Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 2964: Experiment

Deep beneath the encampment, hidden far below the refugee processing grounds, a corpulent man in layered purple robes stood silently behind a massive wall of formation glass.

Gerardy Dawn,

The eldest prince of the Red Dawn faction and current lord of Dawnstar watched the containment chambers below with increasingly strained patience.

Six containment halls.

Six hundred test subjects.

Another batch.

Another attempt.

Beside him stood two figures.

One was Grand Magus Hendrik, commander of the Royal Guard. Broad-shouldered and heavily armored, the veteran cultivator radiated the steady presence of a lifelong military man whose loyalty had never once wavered in over two hundred years of service.

The other figure remained far harder to read.

Dark fabric covered the person’s face completely, seamless and unnaturally smooth beneath the dim laboratory lights. It did not resemble a disguise so much as a deliberate refusal to possess an identity at all.

Gerardy had never once seen the figure remove the mask.

Nor had he ever been given a name.

Yet the masked figure had been present at every critical meeting since this arrangement began.

Gerardy slowly exhaled while staring down through the formation glass.

Below them, at the center of the processing floor, a half blood woman worked calmly beneath layers of glowing alchemical arrays.

Grand Magus Kayelin Silverleaf.

Master Apothecary of Utopia City.

Her movements remained precise despite hours of uninterrupted work. Complex instruments floated around her in carefully organized patterns while streams of purified liquids flowed between containment tubes beneath her control.

On the opposite side of the chamber stood another Grand Magus.

Aelric the Veilbinder.

Where Kayelin approached the infected through apothecary, Aelric worked through psychic domination. Dark formation runes rotated around the occultist continuously while his lips moved in constant whispers, feeding mental suppression techniques into the restrained subjects below.

Both had worked for hours.

Neither had produced satisfactory results.

Gerardy finally turned away from the glass with poorly concealed irritation.

"I don’t think this halfblood can do any better than the previous fools..."

At that exact moment, the chamber doors suddenly opened.

A Royal Guard officer hurried inside, dust still clinging to his armor from rapid travel.

"My lord," he said immediately, "there has been an outbreak inside Dawnstar. Infected have appeared openly within district 3 near the transit sectors—"

Gerardy’s expression twisted sharply before he turned toward the masked figure.

"This situation has completely spiraled out of control," he snapped. "I should never have listened to you."

The masked figure remained perfectly calm.

"I didn’t realize Lord Gerardy cared so deeply about his people."

The words struck precisely where intended.

Gerardy immediately fell silent.

The masked figure continued in the same measured tone.

"No. What truly concerns you is that this failure gives your brothers more reason to challenge your authority." A faint pause followed. "You knew exactly what you agreed to when this arrangement began. Once this experiment succeeds, your faction’s debts disappear entirely. More importantly..." the figure glanced calmly toward the chambers below, "...you finally gain the power necessary to dominate your siblings permanently."

Gerardy’s breathing slowed.

The greed returned to his eyes almost visibly.

"And regarding the refugees," the masked figure continued, "their arrival merely accelerated our timetable. Hundreds of thousands entering the city during a planetary emergency creates perfect cover. No one will notice their disappearances."

Slowly, Gerardy nodded to himself.

"You’re right," he muttered. "Why should I concern myself with the deaths of lower district civilians?"

Then suddenly—

Both Gerardy and the masked figure gradually fell silent at the same moment as the formation monitors below finally began stabilizing.

Across all six containment chambers, the violent rhythmic pounding against the reinforced walls slowly ceased one by one. The deeply unsettling coordinated impacts that had continued nonstop for hours suddenly disappeared entirely as the spiritual readings shifted steadily into controlled ranges for the first time since the experiment began.

Gerardy’s eyes widened visibly.

For several seconds he simply stared at the glowing monitors before excitement rapidly overtook his earlier frustration.

"It worked..." he whispered under his breath before stepping closer toward the formation glass. "It actually worked."

Below them, Aelric slowly opened his eyes.

Inside the six chambers, several hundred infected subjects now stood completely motionless. Their bodies no longer convulsed violently beneath the parasites’ influence, and for the first time they responded calmly to directional mental commands.

Kayelin’s compound had successfully forced the parasites into a subdued, receptive state while Aelric’s mind-subjugation techniques stabilized the hosts enough to maintain external control over them.

The masked figure observed the monitors quietly for a long moment before finally turning toward Kayelin below.

"You truly deserve your reputation," the figure said calmly through the chamber amplifiers. "Had I invited you from the beginning, far fewer subjects would have been wasted."

Kayelin looked across the stabilized containment halls without the slightest trace of satisfaction on her face.

"All I accomplished was inducing an effective sedative state to the parasites," she replied evenly. "Though I admit your research was correct. These creatures are far more psychic in nature than anyone previously understood."

Her gaze shifted briefly toward the infected subjects.

"With the proper methods," she continued calmly, "their influence can be redirected."

The masked figure gave a slow nod.

"Then you will continue producing the formula. Larger quantities this time." The figure gestured toward another sealed section deeper within the underground facility. "We already have a stronger batch prepared. Cultivators. With your compound and Aelric’s techniques working together, the results should become considerably more satisfying."

For the briefest instant, genuine intellectual curiosity flickered across Kayelin’s expression.

Not interest in the people involved.

Interest in the research itself.

Then the emotion disappeared completely.

"No," she said calmly.

The masked figure tilted its head slightly.

"You refuse?"

Kayelin calmly began dismantling the equipment arranged around her.

"You will not find the materials I used anywhere within this facility," she explained. "Nor anywhere nearby."

"You are a master apothecary," the masked figure replied smoothly. "Surely substitutions are possible."

Kayelin paused briefly before answering.

"Not for what you’re attempting to accomplish."

Silence settled across the chamber for several seconds before the masked figure spoke again.

"These refugees will continue dying by the hundreds of thousands. Your expertise could save many of them."

Kayelin finally stopped moving and looked upward toward the observation chamber.

"I do not want their deaths on my conscience," she said calmly. "But that alone is not enough to force me to be involved deeper into this."

She set down the final instrument before turning fully toward the room above her.

"I came here for two reasons. First, because Dawnstar Lord personally summoned me. Second, because I was curious about the nature of your research."

Her eyes settled directly onto the masked figure.

"Both reasons have now been satisfied."

Then she spoke clearly.

"I have no reason to remain here."

The masked figure stared at her silently for a long moment.

"You think you can simply leave."

It was not phrased as a question.

Kayelin calmly assessed everyone in the chamber around her.

Several Magus-level guards.

Most beneath Grand Magus realm.

Aelric — two cosmos.

Hendrik — two cosmos.

The masked figure — uncertain.

That last one was the only individual she genuinely treated cautiously.

As for Gerardy himself, the lord of Dawnstar was merely a Full Moon Magus whose authority relied far more on political influence than personal strength.

At most, three genuine threats.

She might not be able to defeat them, but if the goal was simply escaping, there was still a solid chance.

She looked back toward Hendrik and the masked figure .

"Let’s make this fast," Klea said calmly. "I have somewhere else to be."

However,

Before either side could move, the entire underground facility suddenly shook violently.

A massive explosion erupted somewhere within the lower containment sectors, followed by collapsing barriers, blaring alarms, and thousands of overlapping screams echoing through every corridor at once.

Another Royal Guard hurried into the chamber in panic.

"My Lord! There are intruders! They’re releasing the captives!"

"What?!" Gerardy roared.

The sudden chaos instantly disrupted the tense standoff.

At that exact moment, Kayelin reached calmly into her equipment case and smashed a sealed vial directly against the nearby wall. The dispersant spread rapidly across the reinforced metal surface, melting through it with terrifying speed.

Without hesitation, she blasted through the opening.

The moment she landed in the next corridor, a familiar mental whisper echoed inside her mind.

<This way... let’s go.>

Kayelin smiled faintly in recognition.

Klea.

She immediately followed the direction of the mental guidance while rushing deeper through the collapsing facility.

As soon as she entered the main containment corridors, she finally saw the scale of the chaos unfolding around her.

Thousands of civilians flooded through the underground tunnels in blind panic while guards desperately tried to restore control. Entire groups shoved past one another while alarms painted the corridors in flashing crimson light.

This was no rescue operation.

This was a full prison break.

"We need to move now," Klea said sharply after regrouping with her. "Go outside and report everything to the Alliance."

Kayelin gave a quick nod before moving alongside the others immediately.

The group rushed through the tunnel network while the facility behind them continued descending into total collapse.

Then—

Just as they neared the final tunnel entrance leading outside, two figures stepped out from the shadows ahead and blocked the passage completely.

Grand Magus Hendrik.

And beside him—

The masked man.

The masked figure calmly stared toward the approaching group before speaking in the same quiet voice as before.

"You are not going anywhere."

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