Kiana was stunned after hearing this. She had seen the bore shrews and how they had changed, or rather… mutated. Keith had undergone a rather drastic change as well and it could be called as a mutation too.

She just didn't think something like this could have been possible.

​​

"But… how?" Kiana questioned.

"That's the thing… I don't know. I know this, that the gift works from touch and I did shake hands with Keith. Perhaps my gift awakened at that time, but I never realized it." Lucius answered, giving a fake explanation.

"Then Keith falling and injuring himself… was that…" Kiana muttered.

"No, I doubt that can be because of that. We all saw the man went to beat up the maids and fell down due to tripping. No one affected him there." Lucius assured.

~phew~

Kiana took a breath of relief and felt a lot better than before. If Keith's fall was truly due to Lucius they might have had to change up their approach in dealings with the Drew family later on.

Technically, they would be at a fault there.

"Plus the change in Keith happened quite later after being injured and thus I doubt it was due to that either." Lucius added.

"That… does seem right now that I think about it." Kiana nodded her head and thought back to Keith's condition.

"He did seem to become much stronger than before after changing though," Kiana commented.

"That's true. My gift increases the strength of others quite a bit, but I don't know if it works on everyone or not. Right now, the only examples we have are these bore shrews and Keith.

Keith isn't really a good reference as there were a lot of additional factors that came into play there and they may have influenced his change too. With these bore shrews I've gotten to test out how my gift causes these changes a bit, but even then there were variations as you can see." Lucius said while pointing to the two larger bore shrews.

Kiana followed his finger and saw the two bigger bore shrews that stood in the middle. Their bodies were about a size bigger than the others and they also had a more threatening vibe to them, with their throbbing veins.

"All of them went the same exact process and despite that, the results were different. These two are superior among their kind, but I do not know what influences this. I hope to find that out and think that it will be very useful for us." Lucius explained.

"That does seem like a lot of work… and your plan about the criminals does come in handy over here." Kiana replied.

"Indeed. Plus, since I know I can control beasts with my gift, we might have a good chance." Lucius said.

"But we still don't have an assurance if your gift works on humans too. After all, humans have a stronger will and intelligence than the beasts. Perhaps they might be able to resist your control?" Kiana voiced out her doubts.

Lucius smiled upon hearing this. He liked his subordinates to be able to think for themselves. After all, if he wanted subordinates that did not think, he would just gate some Lost and slaves under him instead.

Having smarter subordinates could give one perspective on many things and allow them to notice the things they missed. What Kiana had just done was point out one of the more problematic flaws of his plan.

After all, Lucius wasn't really using his gift, but rather Hell energy. He had merely mixed them together and made it seem like the Hell energy itself was his gift.

"We will figure that out later when we have actual test subjects. At least in the case of Keith, I know I hadn't controlled him and thus he reacted like that back then, so it is quite likely humans would need something more to control." Lucius stated.

'Though a slave mark should take care of that, anyway. Or if they are a Lost, just hell energy would be enough to make them obey.' Lucius thought to himself, keeping this part to himself.

"Alright, we shall do that then." Kiana agreed.

"You can go off now, I'll get back to work for now." Lucius stated.

"Yes, I get to writing a request for Priest Maleck as well. The request should be given to him by morning and we'll receive our answer soon enough." Kiana replied.

Lucius nodded his head and closed the door after Kiana left the lab. Once she was gone, Lucius suddenly coughed out.

~cough~

~cough~

~cough~

~thud~

He then uncontrollably stumbled and fell to the ground.

~huu~huu~huu~

Lucius took a deep breath and tried to stabilize his condition.

"Didn't think that one loyalty mark would take up that much hell energy…" Lucius muttered to himself as he felt the exhaustion washing over his body.

While it had only taken a second for Kiana to get the mark of loyalty, it had taken Lucius far more than just that. In fact, the effort was quite strenuous and he had to carefully balance the hell energy and Aether, just to make sure that there was no adverse reaction.

"At least I know my limit for now… a single Loyalty mark takes all of my hell energy." Lucius said to himself as he rested on the ground for a bit, not minding the messy ground staining his clothes.

After about fifteen minutes of rest, Lucius felt a lot better and stood up. He looked at the bore shrews that were still following the order Lucius had given them earlier and standing in a straight line without moving.

"Go back and sleep." Lucius ordered.

~SKWEE~

The eight bore shrews let out one last cry, before doing as they were ordered to.

~thud~

Lucius pulled a chair and sat down for a bit. He closed his eyes and entered the soul space to check the condition there.

"Hmm… it all seems normal. Oh? What's this? The hell energy's network increased?" Lucius said to himself.