LOCATION - FLESHLY SEED

|Location: Outskirts of the wasteland. |

-OMNISCIENCE-

Walking through the trash and dust, Zero appeared under the scorching sun. He has blood smudges all over his face, but thanks to his self-regenerating nanobots, he has no visible wounds on any part of his body other than the numerous burns and tears in his clothes.

Dia's tattered and deformed body was in front of Zero as he moved through the dust, and he stood there with a cold gaze.

Dia's body attempted to heal itself numerous times while she lay on the ground, but it had already reached its breaking point and kept disintegrating. Dia was covered in wounds and had several dislocated joints. She nevertheless persisted in her struggle and moved as a machine would.

After being in sync with his new abilities, he immediately tried to incorporate them into his fight. There are moments where he almost lost control due to his inability to properly adapt to it, but with the help of SAI, he was able to pull off his stunts.

And now that the fight is over and everything seems calmer than before, it gave Zero a chance to breathe and experience the bright sun after a long time.

Zero uttered, "Whoa," as he took a long, sigh of relief. He had mixed feelings as he stared at Dia, who was trying her hardest to move. "Ha! I can't believe this; you still won't die."

"Grrr!" Zero leaned towards Dia and seeing how she growled at him felt awful to his tongue.

Zero observed Dia's propensity for acting in accordance with her emotions while they were in combat. But now Dia is not even showing any signs of her rationality and is acting like a savage beast. "You're acting like an animal now; did the battle cause you to degrade?"

Dia immediately trembled and whimpered in response to Zero's sudden change in expression after noticing her acting in that way.

A biometric scan of Dia's body was displayed by SAI, which then appeared in front of Zero. When Zero turned his focus to the panel, he noticed that Dia had a large golden hue that nearly covered her entire body. This golden hue was more pronounced on her head, where it appeared as a bright cluster.

[Sertium contamination is High, resulting in a decline in mental faculties. Only about 5% of the genes scanned were human; the remaining 95% were non-human genes. ]

After hearing what SAI told him, Zero no longer feels the need to treat Dia like a person, especially given that she no longer evens has the appearance of one.

Zero looked devoid of any regret as he extended his hand towards D'a's stomach and said, "I don't know why you became like this, but it ends here."

Dia yelled and jerked frantically, trying to push Zero away. "No! The seed! The seed! He needs the seed! Stay away!"

Dia couldn't even fight because of her predicament, so she took every bit of the pain Zero was inflicting on her in full. Zero began digging his hand into Dia's stomach. Dia foamed her mouth because of the pain she felt when Zero began searching for the seed in her stomach.

Dia felt Zero's hand squeezing every part of her stomach because she couldn't pass away until the seed was removed from her body. Zero kept moving his hand slowly over the intestines from the chest to any potential food exits. Dia's eyes began rolling up, and golden blood flowed out of her abdomen.

Throughout the process, Dia passed out several times, but Zero continued to move his hand ruthlessly and showed no signs of stopping until he felt a small orb brush against his hand. He wasted no time in snatching the orb from Dia's flesh and ripping it out.

To get rid of the remaining blood and flesh that was still adhered to the orb, Zero flicked his hand a couple of times. To get rid of the golden blood on his hands, he wipes them over some nearby trees.

He left Dia's body, which is slowly decomposing like a withering plant, without looking the second time.

Following the battle, Zero stretched his body out and then looked at the seed in his hand. Although the white orb didn't have a particularly interesting appearance, Zero could sense a surge of condensed energy inside it that seemed to be trying to affect the way his body worked.

Zero held the orb firmly and asked, "SAI, what should I do with this? I should get back to Nuk!"

[Scanning the seed of Yggdrasil. Initiating absorbing collected data.]

Zero was about to decline upon hearing that from SAI, but SAI launched the program to assimilate the data contained within the seed before he had a chance to process what it meant.

"Wait, SAI."

Zero felt a powerful surge of unknown energy moving quickly through his body but was powerless to do anything about it. Zero vomited as his muscles grew so tense that it became difficult for him to breathe. Unable to let go of the orb, Zero knelt on the ground. His bones started to snap back into place a couple of times. Only when his body was being forced to absorb the vast amount of information contained in the seed could he yell.

"Gah!"

Zero struggled to stay awake despite several close calls with fainting. Zero suddenly barfed up a large amount of a dark, murky substance mixed with some small solid waste as his body began to release steam from his mouth and joints.

[Complete.]

After that, Zero could breathe again, and he glared at the floating panel above him.

[Calculation shows you will decline if you are warned in advance.]

"Why didn't you ask?"

He couldn't argue, so he said, "You're right about that one." Zero then realized the seed was gone from his hand. He tried to look for it, but he saw nothing similar.

"SAI, where is the seed?"

[The seed is incorporated now into your body, a stigma on your hand will show as proof.]

"What?"

When Zero heard this, he immediately checked his hand to see if he had any stigmata. To his surprise, he found one behind his left hand—a small green leaf mark that had been perfectly incorporated into his skin. Only by venting his annoyance could Zero find relief.

Zero slammed his hand into the trees nearby, smashing them to smithereens, saying, "Ah! I can't be with you.

Before doing so, Zero pondered what had become of the camp before deciding to move on and concentrate only on returning to Nuk. He decided to check on it one last time.

When he reaches the site, Zero is left to wonder where the people are. The place is a mess, the tents are left empty, chaotic footmarks are all over the ground, and he couldn't sense any life energy around him. Well, at least one is a familiar one.

When Zero turned around, Hansel was standing behind him with a large bag that was twice his size and was filled with technological equipment that Zero chose not to see.

After crawling out of a bush, Hansel asked, "Zero, is that you?"

"Hansel? What happens to everyone?" Zero asked.

Hansel looked embarrassed as he answered.

Hansel clicked his tongue in disgust and said, "Don't even bring up those maniacs." He then indicated the general direction in which the other individuals fled.

"But you stayed?" Zero said.

"I'm waiting for Nuk; where is he? Did you meet Dia?" Hansel tried to look behind Zero, hoping to see a glimpse of Dia or Nuk trying to catch up to Zero, but he saw no one.

Zero froze as he was about to respond, thinking that it would be best if the response didn't come from him since Hansel doesn't fully trust him. However, Zero's main issue is that he doesn't feel right discussing someone he personally killed.

"It's better if Nuk would personally explain what happened."

This is when Hansel started to worry, "Where is he then?".

But Zero smiled at him to reassure him that Nuk was okay. "He's with someone he knows."

The two of them proceed to leave the camp, and they manage to get out faster than when Zero got inside the wasteland for the first time.

The two of them crossed a small hill when they first noticed that, in the absence of fog, the wasteland appeared to them as a sea of trees. As they came out of the forest, they were met by a setting sun. When he attempted to look for the previous golden tree, Zero didn't appear to be satisfied. When Zero looks through his "eyes," it should be standing tall in the center of the crater, but there is no sign of it.

Joshua came running towards them the moment he saw Zero from afar.

Although it didn't make the best impression on Zero after his fight with Dia, his blonde hair glistened like gold under the setting sun as he ran, enhancing his already noticeable presence. When Hansel saw Joshua, he immediately went behind Zero because, given how rarely their kind interacted with the outside world, he felt suspicious of him.

Joshua questioned as he began to examine Zero for scrapes, "What took you so long?" He gave him a bear hug as soon as he noticed he had no scratches.

"We have been waiting for you."

Zero explained, "I just took a brief detour." After that, he had the impression that Joshua's behavior was missing something. Joshua wasn't too long ago unsure of his abilities, but now he is greeted by this level of energy, which is incredibly different from what he had anticipated from him.

Hansel slowly emerged from Zero's back and questioned him with worry. "Nuk! Where is Nuk?"

Joshua leaned over to Hansel and said, "There's another shorty."

Anna rushed over and quickly pulled Joshua's ears away from Hansel before Joshua could tease him any further.

Anna pushed Joshua into a tent and said, "Stop that, go back in there." She then made a quick turn around and greeted everyone with a cheery smile. "You must be Hansel; Leila told me a lot about you," she said.

Hansel didn't expect to hear Leila's name from her; after hearing that from Anna, his mind is even more confused at what is happening right now and is already begging for answers.

"How? Can anybody tell me what's happening right now?" Hansel asked, baffled by what was happening to him.

Anna saw this and immediately showed them the way to where Nuk was staying. Anna opens the tent for Hansel, and there he is sitting on the bed wrapped in bandages, saying, "We can talk about it inside; Nuk was just moved to the bed" Nuk smiled when he saw Hansel. He received a bear hug from Hansel, who immediately rushed over. Hansel vented his anxiety through sobbing. After realizing that Nuk is fine, despite being covered in bandages and wounds, he felt relieved.

He noticed Dia was missing and quickly assumed that she was with them, but Nuk broke his heart by telling him the truth about what had actually happened.

After hearing the story, Hansel felt helpless as he fell backward, his legs felt weak, and his hand began to tremble. He couldn't believe what Nuk told him.

His voice quivered as he uttered, "No way! That can't be true. Dia cannot do such a thing," in disbelief.

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