With a soft blush warming Xara’s face, she brushed her trembling fingers across her reddened lips, glaring at Aether with eyes that carried both heat and accusation.
He had bitten her lips, almost like a starving beast who had forgotten restraint, and the taste of it lingered far too long on her tongue.
Aether cleared his throat and coughed, "S-So... when will the cure be ready?" His words stumbled out as he dared to glance at Xara, who remained fixed on him, her glare sharp, as if punishing him for the reckless force of his kiss.
Xara wanted to speak her mind about his kisses, about how they were growing rougher with each passing day—dangerously so. It was only a matter of ti before he completely lost control and threw himself upon her.
She needed to act before that mont ca... before his hunger consud them both. Shaking away those thoughts, she steadied her expression into one of cool seriousness, turning toward the control panel. The display flickered to life, casting eerie light across her face as she revealed the details of her research.
"With the limited technology I had, and the trials I failed, I was falling far behind. But now..." Her fingers moved across the panel, pressing a glowing rune-shaped button. At once, the image of two spiralling structures collided violently before them.
Aether’s eyes widened in awe as the scene unfolded.
The DNA strands shimred, rewriting themselves before his eyes without altering the original sequence. It was like watching magic woven into science.... No human testing, no casualties... this place truly was a pure testing ground, safe from the horrors of failed trials in the outside world.
But then... as the DNA continued to rewrite itself, the structure twisted unnaturally, multiplied into distorted copies, and warped into grotesque new forms.
Aether’s breath hitched. Was this... a mutation?
He clenched his fist, as though the failure was his own. His gaze shifted to Xara. She stood with her arms folded firmly across her chest, her expression grave as she spoke.
"You see... this is the result of my research in the Void Empire. Because of the curse that lingers in that accursed land... a curse I cannot yet comprehend, the sequences are unstable here. No matter how I replicate them, the basic structure mutates beyond control without Blooddawn’s help." Her voice tightened. "You’re following , aren’t you?" She asked.
Too often, once she began her explanations, others would simply nod blankly, unable to follow the weight of her words.
And that always irked her more than she liked to admit.
Aether nodded, but this ti his smile carried genuine understanding. "I understand... Your cure—no, let us call it by its na, the Origin Serum—it transforms people into monsters, but without Origin crystals erupting from their bodies. It would be used during the night of Blooddawn, when void people normally lose themselves and beco beasts. But injecting the Origin Serum during that cursed night makes them even more monstrous. Yet once the Blooddawn ends, they revert to their original state. Is that correct?"
Xara’s stern expression softened into satisfaction. She lifted her hand, gave him a firm thumbs up, "You really are following ." She shifted the display again, conjuring another image—a stable structure, smooth and unbroken. "This is what happens after they return to normal... their structures remain intact. Nothing changes permanently."
Aether humd, low and thoughtful.
Xara pressed the panel again, her voice cutting through the silence as new symbols lit up the screen. "Those children you brought here... the Origin Children, created by Master, correct?"
Aether inclined his head in a steady nod.
Xara’s tone grew sharper, "I examined their blood. It confird what I suspected. The Master who forged the Origin Serum was closer to perfection than anyone realised. Only the offspring, however, were capable of stabilising themselves. The direct intake of the serum cannot achieve that balance."
Aether’s eyes narrowed slightly, then softened with reluctant respect. He nodded in full understanding. After all, Master had spoken of this before. His plan had nearly reached perfection... and now Aether could see the proof with his own eyes.
As he saw the DNA structure, it looked similar to the ones Xara had altered. However, within these children there appeared sothing different... an extra strand, faint but visible, almost like a half-drawn line etched into their essence.
"See that part?" Xara leaned closer, pointing with her slender fingers, her tone deliberate, as though she needed him to grasp every word.
Aether narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly. "Yeah..."
"That’s the one only the offspring carry. And that ans..."
"You’d have to create it directly inside the intakers?" Aether suggested cautiously.
Xara shook her head firmly. "That’s not how it works. These children... they are basically a different species altogether. They carry the capability to exist in balance with both Arcane and Clarion."
Aether raised his eyebrows, surprise flickering in his gaze.
Xara continued with a grave tone, "You can think of them as refined... or mutated versions of us, sothing along those lines. And because of that, they never responded properly to the world around them. Even when my daughter trained them—feeding them als infused with Arcane and Clarion energy—you rember that, don’t you?"
Aether gave a silent nod.
"That’s the reason they fail to understand anything. Those children require both Arcane and Clarion energy simply to interact with others. Without it, they cannot function like us. They are essentially sothing apart, different from what I created back in the Void Empire."
Aether humd in thought, "Okay... I get it."
Xara pressed the glowing buttons again, and this ti the display shifted. Strange glyphs shimred, and a new simulation unfolded before their eyes.
"And using the data from both sources... this is the result I have managed to achieve so far."
Aether leaned forward, watching as the structures rged together, intertwining slowly, weaving into each other like a ritual of creation. Those strands enveloped one another, shifting until the faint extra line that marked the Origin Children suddenly flared. It burst outward, expanding into a radiant shield that wrapped around the entire structure like a living, protective layer.
Aether raised his eyebrows high, astonished as the readout showed the success rate climbing—99%, with barely a trace of error within the trials.
He turned toward Xara, who wore an expression filled with pride, "See... this is the path we must take. We don’t need to alter our races or rewrite what we are. We only need to use this to protect our blood, and in ti... it will slowly adjust us to the world’s surroundings."
Aether nodded, his face glowing with impressed admiration. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure what he would have done without Xara’s brilliance guiding them this far.
Xara let out a weary sigh, her expression shaded with exhaustion. "However, for that to truly happen... I still need ti. So far I have only managed to convert the structure, but that extra line... it resists."
Aether smiled gently. She had co this far without him demanding anything of her. Of course, she was doing it for her children, and for herself too—after all, none of them were immune to the curse.
Selfish or not, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was simple.
She was doing it.
And that was everything.
"Wait... if you thought through all of this... then wouldn’t you have already finished with Kai’s clone you were trying to create?"
Xara flinched at the ntion, her body stiffening as her eyes averted instantly, darting away like a guilty one.
Aether’s frown deepened, his gaze narrowing. Xara’s eyes shifted, rolling to the side as though she wanted to wash her hands of the matter entirely—as if she bore no responsibility for anything that had happened. After all... that thing was already dead.
They had buried it, sealed it in the grave.
No more... No second chances!!
Aether let out a slow, heavy sigh, shaking his head. "Whatever... just tell . How long will it take you to create it?"
Xara blinked, her expression tightening into one of thought. "No... I don’t have an exact tifra. But if I were to guess, maybe in the next ten years... or fifty years?"
Aether imdiately shook his head with force. "We don’t have that much ti. The barriers will only hold for five years at most. And since I’ve etched in another signature energy as well... we have less than five years."
At those words, Xara’s face turned grim, "But... I... I..." Her voice cracked under the weight of helplessness. She was doing everything she could, and even if Aether pressed her harder, this wasn’t sothing that could be solved overnight.
She needed ti.
And Aether knew it too. He wasn’t blind to her struggle. Even Master Snape had taken a thousand years to reach his level, and Xara herself had needed centuries in the Void Empire to perfect what she had.
This was not a path walked in days.
But still... whatever the truth, they had to push forward together. Aether racked his mind for soone who could aid Xara, but not a single na surfaced—except for Mary... and Lia.
He exhaled heavily, shoulders sagging.
"Annnnyyywwaayyy..." Xara suddenly broke the heavy air, her voice turning slurry, curling into a wicked smile that slithered across her face. The sight of it made a cold shiver run down Aether’s spine.
"Let’s put those useless things aside."
"Useless?" Aether blinked, staring at her in disbelief. ’Woman, that’s the most important thing here! Even your life depends on it!’
But it seed her priorities were on sothing else entirely...
"It’s ti for more blood~" Her sly expression twisted darker as she reached beneath the desk and pulled out a syringe.
Not just any syringe, but a monstrous thing—so large it nearly matched the length of his hand.
Aether’s face turned pale as horror itched on it, "Wait!! What the hell is that thing?!"
Xara blinked innocently. "Hmm? This? It’s just a small syringe to take a titty bitty blood~"
"..." Aether’s expression shifted from disbelief into sheer terror. Sothing almost the size of his hand... was small to her?
Xara giggled wickedly, licking her lips as she leaned toward him. "Don’t move, darling... it feels just like an ant bite!!" She aid the monstrous needle straight at his backside, eyes gleaming with danger.
Aether flinched violently, every muscle locking as he clenched his butt with desperation, ’Is this what my beloveds feel when I look at their asses?’
So lustful~
So wicked~
So tasty?~
"More like a dinosaur bite..." he muttered under his breath, just as he dodged to the side in the nick of ti. The massive syringe slamd down, stabbing the tallic ground instead of his flesh.
The clang echoed like a hamr strike.
"Hmph! Don’t move, darling!!" Xara pouted with a sulky expression, tugging at the syringe stuck deep in the reinforced floor.
There was no way in hell he was letting her anywhere near him with that thing.
NO WAY!!
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