He drifted all the way down the steps to the lower level of the tower, through a large metal door and then yet another made of thick oak until he found what he was seeking. Entering the enormous room, moans and groaning could be heard echoing off the stone walls. The room was the shape of a giant cylinder, with prison-like cages all along the circumference embedded into the stone, each containing thin, naked humans ambling around mindlessly.
Looking up, using the light of the many lit torches spaced around the room’s walls, one could see that there were many floors to this circular room. Each floor contained at least twenty cells, and it continued upward as far as the eye can see. The room completely defied physics, given the limited size of the tower, but this was no ordinary tower. Dragot’s plans had been centuries in the making, and the mysterious tower had been designed with the capability to aid in those plans.
The human he had killed earlier was a fresh capture, brought to the tower mere months earlier by one of his many spies placed around Tarmerria. Those were his favorites to play with. They were cultured and actually believed their existence had meaning. They would beg for their lives, some would even offer bribes in the heat of the moment, trying to extend their lives by mere minutes, even offering family members as compensation the more desperate they became.
The very idea that a human could offer him something he didn’t already have or couldn’t easily get amused him, but that’s why they were his favorites. They had survival instincts and would cling to any hope, no matter how implausible, right up until the end. Their deaths were far more entertaining than the domesticated cattle walled up in these cages.
For years, human specimens had been brought back to the black crystal tower for experimentation. These were used to find out just what mental and physical limits were wired into the inferior beings. It turned out the flesh bags were more resilient than Dragot had first thought. Their minds were strong and determined as long as they had some form of hope. This was key. Give one of these lesser beings a reason to live, no matter how trivial that reason was, and they would continue to amaze with their survival spirit.
One experiment he used often was to chain one hand and one foot to a stone wall. He would then give them a dull blade and make his usual deal. “Cut yourself free before I count to ten and you may leave. If I reach ten and you are not free, I will kill you here and now.” The second part of the promise was all too real.
Of course, Dragot would never actually free one of the maggots. This was the equivalent of making a deal with a bug crawling on a tree. It meant nothing! But that was never the point. The experiments were to see their psychological limits. Of course they were never able to cut off both limbs in time, and some part of them must have known he would not let them go even if they did.
But this is what made the results so fascinating. They always tried...always! Without fail. They cut away as fast as they could, screaming through the pain but never stopping. The key was to make them feel as though they had a chance. Dragot had to admit, the results were unbelievable.
Even more astounding were their physical limits. Of course these experiments were brutal, but they were necessary in order to understand his enemy. It turned out humans did not need anywhere near the total amount of nutrition to survive as he was led to believe. The scouting reports had their gluttonous eating habits as being much higher that what was actually required. One could go days without water and weeks without food, although these numbers were greatly accelerated as conditions became more extreme, but pure, physical punishment was the most primal of all the experiments used to determine the limits of their bodies. These results were...fascinating.
If puncture wounds were placed throughout the body but vital organs were avoided, the subject could still live for many days as long as they were not allowed to bleed to death. Dragot learned that human bodies could take incredible amounts of punishment as long as those few vital areas were avoided. They would eventually die of shock, but that took days.
These experiments had been conducted years and years ago, and on the rare occasion he dabbled in the science now, it was purely for entertainment. The knowledge had already been documented, hence it was decided they would make excellent soldiers—once all the free will had been extracted from them, of course.