Chapter 89: The Secret of Her Root

The interrogation room remained frozen in absolute, suffocating silence.

Elias’s final words hung suspended in the chilled air, echoing repeatedly within Raviah’s mind like a persistent bell.

You weren’t supposed to awaken your Root.

Raviah gripped her knees under the heavy metal table, staring at the scarred stranger sitting opposite her.

"What does that mean?" she demanded, her tone clipped as she forced her rising panic back into check.

Elias shifted slightly in his seat, the joints of his metal chair creaking under his weight.

"It means your Root was never programmed to activate naturally through atmospheric exposure," he said flatly.

Rhyder took a heavy step toward the table, his combat boots thudding softly against the concrete floor as his broad shadow enveloped them both.

"Then explain exactly what she possesses," the general ordered, his hand instinctively dropping toward the sidearm strapped at his hip.

Elias glanced up at the imposing soldier before turning his dark, fatigued eyes back to Raviah.

"Your root is extraordinarily rare," Elias murmured, tracing a shallow line on the metal table with a dirty fingernail.

"How rare?" Raviah asked, leaning forward until her forearms rested on the cold surface.

"We do not know," Elias admitted.

An instant spark of irritation flared in Raviah’s chest.

"You were part of the core research team," she said, her voice turning sharp with suspicion. "You studied human roots before the awakening wave hit the continent. You must have extensive data records."

"We had detailed biological records of hundreds of test subjects," Elias answered, his expression remaining maddeningly calm.

He leaned back, resting his spine against the rigid chair.

"None of them possessed your specific combination of biological structure manipulation and raw elemental energy control," he clarified.

Raviah smoothed her coat, her expression hardening into a defensive mask.

"My root is a healing root," she insisted, grounding herself in the familiar medical terms.

"No," Elias said, shaking his head slowly.

"That is merely the surface manifestation of a far deeper process," he stated.

Raviah went still, her breathing shallow as she waited for him to continue.

"You can repair damaged cellular tissue," Elias said, pointing a finger toward her chest. "But you also perceive biological structures at an elemental level, allowing you to manipulate cellular functions, neural pathways, mutations, and core energy channels."

Memory flashed instantly behind Raviah’s eyes, the dissected Zerg corpse in her laboratory, the glowing crystalline pathways she had intuitively sensed running through its nervous system, and the effortless way her energy had disrupted its internal anatomy.

Elias watched her face, reading her reaction with practiced ease.

"Your Root does not simply restore living tissue," he continued, his tone lowering into a solemn murmur.

He locked his gaze directly onto hers.

"It interacts directly with the hidden mechanism that determines how living organisms adapt and evolve."

The ambient temperature inside the interrogation room seemed to plunge several degrees.

Rhyder’s jaw clenched, his sharp eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

"Are you telling us she has the power to control evolution?" the general asked.

"Not consciously," Elias clarified, shaking his head.

"At least, not yet," he added softly.

Raviah’s fingers curled into tight fists against her thighs.

"Then what am I capable of doing right now?" she asked.

"You possess the latent ability to influence how another Elemental’s Root develops over time," Elias explained smoothly.

A heavy silence descended over the room as his words settled.

Raviah stared at him, her heart thumping heavily against her ribs.

Elias leaned forward again, resting his calloused forearms against the table edge.

"Your energy could potentially stabilize a volatile, unstable Root," he said carefully. "It could accelerate advancement, correct abnormal energy pathways, or even alter the physical manifestation of an Elemental’s power entirely."

Raviah’s mind raced through the staggering possibilities.

If what he said was true, her root was not merely a high-level medical tool for treating battlefield injuries.

It was a catalyst that could dictate the entire future strength and survival of humanity’s Elementals.

Rhyder caught the terrifying strategic implication in an instant.

"How many people know this information?" Rhyder demanded, stepping up to the back of Raviah’s chair.

Elias hesitated for a fraction of a second, his eyes flicking toward the ceiling.

"The senior research team," Elias answered.

"How many survived the facility collapse?" Rhyder snapped.

"We do not know," Elias replied.

Rhyder’s expression turned dangerously cold, his body tense with lethal intent.

"And what about military high command?" Rhyder asked.

"They will want her thoroughly protected," Elias noted.

Raviah turned her head to look at the general.

"Protected?" she asked softly.

Elias let out a brief, humorless chuckle that carried no warmth.

"That is one polite word for it," the stranger said.

He leaned across the table, his eyes locked onto Raviah’s face.

"High command will view you as an irreplaceable strategic asset, while the surviving scientists will consider you the single greatest biological anomaly of the new era."

His voice dropped into an ominous whisper.

"They will want to study you endlessly."

A knot of anxiety tightened hard in Raviah’s stomach.

"Study me?" she repeated, her pulse spiking.

"Your blood samples, your core, and the underlying mechanism of your root," Elias detailed flatly.

His grim gaze did not waver.

"If those researchers believe that dissecting your biology will allow them to replicate your ability in others, some of them will not care whether you survive the extraction process."

Rhyder’s leather glove creaked loudly as his hand squeezed into a tight, white-knuckled fist.

"No one touches her," the general said.

The words were spoken softly, almost in a murmur.

Yet the sheer, absolute threat carried in his low voice made the air in the room feel heavy and suffocating.

Elias studied the general’s rigid posture and unyielding stance.

"You do not understand the scale of what we are dealing with, General," Elias murmured.

"I understand the situation perfectly," Rhyder countered, stepping around the chair until he stood directly beside Raviah, his shadow completely shielding her from the stranger.

"She is not a military asset to be assigned," Rhyder growled, his voice as hard as granite.

"She is not laboratory material for experimental research," he continued, glaring down at the prisoner.

"And she belongs to no government or military faction," Rhyder stated firmly.

Raviah felt a tight sensation in her chest, a mixture of gratitude and profound relief washing over her as she looked up at Rhyder’s resolute profile.

Elias remained silent for several long seconds, his tired eyes lingering on the pair.

"There is another problem you must consider," Elias finally spoke, breaking the silence.

Raviah looked back at him, her tension rising once more.

"The Zerg," Elias stated plainly.

Raviah’s expression darkened as a cold dread settled over her shoulders.

"They are already adapting rapidly to human biology," Elias explained, his voice measured. "If their higher intelligence discovers what your root is capable of doing, they will eventually calculate your value to their species."

The memory of the underground nest rushed back to Raviah in vivid detail. She remembered the hideous hybrid creature encased in the chamber wall.

It had distinctly spoken her name with its malformed voice. It had transmitted her biological identity deep into the subterranean depths before dying. The swarm was not just blindly expanding. They were actively searching for her.

"They will not simply try to eliminate you on the battlefield," Elias warned softly.

"They will make every effort to capture you alive," he said.

Rhyder’s jaw flexed, his expression becoming murderously lethal.

"They will never be given the chance," Rhyder declared.

Elias looked up at the general with pitying eyes.

"You are assuming they do not already possess that information," Elias noted.

A terrible, suffocating silence swept through the room once again.

Raviah felt the blood run cold in her veins.

"What are you implying?" she asked, her voice barely above a breath.

Without answering verbally, Elias slowly reached inside his dusty coat, his movements deliberate so as not to trigger Rhyder’s reflexes.

He pulled out a small, metallic data device with a glowing crystalline interface.

"The facility’s monitoring array intercepted several high-frequency Zerg biological transmissions shortly before our perimeter was overrun," Elias explained.

He tapped the side of the device with his thumb.

A harsh, distorted frequency echoed through the speaker, filling the small interrogation room with rhythmic static.

Raviah’s face drained of color as she recognized the subtle resonance immediately.

It was the same strange energy pattern she had detected pulsing inside the Zerg Core in her lab.

"They know," she whispered, her hands trembling slightly against her lap.

Elias nodded grimly.

"They are fully aware that an entity exists within this sector capable of manipulating elemental evolution," he confirmed.

He pointed a finger toward the device.

"And they are systematically sweeping every settlement to find it."

Rhyder moved half a step closer to Raviah, his tall frame physically cutting off Elias’s line of sight to her as his hand rested firmly on his weapon.

Yet Elias was not finished speaking.

"There is one final truth you need to understand, Dr. Solomon," Elias added.

Raviah looked around Rhyder’s arm to meet the stranger’s eyes.

"What is it?" she asked.

Elias’s voice dropped so low it was almost lost beneath the humming of the overhead lights.

"Your Root may not have originated from human biology at all," he revealed.

Raviah froze in place, her breath hitching in her throat.

Elias glanced over at the energy monitors mounted on the wall, where Raviah’s residual aura readings still glowed across the screen.

"It may be directly linked to the primordial source from which all elemental energy in this world originally spilled," Elias whispered.

The interrogation room went motionless.

Raviah could hear the frantic pounding of her own heartbeat echoing in her ears.

"The original source?" she asked, her voice tight.

Elias nodded slowly, his expression hollowed out by memories of the lab.

"Our research division spent years searching through ancient ruins and deep tectonic faults trying to locate its origin," he said softly.

His dark eyes locked onto Raviah’s with absolute conviction.

"And your Root may be the first living evidence that we succeeded," Elias concluded.