"You shouldn't be in here, little vessel," the Empress's voice slithered into his thoughts, sounding more curious than annoyed for once. "This place smells like a graveyard."
"It's dull..." She paused for a second, her voice echoing in the back of his mind.
Then, her tone shifted abruptly. The boredom vanished, replaced by a sharp spike of intrigue.
"Hey, I didn't expect to find something like this here..."
As she said that, Alex felt a sudden, terrifying chill snap through his spine.
It wasn't the cold air of the lab. It was a sensation of displacement, as if his own soul had been shoved into the passenger seat of a car.
"Wait, what—?" Before he could finish the thought, his right leg stepped forward.
"What are you doing?" Alex shouted internally, panic exploding in his chest.
He tried to stop. He sent a frantic command to his legs to halt, to plant his feet firmly on the ground.
But his body ignored him.
His left leg glided forward to join the right, moving with a fluid, liquid grace that Alex had never possessed.
His hips swayed dramatically with the step, the black silk pants rustling softly against his smooth legs.
"Stop! Get out!" Alex hissed, trying to grab the edge of a nearby workbench to anchor himself.
His hand didn't reach out. Instead, his arms remained elegantly by his sides, his posture straightening up, his chin lifting with an arrogant, regal air.
"Hush, little vessel," the Empress commanded, her will clamping down on his body like a vice. "Don't struggle. You'll only pull a muscle."
"I said stop!" Alex screamed in his mind.
He focused all his willpower on his knees, trying to buckle them, trying to fall to the floor just to stop this puppet show.
For a second, his knees trembled. He felt a sharp, tearing pain in his thighs as his own muscles fought against the unnatural force driving them.
"Stubborn," she tsked. A wave of numbness washed over his limbs, dulling his resistance instantly.
Alex watched in horror as his own body marched deeper into the shadowed recesses of the underground lab, moving past the rows of preserved Shadow Crawlers and Frost Wolves.
He felt completely disconnected.
He could feel the cold floor through the soles of his boots, he could feel the fabric of the high-cut briefs hugging his hips, and he could feel the sway of his own body... but he couldn't control a single inch of it.
He was a prisoner in his own body.
"Hey stop..." Alex whimpered, his internal voice losing its fight. "Where are you taking me?"
"I found something interesting that could improve your strength..," she replied cryptically.
Alex realized fighting was useless. The more he struggled, the more his body hurt.
He gave up struggling, as soon as he heard that it could help improve his strength.
He stopped fighting the current and let his muscles relax, surrendering control to the ghost inside him.
His body moved even faster now an they reached the far end of the facility, a section where the lights were dim and flickering.
There, dominating the space, was a container that dwarfed all the others.
It was a cylindrical tank, easily two stories tall, filled with a thick, murky green preservation fluid.
Inside, suspended in the gloom, was something massive.
Alex's eyes or rather, the Empress's eyes… narrowed as she forced him to walk right up to the reinforced glass.
She raised Alex's hand, pressing his pale, soft palm against the cold surface of the tank.
Alex looked up, and his breath caught in his throat.
It was a skeleton.
But not just any skeleton. It was the fossilized remains of a serpent or a GiantLizard that must have been a hundred feet long in life.
However, there were barely a quarter of its bones left.
The bones were black as obsidian, and even in death, they seemed to radiate a faint, ominous pressure.
But what caught Alex's attention was the skull.
It wasn't like the flat head of a python or the triangular head of a viper.
It had a ridge of bone on its forehead that looked like a crown, and two long, curved fangs that were nearly as tall as a human.
Immediately, without even his consent a blue screen popped up instantly, analyzing the remains.
[ Target: Black Abyssal Lizard ]
[ Type: Fossilized Remains]
[ Rank: B-Rank (In Life) ]
[ Age: Approx. 300 Years ]
[ Status: Dead / residual High grade Mana detected in the marrow. ]
"B-Rank?" Alex thought, stunned. "That's...way to strong… how did it die?"
"Who knows… at least it had some decent strength before its death," the Empress whispered, her voice tinged with a strange mix of hunger.
"However, this kind of Abyss creature doesn't have high intelligence but their bodies are constructed of high density Mana that can be easily devoured after their death…" She purred. "The marrow in those bones... it still holds the essence of the abyss."
She dragged Alex's hand down the glass, her fingernails making a screeching sound.
"Alex, don't worry about being contaminated by the Abyssal energy… this level of abyss energy won't affect your bloodline" she spoke to him directly now, her control over his jaw loosening slightly so he could speak, though she still held his body in place. "We need this."
"Are you crazy?" Alex whispered, his voice trembling. "It's locked in a giant tank in a secure facility! I can't just steal a dinosaur skeleton!"
"Not the whole thing, you fool," she snapped. "Just the essence. With your current gene adaption... you should have already awakened the Void Yin Constitution ... you can drain its mana."
Alex remembered the ability description he had seen earlier.
[ Void Yin Constitution: Contact Absorption (Active): Physical touch allows the host to drain energy... ]
"Through the glass?" Alex asked, hoping it was impossible.
"Glass is just sand melted by fire. Mana can pass through most physical objects," she scoffed. "Place both hands on it. Now."
She didn't wait for him to comply. She forced his left hand up, slamming it against the glass next to his right.
"Close your eyes, focus… I won't teach you this again…" she whispered. "Focus on the hunger in your belly. The cold emptiness. Pull the energy from the bone into that Void."
Alex squeezed his eyes shut.
He didn't want to do this, but he could feel her will pushing him, and frankly, he was terrified of what she might do if he resisted again.
He focused on his stomach. He felt that strange, cold swirling sensation…
"Drink," the Empress whispered.
Alex gasped. He felt a pull. It started as a trickle, then a rush.
A stream of cold, dark energy seeped through the thick glass, rushing into his palms like icy water.
It traveled up his arms, bypassing his heart, and poured straight into his lower abdomen.
[ System Alert ]
[ Absorbing High-Grade Mana... ]
[ Source Power +1.5... +3.8... +11.2... ]
The numbers on his status screen began to tick upward rapidly.
"It's working," Alex thought, a rush of euphoria hitting his brain. The energy didn't hurt.
"Yes..." the Empress moaned softly in his head, feeding on the overflow. "More. Take it all."