Chapter 41: Delaney’s Suspicion

"I do not have all the time in the world, remember..."

Arlo reminded the system, which had asked him to take his time.

There was no time to wait and build things slowly. He still had no way of returning back to Umbrasol, and would need to gather all the information he could from the Vorath, who had researched the possibility of leaving the planet.

In short, he needed to grow quickly and work hard every waking hour.

[Good. Then continue absorbing as much Mana as you can and direct it toward the pathway.]

The system was more than ready to guide him.

Once more, Arlo’s room filled with dark motes of energy, an egg-like cocoon gradually covering his entire figure as he quietly formed vessels within his heart and brain, unknowingly birthing an anomaly that possessed two magical vessel sources instead of one.

Something unknown to Arlo and deliberately kept secret from him by the system.

_________________

"Rare for you to request a meeting this late at night, Delaney."

Captain Ennessa’s voice rang through the dimly lit bar, where only she and Surgeon Delaney sat, each with a glass before them and a bottle of wine at their side.

"It has really been too long since we have had time like this together, Ennessa."

Surgeon Delaney spoke as Ennessa downed her cup and poured herself another.

"We have our careers and responsibilities now, Delaney. That is what we should be focused on, is it not?"

Ennessa replied, and Delaney could only nod.

"That is right..."

She answered before downing her own cup.

"Do not tell me you called me out tonight just to lament about the past, when we had more freedom."

Ennessa spoke, a slight impatience creeping into her voice.

"No, I am here to talk about someone. Someone you are oddly familiar with..."

"Are you now wanting your Core back? I thought we already discussed that."

Ennessa replied as if reading her mind.

"I do not care about the Core anymore. I can build a better one in five years."

Delaney’s voice turned slightly wry.

"What worries me is your relationship with him."

Ennessa’s hand stopped on its way toward her mouth, and she slowly turned to look at Delaney.

"Aww, is someone afraid a kid would steal their girlfriend away?"

Ennessa replied with a wink, causing Delaney to roll her eyes, though the seriousness in her gaze never wavered.

"I am serious, Ness. What is your relationship with him?"

"And I already told you, Dela. He is just one of my crew members."

She replied, waving away the idea of going into more detail.

"No, he is not."

Delaney argued, her voice brimming with certainty.

"And why do you think so?"

"Because you were worried, Ennessa. When you asked me to do all I could, I saw worry in your eyes. Deep worry."

Delaney stared directly into her eyes.

"Something I have not seen in close to seven years."

Ennessa furrowed her eyebrows before finally conceding.

"Okay, fine. He is my boyfriend. Are you satisfied now?"

Ennessa said before downing her cup in a single gulp.

"And may I ask where you found this boyfriend of yours?"

Delaney pressed.

Ennessa’s gaze suddenly focused on her.

"You are looking serious, Delaney. What is wrong? Did you notice something abnormal about him?"

She had thought Delaney called her here in the middle of the night simply because they had been apart for too long, and seeing her best friend before diving into another death mission did not seem like a bad idea.

But Delaney was asking strange questions about Arlo, and the serious expression on her face only made Ennessa more suspicious.

The only time Delaney ever asked questions like these was when something was gravely wrong.

"What exactly is it with you, Dela?"

"Answer my question first."

Delaney held her ground, and Ennessa finally gave in.

"It was during my last mission."

"He was one of the crew members, probably assigned to me through the Orcano Military Cadets’ conduits, or at least that was what I thought."

"He did something I can’t ignore, essentially the only reason why I’m still alive right now."

"When I requested his background, I discovered he knew nothing about this sector at all."

"He described the place where he used to live, a truly backwater place which I believed was definitely one of those lower sectors whose inhabitants refused to adapt to technological change."

"What do you call them again? Primitives, Aboriginals, or whatever?"

"I could not find the sector he described, and if he ever wanted to return there, he would have to reach the Major rank first."

"So, I decided to take him in as my personal intern, hoping he would one day be able to reach that rank and return back."

"I doubt that would ever happen, though. Only an idiot would leave all the good in these Higher Sectors to return to a place with no electricity."

Ennessa gave a basic summary, but Delaney’s eyes only furrowed further.

"Now, I hope your curiosity has been sated."

Ennessa huffed lightly and stretched her hand toward her glass, but Delaney grabbed it before she could reach it.

"Have you ever noticed anything strange about him?"

"Strange?"

Ennessa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean patterns of behavior, ways of acting, something out of the ordinary?"

"No?"

"Ness!"

"What?"

"Give it five seconds of thought. Just five."

Delaney said, and Ennessa paused for five seconds, hoping to simply get through it, only for a realization to cross her mind.

"Hmm, something weird about him, huh? If there is anything weird, it’d be that he’s like a blank book."

"He doesn’t even seem to know teleporters are a thing and struggles to open the door of a flying car, hahaha."

Ennessa said before erupting into giggles as she downed her drink.

Delaney stared firmly into her eyes, watching her finish the drink.

"You know, during the mission four days ago, there was a minor anomalous issue..."

Delaney began, and Ennessa listened with rapt attention.

"Oh, yeah?"

"When we reached the fusion stage, his DNA could not bear the cybernetic power and was rapidly collapsing."

"But then, in the blink of an eye, the DNA that had been on the verge of shattering completely began regenerating at an unbelievably fast pace."

"His entire DNA structure was reconstructed in less than a minute!"

Delaney reported.

Ennessa shrugged.

"That happens during transfusions. Sudden, strange recoveries that even science cannot accurately explain."

"We are both living proof of that."

Delaney shook her head.

"I also wanted to push it from my mind, but the thought of DNA reconstructing itself within seconds drew my curiosity."

"So I decided to scan through the records and see what had really happened during that time."

"That was when I discovered that an outside source had been responsible for the anomaly."

Delaney’s tone turned heavy.

"And what was it?"

"I discovered remnants of particles that moved through his body and helped reconstruct the DNA."

"They were dark in color, and after making several comparisons, I realized a fact that cannot be denied, Ennessa."

Delaney’s tone grew even heavier, causing Ennessa’s pulse to increase slightly.

"And what are these undeniable facts of yours?"

"I found traces of Mana."

"Ugh, that’s ridiculous."

Ennessa spoke, rolling her eyes, but Delaney was not giving in.

"You know as well as anyone that not even the most abnormal humans possess Mana in their bodies."

"That could only mean one thing."

Delaney paused.

"There is a high chance your Arlo is a Vorath."

Delaney dropped the bomb, only to be answered by a burst of giggles from Ennessa as she poured herself another drink.

"It is not funny, Ennessa. You listened to his tale, and I cannot believe you fell for that nonsense."

"How did he get on your spaceship? Someone accidentally mistook him? Fine, I can accept that."

"But then how does he have no idea how this world works?"

"That is exactly how a Vorath entering a human city for the first time would behave."

"His background is very suspicious, Ennessa. I believe there is a ninety-nine point nine percent chance that boy is a Vorath, and for him to hide from your senses, he must be a powerful one."

"I think his aim is to fuse with human cybernetic power, especially when you consider what is currently happening with humans suddenly turning into Zombie Voraths..."

Delaney spoke with suspicion, while Ennessa wore a blank expression as she finished pouring wine into her cup and downed it in a single gulp.

Silence enveloped the bar once more as Delaney watched Ennessa down three more gulps of wine without saying a word.

GULP.

Once again, she emptied another cup and reached for the bottle to pour herself more, only to find it empty.

"Can you tell them to bring another bottle?"

Ennessa asked.

Delaney shook her head.

"One more, and you will not be able to drive home again..."

She cautioned.

Ennessa placed her empty cup on the table, picked up the one in front of Delaney, and slowly swirled the red liquid inside.

"Do you know who took everything away from me, Delaney?"

"My sweet brother, my beloved mother, and my loving father?"

Delaney remained quiet.

It was not a question that required an answer.

"Since that day, even as I sleep, images of them play in my head, haunting me in the depths of the night."

"I have risked my life and faced death multiple times so that I can one day fulfill a single goal."

"To wipe out every Vorath that exists on the surface of Earth."

"I know the Vorath so well that I can smell one if it is in the same building as me, no matter how large that building is."

"And now you are telling me that the boy I have live in my own house, stayed beside for days in the hospital, and sat beside for three days and nights after his transfusion, is a Vorath?"

"Are you suggesting that my rage has been watered down by time, or that my Vorath senses are no longer functioning?"

"That I have forgotten the smell of those who burned my world to cinders?"

Ennessa spoke as the air around her body suddenly began to quiver like a flame, even though no visible change occurred in her exterior.