“Wait, what? Replicate the powers of a god!” Shade exclaimed. “That is just absurd.”
Even Onyx slipped his head in the room at that. “A-Are you sure?”
“As much as the pain I had to endure when those monsters pumped their nefarious liquids in me.” She breathed out, and again, Meera was reminded of how human that gesture was. She was breathing out her anger. A thing, until now, Meera didn’t know rats could do.
She eyed the contents of the beakers in the room. There were more of them than the last two rooms combined. That was not all. There were other things in the room that were not present in the previous rooms, like different sets of beakers whose names she had studied in chemistry class but could not recall. There were a bunch of diaries lying about instead of the singular one. Then, there were the cages that contained the rotten corpses of rats. There must have been a few dozen of them, but Meera couldn’t tell which one was Cinders’.
“How can they attain the power of a god by experimenting on animals?” Meera asked as she stared at the cages.
“We were only the first step of their experimentation,” Cinders said. “Once they couldn’t get out of us what they needed, they moved on to experimenting on humans, and by Mirithia, their screams still haunt me.”
Meera frowned. “You were alive when they brought in humans?”
She shook her head. “I was dead after the first two years, but I wasn’t gone. I was the first ghost of this place. But I didn’t make myself known, or only the gods know what they would’ve done to me. I watched from the shadows what those monsters were doing. I watched them dig more tunnels and bring more animals for their experiments. Each animal was cut into, their parts dissolved in acid to create their crystals. But they were never satisfied. Time after time, each crystal was deemed a failure. And more animals were put on tables to dissect. New organs were removed to try new ways of pulling out their skills. They always found new ways of torturing us. To the point, I was relieved that I was already dead.”
“Did you see us?” Shade asked. “Did you see them bring us in?”
Cinders lowered her head. “I did.”
Shade had nothing to say. What could he say? He couldn’t berate her for doing nothing. She might be dead, but she was still a rat.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t do anything,” Cinder said. “Back then, I was too scared. All I could do was watch. I think the curse had already begun to set on this place, which was why I couldn’t just leave or ascend.”
“When did they bring in the humans?” Meera asked.
“About three years before this place went to…well, to its current state,” Cinders replied. “If I thought the experimentation on animals was bad, what they did to those poor lads and lasses was unspeakable. Those bloodcurdling screams were nothing compared to us animals.”
“All because they wanted to attain Darthin’s powers,” Meera said.
“That is correct,” Cinders said. “I saw some of them myself, and I have never seen such acts of butchery ever. They kept them alive and awake as they cut into them. Those humans begged for death, but they wouldn’t give them the release from pain. The head researcher said their pain would be the fuel needed to start the fire that would attain them godhood.”
“But I saw in the diary that they were trying to replicate Onyx’s strength and speed and Shade’s sight,” Meera said.
“Yes, those fuckers took my eyes when I was still alive,” Shade added.
“A-And my muscles and h-heart,” Onyx squeaked from the door.
“I’m sorry for your pains,” Cinders said. “Almost everyone in here went through something similar. Those bastards spared no one. They were doing smaller experiments first, trying to replicate one thing or another in each animal before moving on to more difficult objectives like trying to replicate skills from other humans, and once they succeeded in that. Then they reached for their ultimate goal of duplicating Darthin’s powers of granting skills and creating classes.”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“Were they able to succeed?” Meera asked, doing her best to keep her voice steady. “Did this Ed—the head researcher able to accomplish his goal?”
“I don’t know,” Cinders replied. “All I know is that towards the end, I was confined to this room where I had died. One random day about a year ago, my soul was pulled back to this room where I had died, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not leave. It was like I was stuck here. But I heard the people in my room say how the head researcher had placed a spell on all the rooms as he feared the reprisal when they figured out what he was trying to do. They talked of rumors of the dead coming back to life, which, at this point, we know are true.”
“Wait a minute, who’s reprisal are you talking about?” Shade asked.
“The gods’,” Meera answered him. “The boss of these sick experiments would have started seeing the signs of anger of the gods for what he was trying to achieve here.”
“That’s right,” Cinders said. “Maybe it was Darthin that placed the curse himself, or maybe it was Virelia or the damned fool inadvertently did it all by himself. After being stuck here, I only heard what I could from the three men in my room. The talk of rumors became assured when they spoke of how the returned would not die, even when they burned their bodies. They went away for a while but then returned.”
Meera’s eyes widened, and she glanced at Onyx, and though he was a horse, she could read his face clearly, for she was thinking the same thing. The reason the wraiths seemed unending is because they are. I’ve been killing the same ones again and again.
“One good thing the researcher did was place these barriers on the tunnels as he must have suspected he might fail and the dead would overrun this place,” Cinders said. “This is the only reason we can sit here and talk without the wraiths devouring us, because he wanted to safeguard his life’s work, no matter how heinous it is.”
“But then, how come we can come in here and those decomposing fools cannot?” Shade asked.
“Because you’re animals who the Researcher trapped in here with his protective spells,” Meera said. “And I’m pretty sure the gods only cursed the humans and not the animals, and from what I’ve seen, it seems like the barriers only protect against cursed souls, like the wraiths.”
“So, let me get this straight,” Shade said, pacing upside down on the ceiling. “ET and his folk experiment on us and other humans and then ended up getting themselves cursed, but not before setting up these safe havens. Oh, and all the humans who died here are cursed and turn into those mindless beasties outside. Now, ET is still here but, like you said, sleeping, most likely with the—”
“Crystal of Darthin,” Meera finished for him. “It’s the item I came in here to find. Not of my own volition, but a witch named Kalrina sent me, and now I know why.”
Cinders gasped. “Does she have yellow hair and belong to the Sisters of Akhessai?”
Meera gave a slight nod as her heart raced.
“She was here…almost ten years ago. She helped the researcher set this cave up, supplied him with equipment, and told him no one would find him and that she would help him in any way she could or send helpers along the way.”
That’s how she knew of this place and the Crystal. Meera’s anxiety was slowly turning into anger. “She knew of all this. Everything that happened here, and instead of coming here herself, she sent me as her mule.”
“Okay, so can we leave this place forever, and you can go get your revenge,” Shade said.
“Unfortunately, we cannot, not until he is still here,” Cinders said. “Around the time they brought in humans was when I seriously tried to escape this place. It took me a while, but I found the escape route. But I could not leave the cave, just like we couldn’t leave our rooms, no matter how much I tried. I feel that we’re stuck in this place until the curse of the researcher is lifted.”
“This is not what I was expecting when I came here,” Meera said. “And I made a deal with Kalrina that I would bring the Crystal in exchange for information on my brother. Looks like we have similar interests. I will get you all out of here, but for that to happen, I need your help.”
“What do you need?” Cinders asked.
“Survey the other rooms, and if the door is open, go in and find out if there are more crystals like the ones I found in your room. And Cinders—”
“There are two crystals in that brown box over there.” She pointed to her left.
Meera smiled. “Thank you.”
Cinders and Shade moved out of the room, with Cinders pointing out directions and telling the bat where to fly so that he could get there through the walls to the next tunnel. Of course, Onyx was nowhere to be found, but he returned as soon as the two had cleared out.
“Thought someone should be here, keeping an eye on you,” he said.
Meera snorted. “Thanks.”
She moved to the box and opened the first one. Inside was a gray crystal.
[Crystal of Soul Binding – You can bind a soul to you and call upon them in your time of need.]
Meera frowned, as it was a good crystal, and it wasn’t like she was in short supply of ghosts nearby. Some were friendly, but most were not. She figured she could get a good enough price for it or figure out how to use it later. She dropped it in her Hoard Belt and moved to the next box. It held a bright purple crystal, which seemed to glow slightly in the dark.
[Crystal of Darthin’s Essence – This crystal has been blessed by Darthin. By running your Mana through this crystal, you can improve your Mana’s potency to the point that you will use a fraction of your Mana for your skills.]
Meera grinned. Now, that’s more like it.