In the laboratory, Sein had secured Leena to the experimental table and was looking down at her with cold disdain.

To ensure the experiment proceeded smoothly, Leena had been stripped completely bare.

Intricate chains of runes restrained her wrists, thighs, shoulder blades, and back.

Against her pale skin, the black runes gave her an almost decadent, unsettling allure.

Yet the one bound to the experimental table was not truly “Leena”, but Mikaeli.

This old hag had just refused to cooperate with Sein and chosen stubborn resistance instead.

“Hmph! When I was making my name in Blackhaven, you were probably still wandering through some backwater magic academy, boy. You think your petty tricks can fool me?” Mikaeli sneered.

Mikaeli was tens of thousands of years old. Tricking an old witch like her and a fellow seeker of truth was never going to be easy.

In a place like Blackhaven, what kind of tricks had she not seen before?

In truth, even if Sein had tried to reason with her through fair and proper negotiation, this old hag would never have trusted him so easily.

A heart that had long been steeped in darkness would always instinctively turn toward negativity in both thought and action.

On top of that, the terms Mikaeli had proposed were outrageous.

To protect herself, she refused under any circumstances to withdraw from Leena’s soul.

Worse still, she demanded that Sein sign a soul contract binding his spirit to hers before she would even “consider” continuing the negotiation.

The audacity!

Mikaeli clearly had not understood that she was the fish on the chopping block, not Sein.

If Sein wanted this old hag to face reality, he needed to teach her a lesson and show her exactly what a body-tempering mage was capable of.

“Since this body is shared by two souls, every sensation—pain, numbness, tingling—will be passed on to you as well,” Sein said. “I’ll let you sample some of the new equipment in my lab next. Let me see... which one should we start with?”

His eyes swept across the tools lining the walls.

Mikaeli let out a smug chuckle. “You said it yourself—this body is shared. Your precious little darling will feel every bit of this pain too!”

“Come on, then, if you can bear to hurt Leena! She will suffer with me!” the old hag shrieked hysterically.

Sein looked at Mikaeli with undisguised contempt and weary impatience. “I’m putting you through body-tempering experiments. Do you even know what they are?”

“The early stages of body tempering are extremely painful, but the end result is worth it. Leena’s constitution will improve greatly. Not only will her body become stronger, but you will also be sharing half the pain. I’d say that’s a good thing for Leena as well.” Sein stroked his chin as though giving the matter serious thought.

His explanation made Mikaeli’s eye twitch.

Indeed, it seemed Leena would be the one to benefit most.

Mikaeli would effectively endure half the torment on Leena’s behalf, yet gain nothing from it. Her own flesh had long since decayed and vanished, and the body she now occupied belonged to Leena.

It would be a different story altogether if she could seize the body and truly make Leena’s body her own.

But that was clearly impossible.

Sein would be watching her at all times. On top of that, the magic chains Feylis had left on Leena’s body before leaving caused Mikaeli constant pain and severe restraint.

At most, Mikaeli could only control about a third of Leena’s body now.

She could not even draw much of her own Cinderbone Flame power.

“Hmph. How bad can body-tempering experiments be? I’ve survived things far worse than this! Go ahead!” Mikaeli shot back.

Sein found it impossible to reason with someone like her, so he simply gave her what she wanted....

As for the body-tempering experiments, Sein had already discussed them with Leena while she was still in control of the body.

Leena had, of course, agreed without hesitation. In fact, whatever Sein wanted to do, she would support unconditionally.

When it came to endurance, Leena stood out even among Blackhaven’s many black mages.

Otherwise, she would never have risen so quickly after arriving in Blackhaven.

From the final results alone, a stronger physique was clearly a good thing for her as well.

She did not need to reach Sein’s level of physical constitution, but if she could surpass the typical constitution of a Rank Four mage, she would have far more trump cards and many more ways to protect herself during the Clash of Civilizations.

The process, however, was horrifying.

Since Mikaeli was the one currently in control, Sein saw no reason to show any mercy.

Whether it was the potions he administered or the tools he used, Sein had chosen nothing beginner-friendly.

Yet throughout the entire agonizing process, Mikaeli showed not the slightest sign of begging for mercy. If anything, she still had enough strength left to curse Sein and sneer at him.

That left Sein both surprised and irritated. He even began to wonder whether he had been too soft on her.

That should not have been the case. Sein had calibrated everything according to the physical limits of a Rank Four mage, and he understood Leena’s bodily condition in meticulous detail.

Even with Mikaeli’s Rank Five soul, this level of “torment” should have been more than enough to push a black mage who had never undergone body tempering before to her limits.

So how was this woman still so full of energy?!

As Sein stared at her flushed face and the puddle gathering between her legs, he suddenly remembered one of his former test subjects—Jessica.

“...You’re not actually enjoying this experiment, are you?” Sein asked, visibly stunned.

By now, Mikaeli had been twisted by Sein into an extremely awkward position. She was likely still half-dazed from the body-tempering process and did not immediately register his words.

But when she finally realized what he had said, her reaction became even more frenzied than before.

“You little bastard! What nonsense are you spouting?!” Mikaeli shrieked.

“I’ll drag you back to Blackhaven and turn you into an undead specimen! I’ll have your soul burn in my Cinderbone Flames for ten thousand years!” she screamed, struggling like a madwoman.

This was the scene Reina walked in on when she entered Sein’s laboratory.

Still, for all Mikaeli’s madness, Sein found it difficult to feel much real malice toward her now that she was inhabiting Leena’s body.

If anything, the opposite was true.

Having been apart from Leena for so long, Sein found himself stirred by the alluring body before him.

And after the body-tempering experiments she had gone through, Leena’s body now glistened with fragrant sweat, giving her a healthy, strangely captivating charm.

“What are you doing?!” Mikaeli snapped, suddenly alarmed as she sensed the shift in the atmosphere and noticed the tent Sein had quietly pitched beneath his robe.

What a ridiculous old hag. During the body-tempering experiments, no matter how much torment Sein put her through, she had shown no fear at all. Now, she was acting like a startled bird.

Could it be that, despite living for tens of thousands of years, this witch had never done that with anyone?