MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

"Are you completely sure about this?"

The blood of the Gorgons had two properties and it depended on which side of the body the blood came from.

The blood from the right side of one's body contained the power of Life and could heal absolutely any injuries and could even bring the dead back to life as long as the soul had yet to leave the body.

The blood on the left side, on the other hand, contained the power of Death and could bring about a slow and excruciatingly painful death to absolutely anyone and everyone. Even the gods feared the poison of these dangerous beings as it could attack the souls of an entity at a conceptual level. Only hundreds of years of suffering or even temporary death could help them get rid of it and even then it may find some way to latch to some part of the soul and spread again.

Of course, similar to how her blood containing the power and concept of Life had lost most of its capabilities and effects in her current teen form, the side of her body that contained the blood, wielding her power of Death, had also lost most of its catastrophic capabilities. But it was still very dangerous and fatal for the vast majority of mortals and could almost definitely kill mortals of any level given enough time.

"Never been surer of something in my life in fact."

Presently, both Adam and Medusa had gone out of their office and opted to go down to in one of her hidden laboratories.

The transition from their conversation to now had been quite fast and Adam found himself in a patient gown while being bound to an operation chair.

No matter where his gaze wandered, green and red lights of different intensities were beeping intermittently, and he could see that Medusa was now looking down at him with an ominous-looking syringe in her hand with a rather long needle.

On Adam's left arm, an infusion was installed and a sac filled with reddish liquid was seemingly waiting to be administered into his blood streams.

Sighing, Medusa wondered if she was about to bring an end to her future Hero by her very own hands right now.

It would be quite ironic, to say the least. But she also felt a sense of anticipation and curiosity for what Adam would show him this time.

"Adam, I am still feeling hesitant about going through with this procedure. Building poison resistance is certainly possible but it takes years of taking in very very small doses of progressively lethal poison to gain resistance of any degree. What you are doing is just suicide."

"—Yet, here I am on your table."

"Very well. I have already said my piece. Don't say that I didn't warn you already."

She took some cotton and alcohol before cleaning a part of his arm and finally injecting the poison into his bloodstream.

This was obviously not the full concentration of her poison, but something that had been diluted to a certain extent. It was still very much deadly, but at the very least he would not die instantly and the antidote that would slowly be infused in him would keep him alive.

"You will feel pain. A great deal of pain. Your heart might even go in shock and cause you to die. Even so, you still wanna do it?"

"Yes."

"....Just why?"

Adam simply smiled, "I want to be prepared for all eventualities."

"Okay."

She asked no more questions after the last exchange. She was intent on respecting Adam's will and chose to observe from the sidelines.

"I will observe your situation in real-time."

Once she made sure that everything was ready, she pushed the syringe into his arms and then slowly injected the poison into his body.

"Ugh~"

The greenish red liquid was injected into his veins and immediately flowed into his body. Black veins formed and wiggled on his skin as they showed the trace of the path they were taking to travel through his body.

A groan leaked out from Adam at first as he felt like a ball of fire had been siphoning through his arms and slowly going on a straight trajectory until it reached his heart.

Then this sensation was filled and replaced by a coldness that seeped and permeated through his whole body almost instantly.

The very moment the liquid reached his heart, the black veins vanished for a short instant before immediately manifesting throughout his whole body in real-time.

Like a flash of lightning, immense shock and pain struck down Adam's whole being and his mind nearly blacked out nearly instantly.

But this was just the start of his pain and suffering.

The pain of the body was something that could be mitigated with enough training and control of the senses. Adam had died enough times that he could somewhat diminish the pain he felt by focusing on other things.

But Medusa's poison did not stop merely at affecting the body.

Soon, the pain bypassed all his mental defenses and attacked his very soul.

This time, Adam was unable to stop himself from reacting violently. His body arched in a frenzied fashion as a pain of the likes he had never felt before filled his body and soul in their entirety.

For the first time in a while, since his first few deaths— Adam screamed at the top of his lungs.

Facing the console that was showing Adam's current situation, Medusa did her best to ignore the scream of pain that was leaking out of her Hero like the cry of a beast that was about to be slaughtered.

She knew very well how painful this poison could be as she had tested it on a few enemies of hers in the past. Since it also attacked the soul, there was absolutely no way to stop this feeling; as it was more or less equivalent to feeling your very existence being torn apart.

Many times, she wished to push the button and end this madness. She wished to teach Adam many things, but this was not part of the curriculum she had in mind for him.

"I think it's time to…"

"Don't stop!"

A vehement and mad shout of denial filled her ears just as she was about to bring an end to this experiment. She looked up at Adam, only to take a few steps back in fright as his eyes glared at her with the malevolence of a malefic Raksha.

It looked like he was ready to tear her apart if she stopped the test now.

"Argh!!"

Speaking once had been all Adam could do before even more pain filled his mind, soul, and every conscious entity that constituted his being. He tried to stop himself from screaming, but there was simply no way for him to do that.

His mind was in pain. His body was in pain and even his soul was not spared this supplice worthy of the greatest form of torture in the world.

Part of his body began to darken considerably as if they were rotting and decaying away into ashes and were ready to break down and fall at any moment.

His eyes were completely bloodshot and from his nose and lips, black blood like tar began to bubble out incessantly.

In a part of his heart, Adam was regretting this decision of his ever so slightly. He still didn't even know if his power needed Death to activate or not. Perhaps he was simply making himself suffer for absolutely no reason.

But even then…Adam did not stop this experiment.