Found?

  An unknown amount of time went by.

  For countless ins and outs, all Fox could remember was his head swinging when he tried to wake up, or when his body was begging him to. The torment he suddenly felt, long and repetitive, before the sudden silence, emboldened a further state of slumber.

  Every time, his wrists felt cold, as well as around his legs and arms, even neck, and sometimes penetrating the skin of his back; around his vertebral column. It was further pulled as he was tightly restricted. Those were, without a doubt, shackles.

  Every 8-10 cm, there was a tight shackle of Mintip around his limbs, including his neck. Fox felt the absolute worst from one side or part of his body while the rest was tightly held a few times.

  At first, he didn’t feel it that much whenever it began. Only as it would end, Fox’s eyelids would convulse before his mouth and saliva foamed while his head shook with intensity. His senses would awake him afterwards, only to see clearly yet horrified at his surroundings.

  His body was pried open again and again. So badly that they had to conserve his skin in different skin partition-like boxes that were as thin as a mere scholar text book but about 1-2 meters long. Fox couldn’t tell what they did with his body at first since it was the first times he was drugged.

  But as more situations developed, and Fox began seeing hands and robotic tools entering and exiting his body through his muscles, bones, and even feeling his organs squeezed, the drug lost its efficiency. At the same time, Fox felt he was simply… invulnerable to it.

  It was like his body was telling him. There were many things going on with his body since he was kidnapped. The people who were doing whatever they were to him, they also now knew about his ultra nails and hyper senses. Every hour, which Fox only identified after several weeks, his nails and teeth were broken and repaired with colorful medicine and… strange materials.

  Fox has tasted lots of bullets through his special agent ‘career’ since he got his ultra Mintip left arm. But nothing has ever tasted like this, not even processed Mintip from intermediate NUA, or from the high NUAs he destroyed and killed before being… defeated. But nothing like this. It still felt similar to the taste of Mintip, but it was nothing like this.

  At some point, Fox couldn’t be drugged anymore, and the shackles became more severe and bountiful. That time the drugs were discovered to be no longer effective, Fox pretended to become idiotic. He knew he couldn’t escape, but he…

  “Alright, let’s continue. He looks just fine, my my.” A scientist and doctor put on his gloves and mask before starting cutting Fox’s left thigh open. Only his right arm from below the elbow and most of Fox’s stomach, besides the head, were untouched so far.

  Just 3 minutes in, Fox slowly concentrated his left arm’s muscles, also preparing for his ultra nails to come out. The shackles seemed to bulge out a tiny bit, unnoticeable by the scientist, but a special agent nearby frowned. Before they could react…

  CRAASSH! BOM! SPLAAASSHHH! The scientist was none the wiser, humming as he began to take Fox’s bones out again and giving them to someone else to ‘wedge’ them with that unknown material. Suddenly, the shackles around Fox’s left arm broke apart without him moving.

  The scientist didn’t even react, baffled silly. Fox was the same, not expecting this level of strength. But he immediately sent his left palm forth, whereas the scientist’s eyes finally widened. Fox’s face scrunched up in rage as alarms sounded everywhere, the people around him started fleeing separately, including the special agents.

  The doctor’s body turned limp on the floor, but only slightly above his knees remained intact, standing on the floor for another second before collapsing. The rest turned to smithereens, unrecognizable whatsoever. Fox looked at the wall a dozen meters behind the scientist.

  The scientist upper body’s silhouette was visible on the wall. Pure darkish red and some organ matter mixed into flesh with even more blood. The clothes were spread to the sides, all bloody and burst outwards from the impact.

  Fox looked at his left palm, even more baffled. His nails were cut, broken and fragmented. But they looked different from natural, with a touch of greenish around where they were fragmented from. Then, as countless footsteps carrying overwhelmingly heavy objects approached, Fox looked in a mirror around the desk the scientists always worked him with.

  Fox’s regular eyes seemed sick. Like one’s liver failing, but instead of yellow, a strange silver, light green color. Before the footsteps’ owners arrived, Fox looked at his left nails and slowly lifted his chin, bringing the nails to his eye level.

  “There he is— he hasn’t moved! Hurry!” Someone shouted, before many more came to him.

  Fox fell from where he was being hung, the shackles clutching at his vertebral column skin softly letting go like roasted chicken. Fox landed on his right thigh and noticed the mightiness from just doing that, but he also felt incredibly, unbelievably weak. He almost tripped despite such might.

  Before they could arrive at him and shackle him again with enormous arching tools, Fox dug his left nails into his eyes. Not once, or a single scratch, but several, with their divided tip.

  “Restrain him!” Those objects were placed around his shoulders and lower belly, tying him to the floor. Fox continued destroying his face. The blood was red, but the sight horrendous. “Is he trying to kill himself? What is he doing!?”

  “Then stop him!” A higher special agent shouted with obsession when noticing how badly Fox was mutilating himself. It was only when Fox’s limbs and forehead were tightly locked by those objects with barely any gap free that Fox simply breathed in and out before… remaining awake.

  He couldn’t lose consciousness. Furthermore, as he was brought even more heavily shackled to an infirmary seemingly made especially for him, the drugs didn’t seem to work in the slightest. Fox was operated for several days just for his eyes to start recuperating, having not a single moment of sleep or drowsiness.

  The pain of going through that. Numerous instruments, similar to the ones he used when in Preut to avoid infections, were placed inside his eyes and recharged countless times in the morning, day, and night. Only a couple of weeks after the treatment pre-started did Fox start seeing again.

  This time, when Fox looked at himself in the mirror, he had regained his polycoria eyes and lost the silvery green. But even as Fox went through recuperation, the experimentation on his body, if it could be called so, didn’t stop.

  The pain from the start, with no drugs anymore, and more than ten times the shackles from before, quietly drove Fox to an overly numb state. His body was alive at all times, and his heart shook with every cut, organ movement, and replacement.

  It was still his own body, but it was being molded by something in ways he wasn’t aware of, and he couldn’t decipher it in his position. He was next to helpless, as this one was too far behind what Fox felt from then on.

  Endless torment, signs of relaxation, continuous endless torment, change in his body out of his control and knowledge; and more unending torture. It was inhumane.

  Not being given any more drugs to at least set him on a placebo effect, Fox was chatted up by the scientists, who often showed him his organs and bones, and how they began changing. Even his heart was pulled out, countless cables attached between it and his body’s interiors.

  It was similar to the scene where his mother, Rubena Caolia, died in the hospital. It could only remain this way for 5 hours before his body began failing and his heart suffered attacks. Everything that was done to it, he could feel it. This method was intricately to keep them both connected. Fox was in the deepest of lifelessness.

  Every time it was heart-’wedging’ time, the scientists would take longer than necessary, always exceeding the limit before slowly putting the heart back in. All to watch Fox recoil and even foam from the ears.

  … As all of this happened, from the side, a female scientist and also doctor, who had a rather notorious seat in the ‘project’ but always remained low-profile, watched.

  At first, she couldn’t believe what she saw. Then, as the experimentation continued, she was further marveled to see it working and continuing evolving and evolving. But that didn’t diminish the trepidation she felt whenever Fox’s body was being changed, inside out…

  During the last few weeks, she’s been moving around a lot more instead of sitting beside the laboratory Fox is being changed, his face a dead man’s and his body played like a vehicle. This woman, white, much so with a regular height, and with black hair to accompany her beauty, walked around the research precinct more often and ignored Fox.

  When she walked into the dormitories, where all the mostly uninterested ladies and gentlemen changed, almost always showing several of each naked when changing or showering, she was surprised by a colleague.

  “Ah- Sofia! Hello, babie!” A tall, ponytailed beauty walked up to her at the entrance, dressed up and going from stoic and stiff to lively eyes and a breathing face. “No longer trapped seeing the beauty in distress, eh? Hey, want to go check the new cafeteria? There are pizzas from this guy’s restaurants. Maybe it’ll give him some support to continue until we complete it.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Really?” Sofia was startled. She nodded and walked beside her colleague, widening her eyes. Her colleague nodded with a bigger smile for a moment, “Indeed. It’s already this far. We just need the touches that matter. Your turn will arrive in the following days, I’m sure. Don’t you dare forget me then, ey?”

  “So confident. Huh, I’d like to see what you are capable of. I’ll see if I can get you to accompany to the ‘pre’-research, mm?” Sofia smiled and playfully poked her colleague’s shoulder, whose smile became satisfied and flashed with trust.

  Several days later, Fox had been through a new period of thorough research. His body was… ‘finished’. Everything, from inside out, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Leaving only his genitals and organs to function as before, if not better through evolution, without replacing them but strengthening them instead. Had ‘become different’.

  Thus, requiring only to put their last step of the project into motion, Fox’s body was tested. For numerous times, they tried reproducing him with the many enslaved women they found around the world. They were the most fertile with family records of enduring the most childbearing or difficult deliveries.

  The subject’s semen was drained time and again, but it could never reproduce with the women, even to those they gave ‘freedom’ around the research precinct for sanity’s sake. There was no helping it, but they might find a way after ‘wiring’ him.

  … At last, one day, Sofia and her colleague walked to the planning research team meeting room. They would hear their superior again to test more of his body. When the meeting ended, they walked out and headed to grab their tool sets. Today, they would finally check how differently his brain works to begin the preparations. Everyone was excited. Too much, in fact.

  “Oh! My inner clothing was left in my closet. Do you mind grabbing my box? I can’t waste more time,” Sofia exclaimed and directly headed to the changing rooms, taking her white coat off. Her colleague stopped and looked back, almost distressed that she was wasting so much time.

  “Of course. You helped me, I have to at least be courteous. I’ll see you in 20 to get cleaned up, hm?” Her colleague said, in case Sofia just wanted some celebratory ceremony. Be it a snack, a ritual, or rough, quick sex.

  Sofia smiled slightly and continued heading to the changing rooms with ease. Her colleague smiled and shook her head before losing her liveliness to walk to the storage.

  A few minutes later, Sofia returned. Her expression was determined. Despite however much trepidation she felt at first, she now felt… rebellious. Right now, she no longer cared what happened to her should she be seen before or after her commitment.

  Sofia walked to Fox’s shackled self. His eyes were wide open, looking at the floor, with his head hanging tilted to the left. She stepped up to him and looked up. Fox’s eyes went to her, slowly, oh so slowly recognizing that face. Sofia whispered after stabbing what looked like a hairpin on the left side of his left knee, letting a large amount of blood to drop in an arch into her bag.

  “That should heal in 12 minutes. They left that spot to keep draining you, but your body is also confused. I won’t take more than 3 minutes. It’s a small piece,” Sofia took a few smallish instruments from her pants’ rear and looked directly into his eyes, worry written all over on hers.

  “Endure it.” What looked like a tiny blowtorch lighted up from a flame which Fox could easily identify to be from Pugor. His eyes widened a little, because he could now understand better, and when he realized this, Sofia knelt before him and began to move his bones with bion gloves.

  Then, his polycoria eyes shook as he saw fragments of ultra processed Mintip, foxes, hidden in her hairstyle as she picked them up one by one, being introduced into his body.

  ‘So that it was…’ Fox was startled, although he was still dazzled about the blowtorch’s Pugor use. He waited as Sofia ‘fully completed’ his body’s evolution, and for some strange reason, Fox’s mindset began to improve instantaneously bit by bit.

  When she finished, Sofia sprung to her feet and whispered, holding his cheek sweetly and tearing up a few drops from her lacrimals. “I got help here. With so many cameras… So see for yourself, don’t worry about me.”

  “…” Fox, now lucid, but insanely weak, looked at Sofia staring at him with care before softly turning around to go on her way. He was perplexed for a minute, but thankfully and contrary to Sofia’s expectations, his ‘last part’ wound healed in that minute. Fox slowly dropped his eyes before rising them again after a blink. His polycoria eyes showcased 6 impenetrable black pools.

  ***

  The Radical Wars started taking a low in precedence over social media. The decrease was minimal, but it was there, and it was apparent to all people. After many months, there’s been a strange rise in the organized crime… social media accounts.

  Groups have deliberately shown up, challenging whichever government they were from, and they were in every country of the east, and even Cors and Preato. Only ANS was free of those.

  They portrayed themselves as rebels but still threatened the populace and anyone who wasn’t from their group. The rest of the Moonblue supercontinent, which was now Lymoca, had long gotten rid of these groups before they began showing up, annihilated by the known special agents and the Lymocan military forces.

  Additionally, the eastern Radical Wars were ever closer to an end. Orcesta and Fresna only had coast segments of what they once were, not even a tenth of their original size prior to the Radical Wars. Not even Fresna.

  In Orxa and Pexa, the only resisting forces were the hidden ‘last government’ groups that hid after they were obliterated, with Marcoplix’s soldiers divided after their nation fell. Most surrendered, but the rest continued the battle to defeat Zyckevele to a stalemate.

  The term was used from Lymoca’s naming of the Terkan government that broke the eternal peace. It was adopted quickly, and every Zyck went by it without concern. Now, Zyckevele was slowly rummaging through remnants of enemy nations’ forces, dwindling them to death.

  The truth was, there was not such thing as a resisting force in Orxa and Pexa. Zyckevele was using these to keep destroying potential issues in the near future, after annexing the entirety of Twilight’s mainland. It was nothing compared to the Great Haul of the 5th century.

  KAA was still fighting to their every last bit, forming a stalemate that the enemy coalition didn’t want, but they could do nothing to stop it. Their morale lowered a ton after the events that brought positivity to the Ziacas. Their frontlines were still the largest manslaughter in the wars.

  Every other country in Dawn except Merula, Xeoxia, and Iztos presented some dialogue and disputes between each other, seemingly taking sides, to the extremist journalists.

  The world was between going well and about to spiral into the abyss with any wrong step. Half the world remained affected by the Radical Wars, even as Zyckevele had begun re-scheduling flights to and fro the center of their enormous country, about to get even bigger.

  In the case of Lymoca, they had never been better. After solving the issues they had with each other in this new unification, with so many lower cabinets, the regions had become harmonious. Not by a lot, but it was a beginning, and within a terrible war period, it came at the right time.

  The Terka region had grown a lot in people flow after a few months since the K Tribe nations were freed from Kunkek. Many Dawn folk took refuge there after the special agents’ attacks. Who wanted to remain not only near the war, but also to belong to one of the warring countries?

  Those who felt safe before now felt awfully in danger, with nowhere nearby good enough to feel safe. Many who wanted to go to the EPA Commonwealth remembered their passive-aggressive situation with ANS and feared even worse situations.

  In the end, all that there was was Lymoca. More specifically to its regions as well. There were so many jobs everywhere, which the Lymocan President clearly indicated anyone could have them. They would be delegated according to their skills and credibility, but the benefits could be great.

  The more one helped, the more they’d gain back. There was another drawn to it. From one war refugee from Dawn to one of Moonblue, one more recent than the other, love was in the air. Furthermore, the K Tribe nations and central/south Moonblue had a lot in common.

  Moonblue was already diverse, but this would further spread the diversity across the supercontinent, at least from the south. In Lymoca, the cost of credits for every possible thing began decreasing, after more than 200 years of increasing instead.

  ANS’s major business even began moving to Lymoca, not just opening branches and new subsidiaries/offices, but directly changing their ‘base of operations’. After suffering the status of participating in war twice, this aided Lymoca a whole lot, with only months having gone by.

  But there was something that made their beloved President keep a straight, sharp-eagled, and wise glint past his eyes. He responded directly and sometimes shortened his sentences. Luis’s phrases to his people were as transparent and respectful as always, but he had changed again.

  While this wasn’t the premonition of something ‘evil’, they did feel bad for their President. He had gone through every region and met the people from various points of interest during these months, showing his and Lymoca’s concentration on everyone.

  Now that their President was like this, they wondered if something had occurred. It didn’t help that Heavensbane hasn’t been seen in his Myertha or eating at his restaurants with his woman or dining elsewhere with Vanessa Valyer.

  Even more so, what the people didn’t notice was that the secret world talked about it more than they did, and they were a million times more intrigued, furthered by the actions of some PSD, PR, and HL agents. Where was Heavensbane? Nothing has been known for months!

  Even the regular news the District would sell to other hoogs around the globe didn’t mention Heavensbane anymore. There was nothing at all.

  … Nala and Esmeralda have been moving throughout the world as time walked slowly. They weren’t alone, backed by Haoran Dongmei and Nikitina Belyaev. The former had gone from a Junior Member to a Senior, while Nikitina was offered by Paved Road to help find Fox.

  Nala’s team were further supported by the EPA Commonwealth’s one-sole hoog. They were very enthusiastic in aiding Lymoca. Before the President presented his letter to ask for their discreet help, they motioned half their hoog, much larger than even HL or PR, and smoothed the process.

  They trailed the enemy from the south of Dawn to the north of Twilight, further by a little around the EPA Commonwealth and finally ended within ANS. They had to be very slow as ANS had 4 hoogs, even while 2 of them weren’t much of fighters. One of them was internationally recognized as one of the most lethal. The other as one of the strongest hoogs in the world.

  In the end, they arrived at a building that seemed fairly abandoned, with a large space of emptiness around it. Abandoned cars, dusted as much as the ground, and an empty gasoline station just a hundred meters away from the facility.

  They approached in the morning, as soon as they arrived, having become used to chasing long gone tails and catching only sights of the world as they went around it. Over and over again, north and south, back and over again. They didn’t care to be too discreet when Fox could possibly be near.

  “…” Nala gave Esmeralda a look before nudging her chin in the air. Hundreds of elite special agents from 4 hoogs moved slowly, utilizing their utmost to not be easily identified. Many White Bloods were selected for this. Miros, who had improved at last, was considered an almost-elite. Even then, some should have been seen, but they weren’t. Making Loba frown.

  Slowly, they approached the gates, with Esmeralda’s eyes focused to massacre everything they saw, absolutely it all. But then, the gates opened, startling and alerting them. They tensed up and prepared.

  Pum- tumph~.

  …

  This is the beginning of Volume 9 — A Mad World On Fire.