I was subjected to quite a lot of examination by Archer under the orders of Dexter before I was released.
They didn't take my word for it when I told them I wasn't being controlled by Sophia.
"What happened to Sophia, your highness?" Archer asked me for the 10th time.
I shrugged my shoulder as I walked on. "Like I told you. As soon as she realised, I could resist her influence she started screaming something about making me hers in ecstasy before running away."
I removed the wires attached to me as I explained to Archer who didn't look convinced by what I was saying.
However, all of them had no choice but to believe me.
I walked back to my lab away from my kitchen.
A few minutes later I was in my lab.
I placed a do not disturb board on my door.
*Snap* The nanobots moved systematically to reveal the tunnel they had crafted for me.
As soon as I walked in, I looked behind to see the hologram had started up to display me in the lab pretending to do some sort of research.
I turned back to see in front of me was just a dead end. As I took the first step the tunnel got larger while the entrance got covered up. Each step I took seemed like I hadn't moved at all, this was because the tunnel in front of me extended while the wall behind me slowly got filled the further I went in.
After a walk of 1 minute, I appeared in a large cave.
I smiled as I saw Sophia along with few other people in containers with fluids with all sorts of wires going through them.
She barely had any strength and didn't even bother to struggle. Sophia was barely awake, but her eyes got its strength back as soon as she saw me.
She couldn't speak due to the mask in her mouth and being surrounded by red translucent fluids.
Her look of desire kept on piercing me, but I ignored her. *Yawn*
"As sexy and hot others might consider yourself as, beauty has no value to me. I have seen and interacted with women that can cause heart attacks with just their smile let alone a mere bimbo such as you.
However, do not fret, cuz I do value you. I value your body for the tons of research value it holds for me." She looked at me with slight disappointment.
"These people barely gave me any sorts of results from my experiments." I pointed at the people in the tube.
"But you will be different. I will get everything I need from you." I smiled and pressed something on my watch.
Suddenly all the other people in the tubes slowly started dissolving until nothing remained of them.
"I am going to give you my undivided attention. So, shall we start?" She didn't look worried at all and just stared at me with her eyes of desire being even more persistent and convinced.
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[Steven's office (Commandment who supports Jack)- At the same time]
"She disappeared?" Steven asked Isabella who nodded.
"What about John?" Steven felt there was something wrong.
"From the tests that were run on him, he seemed to be perfectly fine," Isabella answered.
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"How did he do it?" Steven muttered hearing Isabella's answer.
"My lord how as in: how did he escape from Sophia or how did he stop her powers?" Isabella asked back.
Steven chuckled before he shook his head. "As in how did a soulless defeat and restrain or possibly even kill a rank 3 award user so quietly?"
Isabella's eyes widened hearing Steven's answer. "That can't be possible!" Isabella stated in disbelief.
"Exactly what he wants everyone to think. I am the only person in the world who knows Sophia well enough to completely predict her actions.
The one thing she desires the most is wanting to find someone who can escape her abilities control. Even if it is her worst enemy, she will make them a part of her life at any cost if they can resist her ability.
The test results show John had not been under control which means her powers definitely did not work on him. Then there is nothing to doubt she is with him.
But how did he capture her? That is the question that is bugging me!" Steven stood up and looked at the dark sky.
"Could she have hidden and is planning to work with Prince John from the dark?" Isabella stated a possibility.
"No. She hates playing games and hiding in the dark. She had been hiding for 1 month and that must have taken away all her patience. There is no way she will continue to hide even if John could resist her award." Stephen touched the window.
"Then… but that cannot be possible." Isabella simply couldn't accept that a soulless could stop an award user.
"Wait! Bring me the post mortem report of the body we found in the alleyway." Something was bugging Steven about that person's death.
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[1 week later- Imperial Capital]
Everyone was excited to get the new PCD.
Needless to say, all the stores were wiped clean on the first day itself.
Every day new batches of PCD kept coming out only to be wiped clean.
This kept on going for 2 weeks before the hype slowly died down and almost everyone who could afford it in the capital was seen with a PCD on their hand.
Everyone slowly got accustomed to the PCD and started exploring its features.
Time went on and 1 month later an announcement was made.
A new feature was released on the PCD. Everyone who wanted the feature should either buy the new PCD or take their current PCD back to the store to be replaced by a new one for the simple price of 5 silver.
The new feature was called a health monitor. The PCD could display ones heart rate, body temperature, environment temperature, how healthy a person was, how much energy they had spent, how dehydrated they were etc.
Needless to say, everyone stormed off once again in waves to replace their current PCD.
The new PCD soon started to be used by healers and doctors alike instead of their usual equipment to check a person's vitals.
One by one, piece by piece Ez kept releasing updates throughout the following months. Each update made the lives of people simpler and at the same time integrated their lives with the PCD so much that they were now becoming dependant on it.
7 months after the release of the PCD, Ez released his final update on the PCD.
It was released on the anniversary of the plague that nearly crushed the empire last year.
This new feature allowed to let someone know if they were poisoned or caught any disease as long as someone just dropped a single droplet of blood on the slide that came out of the watch.
However, this feature was not 100% guaranteed and people were told to still go consult a doctor/healers if the PCD gave them all clear and they were still unsure or had certain symptoms.
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[John PoV- 4 weeks after releasing the last update.]
I closed the screen containing the countless data I acquired from everyone's PCD.
Just a drop of blood was enough for the PCD to record their DNA and transmit the results to me.
It had taken me a while, but I finally managed to unlock the secret of being an award user.
However, to do that first I had to become a completely normal human.
Currently, my whole bodies genes were slowly transforming with each higher level of food I was eating.
I took a vial of syringe I had prepared months ago for this moment and injected it directly into my heart and sat down on a chair inside my secret lab.
I looked up to see Sophia watching me with eyes of fear and that fear wasn't without any base.
She has seen my works for the past few months and is aware of what I am truly capable of on the intellectual level.
I closed my eyes and waited as my body naturally transformed back to how I was roughly a year and 3 months ago. A completely normal human that was known as soulless.
I lost my capability to control my hairs and everything that is in my body to an extremely fine degree along with my huge endurance level.
After 3 minutes I stood up with a smile.
Sophia visibly struggled to find a way to somehow stop what I was about to do but the medication running through her system along with the fluid constantly around her prevented her from doing anything.
She was frightened and her fears were well placed.
I smiled and went back to gather the substance I have been growing for the past few weeks.
I took a petri dish out of a pink liquid.
Opening the dish, I looked at the substance and smiled.
The key to making an award which I got from a combination of: experiments, DNA of all award users I had acquired from PCD and a big chunk of Sophia's harvested organs, which I had to keep regrowing with my medications and food.