Kapitel 231: Chapter 220 - The Butterfly That Flapped Its Draconic Wings

After their fill of jokes and playfulness, Alice decided to use the Mind Flower Aurolana had given her.

It worked to strengthen the mind, and that way she could control her impulses much better.

Of course, Zeel had thought of procuring one for her and Elizabeth before, but so far no Universe they visited had any Mind Flowers - that's just how impossible to find they were.

It was not only Zeel's evilness that Alice needed 'control' to deal with, it was the many other prayers that would bombard her daily.

Alice did not mean to be heartless but even she had limits on how much she could help.

Alice had begun to become numb to the constant pleads that would be directed at anyone who listened.

Most of the time, Alice did not even have to personally act, it was more like willing a certain policeman in a certain direction and the rest was none of her business.

Elizabeth did not develop significant urges like Alice, but she always required environments of brightness since merging with her divinity.

Elizabeth felt very uncomfortable and weak during the night, especially when the moon was not visible. She also held an affinity for people with optimistic personalities.

However, these were just a couple of the many factors that had to do with what occurred next.

Firstly, Zeel was especially paranoid and would always withhold any personal information from the Homo-Superior database.

The relationship between an Apollonian and Homo-Superior was not generally accepted in Universe Zero, so Zeel covered all indications of Aurolana being his soulmate.

How did he do this?

Zeel did not register the full characteristics and functions of the Mind Flower to anyone before.

Aurolana only knew of the characteristics because Zeel presented them to her as a soulmate.

The Mind Flower was extremely rare, often being only one or two in every Universe.

It would strengthen the mind and you would feel refreshed; however if given by one soulmate to another.

The Mind Flower would hold completely different characteristics.

It would protect the soulmate from any mind attacks, or curses in the known worlds.

It would become a tattoo on the body and activate in a situation of mortal peril to break the mind of the attacker.

It would link the minds of two soulmates in such a way that they could switch bodies with a single thought.

The Mind Flower was not dangerous itself, but it would become dangerous in specific circumstances.

One such circumstance had just occurred between Alice and Aurolana.

If the Mind Flower was first given to a soulmate and re-given to another person. The Mind Flower thinks of this as a sign of infidelity and it lashes out in unexpected ways.

The functions of The Mind Flower would be altered in such a situation.

The mind of the person it was given to would still strengthen, but the process through which that occurred would be vastly different.

The Mind Flower would break their mind for an instant and dig up all the dark emotions lingering inside the subconscious.

It was akin to ripping out someone's darkest thoughts and throwing them away, but while ripping it out, you still had to bring it to the surface for a moment.

This was known as The Mind Test.

This effect was not strong and could even be resisted by Telkiens who were known to be weak to mind attacks.

Aurolana thought it was a harmless trick but she failed to account for several coincidences along Zeel's and the girls' journeys.

Aurolana did not realize that Alice and Elizabeth were not from Universe Zero. That meant that their minds were more fragile than those she was used to interacting with.

This in turn meant that Alice and Elizabeth were ill-equipped to handle the mind attack that came along with using a Mind Flower.

The moment Alice touched the Mind Flower, both she and Elizabeth were affected by a mind attack that brought dark emotions buried in the depth of their souls onto the surface.

Aurolana expected this and only hoped that Alice would attack Zeel and burn his body a little.

Zeel's soul was currently in Purgatory so he would prove defenseless for a while.

Such an action from Alice would force Zeel to get rid of her due to her unpredictability when he awakened.

However, Alice and Elizabeth just had too much buried resentment with Zeel to let him off that easy.

Elizabeth and Alice both had Good-Alignment Divinities, and that made them naturally averse to being near Zeel.

It was only their love that kept their divinities at bay, but now, no such love could be found in the depths of their darkened minds.

When Alice and Elizabeth moved guided by the dark emotions in their subconscious, they moved with the intention to kill.

Zeel's nanites immediately registered the faint killing intent of both girls, but there was a protocol in place to combat this.

The nanites had combat capabilities even when Zeel was unconscious, it was a final defense mechanism or trump card when fighting.

These functions were governed by The Red Queen as Zeel's primary Sentient. The Red Queen was partial to Elizabeth and Alice, especially Alice.

However, she was still a Sentient and bounded by Zeel's codes programmed into the nanites.

The Red Queen could influence Zeel's defense protocol as she saw fit, but that did not change the fact that the defense protocol had to be activated.

The Red Queen immediately activated the defense protocol seeing Alice and Elizabeth were not in their correct states of mind.

This was a First Level Priority Case - charge power and jump location until the threat had passed.

Alice leaped across the room with Elizabeth following closely behind. Alice wasted no time as her hands burnt through the Stasis pod and onto Zeel's body.

Red flames of fury ignited Zeel's body as he went into a seizure, foam frotting from his mouth as a natural reaction to Hell Flames.

Alice's flames would burn the soul, but Zeel's soul was not within his body at the moment.

Still, Zeel's mind and body were burning with increasing intensity.

Elizabeth's aura also aided in Alice's burning. To Elizabeth, Zeel was darkness and she was shining an intense burning light on that darkness.

Both girls were hoping to kill Zeel as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Their actions held a certain clumsiness, showing they were fighting to stop their attack within their minds, but alas, their wills were not yet strong enough.

Now, to Elizabeth and Alice, Zeel was simply a being covered by total darkness.

At this point, everything went as Aurolana had expected but then something changed.

The protocol would dictate that Zeel's body be teleported to another location to avoid a battle in a compromised state, but that did not happen.

Zeel was paranoid and never made the same mistake twice.

Ever since Alice attacked him in the Jumper Universe, Zeel had updated her danger rating in his list of Potential Enemies – yes, Zeel had put his own wife on the list of his potential enemies.

And he did it for this exact eventuality - on the off chance that Alice would be affected by a scheme of his enemies.

That small incident in the Jumper Universe caused a Second Priority Case to be triggered.

Second Priority Case - Fight back to stall the attackers and then teleport.

The Red Queen was struggling to stop the level of danger from increasing any further. Things would get extremely bad should the situation evolve into a Fifth Level Priority Case.

Suddenly, Zeel's eyes snapped opened without any focus, simply codes flickering within, and with that The Red Queen updated the incident to The Third Priority Case.

Third Priority Case - fight back to stall for time to teleport, but kill if it is convenient.

Since being struck by lightning in The Verne Universe, Zeel's nanites were weakened by five percent.

This meant that he had to treat any Priority Cases much more thoroughly, and nanites slowing by five percent meant it evoked the proper protocol too late and had to switch to another protocol entirely.

Now, instead of simply expending energy to teleport away, Zeel's body was forced into a three-second combat situation to give the nanites enough time to perform teleportation.

Suddenly, Zeel's eyes, which were unfocused, became concentrated with slits of fury.

The moment Alice and Elizabeth lost themselves to rage and hate, two girls within Elizabeth's Ring Swords woke up in a crazed state - Ella and Alle.

Draconic Energy was naturally aggressive and difficult to control.

Ella and Alle had remained in slumber since being born as Elizabeth's weapon spirits.

Like their alleged father, both girls also had Draconic Energy within their bodies, though they had much less control over it.

Sensing Elizabeth's rage, both girls Draconic Energy shot through the roof, intent on killing their father with one strike alongside Elizabeth.

This, in turn, caused the usually locked Draconic Energy of Zeel to activate.

This coincidence made Zeel's nanites a bit more aggressive than usual and created a Fourth Level Priority Case.

Fourth Level Priority Case - Escape at the earliest possibility, but also leave behind collapsium concentrated bombs to kill targets after the escape.