Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1277: Xara-Mary’s Deals! Part-3

Xara Seraphine’s POV

I turned back to my workbench, adjusting the ratios of the mixture, diluting the golden liquid in different measures.

Trying, always trying—to find some balance, some formula that might stop the endless cycle of monsterization.

But no matter what... no matter what kind of combination and whatever blood it mixed with... in the end, those people turned into monsters.

”Are you even trying, bitch?!” Mary shouted, glaring at me.

I bristled, ”I told you it’s impossible to understand this without the details of the combinations. Even with every variable I tried—this is not something that can be used on people. Are you trying to turn them into monsters or what?”

Mary ground her teeth. ”If that’s what it takes... I will. Turn every single one into a monster... believe me, Xara, you do not want to be left out of it. Just find a way.”

I clenched my fist until my knuckles ached. Find a way... find a way that... fuck you!!!

Then, after seeing the numerous failures, for the first time, Mary said something that stopped me.

”How about this... I think I know what it is capable of.”

I frowned. ”What?”

”It can handle two kinds of energy,” she said, voice steady. ”Arcane energy and... Clarion energy.”

”It can handle two kinds of energy,” she said, voice steady. ”Arcane energy and... Clarion energy.”

Her words hit me like a cold stone. Clarion? I had never heard the name.

The two energies she spoke of—Arcane and Clarion—were unknown records, unknown to any empire’s histories I had read.

How could she know of them?

She began to explain, slow and deliberate: the two currents that threaded the world, two goddesses their source.

I listened, confused and lost at first, then the pieces began to settle. The flicker I had seen within the liquid was not a single anomaly but a pair of energies braided together: one headed by Arcane, the other by Clarion.

Days passed like a blur—years, perhaps.

The only thing that mattered was survival and research. I kept living because breathing meant I could keep experimenting.... that’s what I wanted... what I need!

I managed to extract two samples from the vials Mary had given me: two golden liquids, similar but not the same. One shimmered pure and constant; the other sang with black threads—tiny shadows that crawled like smoke beneath the surface.

”Subject No.2748... raped a man in front of his wives and... made him cu—... ? What?” I blinked when I read the entry, glancing toward the door where a woman had been brought in and tied to the table.

Mary stood beside me, expression smug and impatient. ”What else do you expect me to ask? Capturing criminals has become difficult lately. They die or are taken by Grace before we can drag them in.” She pouted like a child while she spoke.

I shook my head. There was no use worrying about the politics of it. The work was what I could control.

”Next one,” I said.

”Oh? Two at the same time?” Mary’s eyes brightened.

I nodded. Two subjects arrived, placed side by side on cold iron.

The lab smelled of antiseptic and burnt blood and flesh.

Mary rubbed her hands together as if preparing to open a present. I prepared the syringes with the two different golden liquids, careful with the ratios, careful with the tremor in my hand.

I injected the first subject, then turned and injected the second—one liquid in each arm, two experiments running parallel.

There was always that moment after the injection where the world held its breath, waiting to see whether the concoction would eat the soul or the body would reject it and collapse. The lights hummed.

No matter what combination I tried, no matter what bloodline the sample came from, the outcome repeated: the mind splintered, the body reformed. People became monsters; crystals erupted like rain across their skin; voices were swallowed into a single, sorrowful howl.

But now...

Mary rubbed her hands faster while I bit my lips, waiting... waiting... for a full minute, nothing happened.

Just as our face lights up in victory when...

The subject who had been injected with the pure golden liquid suddenly convulsed, her body twisting and deforming grotesquely.

”Failure,” I muttered, shaking my head.

But then... the next subject, the one who had received the golden liquid streaked with faint black particles, was still alive.

Both Mary’s eyes and mine widened in stunned disbelief.

Before I knew it, a laugh slipped from me, ”Hehe...” It grew into a shout of wild satisfaction.

”Haha! It’s done... we finally did it!!”

Mary immediately lunged forward and hugged me tightly. ”Oh darling... I love you so much. You fucking did it!

Hehehe!! I love you, darling!” She squeezed my hips with such force that it almost hurt.

”Fuck... it hurts bitch!” I gasped.

”Haha! You’re the only one with the nerve to call me that... but I love it!!” Mary shouted with a manic tone... Her voice trembled with genuine happiness.

Well, if she is happy... I am happy..!

Win-win for both of us!

”Do you want to eat my pussy as a reward?” she asked suddenly.

”...” I stared blankly at her.

What the fuck did she just say?

”Nope?” Mary’s lips pouted, her expression turning childishly disappointed... even though I couldn’t see her face, but spending years with her... my mind already imagine her cute pouting face.

”Of course not, bitch!!” I snapped back.

”How about... a big cock then?” she teased, almost sing-song.

”...” I stared again, blank as stone. Just when I thought I was beginning to understand this insane woman, she managed to get even stranger.

”Hmm... not good enough for you? Then... how about money?”

”Well... that’s...” I trailed off.

Of course, I couldn’t say no to that, could I?

She giggled like a girl who had won a bet. ”I expect nothing less from the future Hemomancer,” she said proudly, as if naming me.

Hemomancer? What was that supposed to mean?

I had never heard the word before.

A strange title, a name that carried a weight I didn’t yet understand.

But whatever... as far as titles went, it didn’t sound bad.

Just as we were basking in our small victory—

PUFF!!

Another test subject suddenly exploded, bursting apart in a spray of blood and bone.

”...”

”...”

We both froze, our movements halting, stunned into silence.

...

Third Person’s POV

”So... you still failed?” Aether asked, his voice tinged with shock as he listened to the story of how her life had nearly ended in the underground lab.

The pieces began to arrange themselves in his mind, and for the first time, this strange tale began to connect to the present. It started to make sense of what was happening now within the Void Empire.

Why were the people still fine?

But then... they failed, didn’t they? Then how...?

Confusion lingered heavy in his chest until—

Xara shook her head.

”That’s what we thought... until Blooddawn caused the Miracle.”

Aether raised his eyebrows.