The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Sirsi tapped certain spots on the door, Ein glowing on her fingers, and a loud click of a latch loosening sounded out once she removed her hand. A series of other clicks and metal-grinding noises reverberated from the door, and it smoothly opened, retreating into the walls to create an open passage inside. A sudden bright light flickered from within. Sirsi dusted off her fingers with a blow from her lips and leaped inside, Oscar sprinting not to let her out of his sight, ever careful of her sneakiness that eluded him multiple times.

"That door requires an identical fingerprint and an Ein that is permitted to enter. You're lucky to have me today." Sirsi wagged her finger around and smirked. She spread an arm to the room, letting Oscar take in the full view as she proclaimed, "Welcome to the incubation chamber. This is where Velfen was born."

The circular room was pure white, illuminated by bright crystals that spanned the entire border of the room. At the center, an incubation tube of enclosed glass stood like a pillar supporting the room, various tubes and pipes connecting to the base and top as they shook in intervals and hissed out puffs of smoke. Walking over the pipes, Oscar stared at the object inside the glass chamber. An egg the size of his head, cleanly broken in two with a few fragments of shell lying around, rested on the steel podium, deeply black and empty. Yes, it was empty, not a soul resting inside.

"This was Velfen's egg. Quite astonishing, isn't it? That the beast you saw outside came out of this tiny egg." Sirsi gazed at the egg on the opposite side of the glass tube. "However, it is still a failure, not a hint of intelligence remaining inside it."

"I thought the work here was to create hybrids for your beastification. Why is there an egg?" Oscar asked. The other hybrids appeared as mutilated bodies sewn together, but this Velfen had its own homogenous form and came from an egg. It all seemed off.

Sirsi went silent and frowned, scrunching her brow until she said, "Sometimes, it's better not to know the answer. Are you sure you want to know?" She looked at him and grumbled, pursing her lips and telling him not to blame her. "One look at you is enough to know. Fine. The experiments on fusing two grown individuals failed, so what did they do next? What if they could birth a hybrid rather than forcibly fusing one into existence? The key research was to combine a human's blood with a beast's blood and incubate a newborn. There were many failures, so many stillborns and dead eggs. All disposed of."

Oscar clenched his hands, his hostility leaking as the raging sparks of Ein surged from his body. Erden joined in, growling at Sirsi, who put on a face as if to say his reaction was expected. Still, she had more to say, and Oscar withdrew his Ein, glaring at the abominable woman who spoke without a hint of remorse at the horrific words coming from her mouth.

"Velfen was the first success, his life forming in the egg, much to the researchers' shock. But he exhibited no sign of rational thought or even an instinct to move. He breathed but was more or less a hollow shell. So they implanted a controlling spell into his nerves, and here is the center of it all." Sirsi tapped her fingers again on a tile on the floor, and it slid open as a block rose, lines of yellow Ein intertwining in patterns along the silver surface, the control. "Velfen showed a certain aspect that allowed him to control other beasts like a queen over its bees. The control spell connected to this station contains a kill command."

"Do it. And once this is done, never show yourself in front of me." Oscar stepped forward, observing Sirsi's movements on the lines of Ein, linking them and detaching a few others.

Her hands stopped, and she said, "I'm sure in the future, you'll come around to it. It is something that has been set since the primordial days. I'm certain you and I are meant to bring it about. Now, I'll kill Velfen, and you can go home and prepare for the war's end." She placed her right hand, the lines of Ein collecting on each fingertip, and dragged her fingers together, bringing them all into a singular point. Sparks spewed from the control as it brightened up, nearly engulfing Oscar and Sirsi in its light. After a few seconds, the lines of Ein died out, the control sending out a ripple of crackling lightning that fizzled on the soles of his shoes.

"It's done!" Sirsi sighed and dropped to her knees, her shoulders slumping.

His long wait was over. The entire time he traveled with Sirsi, he wondered how exactly he could kill her since she left him no openings or let her guard down even after the damage she suffered from the three-headed hybrid. In his experience, there was only a single unifying moment when someone let their guard down, when they felt the most safe, the moment of relief and rest at the end of a long journey.

Erden's antlers plunged straight ahead, and his Golden Drill gleamed sharply under the intense light, aimed for her exposed back. He fully acknowledged how powerful this woman was. Her strength of Reis and Eirin, the unique abilities of her Meld, and the backing behind her made her a frightening foe, a great danger to him and especially Avril. Nothing could save her now. Oscar was sure of it.

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But Sirsi slipped underneath. Her body lowered down, which should not have mattered as long as she stayed inside the path of his blow, but she slid to the left, nearly vanishing from his eyes. Like sliding on slippery ice, she escaped his attack and leaped into a backward somersault, landing on her feet.

Looking closely, he noticed faint water droplets on the floor that formed a trail to her feet. He knew her Meld gave her left gauntlet the power to apply softness and slipperiness onto her water spells, but he didn't see any hint of her using a spell or maintaining one in his Prinstyct. He pondered and said, "Did you lie about your gauntlets? Does it apply to ordinary water as well?"

"Nice guess. You're right. It's not just my spells but also ordinary water." She lifted her right leg, showing the soles of her boot. "My boots contain some water that can be released at any moment. With that and my Meld, I bounce off the softness and propel myself along the slipperiness." She took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling heavily. "Geez, you put everything into that attack. If you want to battle for real, I'm welcome to a duel, but your focus should be on gathering your survivors. The beast horde should be dispersing or killing themselves."

Oscar glared coldly at Sirsi, her eyes deepening with a ferocious glint, the pupils shrinking with hostility. Was he supposed to leave her alone? While he wished to kill her and put this threat down, he couldn't ignore the survivors on the surface. Checking his artificial arm, he sighed at its broken state, unable to lift even a finger. In this state, he had little chance of defeating her. She seemed to understand his intent and quieted her bloodlust, serenity returning to the turbulent air.

"Erden, burn everything down. Leave no traces of this foul place." Oscar turned and left, his and Erden's feet blazing with flames that spread and painted the white room in fire. He sought to ensure even if this facility remained, nothing of what it had done would be known. Without looking back, he flew out, spreading the flames to all corners of the laboratory along his path.

…….

Sirsi watched Oscar leave through the door, the flames unable to reach past her cocoon of water. She sighed and tapped another part of the laboratory, opening a secret passageway. There were many things she had omitted from telling Oscar, including this one. In the end, a teleportation formation was engraved into the floor, and she gave it a gift of her Ein. Nodes flickered on, and the lines shone, flashing for a second.

"Welcome back, my lady. How was your date?" A short girl sporting freckles along her cheeks smiled adorably. Her twin tails shook up and down as she bowed.

"Horrible, Grenda. What a shame. Sometimes, he's too boneheaded to understand. I wonder how I can open his eyes." Sirsi removed her black coat and fanned her white shirt underneath. Today's ordeals were too tiring even for her stamina, constantly being on guard against someone she wished to have as an ally. "After all the favors I had to sell to have this opportunity…it only worsened our relationship."

When she first found out about the plan to unleash Velfen onto Orbis, she knew Oscar was stationed there as well. A few favors sold and debt gained later, she convinced the researchers to leave the control for Velfen inside the research laboratory and unleash the hybrids to roam freely. The normal protocol suggested utter destruction of the facility. Still, Sirsi saw an opportunity to gain Oscar's favor by saving the remnants of his army and going on an adventure together to stoke goodwill. She knew where Oscar landed from observing the battle from afar and waited to approach, first testing him by asking him to leave. And he didn't disappoint by wanting to stay to find survivors, fiercely loyal and protective, characteristics needed in the father of her future child.

It was all set up by her, taking advantage of the destruction. But it all failed.

"Maybe if you give him his arm back, it would elevate your status in his eyes." Grenda carefully folded her dropped coat and followed with her tiny strides.

"Geez, he'll reject it and maybe try to burn it if he sees it in my hands. He already replaced it anyway. That new arm is quite a marvel. I'm curious how he made it. As for the old one…his old one serves better to appease the desires of the others and divert their attention away for the time being." Sirsi groaned and leaned her head back while walking. "I'm doing so much to keep him safe. I wonder when I'll be rewarded with open arms and a child."

"You can do it, my lady!" Grenda cheered her on. "No one can reject the jewel of the Voltens for long. He'll understand your charms soon enough. But why go through all this trouble for a child? There are easier ways."

"Because he's also worth it. The child will need his power and protection when the time comes. I can't stop those greedy fools forever." Sirsi rubbed Grenda's head, stroking it like a puppy. "Is there any information on who his wife is? The executives might know, but they're very tight-lipped. Has my little Grenda found something?"

"I did, my lady. By tracking his movements, we found his trail leading back to Convecia City, the place we lost years ago." Grenda pulled out a piece of paper and presented it to her while kneeling. "Lord Aldric gave this list to his closest retainers, not letting anyone else take his mission from him, but I got it. It's a list of visitors to Convecia City during that time."

Sirsi glanced over the paper and stopped on Oscar's name, her eyes perking up at the name next to it. She mumbled, "Avril Terr. Hmm. Are there any traces of her?"

"Eyewitnesses say she went to the southern portal. Shall I investigate?" Grenda grinned.

"Go ahead. Though, I don't know what to do once we find her…There are so many options." Sirsi tossed the paper back to Grenda and pondered deeply. What should she do once she found Avril?

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