Happiness Brand Cola

Shadowmeld's predecessor had been an ordinary fisherman from the Radiant Land, one of the nations ruled by the Nemasas Bloodline in the Blazing Flame Lands.

Because of the Empire's biological warfare offensive, the coastal fisheries of the Radiant Land had nearly been wiped out completely, the fish stocks annihilated.

A tide of crimson toxic algae had swept across hundreds of kilometers of coastline. His hometown had gone utterly bankrupt. Countless fishermen stared at the blood-red sea, wanting to weep but finding no tears.

Although Terra's oceans possessed a self-purification capacity so rapid it was unsettling, the red toxic algae had been a biological weapon the Empire specifically developed against the Blazing Flame Lands. The red tide had lasted nearly a month, severely devastating production along the Blazing Flame Lands' coast.

A month was enough for many things to happen.

For example, a family might be driven into a corner by disaster. A fisherman still needing to feed his family could only sell himself to the Nemasas Primal Stone Research Institute, becoming an experimental subject in exchange for food and money so his family could survive.

In the laboratory, he underwent all manner of trials and torment that could only be called cruel. In the end, he was determined to possess a certain talent for psionics.

Because of that talent, his battered body was not dismantled for use as raw material in other experiments. Instead, he was sent to the "Psionic Awakening Experimental Group" for further testing.

And there, he received highly unusual "treatment."

Every nation on Terra had its own psionic awakening experiments. The Empire used the "deduction method," employing encounters that seemed like sheer coincidence to catalyze the "subject's" emotions step by step. When they reached utter despair, or swung from profound grief to joy, from great joy to