Chapter 433: Adaptation Screamed

Damon stared at Vorn.

Then at the chains around his wrists.

Then back at him.

"You’re going to have to explain that sentence very well."

Vorn smiled.

"I figured."

The mark on Damon’s arm pulsed.

The same response came from Vorn.

Not from any visible symbol.

From his entire body.

For an instant, dark-blue lines appeared beneath his skin.

Neck.

Arms.

Face.

Then they vanished.

Ester became serious.

"That isn’t a mark."

"No," Xue Lian replied.

She did not take her eyes off him.

"It’s incorporated."

Vorn spread his arms.

"Finally, someone here understands."

Damon drew his sword.

"Don’t celebrate."

Vorn looked at the blade.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it before you reached this room."

"You were imprisoned."

"Detail."

Damon let out a short laugh.

"You’re starting to sound like me."

"Maybe I learned."

Damon’s expression vanished.

"Don’t joke about that."

Vorn’s smile faded.

The false Seed on Damon’s arm pulsed again.

This time, the response was stronger.

Vorn arched his body.

The chains snapped taut.

Xue Mei stepped back.

Ester raised her needles.

Vorn took a deep breath.

"Interesting."

Damon closed his eyes.

"If you say that word one more time, I’m ripping your teeth out."

"That would be useless."

"I can test it."

Xue Lian stepped forward.

"When?"

Vorn looked at her.

"When what?"

"When did you stop being only a bearer?"

Silence.

His smile disappeared.

"I don’t know."

Damon noticed.

"That answer sounds true."

"Unfortunately."

Vorn raised his chained hands.

"I found the laboratory twenty-three years ago."

Ester looked at him.

"Before Arven."

"Yes."

"How long before?"

"Almost six years."

Damon went still.

Vorn continued.

"At the time, I thought it was an abandoned site for spiritual research. There were fragmented records, corpses, diagrams, circulation models."

"Adaptation," Xue Lian said.

"I didn’t know that name."

"But you recognized the function."

"I recognized an opportunity."

Damon snorted.

"Of course."

Vorn looked at him.

"You would have done the same."

"Not with children."

The answer came instantly.

Vorn fell silent.

Damon stepped closer.

"Continue."

Vorn looked toward the empty black tree.

"I found that first."

Xue Lian followed his gaze.

"The tree."

"I believed it was the core."

"But it wasn’t."

"No."

Vorn breathed.

"It was a mold."

Damon frowned.

"For what?"

"To teach a living structure to accept function."

Silence.

Xue Lian slowly turned her head.

"You entered it."

Vorn smiled without humor.

"Yes."

Ester closed her eyes.

"Of course."

"Nothing happened."

"The first time," Damon said.

Vorn looked at him.

"Exactly."

On Damon’s skin, the false Seed pulsed.

Vorn felt it.

"The second time, blood."

"Yours?"

"Yes."

"The third?"

"An animal."

Xue Lian became serious.

"Then people."

Vorn did not answer.

Damon already knew.

"Then children."

Silence.

"Yes."

Damon’s sword moved a centimeter.

Ester noticed.

"Damon."

"I’m controlling it."

"You always say that before you stop controlling it."

Vorn continued.

"I wanted to know why the structure responded differently to each organism."

Damon laughed without humor.

"You wanted to measure incompatibility."

"Yes."

"And then you started looking for increasingly incompatible organisms."

"Yes."

"Until you reached me."

Vorn looked directly at him.

"You were the first one who didn’t break."

The room fell silent.

Damon did not answer.

Vorn continued.

"All the others started being corrected."

"Corrected into what?" Ester asked.

"I didn’t know."

"You continued anyway."

"Yes."

Ester clenched her jaw.

"Naturally."

Vorn looked at Damon.

"But you didn’t."

"The mark didn’t try to correct me."

"Not at first."

Damon noticed.

"It observed."

"Yes."

"Learned."

"Yes."

Xue Lian looked at Vorn.

"Because there was already another structure inside you."

Vorn went still.

Damon turned.

"What?"

She pointed.

"He said he entered the mold."

Silence.

Xue Lian approached Vorn.

"You believed nothing happened."

"Because nothing changed."

"Physically."

Vorn did not answer.

"But the function recognized you."

Damon understood.

"He was the first vessel."

"No," Xue Lian replied.

She became serious.

"The first carrier."

Vorn looked at her.

His expression changed.

For the first time, there was discomfort.

"Explain."

"You entered a structure designed to teach organisms how to accept function. Then you spent years exposing other bodies to the same logic."

Damon followed the thought.

"And every time the function learned something..."

"Part of it returned to him."

Vorn became completely still.

Ester looked at the lines beneath his skin.

"So you weren’t only collecting data."

Xue Lian nodded.

"His body was storing corrections."

Vorn laughed.

Quietly.

Not happily.

"That would explain a few things."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Which ones?"

Vorn lifted his wrists.

The chains.

"This."

He pulled.

The metal deformed.

It did not break.

But it should have.

Ester became serious.

"You weren’t that strong."

"No."

Vorn looked at his own hand.

"I also stopped getting sick."

"When?"

"Almost ten years ago."

"Injuries?"

"Heal."

"Poison?"

"Works once."

Ester stopped.

So did Damon.

"Once?" he asked.

Vorn looked at him.

"After that, my body learns."

Silence.

Damon pointed at him.

"That sounds like information you should have mentioned earlier."

"I thought it was the result of my own experiments."

Damon started laughing.

Vorn frowned.

"What?"

"You spent decades thinking you were brilliant."

"I am brilliant."

"And a tree was doing half the work."

Vorn narrowed his eyes.

Xue Mei started laughing.

Even Xue Lian turned her face away.

Vorn looked offended.

Damon suppressed part of his smile.

"So where is the core?"

Vorn became serious again.

"I told you."

"You became one."

"Something close."

"I don’t like ’something close.’"

"Neither do I."

Vorn walked toward the center of the room.

The chains dragged behind him.

"Five years ago, I found a cavity inside the tree."

Damon looked at the empty opening.

"That one."

"Yes."

"Was it empty?"

"No."

Everyone went still.

Damon approached.

"What was inside?"

Vorn touched his own chest.

"This."

The mark on Damon’s arm exploded with pain.

He dropped to one knee.

"Damon!"

Ester reached him first.

Vorn arched his body at the same time.

Dark-blue lines appeared beneath his skin.

This time, they did not disappear.

They converged at the center of his chest.

An incomplete circle appeared.

Damon looked at it.

The same.

Not identical.

Larger.

More complete.

"Shit."

Xue Lian stepped back.

"It isn’t an implanted core."

Damon clenched his teeth.

"Then?"

"He dissolved it."

Vorn breathed heavily.

"Yes."

Damon raised his eyes.

"You ate the core?"

Vorn laughed despite the pain.

"No."

"Valid question."

"It entered me."

"How?"

"I touched it."

Damon closed his eyes.

"Of course."

Ester pointed at both of them.

"Separate. Now."

Damon tried to step back.

The false Seed pulled.

His body moved half a step forward on its own.

Vorn did the same.

Both stopped.

Xue Lian lost color.

"Return Protocol."

Damon looked at her.

"It’s trying to unite us."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Vorn answered.

"Because you carry what came out of me."

Silence.

Damon slowly raised his arm.

The mark.

The false Seed.

"My mark..."

"Was created from me."

Vorn smiled without humor.

"Every fragment implanted in my test subjects came from the structure my body produced."

Damon became serious.

"So there was never a second half."

"No."

"You were the origin."

"Yes."

Ester tightened her grip on the needles.

"Then we can remove Damon’s mark by destroying you."

Vorn looked at her.

"Maybe."

Damon sighed.

"Everyone learned that word."

Vorn looked at him again.

"But there is a problem."

"Of course."

"If you kill me now, the function will seek Continuity."

Damon froze.

So did Xue Lian.

"In me."

"Probably."

Damon closed his eyes.

"Wonderful."

Vorn smiled.

"You’re too compatible."

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t a compliment."

"Better."

The pressure between them increased.

Lines began appearing across the floor.

Not artificial symbols.

Routes.

Connecting Damon to Vorn.

Xue Lian ran toward the tree.

"Don’t let it complete!"

Ester threw needles.

Two struck Damon.

Two struck Vorn.

The flow slowed.

"This won’t hold!" she shouted.

Damon pulled his sword.

"Then we cut it."

Vorn laughed.

"Cut what?"

Damon looked at the lines on the floor.

"You."

He lunged.

Vorn dodged.

Too fast.

Damon turned the sword.

Vorn blocked with his forearm.

The blade cut.

Blood appeared.

For less than a second.

The wound closed.

Damon looked at it.

"This is going to get annoying."

Vorn smiled.

"I warned you."

Damon attacked again.

Faster.

Vorn retreated.

Another cut.

Another.

The third time, Vorn’s arm was not cut.

His skin hardened at the exact point of impact.

Damon stopped.

"Learned."

"Yes."

"Fast."

"Faster now."

Ester shouted.

"Don’t repeat attacks!"

Damon changed immediately.

A kick.

Vorn took it in the abdomen.

He was launched into the black tree.

The wood cracked.

He fell.

Got back up.

Damon advanced.

Vorn blocked the second kick.

"Already learned."

"I noticed."

Damon used ice.

A spear appeared.

Vorn dodged the first.

The second pierced his shoulder.

He screamed.

The third did not.

A blue layer covered his skin.

The spear shattered.

Xue Lian became serious.

"He isn’t only adapting the body."

"He’s adapting the response," Ester finished.

Damon smiled.

"Then I never use the same thing twice."

"Your arsenal isn’t infinite," Vorn replied.

Damon looked at him.

"Want to bet?"

Vorn lost his smile.

Damon advanced.

Vampiric strength.

Ice.

Lightning.

Sword.

Rapid changes.

Never repeating a pattern.

Vorn was hit.

Learned.

Blocked.

Was hit in another way.

The room began to be destroyed.

Xue Mei pulled her mother away when part of the ceiling collapsed.

Ester kept watching.

Not Vorn.

Damon.

"Stop!"

He did not listen.

"DAMON!"

He dodged a punch.

"What?!"

"He’s learning you!"

Damon stopped.

So did Vorn.

Silence.

Ester pointed.

"Every new thing you use becomes a new solution in his body."

Damon looked at Vorn.

Vorn smiled.

"Finally."

Damon let go of the sword.

Everyone froze.

Vorn frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"Stopping the lesson."

"That doesn’t solve anything."

"No."

Damon looked at the mark.

"But maybe I’ve been fighting the wrong target."

Xue Lian understood first.

"The function."

Damon nodded.

"He adapts because something defines inadequacy."

Vorn became serious.

"No."

Damon smiled.

"That was quick."

"You don’t know what you’re doing."

"I’ve heard that plenty."

He closed his eyes.

He did not attack Vorn.

He attacked his own mark.

Not with energy.

With definition.

The Fourth Door.

Refusal.

"I am not your destination."

The false Seed trembled.

So did Vorn.

"Stop."

Damon opened his eyes.

"We found it."

Vorn lunged.

Ester stepped between them.

A needle pierced his chest.

Vorn stopped.

Not because of pain.

Because his body did not know it yet.

Ester smiled.

"Once."

Damon placed his hand over the mark.

"I am not your vessel."

The line between them cracked.

Vorn dropped to one knee.

"You don’t understand!"

"Then explain while I keep going."

"Adaptation does not accept refusal!"

Xue Lian froze.

Damon smiled.

"It doesn’t need to."

Vorn looked at him.

"The network does."

Silence.

The black tree behind him trembled.

A white line appeared in the crack left by the impact.

Xue Lian’s eyes widened.

"The original network reached this place."

Damon looked at Vorn.

"You spent twenty-three years teaching a function to correct everything that didn’t serve."

The white line advanced through the tree.

"Now we’re going to find out what happens when someone decides they don’t need to be corrected."

Vorn tried to stand.

The chains around his wrists began to glow.

Not blue.

White.

He froze.

The voice did not come from the tree.

It came from the network itself.

ADAPTIVE STRUCTURE IDENTIFIED.

Damon smiled.

Vorn lost all color.

The second message appeared across the white lines.

UNAUTHORIZED EXTERNAL OBJECTIVE.

Vorn looked at Damon.

"You can’t let this continue."

"That sentence just made me want to even more."

The third came.

REQUESTING BEARER DEFINITION.

Everyone went still.

Damon stopped smiling.

Xue Lian became serious.

So did Vorn.

The network was not rejecting him immediately.

It was asking.

Damon looked at him.

"Bearer."

Vorn breathed with difficulty.

The white line climbed up the chains.

Reached his hands.

Waited.

Xue Lian understood.

"It’s giving him a choice."

Damon remained silent.

Vorn looked at his own skin.

The dark-blue lines pulsed beneath it.

Decades of experiments.

Corrections.

Adaptations.

Everything he had accumulated.

Everything he had mistaken for his own brilliance.

The network waited.

Then asked again.

DEFINE.

Vorn closed his eyes.

Damon watched him.

"Now it’s up to you."

Vorn laughed quietly.

Tired.

"You really intend to give me a choice after everything?"

Damon answered without hesitation.

"It isn’t my choice to give."

Vorn opened his eyes.

For the first time since Damon had known him, there was no arrogance.

Only fear.

And he looked at the white line across his own hands.

"I..."

He stopped.

The blue structure inside him reacted violently.

As though it knew what was coming.

Vorn clenched his teeth.

"I don’t want to continue like this."

The black tree cracked from top to bottom.

And Adaptation screamed.