By half past 10 in the cloudy night of Denvern City, a blazing twirling ball of fire that exuded no light on the surrounding area formed in the middle of an alley.
A second later when the fire burned out, the image of a small figure in a black long hooded cloak seemed to bend with the darkness. It was the Queen of Elements, Black Witch Athena.
Black witches or warlocks are those that indulge themselves in malicious magical practices and perform spells and rituals declared forbidden and rejected by Theomatism.
"I almost thought you weren't going to show up." Berne walked out from within the shadows of the building with a pleasing smile on his face.
He didn't wait for Athena to reply before he said as he stretched out his hand with a bow, "Shall we take our leave, o exalted one?"
"Of course." Athena took his hand and a reddish-black magic circle with complicated patterns and mysterious symbols appeared on the ground they stood on and descended.
…
Somewhere else, a similar magic circle appeared mid-air, then two individuals landed on the hard but cold ground. It was Amon and Athena.
Upon landing, Athena almost covered her nose with her hand but quickly stopped herself. The air was filled with a pungent smell, she reasoned …This smell, it's formalin…
They took a few steps till they got to the entrance to reveal Amon's lab. The floor-to-ceiling height was 8 feet and the area was as wide as William's bedroom but circular.
"Welcome, to my laboratory o exalted one." Amon said and gestured for Athena to walk forward.
"Impressive." Athena nodded as she looked around with a proud expression on her face. Athena walked around and inspected some more.
The laboratory was dim with a few wicks of candlelight that served as the only light source but since Athena could see in the dark, she could observe the area carefully.
In the middle of the laboratory, set on the floor, was a nine-foot hexagram in a circle made from cast silver engraved with various mysterious symbols, and in its center, a green crystal ball stood on a bronze tripod. The tripod was obviously very old.
…A soul orb for storing the souls of his victims, is it not? Athena thought. Noticing her eyes on the ball, Amon took the initiative to explain, "My soul orb, created it using the finest emerald."
"This isn't your only one, is it?" Athena said with a chuckle then continued inspecting the laboratory.
There was a large rectangular wooden table and chair at the opposite wall of the entrance and on the upper left corner of the table, there were three lit candles on a candelabra. In the upper right corner, there was a disembodied, gray hand ending in sharp claws hanging suspended in a jar of dirty water. It might be a trick of the dim candlelight, but every now and then the hand seems to flex. And in the middle of the table, there was an open book filled with complex diagrams, mysterious symbols, and unknown writings.
At the far left of the lab, there were shelves lined with books and a human skull stood on the top shelf with flickering red lights in its eye sockets. At the side of the bookshelf, there was a rack holding a half-dozen potion vials, bottles filled with various liquids like Virgin's blood, and carefully sealed jars of colored powders, ranging the gamut from mandrake root essence to saffron to a ground toadstool.
At the wall on the right, there were three giant glass vials with the bodies of fully grown people suspended in the colorless liquid. Upon closer look, there were two men and one woman but they had fangs and claws, indicating that they were vampires. In front of the tubes was a long table for operating on bodies.
Above, there were three large birdcages hung at the wall at a far corner of the wall but only one had a woman in torn rags, leaning on the bars with her unrealistically long green hair only parting when they got to her nose.
Athena didn't ask about the woman, nor did she show any interest, and just asked, "What exactly is your experiment?"
Amon walked to the vampires with his hands behind his back and said, "I have found a way to crystallize the soul."
"That… hmmm…" Athena appeared to be in slight shock but quickly reserved herself and placed a hand under her chin and asked, "Can you show me a demonstration?"
"Of course." Amon agreed and instantly a large black centipede protruded out from his back and found its way to a bar trapdoor on the far corner opposite where he stood.
It opened the trap door and descended into it. After a second, it came out with a boy that had a gag on his mouth and hands tied behind him.
The boy's eyes stared blankly into the air and showed not a single sign of resistance.
Amon made the centipede drop the boy on the operating table and turned to Athena, "Exalted one, what I've managed to decipher shows a process of crystallizing one's soul to forcefully exit the limits of mortality by becoming truly alive but only after death. The mighty one, the great Sorcerer that stood above those false gods, King Solomon, once mentioned such in his notes but till his death, he had never truly experimented on this. Or maybe he did but never documented his progress, however, he called this process 'Lichification'..."