Alim attempted to evade the sharp blade, but it still grazed his face with a light but noticeable cut. The impact caused tiny motes of green light to flutter out of the wound.
With the blue metal pole gripped tightly, he struggled to halt his hasty backward slide, barely dodging the sharp blade's newest swing. Beads of sweat dripped from his brow and ran down his damp blond hair. His breathing was ragged and difficult, and he swallowed hard in an attempt to steady himself.
He stared viciously at his newest opponent, a young man with dusty grey hair. No, he could not call this thing a young man; it was a child in the form of a man, and who was to blame for this subject's circumstance no one but Alim himself.
The emotionless grey eyes of the test subject stared at Alim before it leaped forward at a blinding speed. His opponent's blade swung in a beautiful arc aimed right for the base of his neck, where his life seed was. If it was not for the constant battles over the last decade of this ludicrous experiment, then this could have been the end of Alim.
Alim forcefully plunged the metal pole into the ground, blocking the blade's path. The collision of metal produced an echoing sound, causing Alim to chuckle. Without delay, Alim firmly grasped the test subject’s wrist and shoulder, lifting them into the air and hurling them onto the metal pole protruding from the ground.
A mechanical clap echoed in the room as Alim fell to the ground, exhausted, “Excellent job! The test duration persisted for a total of twenty-two minutes and eighteen seconds, seven minutes and forty-three seconds longer than the previous day.”
“HAHA! It seems my baby brother has grown quite strong since I left him in your care, Vanir.” Gran chuckled as he watched the body attempt to stand, but the metal pole through its chest prevented it from doing so.
“The results of the experiment were quite satisfactory. No discernible release of life essence was detected from the wound. It is a remarkable outcome, wouldn't you agree, Strev?” The elder Vanir said with a strange smile as he walked closer to Alim.
“It is…” Gran began to talk, but he suddenly felt the world around him tilt as if he was falling.
Alim attempted to raise himself, his eyes fixed on the elder Vanir approaching him. Suddenly, a slight motion by the elder Vanir caught his attention, and he noticed that a portion of Gran's left leg had disappeared.
“What…” Gran’s eyes grew large before he screamed in pain, grabbing where his leg was severed.
“VANIR! THERE IS AN ASSASSIN SOMEWHERE!” Gran screamed
“You are a fool just like your father,” The elder Vanir sneered as he turned to Gran, his face full of contempt and condescension.
“Wh-WHAT! VANIR!” Gran screamed as he tried to scramble to his feet.
Amused, the elder Vanir observed with a light-hearted laugh as he tactfully inched nearer to Alim, who was completely unaware of the movements. Alim's eyes were fixed on the sight of the stumbling Gran.
“What is happening?” Alim could not help but think his mouth was too dry to speak.
Gran stood and fell several times before finally realizing his leg was gone,” V-Vanir w-we need t-to find who did thi-this to me! Hu-Hurry!”
“Do you lack intelligence, or are you simply in shock?” The elder Vanir asked with a raised eyebrow, now standing beside Alim, “But it is fine. I have what I need from you. Yes, this research and the materials you have provided helped greatly in my Scholar Path. I can feel that I am close to another breakthrough after hundreds of years of stagnation.”
“V-Vanir…” Gran said, crawling to the elder Vanir, tears falling from his eyes, “What do you m-mean?”
“Annoying pest…” The elder Vanir said, “Can you not see that I am busy harvesting the fruit I have waited so long to harvest!”
Another flick of a movement of the elder Vanir and Gran's right leg and remaining left leg vanish.
“I was unsure of where his life seed was, so I took both of them!” The elder Vanir said, turning to look at Alim by his side.
Alim looked at the man standing far too close to him. An eerie and uncomfortable feeling passed over him, “Vanir…”
Before Alim could ask anything, he found himself pinned against the nearby wall, his hand locked in the elder Vanir’s.
“Yes!” drool dripped down the elder Vanir’s lips as he smiled at Alim, “This is the smell of a ripe fruit! Oh, the taste. I can not wait.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Alim tried to squirm out of the vice-like grip. He kicked, squirmed, and did everything he could think of, but it made no difference.
“Oh, you poor Seedling. Ignorant of the harsh reality of your condition. There is nothing your kind can do against us. You are nothing but lessers to us. Your pitiful strength amounts to nothing but an infant… No, that is an insult to an infant… There is nothing to compare the difference between our kinds…”
Alim suddenly felt a warm liquid drip onto him. It was red and smelled like metal.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” The elder Vanir screamed
Alim looked and saw the smiling face of the young Vanir, grabbing the elder Vanir’s hair and pulling his head backward.
“Hello, young Shadow Race. How are you this fine day?” The young Vanir said with a smile as he twisted the knife deep into the elder Vanir’s back.
“YOU! WHY!”
“AH! Shhh! The young are talking old man.”
“YOU!”
“Yes, me, now die like the old are supposed to.” The young Vanir said with contempt, throwing the old man to the ground.
The old man crawled to his feet, his stance unstable, “Y-You cannot kill me! I am Vanir, the head of the House Vanir! I AM A FEYRISHIAN! I CANNOT DIE!”
“Old man, do you know what rites I had upon my birth?” The young Vanir asked with a cheeky smile, “I am sure you do right as head of the house, but did you know I had another so rare that it is often forgotten.”
“LIES! YOU ONLY HAVE EIGHT RITES!” The old man yelled, his demeanor becoming more and more feral as the seconds passed.
“Hehe!” The young Vanir chuckled, “Do you not find your state strange, old man? Are you not usually calm and cold? But what of now?”
The old man stared in shocked realization, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME,”
The young Vanir’s innocent smile turned sinister as he opened his mouth, “Rite of dying blood.”
“Huh…” The old man fell to his knees, “o-oh I-I-I see so that…” Light left the old man’s eyes as his face increasingly wrinkled.
“HAHA, SO THIS IS HOW IT IS! So this is how it all ends. So many wasted.” the old man’s face had a defeated smile and dead eyes.
“So, old man just die. I can care for the family now.” The new Vanir said with a sly smile.
“Yes, I have no choice now, do I? To die by your hands. HAHAHA! Is that how it was? Yes, I guess that my son would be the end of me. How… funny.” The old man said as he withered into a husk.
The new Vanir clapped his hand in excitement, “I DID IT!”
He turned to Alim, who at this point was too exhausted to keep his disguise up and now, after over ten years of holding his disguise, had returned to his original appearance.
“Oh, so this is what you look like…Familiar?” Vanir stared at the man before him with a curious gaze.
“Anyway, I have prepared a space for you to complete your actions. After that, you may want to leave as soon as possible, as chaos will ensue after they discover that Gran has been killed.” Vanir said
“Actions?” Alim mumbled, “Right, he thinks…”
Alim gave a sinister smile as he thought about his future actions, “The young Vanir… new Vanir had nothing to do with these experiments, but those two Alchemic Race were at the center of it. Should I kill both? Or just one? Maybe I should torture them like they did to all of those others? Could I make them like their test subjects? Wouldn’t that be great?”
Alim dashed off excited for his next targets. He could not wipe the smile off his face, imagining what he was about to do to them.
When he finally reached the lab, both men locked themselves in all the time. He was shocked by the sight of chaos in the lab.
“TAKE HIM!” Irmin screamed
“NO HE WAS THE ONE THAT DID EVERYTHING I JUST FOLLOWED!” Ager cried
Both men were hurling different objects and insults at the other, all while begging to be spared, and that was before Alim had even arrived. The two men groveled on the ground when they noticed the man with black hair and eyes.
Suddenly, Alim had a twisted thought, “Sure, I will spare one of you, but only one.” Alim walked to the center of the room and stabbed his dagger into the table, “Only one of you can leave this room.”
Alim walked to the door again and slowly closed it, “I will be waiting outside for the victor, so have fun, you two.”
As Alim was closing the door, he watched as both men scrambled for the knife in the room, desperate to be the one to survive. With a sinister laugh that caused the two to tremble, Alim closed the door.
Alim wanted nothing more than to torture those two, but he knew that a more fitting punishment would be created if the Alchemic Race were to discover this illegal experiment. And that was his full intent to go home and report about the last decade and to never leave home again.
“Are you the one who created all this chaos?” A voice wafted from an unknown direction into Alim’s ears.
“Who?” Alim shouted into the open air.
A figure of a woman with icy-blue hair appeared out of nowhere, her face covered by a simple white mask with no holes.
Alim jumped into a defensive position, nervous about the woman before him and exhausted after everything that had just happened, as he had just gotten out of the base seconds ago.
“Yes, you will do fine.” The woman said with excitement in her voice.
“What…”
“You are part of Paragon now! Welcome, I have a new mission for you, recruit.”