Seeing his mother, a bitter smile touched Morca's lips. What he feared most was unfolding right before his eyes.
Earlier, when he translated the system's third synchronization clue, a dark suspicion had taken root. He had chosen to deny it, desperately burying the truth. But seeing Allina approach with the stainless steel tray, the cold weight of reality settled over him. He was right. Again.
Had his mother really chosen to abandon him, just as his father had?
"M-momma… please don't leave."
Barely conscious, Morca pleaded through tear-filled eyes. Beneath its dark patch, his left eye throbbed, a dull ache pulsing in perfect sync with his despair. He tried to reach out to her, but his limbs refused to cooperate as his grip on reality slipped.
Allina clenched the stainless steel tray so tightly her knuckles turned white. The syringes rattled against the metal, sending a sharp, clinical echo bouncing off the bathroom walls.
Carefully setting the tray beside the bathtub, she lowered herself to his level.
"Sweetie, don't be scared," she whispered, her voice tight with an aching heart. "Momma will always be by your side to protect you."
She caressed his cheek, a single tear escaping to slide down her face.
Morca's mind grew hazy as he watched that lone droplet fall from her chin. Is she crying because of the pain she's about to inflict on me, or is something else tearing her within?
His vision narrowed into a blur, but a sudden spark of resolve flared within him. Whatever it is, I will endure it. This is where my path begins. I can't disappoint Momma… I have to grow stronger. Stronger enough to uncover the mysteries around me. Stronger enough to protect her.
Through the fog of his fading sight, he watched Allina's silhouette move. She lifted a syringe. Inside the glass cylinder, a golden-black serum swirled lazily, encircled by faint, glowing halos of light.
"I'm sorry, child…" she murmured, her voice cracking. "Momma failed to protect you from the start. And now, I must be the one to bring you more pain."
She took his hand, aligning the steel needle over a dark, translucent protruding vein, and plunged it in.
So it really was the guilt of hurting me, Morca thought, his lingering terror finally settling into a numb, reluctant acceptance.
The icy tip pierced his skin, and the golden-black serum surged into his bloodstream.
A fleeting pocket of silence passed. Morca felt nothing.
Nothing—
Before the relief could fully register, an agonizing, ungodly pain tore through his body. It was instantaneous, clamping down on his nerves so violently it stole the air right out of his lungs before he could even scream.
The agony hit like a localized tempest of frozen needles, shredding every inch of his flesh and shattering what little consciousness he had left. His body convulsed in violent spasms. His muscles locked hard, seizing rigidly before collapsing into absolute stillness after one final, desperate shudder.
The world blurred, dissolved, and broke apart.
Then—he plummeted into a darkness deeper than death itself.
"I'm sorry, son… I lied to you. I lied…"
Allina's voice trembled, fracturing in the quiet room.
"There is no fourth path to awakening. The path you bear… is a broken one. You will suffer for it, or you will die trying to survive it. To succeed, a sacrifice must be traded."
The composed, graceful woman she usually was vanished entirely. What remained was a mother laid bare by grief. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed heavily onto the wet floor, clutching the base of the bathtub for support. With trembling fingers, she reached for the second syringe on the tray—it was empty, yet she gripped it like a lifeline.
"If your father hadn't stopped you back then… you would have faced a fate worse than death," she rasped, her voice cracking at the edges. "But I won't stand by and watch you die without trying. You must survive… you have to, Morca… my son."
Squelch.
A wet, sickening sound cut through the silence. Without hesitation, Allina drove the needle deep into the left side of her own chest. Slowly, the transparent barrel filled with thick, crimson blood laced with shimmering threads of gold.
"Your father already paved the path… at a terrible cost. Now, it is my turn to solidify it."
Ignoring the white-hot flare of pain in her chest, she wrenched the needle free. In a fluid motion, she plunged it straight through Morca's chest, driving her genetic essence directly into his heart.
This time, there was no violent reaction from the boy. He lay completely still.
However, beneath his pale skin, the faint, translucent blue veins began to writhe. They were shifting.
"Now… the flaws from my genetic essence and your father's, combined with the accumulated corruption already inside you—the very curse that left you vulnerable to illness and trauma—should be enough. It will force the Sin Purging Ritual… and awaken your path."
Allina's expression hardened into pure, clinical focus. She couldn't afford a single mistake. Drawing on her years as an elite genetic researcher, she watched the subtle shifts within Morca's body.
After a few tense seconds of observation, her eyes narrowed.
Something is wrong.
The translucent veins under Morca's skin mutated rapidly, cycling through three distinct, clashing colors: a radiant golden-black, a fierce golden-red, and a deep, devouring ink-black.
Allina's chest tightened. Without missing a beat, she triggered her spiritual vision, focusing entirely on the boy's heart.
What she saw made her breath hitch.
The three opposing forces were violently clashing, waging an internal war for dominance across his heart and vascular system. The delicate internal balance was collapsing.
"Just as I feared…" she murmured, cold sweat breaking on her brow. "My genetic essence and Claudius' are entirely incompatible with Morca's accumulated corruption. The equilibrium required for a complete fusion is tearing itself apart."
Her gaze sharpened, analyzing the erratic flows of energy.
"Though he carries our blood, both of our lineages have already reached their absolute perfection… while his remains unstable. His vessel cannot withstand the pressure."
She forced a slow, steady exhale, her brilliant mind racing through calculated variables.
"To stabilize a fusion of this magnitude, he needs a third essence. One nearly equal in weight to his own…"
Her eyes darkened, a heavy realization dawning on her.
"…and I happen to have one."
Reaching for the third syringe, she raised her hand. With a subtle flick of spiritual energy, a transparent glass vial materialized in her palm. Inside, a silver liquid swirled with unnatural fluidity, threaded with fine strands of a glowing, stark white luminescence.
The image of that mysterious young lady flashed across her mind.
"That girl… she is no ordinary existence. If someone like her can move so freely under their watch, then Evoslon is far from safe…"
Her grip tightened around the glass vial.
"…but will this truly keep him safe?"
A flicker of hesitation crossed her features, but it vanished as quickly as it came. Allina drew the strange, volatile liquid into the syringe and swiftly drove the needle into Morca's chest, releasing the compound directly into his heart.
Her spiritual vision stayed locked on the injection site, bracing for a catastrophic rejection.
But strangely… there was no resistance.
The moment the new essence flooded Morca's heart, it was instantly intercepted. The weak, ink-black flaw forming within him didn't fight it—it seized it completely, greedily wrapping around the silver liquid as though it had been waiting for this exact catalyst.
"No resistance…?" Allina whispered, her dreamy eyes widening in genuine shock. "I see… they share a connection. A thread of fate."
Her mind drifted back to the brief, heavy moment when Morca and that mysterious young lady had locked eyes in the courtyard.
"So… you've even learned to keep secrets from your mother now." A faint, bittersweet smile touched her lips. "It hurts… a little. But it also means you've grown. Grown enough to face some of your burdens on your own."
The integration didn't take long.
Having absorbed the silver catalyst, the newly formed ink-black essence regained total dominance. It turned aggressively on the other two essence—the golden-black and golden-red—dragging them into its center. After a brief, violent struggle, the three clashing powers converged. Yet, just as Allina's calculations predicted, they did not fully merge into a uniform compound.
Instead, they stabilized into a terrifying, symbiotic entity: a tricolor, black-crimson-silver essence.
But the exact millisecond the new essence settled, Morca's heart pulsed once…And then stopped.
Allina froze.
"H-he's… dead…"
The words escaped her lips in a hollow, trembling whisper. Tears spilled uncontrollably from her dreamy eyes, tracking hot lines down her pale face.
Slowly, she stood up. With shaking hands, she straightened her robe, forcing a veneer of composure back over her trembling frame as she stepped closer to Morca's now-still body. Bending low over the rim of the tub, she pressed a soft, lingering kiss to his cold brow.
Then, with a sharp wave of her hand, a transparent spiritual barrier materialized around the bathtub, sealing Morca and his transformation off from the rest of the outside world.
"Everything that needed to be prepared… has been done," she said. Her voice steadied, hardening with resolve even as the sorrow lingered beneath its surface.
"What comes next solely depends on you alone. From this moment onward, you are no longer the mortal we once wished you to be." She stared down at his lifeless form. "Your cause… your effects… they now rest entirely in your own hands."
"Succeed, and become a Pathbearer who can endure what lies ahead. Fail… and remain dead forever." Her gaze deepened, turning absolute. "Failure is no longer an option.
"She paused, looking at him one last time as if etching every line of Morca's face into her memory. A rare, heartbreakingly gentle smile bloomed across her lips.
"Momma believes in you, Morca…" she whispered, her voice dropping to a low, secretive murmur. "…but there is still one more thing I must do before your trial begins."