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Wilhelm Roman was born into a wealthy family in the country of Reven. He grew up having more or less everything he could ever want. He had good looks, money, intelligence and a great deal of aptitude towards the sciences. He excelled in his schooling, showing a great deal of interest in the nature of magical production. His high social standing and capable nature made him a prime target for recruitment into the Reven government upon his graduation from college. Thanks to his particular interest, the higher ups directed him towards working on some of the artifacts recovered during the war with Marai. It was there, in the laboratories of Reven where he met his wife for the first time.
Natalia Grace was another researcher of the recovered magic artifacts, and much like Wilhelm, she possessed the same zeal and desire for knowledge that he did. I won't bore you with trying to establish the obvious, other than tell you the two fell in love.
Less than a year after Wilhem's arrival at the science labs of Reven, he and Natalia were engaged to be wed. The two were happy, with a shared passion both for their work together and for each other. Less than three months after the wedding, the two announced to their lab team that Natalia was with child, and there was a great deal of celebration amongst the team. When their daughter was born, the two were overjoyed.
Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to last.
When their daughter Anastasia was barely four years old, Natalia came down with a sickness. It was hard to say what caused it; perhaps it was bad luck or just unfortunate timing, or maybe it had something to do with the new breakthrough the two lovers had made recently regarding certain magical items. Regardless, Natalia Roman spent several weeks bedridden, unable to move or eat. Despite Wilhelm's best efforts, she only seemed to get worse over time. With no cure or relief for her illness, she died, leaving behind a grieving husband and a child who was to young to truly understand what had happened.
Although distraught, Wilhelm came to a realization. He had worked with magic and science all his life. He had seen it conjure sparks of flame, bolts of lightning, even allow those who used it to fly. Who was to say that there wasn't some power that could allow him to pierce into the veil of death to reclaim what was stolen from him?
Thus, Dr. Roman rebranded his research team, dedicating their studies to investigations into the afterlife. It took some convincing to get the higher-ups on board, but a little money in the pockets of the right people made all the difference. Soon, his team's investigations began.
Over the next few years, Wilhelm grew distant as he became busier and more focused on his work. Little Anastasia was unable to figure out why her father seemed so distant, or why he was and unwilling to play with her. Before, he was always willing to indulge her in almost anything: piggyback rides, playing with her toys, anything she wanted. Now, he usually just left that up to the nanny he had hired for her.
Anastasia spent most of her early years learning from a private tutor and being taken care of by some old woman who her father had bought out with his wealth. She hated it; she wanted to spend time with her dad, not some grouchy old school teacher. So when she turned 10 and her father finally asked her to come in to work with him one day, she was extremely excited to finally spend some time with him outside of their rare meals together. Her enthusiasm and desperation for attention easily overpowered the sense of unease she felt in the back of her mind as he led her through his lab.
Her father's lab was filled with older men she didn't recognize, all in dark suits and lab coats and glasses. The few that scientists she did know from times they had visited her father all seemed on edge, although they did their best to hide it and smiled at her. By the time that Anastasia and her father arrived at his lab, she was beginning to have second thoughts about agreeing to come in with him.
Anastasia was unaware of her father's real reason for bringing her. It had been close to 6 years since his wife's death, and greasing the palms of his superiors could only buy him so much time, especially when his paranormal pet project had yet to produce any tangible results. When the suits had come to him demanding to see something worth their investments, he realized he had little choice; he would have to push the first human test with the possession machine forward.
Wilhelm had initially planned to use his untested machine to allow himself to be possessed by the spirit of his departed wife, but due to the limitations of the tech, the vessel needed a blood relation to the intended spirit—or so his tests had led him to assume. He still couldn't be sure, but now, he was out of time. Wilhelm tried to convince the Reven military higher ups that he only needed a month or two more, but his "money sink of a project" had gone on too long with any actual results.
So here he was, risking the life of his daughter on a gamble to ensure more funding.
Wilhelm led his daughter to the strange machine's seat. It looked more like an execution device than anything else. Wilhelm told her to hold still, promising that once the test was over, he'd take her out for ice cream. He hoped that would be enough to keep Anastasia's mind occupied while he got the machine working.
Looking at the machine's controls, Wilhelm considered calibrating it to try and find his wife. Right now, though, with his funding on the line, he deemed it too risky. Besides, if something went wrong, he might never be able to get the project working again, and his research had shown the recently dead were far harder to contact (though he had yet to figure out why). He finally settled on his own grandmother, a woman who had been dead for close to 30 years now. It would be less unsettling, Wilhelm thought, to hear the voice of an old woman coming out of his daughter, as opposed to an old man or some other long-dead relative. At last, after making the necessary preparations to showcase his work to the observing Reven higher ups, Wilhelm Roman began his final experiment.
"Gentlemen," Wilhelm said in a tone of feigned confidence. "I would like to welcome you all to the first human trial of our Possession Machine. This project started with a simple idea: what if we could contact those who came before us and learn the secrets of the past from those who actually lived it?"
Wilhelm slowly and cautiously stumbled through his presentation. He lied a great deal during it, doing his best to claim that the project was for "helping master the ancient technology" and "the manipulation of the spirit realm for Reven's benefit." Truth be told, he couldn't give any less of a shit about Reven; he simply wanted his wife back. In his eyes, this sacrifice from his daughter was a small price to pay.
As he continued with his speech, Wilhelm hoped that his talk of "soldiers with the knowledge and abilities of ancient warriors" would be enough to convince the more tactically-minded members who sat before him. He had definitely caught the attention of a few of them, but those who he worked under directly remained unconvinced. Regardless, he knew he could not delay his demonstration any longer and decided to bite the bullet, leading the group of executives to the main workspace of his lab.
"Status on energy levels?" Wilhelm asked his assistant as he led the suits into the main lab.
"Power is holding stable sir," his assistant responded. "Our subject has been sitting quietly for a few minutes now. We should be ready soon."
Wilhelm spent another minute checking one of the components of the hulking behemoth of a device in front of them, but couldn't delay much longer. He shuddered in anticipation; the combination of science and magic that was about to take place would put his name in every history book for the rest of time, but at this point he cared little about that. What he stood to gain if he truly succeeded, and what he could lose if something went wrong, weighed on his mind as he prepared to start the test. Ironically, he never once questioned the morality of hooking a 10 year old girl to a device that would imbue her mind with those of the dead. Perhaps if he had, things might have gone differently. But alas, there he stood, ready to activate his magnum opus.
With the blinds on the lab's windows drawn and all the proper magical shielding in place, Wilhelm threw the switch to active the spiritual connection in his daughter's mind... and then all hell broke loose.
No one is quite certain what exactly caused things to go wrong with Dr. Roman's experiment. Perhaps it was Anastasia's nervousness about being strapped into what looked like an electric chair. Perhaps it was the fact that her young mind couldn't maintain control over the spirit that entered it. Perhaps the failure came from the machine's faulty spirit identification system, causing the invoked spirit to be far different from the expected soul (that of Anastasia's loving grandmother). Perhaps the failure came simply from one of the nervous assistants, who, in their haste, made a mistake or two in the machine's calibrations. Regardless, things did go wrong, and Wilhelm Roman noticed it almost immediately.
The lever was pulled, and the machine whirred to life. It began to draw in electricity, emitting hot steam as the magic powering the machine began to work. The lights flickered and dimmed as the machine's gears spun faster and faster, pulling almost all of the lab's energy just to work.
Then came Anastasia's scream. The whole lab building could hear it as the girl they had strapped into their mechanical death trap began to screech like a banshee. Whether it was from fear or the pain was unclear, but Wilhelm refused to stop now. He knew it would work, he reassured himself, his daughter just had to tough it out for a few more seconds.
Those few seconds turned into ten, then twenty, then thirty as the gauge on the device crept slowly to the test's completion. All the while, the poor girl screamed as she was wracked with a pain unlike anything she had ever felt.
Anastasia's head was killing her. The machine's energy coursing through her felt like thousands of tiny needles piercing into her scalp over and over. Every part of her body was on fire; tears rolled down her face as she thrashed about, trying desperately to free herself from the chair her father had strapped herself too.
"That's right," she heard a voice that almost sounded like her own. "Your father, he's the one who did this to you."
Were it not for the unbearable pain wracking Anastasia's body, she might have questioned the fact that she could hear someone speaking in her own voice. But in that moment, she wanted nothing more than relief, some kind of end to this pain.
"He knew this would happen, you know. He was all to willing to let this happen to you," the voice that wasn't quite hers continued in her head. "He wanted this to happen, to hurt you. He's never really loved you, has he?" The new voice of hers continued. "You know it to be true. Why bother vying for his love at all? He'll never give it to you. Besides, you don't really need it."
Anastasia's veins, head, and nerves pulsed with the electricity. Everything hurt, and now, all she wanted was for it to stop.
"So why don't you get up from this little chair... and show him just how much you don't need him anymore? Why don't you show him that he doesn't deserve you anymore?"
At last, Anastasia cracked. Her screaming stopped, and that magical, electrical energy that was being pumped into her head exploded outward, reducing the machine she was bound to into a pile of dust and rubble.
Dr Roman had no idea what had happened. The machine had exploded, but his daughter was nowhere to be seen in the smoking rubble in the middle of his lab. His last six years of work... gone in an instant.
As the dust began to clear, Wilhelm scanned the room, hoping to find any trace of his daughter. The remnants of the destroyed machine and the magic artifacts powering it were strewn about, covering both the walls and floor of the lab. The broken and flashing lights made it nearly impossible to see. After a few seconds, Wilhelm's fears about his daughter were forgotten as one of his colleagues screamed in pain behind him.
He turned to look, only to see the poor man's body contorting into a bloody mess, bones cracking and bending in ways no human should be able to move. As Wilhelm narrowed his eyes, he saw a ghostly hand wrapped around his friend, stretching out from somewhere in the smoky air above him. This phantom limb seemed to snap and mercilessly crush the man into a pulp. As Wilhelm's eyes followed the wispy strand to the ceiling, he saw her.
Anastasia crawled across the ceiling on all fours, her head turned to look down below her. Her face was twisted into a smile that was almost like a grimace. From her back, eight of those ghostly hands had sprouted, and each was launching towards the scientists and military personnel still standing in the room, dazed by the explosion. A hand caught one of the suits and slowly tore his legs off as he screamed, as if taking a cruel pleasure in his suffering. Another pierced through the chest of one of his assistants, slowly clawing apart her stomach and intestines from the inside. All around the room was horror and violence, and Wilhelm's daughter seemed to be reveling in it. What once was her scream was now a deranged cackle, a terrifying voice that didn't match her small body at all.
Wilhelm was paralyzed. What had he done? Only now, after everything had gone wrong, had he realized the folly of what he'd done to his daughter. Perhaps he deserved this, whatever punishment this horror was, for being so willing to sacrifice his own flesh and blood in pursuit of his goal.
And yet, in spite of the carnage around him, Anastasia wasn't touching him. Perhaps she was still in there somehow? Perhaps she could be fixed? He had come this far; maybe he could save her and perfect the machine still?
"No... No, maybe another day," Wilhelm muttered to himself. "I need to get out of here while she's still occupied. Maybe then, I can..."
His thoughts were interrupted by that cackling voice coming from Anastasia's mouth. Just as he was about to back out through the door it, spoke to him.
"Where do you think you're going, old man?" it spoke in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used in centuries.
Wilhelm slowly turned his head to face the creature occupying his daughter's body. It had descended to the ground and was using those same ghostly hands to walk across the floor, not quite letting Anastasia's feet touch the ground.
As it approached him, Wilhelm cautiously surveyed the room. Everyone else was dead, each killed in a creatively more brutal way than the last. Dr. Roman tried to form words, but his voice caught in the back of his throat. He was terrified, unable to get the words out.
When the thing was finally within arms length of him, it spoke again.
"I asked you a question, doctor." Again, in that same deep voice, it spoke. "Where. Do. You. Think. You're. Going?"
With barely a thought left in his head except his overwhelming fear, Wilhelm Roman ran, fleeing down the hall out of the lab and away from the monster his daughter had become.
Roman ran with all the strength his tired legs could muster. He could hear the scuttling of something behind him, but he dared not look back for fear of what he might see. The lab building he worked in was a maze of different test chambers; he had hoped that he might be able to lose the monster thanks to his knowledge of the building layout, but with a quick gaze behind him in the hopes that he was beginning to lose it, he saw just how fast this monster could be.
Anastasia's body hung half-limp from the hands that now clawed their way down the hall. Her body seemed almost like the abdomen of a spider, the many ghostly hands acting as its legs. She laughed on and on in that same strange voice as she approached Wilhelm with maddening speed. He couldn't lose it, but he thought he might be able to make it to the door at the end of the hall. He still had his keys; he would be able to lock it out. With his adrenaline pushing him as hard as he could, he sprinted to the door, slamming it as fast as he could and switching the dead bolt.
Dr. Roman stopped for a brief moment to look around the room he was in. It was one of the rooms for researching recovered artifacts; this one was for some kind of magic lamp, if his memory was correct. Nothing in the room could help him, he realized quickly, and his options now were limited.
He was underground now, with no windows. The only way out was back the way he came. Wilhelm wished he had chosen a different room, or at least a room with some sort of weapon he could use to repel Anastasia, but his panic had led him in here. He half expected her to begin banging on the door or attempting to break it down, yet it was mysteriously silent.
The silence almost scared him more. That monster clearly wanted him dead, so why wasn't it trying to get in? What could it be doing? Wilhelm's lack of insight gave way to paranoia. What if it doesn't need to use doors? What if it could teleport somehow? What if its maneuvering through the vents to take him off guard?
All sorts of thoughts whirled in his head as the silence outside the door dragged on. He waited, not moving, not making a sound, paralyzed by the fear of this creature that was controlling his daughter. The only noise that could be heard was the ticking of this room's clock and the very distant alarm sound from the other side of the building. Seconds turned into a minute, then two. Still, nothing came from outside.
Finally, Wilhelm could stand the suspense no longer. He slowly crept to the door and looked out through the small glass window at its top. He could see nothing but the destroyed hallway, torn up in the path the creature had taken. Maybe it really was gone?
Slowly, he opened the door just a crack to check the window's blind spots. Still, there was nothing there. Terror gripped him. Where had it gone?
Trying to avoid making noise, Wilhelm slowly crept down the hall, trying to head towards the exit, ready to jump at any tiny sound.
As Wilhelm rounded the corner to the lab's main exit, he was overjoyed to see the place completely untouched. The creature hadn't made its way through here yet. He let his excitement at the possibility of escape overtake him as he rushed to the doors to unlock them.
Then, he felt a strange cold sensation building in his chest. As the locked door clicked open, he felt as though he couldn't move, paralyzed as if by that same sense of dread. Slowly, he turned his head to look behind him.
There Anastasia stood, one of her ghostly limbs piercing into his back. He heard it speak again, in that same wretched voice.
"Thank you ever so much for showing us out and unlocking the door, Father." The last word dripped with malice. "It was ever so kind of you."
Another of the hands grabbed the door to prevent it from closing and locking automatically again.
"But now, I feel like you could do me one more tiny little favor," the thing spoke again.
Dr. Roman gulped; he knew what was coming. He knew he couldn't escape it.
"Do you think you could please..." the horrible voice said again. Then it shifted into a voice he recognized: the voice of his daughter. "...please just die?"
With those words, he felt the spectral hand grip his heart, stopping it from beating. He slowly fell to his knees, choking on the realization: this wasn't just a monster. This was his daughter as well.
And with that final thought in his mind, Wilhelm Roman died.
Reven Military Report RE: Roman Labs Incident at DSB:
Total Casualties: 47 scientists, including Dr. Roman himself, 6 high ranking executives from various sects of the Reven Military who were called in for a demonstration by Dr. Roman, and 20 military guard personnel, equaling a total of 73 total dead. Not found among the dead was Roman's daughter, who apparently played a major part in the experiment.
Attempted readings of the security stones resulted in failure. All recordings cut off at 6:30 pm, the same time Dr. Roman's experiment was set to begin.
All documents regarding Dr Roman's experiment were burned in the incident, implying someone expected us and wished to cover their tracks. Thanks to the outcome of the experiment, reclamation of any documents regarding Roman's machine and its creation are considered top priority.
If the girl is still alive, she is to be captured and returned to military headquarters for interrogation.