Chapter 3. Death and rebirth[Part 1]

<Earth: 2356 year>

A young man, about twenty-six years old, stood before a tall, metal box with a frosted glass door. His white hair and dull blue eyes made him look much older. The box was a machine, one of many strange and complicated machines in the room.

The room was a laboratory. Jars filled with strange liquids and preserved animal parts lined the shelves. A steel cage held a snarling beast in a corner. It was a scene straight out of a scientist's workshop.

The only sounds were the quiet hum of the machines, the occasional growl of the caged beast, and the steady beep from the metal box. Every few seconds, a bright light flashed from inside the box, revealing a spinning arm holding a test tube. The test tube was filled with a black liquid that seemed to twist and turn as if it were alive.

The young man stood completely still, his attention fixed on the machine. He showed no emotion, his face as blank as a statue's.

Time passed slowly. Then, after thirty long minutes, a loud beep rang out. The young man's eyes flickered with a hint of life. He reached for a pair of long tongs from a nearby shelf and opened the machine's door.

A wave of heat rushed out, instantly melting the frost on the glass. The young man stepped back smoothly. He had done this many times before and knew what to expect.

He waited patiently for the heat to fade before approaching the machine again. With practiced ease, he used the tongs to carefully lift out the test tube. It glowed with heat, far too hot to touch with bare hands.

He held the test tube up to his face, his eyes examining the contents. Inside, a thick, black liquid swirled and churned. Tiny, golden specks within the liquid glittered with a strange light and aura.

The young man, upon seeing this, tried to smile, but the expression looked forced and unnatural. He quickly stopped smiling and sighed, his voice flat and emotionless. "Success," he muttered.

The liquid in the test tube was the result of ten years of relentless work and research. He had lost count of how many times he had failed, how much time and money he had poured into this project. Finally, he had achieved his goal.

He should have been overjoyed, ecstatic even. Yet, he felt nothing. His success brought him no joy, no sense of accomplishment. He felt as empty as he had before. His lifeless blue eyes stared at the test tube, unable to comprehend the significance of his achievement.

He held in his hands the key to a brighter future, a way to gain power and escape the cruel whims of fate. And yet, he felt nothing. Even though he couldn't feel happy, he was at least glad that he had succeeded. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The young man was Kyoji Ren. Ever since his failure at the Blessing Ritual, he had dedicated himself to finding a different way to gain power. That dedication was what led him to this moment, standing with a beaker of shimmering black liquid in his hand.

His discovery was simple yet groundbreaking. He had found the source of power for both mutants and the chosen – the two groups blessed with superhuman abilities.

Mutants drew their power from chaos energy, while the Chosen drew theirs from faith energy. Chosen stored faith energy within their cores, and upon death, this core could be retrieved, and this energy could be passed on. However, only the Chosen could absorb and utilize this energy.

Chaos energy, on the other hand, was a wild card. Any living being could absorb it, but the result was always the same – they would mutate, transforming into a monstrous version of their former selves, a mutant.

Kyoji had spent the last ten years trying to find a way to safely absorb chaos energy without succumbing to its corrupting influence.

While chosen stores their faith energy in their cores, mutants, on the other hand, were different. Their chaos energy flowed freely through their bloodstream, reaching every part of their body and ultimately corrupting their minds. This was why mutants were so volatile and dangerous.

He had experimented tirelessly, searching for a way to isolate and neutralize the corrupting element within chaos energy. Finally, after countless failures, he had succeeded. The proof was in the beaker he held – a purified form of chaos energy, safe for human consumption.

Staring at the swirling liquid, he felt a surge of anticipation. The beaker had cooled, and he no longer needed the tongs to hold it. His lifeless blue eyes flickered with a hint of excitement as he lifted the beaker to his lips.

Just as he was about to drink the liquid, a deafening crash echoed through the lab, causing him to jump in surprise. The beaker slipped from his grasp and shattered on the floor, spilling its precious contents.

Kyoji looked towards the source of the commotion. It was the mutant he kept caged in the corner. It was slamming its body against the bars, its roars filled with a primal fury.

'What's gotten into it?' Kyoji wondered aloud, his brow furrowed in confusion. 'I thought the tranquillizer would have kept it subdued for ten hours.'

He wasn't overly concerned about the spilt serum. He knew the formula by heart and could easily make more, even if it would be a costly endeavour. What worried him was the mutant's sudden and inexplicable outburst. It was an Aberrant-level mutant, incredibly strong and dangerous, even for its kind. He had purchased it from an auction a few days ago and immediately subdued it with a powerful tranquillizer. There was no way it should be this active, let alone this strong.

Kyoji's eyes darted back to the spilt serum, pooling on the floor, a ten million E₵ worth of spillage. A terrifying thought struck him.

"Wait… is it reacting to the serum?"