Fate of the Heart

"I hope you won't mind explaining this."

Akiol and Kan'na returned to the interrogation, brandishing the documents they discovered. The middle-aged man froze upon seeing them, "How-"

Kiro squinted at the document, "So there was something. Explain it now."

The middle-aged man grit his teeth, "I'll tell you everything this time, I'll write a binding contract if I need to. Just promise me one thing."

"That depends on what you're trying to ask."

"I don't want the death sentence. In exchange for all the information I can give, I want my life."

"It sounds like the information you are going to give will warrant the death sentence."

"Which is precisely why I ask this of you."

Kiro whispered into someone's ear and they nodded. As soon as their figure vanished she began to extort more information, "Better start talking then, whether or not you'll live depends on your actions."

The middle-aged man wiped his sweaty palms onto his pants, "Very well, where shall I begin?"

"The beginning, but skip the useless backstory."

"A-Alright. I lied about having no results, in fact the results I received was something beyond what I expected. Y-You see, the Hydra's Heart isn't an actual heart. Rather it's a sort of gem that lies within the heart. The source of its life energy."

His fingers twitched as he continued to explain, "This source is invincible, I am unable to even scratch it with the most powerful scientific tools. One of which is capable of scratching armor meant for Fourth Star fighters.

"The whole thing radiates with your existence. Your very being shudders whenever it pulses. It makes your hair stand."

"So what was the result of your studies?", Kiro pushed.

"There wasn't a way to harvest this energy, it purely focused on regenerating the Hydra. I might've been able to use it for a source of infinite fuel, but one wrong move and it awakens. That is not worth all the fuel in the world. However a thought struck me: could I perhaps use this focus to gain immortality? So tried to assimilate it into various Hydra Hearts. Hoping it would adapt and be granted a lesser, but still immortal body."

Nimin was shaking angrily, "You tried to give a beast like that a body?!"

"It rejected the hearts.", the man ignored Nimin and continued, "Every single one it came into contact with withered. Hydra Hearts are expensive and are through my funds. So I switch to. . . cheaper alternatives."

It was at this point the man began to wring out his hands, "Hearts of various races, but all rejected. Just when I thought the experiments were pointless, an idea came to mind. What if I tried to put it into living bodies?"

"You monster!"

"I did what I had to for science! I tested on every living body I could get my hands on. Monsters, humans, orcs, elves, you name it! Every single person withered away at the power of the Heart."

A crazed look began to bloom in the man's eyes, "I grew desperate, my sanity was falling apart. Being next to such a dangerous item, I was losing sleep! But my curiosity was stronger! I pushed on with my studies, desperate to find at least one successful attempt.

"I was running out of funding and time, so in a last ditch effort I created a connection between me and the heart. A magic one, it permanently disabled my ability. But I succeeded! I thought it would be worth for immortality!"

The man revealed his chest suddenly, a large section was bruised and wilted, "But I chickened out. My body was rejecting it before I could even complete the procedure. So now I had a magic trace to the most dangerous object known to man, and no way to remove it."

Kiro shook her head, "This isn't what we want to hear. What happened with the heart?!"

The man laughed, his sanity falling apart by the second, "I stumbled across a kid. I thought I could perhaps hide the stone inside him and flee before the beast awoke. B-But to my surprise, neither side rejected each other. A human that adapted fully to the heart of a Hydra! The results were better than I expected. The kid proved to have substantial regenerative capabilities. Something that could put Priest healing to shame!

"Moreover, his body gained an unnatural strength. With ease he could crush the hardest metal. He could tear apart everything with no real effort!"

The man clutched his chest in attempt to calm his rapidly beating heart, "I should've known. I should've seen it coming. I found the connection I made was capable of forcing the kid to do as I pleased. A slave contract of some sort, but to a lesser degree."

Sweat dripped from his face as he recalled the memories, "I wanted to cultivate such power, I thought I could rule with such a power! So I ran into the forest with only a single exit. Taking the kid with me. I-I had relatives living inside, a village among the trees. I convinced them to let me and the kid stay, told them that the kid lost his parents and I wanted to care for him. We lived there for a year, as I carefully raised the boy to be my soldier."

The man's breathing grew labored, Akiol sensed him panicking, "What a mistake that was! One-one day the kids were maybe playing, but it spiked the boy's emotion. The raw powerful emotion made the Heart react. It made the boy go insane. He lost all reasoning."

As the man remembered what had occurred he clutched his head, "I wanted to forget what I saw! Such horrifying power, the maddening rampage! The village and its people were destroyed in seconds. I-I only managed to live because I took a vacant home further away. But- I knew I was next! It was coming for me! That feeling-!"

He shivered uncontrollably, "I-I used my connection. Did everything I could to stop it! Some-Somehow I was able to calm the Heart. The body returned to normal, but in return my connection was severed."

Kiro frowned, "What did you do?"

"I fled! I had no other option! I believe the best choice was to hope the forest was confusing enough so he may never exit. I fled with all my being. I didn't rest until I crossed the river and found someplace obscure!"

Akiol had a bad feeling in his heart, "The boy, what was his name?"

"He-he didn't have one, not at the time. But I had to convince the villagers. So I named him something else-"

"What was his name?!"

"M-Mira! I named him Mira!"