Present day

Since my body safely reached the first mutation, Elias came back at least a dozen of times. At the first visit, he said something about increasing the daily dose and proceeded with the injections. Other than that, nothing else happened in this boring cell.

I could not feel the results I wanted. I had no idea whether my strength was still the same or kept augmenting. I could also feel that I was no longer a normal human being. In this cell, there was no way for me to truly use my strength to its fullest extent and know its limits.

After more than a dozen injections, my body started to feel odd. It was like living in the body of a stranger. I knew it was the prelude to the agonizing pain when the elixir accumulated and fused with me. The more was injected the more the pain flared throughout my whole body. Reaching the last injection meant death for some. I, however, already knew I was one of the lucky ones in advance. After a while, I was too preoccupied with the pain that I forgot to keep count of the number of injection I got. I was suffering so much that I was lucky if I could manage to sleep.

All this time, I was thinking that the violet smoke stored inside the moving tattoo the demon left me would keep the pain away, but it was just wishful thinking. I understood quickly that this time the torture I was dealing with was a pain ten times more excruciating than anything I’ve ever felt before.

One day, I was hopeless and tried to find out exactly what kind of injuries I could endure before the tattoo helped. I used my nails to open multiple wounds all over my hands. Just a simple wound that would do me no harm but leaking a few droplets of blood was healed by a simple wisp of violet smoke that came out of the moving tattoo. I could not understand it. I was agonizing all over my body and all this sigil cared about was an insignificant wound. Did it only care about me not bleeding out? But it closed every wound I had as if nothing happened. I went as far as breaking my left arm, only to see a load of smoke escaping the tattoo and repairing it almost instantly. Was I to keep enduring this pain until I’m half dead? Will I still be sane after this?

Days passed and I kept screaming as loud as I could, trying to ignore the pain. Every now and then, Elias would calmly come into the cell followed by the same blinding light and his Shadow guard who restrained me before I was injected with yet another Elixir and left to fend for myself.

That routine would repeat itself until that day finally arrived.

It was the same as last time. My body was falling apart inside and outside. I was lying on the floor, coughing huge mouthfuls of blood. The outside of my body looked like someone who’d been lashed hundreds of times with a spiked stick. It was as if my muscles, flesh, and blood vessels had exploded. If the demon appeared, I was afraid I would not be strong enough to refuse his alluring offer, but I was hypocritically counting on his useless tattoo to save me. I was burning in anger as its act of eternally dancing on my chest looked as if it was mocking me. I had assumed that tattoos were immobile but it had never seemed to stop moving ever since I got it.

As expected, the demon never showed himself but before I closed my eyes I almost heard a distant sigh. It was with my eyes halfway closing themselves that I felt the tattoo pulsate like a heartbeat. Shortly after, I saw myself being engulfed in a cocoon of violet smoke. I could not be bothered about what happened next as I knew I was saved again. I soundly slept. Finally, I could sleep.

When I awoke, I was assailed by a blinding light. By the time my eyes adapted to it, I was already up to see two familiar faces contorted in a weird shape.

“Did they see something they should not have seen?” I promptly asked myself.

I was topless with no visible wounds and the moving tattoo was still throbbing. The smoke tattoo was as conspicuous as that ball of light. Yet they were only watching my dull face as if they had seen a ghost. I finally understood why the demon was so careless in leaving this power behind. It looked like the tattoo was invisible to everybody but me.

They must have found me asleep. It is a good thing they did not think I had no chance of survival and personally came instead of sending those two idiots who would’ve incinerated me without me knowing it.

Elias and Mark recollected themselves almost at the same time. I humbly stood there and awaited questioning. Since they could not see the moving tattoo, there was nothing for me to hide.

“You seem rather well. It is a huge contrast to your previous self.” Elias calmly said after a while. He was probably thinking of my less glorious days as I had lost my mind and kept screaming out of my lungs. He was mostly the target of my hatred at the time.

“It is safe to assume that you were born under a lucky star. Nonetheless, you should be prepared for the next round of injections as they will be more concentrated and therefore the pain you will experience will be leagues above what you have been experiencing since the beginning of the experiment.” He left as soon as those words came out of his mouth.

Everything happened so fast that I was at a loss for words.

“What should I be prepared for? I have no choice but to go through it all or die.” I thought.

Not having access to enough light but a weak magical oil lamp that never seemed to run out despite the little light it gave off or not feeling the need to eat as a side effect of these injections, my life was dull. Sometimes I caught myself thinking about the old acquaintances who were still inside the City of gods or the ones who were selected for the trial of power at the same time as me. In short, we were all strangers as there was no way for us to really know each other for more than a few years as the drafting happened every month.

As one of the few natives, I grew more familiar with that city than most. Children were under the care of human guards as we were considered to have more chances of surviving the trial of power and could be programmed into becoming brainwashed into blindly following orders, but it was apparent that for some unspeakable reason some kids were more favored than the rest I was a part of. I grew up under their care but with my sickly looks, I was an eyesore in their eyes. I got my knowledge from the surface world form the new neighbors who had the misfortune of being enslaved from there before they were brought in the underground world. I yearned for freedom but it was a fantasy I indulged myself into. Let alone me, many here were sure to die before seeing the world above even as a slave.

In a brightly lit laboratory, Elias was fiddling with a vial in which was a red liquid. He was standing in front of a two-meter large basin of bubbling green viscous liquid.

“I tested his blood. There is nothing alarming within it.” Elias thought.

Mark had just entered the place. He was in the middle of breaking the seal on a rolled parchment. After the seal broke, the parchment left his hands, hovered in front of him and started unrolling. Soon, a stream of small characters came out of it and settled in the air in the form of a meter-long text. He read a bit then turned around and spoke to Elias:

“This is all we have on him. Nothing outstanding just as we thought.” Mark reported.

“He was born in the inside the subterranean world?” Elias asked.

“Yes, sir. He was born with a fragile constitution and was never expected to survive the first few weeks after his birth. Yet he survived eighteen years in that city where even I had a hard time living in as a kid. With this feat of going through the second change while still looking as frail as the day he came in, something is definitely not right here.” Mark slowly said as his eyes were rapidly reading the text in front of him.

“What about his family tree? Anything worth mentioning?” Elias asked again. He was about to empty the vial’s content in the pool in front of him.

“His only known relative, his mother, died in childbirth seven months after arriving in the city of gods. She was already pregnant when she was captured during the war against the Sparrow king in the southern kingdoms. His father and relatives are most probably dead by now. She was bought from the Crystal consortium in a batch of five thousand slaves that was sent to us twenty years ago." Mark said before peeking at the basin to see if there was any reaction to the blood being poured into it.

“Nothing. No strange mutation except the normal fusion with the elixir. He is not of the Nether bloodline. Everything about him is completely normal if not worse than a healthy human who just reached the second change. This means that his body has no chance of reaching the third stage, but it is the same story all over again. We did the same test after he went through the first change and decided to give him another chance.” Elias said after scrutinizing the motionless pool one more time. The blood caused no reaction.

“I cannot keep him hidden for long. We must find out something, anything that can explain this situation because if a hopeless case such as his can reach the second stage unharmed, in theory, anyone could. A sure way to reach the second stage, everyone will kill to get it.” Elias added.

“If he reaches the third stage, in this condition, the Genesis cradle will know of him. They have the first pick since they bring eighty percent of the yearly revenue to the organization. He might end up in their hands. Should we purge everything and everyone related to him?” Mark suggested.

“How do you see us doing that without attracting unwanted attention? My faction may have no say and is relegated to minor tasks here and there, but we still need to show some results as well. If I present this case to the Tree of Wisdom’s council now, they will never believe me as we have nothing concrete. We are blindly administering injections without knowing how he survives every time. We need a starting point and it is him. For now, I oversee the eighth aisle of the first stage floor. Let’s keep him there. If he reaches the third stage, I will have more data to work with.” Elias said after pondering the issue for a while.

“The first stage floor was not constructed to withstand us. We need a seal magician to keep him in check if he becomes a Shadow. Is it possible to find a discreet sealer in the Tree of Wisdom's members?” Mark asked.

Shadow guards like Mark had been rendered docile due to a seal implanted on their soul by a seal magician. They were sold as puppets who had no choice but to follow orders. The seal could only be removed when they were granted their freedom. Such seals were branded on the souls of dangerous individuals such as physically enhanced and magician slaves. Mark had been granted his freedom by Elias’s father but still chose to keep working for his family. He was one of the first Shadow guards ever created. His full name was Mark Just.

The longevity of a Grand magician could reach two hundred years. A necromancer could live for as long as there were bodies for him to possess. Shadow guards kept the same appearance they had upon reaching the third stage for five hundred years until they gradually turned to stone in their last decade of life. At least that is the fate of those of the first and second stage. Shadow guards still had three hundred years until they started dying naturally. The elixir that could allow the third stage to exist appeared two hundred years ago. Mark still had roughly three hundred years of life.

“I know someone. He is a bit weird but he will be of use to us. I’m sure he will be interested in that kid’s luck.” Elias said after his face showed signs of painful memories.

“Right, what is that kid’s name? I only know his cell number.” He finally turned to Mark and Inquired. He was still hoping for the pool to show some signs of movement.

“It says here that his mother wanted him to be called Alwyn Kane.” Mark said.

“Kane, huh. Use your contacts in the Crystal Guild and go through their records to pinpoint exactly where his roots are, then send Kris and his team to investigate. If that kid’s relatives are alive, bring them all to me. If they are half as lucky as this kid is, they should still be alive. The more samples I can work with, the better.” Elias ordered.

“Right away, sir” Mark nodded and left the lab.

“Since he refuses to die, this time I will give him twice the dosage of a normal second stage patient. If he cannot tolerate it, I’ll still push his luck and see. Normally, it takes six months to reach the third stage from the second change, if he survives the procedure. With this accelerated program of mine, it will take less than three months which is before the annual meeting of all the Tree of Wisdom's members. I’m finally going to have something to say. Plus, he always looks fine after all that torture. Even if he dies, his corpse should still be used as research material. I hope this kid pulls another miracle.” Elias thought.

The torture began once more. It was all caused by the same harmless needle but it was the things it delivered inside my body that put me in this chaotic state. The usual smile of that wretched alchemist was replaced by an expression of wonder. It seems he was trying hard to believe that I would live through this last hurdle. No words could compare this experience with the last two rounds. I did not even have the strength to scream at my leisure anymore nor could I manage to sleep. My body could not listen to me anymore, moving was out of the question for now. Not that I had anywhere to go.

Some parts of my body would blow up and blood splattered everywhere. It occurred occasionally, and that was what I could see. What happened inside my body was another story. The smoke tattoo was almost in sync with my heartbeat as it worked without rest. It was an incredible display of its healing capabilities. As soon as a body part blew up, the violet smoke would come running to repair it. I only feared that the alchemist would be a witness to such a spectacle, but all of it started moments after the injection. Somehow, he overlooked the staggering amount of blood that was painted all over the cell. He even took a few samples when he could. I could see him being afraid of finding a corpse the next day only to see him relieved of the fact that I was still alive when the door opened.

He once came with a scrawny fellow who looked as anorexic as I did and for the moment they were in the cell, the alchemist looked gloomy as his friend could not stop blabbering.

That thin man then chanted some unintelligible words and a spell gradually assembled before him. It took the form of two white birds that took flight and each burrowed itself into my forehead and the alchemists’. I guess I should call him master from now on.

I immediately understood I was being sealed. Turns out this alchemist was afraid I would be a pain in the future and the decided to seal me ahead of time. Physically enhanced slaves had no choice than to go through this. They were too dangerous to be allowed free reign over their actions.

Thankfully, the tattoo would never accept to share a body with a low ranked magic seal. When the bird entered my forehead, the sigil throbbed once and the foreign magic that entered disappeared as soon as it met the violet smoke. I understood that even my soul was protected.

Both magicians were oblivious to all of it. As they came for the sole purpose of sealing me, they left as soon as it was done. I decided to act the time being and play the obedient slave for a while.

The injection today left me with half a body. Everything from my feet to waist was gone. Even the bones were nowhere to be seen. The tattoo did its work and I was revived in time. I could feel that the violet smoke had a mind of its own and was frustrated at times as if it could not understand why a person would willingly go through such an ordeal. This was the injection that came before the last one. Even with the violet smoke working around the clock I thought I was still fine. Tomorrow, according to the alchemist, will be the day where the last injection will be administered.