Chapter 172 Ch 170: The Hallucinations [Pt1]

Diantha hurried after Shizue, but she did not know why or how fast she lost sight of her target. Shizue was in front of her for one second but she was gone as soon as she turned the corner.

"Shit! How did I lose sight of someone like Shizue? Did that woman have some kind of superpower or something? I feel so frustrated."

Diantha could not help but feel a little put-off. She had been trusted to follow after and keep an eye on Shizue by Yohan but she had managed to mess up from the get-go. Yohan was not going to be happy about it.

He might demote Diantha and not trust her any longer.

"No, I cannot let that happen. A hidden door, there has to be a hidden door here somewhere."

Diantha tried to reason how she had lost Shizue. The whole corridor was just a single line of white without any twists or turns. It did not make sense for someone to disappear just out of thin air.

There also did not seem to be any kind of magi craft being used since the use of magi craft emitted a different feeling for Diantha. She needed to figure out what happened here.

Diantha rested her hand on the wall, her brows pulled together when she felt something pulling her in. She tried to make the wall let go of her hand but it was not possible. The grip on her arm felt too tight.

"L-Let me go. What is going on here? No, I don't want to be pulled into some kind of trap."

Diantha tried to use her magic to make the force give way. But the hole absorbed all her magic. It was immune to her magi craft and no amount of physical force seemed to be making a dent in it.

In the end, Diantha was not able to figure out what happened as she was pulled deeper and deeper into the wall.

The next time he opened her eyes, she was no longer in the whiteness of the corridor, but in a familiar chamber that had been the companion of her nightmares for a long time.

The walls were lined with glass display boxes and various kinds of machinery lined the floor and every section of the room. But it was nothing compared to the white bed in the middle of the room.

Just seeing that bed sent shivers down Diantha's spine and she could not help but flinch as soon as her eyes rested on it. It brought back too many memories for her not to feel like vomiting.

'I-I escaped this place. I cannot be back here like this. This all must be an illusion. Yeah, this is all a nightmare I need to escape from.'

The more time Diantha spent in that lab, the more her mental health deteriorated. It was the place that had birthed her and it was also the place she never wanted to go back to. She had made sure she would never need to come back here.

"Specimen #D, do not dwindle there and hurry up to me. There are drugs we need to test on you."

Diantha flinched after hearing her previous name. She had been an experiment in this place when her powers had first been discovered. And she had not been the only one who had been kept here.

Since this was a nightmare Diantha had often, she expected to turn back and see a smaller version of herself walking toward the bench. She quickly looked back, but there was no one behind her.

Suddenly, someone took control of her arms and dragged her forward. Panic seized Diantha and she tried to fight her bonds.

Not that it mattered much because they were too tight and they were not bonds, they were hands that were keeping Diantha held in place.

"Let me go. I said, let me go right now or I will retaliate. Do you have any idea who I am? I am not someone you lot can put your hands on any longer."

Diantha had made sure of that when she had escaped her cage. She had made a public name for herself so that she would never have to be in this situation again. She could not allow her past to keep on affecting her this way.

She did not know why her astral body had replaced her smaller version in her nightmare but it no longer mattered. Diantha needed to break free from here.

"Huh? What are you talking about Subject #D? You never escaped this place in the first place. Did the last drug you took react? We will need to check for every possible mutation that could have been caused as a result."

The doctor whom Diantha had never been able to look in the face spoke. Diantha was strapped to the bed and the needle of her nightmares came closer to her arm.

Diantha tried to resist but it was futile. In the end, she was put to sleep and no one knew where she disappeared to.

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"Did I lose my persuader? Phew, finally some peace and quiet. But where did this secret passage appear from?"

To say that these halls were familiar to Shizue would be an underestimation. She had spent a better part of her childhood in these parts of the facility.

Many people did not know it, but the place the central cord was being kept was also a nurturing facility to raise future weapons. It was a place where Shizue had been raised along with other orphans.

They had been stripped of their human rights and made to participate in an experiment to be made compatible with the chaos core.

In the end, no one survived until the end and no one had been successful. And unlike the 'precious' government official children, they had been disposed of once their usefulness had ended.

Of course, it was part of Shizue's past she had no business thinking about anymore. Now she had more things to consider and change.

"But to think that I would end back here after this place was destroyed in an accident. What are the chances of that happening?"

Shizue had to say that she was surprised. This place had been rebuilt in the shortest amount of time possible. It was a miracle that this place looked no different than before.

"Hey, you there. Hurry up and come help me with something."

Shizue froze once she realized that it was her who was being called. Not to mention, the time of voice being used sounded too familiar to her to not make her freeze up.

It sounded like one of the children who had helped Shizue survive in this place. But all those children had been dead for white sometimes.

'Great. Now I'm starting to hear hallucinations. What's next? Seeing dead people coming back to life? As if-?'

"Hey Shizue, were you ignoring my words on purpose? You did not do that, right? I will be angry if you ignored me intentionally."

A familiar face with a familiar won't of voice. Shizue had never thought she would curse this much in her life. But at that very second, she could not help but let out the foulest of words escape her mouth.

How could things go this off-rail like this? What kind of illusion was this?

"Shizue, are you alright? Are you sick? Let me touch your forehead and check your temperature."

Shizue dodged that hand as if it burned her. A dream generally came to an end as soon as a touch of reality was introduced into the mix, right?

So this dream would come to an end if Shizue got touched by the ghost in front of her. And somehow, Shizue did not want that to happen. She wanted to experience more of this happiness in front of her.

"I am alright. I'm not sick or anything. And I'll be after you in just a second."

The ghost looked like she did not believe Shizue's words. But she still let Shizue be for now. This was the same kind of attitude Shizue had faced in her childhood and the only reason she had not been able to let go of her past.

"Alright, you can take your time being here but do hurry up and be back. Lunch is your fav."

Shizue watched the ghost leave the hallway. She knew it in her heart and nothing that was happening in front of her was real.

Still, she was not able to stop herself from yearning for a little more time. She would end everything after having a little more time to herself.

Once it was done, she would leave everything and go back home with a proud face. But for now, she wanted to be with her loved ones. Just a second more, she wanted to be with these people.

"A few hours will not hurt anyone. If this dream has to end, I would rather spend a little time enjoying it."

Shizue said all this but it was an attempt to make herself feel better. In the end, she was deluding herself into a false sense of security. And the more time she spent here, the more her yearning would increase.