About two days have passed since I agreed on that offer and I've died more times than I could count. The first thirty looped days were spent in training Marulk on some heavy subjects.
Seriously, I can't even begin to understand what they are talking about most of the time. All I could do is just sit there watching them shuffling through books, paper, and a whole lot of research notes.
After spending a month in a time loop, Marulk is ready to aid Bondrewd in the experiments. Not only has Marulk memorized half of Idofront library, he has also gained an expertise in biology and engineering.
Thus, after one month, they start experimenting.
At first, they experimented on some of Bondrewd's most precious artifact. The kind that are too fragile or too precious that he dare not to disassemble it. But thanks to my power, they can just disassemble me if anything goes wrong.
This leads to a lot of breakthrough. Most of the time it will blow up on my face when testing it, sometimes it will blow up on their face when making it and I will take that time to take a break before committing suicide.
After about five months of working on the artifacts, we made a lot of discoveries.
We managed to figure out how to make the Sparagmos materialize up to one hour and redesign it so that you can wield it easier. We figured out how to reproduce a Star Thread replica that has about 85% durability of the original.
We also upgraded Marulk's goggles with heat sensors and friggin laser beams because why the hell not?
The true suffering began however when they started experimenting on me.
I experienced for the first time how it truly feels like to be a fucking soup. How it feels like to become a shapeless blob monster. How it feels like to experience all first five curse of the abyss at the same time.
That last one was a weapon test and I pity any poor soul that will ever get to experience it.
These tortures, being dissected, mutated, blown up, soupified, and other nightmarish procedure continues for the next three months of one day loop.
If we calculate everything, we spent two months in normal time. Most of those involves summarizing all the data from the loops and recreating all devices that were discovered during the loop.
But the most… disturbing thing however, is how close Marulk and Bondrewd has gotten. Not in that creepy way mind you, more like in a father son relationship kind of thing.
I don't really think that Marulk is liking Bondrewd for what he did, I think that he just feel comfortable because Bondrewd doesn't act like a bad person.
For one, Bondrewd is very kind and patient. He never raised his voice whenever Marulk screwed up and accidentally kill me. He kept encouraging Marulk to keep trying, to keep exploring, and to keep asking questions.
Not only that, Bondrewd has never once shown any selfish desires. Everything he has ever done, all of it, is for the sake of science and knowledge.
Seriously, that guy… I wouldn't mind having him as a dad or uncle if it weren't for the fact that…
Well, you know, he has hundreds of souls trapped for eternity in a place he called the Miniature Garden of Dawn.
Now, our time in Idofront is coming to an end. Lord Bondrewd told us that he has one unfinished business left and told us to meet us at the Zoaholic chamber.
"So, what do you think is his last unfinished business?" I asked Marulk as we entered the chamber.
"I don't know," Marulk replied. "Whatever it is, I hope I can help him with it."
I looked at the boy walking next to me and smirked a little. "You really like him don't you?"
Marulk sighed a little. "How can I not like him when he's treating me like his own child?" he looked away with a nostalgic look on his face. "Maybe I just missed Ozen so much that I began projecting herself on to him."
"That's okay Marulk, I understand. It's totally fine if you're fond of him," then I looked away for a moment. "Just don't go crazy on science okay?"
Marulk giggled a little. "That reminds me when I dissected you for the first time."
"Marulk, we do NOT talk about that!"
The boy starts laughing. "I was so scared back then, but you were enjoying it so much that I don't even have to use the pain killers."
"Marulk!" I exclaimed, grasping at the last bit of pride I have left. "Stop teasing me! It's not my fault I experience pain as pleasure."
"No, it's just that, having your patient moaning in pleasure when you're taking out their organs, it's hilarious!"
Oh yeah, he's starting to enjoy these dark comedy…
Soon enough, we made it in front of the Zoaholic. Bondrewd stood in front of it, facing us. "As promised, I will take you down to the sixth layer," he took off his White Whistle. "I've been researching this for quite some time…"
Bondrewd walked towards the Zoaholic and the device starts to open. He took off his White Whistle and throw it into the Zoaholic. "Now, that should be enough…" he looked back towards us. "For my last request, I want you both to destroy the Zoaholic."
"Wh-what!?" Marulk exclaimed in shock. "Why!?"
Bondrewd walked towards Marulk. He crouched down towards his level and put a hand on his shoulder. "You should smile Marulk, we shall create history together," then he looked at me and handed me his Sparagmos. "Haios, if you will."
I looked at the Sparagmos then to the Zoaholic. "Well Science Guy, you are the best super villain I've ever had the chance to encounter my whole life," I ran towards the Zoaholic and turn on the Sparagmos.
"Rest in Peace Lord of the Dawn, Bondrewd the Novel," I maxed out the Sparagmos's output and start slicing away at the Zoaholic.
It was as if the Abyss itself was exhaling its breath as hundreds of souls finally get to taste freedom. All around us, every single praying hands fell, along with everything out there who used this cursed device.
Then, at the bottom of it all, a white glowing stone. On a closer look, it's not just a stone, but a white whistle.
I took the stone and walked back towards Marulk. The boy was sitting in front of Bondrewd's body. Tears streamed down his face as he gazed upon his father figure.
When I get close to him, his eyes widened. He ran towards me and reached out towards the stone in my hand. "Bondrewd!"
I gave the stone to him without a second thought. He put the stone near his mouth and softly blow on it, creating a beautiful whistling sound.
Moments later, tingling sensations came from the pins attached around my body. "Uhh, Marulk… is that a white whistle?"
Marulk nodded and brought it close to his chest. A tearful smile graced his face. "He wants me to take him to the bottom of the abyss."
Well, that can be arranged.
[LINE BREAK]
Marulk sat in front of Bondrewd's working table. In front of him is Bondrewd in the form of life reverberating stone.
"To unleash the full power and value of this ring, I have to turn this into a whistle," he grabbed one of the pointy tools in front him. "He thought me how to do this, I'm the only one who can do this."
I watched Marulk working on the whistle from a distance. Obviously, it's not a good idea to disturb him. Heck, I'm sure he'll kill me the moment something goes wrong.
…
"I'll go out for a sec, just yell if you need anything," I said, unable to deal with the boredom.
I walked through the empty hallway of the Idofront. Don't know exactly where I'm going, there's nothing left for me around here.
Then, I found myself standing in front of the armory. A big metal door containing priceless artifacts capable of leveling an entire army.
I opened the door and found myself staring at two sets of costume. One is pure white suit resembling Bondrewd original suit design albeit a little smaller. The other is a prefect replica of Marulk's trench coat woven out of artificial star thread.
"That looks radical…" I said while heading towards the suit.
I stripped out of my trench coat and took the suit out of its stand. I slowly put on the suit, marveling on how comfortable and how well it fits on my body. "Oh my god yes… take all my yes…"
I holstered my Sparagmos that fits perfectly on small strap near my waist. Unlike Bondrewd's, my Sparagmos has been modified so it will work like an actual Lightsaber, though the handle is still a little bit bulky, my strength makes it much more manageable.
Then I looked back at the arrays of Bondrewd's personal weaponry. There's his mask that used to be able to shoot out laser beams. But now it's for decoration purpose after Bondrewd transferred the Stairway of Light to Marulk's Goggles.
There's also the Far Caress, a living weapon that needs the Zoaholic to properly control, so that's also out of the question. Now it's just this cylindrical tube filled with black mass, unable to be used by anyone ever again.
I picked up the cylinder and looked at it closely. I remember doing some hardcore experiments with this one. A lot of test of strength between me and a whole bunch of these guys. I do have enough strength to overpower these guys, but their flexibility and sheer mass makes it really hard to fight.
"Not so tough now are you?" I taunted them.
Then black mass starts swirling. It burst out of its container and I am seriously spooked. "Oi, what the heck!?" the mass took away my Sparagmos before I could use it and held all of my appendage in a tight grip. "Uhh, help!? HELP!!"
"Not so tough now are you?" a voice came from outside the armory. I turned around and saw Marulk raising his hand and the black mass start scrambling towards him. "Nice suit, it fits you well," he commented while walking towards his new Trench Coat.
The black mass finally let me go and returned my Sparagmos. "You can control it?"
"Of course," the black mass rose and formed a wall for Marulk who's changing into his trench coat. "Also, you can have the Shaker," small mass of the Far Caress picked up a wrist gun and attached it on my left hand. "Doesn't work on most creatures though, so you probably won't need it."
The Far Caress flowed into Marulk's Trench Coat and disappeared completely. "Huh, that felt weird..." He muttered while looking at his whole body. Then he smiled at me the way he used to when he was just a maid. "Shall we continue Haios-san?"
I nodded and the two of us continued our journey down to the depths of the Abyss.