Elemental Cats

Mindle was curious about how Toz had found the door when she couldn't sense anything, even after Toz pointed it out. But he just answered that he would explain later. The clone and the mana vision it granted him wasn't something that Mindle would understand with just a few words.

Mindle understood it was something complicated and that now wasn't the time for something like that, so she restrained her curiosity and prepared her magic. After opening the door, they might run into guards or something, so they had to be ready. And since Toz had broken out of his cell all on his own and then smashed open eight others, Mindle decided it was her turn to contribute.

Toz had used up some of his mana and mental strength, but he was far from being too weak to participate in any fighting, but he didn't refuse Mindle's consideration and happily let her take the lead while he pushed open the door.

Unlike the doors to the gray cubes, this one wasn't reinforced in any way. It was just operated using mana. The door was practically unnoticeable because it fit seamlessly into the rest of the wall.

Toz sent a minimal amount of mana into the door, just enough to crack it open and allow his senses to reach the other side.

Unlike the army of guards he and Mindle expected since it was a high-security prison, the door only led to an empty hallway.

Toz opened the door the rest of the way, revealing a blank white hallway matching the aesthetic of the room where the gray cubes were.

Toz used his mana vision to inspect the hallway, but all he found were a couple of doors similar to the one he and Mindle stepped through. The doors were pretty far, so Toz and Mindle began walking as soon as they left their room. The door slid shut with a soft thump behind them.

Toz made sure to hide his and Mindle's presence with darkness and void magic as they walked, just in case someone came. But no one arrived, and Toz and Mindle stood in front of the first door they encountered.

Toz was about to open the door when two pairs of footsteps silently echoed out from behind a corner in the hallway. The footsteps were accompanied by two voices.

"Do you really think he'll listen to us?"

"He should have woken up quite a while ago. Enough time should have passed for him to reflect and calm down. But if he won't cooperate, we'll just have to put a slave collar on him."

"Argh! I can't agree with that."

"I know, miss. I don't want to enslave that brat. He has way too much potential for that. But we're running out of time. There's not much time left before we need to go back, and your window to make contributions to the war is shrinking."

"Fine. But let me do the talking. I have a feeling he won't listen to you, no matter what you say."

"Funny. For some reason, I agree."

The last words ended in a slight chuckle, after which the two speakers grew silent.

But Toz didn't need them to say anything else in order to know who they were.

Toz was a little stunned that they appeared right when he and Mindle were making their prison break, but he reacted quickly and ensured his and Mindle's presences were unnoticeable.

Toz put down Mindle so that his arms were free before he snuck to the edge of the hallway and hid behind the corner from where Dyra and Yill were coming.

He was worried that Yill would sense his presence, but he used his mana vision to check and help control that the mana around him stayed still and made sure nothing leaked.

Toz took a shallow breath and waited patiently for the footsteps to come closer. Since spreading his perception would alert Yill and possibly Dyra, he could only wait until they were close enough for him to act.

Eventually, the footsteps stopped echoing, and Dyra and Yill were so close he could hear the rustling of their clothes. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell who was closest. He hoped it was Dyra since it would make things easier, but if Yill was the one who ended up closest to the wall, he would simply have to move faster.

Toz waited without even breathing or making a noise until Dyra and Yill were finally only a single step away from turning the corner.

As soon as the first foot came into view, Toz dashed out, quickly identifying Dyra and reaching out to grab her. Dyra was on the farther side, but it didn't matter. Toz's lack of presence and surprise appearance shocked them both.

Yill's eyes widened before Dyra could even react, and she almost instantly sent an ice spear toward Toz.

However, Toz saw the ice mana move and take shape before it became visible to the naked eye, thanks to his mana vision. He could tell the ice spear's target, and since he knew when it was fired, he managed to just barely avoid the spear.

After dodging the ice spear, Toz was already in range, and he reached out to put a finger against Dyra's forehead.

"You have one second to remove your finger."

Yill's voice trembled with suppressed rage.

"You have half a second to remove your ice."

Toz retorted with a surprisingly calm voice as he flicked the ice spear resting against his chest with his free hand.

Yill didn't move her ice spear after half a second passed, and Toz didn't remove his finger after a second passed. The two just stared silently at each other.

Toz didn't want to injure or kill Dyra since that would remove the only thing stopping Yill from piercing him with the ice spear.

On the other hand, Yill wanted to kill or at least remove Toz as a threat instantly, but she couldn't since Toz would still be able to harm or even kill Dyra before he died or was removed from her.