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* Thousand Foot Krutch - Lifeline *

Proceeding as instructed, Raven inserted both hands into the structure in front of her.

Inside, she could feel a soft orb floating midair, pressing her hands on top of it made her dizziness a little bit better as she was able to use it in order to support herself upright.

Pressing a few buttons on a nearby platform, Mr. Hobbs watched as the device started to glow, producing countless mana orbs of different colours that surrounded the hall, making everyone feel that they\'re floating in space, amongst the stars.

"Sir," a man in a lab coat looked at Mr. Hobbs with a confused expression, "I think the device has malfunctioned..."

Mr. Hobbs knew exactly what his assistant meant. Normally, the device would produce mana orbs corresponding to the main elements of the ranker undergoing the test.

Normally, a person would have one or two elements, four if the person is special. But the little girl in front of him had literally every possible colour, although at the moment, the main colours were emphasizing a bright crimson hue which was akin to a young supernova.

"Ohu~" Scott had both an excited and a serious expression on his face as he tried to understand what was going on in front of him. \'So, the girl is an Original?\' he thought to himself with a smile after a short while.

"Mr. Hobbs," Adam had to raise his voice to be heard over the loud whispers of the crowd. "Are the results out yet?"

"Yes, sir... yes!" Mr. Hobbs answered hesitantly after a pause, with an expression of a child who was lost in the woods, "but I\'m afraid the device has malfunctioned. It\'s showing that she\'s only a B ranker even though it can\'t be..."

Mr. Hobbs understood that what he was witnessing wasn\'t normal. \'The device isn\'t supposed to function like that...\' he muttered to himself while ignoring the noise of the crowd and Raven\'s pained expression as she held her head between her hands again.

If one was to describe the mana cores found inside rankers as vessels that support their own mana, then this device can be described as a measure of pseudo energy that can\'t interact with the real mana.

One could think of the pseudo mana as a measurable amount of light that can\'t directly interact with the substance of a matter.

Basically, what this implies is that to measure the mana capacity, or the amount of mana the core can withstand, the EnergyMeter infuses its own pseudo mana into the core, thus it can easily tell how much mana was lost from the original starting point, and so this can be used as an indication of the mana capacity of a person, which is also used to define the rank.

\'But again... I\'ve seen her powers and aura... she can\'t be less than an S ranker,\' Mr. Hobbs\' brain was so close to call it a quit as the matter was the first he\'s ever heard of, but as a scientist, he was also excited for a new discovery. \'Could it be that she has a different type of energy? Or maybe her core is just different? But... no, how could this be?\'

"A B-ranker? That\'s quite a surprise..." Scott said with raised eyebrows to emphasize his fake surprise. In his heart, he believed it was nothing short of a lie. "Anyhow, Ms. O\'Bannon, can we proceed on to the second test please?"

"A second test? I\'ve already told you that I\'m only a B ranker and the device proved I was saying the truth, what else do you need to test?" Raven was rather annoyed as she wanted nothing but to leave this dreadful place, especially with the ringing in her head increasing in magnitude and frequency by the second.

"Oh, the second test has already been prepared" Scott said with a smile, "you see, I\'ve asked a friend to help me out and he agreed. Please don\'t think bad of me because of this, it\'s all for the better end..."

Before Raven could even comprehend what Scott was about, he snapped his fingers and Raven felt her heart tighten all of a sudden, almost squeezing her brain into a bean, as the world spinned around her head.

Widening her eyes, she realised she was now in a different place, an open arena of sorts.

There were walls hiding the external world, yet nothing prevented the sun rays from warming the atmosphere along with the crimson pulsing runes on the ground.

Worst part was that she actually knew exactly where she was, as these familiar runes that covered the floor were rather hard to forget.

\'We meet again...\' she could hear the voice in her head, as the runes under her feet pulsed together with her heart in a rhythmic beat.

\'You- you\'re the same voice...\' Raven wanted to speak out loud, but the pain didn\'t make the task so simple. Her heart felt as though it was bound to these runes all around her.

"See, Ms. O\'Bannon," Scott said with his usual smile, "your powers are rather impressive, even though you\'re not even an A ranker, you can stand up against a powerful S ranker such as my assistant Adam... what\'s your secret?"

After a pause, he continued, "Yeah, it\'s alright if you don\'t want to answer I suppose," he shrugged his shoulders, "but we\'re about to figure this out anyway. Remember the friend I mentioned earlier? I believe you\'ve met already, Bell Holland, he\'ll be your opponent here." Just as he said that, Mr. Holland approached Raven who was standing still at the center of the arena with a pained expression as she kept on supporting her head with her hand.

"A couple of notes before you start," Scott continued, "This place is very special. You see these runes on the ground? They have some really weird effects such as that they\'re mana resistant and can withstand the power of an S ranker easily, so don\'t be afraid of collateral damage.

"Also, I can tell you\'re feeling lightheaded and I want to assure you that it\'s only natural, especially with us being so close to, and almost in, the center of the runes.

"Lastly, Ted Baker, the S ranked healer you met earlier, will be here soon, so don\'t be afraid of hurting Bell over here, alright? Do you have any questions?"

After finishing his speech and realising that Raven had no intentions of answering his question nor did she has any of her own, Scott started making some distance between himself and the two of them.

Just as he was doing that, he noticed something strange happening all around him. \'Were the runes always pulsing so fast?\' he muttered to himself before proceeding to stand near Adam away from the arena.

"Deputy General, let me get this straight," Raven said now as her face slowly turned expressionless and her tone became calm, yet threatening, "you kidnapped me, a sixteen years old girl, brought me here into a place where even a high ranker would struggle to breath, and now you\'re asking your friend which happens to be an S ranker, to fight me, which happens to be a f*cking B ranker?"

Even though she wasn\'t loud, her voice seemed to come from all around them, which confused everyone.

Raven didn\'t even try to hide her disgust. This situation was very much like what she has experienced here, in this very same place, before.

This place was where she was once kidnapped and kept as a slave for Lady Luck\' pleasure. A woman who ruled a large portion of the underworld, and specialized in prostitution... needless to say, nothing is left of her except the bad memories.

If recognising the place wasn\'t enough, the voice that was now back in Raven\'s head was enough to make her hate humanity once again.

"Hm, something is really strange..." Scott muttered as he felt immediately that something was off. Adam had a similar feeling as well.

Mr. Holland knew the girl wasn\'t an easy target and so he didn\'t think much of the weird sensation he\'s getting. As a result, he just proceeded as previously instructed by the Deputy General.

\'So I only need to focus on mental attacks and pressuring her into a corner, huh?\' Mr. Holland wondered as he tried to remember his objective. Scott has informed him to avoid directly attacking her since she wasn\'t an official S ranker. \'alright, here we go...\'

Scott knew from his interactions with the girl, and especially after reading her files, that she had a strong emotional trauma.

\'Such a trauma can permanently hinder her control over her powers...\' Scott thought to himself as he watched Mr. Holland\'s eyes glow red to signal the start of his attack. \'If things get even worse with her control, she might end up destroying herself or even the city with such powers.

\'With a quick test now in such a controlled environment, we can help her and in turn gain a powerful ally.\' he thought with a faint smile that seemed his first real one.

Feeling the red aura attempt to penetrate her weak mind made Raven stand completely still for a second before looking Mr. Holland dead in the eyes, sending a shiver down his spine that seemed to shake his very core.

"You dare intrude on my own memories?" Raven\'s voice, even though still calm, sounded rather enraged. Her pupils slowly turned hollow and crimson once more, as she clenched her fists.

Raven knew of her own flaw. She had a lot of corrupted memories... memories that she desperately didn\'t want to remember, and others that she wished to forget as well.

She didn\'t necessarily know what her mind was hiding, but she knew that it wasn\'t good. She knew she couldn\'t bring herself to remember her true past... she just couldn\'t.

\'Do you see now?\' the familiar deep voice said quietly in her mind.

\'Why don\'t they just leave me alone?\' Raven thought as her hollow eyes seemed to tear up.

\'You\'re still naive, kid. Humans... no, all living creatures value guaranteed safety over risky prosperity.\'

\'But I wouldn\'t purposefully hurt anyone with no reason...\' she muttered to the voice.

\'Yet, you\'re still a wild card in their eyes. You might be their saviour and salvation, but you might also be their extinction. You\'re an anomaly that they haven\'t observed before. For all they know, you could be the Devil incarnate...\' the voice was deep and seemed rather sincere.

Raven didn\'t fully trust the voice, but as he had saved her before from Lady Luck\'s grasp, she came to think of him as a saviour of sort.

But why does he only appear in her time of despair? Or is it the voice that actually causes her despair?

\'But not knowing my origin doesn\'t mean they have the right to assault my mind, isn\'t that right?\' she muttered again to the voice in her head.

She knew... Raven knew that the voice once wanted to take over her body... he wanted control. \'But what if he was imprisoned and only wanted to be free...\' she thought to herself. \'Or maybe he\'s just another side of me that wants to come out to help me?\'

\'How would you chose to deal with an anomaly? A person that might be an angel, or might be a devil?\' the voice asked. \'From my time here alone I came to know a lot more about humans, one example that I like is that of Hitler... a dictator that announced war on the world.

\'People at the time didn\'t know whether that innocent and shy looking kid at the back of the class would be a doctor that saves many lives, or a demon that would steal so many...\'

\'You talk like you know for sure that I\'m a devil... why would you compare me to a person that almost annihilated the world nations?\' before the voice could answer, Mr. Holland\'s aura seemed to flare as he shot towards Raven with the speed of sound, generating multiple sonic explosions along the way as he faked multiple paths.

The test was basically a test of Raven\'s mental prowess and her fortitude under stress. Mr. Holland wasn\'t going to actually hit her, nor was he planning on hurting her.

But from their little interactions not long ago, Mr. Holland knew to never underestimate the little girl, and that\'s exactly why he wanted to make it a little bit more challenging for her.

Thinking that with the presence of three high rankers and such a special arena, everything was going to be done safely was a mistake on the Deputy General\'s side.

Time seemed to slow down as the only thing Raven could see was Mr. Holland\'s fist that was getting closer to her by the second.

\'Do you need my help?\' the voice asked, even though it seemed more like a statement than a question.

In Raven\'s inner mind, a part of her was extremely sad that Kayla hadn\'t even said a word to support her or give her a hand in all of this.

It wasn\'t the first time, actually, many times where she needed her support, Kayla would just disappear.

Raven was feeling as though she was suffocating from the sadness and despair blurring her mind, and so she didn\'t mind the offer the voice had made her.

\'Uhm,\' Raven nodded mentally, against her better judgement, and left all in the voice\'s hands. \'If they\'ve already decided to go this far to test if I\'m a threat, I might as well give them the benefit of the doubt....\'