“So, what did you find?”
He turned around from his desk to see his employer. The man stood in front of the open door, the dim light already present in the room seemed to darken around the man obscuring his features from the world. This man was his boss, the one who gave him funding for all of his work.
“Close,” he said, replying in an almost servile manner, “out of nearly 3,000…”
His boss slammed a palm against the door crushing it with his sheer might.
“I didn’t ask for estimations. I hired you for a reason.”
“…Out of 2,937, only 3 subjects showed positive results in the experiment.”
“The rest?”
“Roughly 97% ended up dead while 2…”
“Again, I want EXACT numbers. I gave you many chances before but this is it.”
He paused for a bit, unsure of what would come if he didn’t comply. But knowing his boss, it wasn’t going to be a good ending and as such, he chose his words carefully with his life on the line. He scavenged through the absurd amount of documents scattered throughout the room with the assistance of his [Superior Scholar] and [Eldritch Researcher] skills allowing him to swiftly find the exact papers he needed.
He pulled up his glasses for no apparent reason other than to satisfy his own urges and cleared his throat, ready to read off the information that he and his team had spent the past year researching and compiling.
“2854 of the subjects died within a minute or an hour of the injection while 83 survived past the eight hour mark. Of those that survived the initial injection, 80 ended up transforming into grotesque shapes on the second. Many of the employees working on those that had transformed ended up dead themselves due to them exploding within a minute of exposure to harm or when they’d die. I had to call in the corps to deal with them and even then we lost 24 researchers and 192 guards. The three that survived showed much more success on the following injections and we’ve diagnosed that they had an abysmally small chance of becoming volatile as the failures did before.”
“Show me where they are held.”
“Ah yes, of course. He tucked the binder underneath his arm and walked towards the door. He couldn’t see even a speck of magic emanating from his boss but he knew better than that. The man wielded enough power to devastate entire kingdoms but he spent his days in service to another because of a forced contract. It was tragic but it couldn’t be helped.
The two walked along the empty halls of the facility, far hidden away from even the smallest speck of sun. The metal walls denied all attempts of scrying and magical interference but it was quite stuffy as a result. They passed by many doors which led to other sectors which expanded outwards from there but they headed straight ahead ignoring such doors. The occasional researcher appeared and waved a hello at him but the moment they saw the boss, they quickly fled after bowing or saluting. They were the lucky ones.
After a half hour of walking, the two men had arrived at their destination. It was the containment facility built to house their successful experiments. It was originally intended to house several hundred of the thousands they had acquired before but the vast majority of the containers lied in dormancy. It was only the three front most ones that actually had guards and researchers standing about.
“Pardon me, pardon me. Business coming through.”
He pushed through the employees with his voice but it was quite unneeded. The boss had parted the small crowd simply by existing. The employees scattered away from the containers and stood there in silence in respect for the boss.
“So these are the good ones?” the boss asked, his face skeptical at the state of the three children, one female, and two male floating in three separate containers. Each of them was emaciated and could only survive due to the hourly supplements given to them. Of the three, the two males had profane appendages sprouting from their bodies or blackened hide and consumed much more supplements to survive than the female. The container standing in the middle was the biggest of the three and the most secure due to the value of the middle subject.
“Yes, they are the only ones who are still alive in the demonification experiment. We’ve tested the current states of their bodies and have concluded the regeneration factor of the Demons are present especially in the middle subject. Their designations from left to right are Subject 9-81, Subject 15-109, and Subject 1-138. We received the female in the ninth batch and the males in the fifteenth and first batches respectively.”
Each of the containers were placed linearly in the lab, each one holding a potential demon which they could let loose onto the world.
“Subject 9-81 on the left had undergone 13 injections and our researchers reported that 29% of her body had crystallized into the catalyst state. Subject 1-138 on the right had undergone 17 injections and already reached the partial transformation stage as evident by the changes in his body, but it sadly wasn’t stable enough to be of use to us. The one in the middle is our best work though. Subject 15-109 only took 5 injections but his body had completely transformed into a Demon with no apparent side effects after years of observation and testing. Currently, he is undergoing the final process of sealing and we expect him to awaken in a matter of weeks, thou-“
*
He stopped after he saw what his boss had done, his mouth was agape and his glasses nearly fell off of his head. The boss just thrust his hand towards the glass and broke it? But it was something that even he couldn’t destroy with his best effort! Similarly, the researchers on the side panicked and tried to find a safe place to hide behind while the guards moved forward against their better judgment. Seeing this, he had to do something.
“Halt! Let the boss do as he pleases!”
But despite hearing his declaration, the guards still moved forwards. Boss still held the boy by the neck with his right hand but a quiet sound could be heard from within his grasp.
“Hehehe…”
The boy was already awake? But how? All of his routine reports showed that all of the subjects was unconscious and even his [Truth Seeing Eyes] couldn’t detect it.
“You left such a dangerous toy alone? I expected more of you Kreir.”
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The boss ridiculed him as he tightened his grip around the child’s neck, but oddly enough, the boy didn’t resist. He just dangled there in the air and let the boss suffocate him with his bare hands while giggling with what breath he had left. A dangerous black light escaped from the boy’s eyes but were stifled by the boss’ shadows before they could do any harm.
“I’ll be taking this one. You can do what you want with the rest. Those defects you call successes are worth nothing to me but this one will do.”
The boss bound the boy in his own magic power and began the same ritual he had done on Kreir himself many years ago. An absolute contract capable of binding even deities to it, forbidden knowledge that would instantly earn the right of damnation if any of the major gods learn of it.
The boy… the demon resisted as much as it could. Its skin turned black and its form changed. A stable existence of a true demon. The pitch black sclera and glowing blue cornea combined with the aura of suppression emanating from the demon was immense. Every researcher besides Kreir had already collapsed and the guards became more aggravated than before. A smog of black mana tried to contain the demon’s aura but to no avail as the aura was a formless and extraordinary ability. The chains on the demon began to shake and tremble but stayed tight on the ballooning body.
“Feisty one aren’t you? You shall become a great weapon.”
The glass containers began to shatter around the scene. Each and every one of the guards fought with one another, their eyes glowing red with madness. Demonic power and shadows collided in the midst of a ritual which could spell the end of the battle while Kreir simply sat there overlooking the conflict. None of his skills were suited to direct combat but he did have a few advantages that others didn’t.
The world slowed around him or to be exact, he sped up his own body. He couldn’t surpass his physical limitations and couldn’t use this for long to avoid detection from any time deities but within the current situation, doing anything else would be foolish. This ability hidden even to the boss and one he held to utmost secrecy regardless of any other factor.
Within the now slow world, he observed his entire surroundings. He could see everything moving in a hundredth of a second compared to before. He could see every individual strand of black mana escaping from the boss’ shadows and the slow cruel laughter of the demon within his grasp. The ritual was only at the half mark but nearly half of the boss’ mana was spent on the suppression of the demon and the maintenance of his contract on Kreir.
‘Is the league of a demon’s soul that lofty? Seems so. Either way, this is my chance.’
Kreir didn’t expect for this chance to come so soon. Even at full power, he had no way to beat the boss unless he were to sacrifice his life as a result and there was no way he would give up on living. His soul was already marked by the gods for exceeding his given lifespan and the moment he decided to reveal himself would be when the Liberators were about to stab him.
Kreir decided on it. He hadn’t prepared for years for nothing. He first needed to break the contract using the Prismatic Wyrm’s Tooth then to somehow kill the boss. The last step was the most difficult part of the process as the boss still had mana but it shouldn’t be too difficult. The demon itself was apparently a pure strength-type and could easily be handled by his own magic, but he could never begin the plan as he noticed something too late.
The rightward container broke from the demon’s aura and the body of Subject 1-138 fell to the ground. At least, that was what Kreir had thought before. Now that he paid closer attention to the body, he could see that it was rapidly inflating even at his current time scale.
He could see the boss turning his eyes towards the sudden flux of magic power and Kreir himself came upon a realization from this. He completely forgot about what had happened to those that transformed previously in a lapse of focus caused by his obsession over the contract. At the moment of a demon’s death, they’d explode.
“Shi-“
Everything went to hell. What few containers that hadn’t already been broken were obliterated by the blast. The boss and Subject 15-109 were fine due to the ritual’s casting protection but Kreir himself wasn’t. He had ample time to react but his movements were sluggish in his accelerated perception. All he could do before the demon’s body exploded was form a thin shield around himself that absorbed a majority of the blast. The shield broke from the incoming blast of chaotic mana, eroding away the shield and damaging his own body. His body was flung across the entire room and collided with a wall with a loud crash. He collapsed onto the ground and kept his position. He took too much damage and by a cursory glance at his status, he confirmed that he indeed had only a sliver of his vitality left. The researchers collapsed on the ground and the guards in combat had practically become dust from the explosion and Subject 9-81 was nowhere to be seen.
Kreir was severely injured while the boss was practically unharmed. He was put into such a disadvantageous situation by his own negligence. He was nearly dead and he could feel Mortum pulling at his soul. He wasn’t going to let that happen as the moment the gods found out what he had been doing over the past few years, he’d definitely end up with a fate worse than being forcefully becoming a blank slate again by the Liberators. He refrained from leaving the lab in order to protect his work but now it seemed like another would reap the benefits without him. He might be the most powerful man in the world but everything wasn’t going to be easy for the boss, Kreir would make sure of it.
He pulled at the inner depths of his soul. The very foundation that gives both life and power while also acting as a shackle for all creation. The gods above might have raised the state of their souls to divine status, but they are bound in the same way as he had for millennia! He, and only he had founded knowledge which exceeded that of the gods. A knowledge that was never known before.
“Soul Break.”
It was his last chance. He’d give up his own life in exchange for this power but if it succeeds, the boss would fail the binding ritual and suffer not only injuries from Kreir but backlash from Subject 15-108 as well. His body rapidly aged as all the energy was absorbed to feed the magic working upon him. Just by looking at the resulting scene alone, one would realize that something devastating was about to unfold.
“Kreir!”
Boss saw what he was doing and color drained from his face. He left no more time for words and accelerated the binding ritual on Subject 15-108. The demon shook and thrashed more violently against the chains encasing it.
“Too late.”
He had already consumed nearly all of the intrinsic energy within his body and now his soul was brimming with power. Though, without a vessel to hold his soul, he’d either be claimed by a higher power or become a wraith to haunt the world forever. He was already sick of being bound for nine thousand years, and today was the day that he’d break free.
“I don’t fear you Atrum.”
The contract which prevented him from speaking of the boss’ name for thousands of years suddenly lashed out of his body towards his soul, the black chains entwined trying to hold the ethereal being back but his magical power at the moment surpassed even the laws of reality. Small cracks appeared on his form first before stringing out all over him. The capacity of energy that his soul could hold was immense but no mortal soul could handle six thousand years of intrinsic energy.
“But I do hate you. See you in hell.”
“You little-“
His soul exploded at that moment. He could feel the strain on his soul until the very last moment where he felt nothing. He was satisfied with the resulting explosion which probably destroyed everything within a hundred leagues. He had expected the destruction of his soul to end his consciousness but that didn’t seem to be the case as he could still think though without sense.
The world was dyed in black and there was nothing for him to do in this emptiness. As such, he simply existed in that void of a world.
Thinking.