CHAPTER 78 – THE LABORATORY OF ORIGINS
The hall was vast.
More palace than laboratory. More temple than chamber.
Spiral columns stretched toward the vaulted ceiling, nine on each side, each etched with intricate formations that pulsed faintly beneath the marble floors, along the walls, and across the towering pillars themselves.
These formations were not mere protection.
They siphoned energy.
Everything happening on the battlefield far above, the violent collisions, the shockwaves, the unleashed forces, was being drawn here. The formations guided it toward the center of the hall like blood through veins.
And at that center stood Leylin.
Raven-black hair spilled past his shoulders, settling just above the small of his back. Obsidian robes, somewhere between battle armor and martial attire, hung across his towering frame.
Six feet nine.Still. Silent. Dominant.
A faint breeze stirred the hem of his cloak.
Across his chest, four hues pulsed faintly beneath the fabric.
Green.A deeper emerald.A devouring black.
And beneath them all, faint and dormant, gold.
Greed.Envy.Gluttony.Pride.
Yet Leylin's attention was not on himself.
It was on the pond before him.
Dark.Uneven.
What unseetled him wasn't the dark liquid that seemed to breathe with life...no,it was what lay within it.
An obsidian structure lay partially submerged at the pond's center. Rectangular. Ancient. Wrong in a way his instincts could not fully describe.
Strange inscriptions covered its surface.
And those inscriptions resonated faintly with the cores inside his chest.
Like a child recognizing a long-lost parent.
Or a parent sensing the return of something it once lost.
Leylin circled the pond slowly.
His steps were deliberate. Measured.
The formations surrounding the water did not allow him closer. Whenever he approached, an invisible resistance pressed against his senses. Subtle, but unmistakable.
Not a barrier.A warning.
His perception could not pierce it. His body instinctively rejected it.
All he could do was observe.
Turning briefly, Leylin glanced toward the distant battlefield.
Through the formation network he could feel it. Every shockwave. Every violent surge of power.
His clone was still fighting Crimson Six.
Perfect.
Exactly as planned.
Turning his gaze, he settled upon the thing that gave him more course for concern.. something that made the obsidian coffin below seem trivial in comparison
There, something lay suspended within a translucent container, crimson liquid filling its entirety
But it wasn't the container that drew his focus...it was what lay within it..as Inside it, a life was forming.
A fetus drifted within dark liquid, suspended in perfect stillness.
It did not grow unnaturally fast. It did not leap through years in moments.
Instead it developed slowly, like any life forming within a womb.
Yet every pulse of the surrounding formations fed it power far beyond what any mortal birth should ever contain.
Seven sockets were embedded around the structure.
Two of them were filled.
The Lust Core.
And the Sloth Core.
Leylin studied them carefully.
They were not simply resting in place.
Faint currents of power flowed from the cores into the surrounding formation, circulating through the intricate channels carved into the structure before returning again.
The system was incomplete.
Waiting.
Leylin's gaze shifted to the fetus suspended in the dark fluid.
The small body floated peacefully, untouched by the violent forces circulating through the chamber.
No aura radiated from it
No halo adorned it's form
For now it was nothing more than a fetus..an unborn
Yet the power surrounding it was staggering.
The obsidian coffin at the center of the pond released a faint stream of dark-gold ichor. Thin channels carried the liquid toward the pod where it mixed with the surrounding fluid.
The fetus absorbed it unconsciously.
Power gathered.
Layer upon layer.
Waiting for something to complete the cycle.
Leylin narrowed his eyes slightly.
"So this is only the preparation stage."
His voice echoed quietly across the chamber.
"what is she creating"
He said as He circled the structure once more, studying every detail of the formation.
Every line had purpose.
Every channel guided power somewhere.
The coffin.The cores.The vessel.
Then,as if struck by an idea, A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"I wonder what happens if this is devoured."
Inside his chest the Gluttony Core stirred violently.
Devour.Consume.Eat.
Leylin raised a hand and lightly tapped his chest.
"Slow down, little guy."
His tone carried faint amusement.
"Not everything is meant to be devoured."
His gaze returned to the forming child.
"I have other plans."
He turned away from the pond.
The faint sense of dread receded as he walked back toward the far side of the chamber.
Thousands of pods lined the laboratory.
Each one containing a body.
Each one a perfect replica of him.
Clones.
Suspended in translucent fluid.
The formation network linked them all together.
Every strike Crimson Six delivered above was being redirected here.
The energy fed the pods.
The pods fed the formation.
The formation fed the vessel.
Leylin stood before them in silence.
Calculating.
One of the pods slowly opened.
Fluid drained away with a soft hiss.
Leylin removed his obsidian robes. They slid from his shoulders and fell silently to the floor.
Saying nothing,He stepped forward.
Letting the fluid inside the pod swallow him slowly as the sensation registered in his mind instantly.
"Cold", leylin hissed as he felt the formation come Alive with faint currents of power.
As the liquid rose around him, thin lines of light extended from the pod and connected to the surrounding formation network.
Leylin felt it immediately.
The link...His body.The clones.The formation.The vessel.
All of it becoming one system.
His eyes remained calm, almost Analytical.
"If devouring it would elevate my existence beyond what this body can contain…"
His voice became quieter.
"…what happens if I become it?"
For the first time since entering this laboratory.. he stopped.
Not fear out of fear,but Calculation.
Once the process began there would be no reversing the outcome.
Leylin exhaled slowly.
Then allowed the fluid to close over his head.
The pod sealed.
The formations across the entire chamber ignited.
Energy surged.
Clones began dissolving within their pods. Their bodies broke apart into streams of raw power that flowed toward the center.
Toward the forming vessel.
Toward the coffin.
Toward him.
Within the darkness of the fluid, Leylin's final thought surfaced with cold certainty.
The end had finally begun.