Pandora Unchained - B1C78: A Different Kind of Hero

Having a workable escape plan, Sorin focused on the steel door connecting the cellar to the rest of the basement. The door was conspicuous now that they'd rolled the barrels away, so they kept the barrels ready to move back in case they had more time on their hands for their getaway.

Sorin used mostly acidic mana in the shape of a blade to melt away the mass of metal, locking the door in place. Its composition was mostly iron-melt poison, which was extremely effective in melting down the blob but had the unfortunate side effect of releasing corrosive substances in the form of smelly gases.

"That should about do it," said Sorin. He dug his hands into a handle he'd melted into the door but was stopped by Lawrence before he could pull it.

"One second here," said Lawrence, pulling out a small vial from his jacket. He dripped a few drops onto the door's hinges, then gave Sorin a thumbs up. "Try not to make it squeak. The oil will take care of the hinges, but if the door rubs –"

Lawrence's voice cut off as Sorin pulled the door open with barely a sound. Only a slight rubbing could be heard from where a little rust remained between the door and the frame. "I melted away the rust at the edges while I was at it. In case it caused us problems."

"It's good to work with sensible people," said Lawrence, putting away his vial and dropper.

A dimly lit hallway appeared behind their door, which was mercifully nestled in an alcove away from prying eyes. Shadows extended from the darkness, and Sorin, Lawrence, and Lorimer used said shadow to rush over to a small, dark patch where the mana lamp lighting failed to overlap.

"From what I remember, this is where the armory and the manor's guardhouse are located," whispered Lawrence. "They patrol the halls in ten-minute intervals, so we'll need to wait for the next set of guards to walk past."

Five minutes later, a pair of guards came by as predicted. Once again, Lawrence used his cloak of shadows to hide them. When the guards finished their rounds and returned to the guard house through the doorway, Lawrence nodded to Lorimer, who scampered over as planned and slowly shut the door as though a draft of wind had blown it shut. Sorin and Lawrence used the blind spot this created to cross the guard house and make their way toward a small stairwell.

"And how exactly are we supposed to get past those two?" asked Sorin, pointing to two sleepy guards. "It's one thing if the cooks fall asleep because they ate too much, but guards passing out at the same time? Obviously fishy."

"I didn't know there'd be guards here," argued Lawrence. "It's my first time trying to go down to the second level."

Sorin sighed as he handed a pouch of poison to Lawrence. "Use about half of that. I'll recover it on our way back. Make sure you make it look like they naturally fell asleep."

"No problem," said Lawrence. "But wait a second. I think they're talking about something."

Indeed, the two guards were having a friendly conversation about events in the manor. "Looks like the experiments are starting up again," said the short, stocky guard. "Something about a new formula. Except only those who got through the first treatment successfully can take part."

"It's a hell of a gamble they're taking," said the skinny guard. "I hear a bunch of people died trying it out earlier today."

"That was because they were cripples," said the stocky guard. "There are fewer complications when you have a whole body. Plus, I heard Orpheus is going to be part of this batch. Not a fan of the way he does things, but he sure knows how to ingratiate himself to the right people."

"Let's do this," said Sorin.

Lawrence stuck out a thumb, then blended with the shadows and crept over to the two guards. Ten seconds later, the guards collapsed into silent heaps. Lawrence dragged the tall one into the alcove and leaned him against the wall, then placed his stocky companion in his arms. "That's how people usually sleep together, right?"

"Who in Hope's name have you been watching?" said Sorin. "You think they won't say anything in case people think they're having an illicit relationship?"

"That's actually a good reason, in hindsight," said Lawrence. "I just thought it'd be funny." He then looked down at the pair. "How long does that give us?"

"Ten minutes," said Sorin. "Possibly longer if the guards don't make a big deal of this." He turned to Lorimer and signaled for him to go down the stairs first. "Don't look at me that way. You're sneaky as Lawrence is, and you're also a smaller target."

Lorimer squeaked a complaint but did as he was told. He returned thirty seconds later and signaled for them to follow.

The second basement's lighting was much worse than the first. It evidently didn't receive as much foot traffic. There were no guards at the few doors that could be seen, though Lorimer said that another stairwell existed around the corner. He felt a terrifying presence from that stairwell and refused to investigate further.

"Lorimer says there's a half-open door halfway through the main hallway," said Sorin. "He said he smelled poisons in there – the kind I work with. But he didn't want to go in because there's a scary cultivator in there."

"That's probably Marcus," said Lawrence. He was about to step into the shadows when his foot suddenly paused. "Lorimer. Why didn't you tell me this place was trapped?" Lorimer squeaked and confessed he didn't know what Lawrence was talking about. "Oh, I see. It's a trip-wire alarm, and you're too short to trip it. That's easy enough to get past."

"I think the tricky part is going to be sneaking up on Marcus," said Sorin. "He's not just a bone forging cultivator – he's a physician. Physicians have strong souls."

"That's why I'll need to completely retract my aura," said Lawrence solemnly. "While simultaneously trying to sense these stupid alarm threads. They're not just on the floor, you know."

Taking a deep breath, Lawrence took his first step into the dimly lit stone hallway. He took a second step, then leaped forward to land on his hands, only to contort sideways to avoid an invisible obstruction.

Sorin had always seen Lawrence as a bit of a clown, but it was when things got tricky like this that his talents really shone through. His composure is admirable, given the risks he's taking. Wait – not good!

A pulse of spiritual force swept through the corridor. Whether Lawrence sensed it or not, he instinctively froze and withdrew his mana and spirituality, converging it into a single point.

The spiritual force lingered for a moment before returning to the room. Lawrence breathed out a sigh of relief and continued on his way.

The alarm web seems to be getting tighter the closer he gets, thought Sorin. Moreover, he needs to time things perfectly so that he doesn't trigger Marcus's senses.

The waves of spirituality continued, making it obvious that this was just one of Marcus's habits. This meant that he wouldn't truly focus on scanning his surroundings, as he needed to pay closer attention to his experiments.

Soon enough, Lawrence was just outside the door. He signaled to Sorin that he could see what was going on but couldn't progress any further.

Sorin shook his head and waved for Lawrence to come back. It's not worth getting caught. No one knows we're here, so it won't be difficult for Marcus to silence us and dump our corpses.

Unfortunately, non-verbal communication was impossible, and neither of them dared whisper for fear of catching Marcus's attention. Lawrence ultimately decided not to pull back. He edged closer and closer to the door, desperate to get a better look but running the constant risk of catching Marcus's attention.

Eight minutes were up when Sorin suddenly caught a flicker of something in his mind. It was an image, a three-dimensional one, centered around Lawrence of all people. Wait, how did he do that? thought Sorin. He would definitely have told us if he had this kind of ability.

It wasn't a normal image that was projected, but one that saw through walls. The entire laboratory setup was laid out, and Sorin could see ten patients strapped to beds. They were partially sedated but remained awake. Orpheus and his teammates were among them, their bodies black from the meridian opening tincture's invasion.

Marcus was also there, though only as a faint outline. It seemed Lawrence didn't dare to spy upon him with his ability. Moreover, a certain halo of danger could be seen surrounding Marcus and even leaking out of the room, slightly overlapping with Lawrence's figure. This indicated that Lawrence was directly at the edge of Marcus's perception and could get caught at any moment.

The poisons required for the tincture are confirmed, thought Sorin, scanning the surprisingly detailed image. Marcus is doing his best to stabilize the patients. One patient has already successfully accepted the first treatment and has unlocked an extraordinary meridian.

Even though the poisons required are confirmed, the composition of the tincture is only 90% replicated. Many ingredients can't be found in nature, so the risk of death is increased.

He spotted a notebook and tried to sneak a peak, but it was then that Lawrence's projected image faded. He retreated swiftly across the trapped hallway like a practiced acrobat and landed beside Sorin.

"There," said Lawrence, out of breath. "I saw everything."

"I'm aware," said Sorin.

"Wait, you do?" said Lawrence, frowning.

Sorin tapped his friend's body and confirmed that he had indeed unlocked his hero meridian. "You awakened as a hero and transmitted what you saw. You likely just experienced an enhanced version of your heroic ability."

Lawrence was ecstatic at the development but clearly knew what to prioritize. He led the way back up alongside Lorimer, and Sorin, not wanting to stack coincidences, withdrew the sleeping poison from the two sleeping guards via touch transmission and used Toxic Metabolism to break down the foreign poisons. They ducked past the armory and guard house just in time to avoid the incoming patrol.

The patrol found the two sleeping guards, but fortunately, they seemed to find the sleeping duo an extremely funny occurrence and even took out picture crystals to capture the image. By the time they were done, Sorin and Lawrence were back in the wine cellar. Sorin used iron-melt poison to seal the door shut once again, then teamed up with Lawrence to roll the barrels back into place.

"You know what to do," said Sorin, handing Lawrence another pouch of poison. A minute later, Sorin re-entered the poisoned kitchen and absorbed the poison lingering in the air. Lawrence arranged the small group of cooks into a circle and placed a roast at the center. A few grease stains on their hands and mouths, along with a half-eaten roast and some spilled wine, courtesy of Lorimer, was all the incriminating evidence they needed to plant before withdrawing the poison and ducking through the window.

"A hero!" said Lawrence, raising his hands as they left the premises. "I'm a hero, baby! Wait till Gareth and Stephan hear about this."

"You're definitely not the standard sort of hero," said Sorin, massaging his brow. "We'll need to sort out the details of your ability, but it clearly has to do with perception."

"It's called Near-Sighted," said Lawrence. "It lets me narrow my vision to a 50-foot radius and lets me see everything. That includes traps, magic, and all sorts of things. But I can't transmit continuous images to my friends like I just did. Just still-shots here and there to alert them about stuff."

"It sounds like an extremely useful ability," said Sorin. He was still deeply regretful about the limits of his own ability.

"Cheer up, mate," said Lawrence. "You're basically unkillable. I wonder if you could regenerate an arm."

"I can't," said Sorin with certainty. "If more than a certain amount of flesh goes missing, I can't get it back. But I might be able to reattach an arm. I'm not completely certain."

"See, that's an awesome ability," said Lawrence. "An unkillable hero. As for me, I can just see things really well. In the end, that's just a supporting ability."

Having achieved their goals for the evening, Sorin returned to the workshop. He used the remaining dream butterfly powder on the receptionist to mask his return and signed the guest book with an incorrect time before returning to their shared laboratory.

"Up late doing interesting things, I imagine?" asked Mr. Primrose.

"No," said Sorin, shaking his head. "Nothing interesting." He needed a sufficiently good reason and damning evidence if he was to expose Marcus. Otherwise, the governor would simply buy him time to clean up the laboratory and cover up any wrongdoing.

"That's good," said Mr. Primrose. "Boring is always good in times like these. You look exhausted, by the way. Don't you have a shift tomorrow morning?"

"I completely forgot," said Sorin. "What time is it, anyway? Four o'clock? That means I've still got a couple of hours to sleep."

Mr. Primrose let out a soft chuckle. "I have extra potent coffee for bone-forging cultivators if you're willing to give it a try. Worst case, you'll be poisoned. Nothing you can't handle, am I right?"