The Price of Eternity (Part 1).

The spacious hall in the north tower was a dome, in the center of which was a black twelve-pointed sun, and along the perimeter, there were twelve columns complementing this space with an aura of mysticism.

Marcus knew this place, although he was here for the first time. Admission to this hall was strictly limited, and only five people, more precisely four, could get here at liberty. The fifth person to use this room for the last time died three years ago. This person was Richard Steiner.

After that incident, the father of the twins increased the security of this place, and no one except his confidants knew what was really happening behind the massive doors of this room. Marcus sometimes saw incomprehensible flashes, like lightning, through the windows of the room when he was outside, but even the forty-eight windows that were in this room did not give an opportunity to imagine what was really going on here.

In the center of the room was a massive circular structure that Marcus had seen from the corner of his eye before, three years ago, the day before that big experiment.

"Did you find Mark?" Sigmund asked one of his subordinates, after which the face of the latter turned pale. "Speak, we have little time."

"Herr Taubert, we found Preceptor Teser... killed in one of the rooms of the closed medical unit," the officer replied.

"WHAT? What about the woman?" Sigmund's eyes frowned, this situation was extremely unpleasant but did not affect his final decision.

"Um, the woman has disappeared, there is no trace of the original pendant either," the officer answered a tone lower, but Marcus could hear their dialogue. 'Heh, that means she was still an important pawn,' the young man grinned to himself.

"What is it, father? Any problems?" The young man asked with a sarcastic smile, Sigmund's attention turned to his son. From the expression on Marcus's face, the man realized that the guy had something to do with this mess.

"It's your doing, right?" he turned and walked over to the young man. Marcus looked at his father from the bottom up, he had not stood so close to this man for a long time, and only now noticed that wrinkles appeared on his face, the baggy skin below his eyes became darker, and white gray hair appeared among his blond hair. Although his father was an attractive man even in adulthood, time left its imprints on him.

This awareness instilled in the young man confidence that he had not experienced before. Still, time was the strongest rival in this world. If by the will of fate, he gets out of this mess, the hands of the clock will work in his favor.

His time was just approaching, while the time of his father was striving for its logical conclusion.

"And if so, so what? Lost someone? I recently met a pregnant lady here and helped her have a little walk in the fresh air. It's a pity, she said that she didn't plan to return here," Marcus looked at his father defiantly.

Although this unknown person violated his original plan, now, seeing the discontent, rage and irritation on the face of his father, Marcus was sincerely pleased that he had taken this step.

Sigmund realized that his son read his inner emotions, and in the next second put on his usual indifferent expression again. "When you find out what is waiting for you, you will regret your stupid act," he whispered to Marcus in his ear.

The man straightened his suit jacket, ran a hand through his hair and turned to one of his subordinates, "Let's start the experiment."

"But, Herr Taubert, we do not have the original pendant. Herr Steiner used the original last time, now we only have a copy that we made," the scientist scratched behind his ear.

After the death of Richard Steiner, it took them three years to translate part of the scrolls and improve the transformation apparatus. But the key component was that unusual pendant that only Mark Teser could hold in his hands.

Now, Mark Teser was dead, and the pendant disappeared along with its mistress.

"Use a copy," Sigmund replied after some thought. He had been preparing for this moment for so many years; retreating because of some ancient trinket was not in his plans.

"Get Armand ready for the test," he commanded and walked over to an apparatus that looked like a control panel.

"If you are planning something, use me! Am I not better suited for this? All these years, I followed what you demanded, corresponded to your preferences! Wasn't that all for this?" Marcus was indignant. He tried to break out of the hands of the soldiers holding him, but everything was hopeless.

"Hmm, you're right," Sigmund ducked his head to the side as if reflecting on the words of his son.

"O-of course, I'm right! You yourself said that Armand is too soft a man! Was it not because of this that you didn't share with him so many things that were going on in the castle?" Marcus continued his persuasion, watching his practically lifeless brother, laid on a couch with wires connected.

"I have changed, I have become stronger and ruthless. I'm no longer what I was in childhood," Marcus looked at his father, he saw doubt in the man's eyes. For a second.

After that, the loud laugh of Sigmund Taubert, like thunder, shattered throughout the room.

"Ahaha, changed, you are saying? Have you become stronger?" the man asked his eldest son. "Aren't you fooling yourself?"

At these words, Marcus's mind was empty. What did this person mean?

"My boy, you are deeply mistaken if you think I believed in your naive game," Sigmund went up to his son and stroked his head with the pretense of care, "You think I didn't know that you did it on purpose to attract my attention?"

The man squeezed his hair in his palm and threw Marcus's head back with force, "Strength lies in firm conviction and following one's goals. With no doubt. If you think your brother is weaker than you, then no. It's just the opposite. Unlike you, Armand as he was, remained so. He remained true to himself, while you broke down and obeyed my rules. That was your mistake."

Father's words, like sharp needles, dug into Marcus's heart. All these years, all these damn years, he built himself out of who he was not, broke his principles and betrayed his interests, for what? So that, in the end, he would turn out to be as worthless, according to his father, as he was before?

"Ha..ha..ahahahahaha," laughter was the only reaction that Marcus could express.

"Put him on the second table, increase the dose to one hundred percent," Sigmund Taubert commanded. The man opened a small drawer, lying on another table, and took out a round pendant. He placed it in the center of the sphere, and the medallion became the closing element between its parts.

"This is unnecessary," the man said when he noticed how one of the assistants approached Marcus with a syringe in his hand.

"Um, but Sir, are you sure you don't need to use pain medication? The subject will scream loudly and may die of pain, moreover, if we use the power for one hundred percent, then the electric power will be..."

"I don't care. It doesn't matter for testing the system," the man waved his hand and went back to his place.

"I will kill you, you hear me? I will definitely kill you," Marcus hissed as his father walked past his desk.

"For this, you will have to survive, of which I am not sure," Sigmund shrugged with simulated sympathy, and turned his back to his son.

"Please commence the launch of the program "Eternity." Power on one hundred percent."

Screams. Loud screams - was the only thing Armand heard for several minutes. Then he did not yet know that the screams of his brother would torment him in nightmares in the coming decades. He lay motionless on the table and watched with tears in his eyes as his beloved brother was mercilessly being killed by their own father.

"Sir, the life data of the subject has dropped to zero. The test subject does not show signs of life," one of the assistants reported.

"Clear," Sigmund commented on the report and looked at his son's dead body.

"Put the body in the camera. Bring the girl."

The man walked away from the table and went to Armand, he raised a hand to his son's face and brushed away the tears from his eyes, "I know that you cannot say or do anything because of the injection in your body, but listen to me. To become strong, you should not have unnecessary weaknesses. Human attachment is the strongest of them; you don't need that."

Mr. Taubert waved his hand, two men dragged the girl into the room and laid her on the table where Marcus was lying before. Polina tried to resist and kick, but the first injection immobilized her body.

"Reduce the power by up to eighty percent," Sigmund commanded, and the scientists began a second procedure.

If Armand thought that the previous few minutes were the worst in his life, now he wholeheartedly regretted that his father had not shot him back then, in the corridor. He even envied Marcus for a split second that his brother was the first to die and did not see or hear all this.

"The object is not responding. The girl is dead," the assistant again reported.

BANG!

Some devices flew off the table, Sigmund left his fist clenched after the blow.

"No, I don't believe that we cannot get the result because we don't have this damn pendant!"

The man began to walk from side to side, he put everything at stake, after a few hours the castle should be empty and all traces should be hidden before the coalition forces arrive here.

"Reduce power to sixty percent," the man commanded and went to Armand. "My son, I will free you from the shackles and rules of this world, nothing will restrain you. Show them all to whom they must obey," he whispered to Armand.

Armand felt his eyelids grow heavier, the electric charge passed with increasing force through his body wave after wave, and he could not even shout to share the pain with his beloved people who died before his eyes.

A tear rolled down his cheek, after which Armand plunged into a deep and hopeless darkness.