Chapter 217: A Race Against Death

The first child died three minutes after the final examination entered its compulsory stage.

Captain Reinhardt had witnessed enough deaths during his years of service to recognize one immediately.

The boy had been unconscious when the soldiers entered the underground hall, and despite the combat medic’s efforts, his breathing gradually stopped.

There was no time to mourn him.

Another child had begun convulsing nearby, while several others complained of unbearable headaches. The crimson markings that appeared on their wrists were spreading, and the soldiers had already discovered that moving them away from the examination area did nothing to stop the symptoms.

Reinhardt ordered his men to continue administering treatment while he contacted the rescue commander.

"One confirmed dead. Multiple children in critical condition. We need medical reinforcements inside the hall immediately."

"They’re coming. The eastern passage is secure, and we’ve established a treatment station outside your position."

"Understood. We’re bringing the worst cases to them."

The captain had abandoned any intention of waiting for the cult’s equipment to be disabled. His soldiers had already opened an alternative route, and the restrictions were now affecting the children regardless of where they stood.

There was nothing left to gain by keeping them inside.

Unfortunately, the cult had prepared for that possibility.

When the soldiers carried three unconscious children into the adjoining passage, their conditions deteriorated so violently that the medic ordered them returned to the hall. The crimson markings grew brighter with every step, and one girl’s breathing nearly stopped before they reached the original entrance.

Reinhardt immediately suspended the transfer.

The restrictions could no longer be avoided by opening another passage.

Whoever had prepared them had ensured that removing the children from the examination area would accelerate their deaths.

"Captain, what do we do?" a young soldier asked.

"We keep them alive until the specialists find a way to remove these things. Get everyone with medical training down here. I don’t care whether they’re assigned to our unit."

The soldier obeyed.

Reinhardt had no intention of allowing his men to become paralyzed simply because the situation had turned against them. There were still children breathing inside the hall, and as long as that remained true, they had work to do.

At SkyRune, the news reached Professor Antoine several minutes later.

"One child has died, Professor," the Imperial officer reported. "The rescue teams are treating the others."

Antoine demanded to know whether the boy was Lucile.

The officer confirmed that the victim was male.

Relief would have been an inappropriate word for what followed. Antoine understood that another family had just lost its child, and the knowledge that his daughter remained alive offered no guarantee that she would survive the next few minutes.

Ilya remained beside him as the Imperial Guard explained the restrictions preventing evacuation.

The soldiers had reached the hostages. They had defeated most of the cult’s armed defenders and opened multiple routes out of the school. Yet the children were becoming critically ill whenever anyone attempted to remove them.

"Can the restrictions be dispelled?" Ilya asked.

"Imperial specialists are attempting it. Their first method failed, but they’re preparing another."

"Then ask whether the marks are attached to the children individually or controlled from somewhere else."

The officer forwarded the question.

A response arrived shortly afterward.

The specialists believed that the restrictions had been imposed during the earlier examinations. Whatever was happening now had already been prepared before the Imperial Guard entered the school.

That explained why the cult had seemed so unconcerned about losing control of the building.

Antoine understood the implication.

"They planned this from the beginning."

Ilya couldn’t offer a more reassuring interpretation.

The cult had spent days frightening the children, separating them into groups, and conducting examinations whose purpose remained obscure. The final stage appeared to be the culmination of those preparations.

Unfortunately, recognizing the pattern didn’t provide a way to stop it.

The Imperial Guard therefore concentrated on capturing the remaining cult members.

Its assault team had already secured the concealed control room, but the man believed to be directing the experiment had escaped through a passage leading beneath the northern building.

The rescue commander sent two squads after him.

Their pursuit ended near an abandoned service entrance.

The fugitive had attempted to disguise himself as a member of the school’s maintenance staff, apparently expecting to slip through the Imperial perimeter amid the confusion.

Unfortunately for him, the Guard had already detained the legitimate maintenance workers for their protection, and every route out of the building was being monitored.

The man attempted to resist arrest with a concealed magical weapon.

An Imperial combat wizard incapacitated him before he could complete his spell.

Within minutes, the suspect was brought before the rescue commander.

His name was Albrecht Voss, a former researcher wanted in connection with several prohibited experiments.

The commander wasted no time.

"Stop whatever you’ve started beneath this school."

Voss answered with an almost cheerful expression.

"The examination cannot be interrupted."

"Then tell us how to remove the restrictions from the children."

"You misunderstand. Their suffering is necessary for the emergence of something greater."

The commander had dealt with enough fanatics to recognize that arguing about the man’s beliefs would accomplish nothing.

He ordered the prisoner restrained and demanded the location of any written instructions or emergency procedures.

Voss refused.

The Imperial investigators immediately began searching his belongings and the captured control room. Several documents were recovered, although none offered an obvious way to interrupt the examination.

Meanwhile, the commander ordered the cult’s surviving assistants questioned separately.

He had no reason to believe they all possessed the same degree of commitment to their leader’s ideology.

That assumption proved correct.

One researcher began cooperating after learning that children were already dying.

According to her testimony, the final examination had been prepared well before the occupation. The captors had been instructed to conduct the earlier tests and gather the students in designated rooms, but most of the assistants were never informed of the complete procedure.

She claimed that Voss had assured them the participants would survive.

The Imperial investigator demanded to know whether she believed him.

The woman couldn’t answer.

Her silence was sufficiently revealing.

At SkyRune, Antoine received a summary of the interrogation.

"They didn’t even know what they were doing?"

"Some of them knew the research was dangerous, Professor," the officer explained. "We’re establishing how much each participant understood."

"Then find someone who knows how to stop it!"

The officer assured him that the interrogation was continuing.

Ilya understood why Antoine was growing desperate. Every report brought news of another child whose condition had worsened, while the promised solutions remained frustratingly uncertain.

He had no intention of offering the professor empty encouragement.

Instead, he asked to speak with the Imperial specialist responsible for the restrictions.

The man explained that the marks were resisting conventional removal methods. Attempting to erase them forcibly caused the affected children further pain, and the medical personnel had therefore suspended those attempts.

Ilya considered the problem before suggesting that the specialists examine the captured researchers’ records for the procedure used to apply the marks.

If the cult had placed the restrictions on the children during the earlier examinations, someone must have recorded how it was done.

The specialist agreed and forwarded the request.

Fortunately, the Imperial Guard had already begun preserving the documents recovered from the underground facility.

Among them were several lists of students accompanied by handwritten instructions.

The investigators quickly discovered that the markings had been applied during the examinations disguised as ordinary medical assessments.

More importantly, the documents indicated that the procedure had required each child’s participation.

The cult had apparently deceived the students into accepting the restrictions themselves.

Antoine was horrified.

"Lucile would have trusted them. They told her it was an examination."

Ilya remembered the girl’s enthusiasm for learning and the way she had prepared her school presentation.

She would have had little reason to suspect that the adults supervising her were deliberately harming her.

The thought was difficult to endure.

However, the recovered documents provided the specialists with a possible method of reversing the restrictions.

The Imperial Guard immediately authorized a controlled attempt under medical supervision.

Inside the underground hall, Captain Reinhardt selected one of the children whose condition remained relatively stable.

The specialists explained what they intended to do, and the boy agreed.

The procedure began.

For several seconds, the crimson marking on his wrist faded.

Then it returned.

The boy cried out, and the attending medic immediately terminated the attempt.

His condition stabilized afterward, but the restriction remained intact.

The specialists reported the failure to the rescue commander.

They had confirmed that the marks could be weakened temporarily, although removing them completely required something they had yet to identify.

The commander ordered further examination of the recovered documents.

Meanwhile, the children continued deteriorating.

Three more deaths were confirmed before the next report arrived.

Captain Reinhardt had ordered his men to shield the remaining students from the increasingly unstable conditions inside the hall, while the medical personnel concentrated on those whose symptoms were most severe.

The soldiers had exhausted nearly every ordinary treatment available to them.

Several combat wizards were now using their own magical reserves to help stabilize the children, despite knowing that the relief might be temporary.

At SkyRune, Antoine received another message from the rescue command.

One of the children in a separate holding room had identified Lucile Chastellain among the students transferred earlier that afternoon.

She had apparently been taken with a group assigned to another examination area.

The Imperial Guard immediately dispatched a team to investigate.

Antoine requested confirmation that his daughter was still alive.

The officer couldn’t provide it.

However, the soldiers had discovered several additional rooms beneath the northern building, and the search was progressing.

Ilya remained with the professor as they awaited the next report.

There was little he could accomplish from SkyRune that the Imperial specialists weren’t already attempting, and he refused to invent another theoretical solution merely to appear useful.

The authorities had genuine leads, captured prisoners, and personnel inside the school.

For the moment, those offered the best chance of saving anyone.

Then a communication arrived from the northern team.

They had discovered another examination hall.

Dozens of children were inside, several already unconscious.

Among the names recovered from the room’s attendance register was Lucile Chastellain.

Antoine immediately requested that the soldiers locate her.

The rescue commander forwarded the instruction, and the northern team began checking the students.

Unfortunately, before they could finish, the same crimson markings appeared on the children’s wrists.

The final examination had reached the northern hall.

And throughout Saint Aurelia, the Imperial Guard was beginning to discover just how many children had been prepared for it.