NOVGO.NET Chapter 408: An Experiment
Chapter 408: An Experiment
The stag’s corrupted horns glowed like smoldering coals, its roar rattling the runes of the cage. Damien kept his palm pressed against its snout, black essence licking at his skin. He whispered the word in his heart.
[Hindsight – Activate].
The world around him dissolved.
He was no longer Damien, but the beast. The stag’s memories poured into him, dragging him down into their weight.
Chains clamped tight around his limbs. The cold bite of iron cut into flesh as runes burned along the floor of a stone chamber.
A dozen masked figures stood around the circle, their cloaks shifting like shadows. They chanted, voices weaving a rhythm that clawed into the core.
Damien felt the agony. He felt the stag’s essence being siphoned, twisted.
A figure stepped forward, masked in iron with vertical slits for eyes. In his hand was a needle longer than a man’s forearm, brimming with a liquid so dark it seemed to eat the light around it. The stag thrashed, but chains pulled tighter, slicing flesh, spilling blood.
The needle pierced its chest.
Damien screamed with the beast. It was not a physical scream but a tearing of the soul, as if molten fire had been poured into its veins.
The liquid spread like roots through the stag’s body, reaching its core. Its once-clear essence turned cloudy, then black, spirals of corruption blooming outward.
The masked figures didn’t flinch. Their chant grew louder, steadier.
Damien caught glimpses. A pale hand extending a second vial. Runes shifting to contain the eruptions of essence. The stag’s pack—dozens of other ironback stags—chained to the walls, eyes wide with terror.
One by one, they too were dragged to the circle, needles driven into their cores. Some screamed until their voices broke. Some thrashed until chains snapped bone. Others went silent, hollowed husks, their eyes turning the same burning red as the beast before him.
The chamber smelled of blood and smoke.
Damien tried to look at the faces beneath the masks, but shadows clung to them. Yet he knew—he felt—that these were not demons. Not beasts. Not twisted outsiders. These were humans. Humans with steady hands, methodical steps, voices calm as they forced corruption into living creatures.
Another memory flashed. The pack, now corrupted, set loose. The stag stumbled through a forest, its core screaming as it devoured its own kind. Madness warred with instinct, blood soaking the ground. When its body collapsed, essence raging out of control, hunters descended. A brief struggle, then blackness.
The memory ended.
Damien staggered back, clutching his chest as he returned to the present. The stag knelt, trembling, its madness quieted by exhaustion.
Damien’s jaw tightened. So it is true. Someone is forcing demonic essence into beasts, reshaping them into weapons.
Around him, soldiers stared in silence. Arielle’s face was pale, Lyone’s fists clenched, and Apnoch looked as though he’d swallowed stone.
Damien drew a slow breath, steadying himself. His hand trembled faintly at his side, but his voice was calm. “I’ve seen enough.”
They reconvened in the war chamber an hour later. Maps sprawled across the table, candles flickering against the stone walls. General Ivaan sat at the head, Apnoch to his right. Damien stood across from them, Arielle and Lyone behind him, silent.
General Ivaan’s eyes narrowed. “Apnoch tells me you touched the beast and came out alive. More than that—its frenzy stopped.”
Damien inclined his head. “Because I saw what was done to it. And what was done wasn’t natural.”
He told them then. Not everything—never the [System], never [Hindsight]—but enough. Enough that the weight of the truth filled the chamber.
“The stag was captured, restrained in a chamber lined with runes. Humans—cloaked, masked—forced essence into its body.”
“Not demonic essence it had devoured by chance, but liquid corruption, injected directly into its core. It wasn’t just this one either. There were others. A whole pack, experimented on like livestock.”
The room darkened with his words. Arielle’s breath caught. Lyone’s jaw clenched tighter.
Damien continued, his voice steady but hard. “The corruption spread until their instincts broke. They tore each other apart until only the strongest survived. That one—” he gestured in the direction of the cage beyond the walls “—was the last.”
Apnoch slammed his fist against the table. “So the demons we’ve been fighting—”
“They aren’t demons,” Damien cut in. His gaze was sharp, heavy. “They’re creations. Weapons. Initially managed beasts.”
The silence was heavy enough to crush bone.
General Ivaan leaned back in his chair, his weathered face unreadable. For a long time, he said nothing. Then, slowly, he exhaled.
“You are certain they were human?” His voice was calm, but the weight behind the words was immense.
Damien met his eyes. “Yes. Not beasts, not half-breeds. Humans. Their essence carried no corruption. They were deliberate, controlled, and methodical.”
Arielle spoke, her voice unsteady. “But why? Who would—”
“Someone who sees opportunity,” Damien said coldly. “Someone who wants an army that never tires, never questions. Imagine it—mana beasts, stripped of instinct, bound by corruption. And if they succeed with beasts, what stops them from trying the same with humans?”
Apnoch muttered a curse under his breath.
General Ivaan steepled his fingers, his eyes closing. “So that’s the truth behind the anomalies. Not random mutations. Not natural corruption. Someone is building an arsenal.” He opened his eyes again, sharp as blades. “And they are human.”
Damien gave a single nod.
For a long while, the chamber was silent save for the crackling of candles. Finally, Ivaan stood. His shadow stretched long across the table, authority radiating from every line of his frame.
“You’ve given me more in one night than half my scouts have in weeks,” he said at last. His eyes softened faintly, though his voice remained hard. “I don’t yet know what path you walk, Damien, but Delwig is stronger for having you here.”
He extended a hand across the table. Damien took it without hesitation.
“Welcome to Delwig,” General Ivaan said firmly, “the abandoned fortress kingdom. But know this—we are abandoned no longer.”
Damien met his gaze and nodded once. He turned toward the beast, then back at Apnoch. “Your kingdom isn’t facing an invasion. It’s facing an experiment. And this—” he pointed at the stag, “—is only the beginning.”
The yard fell silent again, but this time, it was not from fear. “Soon enough, it won’t be the kingdom only.”