"We've received a report that the waste cargo that was supposed to deliver the failed subjects has been attacked by a wild monster during their transportation to the southern countries."
"Are there any survivors?"
"31 confirmed dead, including three of our allies' personnel."
"Were there any missing bodies?"
"...We're not sure. The nightshade guild themselves found it hard to validate the exact numbers unless we give a thorough detail on the prior transportation."
"Give it to them."
"Yes sir."
"Even if one of them managed to escape, theres no way they could have managed to survive in that forest especially when they're shackled."
"..."
"Go! Give them what they want."
After an individual in a black veil turned into a black haze and disappeared, the head scientist stood up from his seat and entered the corridors.
The sounds of horrendous screams echoed through the walls he passed as if countless souls were being tortured in the purgatory. No poignant sensation entered his mind at all, the look on his face completely denied that he was hearing anything.
The room he entered accommodated dozens of giant cylindrical containers that humans would be able to fit in.
"Ah, Professor Leywin! It's nice to see you this evening!"
"Evening? So it's already past lunch, huh."
"Yes, were you not aware? Well I can't blame you since it's easy to lose your sense of time when you're that busy. Moreover, our headquarters are underground so it's impossible to see the sun."
"Yeah. How are HMA-002 and HMA-005?"
"Ah those two."
The old scientist wore a shoddy smile and shifted his sight to a giant container a few walks from Leywin.
The two walked closer. A shocking figure of a human curled up and unconscious was submerged in red fluid within the transparent glass.
A girl was inside that looked around she's still under the age of 20 but not far from it either. The specimen inside was connected to the container under a network of bizarrely aligned tubes as if it was back in the womb of it's mother.
The scientist fashioned several written papers in his hands as if to show off to his superior.
"They look okay. That's good. But how are the parasites?"
"They're... Gluttonous."
"Gluttonous?"
Leywin repeated.
"Yes. They are a success. However, they are extremely ravenous and require alot of blood and stamina from their host whenever their power is used. You could say they are greedy bastards who wouldn't do anything without something in exchange."
"Then again, no specimen would do anything without a reward or cause."
"Indeed, my dear Professor. However, can we somehow satiate their diet? Even when their power is not used they still eat up the hosts energy so wastefully to maintain their lifeforce."
Leywin listened carefully and took note of this problem. A simple desire for excessive food was something he could fix for an organism by simply decreasing their cravings but to supply it with sufficient nutrients to maintain their longevity were another matter.
"I see... Before that, can you show me what they can do so that I can confirm if there's still any room for improvement?"
At the head scientist's request, the lab's staff used a drain underneath the container to suck in the red fluids inside.
Throughout the process, the inanimate body perfectly resembling a human descended with the liquids and dropped to the floor.
Before long, the glass covering it folded themselves to make room for it to be retrieved.
"How are you feeling HMA-2?"
The moment it heard the voice, her hands flinched and without delay, she tried her best to stand up. Revealing the image of a teenager with long red hair and a feisty facial appearance. She would have been rather pretty if it wasn't for her annoyed look.
"..."
"I'll repeat myself. How are you feeling, HMA-2?"
"I'm... good... Where's... my... brother..?"
"Is there something wrong with her vocal expression?"
"It's normally like this once the parasite invades their body. Because of the vexatious bio-wires they grow inside the host, there are some possibilities that they could damage the unnecessary organs."
"Quite a good price to pay for evolution. Now quit babbling, let's go test her capabilities."
The scientist who was satisfied from his boss' impression, heaved a sigh of relief. If he gets Leywin's approval then his career is set to sail smoothly from now. Even if Leywin who was 28 years old is 20 years younger than him, money is money and fame is fame. He'd set away his pride for that.
He led the head scientist to the testing grounds which was a white empty room along with HMA-2 and four armed personnel tasked in keeping her in check.
"HMA-5."
He addressed the test subject in the container.
"Brother..!"
HMA-2 ran over to a redhead boy inside the container, noone tried to stop her and simply watched as they drained the fluids from this one too and released HMA-5.
Unlike his sister, he had a pretty average appearance and almost irisless eyes. But his presence seemed more promising.
"Big sister!"
The moment the two reunited, they both greeted each other with a warm embrace. But since Leywin doesn't need to watch this, he continued.
"You two, stand up and follow us already."
"Why would we need to?"
Before they realized, HMA-5's hand turned into a sharp crescent blade and attempted to inflict a mortal wound on Leywin's abdomen. His speed was so fast that not even the armed warriors were able to react quick enough.
Clang!
"Fuck!"
But before his blade touched Leywin, a semi-transparent barrier stopped his assault in it's tracks and perfectly fended off his attack.
"Why you ungrateful bastard!"
With bloodshot eyes, the scientist accompanying Leywin grabbed HMA-5 on the head and a painful surge of electricity ran through his body and into HMA-5.
"A— AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!"
Just like that, HMA-5 fell on his sides to the ground with a thud.
"Bro-Brother..!"
"Professor Groganok."
The scientist who heard Leywin's voice behind him had his hairs stand tall. The former afterall was oozing out a dangerous amount of killing intent.
"Your test subject seems aggressive, don't you think?"
"I-I-I'm so sorry! Please forgive me for being so carefree!"
"I'll let this go just this once, so do your job properly next time. Or else I might eject you from the land of the living."
"Y-Yes! I will not disappoint you!"
After giving a sincere bow, the scientist looked at his men with veins popping up on the surface of his face. The ones who saw this just couldn't hope that they weren't the ones who're going to get ejected from the land of the living.
"YOU! YOU FOUR! HANDCUFF HMA-5 AND TAKE HIM TO THE TESTING GROUNDS WITH HMA-2!"
"Yes sir!"
On the way, Leywin noticed that Groganok had veins popping on his cheeks that looked like they'd explode at any time. It was a curious sight, an amazing reaction of the human body.
"Alright we're here. HMA-2, what ability do you have?"
Leywin asked bluntly to the shivering HMA-2.
"..."
She was too stunned to speak and wondered if she should listen. But immediately had to do it after seeing the scary look on Professor Groganok's face.
"Um... I can... Use electricity..."
"Oh? Can you show us?"
"Unders..tood..."
HMA-2 took a few meters away from the group and Leywin set up a straw doll at the center of the room for her to use it on.
'Should I use it on them? They probably don't know that I might shoot them with lightning instead right? But...'
She took a short glance from behind. Everyone was watching her attentively with the exception of her currently knocked out stupid brother.
'That new guy, I should be careful. I'll just play along for now.'
Her arms changed as if it's muscles hardened and all it's blood sucked dry, it was closely resembling a ghoul's ghastly skin. And after that, a monsterous surge of electricity erupted and danced from her body but mostly focused on the pale arm.
Leywin who was watching exclaimed in a sarcastic tone.
"Hm, sparkly."
After recalculating her aim, HMA-2 shot out a bolt of lightning from her charged limb towards the straw doll which was razed merciless to ashes within seconds.
The two scientists clapped, they were clearly pleased. Especially Leywin.
"That's not something a human could do. Only those bastards blessed by the gods, those anomalies like the girl from Excilion and the courtmage from the Runegate Empire were born with such unfair potential in this world."
"Indeed, Professor Leywin. They are simply lucky individuals."
Leywin had an indignant look on his face and he wasn't trying to hide it. Even his hands rolled into fists and shook violently, Groganok took a step back overthinking that it might fly off and hit him on the head.
"Professor Groganok, do you know why I started this project?"
"N-No, sir."
"With this! We can match them! Those outlandish monsterous bastards!"
Leywin laughed sinisterly in the room. Professor Groganok was petrified in place, this person was spine-chilling.
Looking at this guy, he didn't look sane at all. HMA-2 speculated that this person was crazy, getting involved with him won't end well at all. If something bad were to happen to her, it should simply be something as harsh as opening her insides and examining the alterations in her body after consuming the parasite.
After a minute of indulgence, Leywin finally stopped and restored his calm demeanor.
"Now then... Let's do more research about these parasitic worms."
"Ashura-sama..."
「What is it?」
"I'm cold."
「Deal with it.」
"Ashura-sama..."
「What is it?」
"I'm scared... I can't see anything... It's so dark..."
「...」
Ofcourse she'd be afraid. The forest was so thick that not even the moonlight was getting through, even if there was in this chilly night then it would simply make things only a little bit clearer. Like a 3%.
Ashura chose not to complain about this, because even he was slightly afraid of wandering a dangerous and eerie forest in the midst of the night just to hunt down and eat a Calamity Bear.
He felt really bad about having this little girl journey in this cold and dark place where a normal person her age would undoubtedly perish from. Asura was breathing as slow as possible in order to keep out the cold temperature from entering her warm body.
With guilt surrounding his conscience, Ashura did his best to stabilize the warm temperature in her body. Because even the cloak they brought wasn't enough to stop the cold winter wind.
「Just hang in there, Asura. Once we kill that bear you can rest.」
"M-Mn..."
「...」
Seeing this girl holding herself in, to him it felt like he was seeing his own daughter dying in the cold. But he couldn't do anything to stop it. It's too late to go back, they're already close to the destination and going back now would mean he'd be making her suffer more.
He admired Asura for her determination. If she was born to be his daughter back in the previous world, he'd surely pamper her alot as a father.
But right now, it was different. This was a world where he had to cooperate with her to help her save her tribesmen. She sees him as a beacon of hope, the sword that can severe her worries and the father that made her kin.
It was then.
Rustle...
Rustle...
Rustle...
It was here. Their first meat in the menu list. And another stepping stone for their growth.
A 10 feet tall silhouette stood in front of Asura hidden in the blur of falling snowflakes.
From this dark forest, it's bloodshot eyes was the only light that stared down and gnawed hungrily at the sight of it's prey.
"..."
「You bastard, you've finally shown yourself.」