an illusion of mind

Amanda could only see darkness, she had been kidnapped, she was walking to class after being discharged from the hospital she visited Evelyn first an she was as cold as ever, the same old noble girl with an ice cold expression, after she left the dormitory she was knocked out, gagged and her head was covered in some kind of cloth, she could still hear her kidnappers.

"we got the princess, what should we do?" one of them asked his voice was lighter than his most likely superior in whatever organization they were in.

"we wait for the master's orders." the one with the deep voice said, so far she had only heard these two, she didn't know where she was kept, she didn't know who this master was but she didn't want to find out.

a knock was heard and one of the kidnappers opened the door, and a third voice spoke up, "sir, we've received orders to interrogate her." a third feminine voice spoke up.

"got it."

she could hear his foot steps coming closer to her and he removed the bag off her face, she still had a blindfold and gag on her eyes and mouth, her gag was removed along with her blindfold.

she looked around frantically and she was in some kind of metal room, she was tied to a metal chair with metal chains, she looked to see the stern faces of two men with suits, not too far from the two was another one a female also wearing a suit with a black necktie.

the female one walked out and closed the door behind her leaving Amanda with the two men.

"listen princess of he stellar empire, we are here to interrogate you, and you will answer our questions truthfully..." he leaned in closer to her face and he spoke up, "do you understand?" his tone was serious, he meant business.

"..." Amanda remained silent and just nodded.

"first of all, what is your relationship with the student, Regina Pectos." he asked and this question made her freeze, Regina? why would they know who Regina is...? is Regina in some kind of trouble?

"...she's my friend..." after a while of silence she spoke up.

"truth." the other one spoke, Amanda's thoughts raced, they had a lie detector? she was under lie detection magic, she can't lie anymore if she did, she wouldn't know what would happen to her...

"good, do you understand the nature of your power?" he asked her again.

"yes? I have the ability to coat myself in a blanket of golden mana that will protect me and buff my physical abilities and aptitudes... it's called mana cloak..." she said looking up at them a little confused and wondering why they would ask that so suddenly after asking her about Regina.

"truth." the other one said.

the one interrogating her looked back at him and nodded, "looks like you still don't understand, that's good, everything is going according to our queen's plans..." he spoke up.

their queen? they are from an empire, most likely an empire rival to the stella empire, is it the Varcan empire? considering they had kidnapped her it was likely that was the case...

"princess, focus up here, and answer with truth." the interrogator snapped his fingers up next to his face stealing Amanda's attention.

"how is your relationship with your brother?" he asked, Amanda raised an eyebrow, this interrogator was asking her questions all over the place, first he asked her about her relationship with Regina and then if she knew about her power, and then her brother? none of this made sense... why would they kidnap me to answer questions that didn't make any sense...

"... it's not good, my brother and I have grown separated since we are battling over the right to the throne right now..." Amanda decided to answer truthfully as she didn't find any reason not to.

ding! a sound reverberated through the metallic room and the other kidnapper held up a strange device, it looked like a paper scroll but it was made of light.

"sir, we've just gotten an order to inject her with series 9-D and go with plan B." the recruit said, but Amanda couldn't focus on what he said, all she heard was, inject... inject... inject...

"n-no! don't inject me with anything! stay away!" she yelled and she rattled against the chains holding her against the metallic chair to no avail, she tried activating her mana cloak but it didn't work for some reason, it's like this room was preventing her mana from leaving her...

"s-stop!" Amanda yelled fear laced in her voice, so far they hadn't done anything but ask her questions, but if she's going to be injected by a strange substance in an unfamiliar strange room by strangers, then she would struggle to the end, who knew what that series 9-D was! she didn't want anything unfamiliar in her body...

"you idiot, next time tell the order to my ear, not in front of the god damn victim!" the man who was interrogating her shook his head, "damn, interns..." he let out an audible sigh, before he moved to a metallic table that had a suitcase of sorts on top of it, took it and brought it in front of Amanda.

she struggled against the restraints, she didn't want to be injected by whatever that was, it was definitely something malicious...

she struggled against the restraints to no avail, the interrogator unclasped the suitcase and opened it to reveal a series of syringes with a strange translucent substance inside, he took one of the syringes and and pushed some of the liquid out, making sure no air remained inside of it before he took her arm and plunged the syringe inside hitting a vein, he pushed the unfamiliar liquid into her body and she winced from the pain, her eyes teared up, she was injected... by an unfamiliar substance... gods know what that was...

after he finished injecting her, he pulled the syringe back and put it back into the suitcase, "did the message specify the dosage?" the interrogator asked and the intern replied a little fearfully, "no sir..."

"so a whole syringe I guess." he shrugged, before looking back at Amanda, she didn't care though she was too busy trying to feel inside of her if anything changed, but nothing changed.

the interrogator took out a mask with a metal canister attached to it and propped it into Amanda's face, the canister released a gas into the mask which Amanda was forced to inhale, her eyes drooped down and she slowly started losing strength, she was becoming weaker by the second.

"n-no... please..." her eyes closed shut and she fell unconscious, after she fell unconscious, the interrogator took the mask off her face and put it back into his pocket.

"alright, now we go with plan B..." he said turning to the intern, "uhmm... sir... if you don't mind me asking what is plan B?" the intern asked a little hesitant, the only reason he was accepted into their organization was because of his lie detection magic, but they could easily replicate that with their devices, so he needed him?

"your job here is done, you don't need to know anymore, now leave, I'll make sure to write a letter recommending not allowing you in anymore designated P missions." the interrogator sighed and pointed at the metallic door.

"...yes sir..." the intern just looked down in shame and walked out of the door.

Evan looked all around Prism academy along with the professors, they hired the best trackers they could find and they looked in every corner of prism for the princess, his sister...

he panted as he ran through the streets, alone, he looked everywhere but he couldn't find her... was his sister really gone?

he sat down at a bench defeated, and he looked up when he sensed a figure approaching, "what's up with you?" Regina asked smiling widely, her red eyes scanned his sweat covered body.

"Amanda's missing..." he replied without looking at her.

"really? I might know where she is." Regina said, and at this Evan paused he looked up at her smiling face hope evident in his expression, "but you must keep it a secret how I found her okay?" she propped a finger up to her lips in a shushing motion.

Evan nodded frantically, he didn't care how, he just wanted to find his sister, "I'll keep it a secret..." maybe his first impression of this Varcan was a bit too one sided.

she gestured for him to follow her and he got up and walked after her.

after a while they arrived at a cave, it was outside the academy grounds in the forest located behind the academy, they still hadn't searched here, "don't ask me how I found this, I just did okay?" she said as she gestured for him to follow, she walked through the cave and after a while, they arrived at an expansive cavern, and it had several camp fires set up all around, and next to those campfires... DEMONS.

what is this... this isn't supposed to be possible, demons aren't supposed to leave the nether planes after the defeat of the demon king....

"we shouldn't be found out, these are strong demons, as for why they are so close to prism, I have no idea... most of these are shadeskin demons, the princess is held in that cage right there..." Regina spoke breaking Evan out of his thoughts.

Evan followed after her, just the mere fact there were demons so deep in the empire was ground breaking news, but Evan knew his priorities, but something was heavy on his mind... demons... their not supposed to be this organized... they aren't stupid creatures but they are selfish and self centered and this trait of theirs is what makes this even more impossible for them to gather around like this... are demons revolting?

he couldn't finish his trail of thoughts as he spotted her, Amanda was right there knocked out on the floor of a metallic cage, her hands were tied behind her back and there was a bag over her head.

"what should we do?" Evan asked Regina who put a finger on her lips shushing him.

"we got orders from the general to kidnap this girl but what should we do with her?" a shadeskin demon asked, they were creatures with long skinny legs and arms a hairless body and skin dark as shadows, they were an intelligent type of demons and their stealthy nature made them a perfect species of demons to send on this mission, they had sharp white fangs and circular wide eyes with black pupils, they had sharp black claws that blended in with their bodies.

"we can't do anything but wait, maybe they're sending over a message some time soon." another replied and Regina stood up and walked right in front of them Evan's eyes widened and he panicked they had lost the element of surprised all because of Regina.

but strangely, the shadeskins acted like she wasn't even there, she turned back to him and put a hand on her lips holding in a chuckle and gesturing for him to follow, and he finally noticed he looked at his arms and he noticed they were slightly transparent in his vision, did she use an invisibility spell on us?

no it was an illusion spell that messed with he perception of others causing them to not be able to perceive the targets of this spell, and that was why they could walk and see each other, but not the shadeskins, their eyes simply cant see them but they are there so basically they are safe for now, he walked after her and they arrived at the cage.

Regina took out a wire and she started to sew the cage's metallic bars and Evan almost panicked but there was not sound, illusions?

no illusions can't possibly be this versatile...

Amanda woke and Regina removed the bag off her head Amanda struggled to adjust to the light of the campfires in the cave and she finally looked towards Regina and Evan.

Evan felt a change in the mana waves and Regina gestured for him to help out.

Evan nodded and he picked up his sister and held her up in a piggy back, making sure her arms were around his neck, she seemed so weak that she couldn't walk on her own... have they been feeding her?

Evan's heart ached for his sister, he gritted his teeth and glared at the shadeskins, who didn't notice anything wrong, he figure Regina changed the spell to also include Amanda in it, so they sneaked past them and walked out of the cave, Evan would make sure to slaughter these demons with his own hands, he clenched his fists accidentally causing his sister on his back to stir in her sleep, he quickly calmed himself down and walked after Regina.