Kirana alone kept working when Ty and the Demon King entered Lab 1.
She wore glasses and a distinctive white trench coat, accented by lime green lines that ran down its edges, giving her a sharp lab-ready look. Her fingers tapped over a floating keyboard, filling the room with clicks and clacks.
Thin bands of light moved across the ceiling, pausing over jars, tools, and diagrams pinned in the air. Ty had seen magic before, but this room treated magic like machinery waiting to be repaired.
Small glass plates hovered over one workbench, each holding a frozen spark inside. A low hum rolled under the floor, steady enough that Ty felt it through his bones.
"Good to see you keeping yourself busy, Kirana," the Demon King remarked with a hint of admiration. "Your adaptability has always been astonishing since you arrived here so long ago."
Kirana, pushing her auburn hair out of her face, looked up with a warm smile for a brief moment.
Her expression was stern, and her eyes carried the weight of long experience.
"The shocking elements were minimal, given everything he aimed to accomplish with those gates," she said, her voice carrying a weight of knowledge and understanding.
The Demon King nodded, absorbing her words, sensing the depth of thought behind them. "His vision was clouded by the scale of the real world, don’t you think? His madness, in part, grew from trying to grasp its endless possibilities."
Kirana pulled a brown folder from beneath the floating keyboard. Around thirty pages had been forced inside without any effort to align them. She passed it to the Demon King, then noticed Ty watching her.
Her attention dropped to his ribs, followed the green fire over his spine, and returned to his skull.
"You brought him into my lab without warning me?"
"If I had warned you, would the room be any safer?" the Demon King asked.
Kirana looked at a glass plate holding a spark that kept trying to bite through its container. "No, but I would have moved that farther away."
She slid the plate to the back of the bench with two fingers. Ty took one step away from it anyway.
"That thing looks like it wants to bite me."
"Only when it believes it can win. You should be fine."
Ty studied her face for some sign she was joking. The Demon King opened the folder and left him to decide for himself.
Kirana came around the bench to get a closer look at him.
"You’re the talking skeleton from the memory recordings!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with awe and excitement. Her hands examined Ty’s arms and legs, assessing their density and resilience.
Caught off guard by her approach, Ty held his arms away from his sides while she inspected him. She tapped one forearm with the blunt end of a metal pick and listened to the sound.
She asked him to bend each elbow, then watched the joints settle back into place. The second movement drew a brighter flicker from the fire along his spine. Kirana made three quick marks on her notepad.
"Did the pain change when you moved that arm?"
"The fire pulled harder near my shoulder, but the bone feels the same."
She wrote that down too. Whatever she had found interested her more than Ty wanted it to.
"You could ask before you start poking my bones."
Kirana lowered the pick. "May I examine the skeleton who survived everything in those recordings?"
"You already started, but yes. Just tell me before something bites."
Kirana, with a notepad in hand, started sketching swiftly, her focus on the flames adorning Ty’s back. "These flames keep you in constant pain, don’t they?" she inquired, professional curiosity sharpening her tone.
"Yes, they have never stopped burning through me," Ty responded, trying to keep pace with her questions and the flurry of activity. He turned towards the Demon King, seeking some clarity. "Mr. Demon King, what exactly is happening here?"
The Demon King, observing the situation, offered an explanation. "Kirana thrives on anomalies, things that defy common understanding," he said, admiration warming his voice.
"When confronted with mysteries beyond my grasp, I turn to her and her team for insights."
Understanding the urgency of the situation, the Demon King addressed Kirana with a sense of seriousness, emphasizing the critical nature of time in their current circumstances.
"Mrs. Kirana, time is not on our side," he said, sternness entering his voice. "We are surrounded by uncertainties, and playing catch-up is not an option. We must act swiftly and decisively."
Kirana nodded, understanding the stakes and already sinking into the mystery before them.
Kirana, with an aura of confidence and a demeanor marked by scientific curiosity, addressed Ty, "We’ll have more focused sessions later, where I can conduct more specific tests, now that you’re awake and responsive." Ty nodded, the armor around him shimmering subtly, reflecting his quiet acquiescence.
The atmosphere in the room shifted as Kirana turned her attention back to the Demon King, ready to unveil the conclusions of her meticulous research.
"After conducting a multitude of tests and analyzing the tapes of Ty’s memories that you provided, it’s evident that Ty is embroiled in a complex web of issues," Kirana began, her voice carrying the weight of her findings.
Adjusting her silver crest glasses with precision, she continued, "The supposed ’lock’ on his soul works less like a traditional lock and more like a key."
The Demon King frowned, his usual composure tightening.
"But aren’t keys typically utilized to unlock locks?" he questioned, his voice tinged with curiosity and confusion, eager to delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding Ty’s condition.
Ty stood there, confused but curious as he listened to Kirana’s words. He tried to grasp the meaning behind the technical terms and analogies she used.
The room, filled with its advanced equipment and the aura of deep research, felt overwhelming.
Kirana’s mention of a ’key’ and a ’lock’ in relation to his soul made him more curious, but he found it difficult to fully comprehend.
He looked towards the Demon King and Kirana, waiting for a clearer explanation that would help him make sense of his own situation.
"That’s correct. He isn’t a lock. His soul is more like a key that unlocks itself once certain requirements are met," Kirana said.