Present day. . .

Light and the girl known as experiment#496 have arrived at the facility but they landed quite a distance from the actual building.

"Okay, so, here's the deal."

"Yes?"

"You're gonna use your time stop and we'll go inside together, but once inside, you go meet your supervisor. I want to investigate the facility on my own."

"Okay!"

"But remember, the most important part about this is the idea that you are completely alone. They must not know that I'm with you. And also, immediately run to me whenever you feel like you're in trouble."

"U-Understood."

"Okay. Let's go!"

The girl stops time. Everything has stopped moving. The entire world has been put to a halt once again. They both rush towards the facility immediately. 

Once inside, they both go their separate way. The girl went directly to where she last saw Michelle. She runs through the corridors within the facility. With each step she took, she's reminded about the nightmare they went through when they were young. She gets closer and closer towards the room where Michelle is held captive. The girl finally stops in front of the room and she manually opens the door and went inside.

"I'm home—"

Inside the room, there is a big glass window that separated the room. Behind the glass, there was a girl. The girl was put inside a pod and she was infused all over her body. The girl is wearing the same pale green hospital gown from back in the day, only larger in size. The girl's vein is visible throughout her body but the vein's color is green. The girl's eyes looked completely empty.

"—Mi-chan."

Michelle was inside the pod. The girl touches the glass window. The window and Michelle on the other side were engulfed in blue light. She returns the flow of time only inside this whole room including the girl.

". . .Aah. . .Wel. . .come. . .home. . ."

"Mi-chan. . ."

"You. . .could've. . .just. . .left me. . ."

"I'd rather die than to continue living without my one and only friend."

"You. . .really. . .are. . .a beautiful. . .flower. . .the symbol. . .of devotion. . .the flower 'Lily'. . ."

That was the name that was given to the girl by Michelle.

"This time, I'm really going to save you, Mi-chan."

Lily touches the glass window again. She engulfs the glass window in blue light and accelerates its time span and meant to turn it into dust, but she failed.

"Huh?"

Lily tried to do the same thing again. The glass window began to glow in blue light. And then the blue light disperses without Lily's control.

"This is. . ."

"You've been busy, Queen of Time!"

A man's voice suddenly came from behind her. Lily turns around slowly. She saw her most frightening nightmare. A man that has been planting fear deep inside Lily's heart for a long time. It was the number one strongest Believer, the one who stands on top, God's Word, Martin Wedhesle.

"Y-You. . .!"

"You seem surprised despite the fact that we've been through this for a very long time." Speaking of which, your time-stop is no more!"

As soon as the man utter that line, Lily's hold over time was released. Everything has started to move again and time has started to flow normally again.

"Ah, experiment#496 is here. You shouldn't have done that you know."

Another man's voice was heard inside the room. This time, the voice sounded a lot weaker. It was a lead scientist that has been supervising everything that Lily has been doing. The man himself isn't present inside the room, the voice came from a speaker that is usually used for announcements.

"So, you failed your mission, Experiment #496. You know what that means?"

"W-Wait. . ."

Lily's voice trembles.

"This is the consequence of your failure. Didn't we discuss this? You've been doing well this whole time. I praise your tenacity. It's such a shame that the long ten-year streak has ended."

"Stop. . ." Lily turns around slowly towards Michelle who's behind the glass.

Lily cannot use her Faith power. She was crippled by her mental state.

"Just know this."

Martin walks closer. He is now standing directly behind Lily.

"I knew about the boy. Strangely, I couldn't detect his presence with my Faith power, but I saw him on the satellite images that the facility gave me prior to your time stop. This was all his fault. It wouldn't have come down to this if it's not because of him. You know what to do next?"

          Meanwhile, at the same time when Lily reaches Michelle's room. . .

Light has found himself in a file room that has sensitive information written all over the cabinet.

"What are they even doing here? I didn't even ask her about this place." said Light as he's reading through pages of papers that he grabbed randomly from one of the many cabinets inside the room.

"Wait. . .Children as test subjects? HUMAN EXPERIMENT?"

Light dropped the papers he was holding in reflex. He then grabs another set of paper and reads through them fast. He grabs yet another and does the same thing until he reached the fifth file.

"It's all the same. They are developing Faith power in this facility on children. The method they used is mostly to build up emotional stress which has been proven to be the most effective way to strengthen someone's Faith power. And to think this has been going on for generations."

Light caught a glimpse of something that immediately caught his interest. He turned over towards a desk in the room where he saw a big folder. 

Light walks closely towards the table. He picks up the folder and immediately sees the writing on the front cover of the folder. It said "CREATION PROJECT".

"What the hell is this?"

CREATION PROJECT

EXPERIMENT #1

--------------

On the first day of the experiment. I, Professor Takaoji Hikaru, am directing this experiment as the lead scientist. Without further ado, we will now be conducting our first experiment of creating our own life, an Artificial Life. 

First, we're starting up and getting the equipment needed to be ready and fully functional. Next, we're preparing all the ingredients needed. Finally, we can start the experiment.

We put a certain amount of sperm, which came directly from the lead scientist himself, me, as our first experiment to a man-made womb that was created and invented by this facility. And now, we wait 9 months while we keep monitoring the condition of the sperm and the egg inside the womb.

9 months later, result: FAILURE

A baby was horribly deformed from the incubation. The test subject died immediately.

--------------

"Artificial human? They're creating humans here?" said Light with a very shocked tone.

He flips over to the second file. It is mostly the same experiment that was also a failure. Light flips the pages over and over until he just decided to flips it quicker. 

Starting from the 248th file, Light notices that there is now a photo of a baby on the page itself, meaning the experiment was a success for the first time. He reads the entry but it said the baby didn't grow old enough and died quickly before it can even talk. He flips the files quickly again as he notices that the images of the experiments are gradually growing older. 

When he reached the 344th file, he noticed a fully grown human child. It was a male. It has properly grown into a child. Then he reads the entry that the boy didn't develop any kind of Faith power after ten years so the test subjects were immediately disposed of.

"They killed a child just because he wasn't a Believer?"

Light quickly flips over the pages again. He saw so many boys' and girls' images throughout the files. He feels gradually angrier and angrier for every page he flips realizing how many children were killed just like that. Until he arrives at the 496th file.

CREATION PROJECT

EXPERIMENT #496

-------------------

Today makes the 496th experiment of the Creation Project and the 300th year of this long, long journey. I, Professor Adam Fraudia, am the current lead scientist of the Creation Project. 

For today's experiment, we will be conducting it with various changing variables. 

First, the sperm that we will be using is a mixed sperm. We gathered a certain amount of sperm from many different people from all around the world. The procedure for gathering the sperm consists of two ways. One, we use all the men in this facility to let out their sperm. Two, we ask for sperms from hospitals all around the country. Next, we would mix a certain portion of each sperm section to be put inside the man-made womb. And now, we wait another 9 months while monitoring the development of the embryo inside.

9 months later, result: SUCCESS

Experiment #496 has finally born fruit. The Creation Project has finally seen the light at the end of a tunnel. A complete human baby was successfully created from the experiment today without any abnormality. Continue to monitor the baby until he/she develops a certain kind of Faith for this Project to actually give results.

5 years later, Faith Power: AWAKEN

Experiment #496 has developed the power to manipulate time. We have finally created a superhuman with a strong Faith power. Further plans for the usage of the experiment remain on standby.

------------------

"Experiment #496? This is her. She is an artificial human. . ."

Light was shocked to see Lily's face in her younger days showed up in the paper he read.

"The ability to manipulate time, this is definitely her. I didn't expect this kind of background from her."

Suddenly, a bright light pierces through the room. Light recognizes this light immediately as he saw this same light a lot since last night. Behind the dazzling blue light, a girl figure is approaching him fast. 

That was Lily. Her right hand was glowing and then she uppercuts him. Light's chin transforms automatically on contact thus nullifies any damage, but gigantic momentum filled her punch that sends Light towards the ceiling and even pierces through multiple ceilings until he's outside the facility. 

Light's back has transformed on impact and was unharmed. He was flinging in the air but he recovers. He transformed his legs and began to float using whirlwinds that he gathers on his feet. Light also notices that most of the facility's building is gone. Lily emerges with swords behind her back and floats in the sky as well.

"LILY-SAN! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"It wasn't supposed to end this way."

"What?"

"Everything was fine. I had it under control until YOU showed up!"

"What are you saying all of a sudden?"

"I wasn't able to use this last night so, this time, it's gonna be different!" said Lily as she summons her sword and points it towards Light.

"STOP THIS, LILY-SAN!"

"Second State!"

*!!!*

Chapter 3 ~ The One who calls me friend

~END~

Next chapter ~ My Dearest friend