Chapter 276: It will never consume you

"Have a good first day at school, Myles."

The boy looked back at the man, giving him a small nod.

"Yes, uncle."

He closed the door behind him and walked down the front steps.

It was his first day of middle school.

He was no longer a little child.

He had grown considerably, although his mannerisms had changed very little. He still spoke calmly, still performed the expressions expected of him, and still found most ordinary social interactions unnecessary. The difference was that he no longer needed to be taught how to imitate them.

There was very little left for him to learn.

During those years, he had managed to recruit two additional members: Alexis and Estelle. Both were second generations, and, fortunately, possessed precisely the abilities he needed.

Estelle had an extraordinary capacity for processing information. Her ability, which they referred to as power-braining, allowed her to analyse complex systems and calculate outcomes at a speed far beyond ordinary human cognition.

Alexis, on the other hand, was an exceptionally strong and physically capable fighter. His abilities were different from his, but his leg strength and durability made him a valuable addition.

They were sufficient for the time being. Although, preferably, he also wanted to recruit a certain someone, that has been hunted for over ten years.

The name of this person wasn’t clear but apparently, they could perceive some things even second generation couldn’t.

The boy wasn’t sure what specifically, but he assumes it’s connected to higher dimensions.

There were approximately seven to eight years left before the predicted beginning of the collapse. He would have to destroy everything, right at the moment they decided to activate the hosts from all sides of the world.

His power, however, was not quite where it needed to be.

He had made considerable progress. His physical abilities had developed beyond what his uncle had initially anticipated, and his energy output had increased steadily. He could already accomplish things that would have been impossible for an ordinary second generation. There was no reason to consider his progress unsatisfactory.

Still, it wasn’t enough to be certain.

There was one final matter that needed to be investigated: his heart.

His energy did not originate from a single external source, nor was it something he consciously generated through ordinary biological processes.

It was produced internally, through a specialised network of tissues distributed throughout his organs.

Certain cells contained structures that behaved like biological energy converters, drawing on metabolic resources and transforming them into a form of energy that his body could store and release.

The heart was central to that process.

It didn’t only circulate blood. It regulated the distribution of this energy throughout his body, maintaining the delicate balance between his ordinary biological functions and the additional processes that sustained his abilities.

If it was sufficiently developed, he might be capable of releasing an amount of energy large enough to accomplish his assigned task.

But there was no established method for testing that.

His uncle had spent years searching for something, or someone, capable of examining the child’s unusual physiology.

The boy got into school, and sat down at the middle of the empty class. He was the first one to come, as always.

Looking at his notebook, he was predicting in his head how the first day would go.

"Hi!"

A voice interrupted his thoughts.

His seatmate had leaned towards him, smiling.

"What’s your name? I’m Trevor."

The boy glanced at him, giving a faint smile.

"My name is Myles."

"Oh, nice to meet you!"

Before he could say anything else, another boy approached their desk.

"You weren’t in our elementary school, right?" he asked Trevor.

Then he noticed the unfamiliar boy sitting beside him.

"Wait, you weren’t in our elementary either, were you?"

Myles looked at him, resting his chin on one hand.

"Yes, I was."

"What? I’ve never seen you around before! Haha, are you that invisible?"

The boy hummed.

"We weren’t in the same class."

"Oh. That explains it, I guess."

The other boy laughed and continued talking to Trevor.

Myles turned towards the window.

There was a clear blue sky outside. The sunlight fell across the desks, illuminating the dust floating in the air. He looked at it without any particular interest.

Making friends at school was rather pointless.

Nevertheless, he had been instructed to behave appropriately. He was supposed to appear like an ordinary student, and that meant making a reasonable effort to interact with others. He had already established the sort of personality he would present: a quiet, somewhat introverted boy who was polite without being excessively withdrawn.

Being too reserved would attract unnecessary attention. Being too expressive would require additional effort.

This arrangement was sufficient.

It also made certain boys feel rather comfortable around him. They occasionally mistook his quietness for weakness, or assumed that he was too shy to object when they spoke over him. He could correct such misunderstandings easily enough, although he rarely found it necessary.

Compared to when he was younger, there was almost nothing left for him to learn from ordinary people.

There was nothing particularly interesting about anything anymore.

Only his uncle occasionally introduced him to something new. Yet even that had become increasingly rare. Their conversations were now mostly concerned with training, recruitment, and preparations for the coming years.

His uncle no longer taught him much beyond what was necessary.

And so, the boy went through the routine.

He attended school, completed his assignments, spoke to his classmates, and returned home.

It was boring.

Well, he didn’t particularly care.

***

"I’m home."

The boy closed the front door behind him.

He took off his shoes and placed them neatly beside the entrance. As he straightened up, he noticed his uncle sitting in the living room.

The man looked towards him.

"Myles, I’ve found a way to test your heart."

"Okay."

He went to his room to change. His uncle had already cleared the table, leaving only a small metallic case resting in the middle.

The boy sat down opposite him.

His uncle opened the case.

Inside was a device unlike anything the boy had seen before. It was roughly the size of a small suitcase, with a circular central chamber surrounded by several narrow panels.

Thin metallic bands extended from its sides, connected to a collection of translucent tubes. A dark glass display was embedded in the upper surface, its screen currently showing a series of unreadable symbols.

It looked less like medical equipment and more like something designed to examine an object that had never been encountered before.

"What does it measure?"

"Several things. The rate at which your body produces energy, how much of it your organs can sustain, and how efficiently your heart can distribute it."

His uncle touched one of the metallic panels.

"Most importantly, it can measure the maximum energy output your heart can maintain without destabilising your internal systems. The device uses a series of artificial resonators to detect the energy signatures produced by your cells. It then compares those readings with the changes in your heartbeat and blood circulation."

The boy looked at the circular chamber.

"So it measures my heart’s capacity indirectly."

"I see."

It was a rather clever approach. Since nobody knew the precise nature of his extraterrestrial inheritance, there was no reliable reference point against which to compare his physiology.

The device had therefore been designed to measure the interaction between several observable variables rather than attempting to identify the source of his energy itself.

"Put your hand inside."

The boy nodded.

He reached forward and placed his hand into the circular opening.

The metallic bands adjusted around his wrist. A faint vibration travelled through the device, followed by a low mechanical hum.

His uncle watched the display.

At first, the symbols moved too quickly to interpret. Several lines appeared, disappeared, and were replaced by others. The translucent tubes gradually filled with a pale blue light.

The boy remained still.

There was no pain. Only a mild sensation of pressure around his wrist, as though the device were trying to detect something beneath his skin.

His uncle leaned closer.

The numbers on the display began to change.

Then they stopped.

For several seconds, neither of them spoke.

The boy looked at the screen.

He could not read all the symbols, but he recognised the final sequence. It was a measurement of sustained output, accompanied by a series of stability indicators.

Everything was within the required range.

His heart was strong enough.

He had reached the necessary threshold.

His uncle stared at the display.

Then, suddenly, something warm touched the boy’s face, which made him look up.

His uncle, with a bright smile on his face, had blood splurging out of his neck.

THUD.

That day, when he was child, he had felt something strange about the way the plan was being explained.

Now, however, he understood completely.

This man, his uncle, had intended to do this all along. He had simply been waiting until he was certain that the boy possessed all the abilities necessary to carry out the plan.