Against all will, you decide to head back to the laboratory again. You try to find the scientist you met earlier, but he is nowhere to be seen.

“Are you trying to find the mineral specialist?” one of the scientists replies as you question him of the specialist’s whereabouts, “Oh, he’s busy right now, dealing with a talking Kleptolisk accident. You can get more mineral samples over there, but take only one. Sorry for the inconvenience.” He grins briefly at you before he resumes minding his work.

You will have to pick the minerals you need by yourself now. Aside from the Crimsonite, which other mineral will you choose? Remember that the combination should concentrate on the laser beam’s firing power.

(You can read the spreadsheet again here: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Mineral#Mineral_Types )

A- Valestone
B- Luminite
C- Dark Matter

After you get the Luminite sample, you take quite a while to look for Elliot. Apparently, he is surprised to see you searching for him. Just as you move forward to greet him, he lays down a stack of papers and wipes the sweat off his forehead. "Good sir, you're back! I really do hope you bring good news this time."

You hand him the Luminite sample. "Ah, a mineral for me again?" Elliot raises his eyebrows in slight astonishment, "And I'd thought you've given up, just like I did! Well, an opportunity presented by itself... Won't hurt to give it another try, I suppose. Come, come." He beckons you to follow after him, probably to the machine again. "Is this Luminite truly pure? We don't want it tainted by any foreign specimens, especially Dark Matters. They're opposing minerals, with opposite powers. We certainly don't want both of them to get close together."

Before the machine, Elliot replaces the Moonstone shard with the new Luminite, leaving behind the red Crimsonite in place. He flicks around with the usual controls, and, after adjusting the final setting, mutters to you, "Hope this works." Finally, he pulls down the trigger lever.

The device beeps for a second, and you stare hard through the glass at the minerals, keeping your fingers crossed and eagerly wishing for something to happen. Before you can imagine what happens next, everything around you turns white. You realise that it is the minerals releasing a blinding light, but strangely your eyes don't hurt from looking directly at it.

"This isn't just light, sir! It's something else!" Elliot speaks, his voice shaking bewilderedly. "Look!"

As your eyes start to accustom themselves to the brightness, you spot a straight, luminous line inside the device, with such brilliancy it glows pure white. Even the whole contraption is humming with raw power. Everything happens for just a few seconds before the light vanishes, leaving behind nothing but an empty, silent machine.

The workers who were standing around, witnessing everything, stay rooted at their feet, their eyes staring wide. "Did you see that? Did you see that!!" Elliot, the first one speaking, starts to jump in excitement, "That thing! That bright thing... is the most powerful laser beam ever created... by the gremlins! We did it!"

Everyone begins to shout and cheer and shake hands, some roaring cheers for the King, others bring out whatever drinks they're holding and toast each other. It was truly a miracle, and you would even swear you've seen nothing as brilliant and amazing as this invention.

Elliot switches off the machine and opens it, and indeed, there is nothing left inside where the minerals were. "The reaction consumed every single bit of the minerals, unleashing clean and effective energy... and truly devastating." He holds your hand and shakes them excitedly, "Thank you again so much, kind sir! I'm truly grateful for your gratitude. Your kindness is beyond anything I've ever seen, or felt, from anyone around here... No one here had given me a single lending hand, not even one..." Elliot's words wander off, and he seems to look into the far distant space. You can even imagine his thoughts drifting far away along with his empty stare.

He turns back to face you, "You helped me not just once, sir, but twice. Who are you exactly? You don't seem to be one of us... Are you from the orders of the Grand Arsenal? Or are you something else? A wanderer? A stranger?..." Elliot trembles as he try to keep eye contact with you, "Why... why have you come to this wretched place? Why... who... who are you?"

A- Tell Elliot your true identity and your assigned mission.
B- Deny every suspicion Elliot has made, and keep your current identity as the guard.
C- Hide and eliminate* Elliot in secret to prevent him from further making and spreading any conspiracies.

*In other words, destroy/kill

Note that a new chapter will be posted daily, after a majority vote is reached. Actually, I've delayed posting the 22nd chapter for a few hours. My apologies, if I caused any inconvenience.
Well, better be quick if you wanna make your answer count! ;)

Poor, poor Kevier... hiding in that backpack for so long, all for the sake of the mission. But don't worry, he won't be staying inside there for long ;)

A step ahead of yourself, eh? I'll wish you all the best for your future plans! :)

You make the ultimate choice of revealing everything to Elliot, that you are an outcast of Emberlight, a spy sent on a mission to disclose the secrets of the Arsenal, and in fact, not a guard on duty at all.

Elliot takes in every word you say, not believing anything at first, remarking once in a while with something like "You must be joking" or "Good Cradle!". But soon, he stops smiling in amusement, "Great Cradle! For goodness sake, you, an outcast, infiltrated this dangerous place all by yourself? What... a Knocker is with you? The knights sent you? I... I can't believe it!..." His face turns pale and you doubt he can remain standing for good. Before he can faint, you grab hold of his arms and bring him to a private spot.

"My apologies, old age gets into me often..." Elliot smiles weakly, "Well... you brave little young 'un... I admire your remarkable courage and strength. Indeed, the Grand Arsenal is dangerous, even more dangerous than anything else constructed in history. Project R is a meagre joke compared with it. It really is important for everyone - knights and gremlins - to know about the Arsenal's pressence. Why, I could've brought you to the guards, or even kill you by myself! But no... I have heart for the outcast; Seerus is a mad gremlin at work, not to mention the King." You can imagine Elliot spitting to the ground at that last statement, but he's probably too polite for that. "A lot of us are brought here by force; forced to work, forced to build, forced to invent mad inventions... My young one, get all the information you can to the knights, let them put a stop to this Arsenal, for we alone cannot overthrow Seerus by our own hands." Elliot salutes you, "Of course, I'm glad to be of service, in case you need any."

Just as he finishes speaking, you notice your backpack shaking around by itself, only that it's Kevier again. "Did you forget about me?" the Knocker squeaks, clearly very annoyed, "Why on Cradle did you tell everything to that old guy?! Can we really trust him? He's just a sick technician!"

"Oh, so that's your Knocker companion?" Elliot chuckles briskly, "You remind me of my children, when I was an outgoing man out there..."

"Good thing he's an ally... or I will leave you for good! Alone!" Kevier continues to shriek, "And you'll cry over your mistake! While I'll be in Emberlight, safe and-"

"Incoming transmission. Incoming tranmission." you hear a muffled sound calling out inside your backpack. Kevier rolls his eyes before he reaches in and pulls out a communication device.

"A message from Kora." Kevier hands over the device to you, "I think we're pretty much done for now."

[Continued at next post]

Thanks a lot for participating, we hope to see you soon!

You pull out your axe and strike a blow on the guard, who gets caught off guard by your sudden assault. You attempt to swing your axe once more, but the guard is really quick on his feet, dodging and countering your attack. Swiftly, he side-kicks you at your stomach, launching you off to the ground. He lunges towards you with another kick, but you roll away and barely miss it by an inch. Still in pain, you summon your last strength and give your axe a swing. It hits his leg, tumbling him down easily. But he manages to get up just as soon as he had fell down.

Out of nowhere, Kevier gets hold of his wands, dashing towards the guard. "Eat kaboom!" the Knocker unleashes a great blast, throwing the guard off further. Before the guard can make his next move, Elliot reaches out his taser and successfully electrocutes the guard. Thankfully, with Elliot's handy tool (and Kevier's last minute appearance), you can escape from the guards, for now.

"Quick! Into the elevator! Let me help you." Elliot sees that you're limping and helps you to walk. As the three of you heads in, Elliot pushes a white button in the console. "We've been delayed by that assault, and now that you're hurt, surely we'll get slowed down even more. Still, I thank you, for rescuing me form those guards."

"What about me? You guys always forget and ignore this tiny little gremlin!" Kevier smirks angrily, "I get into all the dangerous situations, and I have to suffer from your mistakes!"

"Don't make such a fuss, little one. We'll get out of here soon, I promise." Elliot replies comfortingly, "Even though we can't head to the exit directly from here, we can travel along an unguarded corridor, and then straight into another elevator. After this, we will get out of here. Alright, we've reach the corridor now, the door is opening. Now run!"

As soon as the door is wide open, the three of you charge forward for dear life. Just like what Elliot stated earlier, the whole passage was indeed unguarded. "How long will this take? Are we there yet?" Kevier would say whenever he slows down to gasp for air, and Elliot will simply reply, "Soon." and tug him forward a little more. After running seemingly for ever, the path suddenly branches out into two ways.

The left passage is downright pitch black, devoid of even a single flicker of light. The right passage is fully lit by the overhead lamps, and bright red caution lights, probably to alert the rest about your escape. "Uh... I can't remember which way leads to the elevator." Elliot scratches his head in frustration. "Oh, dear me! We got to find a way out now! Um, go left! No, no... is it right? No, wait! Oh, blast it!"

"Just head right!" Kevier suggests to you, "the lights should be able to guide us easily."

"No, we'll get noticed!" Elliot disagrees, "The darkness will hide us from the rest."

"It's pitch black in there! We won't see a thing, you old fool!" Kevier yells back at him, "And what if we bump into something?"

"Well, we're more likely to bump into an elevator," Elliot retorts before gazing back at you, "what do you think?"

Now you will have to decide which escape route to take, each with its own risk. Will it be left or right?

A- Left.
B- Right.

Thanks a lot for the compliments, and welcome to the new world of fanfic! :D

P.S.: If you've been wondering, I'd been reading through your recent fanfic, and it was fantastic ;)

You make up your mind and motion everyone to go right. Just as it appeared, the hallway is entirely flooded with bright lights and and blinking signals.

"I hope we're heading the right way," Elliot voices up, "and better pray hard we will not encounter any more-" Out of the blue, you hear something ahead of you - footsteps.

"Guards." Elliot finishes off shakily. Without thinking twice, all of you turn around sharply and run with all your might. But you are still too slow, and you begin to hear the footsteps approaching very quickly.

You glance back to take a look, only to be shocked by the sight of a large troop of gremlin guards, pursuing relentlessly. You try as hard as you can to get your legs working, but your heart feels like a bursting chamber inside you. When you start considering the notion of giving up, out of nowhere, a door flings out directly in front of you, and more guards start to pour out from it. This time, instead of gremlins, they're fierce and hostile Mecha Knights, built by the hands of your own kind. For now, however, they are the ones going after you.

Injured and tired, you can only stand still as the gremlins and Mecha Knights surround all of you from both sides, and you are greatly outnumbered to fight back. "So you Edgar?" One of the gremlin guards sneers at you, blinking its hideous, scarred eyes, "Me Ricky, nice see Edgar here. Now Edgar die!" Those are the last words you hear before you see a swinging axe, and feel your head hitting something hard before you fall to the ground...

[Continued at next post]