Interlude - Eyes of Heaven

She wasted no time teleporting into their room, once she was certain that snake bitch wasn't going to suddenly come back. While she owed her greatly for giving her a black eye, a confrontation was a needless distraction. It filled Ilias with satisfaction knowing that the snake's punishment would come in due time. If not by Luka's hands, then by the hands of her own angels.

As she appeared in the room she surveyed the dinky inn. It was downright blasphemous for her to be in such a mundane location, since it was not even close to being fit for her. There was nothing she could do about that, seeing as that bitch coerced them to use it instead of a church.

The two of them were sleeping in separate beds and she was pleased to find her angels were not wrong about Alice being gone. She floated over to Luka and gently pressed a glowing hand against the side of his adorable face.

"Sleep oh brave Luka." She couldn't afford him waking up either. It would only complicate matters. "I shall see you in your dreams once more, but not tonight."

He was so close, right in her grasp, but she would hold her hand. There was much he still had to do before being rewarded in heaven. She expected a great many things from him, hoping that he'd slaughter thousands of monsters when the time came.

She glared at the hideous sword beside his bed. It was an affront to her, but it served a purpose and she was certain it would also be destroyed in due time. There was a sentimental aspect as well she refused to admit to anyone but herself.

It had been forged by Lucifina, each angel fell by her hand and every soul repurposed into a weapon meant to strike against Ilias. "Lucifina…" She found herself slowly tracing the deformed edges of the blade, the disgusting angel facades weeping for their goddess to save them from their torturous fate, but there was nothing she could do for them besides break them down further into pure energy. "Why did you make me have to kill you?"

She pulled her hand back, brushing it off on her clothing and glancing at Luka once more. "I can't have you back by my side but I will have your son."

Her shameful moment of perverted sentimentally over, she floated over to the sleeping body of Will.

Promestein had suggested simply injecting him with the sedative while he slept, but she dismissed the idea outright. She was the Goddess of Light and she would act as such. Besides, she wanted to voice her displeasure at his conduct and make sure he knew she was always watching.

She had to strike fear into the hearts of humans from time to time to keep them in line: an iron fist inside a velvet glove was the best way to rule.

Taking a moment to go over her appearance, she softly called his name several times until he stirred awake and opened his eyes. Shock flashed across his face as he held the sheets against his body.

Yes~

That was the reaction she lived for. It was pure unbridled awe at her very presence. It was the face of a man that knew The Goddess that Created the World had graced him.

He frantically looked over her, and she loved his face as he mentally scrambled to process the situation. She had graced Luka in his dreams many times, though whenever she tried to do so with Will it failed. It was unfortunate, but she found that he was quite the… unique individual.

"I-Ilias." He managed to croak out. It seemed that he truly was awestruck.

She brought a hand to her mouth and giggled softly. "Do not fear oh noble Will." She clasped her hands together in front of her chest. She found it necessary to tell humans that, otherwise they assume she was there to smite them. It was a ridiculous notion…

She'd send an angel to do it in her place or strike them down with lightning if they really annoyed her. "It has been many weeks since I last revealed myself to you and came to offer you guidance on your journey. I have been watching you every step of the way, bearing witness to your acts of nobility and wisdom, as well as your mistakes."

Her angels were diligently reporting everything that he and Luka had done, ever since he first appeared in her world….

***

When she first sensed the tear in reality she had feared the worse. She thought, against all odds and logic, that Alipheese and her Ancestors had escaped. Their eternal tomb somehow broken open and that they were once more free.

She had nearly responded in full, by pre-emptively unleashing her armies across to the world. If they were free she could not waste time with subtlety or finesse. In fact it would have emboldened her, since the legions of chimera would have been made all the more expendable and Black Alice would have been unnecessary…

It was fortunate that she resisted her more… violent and short sighted impulses, so Alice's black heart still remained inside her chest. Instead she sent the angel that had been spying on Luka to scout out the portal. It had been short lived, only existing for minutes, but she wanted to know if anything had come through.

She was surprised to learn that a human was wandering around the woods not far from Ilias Village. The cupid that spotted him hadn't sensed anything particularly strange or outstanding, so she doubted that he was the one to create the portal…

She didn't recognize him. There was something off about him that she couldn't quite place and she hated that. It meant that he was an unknown, outside of her control. He could have been a mundane human or something far more alien merely disguised as one.

While she was still deciding if he was going to be smited, he had stumbled across a slime and actually ran away from it. That itself was enough to endear him to Ilias, if only a little bit. He was already more faithful than most humans, and she decided to let him live.

***

He had been attacked by dark elves, shot with an arrow and stabbed. Her faithful villagers, lead by Luka, had chased them off and immediately took him to the Temple's surgeon. He had been unable to properly treat the man's wounds and had a priest pray for her assistance.

She would have liked to be dramatic, slowly descend from the sky in full view of everyone present, but time was of the essence. She compromised and appeared in the room in a flash of light.

The three of them fell to their knees and bowed their heads in reverence. It was a sight she would never find tiring, but it was not the time to bask in her devout worshippers' adoration. She hadn't allowed the mysterious man to live only to let him bleed out from a stab wound.

"I have heard your prayers and have come to save this man." She stood by his side, her hands glowing with holy energy. It was simple to heal flesh, and would take only a moment to perform her miracle.

Her hands rested barely an inch above the wound on his back and arm, and she cast her spell…

The bleeding continued, the flesh ignoring her power. She was momentarily surprised, figuring he was unusually resistant to holy energy, and merely increased the amount of power she was pouring into him.

She stood there with her arms stretched out for nearly a minute with nothing happening, her divine face graced by an unpleasant grimace.

It wasn't working… Why wasn't it working?

The surgeon, his clothing stained with blood, hesitantly peeked up at her. "My Goddess, d-do you require my assistan-"

"Shut up!" She snapped at him. He flinched as if physically struck and Ilias felt her annoyance boil over. The priest and Luka glanced up in surprise and fear at her outburst. She pressed her hands against his skin, smearing them in his blood but to no avail. "No, no, no!"

He wouldn't heal, life continued to pour from his body and the skin on his arm was still turning black.

Without even trying the man had ruined her entire presentation! She had it all planned out, appear, heal him, be praised and leave! It would be a perfect moment to demonstrate her power!

She yelled in frustration and hypnotized everyone in the room, while silencing it to prevent outsiders from listening in.

The cupid that had been hiding in the room fearfully approached Ilias. "My Goddess?"

She whirled around and glared at the poor angel, who cowered under the furious gaze of her goddess. "Get. Promestein."

She thought that if there was anyone that could help save him it was her… as much as she loathed to admit it. She could have let him die, even erased all memory of the entire event, but he was an unknown. He'd already proven he was pathetically weak, running from a slime and easily getting captured by dark elves.

Once he was healed she'd pick his brain and then decided what to do with him.

***

Ilias found herself annoyed with how long she was forced to wait, even though only minutes had passed. She found herself fidgeting, an arm crossed while the other idly scratched her face.

Finally Promestein appeared in the room, the cupid from before floating in the air behind her. The poor thing had an expression equal parts disgust and horror, no doubt from listening to the angel scientist complain about her experiments being interrupted.

Despite her angelic nature, the red-headed scientist didn't dress like it. She wore a white lab coat over a grey sweater worn atop a blue collared shirt, with a knee-length black shirt and stockings covering her legs. She was easily mistaken for being a researcher or magical technician from Grangold.

She lazily glanced to the man bleeding out on the table and back to Ilias. "Yes?" She sounded bored and disinterested.

"Heal him." The Goddess demanded.

"Why? You can't do it yourself?"

"I tried." Was her strained response.

"Did you try increasing the power?" She sarcastically asked, a sly smirk making its way onto her face. She enjoyed teasing Ilias when the situation allowed.

Without a word Ilias' hand began to glow, and she placed it onto the dying man's body. As before it had no effect, but moments later she grabbed the hypnotized surgeon's face and it immediately began melting into sickly grey flesh. His eyes scrambled over as his cheeks began melting and jaw slowly became unhinged from his skull.

She pulled back her hand, immediately healing the damage that she had caused, and she glared at Promestein. "I did."

Her subordinate however was unfazed by the gruesome demonstrated. "That's interesting. He doesn't even show the signs of holy corruption. I wonder why that is…"

"You don't get to cut this one open to sate your curiosity until after you've treated him."

"If you can't heal him then I may need to narrow down my options if holy energy doesn't work." She stepped up to the table and critically examined his body. The skin had turned deathly pale, the veins under the skin blackened, and the flesh around the wound on his arm leaking pus. "The flesh has turned necrotic," she put a glove on and prodded the wound, "and it looks like it was pierced by an arrow."

"He was shot by dark elves."

"That's useful to know. He's definitely been poisoned." She didn't look up when she spoke, instead leaning in to examine his side."And the abdominal wound doesn't appear that bad. The bleeding needs to be stemmed, but it doesn't seem like anything vital was hit."

"Then fix it."

"I would if I had my equipment." She responded in slight annoyance. "I didn't know I'd need it because your cupid rushed me out of my lab without any explanation, beyond that you demanded my presence."

"Go get it then!"

Promestein smirked in triumph and disappeared, reappearing moments later with a leather satchel in her hand. She quickly opened it up revealing rows of surgical tools and several small jars of various liquids.

With gloved hands she began cleaning the wounds, wiping them with disinfectants, and expertly stitched the gash on his side shut. She pulled out a needle and injected it into his arm, near the already rotting flesh. "That will stem the poison from spreading any further, though it won't do anything about the damage his system's already suffered."

As quickly as she had gotten prepped, she was already pulling her gloves off and washing her tools. "There, fixed."

"You didn't do anything." Ilias half shouted in exasperation. If any other angel had even dared to give her that type of attitude they'd be struck down on the spot. The only reason she gave the scientist so much leeway was that she had proven herself indispensable to Ilias' own plans.

"Yes I did. He won't die immediately." She said as she finished packing everything back up. "Why do you care though? What's so special about him?"

Ilias crossed her arms, agitated by her subordinate's flagrantly disrespectful demeanour. She had no right to ask anything of her, however stonewalling her might have been counter productive. "He came out of a portal and I don't believe he's from this world."

"Oh." Promestein mumbled in dull surprise, slightly taken back. She eyed him up more critical than she had before, reopening her satchel. "I'll have to survey the site once I'm done with this."

"Don't concern yourself with that now." She tensely responded.

She laid the satchel out on a nearby table and began looking over her instruments, deciding which would serve her the best. "I'll stabilize him, however I'll need to take samples, a lot of them. I need to know what I'm working with first, then I can decide the best method of treating him."

Once Promestein had done what she considered an adequate job, she was ordered to leave. It was easy for Ilias to make the surgeon, priest, and Luka forget her little outburst.

***

It had been less than week since Ilias had saved Will's life and already it was in jeopardy once more. They had gone through his pockets and found several plastic cards, including photo identification. The smooth black thing with a glass screen excited Promestein who snatched it away immediately. It at least gave them a name.

Ilias still loathed to turn to Promestein for assistance, but alas her holy power still did not work on him.

Promestein stood over his body, the veins along the entire arm and left side of his chest having turned black and bulging against his taut pale skin. The wound on the arm had only worsened, rot setting in almost immediately as infection and the odd insect began to eat away at it. Internally it was even worse.

The scientist had some instrument around her head, with a disk placed against his chest. She appeared to be counting the beats per minute and how many breaths he took. Standing up she checked his neck and wrist once more before turning to Ilias.

"The heart has to be removed." She stated her diagnostic in a detached tone. "The poison already spread to it by the time I intervened, and if nothing is done he'll be dead by morning."

"That's unacceptable."

"I'll begin preparing for surgery immediately. I'll have to replace his heart with an artificial implant for the time being. I don't want to risk growing a new heart that would end up being rejected by his body."

She really only explained herself for Ilias' sake. She usually didn't care if the goddess understood her or not, but found it made her job easier. Otherwise she'd be verbally interrogated for every statement she made. She was used to working without supervision and found Ilias' sudden micro-managing extremely vexing.

Ilias' eyes narrowed as she glowered at Promestein. "Do not turn him into one of your abominations. I need him alive to learn about him."

Her curiosity had turned into a minor obsessions and she wanted answers to questions she didn't even have. He was still an unknown and hypnotizing him was a complete failure nor could she delve into his mind. She had ignored it originally but it appeared as if he was completely lacking in a soul…

The very idea was disturbing to her. The magnitude of implications made her shudder in horror and disgust. In front of her was a human that truly existed far outside her control and influence. She sensed nothing from him.

"Okay, the artificial heart is only serving as a stopgap anyway. I'll see if I can grow a replacement and if not then I'll build him a better heart. After that I'll focus on healing his circulatory system and the arm." She prodded the vile flesh with an instrument, causing a torrent of pus to spill out. "If I can't repair the damage then it may need to be replaced, but I have several ideas in mind on how to do that."

She hoped that drastic measures wouldn't have to be taken, but she couldn't help but start thinking up arm designs. She wouldn't intentionally botch his recovery just to justify installing a prosthetic limb. It would have served as a stopgap measure anyway, it'd be too noticeable and require regular maintenance. If she did need to replace his arm, it'd be after much research and figuring out how to create one that she could safely graft on without his body rejecting it.

She felt a tinge of excitement.

He was uncharted territory, something new for her to study. The last time she felt that way was when she and La Croix had made a major breakthrough in dark-holy chimeras that resulted in an angel ghoul. That was mostly La Croix's work though, while he would be her personal project.

***

In little time Promestein had turned the guest bedroom into a proper, sanitary operating theater, filled with high-tech machinery. Instead of her usual outfit, Promestein was covered head to toe in medical garb, and she wouldn't be using the simple tools that she had days before. By her side were two nondescript mechanical dolls, their face smooth and blank like a porcelain doll. She had initially wanted to move him to her lab and back again only to find out that he couldn't be teleported. It was inconvenient but she made it work.

As a precaution Ilias had taken care of Luka by hypnotizing him… and the rest of the town as well to be safe. It was night, so it meant they'd all be getting a good night's rest. She had insisted on staying to oversee the surgery, but refused to wear any sort of protective clothing despite Promestein stressing the risk of infection.

With the prep work done, Promestein began the procedure. She disliked that he was basically immune to most magic, since that limited her options. She liked the challenge though, even if it meant she had to resort to… cruder methods.

***

The sternum finally gave way with a satisfying crunch, the whirling of the bone saw died down. her two mechanical assistants immediately pried the ribs apart and placed a wedge into the gap to keep it that way. With the body cavity open she could inspect the heart up close. Her usual methods involved magic, and x-rays themselves only showed bone. It didn't give her the full picture and it was gruesome to say the least.

The heart was weakly pumping, and erratically at that. It was blackened and shrunken, several sizes smaller than it should have been. It looked like it was pumping more pus than it was actual blood, and was actually leaking fluid.

If Will had the ability to sneeze the force would have literally shattered his heart.

"You're fortunate to have me as your guardian angel." She chuckled a bit, the mask over her mouth muffling her voice.

Now came the hard part, removing the heart and putting in the new one without killing him. The worse part was that the veins and arteries were half-rotted themselves, but she had anticipated the possibly and came with enough tubing that it would serve as a hasty, short-term fix. The artificial heart itself was powered by a battery that would last decades. He might have been immune to magic, but he didn't have any adverse effect on magical equipment.

Which was lucky as the entire room was filled with such technology.

***

It had taken several hours but the surgery was a success. The first task had been taken care of and it would allow her time to focus on dealing with the other issues plaguing him. She was going to attempt to clone him a new heart by taking salvable tissue from his original one.

"Is that it?" Ilias asked, her patience wearing thin.

"It's the first step." Her annoyance seeped into her voice. She told Ilias there was nothing for her to do, and yet she insisted on standing around doing literally nothing. "He's stable now, so he won't be dropping dead unexpectedly. That will give me time to deal with his arm poisoned blood."

"Do not speak down to me."

Promestein forced a neutral expression. "Of course my goddess."

She glared at the scientist for a few seconds before teleporting away, leaving the latter to clean up the room and remove all evidence anything had happened. The scars would have been obvious, forcing her to resort to applying an alchemical salve in the hopes it would prevent the growth of scar tissue.

She was still unsure how well potions and other alchemical concoctions would work on him. It seemed downright arbitrary what would and wouldn't work, but with more than enough samples she could begin picking him apart… metaphorically.

With only a single specimen she doubted that she could do it literally. It'd be a waste of a unique resource, though if the heart cloning worked out that wouldn't be an issue in the future…

***

The handheld device she found excited her more than the man who had inadvertently delivered it to her. It was smooth black plastic with a built in keyboard and screen to display information. It had taken her a few hours to get the hang of its image based interface and poured over the information contained within it…

Which wasn't much unfortunately. She found messages, a handful of pictures, and contact information for several people.

Ilias hadn't understand the implications of it, but she did. It mean that Will came from a society capable of producing plastics, possessed miniaturized computers, and well developed telecommunications infrastructure that such a device would be worthwhile to possess.

It was unfortunate that there wasn't much information about where he came from. The pictures were mundane things, people and a few animals, though the background often attracted her attention more than the subject. It was quite clear he came from quite an advanced world, but if she wanted the full story she'd need to pick his mind for herself.

She decided that she would return the device to him, since she had momentarily satisfied her curiosity and hoped that he might reveal a function that she had overlooked.

***

While his heart was being dealt with she had to treat the still rotting arm. It had been a simpler matter to handle, requiring aggressive usage of antibiotics and numerous vaccinations. Though it too was another stopgap measure. The real purpose was gathering even more samples from his body.

She had several ideas on how she could improve his immune system…

***

It had taken longer than she anticipated, but she had managed to clone his heart. She had contemplated simply growing a heart through her usual methods and then implanting it into him, but feared possible rejection. Meaning that she was forced to grow the heart through alchemy.

There had been several cancerous failures that only helped further her understanding, learning how much of which compound was safe to use. And so she found herself once more in a makeshift operating theater, preparing to remove the artificial organ she had implanted weeks ago.

The new heart would be far more effective than it or his original, she was certain of it. On the side of it was what appeared to be a tumorous growth, though it was anything but. It was a special gland that produced enhanced antibodies that would be pumped directly into the bloodstream. Since flushing his system with a healing potion would not work, she decided on a more permanent and biological solution.

And so the room was once more filled with the sound of medical instruments… followed shortly by the sound of bone loudly protesting.

***

The new heart and gland had already begun healing his body, breaking down dead tissue and rapidly regrowing. It couldn't completely heal his arm, however a few muscle and skin grafts fixed that minor shortcoming. She was concerned about the strength of the sternum and rib cage, so she had taken to grafting bioglass grown from his own cells onto it.

It was essentially synthetic bone tissue that seamlessly bonded to actual bone. She found that the substance had proved quite effective at reinforcing and promoting tissue growth. It was also very effective in helping to anchor cybernetic limbs to organic tissue without fear of rejection, much more elegant than just using bolts like she originally did.

Examining Will's unconscious form, Promestein was thrilled by the success of the numerous operations. She had thrived under the challenging conditions and found herself considering new avenues of research, ones that excluded the use of magic. Previously she dismissed the idea, as magic was simply another tool in her repertoire and not using it would be akin to dismissing the utility of electricity.

Ilias was quite pleased by her subordinate's work. It finally meant that Will, the mystery man that she had obsessed over, could be taken off painkillers and other drugs that Promestein had been constantly injecting into him. That meant he could be fully coherent and she could finally satisfy her curiosity.

***

He… He had claimed he received a vision from her telling him to aide Luka in his journey. That was a lie, one she could have easily refuted. However she was hesitant to do so. Will was intent on joining Luka, even training with him, and was working in her Temple. It was something that made her stay her hand.

She still didn't know anything about his home, and what he did tell Luka was vague nothings or lies about a nonexistent life in her world. She had been suspicious about his motives, abhorring the idea of some complete unknown traveling with Luka, although he seemed pious enough. He had run from the slime and dark elves, and she was certain that getting stabbed by them would foster a deep animosity towards monsters within in. If he didn't hate them already…

She would allow him to continue his lie. If he had wanted to faithfully serve her then she would allow it, and if he tried to hurt Luka then he'll be dealt with accordingly.

***

Will had been dutifully training alongside him, and given a little help from Promestein once more. He was in poor shape, even after recovering from his ordeal and it'd be months before he was in adequate physical shape. The problem was rectified however through various growth hormones, steroids, and other medication. Promestein was certain they would have no ill effects, having tested them thoroughly on tissue samples she had taken over the weeks.

The end result was him gaining muscle mass at a swift, but not alarming pace, and there had been no signs of tumors or irregular growths. Ilias couldn't help but admire the handiwork. It had given him a physique befitting of his large frame and would him aid greatly. He finally looked worthy of traveling with Luka.

***

The day had finally come, when she would descend from heaven to baptize Luka. There could have been no greater gift than seeing Lucifina's child begin his journey, prepared to go out into the world and kill monsters. She was certain that in time he would be strong enough to kill the Monster Lord herself…

She hadn't been paying attention, focused on her daydreams and overwhelming feelings of excitement when a sword pommel smashed into the side of her face. The goddess was sent whirling, stunned by the sudden blow. Before she could recover she was struck again and sent flying back even more.

It took but a moment for her to recover and scowled in contempt at the woman who had struck her. Glaring daggers at Ilias was none other than the Monster Lord, Alipheese Fateburn the Sixteenth, holding Angel Halo in her hand.

The goddess wasted no time, instantly launching herself forward with a spear of pure holy energy in her raised hand. Alice brought the sword up to block the attack, but was caught off guard when Ilias swung the end of her weapon and sent her careening towards the ground.

The entire encounter had been over in the span of barely ten seconds.

Ilias brought a hand up to her tender face and flinched in pain, her hand covered in blood. She noticed that her eye had started to swell shut as magic slowly bled from the wound. "That. Bitch."

She tried to heal the wound but nothing was happening. She knew it was the damn sword, it was probably the only thing in the world that could harm her or her angels. "So of course she had to use it on today of all days!"

She couldn't go the Temple like that! Her divine visage had been marred! She was Goddess and wouldn't stand to be seen as anything less!

Glaring at the spot in the woods the snake had crashed into Ilias was tempted to enact punishment, but decided against it. As powerful as she was, it was foolish to underestimate the power of the Monster Lord, especially when she wielded Angel Halo. Not that she would ever admit that.

Teleporting away, Ilias beat a hasty retreat back to heaven.

***

Allowing Alice to travel with Luka and Will was originally an accident that Ilias realized would work to her favor. Luka had unfortunately been poorly trained and the Monster Lord was teaching him valuable abilities. What better irony than to kill a monster by using their own techniques against them.

Nonetheless she loathed that that psychopathic maniac would be so close to Luka. She had already started to corrupt Will, since before he showed no interest in monsters until she suddenly appeared. Ilias would bear it though, believing that if the two men witnessed the horrid acts of depravity committed by the Monster Lord they would more easily turn against her….

"You will die by his blade." She darkly muttered as the cupid had finished giving her report.

"M-me?" The cupid squeaked in fear.

Her goddess didn't hear her terrified question and waved her off, dismissing the poor lowly spy.

***

"You have repeatedly broken my commandment and laid with monsters." The was a harshness to her voice, hidden under her disappointed tone.

"I-I am weak!" He stuttered, his heart racing in his chest. Every beat was one more she had gifted to him, and yet it seemed like he was squandering it. He owed her his life, as did all humans. "A-and monsters, they are so much stronger than I."

It was an unfortunate truth of the world and he had the even greater misfortune of gaining the Monster Lord's attention. She only wished that he resisted more.

He sat up, pulling the sheet back and starting to get out of the bed, but she pressed a hand against his chest and gently pushed him back down. "You have come close to falling but your commitment to Luka proves your sincerity. I am a forgiving goddess and if you continue to travel by his side I will absolve you of all sins you have committed."

He bowed my head and profusely thanked her, muttering so fast that his words blended together.

She silenced him by touching a finger to his lips and cupped his chin to raise his face to hers. "I sent you to Luka because I knew in spite of your mistakes that you would aid him greatly and you have not disappointed me yet. You saved him from the roper and guided him every step of the way."

She was still no closer to learning about his world, but despite his shortcomings and… heretical incidents he was proving faithful. He had killed a monster before Luka had, but she had no doubt they would be comparing scores in due time.

"But to do that your wounds must be healed." Her expression softened as she floated back a bit and brought a hand up to her chest. "I am proud that you rejected the filthy, corrupting mermaid's blood. It may heal physical wounds but at a cost to your soul. Those that ingest it will found themselves trapped in this world, heaven forever closed off to them." She praised him for the decision.

It was a lie, but she wished it would corrupt souls. There were far too many that extend their lives unnaturally by ingesting the substance. If it had been obtained by killing the mermaid then she would have been more lenient, but no, most got it by marrying one.

She floated over to beside the bed, hiding a grimace as her bare feet touched the dirty wooden floor. "It will take weeks for you to fully recover naturally, but fret not for I will heal your wounds." Her hands began to glow, so brightly that he shut his eyes and turned his head away.

It was a distraction, though, forcing him to avert his gaze. She rested a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat only inches below her fingertips, while she reached for the needle with her other hand. She gracefully stuck his arm and injected him with the sedative.

He reopened his eyes, obviously noticing the needle, but its effects were immediate as he slowly closed his eyes. "Know this oh noble Will, if you do not fall and follow my guidance then you shall be rewarded beyond compare in heaven."

That was the honest truth. It annoyed her so that humans had such short-term thinking. If he refused the pleasures offered by monsters and dutifully followed her then once his task was complete he would be rewarded in heaven. Not as greatly as Luka would be, but an eternity with Seraph Eden would be more than enough.

Promestein appeared in the room a few seconds later, flanked once more by her mechanical assistants. "That was entirely unwarranted."

Ilias turned and glared at her subordinate. "I am your goddess and do not need to justify my actions to you."

"And those actions were a waste of time." She however wasted no time in going over to examine Will's body. The idiot that thought himself a doctor wasn't quite wrong with his assessment, the ribs were definitely bruised but not damaged.

She was very glad that she had decided on reinforcing them with bioglass. His armour absorbed most of the impact, but without said bioglass he'd have a broken sternum at best. She had considered her options to deal with it, and decided upon injecting a relatively simple drug that promoted cell growth that would speed up the process. She had used it several times before without any side-effects.

Though she was tempted to possibly reinforce his entire skeleton. It would increase his durability and allow her to grow more muscle mass, however Ilias vetoed any possibility of further enhancement. It was for the best, since it would require a more adequate operating theater, days to grow enough, and many, many hours to graft it onto him…

As she administered the 'stimpack' to Will her mind was racing as she thought of possibilities, specifically genetic manipulation and retroviruses. It was crude and inefficient to focus on only grafting, when she could get his body to produce the materials itself.

"There." Promestein stated as she placed the used needle off to the side. "In a couple hours his ribs will be fully healed and he'll be ready to go by morning."

"Excellent." Ilias stated, stealing one last look at Luka before turning back to her subordinate. "Do not linger any longer than is necessary." And like that she disappeared, though the cupid attempting to hide herself in the corner of the room remained.

"I'll be efficient." She said to the empty room, knowing everything she said without Ilias present would only be repeated back to her in a few hours. "Unlike you."

The dolls laid a case out on the bed and began taking out needles and jars. She knew she couldn't do even a fraction of the experiments she wanted to, with only one irreplaceable specimen at that. That meant another round of sample taking.

It was fortunate that Will had been anesthetized, otherwise he would have felt it when Promestein began the process and started by taking marrow tissue…