Chapter 196: Hybrids
The wall had not been hiding only a small room. Mirella’s strike had opened a passage wide enough to reveal a sloping corridor built from metal plates completely different from the ancient stone used throughout the rest of the laboratory. A greenish light escaped through the sides of the opening, reflecting off the suspended dust and the blood spread across the floor. The air coming from within was cold, damp, and saturated with a chemical smell so strong that Victor felt his throat burn before he even crossed the destroyed wall.
No one entered immediately. Mirella kept one arm raised in front of the group while Natasha spread several threads through the corridor to check for hidden mechanisms. The lines crossed the entrance, touched the ceiling, passed through small fissures, and continued to the opposite end without activating any trap. That did not mean the path was safe. It merely confirmed that Ghideon had not expected anyone to discover the passage in that manner.
Victor expanded his perception and felt dozens of weak points below them. Some pulsed regularly. Others appeared and disappeared, as though the bodies themselves could not maintain a steady flow of blood. There were also completely motionless presences, although a small amount of energy remained trapped around them.
"Many life forms was a rather generous description," Natasha commented, retrieving two threads that had touched some sticky substance inside the corridor. "Half of these things barely have circulation."
Victor allowed Lilith to dissolve into blood and return to his body. The consumption caused by the final strike still weighed on his muscles, but his regeneration had already repaired the worst physical damage. He crossed the opening first, keeping White Fire concentrated in his palm in case any creature tried to leap from the shadows.
The corridor ended at an elevated metal platform.
The secret room occupied a space far larger than the destroyed chamber behind them. Rows of transparent capsules extended toward a distant wall, arranged at different levels and connected by tubes running across the ceiling. Each container was filled with fluorescent liquid, alternating between green, blue, and a violet shade that seemed to react whenever someone approached. Small bubbles rose continuously while bodies floated inside without touching the glass.
Some were clearly vampires.
Others were werewolves.
Most could no longer be classified as either.
Victor approached the first capsule and observed a male figure with human arms, lupine legs, and a second rib structure growing over his chest. His skin had two different colors divided by a line of scars crossing the entire torso. Tubes entered through his throat, wrists, and directly into his heart, keeping the body nourished despite the absence of voluntary movement.
Rowena remained silent inside his mind for several seconds. When she finally spoke, her voice carried such obvious disgust that Victor almost felt the reaction as though it were his own.
"I want to vomit."
Victor continued staring at the body.
"You do not even have a stomach while you are inside the ring."
"That does not change the fact that I want to vomit." Her presence focused on the more distant capsules, tracking the different scents trapped inside the liquid. "Those sons of bitches are trying to create hybrids."
Victor turned his eyes toward another container. Inside it was a woman with vampiric fangs, lupine ears, and a spine covered in black plates similar to the ones Ghideon had used during the battle. Half of her face appeared normal. The other had grown incorrectly, leaving the jaw far too large and one eye hidden beneath muscle tissue.
"They have been trying for a long time," Victor answered mentally.
"This is not natural breeding. They cut energy channels and stitched others in their place. Some of these creatures have vampiric blood circulating through a lupine heart." Rowena paused before continuing. "Others have two hearts fighting over the same body."
Nera entered immediately afterward and lost whatever satisfaction remained from the battle. She walked between the capsules with the scythe resting over her shoulder, observing each being with uncomfortable attention. She had fought stitched creatures throughout the night, but these were not trying to kill her. They remained motionless and exposed inside the containers like objects that had been assembled and abandoned after failing.
Mirella passed through the entrance and looked at the connections across the ceiling.
"Do not break any capsules."
Nera looked toward her.
"Do you think I want to touch that?"
"I think you solve half your problems by cutting them."
"It usually works."
"Tonight, we already saw what happens when these things leave their containers."
Nera did not argue. She continued walking until she stopped in front of a smaller capsule positioned near the floor. The creature inside was approximately the size of an adult, but its body had bent so extremely that its knees touched its chest. Lupine arms grew alongside smaller human hands, and a row of fangs had broken through the side of its mouth. There was no movement in the chest, but liquid still circulated through the tubes attached to its spine.
Nera leaned closer to see better.
"Is it dead?"
Victor approached closely enough to verify.
"Yes."
Nera’s expression hardened.
"This is disgusting."
She was not speaking only about its appearance. There was something different in her tone, an irritation that did not come from the usual desire to fight. The creature had not chosen that body, and Ghideon had left more than enough evidence that many of those experiments had begun as ordinary prisoners.
"Someone went through a lot of trouble to keep a corpse inside this liquid," Nera continued. "Why did they not throw it away after it failed?"
"Because corpses still served as fuel," Victor answered.
The conclusion made Nera tighten her grip on the scythe.
Mirella did not remain near the capsules. She followed the side of the room until she found a work area surrounded by cabinets, medical containers, and instruments secured over trays. A metal table stood in the center, covered in papers, blood samples, and small crystals marked with numbers. A clipboard had been left on top of a pile of notes, as though Ghideon intended to return and continue his work after eliminating the intruders.
She picked up the clipboard and began turning the pages.
"Natasha."
Natasha approached while keeping several threads spread across the floor. One line remained attached to the entrance, another passed through the capsules, and several touched the mechanisms connected to the tubes. If any pressure changed or a lid began to open, she would feel it immediately.
"What did you find?"
"Clinical notes. Some of it is coded."
Natasha took the first papers and began reading. The symbols used by Ghideon mixed ancient vampiric writing with medical abbreviations, but several sections were recorded in common language. Survival rates, rejection periods, regenerative capacity, and responses to lunar energy were organized into precise columns.
Natasha’s expression worsened as she continued.
"He called the vampires the structural base," she said. "The werewolves were sources of channels, muscles, and auxiliary organs."
Victor approached the table.
"Auxiliary organs?"
Natasha pointed toward a diagram. The drawing showed a human body with two hearts, three circulatory networks, and a set of channels concentrated around the spine. Some lines had been crossed out, while others carried notes about rupture, insanity, and complete rejection.
"One vampiric heart to feed regeneration. One lupine heart to sustain natural energy. Shadow would function as the connection between the systems." Natasha turned the page. "Most bodies went insane before stabilizing."
Mirella picked up another sheet.
"How many?"
"He recorded one hundred and forty-three attempts."
The silence that followed did not last long, but it was enough to change the weight of the room.
Victor looked back toward the capsules. There were not one hundred and forty-three containers there. That meant dozens of bodies had already been discarded, absorbed, or used to manufacture the monsters found throughout the tunnels.
Natasha continued reading, no longer making any attempt to hide her contempt.
"Some survived for minutes. Others for days. Thirteen retained consciousness after the first integration, but Ghideon wrote that it impaired obedience." She tightened the paper between her fingers. "He began removing parts of the brain before the transformation."
Nera turned her face toward them.
"Repeat that."
"No."
"I want to know."
"He destroyed memories, personality, and motor control to prevent resistance." Natasha placed the page on the table with force. "Then he tested which bodies could still obey simple commands."
Victor remembered the creatures that had advanced without hesitation even after losing limbs or having their organs pierced. They were not mindless monsters that had been created that way from the beginning. Many had probably been reduced until nothing remained except the ability to attack when ordered.
Mirella moved to the final section of the clipboard. Several pages were stained with blood, and an entire section was marked with the same symbol found across Ghideon’s scars. Beneath the symbol, a single expression appeared repeatedly in different versions.
"Continuity Project," Mirella read.
Natasha took the page and examined the surrounding notes.
"He was not only trying to create soldiers."
Victor observed the diagram showing two bodies connected by shadow threads.
"He wanted to build vessels for himself."
"Yes." Natasha turned another page. "Every stable hybrid was meant to serve as a replacement body. Vampiric regeneration, lupine strength, and a structure adapted to receive consciousness through shadow."
Mirella crossed her arms.
"So the creature inside him was an intermediate stage."
"A way to centralize consciousness while replacing parts of his own body." Natasha breathed deeply, keeping her eyes on the notes. "Killing him truly was the best decision."
Victor raised an eyebrow.
"You seemed less convinced when I suggested exterminating everyone."
"I had not read one hundred and forty-three reports of torture at the time."
Nera struck the end of her scythe against the floor.
"I was convinced from the beginning."
Mirella continued searching through the papers while Victor walked toward the deeper capsules. The containers in that area were larger, reinforced with metal structures, and connected to independent reservoirs. The creatures showed fewer visible deformities. Their bodies were more proportional, their faces almost normal, and their limbs did not appear assembled from different origins.
That made everything worse.
Victor stopped in front of a capsule containing a tall man with dark hair and pale skin. There was no excessive fur, bone plating, or additional arms. Only a line of scars around the heart and thin marks following the spine. If he were dressed and walking through Bramford, no one would probably notice anything abnormal.
Rowena examined the scent.
"This one is alive."
Victor brought his hand closer to the glass.
The creature’s heart beat once.
Then again.
The fluorescent liquid vibrated around the body, and his eyes slowly opened. One red iris stared at Victor. The other was yellow, with the narrow pupil of a predator.
Nera noticed the movement and raised her scythe.
"He woke up."
"He is not attacking," Victor replied.
"Yet."
"He is trapped."
"Ghideon was trapped several times too."
Natasha approached without abandoning the notes.
"Do not break the glass. The capsules have automatic protocols, and I still do not know what happens when one detects a failure."
In response, a red light appeared at the base of the container.
Then another lit up beside it.
A third appeared along the upper row.
The mechanisms began awakening in sequence, probably activated by Ghideon’s death or the destruction of the main chamber. The fluorescent liquid began draining through the tubes, slowly lowering inside the capsules.
Natasha dropped the papers and opened her hands. Her threads crossed the room, connecting to the controls before the process could advance farther.
"They are draining."
Mirella turned toward her.
"Can you stop it?"
"Maybe."
"That was not an answer."
"Because I still do not know whether interrupting it will kill whoever is inside."
Victor watched the liquid fall below the shoulders of the hybrid in front of him. The man did not try to move, but his eyes followed every person present. There was consciousness inside him.
Fear as well.
Rowena felt it.
"He understands."
Victor placed his fingers against the glass.
"Can you hear me?"
The hybrid did not answer.
His mouth moved inside the liquid, but no sound crossed the container. Even so, Victor understood the word formed by his lips.
Help.
Before he could react, Mirella called everyone from the table.
"There is something else."
She held a different sheet made from dark material and marked with silver ink. Unlike the other reports, it did not describe failures or procedures.
It was a transport list.
Natasha read over her shoulder.
"Four stable units removed from this facility."
Victor kept his eyes on the hybrid.
"Where?"
Mirella moved down to the final line.
The destination had been erased, but a note remained legible beside the date.
Delivery completed before the operation in Bramford.
Nera became completely still.
"So there are four of these things loose?"
"We do not know whether they are loose," Natasha replied. "They may be at another facility, with the werewolves, or somewhere inside the Kingdom."
Victor slowly removed his hand from the glass.
"We are going to catalog these things," Natasha said. "We have a lot of work."