would surely fall into internal chaos, splinter, or face new problems and be tossed around, but it was already showing signs of it.

“It looks like things aren’t going well. How about we try to negotiate?”

Elena, smiling subtly, opened her mouth and spoke.

At that, Lunara, whose face hardened, and the administration staff, whose eyes widened in surprise, all stared at her.

“N-negotiation? Did you say negotiation?”

Bargon was shocked to hear Elena, a prisoner, mention negotiation.

However, Lunara quickly reached out and clamped her hand over Bargon’s mouth.

What was important now was somehow delivering the extracted magic from Elena to the higher-ups.

Whatever happened in that process, that was the responsibility of Lunara herself, as the director of the facility.

After all, this was deep within the labyrinth at the empire’s border. It was a top-secret facility and the one and only prison, Tartara, that no one truly knew about.

“What do you want?”

Of course, a negotiation could only be formed if Elena made a reasonable offer.

No matter how urgent it was, Lunara still treated Elena as the worst kind of criminal.

“I’ll cooperate with the magic extraction. In return, grant me just one thing. Give me proper food, not that dog-awful tasteless slop.”

“…Meals?”

However, to her raised tension, the demand that came from Elena’s mouth was absurdly small and trivial.

A request for delicious meals in exchange for cooperating with magic extraction.

Lunara, whose mind went blank, was speechless for a moment. Her head spun as she tried to guess what this wicked witch was thinking.

‘If I change everything from the start, it won’t be fun. If I do this every time they make a clumsy mistake, it could be quite entertaining, couldn’t it?’

But Lunara didn’t know.

That Elena was doing all of this purely because she thought it looked entertaining.