After placing the tube into the jar, he twisted a knob that had previously been set to stop the liquid's flow.
Once the knob was turned, the previously obstructed tube allowed the dark green liquid to flow smoothly once more.
He returned to carefully observe the heads and body parts placed in the transparent boxes, and found them shrinking rapidly as the liquid drained.
After over twenty minutes, the once-large, disgusting abomination parts were now nothing more than dry husks.
He retrieved and gathered the dried husks into another separate box he had earlier prepared for their disposal.
He turned to observe the jar and noticed the dark green liquid had risen, now filling it by a quarter.
He sank his right arm into the liquid, which actively clung to it rapidly, his arm bulging grotesquely as dark, vein-like rune patterns rose into view.
Once all the dark, corrupted energy had been slowly absorbed into his body through the arm, he felt noticeably stronger, his physique hardening, his energy practically surging.
What remained in the jar was now a light green liquid, not even filling a third of the jar.
He had a terrifying secret he hasn't and didn't plan to share with anyone.
He has the ability to absorb the invader, the mysterious "inkforce".
The terrifying energy that everyone hated, feared, and worshipped had now become his only source of empowerment.
But even though he trusted everyone currently on this vehicle, including the likes of Marco, he still didn't dare absorb it out in the open, for fear of anyone finding out.
Instead, what he did was absorb it through a complicated process, one that involved using the body parts of abominations, or other Inkforce-polluted creatures, which he normally obtained from the group through deception.
He lied to them, claiming the parts were meant for his experiments, not that they were even usable for anything else. The remains of those polluted creatures were useless to everyone else but him, mere trash in anyone else's eyes, so his act of taking them for himself wasn't something the group cared about at all. To them, he was just experimenting with garbage, hardly a big deal.
Well, but not all of what he said were lies though. He took an empty syringe tube from the table then proceeded to draw what was left in the jar, which was the light green fluid remaining after he absorbed the corrupted energy into it.
He managed to get 6 syringe tubes full before the green liquid ran out.
He took a good look at the green liquid which he had named strengthening serums.
This was the reason the group complied to the most of his requests to allow him in using the corpses of the abominations for research.
Although these were the first results of the research since he began, they were still results nonetheless.
He carefully placed the syringe tubes in a box then proceeded to carry the box alongside himself as he made his way out of the room and towards the group because earlier, he'd already tested the potency of these strengthening serums, but they just don't seem to work on him, only the inkforce he absorbed provides some kind of strengthening to him but everything else seemed irrelevant.
The mechanical vehicle began moving again, its massive wheels crushing the corrupted ground beneath them, grinding bone, metal, and blackened soil into indistinguishable fragments.
The world outside remained the same endless wasteland, twisted structures, collapsed cities frozen in decay, and an atmosphere thick with distorted energy that shimmered faintly like invisible radiation.
Inside the vehicle, however, everything had gone silent.
The chaos from moments earlier had faded, leaving behind exhaustion and relief at the sheer fact they've survived another uncertain battle that could have turned deadly if it hadn't been handled properly.
Brant sat heavily against one of the mechanical house's interior walls, his massive frame slumped, blood still slowly dripping from his injured hand. The crimson armor he had formed earlier had already dissolved, falling back into liquid and being reabsorbed into his body, leaving behind his exposed flesh.
His breathing was heavy, not from pain but sheer frustration.
Veronica knelt beside him, her expression still stoic but a little unfocused.
Her thin fingers hovered over Brant's injured hand, where some faint bones protruded at unnatural angles and Ink-dark veins pulsed beneath torn skin.
The injury was already changing as the scattered polluted inkforce in the air began its work, worming its way into the exposed tissue, attempting to rewrite it into something else.
It had been just slightly less than thirty minutes, and such a corrosion had started taking place, further proving just how dangerous of a thing the Inkforce pollution was.
Veronica exhaled slowly, before placing her palm against Brant's injured and faintly corroded hand.
The metal scattered around them responded to her call immediately as a few discarded mechanical components began to vibrate. They trembled, then lifted into the air before they slowly drifted toward Veronica's body as she controlled them via her ability.
The moment they touched her skin, they dissolved slowly, they weren't melted nor shattered into bits but were unmade.
Their physical structure broke down into glowing streams of pale energy that flowed directly into Brant's wound through Veronica's hand.
Brant's bones began to move unnaturally as it cracked, shifted and began reforming.
The corrupted flesh fell off as the rest regenerated in layers, knitting together with disturbing speed. Torn muscle re-wounded itself, the shattered fingers straightened and grew back as if time itself had been reversed.
Brant clenched his jaw as pain shot through his body but he didn't even make a sound as he quiet through the whole process.
He had learned long ago that pain was simply another form of will tempering.
Within seconds, his hand was perfect and whole again.
It was as if the injury had never been there to begin with.
Veronica slowly withdrew her hand, her breathing had become slightly more heavier. The discarded metal around them was now gone, with nothing left but empty space and faint glowing residue in the air.
She stood up and leaned on one of the walls without saying a word.
Brant flexed his fingers as a glint was shown on his bald head before laughing softly.
"Good as new," he muttered.
Across the vehicle, Marco who had just taken down the predator looked at his current state for almost a minute before shaking his head and sighing then turning away towards the inner compartments of the vehicle where he normally resided.
Once he got there he sat within the mechanical core of the vehicle, surrounded by moving parts, humming engines, and rotating constructs that responded to the vehicle's movement.
Some remaining parts of his mechanical limbs also retracted back into the storage compartments across his body, folding neatly into places he'd already prepared for storing them.
Marco's face immediately went tight with irritation.
But beneath that irritation was something else entirely.
Responsibility.
As the captain and leader of this team, he was responsible for their safety. He had to ensure that no life of his team members were lost during outside trips like this. But since they've already spotted a predator, it meant that wandering outside on these abandoned lands was no longer safe. He had to make plans about leaving. Because now, it was just one predator, who knew what will crawl out of these pollution filled lands next. He had to leave and lie low for a while with the others to prevent any chance of anything weird catching them off guard.
Back at the outer compartments of the vehicle, Brant stood up and moved back into the storage compartment and retrieved a large, dark red mutated fruit. It was roughly about the size of three oranges perfectly fused together, its surface pulsing with faint green unstable energy.
Looking at the fruit, Brant briefly hesitated before finally taking a careful bite and chewing whilst his mind drifted.
He couldn't help being distracted as he thought about various uncertain things.
'What if Marco hadn't been here today?'
'What if he had faced the predator alone?'
He replayed the scenario in his head.
He believed he could have won if there was enough blood, either his blood, the enemy's or even anyone else's blood.
But that was exactly the problem.
His power only worked on fresh blood, because once it had left the body for too long, it became practically useless to him.
Such a terrible weakness of his, one he has never really gotten used to.
Unknowingly, he had already chomped on the entire fruit, leaving only a little stump, before he swallowed it entirely, leaving nothing behind.
He felt something cold settle in his chest while his inner thoughts continued
If Marco hadn't been there, and there was insufficient blood, he was very sure that a being like the predator would have killed him.
Brant looked away for a bit, before his thought went to Steven.
'Steven would have eventually won, since dark energy was everywhere.'
Unlike flesh and blood. Steven could always draw dark energy.
Which to him, meant that Steven had more potential than him.
That thought unsettled Brant more than the injury he self-inflicted.
Because right now, he could feel that the abominations were still getting stronger the more deeper the Inkforce pollution became.
He felt the change when he battled them. Unlike before when he could take them down with only a single hit, now he needed more than one. At the rate these creatures were improving and growing stronger, with his current potential, he was afraid that he really couldn't keep up.
One thing he was certain of: No matter how powerful he and his group became, this corrupted world still had something worse waiting for them, something even they couldn't begin to fathom.