Azel was surprised to hear Exotin because it wasn't something that should have existed yet.
In the game, Exotin only appeared much later… after Naelia had been captured and drained of nearly all her royal blood.
Her body had been found by her family and from that tragedy came something even worse.
Scientists from a rival Empire had taken samples of her blood and used it to fuel a forbidden summoning.
They succeeded in calling forth a dragon that burned Starbloom Castle to ash. The real horror was the dragon but there was something they had done alongside that horror…
It was the drug.
They called it Exotin.
The plan behind it had been terrifyingly efficient.
Introduce it to small and isolated human towns.
Let the people taste it once, twice and again… let them crave it, and depend on it.
The more they took, the deeper the drug fused with their blood.
Eventually, those who consumed it would lose control of their minds and become empty shells.
