"Are they breathing?"
"No. . . but they're not dead either. These aren't corpses. . .", Kan'na confirmed.
Further into the room the tubes seemed to wrap tighter across the bodies, slowly moving to encompass them. Until at the end of the room, where the bodies were entirely wrapped by the tubes. Like in some sort of chrysalis.
"Any theories on what this could be?", Tilia asked.
"Currently testing its sensitivity to spells before I start examining it thoroughly.", Kan'na probed about with small magic circles.
While Kan'na began her examinations, Tilia continued examining the room. It was like a large steel warehouse. Rusted metal made the floors, walls, and ceilings. Considering the lack of waterproofing it was unknown if the flooding was intentional or accidental. Those tied to the ceiling were dripping wet, the sound of water droplets hitting the floor rang about as the hundreds joined in the horrific tune.
With her eyes Tilia traced the tubes from the ceiling. They spread about like vines clinging to a building. Thicker towards the end of the room where they formed the strange chrysalis. The strings didn't seem to be connected to anything however, they faded away after a certain point.
With the jungle of strange tubes Tilia was unable to determine where they originated from. It was a maze, one of several levels. It was basically impossible for her to sort through them with just her eyes.
Besides the unnerving sight of these people, there wasn't anything else in the room. Remembering the advice of sticking together Tilia didn't wander too far from Kan'na. She didn't wish to join the victims tied to the ceiling.
The room hummed and the floor vibrated. In a blank space on the ceiling a body fell, being caught by the strings and they hung from the ceiling. Slowly tubes grew from the mass and slowly wrapped themselves around the newcomer's arms.
Tilia whispered, "Hala. . ."
"Okay so that confirms the existence of some other room. For Hala to only appear here now means she went through something first.", Kan'na tried to make sense of what was happening.
From what she could tell the tubes nor the strings were sensitive to any foreign mana. Thus she slowly increased the level of magic circles to prepare a deep scan on their properties. As the magic circles completed their works she crossed her arms and began to rant out her theories, "It's likely those who are taken are processed first. Put through some sort of spell or preparation before being hung here.
"There wasn't anything off with the water when I drained it, it lacked any unique properties which makes me think this room wasn't supposed to be flooded. The strange tubes slowly wrap the victims, eventually encompassing them entirely. . ."
Slowly Kan'na began to trail off as she fell more into thought. Tilia felt tense in this situation, like something unknown was lurking about. With her nerves taut she asked, "From a magic perspective what are your thoughts?"
"There's usually a bit of symbolism involved with physical aspects of a spell. The tubes forming the strange chrysalis should symbolize change, or transformation. It's best if the physical aspects of a spell hold similarities to its purpose, the reason for that is due to the lack of runes. You have to convey the idea properly to mana for the best effect."
"Under this assumption: something is kidnapping people and turning them into. . . what exactly?"
"That the issue, my preliminary scans aren't showing anything inside the tubes. Yet they are hollow, maybe they only trigger after a certain amount of time has passed? Or is whatever they're supposed to be filled with being blocked in transit?"
"There's also the chance that the reserves are empty and its simply incapable of finishing its job.", Tilia provided her thoughts.
"With the age of this place that theory can also be true. I'll send a ping down one of the tubes and see where it ends up."
"You mentioned they weren't dead right?"
"Definitely not, if the transforming theory is true they definitely can't kill their victims. Only the undead have the method to reanimate the dead, and any other attempts will be deemed Heresy by the World. So they have to keep them alive, or in a form of stasis. Unless they're flesh golems, but this is far too complicated for that."
"Perhaps Yolden was right about them being frozen in time.", Tilia narrowed her eyes.
"In a way, he's certainly worked for the title of expert despite his overbearing arrogance. This form of stasis isn't really time based though, it's similar to the method I used with Torch. A form of suspended animation, they're alive but not functional."
"Think they're conscious?"
"I don't think so. I shudder to think what would go through their minds if they were though."
Gesturing with her hand Kan'na requested, "Walk with me, I want to find the oldest victim and see how its progressing."
"No problem."
The two walked down the room towards the back end of the wall. Around halfway Tilia called out, "Wait. That's Kayne isn't it?"
She pointed upwards towards a figure dressed in luxurious robes and a crown. His robes were soaked wet, and his crown lost a lot of its luster. Yet it held a stark similarity to Kayne in the replay, the outfit was the same!
Kan'na nodded, "That's indeed the King. By the looks of the tubes, he shouldn't be too far into the process. With the timeframe of his disappearance. . .", she suddenly shook her head, "I can't calculate how long the oldest ones have been here."
"That's not important. Look at his position compared to the others."
Frowning Kan'na made a guess, "It's sorted by date. . ."
Moving her pointing finger Tilia slowly adjusted to point at the entrance to the room, "Kayne was kidnapped a few weeks ago."
"If we're under the impression that the ones at the back are the oldest ones here, and those by the entrance are the fresher ones. . .", Kan'na quickly came to a realization, "It's getting faster by the moment! There's no way there would only be this many if this pace was maintained since the start of the NPC disappearances."
Tilia opened the forums to their contact with Eternal Candle, "I requested any information about this from Eternal Candle when I first learned about Kayne's disappearance. A lot of the NPC appearances at the start were typical situations. Murderous players, victims of monster attacks, the norm. However some of the oldest disappearances with no found reason are dated before A World's Legacy was launched."
Scrolling through the information Tilia found the list, "Here, there was this one individual who was the oldest to go missing at the start. A guy who went by the name of Wyrell. . ."
Kan'na snapped her fingers and the two teleported to the oldest victim tied to the ceiling. The tube chrysalis was long since formed. Yet with several magic circles Kan'na began to unravel these tubes, slowly revealing the ones inside.
As the victim's face became visible Tilia formed a frown, "It's him. . . he looks exactly like the image."
Kan'na pressed a hand to her forehead, "So this confirms two things. They're definitely in stasis. They're not aging in here. Secondly, if this device started before A World's Legacy was launched it verifies our theory of it getting faster. The bodies aren't being harvested nor being used as batteries. You can't do that while they're in stasis. . . so why is it getting faster?"
Tilia added, "This also means that either the conditions of the transformation haven't been filled, or my theory of it lacking the resources is true."
Nodding along Kan'na asked, "Any information on how long the oldest missing person has been gone for?"
"No, it was considered a lost cause during launch too. Even the poster was barely holding on."
"In that case I'll stop trying to estimate how much faster it's gotten. For now I'm simply glad that we found it when we did."
Pressing a hand to the rusted steel wall Tilia asked, "Any other rooms nearby? We're definitely missing something here."
Kan'na pointed towards the center of the mass of tubes, "There. My ping ran up the tubes vertically that way."
"Are we teleporting there?"
"Hold on, going to make some preparations."
Several magic circles formed and hovered around each victim. Additionally a large magic circle formed on the floor and slowly spun, awaiting a command. Tilia watched this and asked, "What's the purpose?"
"I should be able to free everybody, but I won't be able to undo the stasis without more studying. In the scenario that I am taken as a victim and are put in stasis these circles will automatically activate and teleport everybody back to the castle grounds. There I hope the gathered experts can figure out the reason for the stasis, and how to undo it."
"What about the scenario I become a victim?"
"I'd still be conscious to get you out."
"Fair enough, ready when you are."
"Beginning to think we really should get some backup.", Kan'na sighed ruefully before snapping her fingers and causing the two to teleport.