Chapter 672

They say life and death are a matter of fate, and fortune is written in the stars.

Apparently, that applied to Hydra agents too.

Ten people in one room were already dead, their souls sacrificed. Meanwhile, ten others in the room next door were still alive and perfectly intact.

Same organization. Same operation.

Completely different destinies.

"Raw materials collected. Human modification procedure commencing."

The emotionless electronic voice echoed through the chamber.

The surgical chairs holding the fortunate ten abruptly unfolded, forcing their occupants flat on their backs. Mechanical arms descended from the ceiling and stripped away their clothes without the slightest regard for dignity, leaving them completely naked.

"Preparation complete. Beginning inscription of demonic suppression runes."

A long, slender steel needle emerged from the center of each mechanical claw, glowing with an eerie green light.

Then the needles began moving.

Fast.

They repeatedly pierced the subjects’ skin, tracing intricate tattoos across their bodies with machine-like precision.

Peggy Carter watched the process with an increasingly strange expression.

"Oh, the difference is incredible," she muttered, remembering her own experience. "Look at them. They’re in a heavily secured operating room, receiving carefully measured doses of anesthetic, while state-of-the-art machinery handles everything."

She pointed toward herself.

"And then there’s me. I was dragged into some abandoned factory that probably hadn’t been used in decades, knocked unconscious, dumped on a concrete slab, and then had a damned homosexual demon carve magical runes into me with a bargain-bin dagger."

She shuddered.

"I still don’t know if that thing was even sterilized."

"I sprayed some whiskey on it first," Evenson said awkwardly, rubbing his chin. "Since you didn’t die, I’d say the disinfecting properties were pretty decent."

Peggy stared at him.

Evenson patted her armored shoulder.

"Times have changed."

"They certainly have."

"I hadn’t built up quite such an extensive operation back then," Evenson continued. "Besides, you should be proud. Handcrafted custom work is worth more than mass-produced machinery."

Peggy’s mouth twitched.

"That’s certainly one way to look at it."

Under the machines’ relentless efficiency, the runes were completed in remarkably little time.

Nearly ninety percent of each subject’s body, from the neck down, was covered in dark, intricate markings.

Even the soles of their feet had not been spared.

Evenson looked over the results and pursed his lips.

"You really covered them in ink. At this point, you could’ve just dumped a bucket of it over their heads."

"It’s for safety," Aurethes said from nearby.

Her breathing was slightly heavier than before. Most of the magical formations involved in the procedure had been supplied by her, after all. For a high-ranking warlock, summoning ten demons at once wasn’t particularly difficult. Subjugating ten demons wasn’t especially difficult either.

Keeping all ten completely restrained and motionless, however, even while they endured the agony of having their souls extracted, was another matter.

That took energy.

"I don’t suffer from your ignorance," Aurethes added. "Naturally, the runes I designed are more comprehensive than anything you would have come up with."

Then she noticed Peggy’s uncomfortable expression and smiled teasingly.

"What is it? Don’t like the little warlock’s design? If you’d like, I could help complete the set for you."

"No. That’s really not necessary."

Peggy shuddered.

She was quite happy with her current arrangement.

Surgical chairs, restraints, mechanical tentacles...

No, thank you.

"Magical rune inscription complete. Entering final modification stage."

The mechanical arms retracted their needles.

This time, thin beams of laser light emerged from their tips.

They began cutting into the subjects’ chests.

Peggy watched in silence.

Evenson, meanwhile, suddenly raised an eyebrow.

"Wait."

He pointed at one of the subjects.

"Huh. Someone’s heart is actually on the right side. I’ve never seen that before."

His surprise was genuine.

Peggy’s expression, on the other hand, turned completely black.

Because the mechanical arms had already opened the subjects’ chests and removed their hearts.

At the same time, the demonic hearts extracted from the previous room were transported into the chamber on trays mounted along the wall.

The mechanical arms seized them.

Then they began inserting the still-beating demonic hearts into the open chests.

Peggy stared.

"So this is what your modification involved?"

Until now, she had never known exactly what Evenson had done to her during her own transformation.

Watching the procedure unfold before her eyes, however, she finally understood.

"You replaced their hearts with demon hearts."

Her voice rose sharply.

"Is that what you did to me?!"

Peggy wasn’t merely shocked anymore.

She was furious.

That was hardly surprising. Anyone would have a difficult time calmly accepting the revelation that one of their vital organs had secretly been replaced with an organ belonging to another species.

"Of course," Evenson said frankly.

He hadn’t intended to hide it.

"You’ve never studied magic. So where did you think all that power inside you came from?"

He shrugged.

"Everything has a price."

Peggy fell silent.

She had never really considered the question.

She’d simply assumed Evenson had transformed her body into something capable of generating magic, like the mystical creatures and sorcerers described in fantasy novels. Somehow, her body had simply learned to produce an endless supply of magical energy.

Now she knew better.

There was no such thing as getting something for nothing.

Her endless reserves of magic came from the demonic heart beating inside her chest.

That was the price.

Peggy slowly placed a hand over her heart.

Then her eyes narrowed.

"But I distinctly remember you telling me that all I had to sacrifice was my eyes."

"Hmm..."

Evenson scratched his head.

Had he really said that?

He sighed internally.

Maybe he needed to start keeping records of everything he told people.

"Eyes are the windows of the soul," he said after a moment. "You can consider them connected to the heart."

Peggy’s eye twitched.

"That doesn’t even make sense."

"Anyway, you don’t need to get so worked up about it."

Evenson shrugged as though her anger were a minor inconvenience.

"Think about what you received in exchange. You went from an elderly woman whose life was nearly over to someone with a young, powerful body. You gained tremendous strength. You even got the chance to reunite with the person you loved."

He spread his hands.

"If I offered that deal to other people, do you really think they’d object to losing a heart? There are probably plenty of people in this world who’d let me gut them like fish if that was the price."

"Hmph."

Peggy turned away and stopped arguing.

She was mostly angry because she’d only just learned the truth.

Now that she thought about it, though, the answer was obvious.

Even if Evenson had told her from the beginning that she would have to sacrifice not only her eyes but also replace her heart, she probably would have accepted without hesitation.

The benefits had simply been too great.

Meanwhile, the heart transplants below were already complete.

Compared to an ordinary human transplant, the procedure was almost absurdly simple.

There was no painstaking adjustment of the heart’s position.

No delicate reconnection of every blood vessel.

The demonic hearts handled that themselves.

Once placed inside the correct position, the still-beating organs immediately extended their own blood vessels and connected themselves to the surrounding tissue.

Sometimes Evenson wondered how many surgeons would be out of work if human hearts worked like that.

Then the chest incisions sealed themselves beneath the glow of fel energy.

The subjects immediately began screaming.

Flames erupted from their eyes.

Within moments, their eyeballs burned away into ash.

But the pain wasn’t what caused the screams.

In that instant, they had seen something else.

Something beyond words.

Something no human mind was meant to comprehend.

"The modification is completely finished."

Evenson watched the flames dancing in their empty eye sockets and smiled.

"Anyone want to go down there and calm them down?"

His gaze moved across the room.

"Someone should probably explain what the world really looks like."