Chapter 53: Interlude of the Matter Leech III
*Ping!* You have killed a [Being]!
*Ping!* Bonus experience for killing the One and only!
*Ping!* Less experience is gained for killing a lower-level Monster! Experience gain is reduced!
*Ping!* Less experience is gained for killing a lower-level monster with the help of others! The experience gained is reduced!
*Bing!* [Monster, Beast-kin, Dwarven, Human, half-bloods, and now the unknown. You are non-discriminate when it comes to getting results, even if it opposes the Faith. Congratulations!] {Title ~ In the Name} has been earned!]
*Ping!* You have received an experience bonus!
*Bing!* [Though your sect may have failed at creating the intended, the system would like to reward you for creating something of Nothing. Congratulations!!!] {Title ~ Nothings Ablaze} System Err0r.. title has been earned]!
*Ping!* You have received an experience bonus!!
*Bing!* [Nothing has chosen not to acknowledge your existence. Congratulations! {Title ~Unacknowledged} has been earned]!
*Ping!* You have received an experience bonus!!
*Bing!* [You have been seen and now you will be sought. Congratulations!] {Title ~ Watched} has been earned]!
*Ping!* You have received an experience bonus!
*Bing!* [You have killed the special boy so you will inherit a special curse.] {Curse~Intruder}! A title has been given!]
*Ping!* You have received an experience bonus!!
Silence descended upon the 16th Facility as sic to seven groups of Dwarves all prone to madness held their bated breaths. Dwarven eyes the color of oil cling onto one glass chamber in pairs. Dwarven eyes fain a new light, a light given and gone in a flash after the sacrifice of a prepubescent hope. Does the oil thicken before or after another act of failure is taken note of? A work of the Gods isn't deemed a failure until the Doctor gives his final statement.
Doctor Walt Stoneye raised his head in anticipation. He hadn't seen or heard the sound of so many notifications since- Well, since the beginning.
The same system notifications that all thirty people in the newly remodeled lab had received. Though it would be normal to open the system's notifications after leveling. Thirty knowledgeable members of the sixteenth facility had instead looked at each other in bewilderment.
“Did it work!” One of the Dwarfman in his white robes with green linings had asked. His voice was so carefree you would think him opening a present lost in delivery.
Doctor Walt Stoneye stared at his two assistants Bosvin and Vrenan as the siblings looked back at him with fading glances and sour faces. Glances that were positively shocked to see notifications for the death of one child, instead of the previously counted failures. Two faces fell seeing the empty glass chamber. Another face fell reading the system notifications.
“This can’t be!” The man had been sure that his compatriots would have a breakthrough by now.
He was unable to douse disappointment that would soon grow in the others after they read the sour fruit their research had borne.
“It should have worked! I've sacrificed too much!” Another man in white robes next to the first couldn’t contain his outburst, haunted by scrutiny.
A second man to vent his anger in his finely pressed and dry-cleaned robes walked towards the glass chamber, ready to bang on the glass for dear life. A life among the many he had brought to the furnace including his own in some form of sacrifice.
Two men the most likely of accomplices were scrambling to find a silver lining.
Four other participants finished praying around the chamber. Watching the two men who spoke out of turn with caution. The four people closest to the two men rushed to restrain them before they damaged or destroyed the precious lab equipment. Equipment brandishing the hopes and dreams of those prone to madness.
In trying to restrain two people, six heretics all a few feet too close to the glass chamber had dropped to the ground screaming in pure anguish and agony.
“It burns!” A dwarf man whose name was of stone screamed, as blue writhing veins appeared on his face rippling across his body, taking root under his hands and burning his skin.
He wasn’t the only heretic to roll back and forth across the floor in front of the chamber.
“Help! Please!” A sister in name pleaded to her prayer men and fellow [Heretics]. She would also feel what the expressionless boy had felt minutes ago. Blue wriggling and writhing veins appeared on her face burning her skin and boiling her blood.
Silence came from the third, fourth, and fifth who had dropped to the floor without giving any sign of life as far as words may communicate.
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The sixth Heretic had fallen to the ground with a single complaint. His appearance in seconds had changed from living to one of the dead.
Doctor Stoneye and his two main assistants watched stunned, unable to move as the remaining [Heretics] backed away from the rather confusing scene.
After believing that the faith had abandoned them, Vrenan had thought the six had lost their minds. In comparison, her brother Bosvin had continued to read over his system notifications only caring about staying in the lead in their ongoing rivalry.
Doctor Stoneye, had been detailing the following events undisturbed by the little lapse in hysteria his accomplices had started. He was usually nagging about maintaining a manageable volume in his lab. It would’ve only taken a second for him to demand silence, but Stoneye was too absorbed in his work, wondering what went wrong this time around. He thought about examining the bodies of the six but instead kept his eyes on the chamber harboring Project Geodine.
Dr.Stoneye left the cleanup to Vrenan and Bosvin, had better things to do.
Bosvin a Dwarf taller and more muscular than average, had said something unbelievable causing everyone to look in his direction which wasn’t hard given his acquired classes as [Brute guard] and [Assistant director].
“I’ve been cursed!” He stated, completely bewildered by the system's plight.
The room fell silent upon hearing the man's proclamation.
"Ahhhhhh!!!!" A heretic screamed in agony and torment after touching the body of one of the six fallen comrades.
“Don’t touch the bodies!” Vrenan had shouted in caution, creeping up into fear. She didn’t know why but intuition was enough for someone of intelligence to be wary. In facilities like the 16th madness tended to be contagious but whatever they were witnessing was beyond madness.
“The child couldn’t have been a monster” was the last thing Stoneye had said before scratching his ear in confusion ignoring a broken tune. Turning around on the protruding banister, he looked behind himself to see nothing but the elevator door he had entered from.
The Doctor realized his mistake and moved on with the following procedure. Surrounded by so many heretics one of them must have had a curse removal skill.
“Experiment eighty-five, Subject sixty-two! Has been a failure, someone attends to the Cracked!” Stoneye had almost given up hope as well, but madness could not easily be overcome by a few failures. It was simply easier to put back on a face he had forged for this particular task.
He had demanded the remaining members of the 16th to clean up the assistants and heretics who he presumed had lost their minds. It wasn't the first time he had seen someone lose their mind and it wouldn’t be the last.
The remaining [Heretics] followed the orders of their appointed sect leader. Ready to continue the routine of luring the lost. Unmoved by the expressionless child, unbothered by all that came and went with.
To everyone remaining in the lab, the child was just another number, another failure to all except one.
Blind since birth a, [Heretic] of faith had been moved to tears by the blaze left in front of his eyes. Sightless eyes, this one Heretic had planned to attune to mana ever since he arrived at the 16th facility.
He had seen small flickering blazes inside the glass chamber barely noticeable before the lab became chaotic. No one else in the lab had witnessed the scene. A scene that made him have trouble controlling the weakness in his knees for his prayers had finally been answered. But what would be his fate if he was to speak of success?
Though it was rather tempting to speak of the unbridled Blaze that burned even brighter after setting six white coats a flame. Eian was a heretic but not of the same faith. That is why he had refused to choose a class prone to madness. Whether it was a smart decision or not, he refused to become what he thought was lesser. But what could be lesser than a blind Stone? Why would Eian make his life even harder, desperately chasing after someone else's goal? His hopes and dreams had always diverged from the other Heretics since the day he was born. Though they’re paths crossed in life at the church's orphanage he had always been alone grasping at straws, losing his faith and regaining it again, and again.
“Brilliant” he whispered, taking in his first sight of light. Eian was captivated by the sight, walking closer to the dwindling light blue and red sparks, observing how they flickered in and out of the outer lines of the chamber only to morph back into the small little blaze, growing some more and flickering apart.
What he saw in the coming hours made him tremble in fear and regret. Out of everyone in the lab, he had been the most frightened by what he saw in the glass chamber. All the while he kept his cool, scared of being labeled a Shattered or Cracked.
He had watched the corpses that smelled of burning rubber in fear, the numbers rose until Vrenan had sounded the emergency alarm.
"Those members close to the burning and boiling corpse were told to keep a distance by the woman.
“Eian, get back to work!” Vrenan had shouted seeing the heretic slack off.
“We have to put it out.” He mumbled by mistake.
“What was that?” she replied looking down at the blind man not that he had noticed.
“I would like to have a discussion, Miss Vrenan!,” Eian raised his voice just a bit and made sure to stare aimlessly at the chamber so that no one would find out about his new secret.
The other members of the lab ignored him like they always did while a select few tended to Eian out of habit.
He had made up his mind to get as far away from the 16th facility as possible. Eian had always been aware of what was going on around him but like so many other members of the facility, he had been convinced that it was for the greater good. There was no convincing the Mad that what they were doing was wrong and maybe that made Eian a hypocrite for staying all this time, but he didn’t care. He was only worried about his own life and what came next. He had to make up for what he had helped do to all those people, even if that meant hopping out of the furnace.
Eian was enamored by the blaze flickering in the glass chamber, hoping with all his might that it would spread. He would soon talk to Vrenan and needed a reason to take a trip to the inner cities.
"If only the blaze would stop dying out." He mumbled.
"What was that Eian?" A partner nearing personal assistant had witnessed his incoherent mumbling.
"Can you tell me what happened after experiment eighty-five, Subject sixty-two?" He had sought out reassurance on what his eyes had seen.
"Do you ever know what's going on around you?" Vrenan quipped staring at Eian in his clueless eyes. "Fine, the experiment was a failure. We seem to have a break or a leak in Project Geodine. Bosvin's taking the lead as always. The guys were a bit euphoric about all the Titles the latest has brought in. Here we were thinking we'd seen the last of the Achievements until we reached success. That's all you've missed."
"Thanks, friend." He said a bit unsure of where they stood after all these years.
"We're not friends, I'm just doing my job."
"After all these years-," Eian was cut off before finishing his sentence.
"I have better things to do than babysit a guy who can't even see his Aspects." The stones rarely had any kinship among each other that Eian knew.
"That's fair." He stated. Averting his eyes from the remaining flickers on what he thought to be thirteen corpses. He moved for Assistant Director Vrenan's office putting his hand along the metal banister. Eian had succeeded in giving reason to his mumbling, making sure no one took his ramblings for madness.