Chapter 593
Vellok’s heart shattered at the sight. The cherub, once a beacon of pure light and innocent smiles, was now suspended in the center of the vast, cold chamber. Its tiny white wings, once fluttering freely, were splayed out and pinned, translucent membranes stretched taut over intricate, glowing runes etched onto the floor beneath it. Tubes, thin as spider silk but humming with a sickly energy, seemed to siphon the very light from its form, channeling it into crystalline conduits that snaked across the floor towards a series of arcane devices humming faintly in the periphery.
The cherub’s eyes, once bright and full of life, were now dulled, gazing blankly upwards. Its tiny body trembled with a subtle, continuous tremor, and a faint, almost inaudible whimper escaped its lips. It was a creature of utter misery, a living sacrifice on the altar of the mage’s ambition. The heavenly sound that had accompanied its summoning was now replaced by the low thrum of the machinery, a grotesque parody of life.
Yet, even with this horrific display, the mage was far from satisfied. His face was contorted not with triumph, but with a simmering anger and jealousy. He pointed a trembling finger at the cherub. "This creature," he snarled, his voice laced with venom, "reminds me of the origin gods, demons, and the children of Kaos!"
His gaze swept over Vellok, filled with a long-held resentment. "Their very existence seems to be a mockery to us mages. Beings of immense power, yet creations we can, for some reason, not study or even begin to understand how they are made." The cherub, for all its suffering, was merely a symbol of this infuriating, unbreachable mystery.
The mage’s true obsession was not just power, but ultimate knowledge and control over the very forces that seemed to defy his understanding.
The mage’s voice was heavy with a defeat born of millennia of unfulfilled ambition, and a weariness that seeped into the very air of the lab. He gestured for Vellok to come closer, his gaze fixed on the suffering cherub. "You will be the new host of this angel, my naive apprentice," the mage declared, his voice a low, chilling pronouncement. "It will live and grow with you, and I will observe both your growth. I hope you don’t disappoint me."
At this, Keles interjected, his voice sharp with confusion, "Why doesn’t the mage merge with it instead? It’s more beneficial and easier to achieve his goal that way."
Ikenga took a moment to formulate his answer, drawing from his own recent observation of others dealing with incomprehensible powers. "Just as during Kaelen’s research on the Abyss, he found himself unable to truly understand it, I believe it’s the same for the mage," Ikenga explained.
"From his own words, our kind "Origin gods" share certain traits, certain inherent qualities that the mage clearly cannot fathom. Out of caution, I doubt he would risk his own self when he has a subject like Vellok before him. Vellok is a perfect guinea pig, allowing the mage to observe and take a closer look, even to create countermeasures or find a way to achieve this himself in the future. The blueprint for his own ascension."
Ikenga and Keles watched as Vellok helpless and horrified endured the agonizing process of merging. The cherub, once a separate entity, was now forcibly bound to him, a new, agonizing reality. From that moment on, the three brothers were once again separated, their paths diverging more profoundly than ever. Vellok fell completely under the watchful, possessive gaze of the mage, his every moment dictated by the sinister experiments.
Paradoxically, Kaelen could be said to have "benefited" from this grim turn of events. Other mages, observing the extraordinary nature of his siblings, Vellok and Kairos, began to believe that Kaelen, too, must possess some hidden, extraordinary quality they had overlooked. And so, a different mage took Kaelen under his wing, initiating a new series of experiments on him.
This mage’s work, unlike the physical enhancements on other knight-seeded goblins, or "Ogres" as they were called, subtly yet profoundly altered Kaelen. Whatever the mage did to him, it made his mind sharper, smarter, and more cunning. He was no longer like his brethren, whose approach to problems was brute force and violence. Kaelen began to think, to strategize, to perceive solutions beyond mere physical might.
Meanwhile, for Vellok, the torment was ceaseless. Every day, every week, every month, a new test was carried out. New adjustments were made to the arcane seal binding the cherub within him. It was painfully clear that the mage was making rapid improvements in his sealing capabilities, each new seal stronger and more intricate than the last, trapping the cherub’s essence and Vellok’s fate more firmly held.