Far beneath the majestic, gold leafed halls and marble floored corridors of the Imperial Palace, there was a place where the sun never reached, a place known only to the Emperor and a select few.
This was an underground laboratory where cold stone walls sweated with dampness, and the air hung heavy with the metallic scent of blood and nose burning chemicals.
Sebastian, or Dr. Aris as was his old and true name, was the master of this dark place.
He wore a white coat stained with dried blood. With thin leather gloves on his hands, he worked on the subject lying on the metal table before him with the precision of a meticulous surgeon. The being on the table might once have been human, but now it was a mass of flesh reshaped by Sebastian's "art."
Its chest cavity was completely open, and the heart beating within was three times the size of a normal human's; a monster heart reinforced with mana, wrapped in dark purple veins.
