Another day of this experiment. As Jeniah walked past the corpses of little children, the sight barely registered. The air was heavy with the metallic tang of old blood and the sickly-sweet smell of decay and formaldehyde. Some had burst heads, others their internal organs exposed, and some were nothing more than a pile of disconfigured limbs and parts on the slick, perpetually stained floor. It was a common sight for Jeniah; she paid it no mind. She entered the room. "Give me a status of the subject Bis," she commanded. Bis mumbled, "Another failure." Jeniah sighed, "Damn it. At this rate, we'll run out of test subjects."

  Jeniah then stood and checked the fetuses suspended inside cylindrical glass containers filled with green fluid. “My only hope,” she thought, her fingers tracing the cold glass. “Not for them, but for me. The only cure that matters.”

  She watched her hand as it showed an involuntary shaking. "Ah, it’s getting worse, and the pain in my head is constant. This corruption exposure… I cannot stay in this hellhole forever."

  One day, one of the child experiments showed a great result. The child exhibited compatibility with the demonic energy. Not just a vessel, but a perfect form. They observed this child for days. The tests showed the child was neither demon nor human anymore. It was in complete control; every test confirmed his perfection.

  The child, Leto, was cooperative with all the tests they performed and demanded toys and food, which they readily provided. One evening, the child looked directly at Jeniah through the glass of the observation room. The smile froze, stretching wide across his face until it felt inhuman. His irises seemed to dissolve into flat, oily voids—like two drops of ink bleeding into water. It startled Jeniah so much that she slammed shut the opaque covered glass panel. "What was that?" she muttered, "That was oddly creepy."

  The next day, Jeniah interrogated the child. "Leto, how are you feeling today?"

  Leto chirped, "I'm fine, Jeniah. I feel good."

  "That is great to hear. Today, we'll conduct some new tests to ensure you are fine and perfectly healthy," Jeniah explained.

  Leto responded, "Okay. If you find out I'm healthy and strong, can I get to play outside?"

  Jeniah smiled reassuringly. "Of course you can, Leto. I promise you, when we are done, you can play as much as you like."

  "Okay, Jeniah. I really like to play. When are we going to be ‘done’?" Leto asked.

  Jeniah replied, "Well, I'll take some blood samples from you. It will hurt just a little bit, but you will be fine."

  "Oh, that's it for today? Then I can finally play? So you are ‘done’ with just the blood samples?" Leto pressed.

  Jeniah confirmed, "Yes, after I extract the blood sample for you, you can play."

  Leto made another eerie smile in front of Jeniah, but she didn't notice it as she was busy extracting the blood sample.

  Leto leaned his head, his voice a light, innocent chime. "Jeniah, where did the other children go? I don’t have any playmates left."

  Jeniah answered smoothly, "Oh, they have recovered now and they went home."

  "Ah, home. I don't remember having a home," Leto mused aloud.

  "Because this is your home," Jeniah said.

  "Okay, this is my home. I'll play here in my home, then," Leto accepted.

  Jeniah finished up. "Okay, I'm done with the samples. I'll see you tomorrow, Leto. Be a good boy and have fun later."

  "Oh, I will," Leto replied.

  Jeniah went back to her lab with all her research materials. The faint, sweet smell of the blood sample was cut instantly by the shriek of the facility alarm. Not a warning tone, but a harsh, blaring demand for panic. A heavy, wet SMASH echoed down the corridor, followed by a guttural, choked scream.

  Smashing sounds, like someone being slammed, accompanied screams of pain, signaling people panicking. Jeniah hissed, recognizing the alarm's meaning, and hurriedly gathered her research materials, stuffing them inside a bag. Recognizing the emergency, Jeniah also extracted the fetuses and transferred them into specialized containers, placing them on a cart. Along with a few workers, Jeniah was in a hurry to make an escape.

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  One of the workers assisting Jeniah asked, "What's going on, Doctor?"

  Jeniah said, "You don’t want to stay here to find out. We should hurry."

  Meanwhile, in another part of the lab, Leto was walking and saying, ‘I still want to play.’ The corpses of dead cult members lay behind him as he passed. One man, sword ready, charged at him. Leto exclaimed, "Ahh, I like this game!" Then, from a seam ripped open across his shoulder blades, three segmented, bone-white limbs shot out like spears, instantly stabbing the man in front of him. "Ah, they break so easily," said Leto. "Jeniah said I can play, so I will play. Too bad the other kids couldn't enjoy this. Well, they’re all dead, anyways. So I’ll play along with you all." More screams and blood splattered everywhere.

  Jeniah urged the remaining workers, "Let's hurry, we are abandoning this place. Activate the self-destruction protocol!"

  Jeniah escaped the facility along with five workers, each carrying one of the five fetuses inside a container. They went to an underground, abandoned old facility—a place the group considered off-limits.

  They left the old facility behind, knowing they had to start anew. Jeniah confessed, "The corruption in me is slowly taking over. I need to find the cure; these children are my only hope." She had to cultivate them properly.

  Weeks turned into months, and the fetuses became five small children. Jeniah took care of them and studied them further with the limited resources she had, all for the goal of finding a cure for her corrupted state. The other workers were gone. It turned out Jeniah had killed them during episodes when the corruption took over. She felt the blood of those people on her hands and knew she had consumed them. But the kids were all safe; somehow, she had never harmed them. Instead, she took care of them and taught them.

  From time to time, she got out to feed. The need to feed kept her away for days, and she always came back full and refreshed. However, the corruption in her also slowly killed her, like a poison sipping away her life force.

  Years later, the children had learned all the knowledge Jeniah could teach them. She had lost hope for a cure and instead just tended to the children, as if they were her own. She eventually surrendered to her fate: “It's over for me. I am a monster now, but at least I should make sure these children are safe.” It was uncertain if she felt pity or genuine care towards the children, but she knew there was no redemption for her. The kids, being different, might survive this world, but the world may never accept them. "I hope someone will come to save them."

  Emmet closed Jeniah’s diary. The brittle pages smelled of dust and dried chemicals, grounding him in the forgotten decay of the facility. "So, that's the gist of it. In the end, she became a bloodbound, and the corruption ended her. So, there are five of them."

  Emmet browsed the other books. Most were research about corruption or the dark energy and their unethical experiments on human biology—specifically, bio-engineering and genetic research. Most of the material was foreign to Emmet; he didn’t think he could comprehend it, as it wasn't a study that interested him or one he was adept with. Therefore, he focused only on the research he could understand, picking up pieces he could actually use.

  Based on Jeniah’s research, the five subjects all have different abilities gained by consuming the dark energy. All of them were divinant, altered for the purpose of becoming a vessel. However, Jeniah wanted to learn more about them to save herself. Somehow, all her research didn't yield any favorable outcome; perhaps she lacked the knowledge, time, or materials and had given up halfway. "Ah, I didn't learn much either. There's not much here, actually."

  Jeniah did note the worm planted in each cult member and the location of other facilities. Curiously, the ritual was not even mentioned in her research, likely because her field was unrelated to it. Most of the content was just general knowledge intended to teach the children. "Well, I've got to give it to her—this kind of knowledge isn't accessible to normal humans. I can say the five kids, or rather, Jasper's friends who are all adults now, don't lack world knowledge. They are well-learned, even having advanced books for martial arts. I'm not sure how Jasper learned to fight—did he learn outside?"

  "The other four vessels… I hope they are still around. Lenka must be one of them, too. Hmm, she was the one who dragged me here, if I'm not mistaken, using shadow magic. So she must be a Shadow Divinant. And Jasper is a Warrior Divinant. I'm an Elemental Divinant. All of us are altered. Now I’m more curious about the others."

  The day was almost over, and Jasper came back with a roasted meal.

  "Hey there," said Jasper, "Well, break time."

  "I'm famished, about time," Emmet groaned.

  While they were eating, Emmet opened the subject. "So, you have already read this?" Emmet showed Jeniah’s diary to Jasper.

  "Well, yes, we already did," Jasper confirmed.

  Emmet followed up, "The others? How are they?"

  Jasper admitted with a serious face. "One didn’t get lucky. The other one never came back; he said he would explore the world. It's just me, Lenka, and... I'll tell you later. I'm sorry, I'm not ready for that topic yet." Emmet hesitated to ask further, seeing how reluctant Jasper was to share more about the others.

  Emmet then said, "Well, most of the materials here are irrelevant, so I can't say for sure it can help cure you guys. They give new insights and other non-related information, but nothing links to a cure."

  "Well, it is as what Lenka has said too," Jasper agreed.

  Emmet asserted, "I, however, have to increase my understanding about this dark force." He was confident that he could somehow use it to help them once he advanced his knowledge in that department. "So, tomorrow I want you to take me outside so I can test my other totems."

  Jasper advised, "I wouldn't advise you to go out—well, outside the barrier Jeniah has set up. But I'll take you there tomorrow."

  "Great, I needed a breath of fresh air. Oh, and maybe I can start with you tonight," Emmet suggested.

  "Start with what?" Jasper asked.

  Emmet showed him a piece of Emmet’s version of a demon crystal. "This. I used this to heal my broken divine core."

  "You know about the warrior's breathing technique?" Emmet asked.

  Jasper replied, "Well, I do, and it's my own self-taught version. I figured this out while exploring the world outside, learned a thing or two about advancing my warrior divinity."

  "Good. We start after this meal," Emmet stated.

  Emmet instructed Jasper to sit in a meditative pose. "There, just about right. Now do your breathing technique," he directed. Jasper cooperated and didn’t oppose.

  "Okay, I'm not sure what you want to find out, but here goes," Jasper said.

  "Just focus there and just do it," Emmet instructed.