Chapter 196: Increased Hell Energy?

Lucius was surprised by the increase in Hell energy, to say the least. He estimated that if he were to increase the hell energy to his level himself naturally, it might have taken him a couple of months or so.

"Hmm, could it be because of the Lost?" Lucius wondered.

That was the only thing he had done recently that could bring about such a vast change, and he truly wondered if that was the case. 

"No use in guessing, best go and see it myself…" Lucius said before leaving the bedroom.

Even if Kiana had not returned yet, it was enough for Lucius to go and see. Besides, if she did come back, it was not like there would be a problem anyway. 

~Creak~

The metal door of the lab opened up, allowing Lucius to peer inside. He could see the two lost who were still in the same position as he had left them in and were standing like statues.

"At least they heed the orders perfectly," Lucius said before entering the lab.

He first walked up to the first Lost he had transformed, Doyle, and placed a hand on his body. He then used his hell energy and made it resonate with the hell energy that was present in Doyle.

This was a method that Lucius had devised after seeing several worlds when he traveled across dimensions. He had copied this method from the absurd world that had an entirely skewed power level.

They too used their energy as a probe to observe many things and control finer things. While Lucius knew that Hell energy was vastly different from that and would not operate in the same way, it could definitely resonate though.

This was something Lucius had learned a long time ago and had used it in certain spells too. It was only now that he used it in a way to probe things. 

The hell energy within his body and the body of Doyle resonated at the same frequency and it established a rather unique link between him and the lost. Lucius felt like he could see the inside of the Lost as if he was looking at an anatomical diagram.

He could see the flesh, the vessels, and the organs of the creature along with the Hell energy that flowed through its body. Unlike Lucius, whose hell energy was concentrated into his soul space, only appearing when he willed it to, a Lost's hell energy was diffused throughout its body.

It was this very diffusion that kept them running and functioning. When the concentration of this diffused hell energy started to fall below a certain level though, they would get hungry. They would hunt down any source of hell energy that they could sense and if they could not, then they would devour the flesh of beings or anything they could find/

They would kill and eat whatever they could, leaving death and destruction in their wake. It was a common tactic in Lucius's past life to take such armies of starving Lost on conquest to other worlds.

They would be mass produced and left to wander in the new world if it was considered to be hostile. The Lost would kill the natives of that world, opening up plenty of avenues for exploitation for the Great Barrom clan.

And if they were lucky, the lost might even end up finding a source of hell energy in that world, thus allowing the Great Barrom clan to establish an outpost easily. This was a time and tested tactic, having been used thousands of times since its inception.

"It is rather different than I thought… a distant connection yet linked so closely?" Lucius muttered upon seeing the peculiarity.

After thinking for a bit, he realized that he might need to research this more before getting a better idea. 

"There you are! I wondered why you left the bedroom." Kiana's voice could be heard coming from the back.

It made Lucius snap out of his concentrated state and look back. There, he saw Kiana with a couple of trays in her hands, filled with food. 

"I just came to check up on our new 'employees'." Lucius said before taking his hand off Doyle's body.

"You should have at least waited for the food… ~Sigh~ anyway, you should eat now," Kiana stated.

"You're not gonna eat?" Lucius questioned.

"I woke up earlier than you and ate it already. I was prepping some things upstairs and only came back down when it was time to wake you up." Kiana answered.

"Ah, I see." Lucius replied before sitting down at a table.

Kiana placed the trays of food in front of Lucius, who then stated to scarf it down quickly. Unlike normal, Lucius was done eating the entire meal in five minutes.

"That was fast… you must be really hungry." Kiana commented.

"Hmm, I guess you could say that," Lucius said before standing up.

"I'll go put these away. Do you need anything while I'm upstairs?" Kiana questioned.

"Pick out another prisoner from our list. I want to test more today." Lucius answered.

"Just one?" Kiana asked for confirmation.

"Yes, just one," Lucius affirmed.

"Okay. But it might take some time. We are still getting the prisoners through their morning session of counseling." Kiana stated.

"That's fine. I'll need to do something else before that, anyway." Lucius replied.

Kiana nodded her head and left the lab, going upstairs to do her tasks. Lucius, on the other hand looked towards the other Lost and thought something before walking in its direction.

'Hmm… there is indeed something there. Hard to tell at this distance though.' Lucius thought to himself.

Once he was in front of Baza, the second Lost he had transformed, he put his hand on his body and used the hell energy to create a resonating link between him and the creature. After a few minutes, the resonation reached harmony, allowing Lucius to see things just as before.

He could see the internal condition of Baza and the hell energy that flowed through it. He observed each part closely, only letting go after about ten minutes. Once he opened his eyes, though, he furrowed his brows as if confounded.

"The hell energy managed to link up somehow," Lucius said after a few seconds.

He recalled how the Aether and Hell energy's interaction had created a link between the two, which was also the reason behind the red network he had in his soul, that joined the hell imprint with nexus.

It was also how he came into touch with Hell Aether and managed to get control over it.

"It is almost the same, but instead of a physical link, it made a soul link." Lucius eventually understood.

He thought about it a bit more and sat down on the chair before losing his eyes and entering a meditative state. Quickly appearing in his soul space, Lucius tried to extend his consciousness beyond it.

After ten minutes of attempting, he managed to do it without entering his souls directly.

"Just as I thought, there are indeed links here connecting them to me." Lucius said to himself as he found two faint silhouettes of gates appearing inside his soul space.

One of the doors went to Doyle's body and the second one went to Baza's body. Lucius felt like testing more and drew out some hell energy from the hell imprint, making it float around his soul. 

"Go," Lucius pointed towards the door on the right which led to Doyle and let the hell energy pass through it. 

~shua~

As if pulled by a vacuum, the hell energy traveled through the gate at great speed, reaching Doyle. The Lost opened up his eyes in surprise and looked around, spotting his master sitting on the chair.

It waited there for orders, but seeing that Lucius did not say anything, it went back to standing against the wall before closing its eyes. If no orders were given, it would go back to the previous order by default.

Lucius was fully aware of this and had even felt the Lost wake up when he was sensing the hell energy in his body.

"Hmm… let's see with the other one." Lucius said before withdrawing the hell energy he had sent to Doyle. 

When the energy returned back though, Lucius noticed that a small amount of it was missing.

"Hmm, so there is a ten percent loss on transmission. Need to take note of that…" Lucius said before focusing on the other gate and sending the hell energy through it.

~shua~

The same reaction as before was seen and the hell energy behaved as if it was pulled by a vacuum. Baza woke up as well and looked around, before going back to sleep, seeing no orders were given to it.

"Oh? The loss was slightly more. I guess it depends on the distance too." Lucius said, realizing that Baza was further away from him than Doyle was.

This little experiment was enough for him to finally figure out why his hell energy had increased.