Chapter 6: Trial of the grasses

Hans brought August into the lab, wishing him luck before turning around and walking away, saying to himself, "I hope I see you again, kid."

August went inside with a smile. He was very curious about what the place looked like, which will bring him new opportunities. He looked around, keeping his eyes on the flasks and various jars in which various human organs floated. This gave the place an eerie aura that scared August a little. Flasks and books were scattered everywhere, and in the centre stood a large iron chair with handcuffs for legs and arms.

Vincent was standing on one side of the room, preparing some liquid. August walked up to Vincent and said, "Hello Mister Magician, I'm here and ready to start my transformation."

Vincent turned to August and smiled as he pointed to a chair. He said, "Go over there and sit down. I'm finishing the final touch on the elixirs."

August walked over to a chair and sat down, looking around with great curiosity to see what Vincent was doing. Looking, he also listened to the magician's chatter.

"Add a few drops of corn lily extract, then add a few nightshade leaves. We also need to add some spear grass and wild rye, as well as a final touch of wolf aconite. Now shake it, mix it up, and voilà." Vincent turned to August and approached him with a bowl containing said liquid.

With every second, August disliked being in this room more and more, but he carefully concealed the horror that was growing in his head.

Vincent stood in front of August and said, "Here, drink this, and we're ready to begin!" and handed the bowl of liquid to August. August carefully took the bowl in his hands and looked at the liquid. It smelled terrible. "Nothing pleasant," concluded August.

August looked at Vincent, unsure of his decision, and asked, "Do I really need to drink this? Can't you just do your magic?"

Vincent's face changed from happy to gloomy, and he asked, "Do you want to be as strong as Hans?"

August answered "YES" without hesitation.

"Then you should drink it right now!" Vincent said.

August took another look at the liquid and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, not from excitement, but from the terrible smell. Taking a deep breath, he downed the liquid. With a grim expression, he swallowed every last drop.

Vincent quickly pinned the boy to a chair and chained him up.

August looked at Vincent, not understanding this situation. Why would anyone do that when it's just some liquid, right??

A few minutes passed, and Augustus had a fever. He felt dizzy and disoriented. Sweat appeared on his forehead. This is a sign that the herbs have begun to take effect.

Without waiting for a final reaction, Vincent hurriedly injected August with elixirs that would fully start the process. Injecting everything necessary, he observed.

August became uncomfortable. His body temperature rose to 41 degrees. His mind stopped thinking clearly, and his body began to hurt. Several hours passed under these conditions. The temperature of his body rose and fell, causing him to fall into a sense of prostration and incomprehension. In the end, he fell into a state of complete stupor.

A few hours later, August's body began to shake convulsively. Foam came out of his mouth, but it was only a side view. Something truly incredible was happening inside.

August's mind was plunged into visions. There he saw people with pointed ears, dressed in rich-looking clothes, and moving gracefully and accurately. They walked among thousands of corpses. Corpses of Vran. The original inhabitants of these lands lived in this world before the event called "Conjunction of Spheres". In his visions, he really witnessed one of the most terrible moments in history. The extinction of an entire species.

When the elves came to this world, they exterminated the entire root race. The "Conjunction of Spheres" was not only a fusion of cultures and different peoples but also various diseases that were not inherent in this world until this moment.

The merging of different worlds, brought a lot of unknown diseases that are not very favourable for the inhabitants of Vran. They died on the streets of their cities, in their homes, on the roads between them. It was complete extinction.

The elves did not help, they only helped the race die out. The most powerful of the Vran were slain by the elves. They were depriving them of their last chance to survive in an already dire situation. They had no mercy. Furthermore, they wanted all the land for themselves. They didn't want to populate this land with someone so different from them. August witnessed it, it was truly a terrible sight, which is not common for a child to see.

The bodies of the Vrans were decomposing right on the spot. This is an eerie sight. But August had to witness what the Elves did. Killing the last survivors to build their cities on the bodies and cities of a destroyed civilization.

August spent 2 days watching the events that happened to the Vran play out. At the same time, also feel severe, unbearable pain. But after 2 days it was over. August opened his eyes and looked around, he did not find anyone near him. He tried to break the ropes that held him. But this was not successful.

Vincent entered the room and looked at the boy, who was covered in sweat and looked like he had come out of hell.

August pleaded, "Please, please stop this. I don't want to see those monsters again, I don't want to feel this pain anymore. Please stop this, please." His voice was desperate. But it was useless. Vincent remained unmoved.

Vincent took another pair of elixirs and injected them into August, which had an immediate effect. His heart began to beat at a fast pace. It began to fluctuate from high to low and from low to high. Sometimes his heart would just stop but restart, literally bringing the boy back to life. And with another surge of pain, he fell into another vision.

However, this vision was not about Vran, but about humans and elves. He saw how people walked around the city of elves, how they cut them alive, how small children were dragged out of their houses and raped, and then killed. Women were used by all the warriors in a circle who wanted to use them and then thrown into an enormous cauldron with a raging fire, which itself burned from the bodies of the elves. Everywhere there were gigantic mountains of corpses, it was clearly visible that there were mountains of small children, such as August, thousands of children with faces frozen in horror.

The people did not stop there, they continued, burning everything to the ground until it turned into ashes, destroying everyone and everything. The elves no longer looked noble. They were in despair, were afraid, had no hope, tried to hide, but they were whipped and killed most terribly. Splitting under the songs of laughter emanating from the soldiers.

Human soldiers cut out babies from the belly of pregnant elves and then used them as they pleased. This is real horror. The human army has completely turned into beasts. Uncontrollable, driven only by the desire to kill, rape and enjoy the suffering of others. The elves didn't defend themselves; they didn't stand a chance; they had neither armour nor weapons for this.

August was looking at an event that took place in 791. It was called the massacre of the elves. The human army left no one alive. People wiped out cities, villages, lonely houses and fortresses where elves lived. Humans attacked their city called "Loc Muinne", one of the largest cities in which the elves lived. During the attack, the human army destroyed all the elves, regardless of their age and gender. They flooded the streets with blood and littered the houses with corpses. These events are best left unknown to others, but August had to witness them.

Outside, Vincent looked at August's face, it was expressionless, more of a stone face. But his body has undergone tremendous changes. Vincent continued to add more and more herbs and elixirs to the experiment. August's body can withstand such stress, so he continued. August's body was undergoing tremendous changes on the way to becoming a Witcher.

Before August could relax from the vision and the enormous amount of pain he endured, he was shown a vision of another horrific event, something that could only be described as unbearable.

In another vision, he saw another war, which was also a war between elves and humans. The elves looked much less noble now, but now he had witnessed them going from one city to another killing human guards and then going to random houses, killing ordinary people and their families.

The elves knew no mercy, they exterminated every person in their path and left behind nothing but dead bodies. The next thing he saw was a battle between humans and elves. There he saw how people once again exterminated the elves, and, despite the fact that the elves put up more resistance, everything ended the same as last time.

All elves were killed, raped, and burned to the ground. This event took place after 1065 when the elves took up their weapons against the people in order to oppress their dignity. This historical event would later be called the "Rebellion of Aelirenn".

The elf woman raised all the young elves to revolt in order to return what was stolen from them by humans. She fought against all the kingdoms at once and lost, but her actions continued to inspire the elves and dwarves to fight the oppression of people. Her slogan was "We will return what was stolen."

Her actions resulted in many deaths, but most of all they resulted in the fact that the elf race had almost no way back. Almost all the young were killed, and there were almost no more young elves capable of giving birth to a new generation. Their condition has become even more miserable, more miserable than it has been before. They died, they were persecuted. They didn't have enough food and nowhere to live. Nobody wanted to see them in their kingdoms. Because of these events, the generation of elves began to die out.

August was experiencing his last day of mutation, his last day of testing. He survived, but what will be the results of an inhuman experiment with something that even an adult finds difficult to cope with without consequences?

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