Chapter 432: I Became One

Damon did not make it to the door.

Ester grabbed his clothes from behind.

"No."

He stopped.

"You’ve used that word too much today."

"So have you."

"With better results."

"Come back."

Damon looked over his shoulder.

"Ester."

"Jian Li just stabilized, you were almost chosen by two different cores, and you have an artificial structure using your arm as a compass."

"Exactly why—"

"Come back."

Damon stared at her for a few seconds.

Then returned.

"Five minutes."

"One hour."

"Ten."

"Thirty."

"Fifteen."

"Twenty."

"Deal."

Aria raised the notebook.

"That was frighteningly efficient."

"I’m learning," Ester replied.

Damon sat in a chair near the wall.

Elizabeth, who had been silently watching everything until then, finally approached.

"Does anyone intend to explain why a woman who was dying a few minutes ago is now alive because of a sword, an ancient network, and personal choices?"

Damon pointed at Aria.

"Short version."

Aria closed her eyes.

"I really became this."

"You’re good."

"I don’t know if that was a compliment."

"It was."

Aria took a deep breath.

While she explained, Damon looked at Jian Li.

The girl was exhausted, but conscious.

Jian Yue remained beside her.

Mu Qing stayed farther away.

Damon noticed something strange.

She did not try to approach.

Did not give instructions.

Did not correct Ester.

She simply watched Jian Li breathe.

Maybe that was progress.

The mark pulsed.

Damon pulled up his sleeve.

A blue line emerged from the artificial circle.

Not only direction.

Distance.

He felt it immediately.

"It’s clearer."

Xue Lian approached.

"How much?"

"I don’t know how to measure it exactly."

"But?"

Damon closed his eyes.

Arven appeared in his perception not as an image, but as a reference.

A distant point.

Deep.

Below ground level.

"Underground."

"Vorn had laboratories beneath the city?" Xue Lian asked.

"Some."

"This one?"

"No."

Damon opened his eyes.

"It’s much deeper."

Aria interrupted her explanation to Elizabeth.

"How much deeper?"

"I don’t know."

"Excellent."

Damon looked at her.

"You’re learning from me."

"Unfortunately."

Xue Lian continued analyzing the mark.

"The Return Protocol doesn’t only want to reach the core."

"Then what?"

"It wants to complete the circuit."

Damon became serious.

"My half finds the other."

"Yes."

"And then?"

"It probably stops needing to search."

"That sounds good."

"Because then it’ll be connected."

"Less good."

Ester pointed at him.

"Twenty minutes."

"I know."

"Seventeen now."

"You’re counting?"

"Yes."

Damon decided not to argue.

Twenty minutes later, they were in Elizabeth’s meeting room.

Jian Li remained in the quarters under supervision.

Jian Yue stayed with her.

Mu Qing did too.

That surprised everyone.

Including Mu Qing.

Damon did not comment.

At the table were Damon, Ester, Xue Lian, Aria, Elizabeth, Celina, and Chen Mo.

Xue Mei remained near her mother.

Yun Shuo had decided to stay in Mirath until he could confirm Jian Li would remain stable.

Elizabeth placed both hands on the table.

"So."

Damon looked at her.

"So?"

"You’re going to Arven."

"Yes."

"Today?"

Ester answered first.

"No."

Damon answered at the same time.

"Yes."

The two looked at each other.

Elizabeth sighed.

"Excellent."

Damon pointed toward his arm.

"This has already started."

"Started what?" Celina asked.

"Returning."

Aria pushed the notebook toward the center.

"Adaptation has an Anchor in Damon. The structure is trying to return to the original core."

Elizabeth read quickly.

"And if you simply don’t go?"

Damon looked at Xue Lian.

She answered.

"The connection may try to force a passage."

"How?"

"We don’t know."

Elizabeth stared at Damon.

"So you want to take it back to the origin before it tries something on its own."

"Yes."

"And you believe Vorn is there."

"Or was."

"He’s still imprisoned?"

Damon smiled.

"I hope so."

Ester closed her eyes.

"Don’t use that smile."

"What smile?"

"The one you make before doing something that makes someone wish they had never been born."

Elizabeth ignored them.

"Who’s going?"

Damon answered immediately.

"Me. Ester. Xue Lian. Aria."

"No," Xue Mei said.

Everyone looked at her.

She crossed her arms.

"I’m going."

Xue Lian became serious.

"Mei."

"You just left the Tomb for the first time in centuries."

"Exactly."

"And you think you’re going to cross half the continent alone with him?"

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"I’m right here."

"That’s part of the problem."

Aria laughed.

Xue Lian tried to keep a serious face.

Failed slightly.

"You don’t know if you can stay far away from the structure."

Xue Mei answered.

"Then we find out."

Xue Lian recognized her own words.

Damon smiled.

"That came back quickly."

She gave him a look.

"Silence."

Elizabeth continued.

"Chen Mo?"

He shook his head.

"I’m staying."

Damon looked at him.

"Why?"

"Mu Qing."

The answer was simple.

"She just lost practically everything she built over the last few centuries. Maybe she decides to accept that."

"And maybe?"

"Maybe she does something stupid."

Damon nodded.

"Fair."

Celina looked at Elizabeth.

"And me?"

"Stay with me."

"Expected that."

Elizabeth then looked at Damon.

"If you find something that threatens Mirath—"

"I destroy it."

"No."

Damon stopped.

Elizabeth became serious.

"You come back and tell me."

He thought.

"That seems less efficient."

"It also prevents you from awakening an eleventh core."

Aria raised one finger.

"Technically, we only know of ten."

"Don’t help."

"Sorry."

Not long after, the group was ready.

Damon.

Ester.

Xue Lian.

Xue Mei.

Aria.

Five.

The journey to Arven would not be long using the routes they already knew.

But the instant they left Mirath, the mark changed.

Damon stopped.

"What?" Ester asked.

He raised his arm.

The blue line pointing west bent.

"It isn’t following the road anymore."

Xue Lian looked.

"It’s creating its own path."

The false Seed pulsed.

The space ahead distorted.

Aria went still.

"That’s bad."

"Yes," Damon replied.

A blue line appeared in the air.

Vertical.

Then opened.

Not like a portal.

Like a cut.

On the other side was stone.

Dark.

Damp.

Damon recognized the smell.

Arven.

Not the city.

Underground.

Ester grabbed his arm.

"Don’t go through first."

"Why?"

"Because you always go through first."

"It’s usually useful."

Xue Lian approached the opening.

"This isn’t a normal portal."

"It’s the protocol."

"Yes."

Damon observed it.

The artificial path was directly connecting two Anchors.

"If we cross, we reach the core."

"Probably."

Aria sighed.

"That word again."

Xue Mei looked at the opening.

"And if we don’t cross?"

The false Seed pulsed.

The cut grew wider.

Damon pointed.

"It seems to have an opinion."

Ester pulled out a needle.

"I’ll go first."

Damon looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because I don’t have a mark."

"You also don’t have the ability to block something if it’s waiting on the other side."

"I have needles."

"That’s not an argument."

"And yet they’ve saved you several times."

Damon went quiet.

"Fair."

Xue Lian stepped through first.

Everyone looked at her.

She turned around on the other side.

"Safe."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"You just stole her job."

Xue Lian smiled.

"I’m free. I can make bad choices now."

Ester looked offended.

"Don’t encourage that."

They crossed.

The cut closed.

The silence changed immediately.

The place was underground.

Very deep.

Walls of black stone.

No windows.

No visible formations.

But Damon knew that architecture.

"Vorn."

Ester did too.

"Yes."

Aria created a small light.

A corridor.

Two doors.

A staircase descending.

Damon looked at the mark.

The line pointed down.

"Of course."

They started descending.

First level.

Empty.

Second.

Destroyed equipment.

Third.

Cells.

Damon stopped.

Small.

Many.

Ester became serious.

"I’ve never seen this part."

"Neither have I."

Xue Lian entered one of them.

There were marks on the floor.

Symbols.

Adaptation.

Not exactly the same as the core’s.

Simpler versions.

"Vorn tested here."

Damon closed his eyes.

"On children?"

Ester looked at the beds.

"Probably."

Xue Mei went pale.

Xue Lian held her hand.

Damon did not stay.

He kept going.

The fourth level had documents.

Aria practically stopped moving.

"No."

Damon looked at her.

"No?"

"You keep going. I’m staying."

Ester raised an eyebrow.

"You’re going to stay here alone?"

Aria pointed toward hundreds of notebooks.

"This could answer half our questions."

Damon looked at Xue Lian.

She nodded.

"Stay near the stairs."

Aria was already opening the first one.

"Gladly."

Damon kept descending.

The mark pulsed stronger.

Fifth level.

Nothing.

Sixth.

A large metal door.

Open.

Damon stopped.

"That’s new."

Ester looked.

"You know it?"

"This door was closed when we captured Vorn."

"You tried to open it?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Violence."

"Naturally."

Xue Lian approached.

"It was opened from the inside."

Damon became serious.

They entered.

The room was enormous.

At the center was a chair.

Restraints.

Cables.

A blue circle on the floor.

And a table.

On it, a single sheet of paper.

Damon picked it up.

Vorn’s handwriting.

He recognized it immediately.

DAY 4,312

THE STRUCTURE RESPONDED AGAIN.

NOT TO ENERGY. NOT TO BLOOD. TO FAILURE.

Damon kept reading.

THE MORE INCOMPATIBLE THE ORGANISM, THE STRONGER THE RESPONSE.

IT DOES NOT CORRECT WHAT IS BROKEN.

IT CORRECTS WHAT IT CONSIDERS UNSUITABLE FOR THE OBJECTIVE.

Xue Lian became serious.

"Objective defined by whom?"

Damon turned the page.

There was only one sentence on the back.

I STILL HAVEN’T DISCOVERED WHO CHOSE THE OBJECTIVE.

Ester looked at him.

"Vorn knew."

"That something existed above him."

"Yes."

Xue Mei approached the chair.

"There’s blood."

"Old," Ester replied.

Damon closed his eyes.

The mark pulled.

Not downward.

Toward the wall.

He turned.

Ordinary stone.

The false Seed pulsed.

A blue line appeared.

The wall opened.

Without a sound.

Behind it was another corridor.

Damon smiled without humor.

"He never found it."

Xue Lian understood.

"He found the laboratory."

"But not the core."

"And the mark is taking us beyond where Vorn reached."

They continued.

The corridor ended quickly.

A chamber.

Small.

Circular.

At the center stood a tree.

Not white.

Black.

Smaller than the one in the Tomb.

Dry.

Artificial.

Damon went still.

So did Xue Lian.

"That is..."

"A copy."

At the center of the trunk was an opening.

Empty.

Ester looked at Damon.

"The core isn’t here."

His mark pulsed.

It did not point to the tree.

It pointed to the floor.

Damon approached.

Knelt.

There were scratches on the stone.

Recent.

Something heavy had been removed.

Xue Lian touched the edge.

"It was taken."

Damon looked at her.

"When?"

"I don’t know."

Then they heard footsteps.

Behind them.

Slow.

Damon stood.

Ester drew her needles.

Xue Lian turned.

Xue Mei moved beside her mother.

A figure appeared in the corridor.

Thin.

Dark clothes.

Hands chained.

Hollow eyes.

Damon went still.

"Vorn."

The man stopped.

Looked at Damon.

Then at Xue Lian.

Then at the empty tree.

And started laughing.

Damon did not smile.

"You look happy."

Vorn raised his chained hands.

"Because it finally happened."

"What?"

He pointed toward Damon’s arm.

The false Seed was glowing.

"It came back."

Damon looked at the empty tree.

"No."

Vorn smiled.

"You still don’t understand."

The mark burned.

Hard.

Damon lowered his gaze.

The dark-blue lines stopped pointing at the floor.

They turned.

Toward Vorn.

Ester froze.

So did Xue Lian.

Damon slowly raised his eyes.

Vorn spread his arms.

"I didn’t find Adaptation’s core."

His smile widened.

"I became one."