Chapter 46: Awakening [1]

A long group of people shrouded in cloaks and hoods marched through the desolate wasteland of the apocalypse.

Leading at the head was an enchanting figure donned in silvery blue body armor with a flowing cape and a sheathed long sword. The young lady had long lustrous strands of glittering golden hair that fell down her back and reaching her waist like a cascading waterfall of gold pixy dust. She had unblemished white skin with a healthy rosy touch, small red lips and deep azure eyes that appeared to glint with an otherworldly hue.

Sonia's face was motionless and still, a chilling and cold aura enshrouded her advancing figure as she continued forward. Each her movements accentuated grace, her beauty as enchanting as the aurora in the northern sky.

She was like a spark of radiance in the dim gloom of this shadowy world. A cold one.

The stale wind blew pass her face and Sonia's golden locks fluttered beautifully. She took a step and came to a sudden halt then lingered.

Directly behind her was James, the man with pure white olive skin and contrasting pitch black hair. His long face looked dim and his pair of dark eyes behind his thin frames lens traced Sonia's back.

He adjusted his frames then took paced steps next to the Captain of the expedition. His slicked back black hair remained firm despite the howl of the wind and his contrasting dark and gloomy appearance made for an interesting combination side by side Sonia's rather flashy and radiant countenance.

"Is there something the matter?" He said curtly, glancing at her.

His question hung suspended in the air as Sonia lingered silently, staring off.

With her still and motionless expression which betrayed no emotion, Sonia responded in her usual indifferent voice.

"...A storm is brewing...?" Yet her response was uncertain.

" A storm? " James cocked his eyebrow as he repeated.

His surprise was a given, a storm during this era was uncommon. Not many had been seen, if ever.

Yet when he paid rapt attention, the turbid clouds and wind did seem to be taking up some speed.

"It would seem so." He flatly said aloud, internally he mused,

'A storm is certainly interesting in this era. Could it be related to our current objective. '

Sonia didn't linger any longer and pried her gaze away, and James seized the opportunity to report to her.

He said indiscernibly in a quiet voice, his deadpan expression not betraying a thought.

"We've been followed for a considerable amount of time now. It's already been a while since we stepped into their territory, but it is strange that they haven't done anything yet. What should we do?"

Sonia listened quietly. She was aware of all this and replied in her usual indifferent manner.

"We do nothing."

***

It took an entire day for Professor Hathaway to carry out the process on his patient.

Since their initial arrival at the Ntuli Tribe settlement, almost three to four days prior, Lyra had been put in a sub comatose state to preserve and attempt to slow down her deteriorating condition.

The excess energy in her body was ravishing her organs, and if her system failed to absorb or conduct the effects of the radiation , her nervous system would experience failure and her brain will shutdown after swelling from attempting to amass the excess energy.

Her circumstance was truly dire when she arrived. Enough so, Hathaway was amazed by how she was still alive.

In any case, he had put her in a mild case of 'deep-sleep' to slow down the corruption. The only way to resolve the issue once and for all was for her body to temper more quickly than it took for the Mana to reach deep into her brain, or transplant a Core which would serve as a conduit organ.

The process of transplanting a Core was extremely delicate and required only and nothing less than extreme surgical precision.

To fight back against their otherworldly invaders, the abominable Elder Gods, Mankind devised ways to manipulate and channel the strange energy source that filtered through into Earth from the world beyond the Rifts.

From this they were able to advance once more their civilization and bring about the ManaTech Era. They finally had weapons that could permanently dent and kill their invaders, where nukes of the past failed.

But Elder Gods were still faster, stronger and sturdier than the average mundane human. Humainty managed to reduce this gap with the aid of Exoskeletons, specialized Battle armor empowered by Mana and made from strange new metals and materials of the corpses of Elder Gods. Suits of weapons and equipments that could grant the mundane human incredible physical capabilities to barely keep up with their invaders.

But, why stop at barely?

Eventually, the Knight Program was established. Genetically and synthetically advanced Superhumans who directly harnessed the power of Mana through a Core implant were created. These individuals could run at a speed faster than a bullet and lift war tanks with a single hand.

Their capabilities exceeded the human limits and mankind found hope once more, as such, these individuals were branded as Knights, humanity's hope and saviours.

Mankind's Knights.

But it wasn't as straightforward and easy as it appeared during that time. There were various other factors and complications faced by Mankind during the period of the first Generation Knights.

In simpler words, the resources needed for a Core was simply immense, especially during the early stages of the Knight Program at that time. And even after that, not just anyone could survive a transplant or the surgical process. It was a severe matter of attunement and 'apptitude'.

There were countless failures and many lives were lost during the initial experiments. But alas, mankind succeeded, and after that moving forward, they curbed their losses and learned from their past mistakes. Technology advanced and they learned to harness the power of Mana more efficiently and sorted out the initial problems and conditions.

Nowadays, mostly anyone could become a Knight, granted as long as they had the resources to. The human body Attunement was no longer as serious a problem as before, as special procedures had been devised to temper the body and raise drastically the chances of success when creating a new Knight.

But it was still a dangerous, and costly process. Only those of the higher class of current society could afford it.

But here Lyra was, getting a Core transplant without having to pay a single dime. What was even more was, the transplant was being carried out by the most renowned Scientist and brightest mind known to current Mankind generation.

Bling Hathaway came from the line of family responsibile for most of the major advancement Humanity had achieved since the First Invasion Seventy Years ago. It was his Late Grandfather, Professor Alfred Liu Hathaway who cracked the genetic code of the Elder God's and discovered part of the vast secrets their cells and biological make up possesed.

And when the First Invasion begun, it was Alfred and his son, Jacob Hathaway, Bling's father who devised the current Domed Fortresses, and established the groundwork for Mankind to thrive and survive off the power of Mana.

His father and grandfather had both been the ones to establish and make succeed the Knight Program. They were the pioneers of the ManaTech Era, and the revolution never ended with just then.

Bling Hathaway himself had grand achievements under his belt too, and held a rather prominent position and status amongst the current Mankind. He had watched his Father and Grandfather re-revolutionize the entire Humankind as a kid, and was well on his way to do so.

The Hathaway Family had solidified their position as one of the major pillars in human history.

And that same Hathaway was the one performing the transplant, for an underprivileged orphan who's only belonging was her last name.

But it wasn't all milk and cookies.

A Core transplant was severe regardless of who was leading it. Especially under the current circumstances that surrounded Hathaway.

Excluding his disarrayed state of mind caused by Huey's earlier revelation, the Ntuli Tribe lacked enough technological resources to truly make the transplant go much easier. They were a civilization shunned by the Humans of the Walls and branded as Outsiders, left to survive bare in the tainted apocalypse.

When compared to the facilities, life style and technology held by the Fortresses, the Outsiders, Natives of the Apocalypse, couldn't compare or come close. This aspect made this particular transplant much harder than usual.

Hathaway had to substitute and make complications during various aspects of the procedure, and this drastically slowed him down in order to make up for efficiency and success rate of the patient.

This was especially so when Hathaway was working with an Organic Core, and one from an Evolved Elder God, no less!

There were already complications that came with transplanting Organic Cores into a human, and mankind would rather turn to Synthetic Cores which let a higher rate of success. Organic Cores tend to retain a part of the Elder Gods essence and could cause the human host to run mad then die.

While Synthetic Cores were artificially made with Organic Cores as a blueprint, and provided less risks of loosing control and dying halfway through the procedure.

Hathaway had to take extra caution and surgical focus to increase the chances of Lyra's success, and lower the chances of her losing control if he were to succeed.

Throughout the entire process, he kept incomparable focus on her vitals, and after an entire day was the transplant complete.

The transplant was complete with the patient's vitals seemingly stable and zero complications.

Hathaway let out a deep breath of relief. His chest pumped and his forehead was wet with sweat. His fingers lightly trembled as he took of his gloves.

"It is finished, Professor." His assistant's, the young lady from before said as she studied Lyra's viral readings.

Hathaway gestured for the other assistants to clear the operating room and nodded indiscernibly.

"Yes. It will take her about a day to wake up. By then we'll find out how successful we truly were." Bling Hathaway's expression was long and solemn. He had his reservations and could only hope.

'Dealing with an Organic Core can be technical, the best thing we could hope for is a personality disorder.' he thought to himself as he made his way out to rest.

He planned to return in about a day to check on her. But in a few hours, Lyra woke up.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I plan to stockpile in the next week so I'll be coming back in full throttle for Volume One. Sorry for the info dump in this chapter, and i hope you enjoyed it