Chapter 434: Recovering the Primary Bearer

The scream did not come from Vorn’s mouth.

It came from the entire room.

The dark-blue lines beneath his skin lit up at the same time, and the sound passed through stone, bone, and energy as if the function itself were protesting the decision.

Vorn fell onto both hands.

The chains struck the floor.

Ester stepped forward.

Xue Lian grabbed her.

"Don’t touch him."

"He’s collapsing."

"It isn’t him."

Vorn screamed.

This time through his mouth.

The lines began moving beneath his skin.

Not like veins.

Like something searching for a way out.

Damon instinctively stepped back when his own mark responded.

"It’s coming toward me."

Xue Lian looked.

The false Seed on his arm was completely open.

"Return Protocol."

"Again."

Vorn raised his face.

"No..."

Adaptation pulled his body toward Damon.

He dug his fingers into the floor.

"I said no."

The white network answered.

The lines around Vorn’s hands grew stronger.

A message appeared.

BEARER REFUSAL CONFIRMED.

Adaptation screamed again.

Damon felt the pressure increase.

His mark tried to open a path.

He placed his hand over it.

"Don’t even start."

SECONDARY VESSEL AVAILABLE.

Damon narrowed his eyes.

"No."

SUPERIOR COMPATIBILITY.

"No."

CONTINUITY PROTOCOL ABSENT.

Damon smiled without humor.

"I destroyed it."

The system hesitated.

Vorn breathed with difficulty.

The blue lines climbed his neck.

"They... will look for another method."

"Who?" Damon asked.

Vorn tried to speak.

Adaptation constricted his throat.

No sound came out.

Xue Lian noticed.

"The function is stopping him."

Damon looked at the cracked black tree.

The white lines continued advancing through the wood.

"Then we make it leave first."

Vorn raised his eyes.

"How?"

Damon pointed toward the network.

"You refused."

"That doesn’t mean it will simply leave."

"No."

Xue Lian completed the thought.

"But it means it no longer has authorization to define your body as support."

Vorn looked at her.

"Then the network can separate it."

"If it knows what belongs to you and what belongs to the function."

Damon understood immediately.

The Fourth Door.

Again.

"Memory."

Xue Lian looked at him.

"Yes."

"Body."

"Yes."

"Corrections."

Vorn went still.

Damon approached only enough to be heard.

"You’re going to have to choose."

"Choose what?"

"What is yours."

Vorn laughed, but the laugh came out broken.

"After twenty-three years?"

"You wanted a choice."

"That doesn’t mean I know how to make one."

Damon nodded.

"Welcome."

Ester looked at him.

"That was almost gentle."

"Don’t get used to it."

Vorn closed his eyes.

The lines continued moving.

Xue Lian knelt in front of him.

"Start with what you remember from before."

"Before what?"

"Before the tree."

Vorn breathed.

"My body was weak."

"Yours."

"I got sick."

"Yours."

"My eyesight was poor."

"Yours."

"My spiritual circulation was mediocre."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"That one must have hurt."

Vorn opened one eye.

"I was still smarter than you."

"Better."

Ester closed her eyes.

"Continue."

Vorn breathed again.

"I didn’t heal like this."

A blue line emerged from his arm.

It was pulled toward the tree.

Vorn screamed.

His skin opened.

This time, it did not close.

Blood ran down.

Ester noticed immediately.

"It worked."

Another line left his chest.

Vorn lost strength and dropped onto one elbow.

"I wasn’t resistant to poison."

Another.

"I couldn’t see energy this way."

Another.

"I couldn’t adjust temperature."

Another.

With every definition, something was torn away.

Not flesh.

Function.

The dark-blue lines crossed through the air toward the black tree, which began pulsing as though it had recovered its original purpose.

Damon watched.

"It’s returning to the mold."

Xue Lian shook her head.

"No."

"Then?"

"It’s being discharged into it."

"What’s the difference?"

"The tree isn’t accepting it as a core."

Xue Lian looked at the cracks.

"It’s only giving the network somewhere to separate the functions without throwing them into another person."

Damon smiled.

"A trash can."

Vorn, still suffering, managed to answer.

"Reductive."

"But accurate."

"Unfortunately."

More lines came out.

Vorn visibly aged.

Not decades.

But years.

His skin lost some of its artificial firmness.

His hair became duller.

His hands began trembling.

Ester became serious.

"It’s removing basic compensations."

Damon looked at her.

"Will he survive?"

"I don’t know."

Vorn laughed quietly.

"That word really spread."

Ester ignored him.

"Vorn."

"Yes?"

"Is there any correction your body needs right now in order to live?"

He thought.

"Probably."

"Which one?"

"I don’t know."

"Excellent."

Damon looked at her.

"You sounded like me."

"Not the time."

Xue Lian studied the lines.

"We can’t simply remove everything."

Damon nodded.

"Because some adaptations have already replaced natural functions."

"Exactly."

Vorn looked at her.

"Then what?"

Xue Lian answered.

"You define what you accept keeping."

Silence.

Vorn let out a tired laugh.

"So now I choose my deformities."

Damon became serious.

"Now you choose what is part of your life."

Vorn stared at him.

The answer took time.

"You really believe that."

"You don’t have to believe it with me."

Vorn lowered his face.

The lines waited.

He breathed.

"Healing."

Nothing happened.

Xue Lian corrected him.

"Not the ability. The choice."

Vorn understood.

"I accept continuing to heal faster."

One of the blue lines stopped pulling away.

It stabilized.

It did not increase.

"Disease resistance."

"Do you want it?"

"Yes."

"Then say it."

"I accept it."

The line remained.

Vorn hesitated.

"Poison..."

Ester interrupted.

"You don’t have to decide everything now."

He looked at her.

"Then the function won’t take over again?"

"Not if the network recognizes that those abilities belong to your choice, not the external objective."

Damon exhaled.

"That’s much more civilized."

The false Seed burned.

He looked at his arm.

The golden point of Dominion had lit up.

Xue Lian noticed.

"Damon."

"I saw."

The gold pulsed once.

The black tree responded.

Not in gold.

Blue.

The lines being separated from Vorn stopped.

All of them.

Vorn froze.

"That isn’t mine."

Damon became serious.

"What?"

A voice appeared inside the false Seed.

Not Selection.

Not Adaptation.

Something else.

Cold.

Calm.

BEARER IN PROCESS OF DISCONNECTION.

Damon looked at the golden point.

"Dominion."

Xue Lian stood.

ADAPTIVE FUNCTION REQUIRED.

Damon smiled without humor.

"I disagree."

CANDIDATE RECEIVED. PREPARATION INCOMPLETE.

Vorn went pale.

Damon stopped.

"Preparation."

Xue Lian noticed too.

"Adaptation wasn’t the final objective."

"It was preparation."

Vorn looked at his own skin.

Then at Damon.

"That’s what it was for."

"Talk."

"All the tests."

"TALK."

Vorn clenched his teeth.

"Adaptation wasn’t trying to create a perfect organism."

The golden point pulsed.

He continued.

"It was trying to create an organism capable of receiving something it normally couldn’t."

Damon went still.

"Dominion."

"Yes."

Xue Lian lost color.

"A bearer capable of sustaining a command function."

Vorn looked at Damon.

"You."

Damon did not answer.

The golden point expanded slightly.

VESSEL PREPARATION: 91%.

Ester froze.

"Ninety-one?"

Damon looked at her.

"I’ve had worse evaluations."

"Not the time."

"I know."

Xue Lian looked at the mark.

"What’s missing?"

The answer came.

FUNCTIONAL CONVERGENCE.

Damon narrowed his eyes.

"Translation."

Vorn answered.

"Unifying all available adaptations into a single pattern."

Damon looked at him.

Then at his own mark.

And understood.

"That’s why the protocol wanted to merge us."

Vorn nodded slowly.

"Everything inside me."

"Would pass into me."

"Yes."

"Completing the remaining nine percent."

"Probably."

Ester immediately pointed at Vorn.

"Then don’t go near him."

Damon looked at her.

"I wasn’t planning to hug him."

"Your history requires specific instructions."

Xue Mei, who had remained silent until then, looked at the tree.

"Mother."

Xue Lian turned.

"The function is coming back."

Everyone looked.

The blue lines trapped in the tree began moving.

Not toward Vorn.

Not toward Damon.

Toward the golden point.

Dominion was pulling.

Damon felt it.

"It’s trying to retrieve Adaptation remotely."

Xue Lian became serious.

"No. It’s claiming the function."

"Can it do that?"

"If Dominion was created to determine priority..."

Damon finished.

"Then it thinks it can."

The black tree began cracking even further.

The white network reacted.

EXTERNAL REQUEST IDENTIFIED.

Dominion answered immediately.

SUPERIOR AUTHORIZATION.

Damon froze.

So did Xue Lian.

"Superior to what?"

No answer.

The original network repeated.

AUTHORIZATION NOT RECOGNIZED.

The gold shone.

ARCHITECT PROTOCOL.

Silence.

Vorn slowly raised his head.

Xue Lian went white.

Damon noticed.

"You know that."

"No."

"Your face disagrees."

"I know the term."

"From where?"

Xue Lian looked at the tree.

"Shen Liang."

Vorn became attentive.

"He used it?"

"No."

She breathed.

"He obeyed it."

Damon became serious.

"So there is something above the cores."

"Yes."

"Above the Architects?"

Xue Lian hesitated.

"Maybe above the members."

The false Seed burned again.

A new message appeared.

ARCHITECT PROTOCOL DENIED.

Damon smiled.

"The true network doesn’t care."

But then came another.

Not from the network.

From Dominion.

PRIMARY BEARER ABSENT.

Vorn lost all color.

Damon looked at him.

"What?"

Vorn did not answer.

"Vorn."

"I saw that once."

"When?"

"In the oldest records."

"Primary bearer of what?"

Vorn looked at Xue Lian.

She did not know.

Then he looked at Damon.

"Dominion."

Silence.

Damon felt the golden point turn cold.

"I’m not the first candidate."

"No."

"Who was?"

Vorn closed his eyes.

"I never found the name."

Damon thought of the wall.

93%.

Valcair.

His expression changed.

"No."

Xue Lian noticed.

"You’re thinking about the erased candidate."

"Valcair."

Vorn opened his eyes.

"How do you know that?"

Now Damon was certain.

"You know the name."

"I know the bloodline."

"Say it."

Vorn took a deep breath.

"The earliest records I found did not describe Adaptation as an independent function."

"How did they describe it?"

"As preparation for return."

Damon fell silent.

"The return of whom?"

"I don’t know."

"Lie."

"I DON’T KNOW!"

The gold pulsed.

The black tree began collapsing from within.

The Adaptation function was being compressed.

Xue Lian shouted.

"We have to decide now!"

"Decide what?"

"Either we let the network destroy the function—"

"Or?"

"Or we preserve it without a bearer."

Damon looked at the tree.

"How?"

"By defining the function."

He understood.

The same thing they had done with the true Seed.

No owner.

No vessel.

Function.

Damon approached the tree.

Dominion reacted.

CANDIDATE, MOVE AWAY.

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Now I’m definitely getting closer."

Ester closed her eyes.

"Of course."

He placed a hand on the black wood.

Adaptation entered his perception.

Not as a voice.

As a need.

Correct.

Adjust.

Alter.

Prepare.

Damon breathed.

"No."

The function resisted.

"You don’t prepare anyone for Dominion."

The golden point shone violently.

"You don’t choose what someone should become."

The tree trembled.

Xue Lian approached.

"Define what it does."

Damon thought.

Adaptation itself was not evil.

The problem was the imposed objective.

He remembered Jian Li.

Her body creating a new path.

Not because someone defined it.

Because it needed to live.

Damon smiled.

"Adaptation serves the life that already exists."

The room fell silent.

The white network pulsed.

Damon continued.

"It offers paths."

More white lines entered the tree.

"Not destinations."

The blue function stopped.

The golden point reacted.

DEFINITION INCOMPATIBLE WITH ARCHITECT PROTOCOL.

Damon smiled.

"That’s the point."

The network responded.

FUNCTION DEFINED.

The black tree exploded in white light.

Vorn fell.

Damon was thrown backward.

Ester caught him before he hit the floor.

The blue lines disappeared from Vorn’s body.

From the tree.

And finally...

From Damon’s arm.

His eyes widened.

The false Seed began fading.

First the outer lines.

Then the incomplete circle.

Until only one thing remained.

The golden point.

Dominion.

Alone.

Damon slowly raised his arm.

Xue Lian went still.

"Adaptation is gone."

"Yes."

"And that stayed."

"Yes."

Damon stared at the tiny point.

Then it pulsed.

A new message appeared.

PREPARATION INTERRUPTED.

Damon smiled.

"Good."

The second message appeared.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD AUTHORIZED.

His smile vanished.

Ester saw it.

"What?"

Damon read the third.

And found nothing funny about it.

INITIATING RECOVERY OF PRIMARY BEARER.