Chapter 19: Ch59. Comatose - 6 (Surge)
The black eyeball in the sky glowed with darkness as its barely identifiable pupil turned towards Kurt. And when it did, the sky felt more alien and ominous than before.
The fear Kurt felt kept him fromoving even an inch, so he didn’t run or anything.
He just kept watching that black, gelatinous orb above him, feeling the weight of a thousand worlds on his shoulders.
Suddenly, then, as if that whole red sky itself was an alien face, countless sections of it opened up like eyes, revealing countless of other black orbs, just like that same eye.
Releasing them from the red membrane.
And all those eyes turned to Kurt.
And when the last one of them turned to face the Kurt’s younger version, the space between two of those eyes opened up and a humanoid figure descended from it.
The figure was covered in a silver ish skin, and its face had no eyes, nose or mouth.
Kurt looked at the figure as it began walking in his direction, and something glowed in white above his head.
[ANTIBODY #8172327970]
[LVL: ???]
’Antibody?’ Kurt’s jaw dropped. But he couldn’t think of much more, perplexed by the thing’s title and level. ’Can I even fight that thing? No, it’s probably better if I just wait and see what it’s up to.’
And he waited, as the alien creature approached more and more.
***
"You’re not, by any chance, referring to those old tales of the age of Calamity, right?" Director Roosevelt shot at Dr. Lee, incredulous.
"What if those aren’t tales or myths at all, director?" She smirked, still not looking at the director.
Roosevelt looked at her back, Dr. Lee so nonchalant as to keep performing on her patient as he himself, director of the hospital, was talking to her.
Like he was nothing but a bug.
"Explain." Roosevelt swallowed his pride, knowing of Dr. Lee’s background and reputation of breaking paradigms that science itself had thought to be set in stone ever since the meteor, the Disaster, crashed in Australia and brought the Calamity upon mankind.
He hoped her reputation wasn’t just a bunch of hoax, and that she was onto something really big there.
She had to be.
"The tales tell us of a few awakened individuals who were different from the other awakened. With abilities that surpassed the yet to be established Class system.
Unlike when an S-class wielder awakens, and is entitled to the top-tier title of his class, these individuals don’t seem to fit any class, because their abilities don’t seem to fit our Class system.
And this boy here, director Roosevelt..." She paused for a moment, finally turning to face the director. "I think he is one of them."
Dr. Lee then showed him the mana reader’s screen.
"Do you really think a person can release such amounts of mana and still receive such a low ranking from the mana reader?"
The device’s screen showed a single letter followed by a number.
< F-0 >
The director’s eyes widened at the sight of the ranking.
"But then... How?" He almost stuttered.
"And that’s not all, director Roosevelt." The doctor went on. "I’ve seen enough cases of CMI to understand that after three surges, the body is so energy depleted that it can only lead to the child’s death. But patient Blake here has already not only released consecutive mana bursts by the dozens in the same day... He’s also showing signs of awakening."
"And why was I supposed to be surprised about it?"
"Here, check his file." She offered touched her holowatch with director Roosevelt’s.
He opened the file and he gasped.
"He’s only fifteen... He’s been in a coma for two years and... He’s showing signs of..."
"Exactly. And you know who’s the only other person to awaken before her age, right?"
"Oliver Kastle’s daughter, Evellyn Kastle. Yes, I see where you’re going, doctor."
"And since Kastle’s daughter is being currently protected by the Association and is being kept hidden from the press’s eyes because of it, I can’t run any tests on her."
"And you want to make this boy your test subject?"
Dr. Lee’s eyes gleamed with greed at the director’s remark.
"Think of how much we could understand about how the Calamity and the Disaster affected and changed mankind if we could finally study a single irregular!"
The director just looked at Dr. Lee, his brown eyes scanning her attentively.
"Director... Think of the hospital’s reputation if I’m able to uncover the secrets of the awakenings!"
The director nodded, slowly, still lost in thoughts.
"But... What happens when he wakes up? You know that his father is the owner and leader of the Guardian guild, right?"
"He won’t." Dr. Lee grinned. "Not at least for a long while, since his body haven’t fully adapted to assimilate mana yet."
"But he will wake up, right? What then?"
Dr. Lee spoke in a dark tone, with a wicked grin.
"Then I’ll just keep him sleeping for a while longer."
Director Roosevelt looked at the doctor for a brief moment, and after a slight second, a wicked smile sprouted on his lips too.
***
Octavius and Nina were in the waiting room, waiting for Dr. Lee’s news, if there could ever be any.
They’ve been waiting for almost three weeks and all they got were those strange news about their son releasing massive amounts of energy, even though he didn’t even awaken yet.
But Dr. Lee reassured them that judging by the time Kurt had been in that state, he wasn’t suffering from anything related to CMI.
That made Octavius feel so relieved that he almost broke down and cried.
So they waited and waited, but that night, Octavius received a call from Guardian’s headquarters.
He took the call.
"What is it, Erick?" He asked, looking at the expression of concern of the science division’s employer.
"Sir... We’re getting the attack squad ready." Erick said.
He was a young man, with sandy short hair and slim muscles, an awakened from the Scholar class.
"What happened?"
"We detected strange readings near the hospital you’re in, captain. That’s the strangest Nest reading we’ve encountered. It seems to be an anomaly."
"What’s the mana level you’re getting from the distortion entry?"
"It’s unreadable, captain..."
