Chapter 248 - Is That All?

If nectar's ingredients and formula had been used, even a failed attempt should have produced a narcotic. But if it reduced someone to this state in less than ten days of use, it was closer to a poison than a drug.

In other words, whoever made this had never intended to reproduce nectar in the first place. They had merely used its formula to exploit its addictiveness.

Who had managed to modify it like this? And what was the purpose of making such a substance?

Maia, lost in thought with her brow furrowed, suddenly looked up.

"Everyone, step back."

"Pardon?"

Arbella looked puzzled at Maia's abrupt order, and the other researchers were equally bewildered. Even so, they instinctively stepped back. Whatever her reasons, obeying their princess was their duty.

They discovered why she had given that order a moment later.

CRRRACK!

"What!"

"The subject...?"

Until a moment ago, the subject had merely been struggling uselessly against his restraints. Then the golden needles embedded in his body began pushing themselves out, and suddenly every muscle in his body started swelling.

The growth was astonishingly fast. In an instant, he stood over three meters tall. The researchers watched in horror as he tore away even the metal restraints binding him.

Yet Maia, standing right before the subject, did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. She merely gave a cold, derisive smile.

"I see. So this was the purpose."

"GRAAAARGH!"

Perhaps her mockery had offended him. Or perhaps he wanted revenge for being treated as a test subject.

The giant ripped apart the gag in his mouth and swung his fist at Maia with a ferocious bellow. The savage blow tore through the air—only to be stopped.

TAP.

Not by her arm, so slender it looked as though a squeeze would snap it. Nor by her gloved hand.

By a single finger.

As the giant stared wide-eyed at his fist, stopped dead against the tip of her outstretched index finger, Maia asked quietly,

"Is that all?"

"...!"

Grow four arms. Breathe fire. If there was anything else he could do, he should try it.

She spoke without the slightest interest, watching him as though he were a laboratory mouse. The giant hastily tried to pull his fist away.

But it would not move.

Only one finger was touching it, yet his fist remained utterly immobile, as though pinned beneath an enormously heavy boulder. Bewilderment and fear surged through him.

Forcing those feelings down with the violence and madness welling up inside him, the giant opened his mouth.

"GRAAAAAARGH!"

"KYAAARGH!"

CRACK, CRRRACK!

Immediately after his unusually resounding bellow, more cries rang out like echoes, and one wall of the laboratory collapsed.

The dozens of subjects confined in the isolation room had all turned into giants, torn off their restraints, and burst out.

Dozens of subjects charged toward Maia, crushing everything in their path with their bodies, from large desks to heavy medical equipment.

The giant grinned savagely at the sight of his menacing companions, only for his eyes to widen. The instant Maia seized his wrist, the world suddenly flipped upside down. He felt himself lift into the air as things flashed past him.

Then came the collision.

BOOOM!!

"A little over a ton in weight. And as for durability... quite sturdy, indeed."

The giant flew like a pebble, slamming into the other subjects and sending them tumbling like bowling pins.

Maia nodded as she observed them. Despite an impact that would have reduced an ordinary human to pulp, they had not suffered a single wound.

"GRAARGH!"

Perhaps being tossed about like a toy had made him snap. The giant struggled to his feet and charged at Maia again with a bellow, the other subjects following behind him.

Maia sneered at them. Then she grabbed a handful of golden needles from a box beside her and scattered them.

It was an exceedingly simple movement. But the results of those lightly thrown needles were anything but slight.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

"G-Grraargh!"

The needles sank effortlessly into their necks, rendering their bulletproof skin meaningless. At once, the giants' entire bodies went rigid, and they tumbled ignominiously to the floor.

They bellowed and tried to move, but the golden needles lodged in their necks denied them that freedom.

It had taken only a few minutes.

Arbella stared in astonishment at the rampaging subjects, all subdued in less time than it took to drink a cup of tea. Then she abruptly collected herself and hurried over to Maia.

"Your Highness! Are you all right?"

"Do you think these paltry things could harm me?"

"Of course not, but Your Highness, you..."

Unable to finish, Arbella looked at her anxiously. Maia replied coldly.

"Enough of your needless worrying. Prepare restraints for high-level players."

"... Are you saying they're now at least as strong as high-level players?"

"Yes."

"How is that possible?"

Arbella could not contain her astonishment.

These subjects had originally been low-level players below level 30. Even the highest-level giant had only been a mid-ranking player whose level was in the fifties.

For them to reach the strength of high-level players in an instant was even more impossible than a chicken suddenly turning into a hawk.

"That is what we shall find out."

If something was unknown, was it not a researcher's duty to discover it, whether through dissection or experimentation?

Arbella nodded at Maia's sardonic words.

"True, you're right. Then I'll prepare the restraints immedia...?"

She flinched.

Arbella's face froze before she could finish speaking. Following her gaze, Maia turned and narrowed her eyes.

The giant who had been lying motionless with golden needles in his neck was already getting back up.

The needles had not been removed. Instead, the entire spine in which they were embedded had protruded from his back.

Maia's eyes gleamed with interest as she saw something reddish-gold writhing inside his neck, as though replacing his spine.

'Artificial nerves? He created an organ on the spot to replace his paralyzed spine?'

"GRAAAARGH!"

Perhaps it was the repeated humiliation. With a maddened roar, the giant reached to his side.

He seized another subject, who was likewise pushing out his spine, and without warning hurled him at Maia.

TAP.

Maia's response was simple. Just as when she had stopped the giant's fist, she extended one hand and caught the subject.

But even though his supposedly brilliant ploy of throwing a companion had failed, the giant grinned with his mouth stretched wide.

The subject Maia had caught began trembling. Then, the instant his body turned reddish-gold—

BOOOM!

His body exploded, showering blood, bone, and flesh.

It was, quite literally, self-detonation. By bursting his own body like a bomb, he turned even a drop of blood or a scrap of flesh into a deadly weapon—a horrific method made all the more lethal by its horror.

The giant had no doubt that Maia could not emerge unscathed from that blast.

... Until he saw the blood and flesh being sucked into her hand instead of scattering in every direction.

THUD.

"Self-detonation. A vile method, quite befitting an assassin sent by that man."

An enormous explosion had just occurred within her grasp. Yet Maia casually dropped a mass of mingled blood, flesh, and bone as though nothing had happened, and regarded the giant with cold eyes.

"Since you have resorted even to this, may I assume you have nothing more to show me?"

Given their tendency to self-destruct, capturing them for careful study seemed difficult. If he had nothing else to show her, she would dispose of him now.

The giant took a faltering step back as Maia spoke as calmly as though she were explaining an experimental procedure. Then he clenched his teeth and hurled another subject standing beside him.

BOOM!

He detonated another.

BANG, BOOM!

Then two at once.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOOM!

He threw several together, staggering their explosions.

The giant hurled his companions wildly, treating them as nothing more than human bombs. The subjects willingly complied, blowing themselves up one after another, as though their lives were a small price to pay if they could inflict even the slightest harm on Maia.

It was a futile struggle.

No matter how many subjects exploded, Maia merely waved her hand and drew all their blood and flesh into her grasp.

More than ten lumps of flesh had fallen at her feet, and despair was spreading across the giant's face, when—

"... Cough!"

Maia's hand stopped.

A violent surge of pain accompanied her harsh cough, momentarily disrupting her psionics. It lasted only an instant—a mild attack that would ordinarily subside quickly without even requiring medicine.

But in a battle where every moment counted, the giant did not miss that opening.

"GRARGH!"

At the giant's shout, all the remaining subjects rushed Maia together, their bodies turning reddish-gold.

"Your Highness!"

BOOM-BOOM-BOOOM-BOOOM!

With an impact greater than any of the previous explosions, the laboratory ceiling came crashing down.

Even this laboratory, designed to withstand substantial impacts, could not endure the simultaneous self-detonation of more than ten subjects.

Fortunately, Maia remained unharmed even amid that explosion. Her powerful body and psionics as a princess had protected her—along with one other factor.

"Your... Highness... safe..."

... A human shield named Arbella, who had rushed forward in alarm at Maia's attack and wrapped her own body around her.

At the last instant, Maia had forced her psionics into action and sucked in most of the fragments. Yet merely being struck by the remaining blood and flesh had riddled Arbella's body with holes.

Maia stared in horror as Arbella coughed up a gush of blood and lost consciousness.

"You foolish...!"

Her usual cynical demeanor vanished. Maia hurriedly drove seven golden needles into Arbella's acupuncture points to stop the bleeding.

Then she pressed a hand to her chest and poured psionics into her.

CRRRACK.

Regeneration began.

Torn organs knitted together. The holes in her body sealed shut. Embedded fragments of bone and flesh were pushed out.

Maia stood at the pinnacle of the Green Dragon Clan, whose power was biological manipulation. Her formidable psionics resonated with Arbella's, healing her wounds.

It was power worthy of the Green Dragon Princess, who had been called the world's greatest healer until the Divine Monarch appeared.

There was just one problem.

As Arbella's wounds regenerated, Maia's complexion grew rapidly paler. Yet Maia paid no heed and continued pouring in her psionics—even as the giant seized the opportunity to charge at her.

Maia remained wholly focused on treating Arbella. The instant the giant swung his enormous fist at her—

THWACK!

—A violent bursting sound rang out, and bright red blood spattered across the floor.