"Y-you, what do you think you're doing, Imsret-!?"

  I swiftly shut him up with the paralysis spell again, his body slumping down to the ground.

  "Keep your voice down, the walls are pretty thick but it's not like they're soundproof. And FYI, I'm not Imsret, I haven't been him for about two weeks now. Oh, and the fact that I'm telling you that obviously means that you're gonna die tonight. And that's regardless of whether or not you answer my questions, but if you don't, I'll make your death a painful one. Well, not that you have a choice, after all, you yourself endorsed the effectiveness of this truth serum, didn't you, doc?" I remarked with a smirk.

  I then propped him onto a chair and tied him to it, and the moment the paralysis wore off……I jammed the syringe into his shoulder and injected the truth serum into his bloodstream.

  "You……!"

  "Yeah, yeah, I don't have time for this, time to answer my questions. Let's start with the soul research stuff, tell me about its purpose and history, leave absolutely nothing out."

  His veins began bulging as he desperately tried to resist, but it was no use, he began answering my questions before long. Let me summarize……

  The soul research experiments began six years ago, the initial purpose behind the research was unknown to Dr Reel. Eventually, they accidentally created a spell that would extract something from a person, which would instantly kill them. Initially, they theorized that they were extracting the person's soul.

  After that discovery, the next step in the research was to see what would happen if the extracted 'soul' was implanted into another person. They theorized that it could possibly shift the first person's consciousness into the second person's body, or that the second person's body would house multiple personalities. Neither of those turned out to be the case, all that seemed to happen was that the second person would get a stamina recovery boost.

  So, then, the then-leaders of the Magic Research Group decided that the next step of this research was to pump a single person with hundreds or thousands of 'souls'. At this point, they had realized that they weren't actually extracting a person's literal soul, but kept calling it 'soul' anyway because they couldn't be bothered to come up with a different name for it.

  And so, they chose a test subject for it, a man with Fire Magic, and began implanting hundreds of 'souls' into him, using their pawns and slum residents from Platinberg and Goldway as cannon fodder. They kept track of the type of people they extracted and implanted the 'souls' from, by gender, age and Elemental Magic type, so that they'd be able to quickly determine the reasons for why a pattern or variance occurs.

  After about a year, they had implanted over three thousand 'souls' into this test subject, and besides giving him a higher level of stamina, there seemed to be no other tangible results. They planned to keep going for a couple of months and then scrap the project if no further results showed up.

  And that's when it happened, something completely unexpected. The test subject suddenly developed the ability to use Wind Magic, in addition to the Fire Magic he was already capable of. It didn't take them long to find out why……he had been implanted with over a thousand 'souls' that were extracted from Wind Magic users.

  After that, they focused on implanting him with 'souls' from Lightning Magic users, because that was closest of the remaining types to a thousand. And sure enough, when the number of Lightning Magic user 'souls' implanted in him reached a thousand……he developed the ability to use Lightning Magic.

  But before they could continue the experiment, the test subject broke free and killed the then-leaders of the Magic Research Group, before taking over the organization. Yeah, that test subject's name was……Tirayze Valaque. Once things settled, he continued the soul experiments till he could use all five types of Elemental Magic.

  After that, he continued the experiment till he had over five thousand 'souls' of each Elemental type implanted in his body, in other words, over twenty-five thousand in total, also discovering that with each time he gained access to a new Elemental Magic type, his physical abilities also improved drastically……however, and thankfully, once he got past a thousand of each type, taking in more had no effect whatsoever, and so the project was shelved.

  Shortly after that, they decided to apply the same theory with monsters……however, the 'soul' extraction spell had no effect on monsters, so instead……they came up with the Karma experiments. It was around that time that Sicario joined up with the organization, he quickly made it to up to the Research Tier, but to everyone's surprise, volunteered himself as a test subject for the highly unsuccessful Karma experiments. At the time, there had only been one successful test subject, Presde Drelou.

  Sicario turned out to be the second, followed by Kuua, Hacte, Azeria and Rion. The six Karma users were extremely powerful, and a new Tier was added into the hierarchy to accommodate them, the Retribution Tier.

  After that, they began to run low on expendable human resources, and were forced to put a halt to their Karma experiments. So, I finally knew about their leader's origin and abilities, as well as how the Retribution Tier came to be.

  Next, I asked him about Tirayze Valaque's motive for destroying Goldway and making an enemy of the other nations.

  As it turns out, Valaque's reincarnation got screwed when he ended up being reincarnated as a baby in the slums of Goldway. In his early-teens, he managed to escape to Platinberg by hitching a ride on the underside of a carriage, but when he got there, he just got stuck in those slums instead and ended up being forced into harsh manual labor, until he was eventually handed off to the Magic Research Group as a test subject a few years later, Platinberg and Goldway controlled their slum populations by letting the Magic Research Group take a few thousand of the residents every so often for their experiments.

  Most of the Retribution Tier members, with the exception of Sicario, as well as the majority of the other members of the organization, had similar backstories. So, when Valaque took over the organization, he decided to implement a point system, giving all the members of the organization, including the pawns, a way to better their lives, a way to prove their worth by racking up points and climbing the ranks. After their own countries had treated them like garbage, this system was like a godsend to them, establishing a strong sense of loyalty and admiration towards their new leader.

  After the Karma experiments wrapped up, Valaque decided to openly discuss the topic of reincarnation among the Retribution and Research Tiers. Initially, they were interrupted by not-God's 'divine intervention', but Valaque decided to ignore his warnings and keep talking about it……and they soon found out that not-God's warnings were nothing more than empty threats, and theorized that he could not directly intervene in the living world beyond talking to people sometimes.

  As a result, they continued freely discussing their past worlds, reincarnation, and how to incorporate ideas from those more scientifically advanced worlds into the magic of this world. These days, some lapdogs, and even a few pawns, were aware of the whole reincarnation thing, it was relatively common knowledge in The Empire.

  Tirayze Valaque's motive was simple. He wanted revenge. Revenge on this world that had put him through several years of incredible poverty, suffering and difficulty, and revenge on the being that reincarnated him into such a situation. His idea of revenge was primarily to destroy this world and start it over with him at the top. Goldway and Platinberg were his main targets, the current alliance with Platinberg was just for show, The Empire had every intention of betraying and destroying them once they outlived their usefulness.

  Valaque only had real grudges against the now-destroyed Goldway and Platinberg, the reason he was planning on eventually striking the other three nations was because in his head, what better way to make up for the cruel early years of his life in this world than by unleashing merciless cruelty tenfold back onto this world? If I'm being honest, I can kinda empathize with that notion, I had some similar thoughts during my three years of torture.

  I then asked why they were continuing the soul research, as I'd found out last week thanks to my lab assistant position. Dr Reel was starting to show more resistance, though he still answered……looks like the serum is beginning to wear off. Better hurry.

  The reason the research had been taken off the shelf was because……they eventually planned on performing the implantation procedure on the Retribution Tier members, giving them each multiple Elemental Magic types. Fortunately, that was still a long way away, they currently had less than a couple hundred available test subjects on hand, way short of the several thousands they'd need for that project. So I could let out a- cautious -sigh of relief for now.

  Hm, what else should I ask? More about the backstories of the other Retribution Tier members? No, not important enough. About Blood Crystals? No, I already knew plenty about that. That left one obvious choice……

  "Alright, doc, mind telling me about the dinosaurs in Lab 25? I mean, seriously, dinosaurs!? Explain."

  "I……w-we found them i-in……nghh, no, I won't……tell you……anything else! Go to hel-!"

  "Huh, looks like the serum wore off. Guess that ends this interrogation. Oh, well, time to die, old man," I shrugged, after using the paralysis spell on him again.

  Better make this look like a natural death……Soul-Eater Mode it is. I activated it, feeling my nails and teeth extending out as a feral and bloodthirsty sense of desire enveloped me. I just about managed to resist it, suppressing my sadistic urges.

  "Now, then, I'm gonna eat……no, I guess it's more like drink……uh……no that's not quite right either. Screw it, I'm gonna eat your soul now, technicalities be damned," I remarked, before sinking my teeth into his shoulder and draining his life force, my stamina rapidly replenishing itself.

  Aaand……he's dead. I healed the bite marks and eradicated the truth serum in his bloodstream as I simultaneously drew out my teeth, and lay his corpse on the bed. There, no signs of cause of death. He was a bit on the older side, so it wasn't crazy that he might die in his sleep, right? I gave his room a quick look-around, searching for anything that might be useful. There weren't any particularly informative notes, most of them were tedious trivialities. I then found a bunch of Spell Cards……hm, pretty basic stuff, nothing particularly rare or……wait, what's this?

  It was labeled 'collosal barrier', and even had a description attached. 'Point upwards and activate to create barrier with you within it. Point front/back/left/right and activate to create barrier with you outside it'……huh, by 'collosal barrier', could it be the barrier than Rion used to contain the Zombies before destroying them? Elina had said before that she wasn't able to create a barrier bigger than a nation, so it's not a bad idea to take this back with me. I hid it in my armor and concluded my search. Doesn't look like there's anything else of particular note in this room.

  Alright, now for the harder part of this operation. Let's go to Lab 13……

  Here I am, in Lab 13. No one's around, and King Goldway was still on the operating table. Should I heal him first? No, too risky, and besides, given his condition, healing him would likely take out a huge chunk of stamina, so better save it for after I get back to my room.

  I slowly unstrapped the restraints holding him down and pulled out the IVs hooked into his arms, before taking him into my stealth barriers. Crap, his legs are sticking out of the invisibility barrier, it was kind of a tight fit……it took a bit of trial and error, and in the end, I found that the best way to fit both of us in the barriers was to carry him on my back.

  A couple of people passed by the lab, but the curtains were drawn, so I didn't have anything to worry about. It's a good thing this isn't one of the labs that the night shift researchers worked in, otherwise this operation would have been impossible. As it was, it was already extremely risky, maybe more so than it's worth……but it's too late to turn back now.

  I walked through the back wall of the lab, finding myself back in the Lapdog Tier area. It was past 2 PM now, better hurry back to my room, there's hardly anyone around right now but I should remain on alert.

  I walked as quickly as I could without causing the invisibility barrier to shimmer, going into the building my room was in and carefully making my way to my room. I reached the door and walked in. Clari was sitting on the bed, swaying her legs while staring up at the ceiling. She seemed restless.

  "Hey, I'm back," I said, as I deactivated the barriers.

  "Ah-! Oh, it's just you, Kuro……you startled me."

  "Sorry, my bad. Anyway, help me lay him down on the bed, I'll heal him," I replied, walking over to the bed.

  "It's really him, he's alive……you really did rescue him……," She whispered with a tender smile, her eyes watering slightly.

  "Not yet, don't celebrate prematurely," I said, entering Soul-Eater Mode.

  "Woah, what just happened to you?"

  "Oh, uh, how to explain it briefly……it's an ability I picked up that let's me heal, or kill, people when I bite them," I answered, biting his arm and starting to heal him.

  Woah, this was a lot. He had a ton of serums and other concoctions in his bloodstream, multiple fractures, broken legs, bruises, scratches, damaged organs, and the list goes on……this is gonna take a while.

  "Oh my, his wounds are disappearing," Exclaimed Clari in surprise.

  It took about twenty minutes before I finished fixing him up, and……I was completely exhausted, my stamina was near empty.

  "Wha……? Where am I?" Mumbled King Goldway in a hoarse voice, his eyes slowly opening.

  "Aurich, you're okay!" Exclaimed Clari, hugging him, letting go as he winced slightly.

  "Hm, is that you, Clari……? And who are you?" He blinked with a confused and dazed expression, looking at me.

  "Oh, uh……it's me, Kuro. I'm using a spell that lets me steal the appearance of another person, in order to infiltrate The Empire. You can relax, your majesty, you're leaving this place," I assured him, stifling a yawn.

  Crap, I'm really tired after healing him, I won't be able to leave tonight with them. But they definitely had to leave right away, that was an absolute must.

  "Clari, there's no time, the two of you need to go. Use the invisibility and intangibility barriers, and take these too, a remote activation paralysis spell, a gun, dagger and a basic defensive barrier spell. Head out the south gate, into the grassland area, go past the campsite, keep going till you come across a small lake with a waterfall, hide behind the waterfall and wait for me. Take the bag we packed with food and water too, of course."

  "Wait, you're not coming with us?" Asked Clari with a look of concern.

  "Yeah, for two reasons. First, the invisibility barrier is too small for three people, and second……I'm completely exhausted, healing drains my stamina, so right now, I feel on the verge of passing out at any minute. It'll be fine, there won't be many people around outside at this time, so just stay calm, make sure your footsteps are as quiet as possible, and don't move too fast, or the invisibility barrier will shimmer. Go, the sooner you leave, the better, no time to waste."

  "I greatly appreciate this, Kuro……I am in your debt," King Goldway said, as Clari helped him up and began to activate the barriers.

  "Nah……more like were even now," I replied, as they activated the barriers and left.

  After they headed off, I flopped onto the bed with a tired sigh, letting out a wide yawn. Well, that went smoothly.

  All the stuff I learnt about the soul research and Tirayze Valaque still hadn't sunk in……theoretically, if I used Soul-Eater Mode and drained a thousand people with, say, Fire Magic, I'd be able to use it too? Not that it was possible, where am I gonna find a thousand people of the same Elemental Magic type to kill?

  Also, who'd have thought that not-God's threats were all a bluff, and he can't actually directly intervene in this world. Honestly, why didn't he just erase the memories of him from the people he reincarnates, that would solve the problem, wouldn't it? Guess it was too late now, since he apparently can't directly influence the living world or whatever.

  'Hm……I never considered that. I feel……foolish. This must be what humans feel like……'

  Huh, was that not-God? Eh, maybe I'm just hearing things since I'm so tired. Going to sleep now. Hope I can leave this place tomorrow morning without any problems……

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.