Transcendent Gene
Chapter 202: Reward [2]

Chapter 202: Reward [2]

However, Neriah was not sent where Gio was sent.

Neriah found herself somewhere similar. The entrance was the same, with a corridor that was labeled with an [ENTER] sign. She walked through the same depictions of the Gods before arriving at a similar room within which was a similar desk.

She approached it carefully and looked at the papers piled on its surface.

There was only one with words on it, while the rest were filled with calculations and grid patterns that she couldn’t understand.

[The successor is one who will walk a lonely road.]

The letter she was left began with a powerful sentence.

[It is a road that no other can traverse. It is a road that will break anyone and anything, including the one who decides to traverse it.]

Neriah frowned, looking up at the [VNIR] plaque on the wall in front of her.

[However, as he takes his first steps, there is no need for the successor to bear the burdens of his existence alone.]

[It was never meant for there to be a companion in this trial. If this letter is being read, then our successor is one who values more than just the mission he was born with. Such a thing is not a sin. Rather, it is how a young talent should grow regardless of their duties.]

[You, as a companion trusted enough to enter this place, are also someone to be rewarded, as you are someone bound to stay by the successor’s side during these first steps. For the future of this World, and for the strength of this Complex, rise up and become a weapon of humanity.]

[Beneath the shade of the Gehenna Tree, only strength promotes equality.]

Neriah’s frown deepened.

’This VNIR group...are they some kind of hidden force, or are they a group from the past?’

The letter was worded as if the author didn’t expect to be alive by the time the successor arrived at the legacy site. She had to wonder what VNIR truly was, but from the wording of the letter, they seemed like a force geared towards the greater good of humanity.

’This is interesting.’

If she was here, then Gio must’ve been in a similar place made for the "successor."

’Is it because he is male? The successor is clearly called a man in this message. Otherwise, it may be because he contributed more to completing the legacy trials; however, how would they be able to gather such information?’

The reason didn’t matter. In the end, they were both being rewarded.

[Lift the plaque and claim your reward.]

That sentence was present at the bottom of the letter, separated from the rest. Following it, Neriah approached the back wall and mimicked the movements Gio made only moments prior.

There was a vial of clear liquid filled with starry yellow light waiting for her inside.

’An Elemental Sequence.’

Not just any Elemental Sequence, but...

Neriah looked at the label in front of the vial with heat in her eyes.

It was as she’d told Gio a few days earlier. Opportunities would come to those who reached for them.

’With this...’

She was suddenly presented with a solution to a weakness she thought would take a very long time to solve.

Naturally, she took the vial and injected it into her arm without hesitation.

The only place she could go was much higher than where she stood now.

***

The brightness of that starry blue light was the last thing Gio saw before his eyes stopped working. He was blinded by a pure whiteness that didn’t disappear even after many seconds passed.

He didn’t feel anything wrong with his vision, though. In fact, if he was forced to see anything other than the pure whiteness, he felt that everything would become so, so much worse.

His eyes were the least of his problems.

The moment the light was unleashed, the prism he held shattered. The star contained within shot forward and melted into Gio’s chest.

His neck snapped back and his mouth opened in the motion to scream, but his vocal cords no longer worked.

His body was being invaded by a strange force.

The white and blue energy looked just like the light that swallowed Gio. It scattered through his body when it entered before rushing through his veins and gathering at his Aether Core.

"Khhhh...!"

Gio didn’t know when he gritted his teeth, but he let out a pained breath. The foreign energy charged into his Aether Core, forcefully changing it and dyeing it a much brighter color. Before he could cope with the pain, the energy rushed out and followed his Aether down its pathways.

The energy was originally a much deeper blue color than the foreign substance. Upon contact, it was also dyed in a brighter and more starry hue.

None of those changes were a matter of physical appearance. The Aether Core he’d built and the Aether within him were changing at the very core of their structure, sending searing waves of pain all throughout Gio’s body.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the energy soon invaded his Bloodline and charged into his Gene Housing, influencing not only [Memory Book] and [Virtual Manifestation], but the [Rune of Change] as well.

There was a necklace on Gio’s neck that never left, even once. Nobody questioned the fact that it never moved, even when he was wildly moving his body. It stayed glued to him and was never affected by the impacts he suffered from.

That necklace had the true form of a weakened albino garden snake. When its Rune was touched, it changed and squirmed on Gio’s neck, trying to speak to him in his mind.

However, he could not respond.

The snake started to grow. Its scales gained a sheen to them that they did not previously hold. Its eyes became like crystals, and the symbolic representation of its rune healed just slightly.

Strength was being poured into all facets of Gio’s power, qualitatively increasing his state of existence. For a long time, the only thing he felt was pain. He was unable to even understand what was happening to him.

At some point, his endurance was rewarded. He regained an inkling of conscious thought, which immediately rushed into his body.

He thought he was going to observe what was happening to him, but his gaze was taken somewhere else entirely. He saw a vast expanse of black, blue, and purple. It was a mirror of outer space, but Gio could tell that it wasn’t a vision or anything similar.

A bright blue star shone inside the darkness. Gio tried to reach for it, but he could not move closer to its light.

He understood in his heart what he was looking at, but there was no way for him to put it into words.

The scenery in front of him...it was him. It was a perception of himself that he could not reach or attain, but that shining blue star made it clear to his eyes, allowing him to at least realize its existence.

’What...’

The clarity allowed him to understand what was happening to his body. Without a doubt, he was being enhanced by an unknown energy that was becoming part of his body.

’But...’

That was something he’d never heard of before.

An energy of that kind...

He could only imagine a single existence he’d ever encountered that had the status to override the world like this.