Night deepened. Outside the villa, a dead silence reigned, broken only by the mournful whimpering of the cold wind as it swept through the courtyard.
Inside the room, however, Vespera's condition was growing worse. Her high fever, far from subsiding, had reached an alarming level, her body as hot as a branding iron. To Amily's utter terror, beneath Vespera's pale, translucent skin, the major blood vessels extending from her heart and brain throughout her body had taken on a terrifying, ominous black color. They were slightly swollen, as if something were rampaging through them.
In the living room, the atmosphere was similarly oppressive.
Alan, the curly-haired researcher they had rescued, was pacing back and forth like a caged animal, restless and anxious. He periodically scratched his messy mop of curly hair, his face a mask of worry, muttering something under his breath.
Cassian leaned back against the sofa, a glass of water in his hand, his deep blue eyes slightly narrowed as if dark currents were stirring within them. He observed Alan for a while before finally speaking up. "What is it? Mr. Alan, what's troubling you?"
"I'm hungry," Alan blurted out, his tone absent-minded and clearly annoyed.
This answer left the others in the living room somewhat speechless.
With a slight flick of his fingertip, Cassian sent a thin stream of water flowing from his hand like a living tentacle. It precisely curled around a compressed biscuit in the coffee table cabinet and then lightly tossed it into Alan's arms.
"Here, something you like," Cassian said, his tone unreadable, but a half-smile played on his lips, making him difficult to decipher.
Seeing the compressed biscuit, Alan's face immediately lit up with sheer ecstasy, his expression so genuine it couldn't possibly be fake. He thanked Cassian profusely and then, once again oblivious to everyone else, began to devour it ravenously.
Watching this scene, Elara's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. She felt that there was something… not quite right about this Alan, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
She didn't dwell on it and turned to walk into her master bedroom. She opened a concealed safe and took out the crystal cores from the high-level mutated zombies she had collected at the Research Institute, including the one from the Zombie King. She carefully placed them in her pocket. Her intuition told her that these might come in handy later.
When she returned to the guest room, Vespera's condition seemed to have worsened. Amily, her heart aching as she watched her daughter's suffering, decided to try and bring her temperature down with a damp cloth.
However, when she gently lifted Vespera's small pajama top with trembling hands, the sight before her made her face drain of all color in an instant!
Beneath the pajamas, Vespera's small, frail torso was densely covered with that spiderweb-like network of black veins! The black network radiated from her heart, spreading madly to her limbs, a shocking sight, as if they were about to burst through her skin at any moment!
Even more bizarrely, the instant her clothes were lifted and the black veins were fully exposed to the air, Vespera's frighteningly high temperature began to drop at an incredible speed! Within seconds, her body temperature plummeted from a high fever to a level even colder than a normal person's!
"What… what's happening?" Amily was terrified by this sudden, drastic change, her voice choked with sobs, completely at a loss.
Just then, Elara, holding the crystal cores, hurried in from outside.
"Elara! Come quick, look! Vespera, she…" Amily cried out, as if grasping her last lifeline. She pointed frantically at Vespera, who was now deep in a coma, her body ice-cold, and spoke incoherently.
"Don't panic."
Elara's voice was like a tranquilizer, instantly calming Amily's nearly hysterical emotions. Although her own heart was pounding wildly at the bizarre scene before her, her face maintained an extraordinary calm and composure.
"I brought something that might be able to help her."
Elara walked to the bedside and took out the crystal cores from the high-level mutated zombies. Compared to the gray, energetically impure low-level cores dug out from the heads of ordinary undead, the ones Elara held in her hand—whether from the Zombie King or the two other zombies with abilities—were exceptionally different. They were crystal clear, with smooth, rounded surfaces, and a faint light seemed to flow within their cores. Just holding them, one could feel the pure and potent energy they contained.
She carefully pried open Vespera's small fist, which was clenched unconsciously from extreme pain. The small palm was as cold as a block of ice.
"It's okay, Vespera, it's okay… It'll be over soon…" Elara's voice was extremely low, as if she were whispering to the unconscious Vespera, or perhaps to herself.
She took a relatively low-grade core, obtained from the short female zombie, and gently placed it in Vespera's cold palm.
A miracle happened in the next second.
The moment the crystal core touched Vespera's skin, the light at its core flashed brightly. Then, the hard crystal began to rapidly dissolve and break down at a visible rate, transforming into streams of pure energy that flowed from Vespera's palm into the terrifying black veins within her body!
In just a few short seconds, the once-solid crystal core, under the astonished gazes of Elara and Amily, completely turned into a pile of grayish-white powder, which then drifted like dust from between Vespera's fingers to the floor.
Simultaneously, Vespera's frighteningly low body temperature began to rise, and the pained expression on her face seemed to ease slightly.
However, the relief was short-lived.
After only a few minutes, Vespera's temperature began to drop uncontrollably again, and the black veins, which had just calmed down, became restless once more.
"As I thought… she needs even more energy than I imagined."
Elara exhaled slowly, her judgment made. Vespera's "upgrade" was like a supercomputer undergoing a system reinstall and hardware upgrade, requiring a continuous supply of high-quality "power" to sustain it. And these high-level zombie cores were her best "energy bars."
She no longer hesitated. She took the remaining cores and, in methodical order from the lowest to the highest energy level, placed them one by one into Vespera's hand.
The second one… the third one…
Each crystal core dissolved rapidly in Vespera's hand, transforming into energy that nourished her body. Under this "energy replenishment," her body temperature began to gradually stabilize. Although still a bit low, it was no longer fluctuating wildly like a roller coaster.
When the last and most powerful core—the one taken from the Zombie King's head, which flickered with a faint wind-elemental light—was also completely absorbed by Vespera, the terrifying black veins on her body finally began to slowly recede deep into her skin, eventually disappearing from sight.
Her breathing became steady and deep, her furrowed brow completely relaxed, and she fell into a profound and peaceful sleep.
Seeing her daughter finally stable, the heart that had been lodged in Amily's throat finally settled. She looked at Elara with gratitude, her lips moving a few times, but no words came out. She just covered her mouth tightly with her hand, crying silently.
Elara gently patted her shoulder, signaling her not to worry, and then quietly exited the room, leaving the space to the mother and daughter who had endured so much.
She knew that when Vespera woke up again, the once small, weak, and helpless little girl would undergo a true… metamorphosis.
In the latter half of the night, Vespera's condition completely stabilized. Her temperature fluctuated a few more times, but the swings became smaller and smaller, eventually settling within a normal range.
As dawn broke and the first rays of morning light filtered through the gaps in the curtains, the terrifying black veins on Vespera's skin had completely vanished. Her complexion even looked healthier and rosier than usual, no longer a sickly pale. Her little red cheeks were nestled in the soft blankets, her breathing even, sleeping soundly.
Amily had kept watch all night, only daring to close her weary eyes after confirming her daughter was completely out of danger. She lay on her side behind Vespera, gently cradling her daughter's small body in a protective embrace, and drifted into a light sleep. Their hands, one large and one small, were still tightly clasped, as if trying to transfer their warmth to one another.
When Elara got up early, she wanted to check on Vespera, still feeling a bit worried. She quietly pushed the guest room door open a tiny crack and was greeted by this warm and peaceful scene. The soft morning sun sprinkled over the mother and daughter, gilding them with a warm, golden edge.
A gentle smile involuntarily appeared on Elara's lips. She didn't disturb them, quietly closing the door again and backing away.
Standing in the empty living room, savoring a rare moment of peace in the apocalypse, Elara stretched. Just as she was about to get herself something to eat, a thought suddenly struck her, making the smile on her face freeze slightly and her brows furrow.
She remembered an issue she had been neglecting—the rescued researchers.
She walked to the door of the room where the researchers had been temporarily housed and knocked.
Sarah, the gentle-mannered botanist, answered the door. After a night's rest, her complexion had improved considerably.
"Good morning, Miss Elara," Sarah said with a smile.
"Good morning, Dr. Sarah," Elara replied politely. "Sorry to bother you, but I have a question for everyone."
Soon, the other researchers had also woken up and gathered in the living room.
Elara's gaze swept over each of their faces before she got straight to the point. "I'd like to ask, after the apocalypse broke out, have any of you… awakened any special abilities? What we now call… powers."
Hearing the word "powers," the expressions of the several researchers instantly became a bit… strange, each one different.
The oldest-looking one, a physicist, adjusted his glasses in surprise. The woman in the black-and-white striped shirt, the one with the muscular arms who had left a deep impression on Elara, had a sharp glint in her eyes, as if she had expected this.
It was Alan, the curly-haired researcher, whose face showed obvious disappointment and… a subtle hint of regret upon hearing Elara's question.
"Powers? ...So, it's possible for everyone to have something like that?" Alan scratched his messy mop of curly hair, his tone laced with envy and dejection.
Then, to Elara's slight surprise, all the other researchers present, with the exception of Alan, simultaneously extended their hands.
In the next second, faint glows of different colors, representing different elemental abilities, lit up in their palms!
A small cluster of vibrant green, life-filled specks of light emerged from the palm of Sarah, the botanist. A few tiny blue arcs of electricity, crackling faintly, danced on the physicist's fingertips. And in the hand of the "jacked rabbit" female researcher, a small glob of liquid metal, shimmering with a metallic luster and constantly changing shape, coalesced!
They… had all awakened powers!
Only Alan, who spread his hands and stared at them for a long time, found them remaining stubbornly empty. Nothing happened. And the expression on his face, as a result, became even more dejected.
Just as Elara was pondering how to console the clearly devastated "unlucky fellow" Alan, the guest room door opened softly.
Amily emerged, holding Vespera's hand. Her face beamed with the joy of surviving a crisis, mixed with a hint of… an indescribable, bittersweet wistfulness, like a parent watching their child suddenly grow up.
The moment the mother and daughter appeared, they immediately captured the attention of everyone in the living room.
Vespera had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation!
Previously looking to be only around ten years old and frail, she had shot up at least ten centimeters in height after her overnight "upgrade"! Her already slender frame, now elongated by her new height, made her look even more like a paper-thin figure a gust of wind could topple.
But in stark contrast to her delicate appearance, every step she took was exceptionally steady and powerful, her footfalls silent, showing no signs of awkwardness from the sudden change in height. Her muscles and bones seemed to have been perfectly strengthened and adapted during the night's energy reconstruction.
More importantly, the sickly pallor was gone from her small face. Her complexion was rosy, her eyes bright, and she radiated an unprecedented, powerful life force. If the Vespera of before was a tenacious but fragile dodder vine growing in the shadows, then the Vespera of now was a black rose, blooming silently in the dark night, exuding a deadly allure.
"I can... feel... all... the zombies... within a one-mile radius."
Vespera walked up to Elara, took the phone Elara handed her, and typed quickly on the screen with fingers that had become longer and more nimble. A calm, emotionless mechanical voice emanated from the phone's speaker, but everyone in the living room could hear the unconcealable joy and excitement in Vespera's "voice."
One mile! That perception range far exceeded that of most perception-type ability users!
The researchers present were dumbfounded by Vespera's "miraculous" transformation. Though they were all top scholars in their respective fields, this was the first time they had witnessed such a scene of magical realism—growing ten centimeters overnight.
Sarah the botanist and the "jacked rabbit" female researcher couldn't help but crowd around her curiously, gently pinching Vespera's arms and shoulders as if observing a rare research specimen, feeling the firm, powerful muscles hidden beneath her slender frame.
Alan, however, being male, stood a little further away, looking slightly awkward and not joining in. He just met Vespera's gaze with a complex expression of amazement and envy.
Perhaps because Alan had finally gotten enough sleep and no longer had those exaggerated dark circles nearly hanging to his chin, he looked much more alert. Coupled with Vespera's own dramatic change, she seemed not to recognize the curly-haired young man before her at first.
She tilted her head, looking at Alan with confusion for a few seconds before a smile of recognition slowly spread across her face.