Blood Queen Reborn

With the introduction of abilities, the doors to all of the staff offices had finger print censors on them to prevent people from easily breaking in. A simple lock would not do as someone could use an earth or water ability to pick it. Advancements had to be made, and these finger print locks were made to even tell if someone was using the transformation ability, not that anyone who wasn’t a level 6 could change their own finger prints.

It was a bit of a gamble, but Quinn had the idea to copy Duke’s finger prints as he always saw his own when he was practicing his ability on mud. There was also the fact that the mud could pick up bits of Duke’s DNA, another measure set in place for the finger print sensors.

Quinn held his muddy hand up to the finger print sensor and pressed against it. Sweat formed on his head. The real gamble was if the military underestimated mud.

Using mud when you were an earth ability user made you seem weak as it was considered the ’training wheels’ of the ability. As a result, a lot of people would try to stop using mud as soon as they could, so hopefully the military didn’t even consider it when making their locks. The mere moment of waiting to see if the sensor registered the finger print felt longer than it should’ve.

Beep

They both let out a sigh. The door was unlocked, and they went inside.

The office was square-like in shape, with only the blinds to let in sunlight. On the walls and shelves were medals and honors Duke had gotten over the years. There were even a few pictures of family.

Most importantly, in the center of the office was a desk with a computer.

"Did you make sure to—?" Quinn began.

"Don’t worry, with my telekinesis, there is no way anyone would’ve seen me pull the alarm," Layla quickly replied, "Now lets get on the computer."

Quinn moved the mouse, and the monitor screen turned on, but it required a finger print sensor. Thankfully, Quinn still had Duke’s copied finger prints, and they were able to unlock it. Layla sat down in the chair and started searching through the tabs.

There was a window open for the yearly schedule, but when tabbing out of it, there were several folders on Duke’s desktop. Each one seemed to be very important with their names.

"What do we search for?" Quinn said as he looked at the desktop.

There were folders named Classified information, Marks, Student List, Schedules, Special Visit List, and more.

"You said there wasn’t anyone at the portal room, right?" Layla repeated, "I think we should check to see if there was meant to be any guards."

Opening the folder for schedules, they saw it open up a window which had a few sub folders, including one named "Guard patrols." Opening it, there were several excel files sorted by time. Searching by the name of the portal room as well as yesterday’s date, they opened the the file, and saw that there was in fact a scheduling conflict. It was done so that when the guards would change shift, their replacements wouldn’t arrive.

However, what was strange was that the scheduling conflict was marked a bright red. It was so obvious that even Quinn and Layla knew what the issue was despite being unfamiliar with the format.

They were both in shock, and didn’t quite know what to make of the information. They knew that there was some sort of corruption going on in the military, but this was just confirmation of it.

Quinn wanted to know who was bothering Peter so he could try teaching them a lesson, and Layla had her own reasons of wanting to know, but with Duke being the culprit, it meant they couldn’t do anything about it.

This was the head of the second years responsible for all of this, someone untouchable to a pair of level 2 students. Even if they told a teacher, then how would they answer the question of where they got this information? That is if the teacher wasn’t somehow under Duke’s thumb.

Layla was biting at her lip, and Quinn was just as nervous. If they were caught right now, this would very much put them in a worse situation than getting expelled. Perhaps they would even be sent to the dungeon, a place deep under the school, and tortured for their crimes.

Quinn shook his head, "We can’t worry about that now, we have to help Erin."

That snapped Layla out of her shock.

"Right."

Looking through the computer, they found that one of the open windows had a staff wide message indicating two students had gone through a red portal planet. The portal being one that led to planet named ’Pioletic.’ Unfortunately, they couldn’t find any more information about the planet.

"Pioletic..." Quinn whispered.

It was then that they heard several people chatting and enter the building all at once. They were running out of time.

"Quick, let’s get out of here!" Layla whispered yelled to Quinn.

Quinn nodded, and they were about to leave through the only door out when they saw a part of Duke’s body turn the corner through the small door window. They both quickly ducked down and looked at each other frantically.

"What do we do?" Layla mouthed.

Quinn’s eyes went across the entire office room, looking for something, anything to hide in. Should they hide in a closet? Under the desk? It all sounded like bad ideas. Then, his hand had touched the ground.

One of the things that made the earth ability so desirable was the fact that you can make a good living working as a construction worker with its power. A lot of people became construction workers as a result, and with the military handing out earth ability books, it further made the job a common one.

Being a construction worker was not important in this moment. What was important was what this had led to. A lot of buildings were made using the earth ability, as it was quick, sturdy, and cheap. Plus, with the military’s personnel mostly consisting of earth ability users, most of its buildings were made nearly entirely of stone.

Quinn put his hands on the ground and quickly made a large enough hole that could fit both him and Layla inside. It would be a tight squeeze, but they would much rather be squished together than get found out.

They both jumped in, and Quinn closed the hole above them. They heard a door open, then faint footsteps.

Layla’s face grew a little red now that it seemed like the coast was clear. Their bodies were kinda squished together.

"Hey, um..." Layla whispered, barely audible, "Do you think you can make this hole little bigger?"

However, there was something much more pressing on Quinn’s mind. In his vision, he saw something startling.

{Erin} I’m sorry.

Quinn’s voice cracked, "We’re... too late."

[Erin’s HP has reached 0 due to hunger]

[Transformation will now begin]