Infinitum Crystals - Conquest of Virtue [4]

Chapter 6.13 - Lala - Deep in The Labyrinth

"Really? Okay, I see." Zenith was on her phone.

Apparently she just got a call from one of White's old close friends. They were apart of a team called Team Stardust. I happen to do a bit of research on White's past and apparently he joined his school's Magic Duel during his final year there. So, spoiler alert, his team did not win 1st place or 2nd place at all. They got wiped out by another team, I think it was Team Supernova. That team's leader, I think it was, Rika Lightning. She lead her team and became the winner of The Magic Duel after defeating a team filled with top students. One of that top students happens to be next to us...

I decided to ask him, "Hey, Detective. You joined the Magic Duel didn't you?"

"Did White told you that?" He wondered.

I shake my head and explain, "No. I just noticed that White apparently a runner up in his school's Magic Duel. You were also in the duel, right?"

"Yes I was." He nodded. "But my team lost because of miscommunication."

"So that's what happened...It was rather mysterious how most of top students was able to be defeated by a team led by a single top students along with her cousins."

Sonozaki then reminiscence, "Rika Lightning...Haven't spoke that name for a while. She's probably on her expedition right now."

"Expedition?" I asked.

He explained, "She's still studying. But on a different academy. As far as I can tell it is probably related to that."

"I see." I assumed it was an obvious answer. Then I asked him, "How powerful is she when compared to you? Someone who seems to be able to...move like the light."

"Well...I guess its not really a secret that her unique ability is manipulating lightning itself. Our ability kinda aligns in some case if you try to compare between the two of us in terms of how fast are we."

"Yeah." I agreed with his statement.

But he then said something out of left field, "Well...she's able to somehow conquer White's heart...I think that's a plus?"

"Excuse me?" I got confused.

"Oh, yeah." He took a glance at Zenith and looked back at me. "It's that crush I'm talking about."

I sighed in disbelief, "Really?"

Goodness gracious, Cyclone White. Here I thought you were a socially inept person considering how lonely you are but I'm surprised that you also have that kind of feeling for a high school student. But I guess he moved on from that but still, as far as I remember throughout our studies, he has been friendly with girls and he has been friends with any other guys in the campus. The only thing that I can defend him with is stating that our the Magic Studies class had a 80 to 20 percent of ratio between female and male students. So, there's not really a lot of guys in our classroom. But he still ended being less of a friend with other 7 boys in our class. Yeah, we only had 8. One of them being my ex. I'm not talking about White of course.

"But to be serious..." Sonozaki finally answered me, "I'm probably a lot more dangerous than I used to before. Meanwhile, she may still be looking for herself during her studies."

"So you're saying you have found yourself?" I wondered.

"Let's not talk about the details." The detective glossed it over.

Zenith finally finished her call as she puts down her phone.

"So what happened? Sounded very important there." I asked her.

She replied, "It's important, alright. Although the caller was a guy...it was a...girl...she call herself Mei. Do you know of a Mei, Sonozaki?"

"Mei Xue." The detective said, "She's one of Team Stardust, don't worry, Zen. They had 'no' weird relationship at all."

I cleared my throat. I can't help but notice that he was implying something else with that statement. I'm going to freaking hit White once he gets back. Zenith does not deserve this.

"I see." Zenith then continued, "Team Stardust are on their way back from Zhongguo. She told me that they have defeated two other Chaos Champion. It was apparently a twin."

"How many of these champions are there..." The Detective commented on that.

So he also knows about the Chaos Champions. I guess being friends with White or any other of these Dragon Incarnations would eventually be related to the Chaos Champions considering that Lord Crescendo did say that their plan was to collect all seven of us.

"Well..." The detective then concludes, "We better get going then. Don't want to make them wait for White when they get back, right?"

Zenith and I nodded as we all got out of the storage room and began to look for White. After walking and sneaking for about more than half an hour, we came to a halt as we believed to be lost.

"Are we lost?" I asked.

Sonozaki then said, "I think we've already look at every room that we can enter."

Zenith then told us, "We still got one room left..."

"Maybe that's it." I assumed.

We decided to keep following Zenith and much to our relief, we finally did it. It felt like a huge maze but we finally found the room where about more than 40 students are placed inside a Full Dive machine. We got into the room but much to our surprise, no one was waiting for us. Not even what we assumed to be the Chaos Champion or whatever.

"That's a lot of pods..." Sonozaki was amazed.

"White!" Zenith caught her breath.

Zenith hugs the Full Dive machine that seemed to have White, resting inside of it.

"I'll find a way to save you, White. I promise." She then lets it go and turned to us, "Do you guys find anything?"

"We found this huge screen..." I told her. "Looks like those everyone is fighting...against the...people?"

The detective then corrected me, "I think those are AIs there's no way they would be remorsefully killing them like that."

I agreed, "I see. No wonder they act a bit...different."

Sonozaki also pointed out, "Looks like we can't really do much with these computers...It looked a bit complicated."

"Maybe I know something about it?" Zenith wondered as she tries to tinker with the computers.

A few moments later, Zenith finally said something, "Nothing noteworthy...We can alter Virtue a little bit but we can't do much."

"Why?" I asked.

She answered, "Probably the Chaos Champion who was conducting this machine have locked its usage. Preventing us from modifying it any further. The only thing we can do though...is just watch."

"Really? Well that's a bummer. We can't even pull the plug, right? Everyone is just going to get deep fried, I think." theorized Sonozaki.

Zenith nods, "Yeah."

"What about that pod over there? It looks empty and it's the only one not used yet." I pointed it out.

Zenith told us, "That's...I guess we can try that..."

"Alright. But who's going to get inside?" wondered The Detective.

We all looked at each other until I said something, "I think it's best if you go in, Zenith. We can keep the area secure while you go inside that virtual world."

"Yeah." Sonozaki agrees, "And that one pod looks like have an admin account written on it according to this computer." Sonozaki was reading something at the computers. "Do you think this is a trap?"

"We have no other choice." I told them.

Zenith calmed down and prepared herself. She proceeds to hug me.

I told her, "Don't worry, Zen. You'll be able to see White soon. Be careful out there."

"You too..." Zenith sounded melancholic.

We opened the pod and watched Zenith step inside the machine. We closed the door and finally send her to Virtue. All that's left is up to Zenith now. She'll save the day this time.

TO BE CONTINUED