His voice lowered slightly. "...the condition would change."
Ivy’s eyes sharpened. "...Into a tumor," she finished quietly.
Jay nodded once.
Ivy narrowed her eyes. After what felt like an eternity, she finally lifted her gaze.
"Then we can look at this from a positive angle."
Jay turned sharply toward her, confusion flickering across his face.
Ivy t his eyes, her voice steady but laced with sothing darker beneath.
"Even though my sister has suffered so much... we have understood that a dium works both ways. We can send things from here to there, and Ember could feel pain... because of their control."
Her fingers curled slightly at her sides as she continued, her tone lowering.
"But if we want that superior being to pay... we need to drag it into our base first."
A chill crept into the room as her words settled.
"The only way is to lure it... through milk. Or we can find another weakness; we would need to ask my parents first..."
She paused, her mind racing. ’Sothing is missing... sothing important.’
Her breath hitched suddenly, and she froze.
’The temporary storage...’
A mory surfaced like a spark in the darkness. The voice from before echoed faintly in her mind: other than milk, superior beings had a weakness... food.
Her pupils shrank as realization struck.
All the crops grown inside her temporary storage... they were different. Better. Infused with sothing unnatural, kindness, energy, and sothing pure yet powerful.
A slow smile crept onto her lips. "There might be a way..."
Jay leaned forward slightly, tension tightening his shoulders. "What way?"
Ivy tilted her head, her eyes gleaming with a dangerous idea.
"For that... we’ll need a dium."
Before she could elaborate further, Jay abruptly pointed toward the operating table, his hand trembling.
"The dium is already there... inside my wife’s stomach."
His teeth clenched so hard that his jaw trembled. ’I thought I was saving humanity... and yet my own wife...’
His entire body began to shake, not just from rage, but from a fear so deep it seed to hollow him out from within.
He rembered how, in his previous life, he had lost Ember. He didn’t want to go through it again.
If by chance... he wanted to keep her safe. But now history was repeating itself, and it was way more vicious than before.
Just then, Silas appeared with Helena, Victor, Felix, and Kael. All of them had a worried expression, and they asked,
"How is she now?"
"She has been in the ergency surgery departnt for the past 2 hours... we don’t know how much more ti would be required," Ivy explained, and everyone fell silent.
Ti slipped by from 2 hours to 6 hours. By the 7th hour, the Nightbane family almost wanted to rush inside. However, they held themselves back.
After 7 hours and 30 minutes, the doctor appeared. Ivy rushed over and held his hand.
"Doctor, how is she now?"
The doctor was flustered when Ivy held him. He had never in his wildest dreams thought that one day Ivy would look at him with such desperation.
Who was Ivy? She was the unofficial base leader. Though she had claid that she was just a representative of the base leader, till now, no base leader had appeared, centing the fact that she was the base leader.
Just that... she loved to hide it. Hence, no one thought of exposing her, but they all, in their minds, had started to treat her with utmost respect.
Today his day was indeed a lucky one!
"We found sothing..." The doctor’s voice cracked. "Sothing unrecognizable... inside her stomach."
He swallowed hard, his throat dry.
"...From the looks of it... It’s not a baby."
The words dropped like a stone into still water.
Everyone’s heart sank.
Until now, they had been almost certain that Ivy’s theory had to be right. That Ember had sohow consud a dium, allowing those so-called superior beings to tornt her.
But hearing it confird...a suffocating fear spread through the room.
’If Ember can beco a victim... then what about us?’
’How easily could those things plant sothing inside our bodies... without us even knowing?’
Ivy narrowed her eyes again, forcing her thoughts into order.
"Can we do a CT scan..."
But midway through her sentence, she froze. Though she had tried to get as many machines as she could... There were still so that couldn’t be acquired in ti.
Her voice was calm, but her fingers trembled faintly.
"If we had an MRI machine... we could scan everyone. Find out where the problem is."
After the doctor left, silence returned, heavier than before.
Ivy remained where she stood, her thoughts spiraling.
’MRI... or...’
Her mind suddenly shifted. ’Clairvoyance.’
If they could find soone with that ability, they wouldn’t need machines at all.
Her eyes flickered with determination as she turned slightly.
’That’s faster... more efficient.’
She told her idea to Silas
Understanding her intent, Silas imdiately moved, leaving without another word.
anwhile, the Nightbane family rushed into the room one after another, their footsteps hurried and uneven. They gathered around Ember, their faces pale, their eyes filled with heartbreak.
Ember lay there, her face drained of color, so pale that it almost resembled a drifting cloud, fragile, distant, and unreal.
Ivy stood at the edge, her chest tightening painfully.
’They’re after ...And yet... they’re hurting my family instead.’
Guilt clawed at her insides, sharp and relentless.
Just then, Helena approached quietly, as if she had seen straight through Ivy’s thoughts. Without a word, she gently took Ivy’s hand, her touch warm and steady.
"It’s not your fault."
Ivy’s breath faltered. For a mont, she couldn’t even respond.
’Isn’t it...?’
Helena’s mind drifted back. The mont everything began: the cursed experint.
If the Night famibanely had never gotten involved... If she had never... She shut her eyes tightly, shaking her head.
"If only we hadn’t participated in that cursed experint... maybe things would have been different..."
Her voice was barely above a whisper. Ivy lowered her head, unable to agree... yet unable to deny it either.
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