"Queen Mother, sedate and store away these 3 for now." Alex said after he finished talking with Alina. "Keep them asleep until later. Oh, and make sure that you will not, in any circumstances, allow Nero or Anya to wake up, unless I told you so. We will be f**ked if that happens…"

"I understand, Alex." Queen Mother replied quickly as 3 leaf bundles appeared, wrapping Nero, Anya, and Eris' bodies until they all just looked like the Symbolists that Alex had captured before.

Alex watched as their unconscious bodies were dragged away, presumably being stored to where all their captives were placed.

Alina, who was watching what was happening with narrowed eyes, stared at Alex as she asked him,

"Alex, are you sure that you don't want to talk to Nero or Anya right now? We need to obtain some information from them…"

"Oh, don't worry about that Alina. We can deal with those two later." Alex replied as he waved his hand dismissively. "For now, I am planning to do something else, which in my opinion is also very important to us."

"Alex, you…" Alina's voice trailed as she looked at Alex with intrigue, as if she had already realized what Alex planned to do now.

"To the lair we go!" Alex declared as he marched towards the wooden house located 20 meters away from them.

The wooden house seemed to be just like normal house, with nothing weird being seen from it.

"Creak…" Alex gently opened the door of the wooden house, and once they entered, he and Alina saw both Kiera and her grandfather in the living room, playing some kind of board game.

The pair looked up from their board game as they stared at Alex directly.

"Big bro, are you going to your lair again?" Kiera asked Alex as she gave Alex an excited look. "Can I join you too?"

"No Kiera, I will not bring you inside my lair." Alex replied as he walked past Kierra and her grandfather. "I call that place my lair because it contains things that are not suited for children like you. So, just behave, and stay with your grandpa here."

"Muu…" Alex ignored Kiera's disappointed face as he and Alina continued wandering inside the wooden house.

They took 10 more steps until they stopped in front of a bookshelf filled with books.

"Rustle, rustle…"

Alex pulled out some books in bookshelf, and then rearranged those books until he and Alina heard an unmistakable clicking sound from the bookshelf.

"Rumble…"

Once they heard this clicking sound, the bookshelf started to move, with it opening like a door.

A few seconds later, and Alex found himself not staring at a bookshelf, but rather at a dark passageway.

"Alex, do you really have to make the entrance to your lair to be like this?" Alina, who seemed to be not that enthused with Alex's methods, narrowed her eyes as she stared at the dark passageway with a fed-up expression on her face. "You can just place a door here, and lock it with some enchantments… Do you really need to use a bookshelf entrance?"

"Alina, you don't know the appeal of using a bookshelf as the entrance to a lair." Alex replied as he shook his head. "It just feels cooler to do it this way! Well, this is my lair, so maybe it is hard for you to understand what I feel…"

"…" Judging from the expression on Alina's face, it could be seen that she was not impressed about what Alex said at all.

"Ehem." Alex had to let out a cough to dispel his awkwardness as he and Alina entered the dark passageway.

"Thud."

The bookshelf shut itself as they went in, bringing it back to the state that it was before.

***********

During the 3-week waiting time that Alex did along with Kiera and her grandpa, he created a large cavern underneath the house, which he called his lair.

It was here in this lair that Alex prepared the materials needed to recreate Professor Frances' body.

"Okay… now that I have all the materials for the body recreation, there's nothing else left to do but to recreate the body already." Alex declared as he and Alina reached the lair itself.

As they reached the lair, Alex could not help but stare at the center of the lair, as he looked at some kind of apparatus there.

At the center of the room, a large cauldron which was filled halfway with blue liquid could be seen.

Underneath the cauldron was a custom-made stove, which was letting out flames which heated the cauldron above it, and consecutively, the blue liquid too.

Alex watched as the bubbles from the blue liquid popped regularly, making him sigh a little in relief.

That blue liquid was another one of the reminders that Professor Frances gave to Alex before he destroyed her body.

She specifically gave Alex the recipe of that blue liquid, and she told him to create that blue liquid even before Alex could gather the materials needed to recreate the body.

The process of making this liquid was hard, so Alex was extremely relieved that nothing undesirable had happened to the blue liquid until now.

As he ascertained that the blue liquid was fine, Alex waved his hands as 4 objects appeared in front of him.

The first one was Professor Frances' head, which Alex placed in the table beside him.

The second one was a drum of soil, which Alex placed on his right side.

The third one was Igneus' corpse, perfectly preserved. Alex placed this on his left side.

The fourth and final object was a golden cup, and inside this cup, blood could be seen sloshing inside it.

Alex naturally held this cup in his hands, enjoying the way that the blood behaved inside it.

"…" Alina, who was watching Alex playing with the cup, could not help but grimace as she looked at it.

"Alex, that blood came from Anya, right?" Alina said as she averted her gaze away from the cup.

"Yeah, I obtained this from her earlier while she was fast asleep." Alex replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "You know, getting blood from a Celestial is much easier when they are unconscious… It saves me time and effort that I can use for other things."

"Yes, I can see that. But Alex, do you really have to make the cut on her thighs? Don't tell me that you just want to ogle at her legs…"

"Alina, its Queen Mother who gave that suggestion, I just followed it because it seems easier to do it that way…"

"Stare…"

"Ehem."

Alex had to let out another cough as he hastily tried to change the conversation.

"Well, now that I got this Celestial blood, all the ingredients that I need for the new body is already here." Alex said as he approached the cauldron.

"Complete? But you still have not done anything to the soil." Alina said as she tilted her head in confusion. "From what Professor Frances said, she needed three objects for her new body. First was a corpse filled with great vitality. That Devourer corpse fits that criteria. The second was blood filled with power. The Celestial blood is perfect for that. And the third and final objects is a drum of soil that contains a breath of life in it. Alex, what I can only see here is a drum of normal soil. There's no sense of any life here…"

"Oh, don't worry about this one." Alex replied as he looked at the passageway behind him. "Queen Mother already has a way to deal with this."

At the instant that Alex said these words, he and Alina saw Queen Mother appearing from the passageway, with her steps making her closer and closer to the lair.

"So, you will start the operation now. I still do not like doing this, but since you both trust that crazy woman, then I will just help you out." Queen Mother said as she peered at the drumful of soil. "So, this is the one?"

"Yes. Just pour some portion of your life force into that soil." Alex said as he placed Queen Mother's hand on top of the soil. "Of course, the more life force that you put into the soil, the better it will be. Just… stop when you think it is too much."

"Got it." As Queen Mother said these words, she suddenly started glowing green as some kind of green gas poured out of her hands.

This green gas fused itself with the soil, providing it with the 'vitality' that Alex was talking about.

The whole process lasted for a minute, with Queen Mother looking extremely fine.

"Yosh, now that we really have all the needed materials, it's time to cook!" Alex said as he picked up Igneus' corpse with his tentacles.

At this point, Alex started to recall Professor Frances' instructions, lest he suddenly messes it up here.

"Step 1, dump the corpse into the blue liquid." Alex said as he dropped Igneus' corpse into the blue liquid.

"Plop!"

With the size of the cauldron, it was able to accommodate Igneus' body. The corpse sank until it touched the bottom of the cauldron.

Seconds after the corpse was dipped in the blue liquid, harsh bubbling sounds could be heard as the corpse started to melt.

"Ugh. Step 2 wait until the corpse was turned into slush by the blue liquid." Alex said as he watched the continuous breakdown of the corpse.

He felt slightly squeamish, as what he was seeing right now reminded him of that infamous scene from the show Breaking Mad.

"Ugh, wipe away those bad memories." Alex muttered to himself as he shook his head. "Breaking Mad is a good show, you know."

Once there was only a thick, fleshy slush inside the cauldron, Alex let out a sigh as he approached it with the golden cup in this hand.

"Step 3, pour the blood on the slush, and mix them until the blood was fully integrated with the slush."

Alex then poured the blood on the slush, and then used a large spatula to forcefully mix the sticky and squelchy mixture.

"…" By this point, Alex was already feeling a little sick, but he decided to go on as he remembered the Professor saying that stopping right now will make the whole process fail.

When Alex thought that he had been mixing enough already, he stopped as one of this tentacles dragged the drum of soil nearer to him.

"Step 4, pour the soil into the cauldron, and just like what happened in step 3, mix them together until even distribution is achieved."

Alex faithfully followed these steps, and he only stopped when he thought that the mixture inside the cauldron was already homogenous.

"Step 5, increase the heat under the cauldron, around 500 Degrees Celsius." Alex followed this step too, and once he did that, he saw the mixture inside the cauldron glowing brightly.

"Holy s**t, so that mixture actually works?" Alex thought to himself as he looked at the glowing mixture with wonder. "Daaamnnn…"

At first, Alex thought that the mixture of the blue liquid, the soil, the corpse, and the blood, combined with the heat of the flames will only result in a kind of messy set-up.

But seeing the effects of what he did right now changed his somewhat pessimist outlook.

"Step 6, bury Professor Frances' head on the mixture. Once this was done, cover the cauldron and let it stay that way for 6 hours." Alex said as he picked up Professor Frances' head.

"…" As Alex held the head, he could not help but marvel at the head itself.

Even if the head was already separated from its body for a long time, it still did not decay, and it did not even show any signs of getting destroyed.

It was as if the head itself was extremely special, and that there could be more to it that what Alex can see.

Heck, Alex actually had the suspicion that maybe he can revive Professor Frances even if she was just a head.

Of course, Alex was not sure of that, so he just followed what Professor Frances told him to do.

"Thud."

With tentacles as swift as the wind itself, Alex rapidly dug a hole on the mixture, placed the head inside that hole, refilled that hole until the head was fully buried, and then closed the cauldron with its equally large cover.

"Now, all that we have to do is wait." Alex said as he sat on his favorite chair, with his tentacles behind him, making him look like an evil overlord.

Alex then threw his head backwards as he let out a laugh.

"Muhahahaha!"

"…"

"…"

It was already obvious that this evil laugh was Alex's attempt to look cool, but judging from the disappointed expressions on Alina and Queen Mother's faces, Alex did not look cool at all.