The man laughed mocking at Altair. "Just because you're a child doesn't mean we won't treat you like an adult." There was too much at stake for them to treat Altair as they would normally treat a child found in that situation. Plus, her answers didn't give them any clue as to what happened yet. Furthermore, she wasn't acting like a child normally would be at her age.

Sure, Gene Stimulants caused children to mature faster than they normally would as they grew up. However, Altair appeared to be between seven and nine years old. At that age, they wouldn't be able to keep calm in this kind of situation. They should be pleading to see their parents or something along those lines. But Altair wasn't like that. She was completely calm, as if the situation she wasn't in wasn't a problem or a big deal to her at all.

Thus, the man stood up straight again and motioned to someone behind Altair, "We have ways of making you talk."

Altair turned her head to look behind her as she heard people moving around.

After a moment of light blindness, she was able to see what was behind her. There were two men in white coats standing next to a push cart. On the cart was a bottle of some clear liquid and one of the men punctured the top of it with a syringe. He then pulled the syringe out and moved to stick Altair with it.

'Some kind of drug?' Altair thought to herself as a smirk formed in her mind. 'Guess it's time to try out that new Magic I thought up.'

She burned some Mana as the man wiped something soft against her neck and the other man forcibly tilted Altair's head to the side. She then felt a pinch and she concentrated her Mana in that area. Soon she felt something get injected into her neck that her Mana immediately began fighting against.

This was a new type of Magic Altair had come up with as soon as she had learned about all the veins in her body and how they interacted with her organs. It was the first time she was attempting the Magic that would be able to neutralize poisons that may get in her system. The reason she didn't try using this Magic on the dart that stuck to her was because she was caught by surprise and, by the time she realized what it was, it was already too late for her to try.

But now, she knew it was coming and had used the Magic before it even entered her system. She didn't know if it would be successful though.

The two men stepped back into the darkness behind her as the man before her crossed his arms with a smug look on his face, "It won't be long before you tell us everything you know."

Altair felt light headed after half a minute. She still felt her Mana fighting against the drug within her system but it had trailed up to her brain. She knew that the drug was losing but it was also advancing towards its objective. However, she judged that it would be eradicated before it took effect so she didn't worry too much about it.

After another minute and a half the drug had been purged from her system, but Altair let her head hang limply before her. 'I don't know what effect that drug is,' she thought to herself, 'But if I can use it to my advantage I will.'

The man before her looked at the men behind her. They both nodded, which resulted in him sitting down on the other side of the table. He placed his hands before him and asked, "Now, what is your name?"

Altair's brow twitched briefly, 'This again? Whatever.' She simply replied, "Allie."

The man before her nodded then asked, "Who is Number One?"

"Number One is Number One."

The man frowned, "Is that all you know about him?"

"Yes."

The man scratched his nose before he took a deep breath and asked, "What is the device that generated that energy spike?"

Altair smirked while her head was still hung down, 'Was this supposed to be a drug that forced me to tell you everything you asked? What to do...' She went silent for a while, which prompted the man to tap his finger against the table as he waited.

The man knew that, sometimes, guarded secrets would take longer for the drug to force out. He also knew that he would, sometimes, have to repeat the question multiple times. But, in the end, they would always answer. So, he waited patiently.

After an appropriate amount of time, he asked again, "What is the device that generated that massive energy signature on the photos?" He even tapped the pictures before Altair for extra emphasis, however Altair didn't look up.

Instead, she finally replied with, "There is no device." She knew that they probably wouldn't believe her even if she said that. Thus, she had no problems admitting it. But her neck was starting to hurt from the weight of her head in the awkward position she was in so she was getting tired of the act she was putting on already.

The man cast a disbelieving look at the two men behind Altair. Both of them shrugged. No one in the room expected this answer. Not knowing exactly how he should proceed, he turned his head behind him toward a one way mirror and gave it a prompting look. He then heard some orders from an earpiece he had in his ear and turned back to Altair. "If it wasn't a device that caused it, then what did?"

Altair went silent again. She was silent for a long while before the man asked again, "Answer me. If there was no device then why did we detect such an energy reading?"

Altair lifted her head up and took a deep breath while she made a show of looking around the room, completely fine. This caused both of the men behind her to gasp in shock. The man before her had his eyes open as wide as saucers.

A truth serum lasts for at least two hours but it had only been ten minutes at most!

This was completely ridiculous.

Altair ignored their shock as she gave the man a flat look and said, "Interesting drug. It won't work again." She had planned that out, roughly. She didn't know how effective it would be to admit part of the truth and to give it more credence by admitting that what she just said was true. But she was sure it would be enough for them to not harm her too bad and to, perhaps, reveal who they were.

The man cast a glare at the two people behind Altair and motioned for them to give her another shot. He then turned the look on Altair and said, "We'll see about that." He wasn't willing to believe her claims. After all, it was a drug that was injected into a vein that would carry it straight to the brain. Even if Altair's brain had shaken off the effects extremely quickly, it shouldn't be able to stop the effects from happening at all.

Altair received another shot in the same fashion as before. She also burned some Mana to use the new Magic she had created to deal with it in the same way. Only, this time, she resisted letting her head fall forward and acted completely fine even as she felt herself get light headed.

After several minutes of her acting like nothing was wrong, the man before her slammed his hands on the table far harder than every time before. The table bent inward slightly under the impact.

This told Altair that he had accepted what she said, even if it frustrated him. Thus, she smiled at him while saying, "Told you. So, what's next? Another drug, maybe?" She looked around with an indifferent gaze that infuriated the man.

He cast a cold look at her as he stood to his feet, "No. I won't waste our resources if you have some kind of way of dealing with drugs." He did a different motion to the two people behind Altair, causing her to turn and look at what was happening behind her. "We have other ways of forcing the information from your lips."

Behind her, two larger men in tactical gear that Altair couldn't identify properly walked over. One of them pulled out a gun that she recognized immediately as the kind that shot those darts. She then burned over a bucket of Mana on the new Magic she made in preparation for the drug. She knew that the kind of drug in those darts was far more potent and worked extremely fast. She didn't want to lose consciousness at all.

With a light popping noise, Altair felt a pinch on her shoulder. She rushed the Mana over and felt it immediately fighting inside of her. The drug spread quickly, and the Mana did as well. It felt like ants were crawling all over her body, but they were all under her skin.

Her vision went black for a moment as she lost consciousness briefly. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself being lifted out of her chair by her arms. The two burly men had hold of one of her arms each in their hands. Her legs were dangling in midair as they were both almost twice her height.

'Excellent,' she thought to herself. 'The knowledge of the Empire is truly useful for creating new Magic. I suppose I should call this one Cleansing Magic? I'll go with that.'

Her eyes were barely open as they carried her out of the room.