"My Lord." Karin awoke in the empty bedroom, a trace of loneliness flashing through her eyes.
It had been two months since they moved into the shelter. Everything here felt like a dream.
Compared with the perilous wilderness of Baal Secundus, life in the shelter was practically the paradise of legends.
They no longer had to flee in panic from radiation storms, no longer needed to guard against blood hawk ambushes, or risk their lives for a sip of clean water.
Everything here was so perfect it felt unreal, and Karin might have been the only person who felt disappointed.
Because she had lost her job.
Her Lord and the two angels had never stayed overnight here. Those meticulously prepared bed linens remained exactly as they were when first arranged.
Karin daily maintained the spotless room. Even if her Lord never returned, as His priestess, she should still keep the house in perfect order.
Yet she would always drift into a daze while cleaning.
Every morning, the automatic delivery system prepared hot meals for them in the cafeteria.
Even now, the soft, sweet cream bread supplied daily could still bring many of her tribesmen to tears.
Compared to the shelter, what harsh lives they had led before!
If only they had known the Mutants lived so well, they would have come seeking refuge long ago!
But what about her?
If her Lord no longer needed her as His priestess, then what was she still doing here?
Karin refused to accept that. Each day, she stubbornly applied to the cafeteria for fresh ingredients and practiced cooking at home with recipe books.
As long as she was still working, she felt she hadn't been abandoned.
Her memories drifted back to the wasteland. At least back then, her Lord still needed her.
Her thoughts settled over that barren wilderness like drifting sand.
At that time, her existence still had value.
She was his priestess, and also his cook and maid.
Meals, tidying, and cleaning the room were all her responsibility. Only she had this honor.
Even when that fatal mistake with the thirstwater nearly endangered his life, he neither blamed nor punished her.
As a priestess serving the divine, she should have rejoiced for her people's rebirth. That was her duty.
But the loss churning in her chest gnawed at her sanity like thirstwater itself.
She was still doing the same work as before.
Cooking. Cleaning. Everything seemed unchanged.
But without her Lord… what meaning did any of it have?
Gibson deserved to die.
Whenever she recalled that liquid trembling in the light, a piercing chill would race down Karin's spine.
He had tried to murder her Lord. Being drained by thirstwater had been far too merciful.
And she, she had nearly put her Lord in danger.
She deserved death, too.
And the purebloods, they could actually accept the shelter's luxurious life with clear consciences. They all deserved to die!
And the mutants, why were their living conditions so comfortable? Without hardship, how could they understand her Lord's greatness?
They deserved death!
"If… if the shelter were destroyed…"
The sudden thought startled her heart, yet a secret anticipation coiled around her mind like vines.
If the shelter disappeared, perhaps they would return to the wasteland.
Her lord would need his priestess again. She would regain her value. Everything would go back to how it was.
"Maybe… it really could work…" Her breathing became rapid and hot.
'Destroy the shelter.'
Once the idea appeared, it spread like poisonous ivy in her heart.
She let out a low laugh, a feverish glint flashing in her eyes.
"It's simple… just mix thirstwater into the shelter's circulation system, and it will all be over."
Just like Gibson did.
With thirstwater, everything would be destroyed.
"No... No!"
Karin jerked violently, shaking her head as if burned by her own thoughts, hair sweeping messily across her pale cheeks.
The idea was insane.
How many would die? Innocent people who knew nothing.
Worse, what if her Lord accidentally drank it?
Her throat tightened. The mere image nearly suffocated her.
"But... if I don't..."
Karin's fingernails dug deep into her palms, but she couldn't feel the pain.
Her Lord's gaze would no longer linger on her. His voice would no longer call her name. And she could only curl up in the shadows, abandoned by her Lord.
This terrified her more than death!
"Maybe you have another way?"
"What other way could you possibly have?"
"Karin, don't wallow in self-pity. Your Lord has never forgotten you."
"Then why hasn't he come to see you for so long? Hah, what a heartless man!"
"He isn't heartless, he's just busy!"
"Excuses!"
"Lies!"
"You wretched bitch!"
"You damn liar!"
The blue and violet thoughts clashed like tides, tearing at her soul. Karin curled up in agony as if that could resist the endless pull within her.
On one side, humble hope; on the other, icy despair.
She wanted so little. She only wished her Lord would come see her. Was that too much to ask?
"For His sake… use thirstwater on them!"
"Karin, this is not your path."
"What are you hesitating for? They're the ones who stole your Lord! They owe you this!"
"Karin, once you take this step, there's no turning back."
"If everyone else dies, he will belong only to you!"
"He won't love you because of this."
"He will! When everything else is gone, when only you remain in his world, if your Lord doesn't love you, who else could he love?"
"Baal is vast; the shelter isn't the whole world."
"Thirst water is inexhaustible; it's enough to destroy Baal."
"The galaxy is boundless; thirstwater cannot fill it."
"Then let the galaxy burn!"
"…I'm still here."
"You're the one who should die most!"
"Uwaaaaah!"
Karin screamed and collapsed, fingers clawing into the metal floor.
Her cries no longer sounded human, but like a psychic echo on the verge of collapse.
In an instant-
Radiant blue and deep violet psychic energy burst from within her, like a nuclear explosion suppressed to its breaking point.
The light first condensed into a single point, then detonated violently!
BOOM!
A violent psychic storm instantly engulfed the space dozens of meters around. Metal walls tore like paper, vaporizing in the searing heat.
Yet this destruction carried an eerie precision.
The energy abruptly constricted at the critical moment before it could spread to the floors above and below. Otherwise, countless areas of the shelter would have been annihilated in this instant.
When the last of the psychic luminescence faded, the young woman still lay curled up, her slender form like a broken doll.
Centered on her, a piercing cold spread silently.
Eerie frost patterns crystallized on the metal floor. Moisture in the air instantly sublimated into fine ice crystals. The temperature plummeted exponentially.
.....
"What happened?"
"My Lord." Albert's voice trembled slightly. "We don't know either. No warning, it suddenly exploded."
Caelan frowned.
For the past two months, he had been immersed with the twins in the laboratory and library, perfecting the genetic experiments left by Dr. Iven.
Who would have thought that Floor 71 would suffer an explosion?
If it were a bomb, it might be dismissed as terrorism.
But the lingering ripples of psychic energy in the air suggested something else: an explosion triggered by psychic awakening.
"Of all people... Karin."
Of all people, the young woman who always stood quietly behind him, following him with fervent eyes.
Not a single sign. Why would she awaken so suddenly, for no apparent reason?
Caelan sighed deeply, yet his steps didn't pause. He strode directly towards the girl.
Albert hurriedly tried to dissuade him, "My Lord! Please stop, it's very dangerous there!"
They had already spotted Karin. Some had tried to approach.
But the temperature around her was too low. Anyone who stepped within thirty meters of her was instantly assailed by bone-piercing cold; their blood nearly froze.
The side effect of her psychic power.
Yet the cold around Karin was clearly abnormal, enough to freeze mortal flesh and blood.
The extreme cold tried to erode Caelan, but it was repelled by power of the same origin.
As the distance shortened, Caelan finally saw Karin clearly. Her entire body was sealed within crystalline ice, her long lashes, slightly parted lips, and even her flowing blue hair, all frozen solid.
That thin layer of ice refracted eerie blue-violet rainbows under the psychic glow.
When the blue illuminated her face, she looked like a sleeping princess.
But when the violet illuminated her face, she resembled a sacrificial offering.
Fulgrim folded his wings and landed softly before the girl. His fingers gently touched the ice surface.
"Sister Karin is still alive."
Sanguinius added, "But her heartbeat is growing weaker."
If a normal person were frozen into an ice sculpture, survival would be impossible.
But Karin was the source of this extreme cold psychic vortex. If she were dead, this power should have dissipated long ago.
The psychic power caused the disaster, but it also sustained her life.
Caelan's palm slowly covered the girl's ice-sealed cheek. Pale blue psychic luminescence flickered at his fingertips. Like melting snow, the light neutralized the eerie rainbows beneath the ice. The crystal clusters disintegrated silently, inch by inch.
Even after the last ice melted, and Caelan lifted her horizontally into his arms, all he felt was piercing cold.
Karin's face was pale to the point of translucence; not a trace of color remained beneath her skin.
Only the faintest rise and fall of her chest remained. Each breath was as shallow and fragile as a candle flame on the verge of extinguishing, at any moment may vanish in the cold air.
...
Karin's long lashes fluttered gently as her eyes opened. The first thing she saw was an unfamiliar expanse of pure white.
Her chaotic thoughts struggled to reboot. 'Where is this?'
"You're awake."
That familiar voice instantly pierced the mist. A flash of joy appeared on Karin's pale face, but it swiftly turned to panic in the next second.
"My Lord... I... I was wrong..." Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz. Her fingers unconsciously clutched the bedsheet.
"Wrong about what?"
"I... I think..." Her eyes reddened rapidly. Her voice began to tremble. "...I caused a terrible disaster..."
"It wasn't your fault," Caelan said gently yet firmly. "But you must tell me, what exactly happened?"
Karin's memories still lingered on that ordinary morning.
She had been tidying his room when a sharp pain stabbed through her mind. Her heart felt as if gripped by an invisible hand.
The agony made her curl up on the floor. Then came endless darkness.
And in the haze of her fading consciousness, she seemed to see herself radiating an eerie glow.
A fury of psychic energy surged forth like raging waves, leveling the entire building complex.
"Did… did I kill everyone?" Karin's pale lips trembled. Crystal tears slipped down her cheeks.
"Except you, there were no casualties."
The Blood always held Caelan in high reverence; no one dared overstep by residing within his sanctum.
And because of Karin's small, willful exercise of power, the residences for several hundred meters around had been designated as sacred space.
Caelan had strictly forbidden anyone from taking more than their share. But Karin insisted on taking more in the name of the divine, thinking this would draw Caelan's attention.
But the residents hadn't found it improper at all. They felt the sanctum ought to be this grand. No one reported it to Caelan.
Caelan had been completely unaware of this all along.
"Karin." The tone Caelan used to speak her name was unusually slow and heavy. "Although no one died this time, the impact is extremely severe!"
Karin's face instantly paled. Her slender fingers clutched the bedsheet desperately. Was she going to be abandoned?
"I can't let you go back. You'll stay here for now, until you've fully mastered your psychic power."
The despair in the girl's eyes vanished abruptly, replaced by an incredible radiance.
"R-Really? I can?" Her voice quivered lightly, as if afraid this sudden favor might shatter at any moment.
"Settle in peacefully. I will teach you to master this gift."
'My Lord himself will teach me?'
This thought burst like a beam of light inside the girl's mind. All her fears were instantly burned to ash.
She almost suspected she was living in a dream. How else could she receive such a nearly miraculous blessing?
The corners of Karin's mouth began rising uncontrollably. Then she realized the angels were present and tried to suppress it, resulting in a strange twitching expression.
Fulgrim tilted his head. "Weird big sister… just smile if you're happy."
In Fulgrim's understanding, Karin's liking of his Father was as normal as everyone who wanted to harm Father deserved death.
Sanguinius suddenly spoke from the lab, "Dad, you should see this."
Karin's brows rose unconsciously. Even her fingertips curled slightly with delight.
This sudden joy suffused her whole being like warm, flowing light.
But just as her gaze skipped cheerfully around the room, it abruptly halted.
On the corner of the lab table, a transparent jar was quietly displayed.
Inside it was some kind of liquid.
At least, it looked like water.
Thirstwater was too dangerous. Caelan wouldn't leave it with an ordinary young woman.
It had always been here.
A whisper sounded in her mind:
"Look… it's right before you. Such a dangerous thing. So fragile. Why isn't it protected better?"
She pulled the blanket over her face, trembling.
...
"Karin and Eve: 99% genetic similarity."
Caelan held the test report. His voice, for once, hesitated.
If this were M3, the entire human genome similarity would be as high as 99.9%, with individual differences only about 0.1%.
Even across five millennia, the genetic similarity between descendant and ancestor would similarly approach the human average.
But this was M30. Genetic similarity between individuals was only 25%, or even lower.
If human genes evolved naturally, they would only undergo convergent evolution toward similarity when the entire human race transcended into a psychic species.
By then, human genetic similarity would return to 99.9%, as in M3.
Yet Dr. Iven, through sheer individual effort, had forcibly compressed humanity's path to transcendence!
His experiments not only enabled stable inheritance of Mutant physiological traits but even stabilized genetic inheritance!
99% genetic similarity meant that even across five thousand years, Eve's genetic sequence was almost perfectly imprinted in every strand of Karin's DNA, differing by only a single base pair.
In the M3 era, such a condition typically occurred only between twins, and even then, it was an extremely low-probability event.
What was this, if not a new breed of humanity?
"Genius!"
No matter how Dr. Iven achieved it, he absolutely deserved such praise from Caelan.
Fulgrim's voice carried a hint of confusion: "Brother, why did you think to compare Sister Karin's genes with Eve's?"
"Because Sister Karin's awakening was no coincidence. Baal Secundus's population base is insufficient to naturally produce a psychic, much less one as powerful as Sister Karin. Five thousand years ago, there was only one Eve. Five thousand years later, there is only Sister Karin."
"At first, I didn't connect the two. But the lab happened to preserve Eve's genetic sample, which is why I performed a genetic sequencing comparison between them."
"What I wanted to investigate was whether there is some special genetic link among psychics, and whether that link causes psychics to have significantly higher genetic similarity than ordinary individuals. But the result completely exceeded my expectations."
From a genetic perspective, this inference was valid.
Genetic similarity within the same subspecies population is indeed significantly higher than differences between ordinary human individuals.
Because genetic mutations in subspecies populations tend to stabilize, these fixed hereditary traits substantially increase genetic homology within the group.
Psychic ability is also a highly stable genetic mutation. Psychics also count as a subspecies, so there must be significant genetic convergence within the psychic population.
Thus, psychic transcendence leads to convergent genetic evolution, ultimately forming highly homologous psychic genetic sequences.
But unless humanity completes psychic transcendence, genetic sequences among psychics couldn't possibly be this divergent. The probability that Eve is Karin's direct ancestor is extremely high!
And the reason their genetic similarity is this high may be due to psychic awakening. If Karin hadn't awakened psychic power, her genetic sequence and Eve's would likely be only 25% similar, no different from anyone else.
Fulgrim suddenly asked: "If Eve destroyed all her experimental data, why did she preserve her own genetic sample?"
Bang!
Sanguinius was still pondering when a muffled explosion came from the direction of the medical room.