Grafting the Succubus Heart
"We tried a spirit last time, didn't we? Are there no other types of spirits?"
"Spirits are too weak. Honestly, we'd be much better off hunting a dragon."
"If we could hunt dragons, we wouldn't be doing this shit. We'd be living the high life as mercenaries."
I considered waking Meria, but she wouldn't be of any help anyway. If anything, she'd just panic and make things worse.
"Let's try a slime. Remember that Queen Slime fragment we got a while back? I'm pretty sure it's shoved somewhere in the warehouse. There was a ton of it, so it should be easy to find."
"The giant slime the army captured alongside the Church? The one we took a massive load of because they didn't know how to dispose of it and had no use for it?"
"Yeah, yeah, that one. The one with that uselessly pretty color. It's time to stop using it as a decoration and actually put it to work."
They were spouting all that bullshit about the future of humanity, and now they're just going to fuse me with a slime?
"What about that succubus blood we got before? It's from a high-ranking one. Maybe it'll convert her pain into pleasure and keep her from dying of shock."
"If we mix too many things, we might end up with nothing. Test subjects don't grow on trees, you know. Especially not high-grade succubus blood."
Listening to these shady human traffickers chat so amiably like they're great scientists is surprisingly infuriating.
"For now, a slime and a succubus seem like the best bet. If her body turns into a slime, then—"
"Hey. Just in case, do the experiment on me first. If there's even a slight chance—"
"Oh, don't worry about her. We only brought her along as leverage to keep you from acting up. We won't be using her for experiments today. After all, if you fail, we'll need to use your results to figure out our next move."
At the end of their incredibly polite conversation of constantly cutting each other off, one of the cultists dragged Meria out of the underground chamber. My heart felt like it was about to burst from the mounting tension and terror. I really shouldn't have gone on a dangerous journey all by myself. Should I actually be praying for these bastards to succeed in their experiment for immortality or eternal youth? Please, someone, miraculously save me...
As every single word and action of these murderous bastards made time stretch into an hour yet flash by in a millisecond, one of them dragged me onto a massive magic circle.
"Is it rude for a mere lab rat to ask what you're planning to do?"
It was a desperate question to buy even a single second, but honestly, I didn't even know what I was saying.
"Hmm... It's always fun to talk about the experiment. We'll cut you open, drain your blood, and inject a massive amount of succubus blood. After that, we'll fuse you with a piece of the Queen Slime. Simple, right? To be honest, we're complete amateurs when it comes to alchemy, human transmutation, or biology, so we have no idea how plausible or realistic this actually is."
I didn't know shit about human transmutation or sorcery either, but there was no fucking way that would work. Do these bastards even have any drive to succeed in their research? I had held onto a sliver of hope that the experiment might actually succeed, but looking at this shitshow, my life was forfeit. Consumed by rage and terror, I tried to thrash my arms around, but they had tied me down so tightly that it was completely useless.
"Why don't you pray with us? Your life is on the line, after all."
"Pray? Fuck you. The only thing I'm praying for is for you motherfuckers to die the most agonizing, slow deaths possible. I hope you eventually succeed in your experiment so the test subject can tear you to pieces."
"It would have been much better if you had directed that passionate prayer toward saving your own life."
The bastard shoved a gag into my mouth, pinned my head to the floor, and jabbed needles into both of my arms. The needles were connected to two massive canisters—one completely empty, and the other filled with a shimmering, bright red fluid that looked less like thick human blood and more like beautiful, vibrant paint.
"Still, you're quite lucky. The first few times, we didn't know any better, so we just poked holes in their stomachs to drain the blood. They died so quickly that we wondered if it was a blood issue... Isn't it wonderful to see us progress?"
After spouting that utter nonsense, he and the other cultists opened their books and began chanting incantations. The magic circle on the floor flared to life. Soon, whether it was from the succubus blood filling my veins or sheer anxiety, my heart began to pound frantically, as if I had just run a full sprint. After some time had passed, even though the canister of blood was nearly empty, I hadn't died yet. Magic is... fucking insane... But my head was spinning, and a deeply unpleasant sensation washed over me. Anxiety? No. Terror? No. Comfort? No. Discomfort? Come to think of it, not that either. It felt like I had caught a terrible winter flu. Dizzily, I shook my head back and forth, repeatedly collapsing and forcing myself back up.
"How do you feel?"
The one who untied my gag. What was his name again? Whatever. That guy.
"Mnh. Well, yeah..."
I let out a faint groan and looked up at him. Soon, I tilted my head again, my body writhing and twitching.
"Well, the blood transfusion was a success. What should we do? Monitor her progress? Or should we fuse her with the slime right away? I feel like we should transplant the succubus heart as well."
"She doesn't look like she can even resist. Why don't we untie her?"
"We cannot let our guard down."
He untied my limbs anyway. I immediately rolled over and fell onto the floor. Ah, fuck, that hurts like hell... What should I do? Escape? I don't know, my head hurts too much. Resist? It's useless anyway. I stumbled to my feet, and as I swayed, the priest... well, Priest 1, caught me.
"Her body is fucking hot. Are you sure she isn't already a succubus?"
You piece of shit... Yeah, fine, do whatever the fuck you want...
"Control yourself, we're still in the middle of the experiment. I'll let you necro-fuck her corpse as much as you want later. Miss Lab Rat? How much pain do you feel?"
The bastard—ah, Endel—squeezed his hands around my throat. It was suffocating. It was painful. But there was no fear of death.
"It hurts. But... mostly just... suffocating."
"Fascinating. I wonder if her constitution has completely changed, or if it's just because it's still in the early stages. No, the fact that she's a succubus but feels numbness instead of arousal is quite intriguing in itself."
Squelch.
"Huh?"
Endel plunged a knife into my lower abdomen, twisting it to carve open a hole. My head was spinning so much that I couldn't tell exactly where it was. My senses had grown dull... but that wasn't the point. As blood gushed out, I began to gag.
"Ugh, blegh...!"
Pinned back down onto the floor, I watched as they stuffed a chunk of slime into the gaping wound in my stomach. If the succubus blood was a shimmering, bright red, this was a similarly glowing green. Was it different because it was a Queen? I couldn't tell if what was dripping from my mouth was blood or drool. Their constant, muttered chanting was so fucking annoying... My head was splitting...
"Ah, fuck everything..."
With those final words, I closed my eyes.
"S-Sister! Sister!!!"
At the sudden voice shaking me, I stirred slightly. As the memories of yesterday rushed back into my mind, I snapped awake and bolted upright.
"Are you okay? Did they do anything to—ah..."
Maybe because I sat up too fast, my head spun violently, forcing me to slump back down.
"I thought you were dead... I knew you were alive, but I was so scared you wouldn't open your eyes..."
Meria sobbed, tears streaming down her face. Fortunately, since I hadn't died, it seemed she hadn't been used as a test subject yet.
"Congratulations. You survived. For now, at least."
"You! Do you really think you'll get away with this?! I'll... I'll make sure...!"
"Make sure of what, exactly? Do you really think you'll even survive long enough to do anything to me?"
Meria shouted defiantly, but the bastard was right. No matter how much she threatened them, they were doing this fully aware of the consequences if they got caught. Besides, there was absolutely nothing a locked-up Meria could do.
"What do you mean, 'for now'? I survived, so isn't it over?"
"Stick your arm out."
I reached my arm through the iron bars, and Endel sliced my wrist with a small knife.
"Ugh!"
I yanked my arm back at the sudden pain. Endel picked up the knife, which was now stained with my blood.
"Sister!!"
"While you were unconscious, I cut you a few times, but you healed without leaving a single scar. Since you're a precious test subject, I haven't tried making any serious wounds yet. That's why I said 'for now.' Today is when we truly begin."
As Endel left without another word, the tension finally drained from my body, and I let out a deep breath. Once he was gone, I looked down at my tingling wrist, but the cut hadn't healed yet. Does it take some time?
"Are you... okay?"
"...I don't know."
I clutched my wrist as best as I could and looked around. Now that I was fully awake and my hyper-focus had begun to scatter, a bizarre sensation started creeping over me. My arms, legs, feet, hands—every single part of my body was tingling, and I couldn't keep myself still. I crossed my legs tightly, pressed my arms against my chest, and swallowed hard. Recognizing this familiar sensation, I pulled Meria into a tight embrace. She squirmed in confusion. This is lust. Fuck. Was it because they had pumped me full of succubus blood? Even in a fucked-up situation like this, my desire was boiling over.
"Are you... okay?"
"No. Not at all."
Actually, that wasn't true. I had almost died and survived, so considering that, I was in a pretty damn good spot. I shifted my body around, tried lying down, and then suddenly bolted upright.
"Listen carefully. Those bastards shoved succubus blood, a succubus heart, and a piece of a Queen Slime into my body. I don't really feel like a slime... and seeing how my wrist is completely healed now, it seems my wounds just close up incredibly fast. My body isn't sticky like a slime, and I don't feel weird when I walk. It's just..."
I wasn't the type who liked giving long-winded explanations, but I had to explain what was happening. Meria looked up at me as I trailed off, shrinking back slightly.
"Don't tell me... the succubus blood..."
"I think the self-loathing is actually worse."
Meria's face flushed bright red. She swallowed hard, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't bring herself to. If I recalled correctly, they said they used it to alleviate pain, but something had definitely gone horribly wrong.