Captives

It was the bright hours of a gloomy morning. Carla could be seen walking toward Liana's quarters. The two dark guards at the entrance bowed slightly before opening the big brown door.

With long, graceful strides, Carla swayed her body into the spacious hall. There, under the tree, Liana could be seen meditating, her silvery hair resting peacefully on her body as she calmly absorbed the strong mana emanating from the magic tree behind her.

It had been exactly one week since Xavier successfully awakened, and six days since he suddenly collapsed and went into a sleep-like state.

During this period, the witches in the facility had been very busy, including Carla and Liana.

Carla was tasked with guarding Xavier and observing the changes occurring in his body. While her duty seemed straightforward and easy, it was quite the opposite, as she was obligated to note every change, even the slightest temperature shift or hair movement.

Liana, on the other hand, spent her days in her hall, meditating and trying hard to recall her meeting with the dark crow on the day Xavier awakened. 

She could still remember the power of the dark crow as well as the mystery that shrouded it. 

However, she could not recall anything else from the meeting and could not remember why she cried out, even causing her dark guards to worry.

It was as though the event had been mysteriously deleted from her memories.

Not only Liana and Carla, but the other witches also worked twice as hard as before. They went into nearby kingdoms and brought more talented captives to repeat the experiments, their main target being Luveria Kingdom.

Strictly following the procedure with Xavier, they experimented on the new captives, injecting their bodies with hazardous potions, doubling the portions for some and halving for others to get varied results.

While focusing more on the new captives, they didn't neglect the old ones who had failed the experiments; they continued torturing and running other experiments on them in hopes of turning them into dark guards like the ones guarding Liana.

"How is he?" Liana inquired softly, her eyes still closed in meditation..

Carla immediately bent a knee and bowed slightly before giving her answer. "Lady Liana, his condition hasn't shown any changes in the last three days; his breathing pace and heart movement are the same as a sleeping baby."

Liana nodded. She knew about Xavier's condition, but her curiosity to discover a change made her ask.

"Why are you here then, Carla?"

"The witches at the lab have discovered an anomaly among the new captives," Carla revealed.

Hearing this, Liana opened her eyes and stared at Carla, silently prompting her to elaborate.

"One of the new captives, after receiving a dose of the potion, began speaking in tongues unclear to any of the witches. We have brought all the witches from different tribes, but none of them seem to have heard the language before, which is why your presence might be required," Carla reported, going into detail. Her eyes remained on the ground.

The details of the event were strange even to Liana, who had the records of the past witches. While the past witches had experimented on thousands of men, none had ever gotten such results. 

The results in the past were minimal, ranging from captives dying after taking the potion to losing their sanity and becoming nothing but babies in mature bodies.

In their years of continuous experiments, Xavier had been the only captive with varied results; not only did he retain his sanity, he even awakened the bloodline of a dark monarch.

"Was there any other change apart from the strange language?" Liana asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"No," Carla replied immediately.

"Hmm," Liana stood up and grabbed her broom. "In which lab is this captive?"

"South Lab, R34."

Without further questions, Liana flew out of the hall, and Carla strolled behind her. Carla didn't follow her to the lab as she immediately took a diversion to Xavier's room.

Upon arrival, she opened the door without knocking and walked in with a calm expression on her face. The room was quite large, about three times bigger than a normal room. There was a big bed in the middle, and Xavier could be seen lying on it.

'He is still not awake,' Carla thought with a sad expression on her face. 'Would he be able to pull through the effect of awakening?'

She strolled towards the bed and stood beside it, placing her hands on his neck to check for any anomaly in his temperature. Fortunately, there was none, but this made her even more confused.

While Xavier had been asleep for almost a week without any sort of nutrition, his body was still as strong as it was when he fell asleep. 

A witch as strong as Liana would only be able to go for 48 hours at most without any sort of nutrition; afterward, her body would show lots of hazardous side effects to demand nutrition. But other witches like Carla would not be able to stay 24 hours before getting those side effects.

For a mortal who had only just awakened, staying for a whole week without food was equivalent to seeking death, even if unintentional.

Quite the opposite, Xavier didn't show a sign of any side effects. His temperature, breathing, and everything were fine; in fact, even his face looked healthier than the other witches.

"What could be the case with him? Is this a special gift of a newly awakened dark monarch?" she wondered.

Meanwhile, in the nefarious palace, Xavier, oblivious to the scenario around him, gazed at a magic formation with puzzlement.