The monster opened its tired, black gem eyes.

She expected to be in the midst of the enemies that will attack her at a moment’s notice the instant she moved and she planned beforehand for this. It was the little paranoia she developed due her past experiences.

FUAHAHA Come at me, weak manlings! I’m here to chew gum and kick ass, and im all out of gum! - Is what Lucy wanted to shout at the top of my lungs in English, but all that escaped her mouth was a coarse “Fuuu”.

She lied with mouth open like a fish out of water. She dully stared at the ceiling where a single, dim lamp hung from and threatened to fry her retinas. She had to fight against her heavy eyelids.

She was alive. Her body state, despite having recovered from the scorched skeleton form, still suggested the opposite. Still, the attempt at getting up was short lived. All the strength she had in her body amounted to lifting one arm a few centimeters off the ground, before it powerlessly slumped back down.

Something was not right. I should not be this… weak. This terribly weak.

Because of the memories left by Ben, Lucy had a rough estimate of what my body was capable of. While the description only had theory behind the ideal cell and the inner workings of a hybrid-brain, it was enough to deduce their performance. With that in mind, for her to be in this state was near impossible.

The only exception she could think of was to drain her of the large amount of resources and energy she had. Be it by some method of sucking them out all at once, or the slow way of exploiting Lucy’s comatose state’s regenerative powers for a long time, by keeping me in a near-full-recovery condition while continuously inflicting more damage. This way she would never pass the wake-up threshold. But practically, despite doing that, Lucy would still live for a long while. It would take about 2 months for the automatic recovery to expend enough resources to be unable to fix more injuries. If the process continued for another month, Lucy would expend all stored energy and die for real.

But how unlikely it was that I could be used as an organ supply, hm?

Lucy opened my eyes once more to look at the state of her body.

There were needles stuck in every major blood vessel outside the black box. The needles were connected to a blood bag below the operating table where she lied on, a nearly full one at that. Someone also made an incision on my stomach and a few organs were not present.

Lucy’s lips slowly parted, and through a throat that was dry like a desert escaped a single, weak word.

“Fuuu… uck-”

The situation was quite bad.

Critically low cell energy levels on the verge of shutdown. She had no strength left remaining in muscles.

Foreign bodies. The needles that drew blood and drained her dry. She could also feel something in her gut.

I think someone also dropped a scalpel inside me. Classic. Lucy cursed in her mind.

Last but not least, Severe malnutrition. Her large stock of components she came pre-equipped with to create more cells was completely and utterly depleted. Recovery was impossible. Not even a tiny scratch would be able to heal like this.

Lucy was furious but had no energy to show it on her face.

After cooling down (mentally - she had the same temperature as the surroundings) she went back to her present problems.

The only way to get out of this situation was to get rid of the needles. Energy needed to be conducted to arm muscles to pull them out. The blood served as a conduit for energy. The needles sucked all the blood out and would suck out any newly pumped blood before it reached the necessary places.

An impasse. - She thought.

She weighed her only available options.

There were a few ways to get out of this situation. Easiest would be for someone to come in and pluck the needles out for her. While it is the easiest solution, I can safely assume I was purposely put into this state by the preparators. As such it is very, very improbable. Next, she could try to flood high-pressure blood through arteries that would force some blood to pass through capillaries and go around the needles. If that did not work, she could salvage the attempt and try to fill the blood bag to the brim, such that it won't be able to draw more.

With the volume of blood she could work with, it had an even lower chance of success. The loopholes were that she had only had blood in the ribcage to utilize and if that wasn't enough, she would be in a much worse situation than before. What if someone simply came in and replaced the blood bag with an empty one? What if the pressure was not enough? She scrapped this idea and pondered what else could be done.

I have almost complete control over the cells in my body…

An idea arose. Solidify the blood in the needles and tubes. It should suffice in sealing them.

A medium chance of success. But, it was a gamble she was willing to take.

During the process, something managed to go wrong. Of course. Lucy’s body was acting out of control for an unknown reason and refused to do her bidding. This unnerved her greatly because again, such a thing should not happen.

After a bit of tinkering, a light of hope appeared in the hopeless situation - she could not selectively clot the blood, but she could clot every single blood vessel in her body with a chance. The process was met with a lot of pain but she managed to cope with it. Then, bit by bit, she returned the blood to a liquid state, while working around the few dozen needles stuck in her right arm. It was an extremely mentally straining process, but it was all that could be done.

Success! The numbness in the right arm receded as the blood delivered the necessary fuel to the muscles.

She started clumsily removing over forty long, thick needles from the other arm. Then, from her former hand, and the rest of the body.

Ugh. That hurt a lot.

Pain was another concerning factor that should not be occurring.

However, she had a theory. While a person is comatose, they feel greatly reduced pain. This also happened to her and allowed her infinitely small and weak embryo of pseudo-soul to adapt to pain. While the pain felt paralyzing in the realm of the soul at first, in reality, it was a mere thousandth of what she would feel now that she was awake.

There were instances of people losing their sanity during torture, being turned into mindless husks of their former selves, or straight up dying from pain. With a stroke of luck, Lucy’s pseudo soul managed to not shatter while it was forming. It quickly adapted to the increasing pain levels, and soon she was pretty much immune to all pain felt within in the realm of the mind. However, that did not directly translate to reality thus her pain threshold was below average.

“Wa.. ter” She eyed the blood bag with craving eyes.

She needed to hydrate, urgently. She could feel skin cracking from the drought. While the drained blood was long deprived of any nutrients, it still contained a minute amount of liquids she would love to have back.

Lucy grabbed the needles and started sucking - but nothing happened. The one-way valves in the tubes were stronger than the pathetic excuse of an underpressure created in her mouth.

She used all her strength to yank the whole blood bag and catch it. Lucy used one of the needles to pop a hole in the bag and drank it like juice. It no longer felt tasteless to her, instead, it was comparable to drinking muddy water.

“Uwah. Need more”. Still, she could not afford to be picky. Her throat was a little moistened now. It no longer felt like swallowing sandpaper when speaking.

With the intent to get out, she tensed her abs. She had a large cut in her gut that did not heal and if she was careless, the remaining organs would spill out. She did not want that to happen.

Getting off the table, she glanced around. The room she was in had a tiled floor with dried red and black bloodstains all over it. Stepping on it barefoot disgusted her greatly as the filth stuck to her - she was still a girl at heart - but she had no other choice. On the walls, there were racks with a wide assortment of tools akin to scalpels, handsaws, axes, meathooks, hammers, various spikes, barbed wire, and so on. The corners were the spots where various large devices. Lucy managed to identify some of them to be an iron maiden, stretch bed, and pillories. The others looked ominous as is, and she decided to not delve into their methods of operation.

This is no surgery room. This is a torture chamber! Who put me in here!?

There were traces of it being used plenty of times. The whole room was filled with a strong iron stench of blood.

Lucy waited in the room for a little longer for my stamina to recover but hated every second of it.

She spent a moment standing against a wall, but no matter how long she waited for her strength to gather, she was still extremely tired.

Looking down, she noticed some difference in her body. She was taller than before.

To think I would be able to grow a head taller in mere two months. She touched her chest, and the soft mounds were already formed. Now she looked more feminine. Sadly, she could not see if her face changed because there were no mirrors in here. Even if there were, she doubted they would be clean enough to be functional.

She struggled with opening the heavy blast door in the corner of a room. Upon stepping out, she found herself in a long, gloomy corridor. The lights on the ceiling here were scarce, and they seemed to be functional, just turned off. The corridor was empty and deathly quiet. No traces of anyone being here at the moment. Looking back, the door to the torture chamber had a painted label “OPERATING ROOM 0” on it. Fortunately, this door was unlocked, because if they weren’t, they were sturdy enough to withstand an explosion, not to mention a skinny teen girl with a pair of horns.

Since there was only one way to tread, Lucy wasted no time and moved forwards. This facility was like a huge stone maze with twists and turns everywhere. The corridor looked rough, uneven like a cave. She knew she was deep underground. The air here was stale and frigid.

She reached the second door after a while of walking. The rooms were not separated by thin walls like normal buildings.

The door led to a huge empty space with reinforced tiles covering walls, ceiling, and the floor. Blood had been spilled here and it wasn’t done with consent, as there were traces of intense combat all over the place. However, compared to the operating room, the reek of blood was mild. Adjacent to the arena was a small room separated by a thick one-way mirror that allowed observation of the battles happening in the underground arena.

The next room Lucy entered was a storage of sorts.

There were piles of junk stuffed here without any order.

This will do Lucy picked the smallest white lab coat in the room, and even then it was long too long for her when she stood upright.

At least the horns make me a bit taller than I actually am.

She hastily utilized the razor-sharp edges of the horns to trim the coat from the bottom, then wrapped the wide strip of cloth as a bandage to cover the wound on her stomach as an additional layer of precaution until the wound closed.

Oh, right… The horns are a problem.

Horns were indeed a problem. Not only were they not a trait of any human that worked here, but they were also too showy, and leaving it as is would be a critical blunder. They reflected light like a gem. If she were to stand under a source of light, the surroundings would change into a rave party as her horns would refract light like a disco sphere.

She tightly wrapped cloth around the horns. Now they were less prominent, and would not accidentally cut everything that touched them.

Having done a few more preparations and wiping the filth off her body and bringing forth her flawless skin Lucy stepped onto the corridor once more. She continued walking forward, checking out the next rooms.

Cell 01, 02, 03, and 05 had mutilated corpses of humans in them. Cell 04 was empty. While she approached Cell 06 something pounded at the thick metal door from the inside. She decided to not look inside. There were a lot more rooms with monster corpses inside, sometimes alive monsters, but the weirdest one of them all was room Cell E0. It did not follow the rest of the naming pattern. Furthermore, the door to this room was sealed with a lot more locks and reinforcements. Whatever was inside was meant to be kept in at all costs. Thus, she decided to not let curiosity get the best of her.

A while later she reached what she guessed would be the middle of the floor. She found her door.

Floor minus three. Lucy read the writing on the wall. There was a staircase leading both up and down. She was interested in what could be on the lower level, but since she was low on energy, she went with the option that had the highest probability of leading to an exit.

The stairs ended at floor minus one. By the time she reached it though, Lucy was already on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

The door turned out to be a hidden rotating passage behind a bland-looking bookcase in the corner of a large, well-lit library.

She carefully sneaked through the room, maintaining utmost caution to stay out of sight to avoid alerting people in here. She moved soundlessly on the carpet floor and soon reached the door. She stepped out and entered a wide marble hallway. Despite still being underground, this place was bright as day.

“...Can’t believe they showed up unannounced. Even if they are from the HQ, there has to be a limit to their nosiness. Good thing we have a second-gen to show- Wait... Did you hear something just now?”

Lucy heard a voice coming from right behind a corner. The smooth stone floor caused her bare feet to create sounds. She dashed to a nearby door to hide in a room, but it was locked.

“I swear I had heard footsteps here.” A heavily armored guard glanced around upon reaching the split. He was wearing full plate armor and already had his hand on the sheathe of his sword.

“Hmm. Must have been the wind.” Another behemoth of a guard followed after him and peaked inside the library.

“What fucking wind- We’re indoors, underground! Dumbass… Wind doesn't make footsteps.”

The two voices continued to argue as they walked past the door to the only unlocked room in the corridor.

Lucy was about to sigh a breath of relief, but a disinterested male voice reached her pointy ears from within the same room.

“Put the documents on the table.” The man pointed to an empty spot.

!!!

There was a man inside the room. He was sitting on the opposite end behind a huge mahogany desk, not even looking up. There were stacks of parchment on his table which he busily filled.

“Hm?”

The man finally perked up after hearing no reaction. He heard a door open and close, but he did not hear or see anybody enter. The man had long black hair, tied in a braid and resting on his shoulder. He wore a sleek, elegant coat with a white shirt with a cravat. His fancy noble attire paired well with his handsome face.

The man saw nobody in the room, shrugged, and went back to work.

“Must have been the wind…”

Overworking must have made me tired - He thought. Since he already was interrupted, he reached for his favorite cup of strong black tea, but…

“Where is my cup!?” He glanced at the silver tray that should have his untouched sandwich & tea breakfast. Now, however, the cup was missing.

He stood up and smacked his table in anger. ‘How could this incompetent idiot butler forget my tea!’ He cursed in his mind but was surprised to hear the ringing of porcelain against metal.

The cup was back in its place on the tray. It was empty.

Maxwell Miller picked it up in disbelief. Looked at the cup from every angle. It was still his cup. The very same he drank from every day, intact. It displayed no disappearing nor liquid absorbing tendencies whatsoever.

“Ugh. Whatever.”

He put it back on the plate and was about to go back to the paperwork but felt something else was amiss.

“My sandwich!?”

It was gone. He looked on the floor, desk, chair, and saw nothing. He stared at the tray with confusion; It was, and then it just wasn't there anymore. He checked everywhere again, even outside the door for traces of other his food, but his breakfast simply vanished into thin air.

“I think I’m overworking myself because of this inspection. I'm going to lose my sanity at this rate…” Max sat back down with a downcast expression.

At the same time, a certain girl hidden out of his sight under his desk once again recalled a certain piece of information.

Wood is made of cellulose, which is a sugar. It should have some nutritional value...

A loud crunch startled Max and caused him to jump in panic. He looked under the table where the sound came from, only to widen his eyes at the sight of a chunk of his desk gone, with obvious bite marks around it.

That should be it for the carbs. Now, where do I obtain some Silicon…

Maxwell stared at the bite marks on his table. He inspected it from up close.

“This small jaw. Don't tell me… Entity Zero?!?”

“Ooo, Entity Zero, what’s that?”

Max upon hearing the voice right behind him was startled and jumped in surprise, slamming his head against the hard wood. He turned around only to have his face inches away from a pair of black, captivating eyes staring right at him.

Lucy walked back and sat on his chair, making some space between them. In her hand was the empty teacup. She crushed it with one hand and put a piece in her mouth.

“What-”

*Crunch*

“...What are you doing he-”

*Crunch crunch, gulp* “Uwaah. That is what I needed. Now I need some gold and-”

“I… don't understand a word you are saying.”

Lucy tilted her head in puzzlement. She did not understand his language either.

She furrowed her brows at Maxwell Miller whose whole face was drained of color at the sight of her.

He fears me despite being way taller and beefier. Then, he must know what I am and most importantly what happened to me down there.

“English?” She asked. Her voice was soft and charming and that caused the man in front of her to loosen up. Not that she wanted it, it was just her voice was made this way. Questioning an intimidated man would be easier.

He shook his head, unable to answer. She swallowed the rest of the cup and walked up to a bookshelf.

She picked a book at random and rapidly flipped through one. It was a romance novel written in verse in a language she did not know previously.

The alphabet of this language had 32 letters. There were no homographs - words that were spelled the same and had different meanings, and it seemed there were no homonyms either, but she could not tell that without learning the pronunciation. The rhymes helped at deducing how to say the letters.

“Com~monspeech?” She tried speaking a word.

“Y-yes. I understand that language.”

Lucy smiled. She tossed the book aside, picked another one, and flicked through it while walking back to the chair. In mere three steps, she read the entirety of a large epic.

Maxwell was now more amazed than scared after witnessing the being in front of him learn a language in a matter of seconds.

“Answer questions.” She pointed at her stomach, “Did you do this?”

Max shook his head. Somehow, he completely calmed down from the initial scare of his life.

“No, I did not. It was not me who opened your abdomen.”

“Then who did?”

“I… I did not do it, but I instructed others to do it.”

He said boldly. Lucy’s subtle smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown.

“Wait, listen to me fully. I did that to help you. You’re sick. Weak.”

She was about to beat the crap out of him but stopped. He was right. She was way too weak than what her body should be capable of. Even walking was difficult for her, she was very low on energy despite just eating and digesting the meal, and the rate of energy flow was abysmally low.

“Explain.” Lucy stood up and demanded. She was two heads shorter than Max which looked rather cute than threatening.

“You arrived here unconscious, nearly dead. You did not wake up on your own. Even after we treated you, you did not wake up. We tried everything we would normally do to a human, but your physique is rather… unique. It’s unprecedented. Nobody saw anything like that, even among monsters. Well, there is also a fact I have never before treated a monster.”

Lucy stared at his face and observed for any micro-expressions that would indicate a lie. He deduced that he was saying truth intertwined with lies. She was aware she was unconscious for over two months when she was forming a soul, and that she was different from other organisms.

“But now you are awake. It’s a miracle!” The more he spoke, the angrier she got. He refused to explain why she was weakened.

Lucy was about to speak but paused. She walked up to the bookshelf once more and flicked through more books to find a very peculiar phrase. After going through an entire row of books in less than a minute, she turned back to Maxwell.

“Cut the crap. Why drain blood?”

“It’s a medical procedure that many doctors perform. It works on humans, then why should it not work on monsters! We tried that, and… as you can now see, it was successful. You’re here and all.”

What bullshit is this? All he said just now was a lie and the one that did this to me was him. I just don’t know why.

Lucy dashed forwards and launched a punch at his side. It struck his ribs, but the power was underwhelming as he merely flinched. He sent an attack several folds stronger than hers at her face in retaliation, but she easily deflected it with the tiniest force. A few more rapid punches him back and he rolled over the desk, sending all the documents flying. But, other than that, he was mostly fine. Lucy decided to bring out the big guns, and go for a critical strike to end the fight in one move. Her next movement was lightning fast, she turned into a blur and appeared before him. He was unable to react as he lost sight of her. However, just as she was about to launch the sure-kill kick into the balls, her legs went numb from using up all the energy in her body. Due to her superb time perception, she was still, frozen in time while she began falling over because her lower limbs completely gave up. Her arms still had a bit of energy and she formed an emergency plan.

If I am to fall, I will bring you down with me

Lucy pushed her arms forwards and tackled his sides. He was surprised by that move and did not react in time to defend himself from it. Her whole body pushed against his chest.

Then, something weird happened.

A major miscalculation on her side. She did not have enough weight behind her to topple him over. Yet, she continued to grasp his clothes because if she let go, she would fall over. A desperate change of strategy was to bury her head closer to his body and let the horns cut him up.

But the horns were wrapped in cloth and were rather soft than threatening. Lucy just ended up tightly hugging Maxwell.

He simply stood there with his arms up, unsure what to do. Question marks filled his mind.

He slowly moved his arm. He could easily hit her, as she was defenseless, but he hesitated.

Lucy was cursing in her mind and raced through possible options one after another looking for an optimal way of fighting while prone. Unfortunately, she had no chances of winning if that became reality. She had to bring out that.

Max gently caressed her hair.

She trembled.

What is this feeling…

Max embraced her and kept gently patting her head. She did not need to hold him anymore, as he fully supported her weight, but she continued to do so while looking down at their feet being super close.

“We are sworn enemies of old.

Then why do I welcome this hold?

An embrace I never craved,

My heart regards it as depraved.

But then… Why does It beat so fast?”

Lucy quietly spoke a quote from the rhymed romance she read first.

Maxwell's heart skipped a beat. He was speechless. He knew that book very well.

“I know that quote. It was the start of an unusual, forbidden love.” He sighed, conflicted. They fought a second ago, and now she was tightly hugging him.

She was one of a kind monster. This meant she was destined to be forever alone. An enemy of mankind. An enemy of other bests.

He felt her smooth, ideal white skin. He heard the rapid thumping of a single heart in her chest.

“You’re cold…”

"Always have been. Always hated it." She quoted the words of the villain character from the epilogue of the large epic. In there, there was also a dramatic ending where a character is called a monster by the heroine. It was a heartbreaking, tear-inducing finale. The heroine is shocked by the revelation of her lover who is also a villain and abandons him when he most needs her. Everyone got to love the heroine throughout the whole story, but the ending made them seethe. Nobody would act like her.

Lucy finally felt the numbness in her legs withdraw.

“Ahem,” She muttered.

The two of them let go and took a step back. An awkward silence arose. Lucy felt Max’s gaze on her but she did not dare meet his eyes.

“Anyways. Only one of five hearts beats faster near you.” She played hard to get. “The other four don’t beat at all.”

It beats fast to pump blood to my numb legs.

She finally looked at him.

“Are you a doctor?”

She asked.

“Ye-Yes. I haven't introduced myself. I am Maxwell Miller”

“I know you. Can you heal me?” She asked sternly, looking him in the eyes. She knew one miller from a weird dream of hers.

“Yes,” He immediately answered. He did not lie this time.

“...I don't trust you. You lie”

“If you want, you can leave any time you want. Nobody will stop you. But if you leave at this state, you will die.”

“How do I know that you did not put me in this state? You could be draining my blood and harvesting organs over a long period.” - She asked the question that bothered her the most. She thought it was the only way for her to end up like this. The time frame checks out. She was born in January and was stuck in the soul realm for what felt like 2 months. A month more, and she would die here.

“If that's the truth, you would be dead by now. You would not be able to survive a year of that even with your monstrous vitality.”

A year? A YEAR? It was not three months? I was born on 17 January 524. It should be early April now.

“What day is it today?”

“It’s February 28th. Year 525.”

She was baffled when he made known this fact to her. It was physically impossible to survive this long. Yet, she is alive - weaker than ever, sure, but alive nonetheless.

“You said you helped me. Why? What do you get in return?”

“I get to witness your true power.” He said after thinking for a while. “Even better if I can figure out how to replicate it.”

It made no sense as her body was one of a kind and only it could wield it, but at the same time something happened to her, she had no clue what, and it prevented her from using it too.

“Maxwell, let’s make a deal.”

“I’m listening.”

“You help me recover without playing any tricks on me. If you deceive to me, I will kill you. And your daughter.”

“Listen, that is not how deals work” Maxwell laughed, but then the second part of the condition got to him and he shook at the mention of his daughter.

“I don’t have a daughter.”

“That’s a lie. I can tell when you lie. She would be greatly disappointed to know the person she calls dad disregards her.”

“You know my daughter?”

“I don’t know. How old is she?”

It took him an awful while to answer. What kind of dad is he that doesn’t know the age of his child? At the moment of silence, Lucy stared at him with a serious face while thinking:

Holy shit the dream was actually a real thing that would happen!

“Four.”

Four-year-old at present. In the dream, she was a teenager. Interesting. I wonder how long the me in the dream was kept locked up by Maxwell to be this enraged.

“She goes by a different name now.”

Max tried to hide it but his microsecond reactions could not escape Lucy’s eyes. He thought that she was lying at first but then acknowledged that it was indeed a possibility. It would explain why no matter how much he searched, he could not find her.

“I know where she is, what she looks like, and her current name.”

Max’s eyes shone, but at the same time, he was startled.

“How do you know about my daughter?!”

“You would not believe it even if I told you, so I won’t bother.”

“If… If I help you, will you guide me to my daughter?”

“Yes.”

“Then we have a deal.” He announced firmly. But at heart, he was glad he could finally see his long-lost daughter.

Lucy extended her hand and showed a charming smile.

Inside, however, she had a shit-eating-grin as her plan at mental warfare was super effective.

That was smooth A.F. Who would have guessed seduction is stronger than fists? Although I am way too embarrassed to do it again… and the way he looks at me now is a little unsettling.

An unusual alliance between a humanoid monster and a mad scientist was formed after a firm handshake on this eventful day. The future was altered once again.

“First things first, can you get this scalpel out of my stomach? It’s really annoying.”