"You people take and take," a man dressed in a black lab coat whispered. "You trample over everything in the name of peace," he continued, his back turned to a group of soldiers.
"Does this look like peace to you?"
His lab was a torn battlefield of broken beakers, spilt serums, and the corpses of the wonderous creatures he had spent a decade bio-engineering.
"You're preaching to us about peace, Raddan?" one of the soldiers asked. His uniform was decorated with medals, but one might question whether such a fat man had ever seen war.
"Peace is what we tell you it is," he added. "And we never told you to create that." He pointed at one of the corpses on the ground. A frog. However, its skin was armoured with jagged rocks.
The fat man stepped forward, kicking the frog aside. "But anyway, you've served your purpose," he said, gesturing towards the soldiers. They raised their guns, aiming at Raddan.
"And this little tantrum you were throwing? It was a pathetic attempt," the fat man laughed. "So much for the Sage of Science."
Static hums echoed throughout the room as the soldiers primed their guns.
Raddan turned to face them, his expression peaceful. This ending was not beyond his calculations. It was one of many possibilities he had considered when he decided to work for the army.
And as such, he had prepared a show for his final act. "Tantrum, you say?"
The fat man gestured for the soldiers to carry out their task.
"This was nothing more than an experiment," Raddan continued. "In the coming years, this country will pay the price for my knowledge," he laughed, a wild, hollow sort of thing.
The fat man snapped. "Enough! Kill him already!"
One of the soldiers fired.
A bullet tore through Raddan's chest, but right at that moment, the lights went off.
"Kill him now!" The fat man's shouts were quickly drowned by the gunshots around him.
Streaks of burning metal lit up the dark room; however, these only gave glimpses of the nightmare that lurked in the dark. Soldiers fell left and right, arms and legs ripped off and tossed about.
"Do you remember what they called me all those years ago?" Raddan's voice was muffled, its echoes seeming to come from every direction at once.
"I said kill him!" the fat man screamed. "You idiots can't even take care of an unarmed civilian."
Another scream followed. Blood sprayed everywhere.
"Come now. We're both running out of precious time."
"Tell me. What did they call me?"
The fat man stepped back, stumbling over a corpse right behind him. He fell to the ground, wet warmth soaking his hands. He let out a scream as he scuttled back for the door.
However, before he could reach it, something grabbed his leg and flung him towards the other end of the room.
He tried to prop himself up, but a slimy tendril snagged his throat, dragging him back down.
"How?" The fat man's voice was haggard, hoarse as he tried to gasp for air.
A robed silhouette formed right in front of him, staring down. He gulped, his prideful resistance now fear-driven shivers.
"Please, Raddan," he whispered. "I-I was just following orders."
The tendrils around his throat tightened, popping cartilage.
"Time is of the essence. Tell me now."
The fat man closed his eyes. "You-You are the Black Manuscript," he whispered hoarsely, before breaking down into tears. "P-Please, Raddan, I have kids. A wife. I can't die in a place like this."
Just then, the hum of backup generators filled the room, and the lights flickered on.
"Our time is up here."
Raddan stood above the fat man, his flesh plagued by a green mould. His hands had turned to slimy tendrils, and his legs were bent backwards like an insect's.
The fat man stared wide-eyed as if realising something.
"You did it," he whispered. "You figured out perfect transmutation."
"This changes everything. If you take me to the general, we can..."
Raddan laughed at that. "Perfect transmutation doesn't exist." As he said that, his complexion began to drain of its colour, and his tendril arms began to shrivel.
"At least not for humans," he continued, before tightening his grip around the fat man.
He squeezed hard, and a chubby head plopped on the ground, splattering blood as it rolled.
Raddan sat alone in the remains of his lab, thinking back on his life.
'The Black Manuscript.' That name brought him great pride. The lives that he had taken in his earlier years were a testament to his pursuit of knowledge.
His body felt cold, and he could no longer move his limbs. Perfect transmutation was impossible because human bodies were too 'intelligent'. They attacked foreign cells, destroying both the intruder and their own vessel. His life's work had been a sad joke.
As life left Raddan's eyes. A thought occurred to him.
'I haven't gained all the knowledge I sought after. I thought that I would be ready to face death even with this regret. But I'd sell a billion more souls if it meant I could continue research for one more year.'
And with that, the Black Manuscript met death. His biggest regret being that he hadn't done more for his desires.
***
Raddan floated in a void of darkness for an unknowable amount of time. Had it been a second, an aeon? He didn't know. And without a body to interact with the void around him, he wasn't even sure if he was even conscious, or if he was just a part of the darkness around him.
Just then, something chimed from the distance.
[The Final Celestial Candidate Has Been Located.]
[Transporting Celestial to allocated location...]
'Hmm? What's going on?'
[Complete!]
[Rebooting Celestial Interface...]
'Celestial interface?'
The void around Raddan began to shift; dots of sparkling light appeared in the distance, like shining diamonds sprawled across black space. His consciousness sped towards one such source of light, moving past it towards a massive world that spiralled around it.
'A solar system?'
An instant later, he tore through its atmosphere. A ball of flaming metal was crashing down from the sky, engulfed in purple and blue light. The sky was lit up with a magical hue, like a god was descending from the heavens.
'A meteorite? Why am I being shown all this?'
As the meteorite came closer to crashing into the ground... he realised.
That ball of flaming metal... was him.
[Congratulations, Soul Entity: 'Raddan'. You are now the 'Mineral Celestial.']
'Now this... is interesting.' Raddan thought, as he blazed towards a forest down below.