Ghideon did not respond to Rowena's warning, although he obviously could not hear her. His hand remained pressed against the tank while the open scars across his chest drew in the blood gathered inside the channels. The liquid climbed his legs in thick streams, entered through the wounds, and passed through his muscles like fuel being injected directly into a machine. At the same time, the gigantic body trapped behind the glass began losing volume. The darkened skin sank over the bones, the muscles dissolved into red strands, and the contaminated lunar energy slowly abandoned the corpse to feed Ghideon.
Victor understood the process before Rowena explained it. Ghideon did not intend to release the creature inside the tank. It was only a reserve. A body preserved for who knew how many years, maintained somewhere between life and death so that every part of it could be used when the other experiments were no longer enough.
