"Yo, Dullip, my friend. I missed you, man." Iota said happily, "Where have you been all along?"
'I'm getting a headache already.' Dullip frowned at his chirpy statement, feeling Iota's voice to be a tad more annoying than before. The eeriness from the chill he felt before still perturbed him, so he had to exercise caution.
Upon seeing his silence, Iota put on a thoughtful expression before asking, "So, you want my power, right?"
"You are smart, so what do you think?" Dullip retorted in response, "If I say yes, will you give me your power?"
"Don't mock my braincells," Iota let out a disdainful smirk, "You could pay me for that though."
"Pay you?" Dullip snorted as he extended his hand and pulled Iota's hair, "It seems our captive has misunderstood something."
"You will have no other choice but to obey me." Dullip glared in anger, his expression sharp.
"Are you going to torture me once again?" Iota tilted his head, "You know I cannot feel much pain. So why bother?"
"Or do you have a medicine that could actually make me feel pain?" Iota asked in excitement, one that was genuine.
"You…want that?" Dullip stared in surprise, "Why would anyone want to feel pain?"
"That sense of pain…it was originally a part of my body." Iota pointed at his forehead, "This Stigma stole what was rightfully mine."
"So, isn't it natural that I want to reclaim my birthright? Whether it's good or bad, what's mine should be mine."
'This seems to be something important to him.' Dullip thought before saying, "Well, why don't we experiment? I wanted to do something to you first."
"Torture?" Iota tilted his head again.
"Not that!" Dullip glared in frustration as he took out a vial and placed it in Iota's mouth, "Swallow it."
"Does this vial contain some dangerous parasites?" Iota asked, expressing his curiosity. "The kind that would eat my heart if I don't take in the medicine you provide in regular intervals?"
"What the heck are you talking about?" Dullip snorted, saying once Iota swallowed it, "It's an aphrodisiac."
"…" Iota stared at Dullip with a deadpan expression, "Bro, I'm not into men."
"Don't worry, you won't be having a happy time," Dullip said as he calmly took a seat before Iota and…did nothing.
"That's it?" Iota asked after some time had passed, "You're not going to do anything else?"
"Just shut up and watch," Dullip said and continued to observe.
Seconds turned into minutes and slowly, Iota felt his body heat up. Blood rushed to his lower half as a certain someone saluted. The salute didn't subside even after many minutes had passed, thanks to the potency of the aphrodisiac.
Normally, an erection wasn't a problem for Iota. Even if it started to ache down there, he wouldn't feel it much. But, what even he hadn't expected was that the longer this erection stayed, with his saluting junior receiving no action, a pent-up desire began to wallow from within him.
And over time, it created a thirst in him, one that could only be satiated by a woman. And of course, as no woman was there to take care of his situation, Iota gradually began to feel irritated.
The desire kept accumulating in him and without a target to vent it, he was becoming frustrated. It wasn't as if he couldn't feel pain or emotions. It was just subsidised to a minimum.
Therefore, Dullip found a way to overcome that, using the aphrodisiac to slowly but surely influence Iota's emotions. It was an accumulative strategy, and by the end of an hour, it had worked as Iota seemed desperate for a release.
Upon seeing that, Dullip let out a smile, "Now, let's talk about your power, shall we?"
He extended his hand, "That item you used to injure my subordinate with, make one of it now."
"I would be happy to be accompanied by a medium-bust woman." Iota said, watching Dullip remain silent as he eventually gave in, making an exaggerated puking action as he coughed up a syringe.
The syringe fell on his lap before rolling to the floor. Dullip picked it up and inspected it, 'It seems to be made from glass but has a metal frame.'
He thought of something and pierced the syringe's needle into Iota's thigh, watching the plunger move on its own and suck in his blood, "Fascinating."
"If you just want that, you could have asked me normally. Are you a cruel villain?" Iota put on a terrified expression.
"You can drop the act." Dullip said, "If you obey me, I'll give you the cure. Otherwise, this pent-up desire will only continue to accumulate in you."
Once the syringe was full of Iota's blood, Dullip took it and observed, noticing a mysterious golden stream mix in with the blood, asking, "What's this?"
"I'm not sure." Iota said, expressing his irritation, "Ok, I don't know for certain. This is just a conjecture, okay? That substance refines the power in the blood or something."
"You injected my subordinate's blood in your body and displayed a burst in strength and speed." Dullip said, observing the golden stream homogeneously mix in a matter of seconds, "What happens if you injected it before this golden substance finishes mixing with the blood?"
"It would be no different from swallowing someone else's blood." Iota said, "I mean, if injecting someone's blood into oneself was all one needed to gain an explosive burst in strength, everyone would be doing it by now, right?"
"Fair point," Dullip nodded as he twirled the syringe before suddenly stabbing it into his thigh.
"What?" Iota was honestly surprised by his action, commenting in praise, "You're braver than I thought."
"I assumed you would have attempted it on your subordinates first."
"Even if something happens, I have the means to purify myself. So, it's the safest to experiment on my body." Dullip commented, watching the syringe inject all the blood into his body and dissipate. Immediately, he felt a minor surge in power, observing his body convulse in response.
He foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the ground, experiencing fits, "Gah! Guahhh!"
'Awesome!' Iota stared at the scene as Dullip twitched like a dying fish brought to land. But suddenly, Dullip flailed his hand, sending a syringe flying out, having created it, just as how Iota had done before.
"Oh my…goodness!" Iota stared in interest as Dullip glared at him with an expression full of avarice before fainting.