This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 750: Chapter 750: Lucky?

Kain stared at the half-machine, half-man figure before him.

Dorian Anvil. His old go-to blacksmith. Body half-consumed by armour and artificial nerves, face fused into a chassis that pulsed with spiritual circuits.

The room was silent save for the faint hum of power through the various wires around the room.

Kain’s mouth felt dry.

He finally found his voice. “That relic you fell into… you said it was in Brightstar?”

Dorian’s eye flickered slightly. “Aye. Brightstar outskirts. Before I think the city officials even knew it was there.”

Kain felt a chill climb up his spine, cold and spindly. His thoughts turned, gears clicking into place.

The same relic.

He remembered it now, vividly. Perhaps one of the most traumatic missions he’d ever been on burned into his mind.

He’d been dispatched as part of an official Order team, his second formal mission after joining the Pathfinders. The relic had opened in Brightstar City, his hometown—which also likely played a role in his being assigned to the mission.

When the Order scouts first arrived at the Church that served as the locus of the spontaneously formed entrance, the relic didn’t appear to be too dangerous or on the brink of collapse. But upon further investigation was gradually being turned into a stable entry point into the Celestial Empire by the Abyssals.

And when they’d entered the relic, after having their memories restored and tracking down the nest of the Abyssals, they found them—humans. Real ones. Not just the Ishvaran echoes of people constructed by the memory of the relic. But real civilians from Brightstar who had wandered in by accident before the Order had cordoned off the zone.

And they weren’t dead. It was far worse.

Many of them, the “lucky” ones, may have just been quickly killed and eaten by the Abyssals. But the worst-off ones were fused alive into a stone gate located in the Abyssal HQ.

Kain still remembered the horrifying sight. Their eyes still moved. Their mouths hung open mid-scream. But their minds were barely there still.

It wasn’t death. Not entirely.

It was worse.

The Abyss was using them, or at least attempting to, use their blood and souls as an anchor for the gate to Brightstar.

Barely any civilians lost in that relic were retrieved—mostly ones located inside the city state and had not regained their memories the whole time they were there. However, all the civilians that fell into the Abyssals’ hands were beyond saving.

For nights after returning from that mission, Kain would wake up in a cold sweat.

He even remembered vomiting one night when the dream was especially vivid and clearly showed the faces of neighbours and people he’d grown up with fused into the gate.

That memory returned now as a horrifying point of comparison.

Dorian had been the first to fall in.

Likely right as the Abyss had just discovered the relic and before they’d even begun their plot to use it as a transmission point into Earth.

It was definitely long before the Order had even known the relic existed.

He’d been lucky in a sense. Although he now became something…inhuman. It could have been far worse. And he seemed to have gained quite a lot from his time in that relic.

Kain studied the man again. No—this was no longer a man. Dorian’s body was a machine now, or close enough to pass for one. But his mind…

His mind was still there.

Just… quieter. Sharper.

Different.

“I don’t think you’re a monster,” Kain said softly. “Not after hearing what happened.”

Dorian’s voice rasped through the chamber. “Maybe not. But I’m not a man either.

A beat passed before Dorian continued. “There’s a reason I called you here.”

Kain blinked. “Besides catching up with an old acquaintance?”

“There’s more.” Dorian’s one eye gleamed faintly. “I didn’t waste my time in hiding. I’ve built something. Many somethings. Refined the hermit’s designs. Solved problems that modern spiritual engineers and blacksmiths haven’t even identified as problems yet…or at least I am trying to.”

Kain already had a sneaking suspicion where this was going. Unlike Halreth, he had no idea about the rare metals that Kain had access to…so his desire for Kain’s help could only be for one reason—Source Energy.

The fact that Pheneos had used a device to detect and analyze Source energy back at the tournament arena supported this.

And just like Kain thought…

“The missing piece,” Dorian said, “is an energy source that meets certain specifications.”

He turned toward a cluttered worktable in the back of the lab. Mechanical arms extended from the ceiling with perfect precision, clearly controlled by his mind perfectly like additional disembodied limbs, brushing aside blueprints and sliding open a hidden compartment built directly into the wall. From within, he retrieved a cube-shaped device that pulsed faintly with light.

It looked almost similar to the one Pheneos had once revealed during the tournament—to scan Kain. Except this one was bulkier. More polished. And most importantly, connected to a cylindrical container embedded in its side with a glass window and coiling energy tubes.

“I call it an Energy Reservoir,” Dorian said. “Not very creative, I know. It draws ambient energy from the environment—free-flowing spiritual threads, passive emissions, even secondary outputs from cultivation cores—and refines them. And stores them in these batteries that can actually be used to power devices. Kind of like a way to recycle the energy that gets wasted otherwise.”

The cube flickered, and the container began to glow a pale silver. Whispers of energy danced within, like sparks trapped in liquid.

Dorian’s voice grew animated. “The problem is… none of the types of energy I have tried so far were powerful enough to allow many of my research plans to reach the next stage. So I went on the search for one. One of my scanners that covers almost the entire Empire hinted about an energy source located, typically, in the Eastern region of the Empire. Only this energy source was able to move around—likely on a living thing. And further investigations hinted that it may be something on you, Kain.”

He turned back toward Kain, single mechanical eye gleaming.

“I sent Pheneos to investigate. Using the suits as both a way to draw attention to my identity if I seek additional partners from the high-profile match against you. But also to hopefully pressure you enough so that I could see the source of that energy following you around. Unfortunately, the battle ended with only the first goal being met, but then Pheneos said something else. Something fascinating. He said you—Kain Newman—were actually emitting it. Rather than it just being an object that you have like I’d first thought. You are the energy source I need.”

Kain’s eyes narrowed, fingers tightened slightly at his sides.

He didn’t like the way Dorian said it.

There was something in his tone—off, obsessive, far too eager. Not the calm pragmatism of the man he remembered. He had a feeling that if Dorian could lock him up and use him as a battery device against his will, he’d have every intention of doing so…

He stole a glance toward Lord Storm.

And for the first time since he’d met the man… took a half-step closer to him.

Just in case.

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