Vanorion IncarnateChapter 4: Infusion
Fire.
That was all Arc could comprehend at first.
It felt as though molten metal had been poured directly into his being, spreading from the point of entry and consuming everything in its path. Doctor Hibino had driven the injector into his left eye, and the instrument remained there for several agonising seconds as the compound was forced inside.
Blood streamed down Arc's face.
The white of his eye turned red as ruptured vessels spread across the sclera. Beneath the surface, the silver substance began to move, flowing into the surrounding tissue like mercury finding its way through a crack.
Then the real agony began.
The Alkanite invaded his body at a cellular level. Cells surrounding the injection site ruptured as the compound forced its way inside, only to be stitched back together moments later. Blood cells split apart and reformed. Tissue reconstructed itself around the foreign substance, but nothing returned entirely as it had been.
Every repaired cell was subtly different.
A faint metallic sheen spread through the affected tissue, growing more pronounced as the silver compound advanced.
Doctor Hibino finally withdrew the injector.
Arc thrashed.
His hands flew towards his face, fingers clawing desperately at the skin around his injured eye. Blood ran between them as the muscles across his face spasmed uncontrollably. His jaw clenched, his neck strained, and his arms shook against the restraints.
He wanted to tear it out.
He wanted to rip his own eye free if that was what it took to stop the burning.
But his body refused to obey him.
The compliance implant suppressed his movements, allowing only marginal reactions despite the tremendous strain visible in his arms and neck. His muscles fought against commands that never reached them properly, leaving him trapped somewhere between the instinct to resist and the machinery that prevented him from doing so.
The pain continued.
Then the restraints disengaged.
Chains erupted from the floor, locking around Arc before dragging him backwards. Panels opened beneath and behind him, revealing the mechanism that would return him to his cell. He was hauled away without ceremony, his heels scraping against the floor as the last of his strength deserted him.
Doctor Hibino did not follow.
He did not need to.
The experiment had already begun.
By the time Arc was returned to his cell, the bleeding had stopped.
He lay motionless for a while, waiting for the pain to subside enough for him to think. The reflective metal walls surrounded him on every side, interrupted only by the brilliant white LED flooring beneath his body.
The light hurt his eyes.
He turned his face away, then slowly raised a trembling hand towards it.
His left eye stared back at him from the reflection.
The injection site was still bloodshot, but the iris had changed. Where brown had once filled the eye, a dull silver now occupied its place. It was muted, almost lifeless, though a faint glow lingered beneath the metallic surface.
Arc stared.
He had survived the initial dosage.
The thought offered little comfort.
He cautiously brought a finger towards the altered eye and touched its surface.
Nothing happened.
He pressed lightly against the pupil.
Still nothing.
There was no flinch, no reflexive withdrawal, not even the discomfort he would have expected from touching an ordinary eye. The tissue had become unnaturally hard, its sensitivity almost entirely absent.
He tried the same with his right eye.
Pain made him recoil immediately.
That eye remained brown, and the difference between them was unmistakable.
One was still his.
The other had become something else.
Arc lowered his hand and examined the surrounding tissue. The pink muscle around the altered eye had turned a sickly grey, the colour spreading through the damaged area as the Alkanite settled into its new environment.
Then the silver iris began to glow.
A faint white pulse appeared within it, steady at first, then gradually brightening.
Arc leaned closer to the reflective wall.
The light was not coming from the cell.
It was coming from inside his eye.
He could feel it, too. A strange pressure gathered behind the altered organ, spreading into the optic nerves and the bone surrounding the socket. It throbbed with a volatile energy that seemed too concentrated to belong inside something so small.
Unrefined Alkanite.
The compound was no longer merely present in his body. It was active.
Arc should have been horrified.
He was horrified.
Yet beneath the fear, something else began to take shape.
Curiosity.
He had spent his entire life learning to observe, classify, and understand. Even now, with blood drying across his face and his body still trembling from the injection, that instinct remained. He could not stop what had been done to him, but he could study the result.
He focused on the reflection.
His vision sharpened.
At first, the change was subtle. The edges of the cell's metal panels became clearer, their surfaces revealing scratches he had never noticed before. He could distinguish tiny imperfections in the floor, the faintest irregularities in the reflective walls, and minute tears in the skin across his fingers.
Then the world seemed to separate into layers.
Movement became easier to follow. Small changes in position appeared to overlap, as though his vision were capturing successive moments and presenting them together. A slight movement of his hand left a sequence of impressions in his perception, allowing him to follow its path with unnerving precision.
Time had not actually slowed.
His perception had changed.
Arc raised his hand and moved it from side to side.
The motion appeared almost segmented, each stage of movement remaining distinct long enough for him to examine it. His mind began assembling the overlapping impressions into a coherent picture, processing more information than he had previously been able to perceive.
He stopped.
Something on the floor had caught his attention.
Blood.
The blood that had spilled from his face pooled around him in dark, motionless patches. Under his altered vision, it looked different from the blood still circulating beneath his skin.
The difference was immediate.
The blood on the floor appeared lifeless, its energy dissipated into the surrounding environment. The blood inside his body, however, shimmered with a faint radiance. Each boosted cell carried a glow that had not been visible before the infusion.
Arc's breathing slowed.
He looked at his hands, then at the blood staining his fingers.
The light inside his veins was unmistakable.
He knew what he was seeing.
Pure Ura.
The energy was present within his own cells, visible through a perception he had never possessed before. The Alkanite had altered his eye, but the consequences extended far beyond a change in colour or sensitivity. It had opened a window into something that had previously remained hidden from him.
For one brief moment, the fear receded.
He had found something new.
Something extraordinary.
Something that might help him understand what Doctor Hibino had done to him.
His vision flickered.
The white light inside his left eye pulsed violently. The layered images began to distort, their edges blurring together until he could no longer distinguish one moment from the next.
Arc tried to steady himself against the wall.
His hand missed.
The floor tilted beneath him, and the brilliant white light stretched into a long, featureless blur.
He had survived the initial dosage.
But survival was not the same as stability.
His knees buckled.
Arc collapsed sideways, his head striking the floor as consciousness slipped beyond his reach.
For several seconds, the cell was silent.
Then the door opened.
A guard entered, glanced at the unconscious boy, and approached without speaking. There was no surprise in his movements, no concern at the blood still staining Arc's face.
The guard lifted him as though collecting an abandoned piece of equipment.
Arc's silver eye remained faintly illuminated.
The guard carried him out of the cell.
The door sealed behind them, leaving only the reflected light of the empty room.
And somewhere beyond the sterile corridors, another stage of the experiment awaited.