LABS AND LAB RATS

The door to the torture chamber opened and a bloody kIng Erlick exited from the room. His royal garment was soaked in the blood of his recent victim and his posture was relaxed as he gazed upon the two men standing guard.

The guards in turn lowered their eyes in respect. It didn't take much to annoy the king, and if they needed any reason to stay on his good side, it was right Infront of them. A man bathed in the blood of a loyal servant who erred just once.

"Here, take this." King Erlick threw a round object at the first guard who caught it reflexively before noticing what it was. Bile rose in his mouth as he gazed upon the severed and mutilated head of the once giant bodyguard. Lief Ozark.

His head lacked his all-so-familiar piercing brown eyes that sent shivers down whoever he gazed upon's spine. They looked to have been gouged out and his Jaws seemed to have been broken loose.

The guard felt very bad for the now-dead Lief.

"Clean it up, stuff a few gold coins into the mouth and a royal announcement of dismissal into the sockets and send it off to his family. Alert the royal treasurer that the Ozarks are now a part of the dismissed worker's welfare fund." The king instructed and waltzed past the guard whose eyes were still downcast.

"Man. I thought those screams wouldn't stop. Looks like Lief had it real tough. Poor man." The second guard said when he saw that the king was out of earshot.

"Yeah. He had a kid, you know. A little girl of six or something." The first guy shook his head in deep sadness.

"Rough. Do you think the princess will come out? She's still crying in there. I can even hear her now." The second guard announced.

"I dunno man. I am more worried about my life here. I am going to carry out my orders immediately. I don't want to be the next Lief so soon." The first guard took off, leaving the second guard to stand guard with only the princess' cries to keep him company.

# An Underground Lab Somewhere In Samurai Territory.

Yoshiko Mahima was bent over his worktable, tinkering with his new invention, the 'Mahima 200', a potion that was supposed to revitalize his soldiers and grant them superhuman abilities like strength and speed but which was instead giving off some very peculiar results.

The Mahima 200-strength potion had blown up his last test subject like an over-inflated balloon and the speed potion had outright melted the skin off his subject's bone. The blood and gore still adorning his lab spoke of his recent failure which had happened not too long ago.

The stink from his subject's piss and excrement as he sacrificed them one after the other did not even bother him, for Yoshiko was not even human. Not since he had been awoken by his mistress Fifteen years ago.

He was a lich and a king at that. Yoshiko was the emperor of the entire samurai Kingdom and he had been the brains behind their repeated victory during the war.

He knew from experience that the Vikings had uncanny strength and that the knights were the definition of skill and resilience, so when the war had started, he had decided to empower his soldiers with the only thing his enemies did not have. Magic.

Magic was the only thing that the people on the planet were not in tune with. he was the only person alive that could use it, and that was only because he had been blessed by his mistress who had aided him to change race. As far as Yoshiko was concerned, magic was barred to humans.

Even he, a magical being was still learning the ins and outs of the mystical art. This was why most of his creations tended to blow up in his face. Not like it even mattered.

As a lich, nothing could harm him physically. even in the rare cases where he got hurt beyond his undead regenerative abilities, his phylactery kept him from dying.

His elemental potion that granted the drinker mastery over the element most suited to them had been an instant hit among his top soldiers. It was the secret behind the samurai's strength and he had made sure to keep his kingdom's secret from spreading by ensuring that all enemies were wiped out during a clash.

The potion was far from perfect. like every one of Yoshiko's inventions, it had some pretty dangerous side effects that he was still trying to fix.

The potion, after being consumed worked perfectly for 7 hours straight. After that, it completely destroyed the innards of the drinker every second more it stayed in their system until they died with blood pouring out of their every orifice. even their skin.

It was why the Samurai had not been as fierce and radical as the Vikings. Their soldiers always ended up dead after using the potion, and every cure that had been prepared for them had failed. well, until a few days ago when the king found a cure.

It was another potion that was meant to negate the after-effects of the elemental potion by fusing with the remnants of the first potion to rejuvenate the consumer as if he had drunk a healing potion. (another one of the emperor's ideas that he had yet to work on.)

It was a perfect solution. or it would be if that also didn't have a side effect. This time, the side effect wasn't all that bad. The drinker of the second potion got knocked out instead of being rejuvenated.

The last test subject had slept for three days straight but the shogun had gotten tired of working on the potion so had dropped it for his new project which he was currently working on.

Yoshiko was still engrossed in his work when a knock from outside broke his concentration. His eyes that shone with the red light of undeath blazed in fury at being interrupted on the verge of a breakthrough.

He promised himself to feed his unfinished potion to whoever had disturbed him if they had no good reason for doing so.

Yoshiko tore himself from his experiment with great annoyance and went to open the door to his lab.

on the other side of the door, a shaky guard stood. the moment he laid eyes on the King, he bowed in respect.

"what do you want? didn't I ask to not be disturbed when working?" Yoshiko asked in an icy tone.

"I am sorry my lord, but I have been sent by the court to inform you that the soldiers are ready for attack on the knight's remaining colonies." The soldier answered, still bowing.

Yoshiko's demeanor changed immediately. An attack meant more test subjects for his research and more people to try his latest magic skills on. count him in.

"That is good news. When is it happening?" Yoshiko asked. he never went for court meetings and everyone knew better than to complain.

"It will happen two weeks from now, my lord." The messenger answered, still bowing.

"Great. let's see if I can't take all the remaining knight colonies in a single day." Yoshiko said with a smile that looked unnatural as the disguise he was wearing.

meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, King Francis was nearing his preparation for meeting the vampire that had sought an audience with him. He had no idea the kind of Storm brewing for his kingdom and he had no idea what his visit to the monster in the woods had in store for him.