Roko pulled himself back up. The explosion had rocked the ground so hard that they had fallen but they weren't in direct range of the explosion. Said explosion had taken a chunk out of the loading bay's roof and grounds. A scorching crater that exposed the night sky. And revealed an old adversary. Fireballs the size of entire tanks raining down from the sky and exploding into burning spheres that dug and torched the earth, leaving only vestiges behind. Thankfully the explosion happened outside of the inspection room, the walls protecting them well from the fireball aside from a few spilled vials that fell off from the shaking. There was no longer any time to find the poison.
"Everyone out now!" Roko ordered as he grabbed up the tiny Aranea and got back onto his feet.
"Got it!" Kaguya nodded and scrambled up to escape with him.
Running through the doors back to the main factory floor, they could see a few chunks had already been taken by the fireballs and the entire structure was probably not going to last under its own weight anymore.
"Full retreat!" Roko cried to their fellow combatants who had been knocked onto the ground by the explosions along with the Starry Knights.
"Understood!" Mikado and Hirudo nodded and immediately got back up as Roko and Kaguya ran towards them.
"S-Stop them!" The Starry Knight's leader called out.
His men stumbled up in response and tried to attack Mikado and Hirudo again only for them to get swiftly dealt with.
"Are you mad?!" Hirudo cried, "You'll all die as well!"
"L-Lord Sirius wouldn't just let us die!"
The knight's confidence was immediately shaken by another fireball that took out the manager's office.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Sirius is firing those fireballs." Roko said.
"R-Retreat!"
"H-Hey! Hey!" Lichas shouted as the Starry Knights all ran past him, "Don't just run! At least take me with you!"
"Mikado."
"On it." Mikado said as he wrapped on arm around Lichas' waist and lifted him up over his shoulder.
"W-Where are you taking me?!" Lichas cried out in shock and surprise.
"Does it matter?" Kaguya scoffed.
"You! Demon! You undo this paralyzation right now or-"
"Would you rather I give you a taste of your own medicine?" Kaguya waved a vial of the diluted poison at him.
"So you did find it! Then why are you kidnapping me?! You already got what you wanted!"
"Not quite on that front." Kaguya replied, "And let's not forget, we're saving you from your own factory exploding."
"Because you paralyzed me!"
"And then the factory started exploding. Would you rather I had left you behind to die in the fire?"
"Dammit, what's Sirius going to think of this?!"
"We can worry about that later." Roko pulled the grate that they had entered Muldingirmus from out of the ground, "Everybody inside!"
"In you go, Mikado said, dropping the merchant down the hole first.
"Ow! You cretins! I swear I'll-" Lichas' complaining was stopped when Mikado jumped down, landing very heavily with his foot down close to Lichas' face.
"Everyone inside?" Kaguya called as she came down the ladder.
"Only Roko left." Hirudo coughed.
"Then we're all accounted for." Roko said climbing down the ladder with Aranea still tucked under his arm, "Let's go. Full retreat to the Earthbound's base."
That night's operation ended with an utterly destroyed factory. The remains of which were even recorded on Mulapin's news next morning. They claimed a gas leak caused it but anybody remotely smart enough could tell there were holes scorched into the ground and impact craters from an outside force. The infiltration team returned and immediately collapsed onto beds as soon as they sorted out Lichas' kidnapping. They needed a good sleep to properly address their spoils the next morning. Though it was almost a late afternoon when Roko woke up the next day and rejoined what was left of the healthy members of the rebellion, including the rest of the infiltration team.
"Good morning." Kaguya smiled as she sipped on her rice porridge, "Or afternoon I should say."
"Morning." Roko said as he and Aranea set down their own dishes of rice porridge, "How's Lichas?"
"Howling mad last I heard." Kaguya smiled, "Though we did handcuff him to a decent bed before turning in for the night."
"Still there?"
"From what I heard. And I don't mean what I heard from anybody else. Man is still very loud. I don't even know if he managed to get any sleep."
"Good." Roko nodded, "He'll be crucial to our next steps."
"About that." Hirudo gulped, "Why did we take him?"
"Well aside from literally saving his life, using him as a hostage could've very well protected us from further attacks while in Muldingirmus. Or so I assume. Things were going kind of fast back then."
"If you're planning on interrogating him for information on the poison then I can tell you we tried a little bit of it this morning and he refused to tell us anything." Kaguya explained, "Though I might be able to get him to be more cooperative with a little more...effort."
"What do you mean by that?" Hirudo frowned.
Kaguya just smiled pleasantly.
"What do you mean by that?" Hirudo repeated with more concern.
"Let me try talking to him before I hand him over to you." Roko nodded, "If he's a merchant we can work out some sort of deal."
"Well you DO have a way with words." Kaguya chuckled.
"We'll head out as soon as we finish our brunch." Roko said, "Any other questions to address before then?"
"Well, me and Mikado are still quite new here so I have to ask; were those fireballs normal Muldingirmus weather?"
"Considering the last time we were in Muldingirmus, that happened as well, I could very well say yes." Roko sighed, "But no. It's likely to just be the work of a Planetary Star."
"Kajou did this?"
"No, Kajou doesn't know elemental magic like that. No, I suspect it's a different Planetary Star. One that we've never seen before."
"And lives in Min al Az'al from the looks of it." Kaguya nodded, "How are we going to deal with them?"
"Well...I have plans but the biggest concern is this 'plague' we're dealing with right now."
"I'll say." Azimuth said as she came up to their table, "People have stopped eating regularly because no one trusts their supply of food anymore. We need to find a cure ASAP."
"Then it's all up to Lichas."
"I ain't telling you nothing!" Lichas shouted.
"I didn't even ask anything yet, I just told you I bought you some food." Roko frowned as he placed some rice porridge in front of the merchant man.
"It's poisoned! I know that poison woman is trying to kill me! I don't trust any of you!"
"What did you do to him?" Roko frowned as he looked toward Kaguya who just shrugged with a smile on her face, "Regardless, this is what we know right now: The current pandemic and the previous pandemic of 'Nessus' were orchestrated by you along with some collaborators one of whom may be named Sirius."
"Being careful with your words there?" Lichas sneered, "Smart move kid."
"And I assume you're not willing to testify on who exactly were responsible for this scam of a pandemic?"
"Ha! You'll have to do more than ask me nicely!"
"We'll see what we can do." Roko smirked, "However, your involvement has already been confirmed, there's no denying that."
"I-I'm well prepared for what comes for me." Lichas tried saying bravely.
"Clearly not if you're avoiding our not poisoned soup."
"This and that are two different things..."
"Mmhm. Now as we suspected, this Nessus 'disease' was in fact you poisoning the supplies you've sent to Mulapin in faint doses to mimic an illness. What we want is a cure for this manufactured disease."
"Ha! Good luck with that! You won't be getting any help from me."
"We already know that this Nessus 'disease' is alchemized through various component pieces." Kaguya held up a vial containing the modified strain of Tafosuranus Polykefalis they had found, "What we want from you are the component pieces used to make this." Kaguya held up the diluted poison they had found.
"Those look the same to me." Lichas blinked.
"Wow, you really don't know about your own poison that you're using." Roko frowned.
"Look, all I know is that Siri-I MEAN MY BOSS! My boss sends his own specialized alchemists to my factory to uh...inspect the foods I received. I don't actually know about all the details."
"So close to greatness." Roko smirked, "Then we'll need one thing from you."
"Well you're not getting it."
"We need the records of all items your factory received in the past month."
"Ha! You think you can get that from me?!" Lichas laughed, "I'm not even on the right side of Minchir!"
"Oh we have our ways." Roko sneered, "Let's see which happens first, your Muldingirmus friends who will be appalled by your actions or you breaking."
And with that, Roko left the room, leaving Kaguya to terrorize the poor merchant.
The following days were spent in deep research. They may have removed the poisoned foods from their supplies but replacing them with new supply was proving to be difficult. They were able to get a little bit more food from their innocent suppliers on the Muldingirmus side once they explained the situation but they were already tapped out after their first supply drop. They wouldn't be able to reasonably help for a while. Meanwhile, Mulapin was starving. After the truth about the poisoned food came out, the residents of Mulapin became much more wary about the supplies the Earthbounds were providing. Even when they explained that the food they were handing out now were safe to eat, few dared to actually take them, trying to find some other way to find their own food. And to that end, it meant stealing from others. Even if the food they were stealing were food that the Earthbound were willingly giving out, people's fallacies won out over their reason and a wave of crimes swept over the impoverished city. But if they couldn't find a new supplier soon, even the thieves would be too starved to commit crimes.
As for those already afflicted with the poison, time was not the cure they needed. The poison was stubborn, sticking around for much longer than any disease. That's not to say some managed to shake off the toxin's effects after some time but a greater majority remained bedridden and some even got worse over time. A cure was still needed before Mulapin imploded on itself.
"B-bear..."
"That's right." Roko patted Aranea on the head as he continued looking over the plans he was working on while Aranea continued her reading practice on the floor next to him.
"There are a total of five chemicals that stand out in the past few months from Lichas' imports. We know Thallium is involved but we don't know the dosage of each component used to recreate the undiluted venom. The symptoms of the venom might provide a clue but our current cases are all too diluted to properly gather data."
Roko picked up an alchemy book and flipped through it, "If I can find the different attributes of each element we have in suspect, I could compare it to the custom venom's attributes and try and balance the chemical interactions so that they produce results that mimic Nessus...But all that relies on knowing the properties of this custom venom."
Roko's analyze spell could tell him the symptoms. In theory at least. The idea was that the more Roko understood, the more knowledge his analyze spell could draw from and provide information with. If he knew...if he could understand chemical makeups...the building blocks of reaction...he could get his spell to do the work of a lab without even needing any of the equipment. But that all relied on him properly learning chemistry. And then there was learning how chemical interacts and fuse together. It seemed like a daunting task but it was genuine possibility. Roko has been able to force new information out of his analyze spell just after reading a few more books. But even after understanding and recreating the poison, there was still a cure to create. The end of this "pandemic" was far, far off in the distance and the people of Mulapin may not survive much longer.
"Umm...boss?"
"What is it?" Roko said, not looking up from his work to address the soldier that had knocked on his door.
"The uh...police want to talk to you."
"About time." Roko sighed as he stood up, "I'll be right down to speak with them."
The Mulapin Police Force was a farce. They were a skeleton crew of about five people with neither the power nor authority to oppose Sirius. Sirius himself has taken away all their ability to do anything other than issue tickets and arrest people. All the competent members had left or were bought out by Sirius. The commonfolk barely even acknowledges the police. They barely help with anything. But they also rarely issue arrests. They keep the sluggish peace while unable to actually help the people they serve. But they clearly want to. The only reason the police force still has members are because they have the most heart. The ones who believe in their work the most and carry a passion that flickers dimly under Sirius' oppression. So people say anyway.
When Roko arrived at the foyer where the five police members were standing around near the entrance, he immediately caught their attention and drawing anger from about two or three of them.
"You're the Earthbound's leader right?!" One particularly angry girl snapped at him before he could even say anything, "What the hell have you been doing?"
"I'm busy." Roko replied, "Let's talk while we walk."
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" The angry girl continued, following Roko as she continued to yell at him, "What were you thinking telling people their food was poisoned?!"
"It's an undeniable truth. This is a conspiracy you might never have uncovered without our help."
"But did you have to tell everyone?! Now nobody trusts you or the food on their table! The good people are starving while the bad rob others of food that they could've just been given!"
"That's the failings of human paranoia at work. I released the info so people could better protect themselves but they overcorrected. That's not my fault."
"Like hell it isn't! What are you planning on doing now?!"
"Working on that cure." Roko replied tiredly, "That's the only thing I can do."
"You're just going to ignore the people suffering?! This is YOUR fault!"
"And what are YOU here for? Just to complain?"
The young police girl looked away, still scowling but unable to retort back. Roko scoffed and threw open the door to the room they had arrived at. Walking inside, the police force were introduced to a room full of crates.
"What's this?" One of the less temperamental ones asked.
"Supplies." Roko explained as he sat down on one of the crates, "Untainted ones to be precise. I want you to take all of this and distribute it to the people."
"You...want US to do it?!" Another one cried out in shock.
"Well the people don't trust us rebellion folks right now so it's best for someone else to do the distribution." Roko shrugged, "As for the story...let's see...just say that you discovered a secret caravan headed to the Earthbound's base full of secret healthy supplies that they were keeping for themselves. You raided the caravan and stole these supplies and are distributing them to the people for free."
"You're willing to villianize yourselves?!" another cried.
"If I don't then people will doubt the authenticity of these supplies anyway." Roko crossed his arms, "The need for immediate relief is more important than our reputation for now. Hopefully we'll be able to win some favor back once we come up with a cure. We'll be providing further shipments for you to continue your charity until then."
"Did you...always plan to do this?" Another policeman asked.
"Not quite exactly. I knew about you and your police force in advance, Officer Merodach." The officer balked in surprise but Roko continued, "There were other possibilities but you were the first ones to present yourselves. That's how I figured I could trust you."
"How...do you figure that?" The angry girl that had been barking angrily at Roko was more reserved now, taken aback.
"I had two reservations about your group. First was if you'd actually distribute the food as I wanted and not just hoard it for yourselves. The second was if you were still under control by Sirius. Would do no good to hand this over to Sirius' hands again for him to poison our efforts again. While not a perfect proof, your coming to me was good enough for me to trust you."
"We just came to complain." The girl muttered shyly.
"So you admit it." Another snarkier member said.
"Like I said, it's not perfect, not even ideal proof." Roko sighed, "But I don't have enough time to vet you properly. You arriving at my doorstep to complain proves that you're concerned enough with the situation to try and address it directly as well as having a genuine interest in helping the people. Something you wouldn't do if you were in Sirius' pocket."
"But what if we were told by Sirius to gain your trust?" The officer named Merodach asked.
"A question you wouldn't ask if you were under Sirius' orders. But even if you did come to poison our efforts again, quite literally, it might regain trust in our rebellion if we came out with the truth. If you sabotage our efforts again with the story I gave you then it becomes proof that even the rebellion isn't safe from getting poisoned. That we're just as much a victim as everyone else are. If enough people believe us, we can rebuild. Meanwhile, your little police force will lose all their remaining credibility. If I expose you as Sirius' lapdog you will lose all the people's trust, all reason for you to be kept around."
The police force looked around at each other, not sure if they believe him but unable to rebuke his reasoning.
"So take the supplies." Roko sighed tiredly, "Distribute them. We don't have to be friends but if people are being saved then we don't have to be."
"Why do this?" Merodach asked again as Roko stood up to leave, "Why sacrifice yourself? Surely there must be a better way of doing this."
"Aside from the fact that my life is not worth the suffering of thousands? I don't need the trust of the people. I just need to beat Sirius."