Author's Note: Sorry about the delay with a chapter update, dear readers. These couple of days had been hectic. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter and the ones that'll follow!
Theron awoke submerged in a fog of confusion, his head still hurting and ringing from the blow that rendered him unconscious.
Of course, at the time he was already paying attention to his surroundings for the mad "mister Gren Vegor", who was following and tailing him for the past few days with crazy persistence.
Due to that awareness, he had also noticed him when he jumped out from behind the corner as he walked past.
But even though his mind had already thought of dodging the sudden attack he was about to receive next, his young body failed to deliver, causing him to receive it in full force instead and getting knocked out unconscious as a result.
As his vision slowly cleared from the blurry images, the silhouette of the "Greens For You!" 's cryptic owner appeared in front of him. The madman was sitting atop a stool, leaning to a wooden table with his back turned towards Theron and he could hear him writing something down with great intensity.
Averting his attention from the mad grocery shop owner, he focused on his own situation.
The first thing he noticed was the numbness he felt to both his hands and feet. When he tried moving them, a searing pain was transmitted to his brain receptors through his wrists and ankles; a rough, iron cable-like in texture, rope, was digging into his flesh, keeping his limbs tight up. His hands were tightly secured behind the back of the chair he was sitting on while his feet were tight up on its two front legs.
He was immobile; strapped to the chair with no ability to get out of his flesh-tearing bonds. Or so he let it appear it was the case...
Taking a look around him, the room he was in appeared to be sealed off, with no visible door on sight.
The different glassware and intricate equipment atop the marbled counter on his left and on the two tables in front and behind him, identified the room as a laboratory, weirdly reminding him at the same time with some aspect, the laboratories of the chemists from his past life.
But in contrast to that normal memory, the green, glowing liquid in some of the glass containers illuminated the scientific room in an otherworldly and magical glow.
'Is that another refined form of the mekron crystals?!' Opening his eyes wide in shock, he took in on the mekrons' liquid state as something amazing as it truly was, immediately trying in his mind to figure out how it could be transformed to that state from its original form.
Quickly though, his focus was diverted away to the glowing horizontal lines on the walls of the room, their glow drawing Theron's attention like a magnet. They were also green in luminance and were separated at fixed intervals by mekron crystals embedded in the walls.
The energy, both within the lines and in the crystals, was glowing stable all around their linear configuration. It was as if the lines were the interlinks of the crystals, connecting the crystals' energies to each other with the help of their paths, thus creating a faux self-sustaining system that could power itself, even for only a given time.
'Are those energy links?!' It was hard for Theron to believe what he was seeing.
The system in front of him resembled a rudimentary version of the energy links developed in his past life. Although it was crude looking at its application, the basic foundations of the concept were there, showcasing its creator's ingenuity.
Watching the back of the madman Gren Vegor writing with manic fervor, Theron looked at him a little differently. It was safe to assume that the only one who could possibly be responsible for creating these energy links was this madman in front of him; being the only other person in this research room except for him.
To have grasped that concept with the equipment he currently had on hand in this small laboratory of his, while humanity in his previous life spent generations and countless resources to finally develop it, was worthy of respect.
But it was just that, respect from an energy engineer to a fellow energy researcher. His amazing accomplishments weren't going to change the fact that he kidnapped him with nefarious objectives in mind.
Just as Theron finished forming those thoughts, Gren Vegor abruptly stopped writing entirely and closed his notebook of madness. He then calmly got off the stool and slowly turned around without pausing between his actions.
Perhaps in his own twisted view he wanted to welcome his "valuable guest" with the warmest smile, but what came out on the surface to greet Theron was the smile of a deranged lunatic.
Gren Vegor's eyes were wide open, staring at the bound Theron and gleaming from the surrounding green light, as he began to slowly walk towards him.
"Y-You are the mister from the grocery shop! W-Where am I?! W-What do you want?!" Theron asks his captor, trying his best to behave and sound as shocked and scared as he possibly could.
Hearing his "guest's" questions, Gren Vegor stopped in place at once, as if he didn't expect at all for Theron to speak so clearly.
"Not only are you awake, but you continue to maintain a level of clarity another in your age couldn't possibly maintain after finding themselves in a situation like this." He flatly said, spreading his arms wide to show the dark, green illuminated room. "Indeed, your intelligence levels are as excellent as it was observed, ahahaha! There could not be a better candidate for my research such as you! AHAHAH!"
With his arms still spread wide open, Gren Vegor started laughing like a maniac.
Theron watched Gren Vegor laughing his heart out, while adopting the best frightened expression he could.
"AHAH..Ahah...aha...ah." Finally able to control himself after a moment of uncontrolled insanity, Gren Vegor stopped laughing, but continued to warmly smile as he began to walk towards Theron once again.
When he finally stopped, he was right in front of Theron as he stared down at him from above.
"Now then, shall we start?" He rhetorically asked after he leaned a little forward, while simultaneously thinking:
'Finally, I can start this experiment! I can't wait for the results and all my goals to be fulfilled!'
Ignoring whatever thoughts ran in the madman's deranged mind, Theron eyed him under his façade of being frightened. The mad Gren Vegor was finally in range, just where Theron wanted him to be.
"N-Noo! P-Please, don't HURT ME!" Theron cried out, seemingly in desperation, while at the same time he pulled his right arm as best as he could and then twitched it in a specific way.
The rough rope dug deeper into his flesh, drawing out blood and causing him unbearable pain – his screams of pain masked under the false pleading for mercy. But it was worth it.
*Swiish!* A fifteen centimeters (~6 inches) long, double-edge blade, that was previously hidden beneath Theron's sleeve, sprung forth and cut the tough rope in its path like it was cutting butter.
With his hands finally free from their bonds, Theron lifted his body from the chair in a flash; his right arm equipped with the extended, already blooded blade, was on its way in an upward thrust to Gren Vegor's defenseless throat.
The sudden change of events, shocked Gren Vegor so much, it caused him to sidestep backwards and trip, hitting the ground hard with his back and head. Although he luckily avoided the fatal strike to his neck, the impact of his head to the ground had rattled his brain and consequently jumbled up his senses for a couple of seconds.
Before he could gather himself and manage to stand up, Theron had already cut his legs free and moved to pounce at him like a ferocious beast, fully taking advantage of his opponent's shock and disorientation.
The cold blade of the concealed weapon plunged into its initial target without facing any resistance. Gren Vegor's larynx was torn apart and his now focused eyes dripped with tears as they stared up, displaying the pain he was feeling at the moment, along with his terror and disbelief.
The five-years-old boy had fully cut himself free and managed to stab him at his throat before he could react!
The fully blood-soaked blade was removed as easily as it entered and dark-red blood spurted out from the open gash. The shocked Gren Vegor made gurgling noises with his blood-filled throat as he tried to breath, while his hands instinctively moved lightning fast to desperately shut the open wound close and stop the bleeding; both actions of which proved unsuccessful.
In his futile attempts to live, he continued looking up, up to the childish face of his "perfect subject candidate" spurted with his own blood. The cruel eyes filled with wisdom were looking down at him, without any hint of mercy or remorse in them, as he bled out on the cold floor of his own laboratory.
"Sighh, what a pity for a brilliant mind such as yours to go to waste like this. Truly an unfortunate thing to happen." He suddenly heard the child say amidst his desperate attempts to save his life; his spilled blood having already formed a small red puddle around his open neck while also filling his lungs.
A feeling of grogginess and weakness started spreading to brain and body from the lack of oxygen and the loss of blood. His hands began to lose their grip on his gushing throat as his strength started failing him.
"I am truly sorry, my fellow researcher." he then heard the boy saying, apologizing.
The eyes looking at him though, stayed emotionless as he began to feel cold just like the ground he bled on. His hands were pressing even less each moment that passed as his strength continued to slip away.
"I would have loved instead to have had the chance to exchange with you our insights into the crystals' energy potentials."
'What is he saying?' he thought as all feeling of his body were lost and his vision started to darken.
Before all lights went out and Gren Vegor exhaled his last blood-drowned breath, he heard one last sentence from the boy, a sentence that confused his brain during its last seconds of conscious functionality.
"But you must understand. I would not have stayed idle and let you jeopardize this second life of mine."