Endless Evolution: Last Star

A happy smile, full of pain, appeared on Glara's blood-stained face. She watched as a large bright star approached her that could outshine any darkness.

It was the Initial Gene from the Redcore Wolf, that a moment later entered Revolve, ending up in her inner space.

Since her brother was a Phantom, she knew a little about how it happened. Lero told her many times about the day he got the Spark and how he killed his first monster.

Sure, it was under completely different circumstances than Glara's since Lero didn't know about the Naturalborn Phantoms and he didn't have the chance to become one of them since his Spark was already static, retaining the power level that it had at the time of its appearance.

'How beautiful... I wish Lero could see this, but... it will never happen again.' Glara muttered inwardly as she watched the Spark shining brightly in her inner space, where a snow-white seed soon appeared.

This was the beginning of the growth of the powerful Evolution Tree that was common to all the Naturalborn Phantoms.

After a moment, Glara closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep. Her shoulders collided with the Redcore Wolf's, who unlike her would no longer be able to see this world.

Nothing threatened Glara anymore. Her condition was quickly returning to normal, as was evident by her skin, it was once again soft and elastic as a young girl should have.

It would take some time for her to fully recover, but she did her job. She was no longer an ordinary human.

"Good, the experiment can be considered as a success." Aiden said, finally letting go of Shiny's tail.

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Shiny narrowed his eyes resentfully and pointed his tail towards his mouth, licking it from all sides with his long tongue to take away the slight pain.

"So... What conclusions can we draw from this?"

Gladius uttered, glancing at Aiden. He was curious to hear what Aiden thought about this since he was conducting experiments to eventually put the results to practical use.

Aiden scratched his chin, pondering his answer and remembering everything that happened.

"In brief, we need to observe the siblings of the Phantoms dying in the Dead Lands. We need to find out what conditions must be met for the sibling of a recently deceased Phantom to have the inner space as it happened to Glara."

Then, Aiden cast a glance at her and continued:

"There are three conditions in our option: 1) Another Phantom, in this case, is Adam Vinter. 2) The Nexus of her dead brother, which they both touched. 3) Glara herself, not a Phantom and a blood relative to Lero."

Gladius nodded, understanding what Aiden was talking about.

"I see. We need to see if other siblings will have the inner space if they find themselves in exactly the same situation as Glara."

Aiden sighed slightly before agreeing.

"Yes, but besides that we should also find out if all three conditions are really necessary. Maybe only another Phantom and sibling is needed, maybe a Nexus and sibling is enough. Also, it's important to find out if age makes any difference, since Glara is under 18. Though... I realize that it's most likely that all three conditions are required."

Gladius smiled slightly as he shrugged.

"Sure, I'll look into it, but I agree with you. Many siblings touched the Nexuses of their deceased siblings before. I'll make sure this gets watched especially carefully."

Then, Aiden stepped forward, gazing intently at the sleeping Glara, she was gaining the strength to begin her new life as a Phantom.

"If this wasn't a unique case and we can make this sort of thing happen to more people, then we can increase the number of the Naturalborn Phantoms a bit."

Gladius raised an eyebrow, glancing at Aiden with mild interest.

"Hmm? Wouldn't they have to go through a battle as difficult as Glara? I mean, if the Shadow of the Woods didn't interfere, she'd just kill the monster in a 1 on 1 fight, get the Spark, and become the Naturalborn Phantoms like all other such Phantoms."

Aiden nodded deeply, then his gaze traveled to the torn-apart Shadow. Sano had turned the dangerous White Threat Monster into nothing.

"As it turns out, we're lucky that this monster decided to step in. Otherwise, the Redcore Wolf's genes wouldn't be tainted, and we wouldn't know Glara's specialty."

Aiden continued:n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"You're right, she passed a similar path to the other Naturalborn Phantoms, but... we just didn't know what the inner space that appeared without the Spark was capable of."

Gladius narrowed his eyes, looking at Aiden with slight wariness.

"I think such harsh measures are no longer necessary for cases with empty inner space. The purity of the Redcore Wolf's genes was around 90% maybe more, but not 100%, however, 100% was not necessary since the empty inner space worked as a filter."

Aiden took a deep breath before finishing his thought: "Once we've figured out all the conditions and recruited a few siblings like Glara we'll do the next set of experiments where we'll lower the purity of the monster's genes until we figure out how much we can help the test subjects."

Gladius thoughtfully rubbed his chin some, he said in a low voice: "Hmm... I realized what the usability might be. For example, if an empty inner space can filter out genes even at 50% purity, then such siblings can become the Naturalborn Phantoms very easily, right?" Gladius suggested.

Aiden nodded as a slight smirk filled with guile finally appeared on his face.

"Yes, Sano and Natta will be able to assist the test subjects. The purity of the genes won't be 100%, but it won't matter since their inner space will filter everything out."

Aiden folded his hands together, his amber eyes peering at Glara.

"Looks like thanks to this occasion, soon the Naturalborn Phantoms will be a bit more. It's only a drop in the ocean, but it's something."

Gladius shrugged nonchalantly.

"Don't forget Katrin, that girl who recently absorbed the gene of the Plague Reaper and miraculously became the Naturalborn Phantom."

Aiden nodded.

"Sure, I remember, but Katrin's situation is much harder to replicate and research. We're already doing some work on it, but it's not a quick process."

"Hahahahahaha."

Gladius chuckled, unable to contain his laughter.

Aiden raised an eyebrow, he was puzzled.

"Hmm? What made you laugh so hard."

Gladius spread his hands apart.

"No big deal, I just thought it was rather ironic that Adam Vinter was present on both occasions. The one who was one of the lucky survivors of your experiment."

Gladius grinned widely:

"He didn't just become the Naturalborn Phantom, but technically gave rise to two new ways of how you can increase their numbers."

Aiden didn't answer anything, he just looked ahead, silently pondering what happened. He needed to think it over properly to use his time productively for new experiments.

"Hey, how do you think, what Adam Vinter felt at that moment? What would he say if you two met right now?"

Aiden without any emotion on his face said:

"I don't care. He had as much chance of survival as the rest. It's all just a series of coincidences. All that matters to me is to make humanity stronger, as strong as possible. Morality takes a back seat."