*Gasp* Huff... Huff...

In a secluded room opened up a pod, as a man woke up from within, buck naked. His entirety was covered in some kind of transparent sticky substance, which was mostly flushed out of the pod as the man regained his consciousness.

He gasped for breath as he forced himself out of that pod. Walking properly was still arduous to him, for his nervous system had taken a hit from the ordeal which occurred earlier. He tried to grasp the situation he was in, but a sudden pulsating pain hindered his ability to think as he fell on his knees. The torment was so immense that he tried to rip out his hairs and let out an agonized howl.

He soon started zoning in and out, and just when he was going to faint, something grabbed his neck and lifted him up in the air.

"Thank goodness, you are finally awake. I thought I lost the only specimen I was given," it spoke, in a tongue not known to mankind. The human tried to wrestle out of this predicament, but it all went in vain. He, in a daze, could not properly scrutinize the figure in front of him, but its pitch black cornea left a striking impression on him, to the point that he felt mesmerized by them.

Those eyes brought out his deep hidden secrets as his whole life soon flashed in front of him. It was as if all the years he lived were compiled into a slide show of sorts. This went on for a few seconds, and then he was released off his bewitchment. The pain diluted, which in turn turned him sane, and he brought his thoughts back to the track. It was then that he caught a glimpse of the perpetrator.

However, the intense red of its skin and a dazzling pair of ringed horns took him by surprise. Its evil grin(although it was truly happy that its test subject didn't die) gave him shivers as his efforts to free himself grew. He subconsciously started throwing jabs, but this didn't even make it flinch as it stood nonplussed, judging the human's behavior.

"Why are you whining? Aren't you a Ningen(higher human), a race which once triumphed our whole galaxy? And even if you are a subspecies, you shouldn't have devolved enough to feel something as primitive as pain."

The human was somehow able to understand the words that thing spoke, but he disregarded them as he continued punching it in the face.

"It's useless, little one. Pain is something we Shuras usually don't.."

The thing, errr... shura had his eyes bulged out as he writhed in pain on the ground, for the man had kicked him in the balls.

He landed on his butts after freeing himself up from that Shura. Migraine still haunted him, but it was bearable for now and didn't impede him much as he made up his mind to escape that freak. He frantically looked for a door, but there was none, for he was trapped in a steel cage of sorts. Four thick metallic walls comprised the room he was in, no vents or windows in sight. He ran towards the wall nearest to him, as he started pounding his fists on it while shouting for help.

Blood soon started flowing down the orifices formed on his fists, while the metacarpals cracked one by one, till his hand became limp and he discerned the futility of his actions.

"You definitely are related to those ningens..." The shura spoke weakly, pain-filled in his eyes as he steadily approached the human.

"Stay... Stay away from me." The man shouted, fear explicit in his voice.

"...but you did wrong pissing me off." The shura, now just an arm away from the human, spoke menacingly as anger overcame his pain and he landed a strong and crisp punch in his guts.

A kiss from the angel of death herself is how he felt when punched. It was as if his guts were wrung and left to dry out on a summer noon. He felt excruciating pain as he spat a mouthful of blood and once again lost his consciousness.

** **

*Gasp* Huff.. Huff..

The same pod opened, but this time the human was chained within. The sticky substance slowly drained out as he struggled to get the chains off of him.

"It is no use struggling, human. Let's not fight as burly savages and for once act like the civilized beings we are. I am Dr. Reid, Charles Matthew Reid, and you are Abhin, am I right?

"What?"

"I have read your memories, that's how I know your name. I also know that you have a lot of questions to ask and rest assured, I will answer them with the best of my capabilities, but it's better to first make our roles clear. You are but a slave, no, a test subject, and I, your experimenter. If you cooperate properly with me, I will tell you all that needs knowing, You might even earn back your freedom if that's what you desire."

"What are you blabbering? You just tried to kill me. I am going to charge you on attempted murder, you fucker." Abhin spoke as he stopped his vain struggling and started shouting for help. He believed that Reid was just a psycho donning red makeup and fake horns.

But even after 5 minutes had gone by, no one came.

Eventually, his throat went sore and his shouts died out. Abhin tried consolidating himself that all of this was just a dream, but his burning guts said otherwise.

'Yeah, Serene... I was at her home. And then... then I woke up here and this freak punched me in my guts.' He started ransacking his memories to get a clue of how he ended up with this freak, as shouting for help seemed pretty useless. He even tried looking for Serene but she was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, the Shura conjured a few other things with a wave of his hand.

"Now that you are done screaming to your heart's content. Let me run some tests on you." The shura bluntly said.

"Let me go, you murdering sunovawitch."

"Enough blabbering, it was you who kicked me at the forbidden place. Shut your mouth, and I might go easy on you." Reid scowled in contempt.

The human once again started shouting for help.

After a minute or so, the shura could not bear it and punched him in his guts... again. He ran some 'tests' on him, while he lay unconscious, and successfully gathered some of the data he needed.

Abhin woke up after an hour, but he was pretty tamed by now.

After a minute of scanning his surroundings, "It's pretty useless, right? To try getting out of here," he questioned

"Yes," Reid narrowed his eyes at the sudden change in attitude before nodding his head.

*Sigh* "Tell me what is happening, and I will help you in your tests unless they are too much for me."

"That's more like it," the Shura remarked, "Fine then, let me quench your thirst for answers, human." as he unchained his test subject.

He then summoned a pair of chairs and a table with a wave of his hand, as he prompted the human to take a seat. Abhin, being perplexed, had no other choice but to follow his lead, for his 'gut feelings'(sorry for the bad pun) told him so.

"What do you wish to know?" Reid questioned.

The human was pretty confused as to what should be asked. No, it would be better to say that he was perplexed by the whole situation he was in. And why wouldn't he be? He was sitting naked on an extremely chilling seat, in front of a complete stranger, who didn't even appear like a human. He had superhuman strength and the power to create things out of nowhere.

So, it was not as if he had nothing to ask, but that he had a whole lot of things to ask and so he didn't know from where to begin.

"Fine then, since you have no qualms. Let me give you a brief summary of your situation" Reid replied after having waited for a minute.

"Our galaxy, which you humans call Milky Way, has been a host to an intergalactic society of intelligent beings. With tens of thousands of planetary systems being a part of it, it's nothing but a clan of races brought together to prosper, which we call the Jia Federation. With two of the most prominent and widespread races being the Shuras and the Aries. Ningens, which is what you are supposed to be, was a race that popped up a few thousand years ago, from the part of the Milky Way where your home planet is located. They were extremely powerful in the ways of mana, and with their astute mindset and an almost unlimited lifespan, they set out to conquer the whole of our Milky Way."

'The Fuck'

Abhin had some doubts, but now he knew for sure.

'It is those damn turds(his friends). How dare they mess with my cola, those cunts?' He knew for certain that it was his friends who had drugged him. Those detestable beings. There was no other way this situation can be explained.

'It must have been that bastard Jake, that fucking piece of shit.' He was so enraged that he forgot about the Shura and started internally cursing one of his friends. Reid, on the other hand, continued on with his history class, totally unaware of the fact that the human blatantly dismissed most of his lecture as bullshit.

"...But things ended on a better note, as the Ningens went extinct a few thousand years ago."

"Some say that they lost their ability to reproduce and so their numbers dwindled while others say that they were hunted down by the subjugation armies of the Jia federation till the last of their kin lay dead."

"And what's all that got to do with me?" Although Abhin didn't pay much heed to this lecture, he was indeed listening to the Shura, and so he questioned him in an exasperated voice. He was angry and wanted to beat the shit out of the guy who drugged him, but since he couldn't do it right now, he had no choice but to listen to this Shura.

"Though dilute, you humans have the bloodline of a Ningen, and Ningens were the only species who didn't age no matter how much time passed. Don't you get it, you are MY key to immortality."

Reid proudly flaunted, like a mother whose son had aced his exams.

"Are you an idiot?" Abhin exclaimed, "Didn't you say you read my memories, so you should know that we humans barely cross the hundred-year threshold. How can we be related to something eternal." He was seriously disappointed in his brain for coming up with a plot with such baring loopholes.

Reid's eyelid twitched as he heard the human labeling him as an idiot.

He had an urge to punch him again but he suppressed it as that would waste his already depleting stock of healing serum.

"I know, human. I very well know how petty your race has become. You are right that humans are a weak and short-lived species, but you are forgetting an extremely important variable, my dear human. Mana."

"Ma...na?"

'Seriously, Mana. It must be those light novels I read and the RPG's I played, which are now influencing my trip.' The human grumbled within.

"Yes, mana. One of the most alluring things in the world."

"A king or a tyrant, you can be whatever you want to be IF you are blessed with mana," Reid concluded triumphantly.

His guts still pained so he was worried whether all of it was truly fake, but he decided to play along with the situation.

"You sound like a shady dealer, shura."

"Shhh... you better not disrupt me again," Reid snorted, as he clenched his fists, admonishing his captive.

"So where was I... Ah, Mana."

"Every Individual stores a definite amount of mana within their bodies for various purposes, this mana is termed as core mana. Rest assured, You too have core mana, though it's minuscule to the extreme," blabbered the Shura.

"This core mana generally flows through an entire being, but in your case, it is as stagnant as a lake. You can compare it to blood, as you live only because it flows. The same is with mana, as you must be able to circulate it within yourself to use it, or it's nothing but slow poison." Reid kept on lecturing Abhin but he soon realized that the human was not at all interested in his talks, and so he decided to postpone it for a while. He actually got quite angry, but he had no choice but to swallow that anger.

"Now, now, I need a few trinkets so I will be away for a while. You better behave till then." Reid said as he snapped his fingers, making the pod and the chair disappear. It caught Abhin off guard as he landed on his butts, but he had already thrown common sense out of the picture and was treating the situation as if it were an illusion.

"Umm... doctor, I need some clothes, you see," Abhin said, putting up an obviously bitter smile. His butt was completely iced by now, and he had no choice but to ask for some clothes.

Reid gave him his pale brown long coat, which was almost the size of the human, as he started walking away. With a wave of his hand, he opened up a gap in the wall and went out of that room. The human had no chance to escape as the gap soon filled up.

"So, he cannot create clothes out of nowhere."

Abhin had carefully noted the hand gestures of the shura. And as the genius he thought of himself to be, he started mimicking them in front of the wall, but neither the snap of the fingers nor the wave of his hands worked.

"Tch. Of course, it wouldn't work." After snapping and waving in weird poses for about a minute, he stopped. He still could not stand straight, as his abs muscles would start having a burning sensation if he did so. And so he had to move all around the room with a not-so-taut hunched back.

"Are acid trips supposed to be this realistic? It freaking hurts." He still remained in a state of complete denial as he knew that the world he lived in was not some fantasy novel where you would be transmigrated to a magic-filled world. Although this didn't berate his curious mind from exploring his surroundings, it made him realize that he needed a proper plan to escape out of that predicament and he made a lot of observations for the same.

First being that the thick walls constituting the room were far tougher than the steel from the earth. Thus, it was practically impossible to put a dent on it, let alone break it.

Second being that the Shura was extremely powerful. He had power, enough to decide the life and death of our MC on a whim, so it would be better to avoid irritating him.

Third being that the common sense he was programmed for for the past 18 years wasn't common anymore, so it would be better not to take anything lightly.

Abhin was also perplexed by a lot of abnormalities, like how the room was evenly lit at each and every corner and side, even without a proper light source.

He tinkered about for an hour to get some hints for his escape plans but there was nothing he could use as an aid to escape, and so it was now almost deemed impossible.

*Sigh* "Just what kind of mess have I gotten myself into." *Grumble* "And now hunger's haunting me too." Doubts whether all of this was real or not still lingered, but all he could do was to go with the flow.

Eventually, Charles returned, with a pissed-off expression.

"Tsk. Those hypocrite scumbags ruined my whole mood. How can they ignore the fact that 'I' too am an integral part of the Research and Development team." Reid mumbled to himself, clearly depressed. But his mood quickly cheered up as he saw his test subject.

"Let's get back to work, my dear human."

Abhin was then restrained off his movements. It was as if he was crucified, using metal chains.

"Wha.. what are you doing all of sudden?"

This caught Abhin off guard, for the Shura came barging in out of nowhere and picked him up from his nape, just to chain him on a nearby wall.

"I will explain everything to you later on. I don't have much time to waste right now. Or do you want me to waste the last bits of Ningen mana present in this world?" The Shura grunted.

'It's alright, calm down. Calm down.' Abhin tried schooling himself into peace.

In the meantime, Reid conjured a green orb and an injector, or at least a device that looked like one.

"This... is a freshly extracted core mana. I am going to artificially circulate it within you so as to give your own core mana a kickstart. This might hurt a bit, so you better brace yourself." Reid warned. He seemed to be in a hurry as he straight away injected the core mana into Abhin's left arm.

The orb slowly started losing its lustre and color as the mana slowly crept up in Abhin's vein. All of the veins in the human's arm bulged up and started turning greyish green. In a mere five seconds, his veins (till his shoulders) had turned from healthy green to dark grey.

'What is up with this sudden development? And what is wrong with this excruciating pain I am feeling right now?' Abhin gritted his teeth in pain.

The shade of his veins kept on falling for a few seconds till it finally turned pitch black. And then.

*Boom* As chunks of flesh and bones splattered all over the room, Reid realized that he had messed up.

Meanwhile, the victim was now nearing his doom. His left arm and the chain holding it were blown to smithereens. The skin and the muscles of the left side of his waist were charred off and a few of his ribs broke and pierced his slowly inflating lungs, which were now sparingly visible.

The seductive pink of his loosely hanging guts -as blood slowly drained out of it- was a sight to behold. (I am not a sadist and neither do I promote sadism.)

The muscles of his face (only the left side) were relatively unharmed but not a speck of skin was left on it. A sizeable piece of metal, probably from the chain, pierced his left zygomatic(cheek part) bone as the muscle fibers around it were cleanly cut.

The left eyeball seemed as if it would fall out anytime as there were no eyelids left to cover it and keep it in check. His pupils were shrunk to the extreme and his eyes violently trembled as his brain released endorphin to ease up the sudden impulse of pain he started feeling.

Thankfully, the parts below his torso and most of his right side were safe.

He tried to scream but no voice came up as his larynx was ruined in the blast. By now, a fifth of a minute had passed by since his left arm blasted.

"Shit, shit, please don't die." Reid came rushing in and freed his chained right hand, while roughly injecting something directly into his chest.

"Hello, Edgar. Come at my lab with a medical kit right now." It felt as if Reid started talking to himself.

"Listen, I will explain everything to you later on, but you must come here quick, treat it as if it's my life that's on line."

No, it felt more like he was having a telephonic conversation. But there were no phones in the vicinity. Telepathy? Well whatever it was, our dying protagonist couldn't care less as he was busy spasming in Dr. Reid's arm.

As hopeless as he was, the best he could wish for was to die a quick death, but he was ripped off of that too as Reid wouldn't let him faint or die. He watched his limp body slowly drain off most of his blood, as his mind was subjected to an unprecedented and insurmountable pain. This went on for a whole two minutes until Edgar came in.