Zarek didn't get a chance to observe the city like he wanted to. This time, his escort was somehow even rougher than it was before.
A bag was placed over his head, his hands and ankles were tied, and though he wasn't exactly sure what sort of vehicle he had been taken in, he was pretty sure it was something without the slightest hint of suspension and driven by the most ancient sort of horse power.
It certainly smelled like it.
'You would think ladies would travel in something more hygienic,' Zarek thought to himself, shaking his head.
Though he wasn't as much of a clean freak as Priya was, he definitely didn't walk around every day like this. One of the most annoying parts of the apocalypse was getting clean—at least if you didn't know how to use your Godsfall properly—something that Priya seemed to have learned on her own without his input.
Finally, Zarek was dumped on the ground once again after being carried. But when he was finally allowed to see his surroundings, he was no longer in a cell, but instead in a room.
It was actually quite large and could have probably been a small cottage all on its own. There was a king-sized bed covered in transparent drapes, a bathroom attached as an ensuite, and a walk-in closet that was empty of all clothes but a few hanging.
"You'll stay here for the time being," Sona said calmly. "Don't be fooled by the luxury—we have eyes on you at all times."
"Sounds quite invasive," Zarek muttered, his hands still tied behind his back.
"You lost the rights to human decency after falling to the temptation of the system."
With the spite she said the word system with, one would have thought that she had said devil or demon instead, but Zarek guessed that in this world, there wasn't much of a difference.
After saying this, she turned to leave.
"You aren't going to untie me?" Zarek asked.
"Figure it out," she said coldly, stepping out of the room and closing it behind her.
Zarek chuckled, looking down at his ankles. At the very least, they were undone. It seemed his mouth had gotten him in trouble. But he also didn't really take the temper tantrum of this princess very seriously at all.
There was only one woman he had the bandwidth to deal with the emotions of.
Rolling onto his upper back, Zarek flexed his torso, pulled his legs up, and then hopped up to the tips of his toes in one go. With another jump, he brought his arms out from behind his back to the front.
He glanced down at the bindings on his wrists. It was tight, but not too tight. He could probably squeeze out of it with something to lubricate his skin. Well, he had other methods, but he didn't want to display them.
First, though, he looked around the room. His senses swept over the corners, peaks, and crevices, brazenly displaying his C-Class Scouting Skill.
He didn't actually find as much as he thought he would. In fact, he found no real monitoring Matrices at all. It was either they were too intricately hidden for him to find—which he doubted—or there weren't any here.
'I must be quite deep in this so-called enclave, then. They wouldn't be so casual with someone as important to them as me. In that case, they must be confident in the rest of their defenses.'
Zarek nodded to himself and went into the bathroom. Finding some crude bar soap, and what was a surprising replica of a faucet and plumbing, he began to mix it into water.
'Interesting. They're using Matrices to warm water…'
They really were a world of science—it was just that their methods didn't rely on electricity or the usual forms of science.
Zarek had heard of people learning curious things from Dream Godsfall Tears before. Some of the best breakthroughs in the future relied on things people learned in them.
This world seemed like a particular treasure trove of that. Too bad he had absolutely no interest in it.
"Ah!" Zarek stomped a foot on the bindings and finally managed to slip it off at the cost of a little rope burn.
Finally, he could focus on the important things. He drew the rest of the bath for himself and sank into the warm waters, but when he closed his eyes, seemingly resting, he was focused on something else entirely.
The Elixir he had stored in his stomach.
Right this moment, there was a lining of Lurker's Godsfall that had stopped the Elixir from mixing into his bloodstream. Although it could have been used this way, Zarek wasn't sure of the potency just yet.
It was finally time to deal with this damned toxin—hopefully before he was inevitably called up to be a lab experiment.
If he was right, Belladoll was almost certainly here somewhere, and now his weapons were still stuck in whatever office Su had been in. It didn't seem like they were in the same building, but that possibility couldn't be entirely dismissed.
Although his head had been covered, it wasn't to the point that there was no light coming through at all. From what he could tell, he had been brought through quite a dark place despite the fact it was still midday. In which case, the possibility of a tunnel system linking to this place was high.
Which also meant there was probably a path back to that office if he could find it.
Zarek finished drawing the same brushstrokes Su had on his chest with his Lurker's Godsfall, making it look like a pulsing vein system that somehow existed outside of his body.
'Perfect. Now go.'
He pulled the Elixir out of his mouth slowly, then poured it into the vein system on his chest.
'It's working.'
Zarek's body convulsed as the toxins were being quickly pulled out, pooling into the tub of water he was in. The Elixir became almost like a barrier, blocking it from re-entering his body.
'Shit.'
Zarek cursed before the sound of his door opening even reached him.
Someone was here.