Chapter 28: Entire plan laid out

    Eryndor looked at everyone with a serious expression.

    "I know all of you are powerful, but can we deal with a senior? He is a proper Mage, the profession which never fights without preparation, and also has the ability of mind control."

    Eryndor could try to attack with his telekinesis but if Rodrick had a strong enough shield he wouldn''t be able to deal with it no matter how sharp or heavy the object he controlled was.

    He couldn''t hold Rodrick through telekinesis high up in the sky and then drop him, expecting him to turn into a meat paste.

    He had already experimented with the infected animals.

    It took an extremely high amount of energy of Consciousness to control something with consciousness.

    And it only increased if the person or beast in question was powerful. Controlling Rodrick who was a genuine mage was nearly impossible.

    Considering his Telekinesis was at Active grade which had a high probability of being level 3, he had an inkling that he might need to nearly drain himself dry to control Rodrick to that extent.

    No one answered him. Even Drakarion kept quiet when he heard that Rodrick was actually a learned mage.

    Eryndor was partly confused when he saw Drakarion''s reaction, shouldn''t he express some intent to fight? Was he the rational kind of battle maniac?

    Drakarion smiled wryly when he saw Eryndor looking at him weirdly. With an awkward laugh he explained.

    "My dad is a Mage."

    Everyone raised their eyebrows at that, no wonder having assumed that his dad would be a Martial Artist given how Drakarion was trained so professionally from childhood.

    If his dad was a Mage, it made sense why Drakarion would take Mages seriously.

    Although it was surprising, everyone''s attention soon returned to the matter at hand.

    "Wait wait."

    Paulina raised a finger with a frown, then spoke with a confident tone.

    "Both the boxes actually have the same property.

    "The one which is used to store the Mystical Artifacts and the one which is used to contain the anomalies are made the same way. Let''s call the former box 1 and the latter box 2 for convenience.

    "There are also two sensors, both of which can sense anomalies all the same. The only difference is one is connected to box 1. Let''s call this one sensor 1. Sensor 1 also has the function to unlock box 1 after sensing an anomaly.

    "Anyway, keeping that aside. The Anomaly is most probably not completely submissive yet.

    "And mind controllers use a very common technique when they encounter such situations of resistance.

    "Classical conditioning.

    "Use a hand gesture or any unique signal, fiercely use mind control ability to dominate the mind for a short period of time such that any resistance is futile, then give it a reward.

    "Over time, the resistance of the mind decreases after the hand gesture, as it associates it to a reward."

    Paulina once again extended her hand in Eryndor''s direction before continuing.

    "According to him, Rodrick used his anomaly to kill the opposition of the Mayor. And all anomalies have a compulsory need for killing living beings.

    "Those opposition party leaders were the rewards.

    "Are things coming together for everyone?

    "We just need one chance. Just one chance to witness the hand gesture.

    "As long as we know the hand gesture, we can perform it and do something else. Like hit the Anomaly or something. Anything which invokes resistance from it.

    "It will break the psychological conditioning. It will break or, worse, reset Rodrick''s mind control over the Anomaly.

    "We can tell this to professor Melissa.

    "As long as Rodrick performs any kind of weird moment, following which a new Anomaly attacks or things start going south, professor Melissa would know it was Rodrick''s work.

    "It is already proof enough, plus using this she can also disrupt Rodrick''s control on Anomaly, making it free. This will only cement the proof.

    "Since Anomalies are chaotic beings, there is a chance that they might fight among themselves rather than teaming up, which means the team could be saved."

    "This will put Rodrick in deep shit."

    Paulina panted heavily as she stopped talking.

    Everyone looked at her speechlessly before Eryndor spoke out their collective feelings.

    "You are fucking brilliant, Paulina."