As Raven pushed the door to the lab inwards, Mono and the rest slipped on by as nail-sized fairies. Keeping their hands on Liliyana's body, the party ensured that nobody was seen until Mono got back into the secret room where she'd been keeping the different models of her body. Amidst them was the Model–US, a shining beacon of beauty and strength with defined blonde eyelashes and long hair, along with a white suit with gold-strapped edges.
"This is it." Letting go of Liliyana's arm, Mono quickly turned back to her regular size. The others followed suit and quickly looked around the dank and dark room. Devoid of any light, they relied on magic to see while the queen herself couldn't see a thing but instead felt her way around the place as if it were sunlit bright.
A stack of thick book shelves sat in the middle of the room, obscuring most of the view, but even the walls on their left and right had numerous vessels of Mono cased in glass with a faint and luminous liquid keeping them afloat inside. Each held some similarities to the real Mono, but apart from the minor features, the vessels specialized in entirely different tasks.
Struck by the absurdity of the place, everyone's eyes landed back on Mono. Feeling her way forward through the shelves, she was chasing after something, a sound as faint as the beating of one's own heart.
"Aperion–It's working again," she whispered, cautiously making her way forward.
Tiptoeing around the traps on the tiles, she glanced back at the rest of the group and gestured for them to follow right behind. The awkward flow of her steps was enough warning as is, and thus there was no need for her to tell them that they need to follow exactly where she steps.
Turning herself into red mist, Erika flew next to Mono and asked.
"What's working again?"
Giving the priestess a sideways glance, Mono stared at her peculiar form for a moment before turning her head back to the front. Standing at the very edge of the room, she placed a hand on the wall and with a buzzing sound, the entire wall lifted, revealing a much smaller room with blue lights at the edges and a total of four different vessels stored inside.
"That is Aperion," Mono answered, pointing at a metallic spear floating in mid-air with four long spring-like hands.
Turning its singular red eye at its master, the automaton shot a beam of light across Mono's body. Standing still, the queen allowed it to scan her completely before walking forward and grabbing it out of the air with just a scratch under its spherical body. Falling into her hand, the machina retreated its arms into the spear and closed its eyes as well. Left as only a metal ball, it camouflaged itself as junk.
"It's supposed to constantly upgrade my bodies," turning around, Mono gestured to the others to get inside the room. "But since someone was messing with it, I decided to keep it here in this secret room, constantly working on my main bodies."
"I don't even know what the hell to say," Mel huffed, as confused as everyone else.
"Whatever, we should really get back and help Raven," Aria suggested.
"Affirmative, standing idle here doesn't sit well with me," Helga said, shooting an even sharper glance at the queen.
"I'll check on Raven really quickly," reaching back to Raven through their mental link, Amedith saw everything that was happening in the lab. "Still fighting, but…"
Opening his eyes, he watched as Mono placed Aperion on her chest and like an octopus with its beak, it attached itself to her chest. The claws came out once again and began deconstructing the girl-body. However, while two arms were disassembling, the other two were reassembling it, facing the original body.
Taking the Iron core out of her pocket as her arms were now being worked on, Mono handed it to one of the disassembling arms. Using its claw-like fingers, it held it firmly while the other free hand kept on tearing the dead girl's body. Digging deeper and deeper with its beak, Aperion kept shooting the heart with electricity to keep it beating; without it, Mono would've lost consciousness.
Keeping just the heart and a mechanical spine attached to a head for last, the machina glanced up at its master and awaited her response.
"Now to choose the body," she whispered, looking at the four different types of vessels inside that room.
But before she could make a decision, Raven connected to everyone's mind and relayed something that would change Mono's original plans.
'I can't kill her, she says her heart will explode and destroy a great portion of our world. You guys stay with Mono and have her find a way to deal with this insane, suicidal woman, I'll keep her and her army occupied until then.'
The word suicidal immediately raised an alarm, not because of its severity but due to the risk that the woman's death may follow. However, as always, the socceress's mind instantly leapt to find an answer to their problem. And while her mind raced through numerous thoughts and everyone was staring at her expectantly, the answer was staring right at her.
Finally, upon coming out of her head, she saw it. The battle model, capable of stripping mana right out of a person's body.
"Avarice…" The name was no comfort as it held quite the dreaded memories. "Well fuck me, it comes back to you, doesn't it?"
"What the hell are you planning?" Having never seen Avarice herself but having heard about her, to Liliyana, the person behind that name was akin to an urban legend. Anxiety welled in her heart as she stepped forward to stop Mono, but with her just being a floating head and spine, the devil didn't know how the hell she was even supposed to touch her.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she doesn't go insane again." Looking down at the heart that helped her regain her own sanity, Mono took a mimicked deep breath and a sigh despite having no lungs anymore. "Aperion put the iron core into the Model–US, and this heart inside the battle model."
The lack of air meant she couldn't absorb mana through her lungs, and thus, with her mind barely holding onto herself, Mono looked into Aperion's eyes and mumbled before fading yet again.
"Bring me back, okay, girl?" With her eyes completely shut, the machina got to work–all the while everyone watched and Raven saved the clone from killing herself.