The bitter cold of the iron shackle bit into Experiment 2749's wrist. His back pressed against the chilly, hard surface of an old stone table. The table's edges were smooth from years of use. Faintly glowing runes were carved into it. The pain felt old and familiar, matching the steady throb in his chest. A sharp, sour smell filled the air. It was a mix of herbs, alchemy, and the faint bite of enchanted metal. That smell carried memories of countless rituals, each one full of agony.
He felt a deep ache behind his ribs.
He didn't know how long he'd been there. Days? Weeks? Months? Time didn't matter inside these experiment walls.
A shadow fell over him.
Alchemist Valerius leaned close, his thin face glowing in the light of a nearby magical lantern. The lantern was fueled by an enchanted gem that pulsed with a soft violet light, casting an otherworldly glow that made his features seem even more gaunt and menacing. "You always surprise me, 2749," he said. "Your strength is incredible, even compared to our best subjects."
Valerius brushed 2749's scalp with his gloved hand. The touch was supposed to comfort, but it felt invasive and wrong.
2749 stared at the lantern. The strange left eye in his forehead pulsed. It showed him things his human eye couldn't see.
"Most subjects don't last this long," Valerius said, bending nearer. A cold smile spread across his lips. "I hope you survive this test too, just like the others."
He'd said those words to many subjects before. They were hollow promises, meaning nothing.
2749 didn't blink. His one human eye was dull green with flecks of violet, it studied Valerius. He saw the alchemist's thin cheeks, deep-set eyes, and pale lips that rarely curved upward. Valerius's face held no warmth or light.
He'd forgotten how to feel long ago. Pain lived inside 2749 too, but he didn't know how to show it. That ability had been lost years ago. His memory had faded into fragments, nothing but disconnected glimpses of a life he could no longer recognize as his own. He'd try to remember who he was before the numbers, before the experiments, but his mind would hit a static wall.
Why? Because of his left eye.
It wasn't human.
A monstrous eye sat on his forehead. It was violet with a slit pupil, pulsing faintly.
That eye came from a creature that attacked Verradin Village long ago. It took many knights in blessed armor to stop it. They couldn't kill it, only wound it. They hacked off a limb and took its eye. Those pieces ended up in Valerius's lab.
Valerius decided to graft parts of the creature into his subjects.
Most died from it.
Only, few survived.
2749 was one of the survivors.
But it cost him dearly. Something vital was ripped away, leaving an empty space where emotions once lived.
He gazed at the lantern. The alien eye pulsed again, like it wanted to speak.
His human eye looked dull, reflecting a broken soul. Memories flickered in his mind, but they were blurry and confusing.
In the reflection of a metal tray, he saw his face. It was thin and haunted, with lifeless eyes. Was this really him? He couldn't recall. The person he'd been was buried under pain and experiments.
The clatter of tools snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Blade, Elias," Valerius ordered.
His assistant, a jittery young man, brought a tray of sharp instruments.
"Knife," Valerius said.
Elias quickly handed him a shiny blade from the tray. Valerius gripped the knife, his white glove tight around the handle. With force, he sliced deep into 2749's chest.
Pain roared through 2749. His body knew suffering too well. He felt the skin rip open, and warm blood gushed out. Some splashed across Valerius's white glove, staining it red. Drops hit his long robe too, and a few sprayed onto his thin face. He wiped his cheek with his sleeve, but the blood smeared. His face stayed calm.
Valerius kept cutting, steady and sure. More blood soaked his glove and dripped onto his robe. The air grew heavy with the thick smell of blood.
Then came a dull throb.
A heavy pulse.
Valerius's blade hit something inside 2749.
The knife dug deeper.
A searing pain burst through him. The steel cut through muscle without mercy. Every nerve screamed. It felt like his flesh was being peeled apart, layer by layer.
Valerius didn't flinch.
He sliced the veins carefully, cutting the threads that held the Aether Core in place.
With a final tug, he pulled out a red orb. It rested in his hand, its bright color fading fast outside 2749's body.
This wasn't a normal wound. It was like losing a lung yet still gasping for air, or losing a heart but living to feel the absence.
Tears leaked from his human eye. They weren't from pain or anguish, but from losing something precious. His mind couldn't understand the absence, but his body felt the void.
Valerius set the glowing core on the tray. The clink sounded final, like a tomb sealing shut as the core stopped glowing.
Elias handed him a metal sphere. It was forged from Solaris, a dark metal etched with odd patterns. This metal came from near the Ebonreach Abyss.
There, a giant hand from some unknown creature lay half-buried. It was massive, hard to picture the full being. The hand didn't decay. It still oozed a dark, strange fluid.
Near it, they found the broken pieces of Solaris metal. And later onwards Valerius experimented with it and saw lots of properties similar to aether core, so later he asked someone to give it a shape of aether core, trying to replace the aether cores of his subjects.
"Our greatest triumph," Valerius said, pushing the sphere into 2749's chest.
---
Valerius stitched the last vein to the new core. He smiled faintly. Without looking up, he held out his hand.
"The Elixir," he said.
Elias passed him a vial of glowing green liquid.
Valerius poured it over the cut veins. It hissed and sank in. The torn edges trembled, then began to knit together. The new core settled, feeling more like it belonged.
Then, Valerius sewed the skin shut, layer by layer. A thin scar was all that remained.
He held out his hand again. "More."
Elias brought another vial. Valerius poured it over the scar. The green liquid spread, and the scar faded until it was barely visible.
"Subject 2749," Valerius said evenly. "Use your energy."
2749 obeyed.
Energy surged through him, connecting to the new core.
The pain hit harder than ever.
It wasn't pushing him away. It was eating him up.The core moved slow into his chest, trying to take over from his old Aether Core place
It wasn't an Aether Core, so it didn't fit easily. It scratched and pressed inside him, step by step. His chest twisted with every push. The pain came sharp, then soft, then sharp again, a long, hard hurt that stayed.
He likes something big that was ripped out to let it in. The violet eye in his forehead flashed fast. Then, after a long, awful wait, the core became stable.
Valerius scribbled notes, his excitement growing. "It's stable. The core is absorbing Aether without breaking. Incredible."
He exhaled sharply. "Prepare him for the Blood Ritual."
Elias froze. "Master, no one's survived that. Shouldn't we let him recover?"
Valerius's face hardened. "Do as you are told. If he doesn't survive we can use another subject. For now we need data."
Elias didn't argue.
He unlatched 2749's shackles and tugged the chain. "Move."
2749 stood, ignoring the pain, and started walking even though he felt weak. His legs shook under him, heavy and tired. He couldn't remember much, and his feelings were long gone, but he knew one thing, if he didn't obey, a terrible pain would come.
It would be so bad that even a hollow, emotionless thing like him would react. Deep inside, his scars whispered warnings, quiet echoes of past torments that still lingered.
Elias led 2749 to a massive Rune Glass Vault in the center of the room. It wasn't just a stone altar, this was a towering structure of glowing glass, etched with ancient runes that pulsed faintly in the dim light. It was big enough to hold a man inside, its surface cold and smooth.
"Get in," Elias ordered, his voice sharp.
2749 obeyed, stepping into the vault. Elias followed him in and worked quickly, strapping 2749 to a stone slab at the vault's heart. Then, he took thick glass tubes, each one marked with glowing runes and pierced them into 2749's arms and legs.
The tubes sank deep, tapping into his veins. They were powered by enchanted gems, rare and precious in the world of Eldoria. The gems shimmered with a soft blue light, humming with energy. Once everything was set, Elias stepped out, and the glass door sealed behind him with a soft hum.
Valerius followed close behind, his eyes never leaving the scene.
In the corner of the room, another Rune Glass Vault buzzed with a darker power. It held a strange, thick liquid, nearly black, alive with faint pulses of light like stars trapped in shadow. This was no ordinary substance, it came from the mysterious giant hand found near Solaris, a relic that never decayed.
Elias connected the vault holding 2749 to two large containers. One was empty, ready to collect 2749's blood. The other was filled with the dark, strange liquid. He linked them with a main tube, and smaller tubes branched off, feeding into the ones piercing 2749's skin.
"Begin," Valerius said, his tone calm but eager.
Elias turned a lever. The enchanted gems flared brighter, and the process started. 2749's blood drained out fast, a deep red stream flowing through the tubes into the empty container. It filled steadily, the rich color stark against the glowing glass. His body grew cold as life left him.
Then, the dark liquid flowed in. It moved slowly at first, thick and heavy, glowing dimly as it entered his veins. It burned like fire and ice combined, devouring everything it touched. 2749's body shook violently, his muscles clenching in agony. His vision blurred as the Aether within him and his new core fought against the alien blood. But it was relentless, consuming all it met.
This wasn't just pain, it was his soul tearing apart. He wanted to scream, but his throat locked tight. He could only endure, his mind cracking under the unbearable strain.
Elias watched the containers closely. When most of 2749's blood had been replaced and the dark liquid had claimed his veins, Valerius raised a hand. "Stop it."
Elias pulled the enchanted gems from their slots. The blue light faded, and the tubes went still. The flow of liquid halted.
Valerius stepped closer, his eyes locked on 2749. He was captivated. He scratched notes onto a rough parchment, writing down everything he saw, how 2749's skin turned pale as death, how his breaths came short and weak, how his body still trembled even after the tubes stopped.
Then, suddenly the doors slammed open.
A knight in shining armor burst through the door. "Lord Valerius! The rebels have killed King Oberon. Now they're hunting everyone tied to him."
"We have to go now."
Valerius started, his voice full of doubt. "King Oberon dead? He's one of the kingdom's mightiest knights! Even in far off lands, they knew his strength. He was old, yes, but he could've lived a hundred years more."
"They say there was a mysterious woman in the Rebel group who used witchcraft to kill him," the knight said.
Silence hung heavy.
Then, in a hushed voice, "Witchcraft? Does it really exist? Wasn't that just a myth, a fairy tale?"
The knight shrugged. "I don't know. But we need to leave."
Valerius's hands shook, not from fear, but from the thrill of wanting to learn more about witchcraft. He dreamed of studying its secrets.
But he snapped out of his thoughts fast and turned to Elias. "Seal the sanctum. Use alchemical charges to collapse the entrances. If the rebels reach us, we're finished."
Elias hesitated. "The subjects"
"Are worthless now. With the king gone, survival matters more."
He glanced at 2749, who was almost dead, a flicker of regret in his eyes. The experiment wasn't finished.
Valerius sighed and quickly moved around the lab, grabbing important things. He took key documents, rare scrolls, and other vital stuff, then snatched pouches of gold and magical gems from a table. He tossed one pouch to Elias. "This will help you out in an emergency. Grab the best samples and books. We're leaving."
After a while,
They rushed out, doors banging shut.
Soon, explosions rocked the sanctum.
Walls crumbled.
Cages holding forgotten subjects were crushed, their cries snuffed out.
In the center, 2749 lay inside the Rune Glass Vault, dying. The alien blood still flowed through his veins.
But then, the violet eye in his forehead flickered…