Eleanor held her breath, cupping the squirming little creatures in her hands as she rushed all the way from the Tower of Truth back to the Royal Magic Academy.
She felt like she had never been this brave in her entire life.
The crystal ball Christ had given her was carefully wrapped in a soft cloth and placed inside her handbag.
As for those arcane spider familiars, she put them in a small box.
She didn’t head to her own dormitory but went straight to the Comprehensive Research Academy.
It was early evening. Most students were gathered in the cafeteria or the library, and the path leading to the Smelting Center was completely empty.
That saved her quite a bit of trouble.
Guided by memory, Eleanor deftly circled around to the inside of the Smelting Center.
She remembered Helos and Agatha mentioning that the entrance to the so-called “Underground Workshop” was in a hidden corner nearby.
But she didn’t know exactly where.
Hiding behind a pile of discarded slag, she confirmed there was no one around.
With trembling hands, Eleanor opened the small box.
The semi-transparent black spiders instantly became active the moment they touched the outside air, crawling all over her palm.
Suppressing the urge to fling them away, Eleanor’s face turned pale as she quickly whispered her command in a voice as thin as a mosquito’s.
“Go… find Helos’s aura… please…”
She lowered her palm to the ground.
The little spiders seemed to understand her words. With a whoosh, they scattered in all directions. They nimbly climbed the walls, slipped into the gaps of ventilation ducts, and soon vanished from Eleanor’s sight.
After releasing those “little scouts,” Eleanor didn’t dare stay a moment longer.
Taking advantage of the emptiness, she left the scene immediately and fled back to the Divine Magic Academy as fast as she could, returning to her safe and sacred dormitory.
Bang!
She slammed the door shut and even locked it from the inside.
Leaning against the door, Eleanor let out a long sigh. She could still feel the cold, eerie crawling sensation lingering on her palm.
After calming her heartbeat for several minutes, Eleanor walked to her desk, carefully took out the crystal ball—which was the size of a human head—and placed it on the surface.
The nebula inside the crystal ball slowly swirled, emitting a soft glow.
Recalling her brother’s instructions on how to use it, Eleanor extended her hands and gently pressed her pale palms against the cool surface of the crystal ball.
“In the name of the Holy Light… no, what my brother said was…”
She closed her eyes, channeled the sacred mana within her, and carefully infused it into the crystal ball.
*Hum—
The nebula inside the crystal ball suddenly accelerated its rotation!
Soon, the chaotic nebula gradually dispersed, replaced by a blurry, violently shaking image.
It seemed to be an extremely narrow, dust-covered metal passage.
Eleanor realized this was the vision from one of the spiders.
She tried to increase the flow of mana, and the image on the crystal ball became clearer.
She could even hear a faint rustling sound coming from the image—the sound of the spider familiar’s legs scraping against the ventilation duct as it crawled.
Before long, Eleanor grew accustomed to operating this magical artifact.
She discovered that by varying the strength of her mana infusion, she could switch between the visions of different spiders.
She felt like a commander in control of the entire situation.
The first vision was inside a ventilation duct.
She switched to the second; it was pitch black, as if that spider had crawled into some crevice.
The third vision showed the ceiling of the Smelting Center main hall; she could see the busy apprentices below.
She even tried to give simple commands to the little spiders with more precise mana manipulation.
“Find Helos’s aura…”
Eleanor murmured in her mind.
***
After several hours of patient waiting, the image on the crystal ball finally changed.
The spider that had been lurking in the ventilation duct seemed to have found its target.
It began to move faster, passing through one fork after another.
Finally, it stopped behind the grille of a vent.
Eleanor immediately focused all her attention on that vision.
The spiders had located Helos’s aura.
They silently infiltrated the Alchemy Association’s workshop through the vent leading to the Underground Workshop.
Soon, under Eleanor’s tense control, a spider found Helos’s figure.
It descended from a high ceiling beam on a nearly invisible mana thread, dangling in midair, and aimed its vision at the locked target.
Eleanor’s heart skipped a beat.
She saw it.
She saw Helos.
Her younger sister was sitting at a workbench cluttered with all kinds of strange parts and blueprints.
She still wore that cold expression, and her pale purple eyes held a focus that Eleanor couldn’t comprehend.
She was completely absorbed in manipulating something in her hands.
“What is Helos doing?”
Eleanor held her breath, trying to get a better look at what was in Helos’s hands.
‘Closer… a little closer…’
She carefully manipulated the mana, making the arcane spider approach slowly.
And when the image seen by the spider was clearly transmitted to the crystal ball—
Eleanor’s cerulean eyes flew wide open.
She saw it.
In Helos’s hands was a still slightly twitching…
Magically enhanced rat!
That kind of ferocious little demonic creature, larger than a human head!
And what terrified her even more was—
Helos’s other hand was holding a sharp knife!
Without any hesitation, a flash of the blade, and the magically enhanced rat’s skin was precisely sliced open, revealing the bright red flesh beneath.
Helos’s face showed no expression. Like a master surgeon, she skillfully performed some kind of “grafting” inside the rat’s body.
She forcibly “implanted” something into the rat!
*Sizzle—
The rat, which had already been unconscious, suddenly convulsed and let out a bloodcurdling scream!
But Helos only glanced at it coldly, casually grabbed an unlabeled potion from beside her, and forced it down the rat’s throat.
The screams stopped abruptly.
Eleanor stared blankly at this scene on the crystal ball.
She watched her sister calmly handling the bloody viscera with those fair, slender hands.
And strangely enough, not a single drop of blood stained her hands.
With a slight wave of Helos’s hand, a blue light flashed, and the magically enhanced rat’s body began to undergo a visible transformation.
But soon, the change came to an abrupt halt.
And the rat’s body had become twisted and deformed beyond recognition.
Yet Helos only let out a faint sigh, a flash of red light and a glimmer of blue in her eyes simultaneously.
She casually tossed the rat’s corpse into the furnace beside her.
Eleanor felt her stomach churn.
She couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
She abruptly cut off the mana supply, and the image on the crystal ball instantly reverted to chaotic nebula.
Eleanor collapsed into her chair, her face deathly pale, her body ice-cold.
What… what had she just seen?
Was that the “research” Gavi had mentioned?
Eleanor was too shocked to speak.
This was clearly some kind of… blasphemous biological experiment!