Chapter 269: An Interesting Specimen

Chapter 269

Meanwhile, far far away, beyond the reaches of the world power, the air suddenly began to warp as a strange purple portal opened in the middle of an underground facility in a place where no one would ever think possible. A man wearing a dark coat stepped through it.

As it turns out that person so happens to be George who had returned to the private hideout he had been hiding for years now. He paused for a moment, then eventually let out an annoyed breath.

"Damn those Bureau dogs."

His irritated voice carried through the empty room, stripped of the pleasant warmth he had used while speaking to Alex earlier. At the end he couldn’t help drawing his brows together, and rubbing a hand across his jaw as he replayed what had just happened when he was this close to ending a potential threat.

If those people hadn’t arrived when they did, he would have finished the job by now.

He could have killed Alex outright, though that might have taken longer than expected. The boy was stubborn, unusually durable, and far more dangerous than his age suggested. Still, George had no doubt he could have found a way to end the fight eventually.

Or, better yet, he could have knocked the boy unconscious and brought him back here.

The thought made George’s annoyance ease a little.

"That would’ve been much more useful."

Alex would have made an excellent subject for his experiments. After all, a young man with several abilities, physical strength far beyond others of the same realm as him, and multiple abilities was something worth experimenting on. But there was something else about him, something he couldn’t help noticing during their confrontation that made the boy seem far more interesting than he first appeared.

George slowly walked toward a steel table in the center of the room where the presence of several tools and sealed containers laid there, arranged neat and clean just the way he liked it. He took off his coat and draped it over the back of a chair, then rested both hands on the table.

"Alex Walker," he murmured.

The name sounded different when spoken without an audience. George rolled it around in his mind, trying to connect it to the few pieces of information he had gathered. The boy had arrived with astonishing speed, had used teleportation to move across the battlefield, and had summoned those destructive crimson spheres. And lest he forgets, the boy had also activated some kind of ability that slowed time, a truly powerful ability if he must say so himself.

Each ability was unusual on its own. Together, they made that boy a troublesome opponent. If he hadn’t had this ability of his, then even he would have not been the boy’s match.

But all that wasn’t what had caught George’s attention the most. It was what he hadn’t sensed as at that time.

During the confrontation, George had paid close attention to Alex and when the boy had used that destructive ability of his the one with the red glowing ball of destructive energy. He had expected to detect the familiar fluctuations of Primordial Essence, the same miraculous energy that serves as the source of every Awakened abilities and what makes them different from mundane pitiful humans. Yet he had found nothing. Not even the faintest trace of it.

At first, he had assumed the boy was concealing it somehow. Perhaps Alex possessed a rare ability that masked his primordial essence signature. That explanation was very possible, but it hadn’t sat comfortably with him.

George was too experienced to dismiss such a detail.

He had spent decades studying Awakened abilities, first as a member of the Bureau’s Research and Development Division and later through experiments of his own. He knew how Primordial Essence behaved when an Awakened activated a skill. Even those with unusual abilities left some trace of the energy behind. It was as natural as breathing.

Yet Alex had used several abilities without revealing any trace of it which was strange on its own.

"How curious," George whispered.

He straightened and began pacing slowly across the room, his hands clasped behind his back.

Everything in this world that humans couldn’t explain and possessed supernatural power relied on Primordial Essence. Awakened humans used it to activate their abilities, strengthen their bodies, and advance through the realms. Awakened Monstrosities relied on it too, though the way it moved through their bodies could be very different. Even the strangest creatures George had encountered had shown some connection to that energy.

There had never been a confirmed exception.

Until now, perhaps.

A person who could use Awakened abilities without Primordial Essence should not exist. It went against everything the Bureau’s researchers believed they understood about the nature of their world. Yet Alex had demonstrated abilities that were clearly real, along with physical strength and speed roughly twice what George would expect from someone in the same realm.

The boy had the power of an Awakened without the energy that should have made that power possible.

It was almost as if he were an ordinary human who had somehow been given the abilities of an Awakened, while being spared the need to use Primordial Essence.

George stopped pacing.

A slow smile spread across his face.

"Well, Alex. What exactly are you?"

His earlier irritation faded, replaced by a deep and growing curiosity. For years, he had pursued answers through research, stolen records, and experiments that the Bureau would have condemned as monstrous. He had seen people with rare talents, unusual constitutions, and abilities that seemed impossible until someone found a way to explain them.

But Alex was different.

If George could understand how the boy’s abilities worked, he might uncover something that could change everything he knew about Awakened power. Perhaps Alex’s body had undergone a rare mutation that no one had recorded. Perhaps the source of his abilities was something entirely separate from Primordial Essence. Or perhaps there was a hidden mechanism that even the boy himself didn’t understand.

Each possibility was more fascinating than the last.

George’s fingers tapped lightly against the edge of the steel table.

"To think I nearly killed such an interesting specimen."

He considered the thought for a few seconds before shaking his head. No, killing Alex now would be a waste. There would be plenty of opportunities to deal with the boy later. For the moment, however, it would be far more valuable to learn more about him.

Of course, capturing Alex would not be easy. The boy had already proven capable of escaping dangerous situations, and his teleportation ability made him difficult to contain. His time-related power was another problem. Even if George could overwhelm him, he would need to make sure Alex couldn’t escape or destroy whatever equipment was used to hold him.

Still, those were problems for another day.

George had patience. After all, he was the same person that had survived for decades by knowing when to act and when to wait. Alex was powerful, yes but he was young, and young people often made mistakes when anger and revenge clouded their judgment.

The boy would come looking for him again. George was almost certain of it.

And when that happened, George would be ready.

"Until then," he said softly, "try to stay alive, Alex. I would hate to lose you before I learn what makes you so special."

He turned toward a row of cabinets and reached for a small notebook resting beside a sealed glass container. Before he could open it, however, he sensed a presence behind him.

George’s hand stopped. He hadn’t even heard when the door open. Yet someone was standing only a few feet away. It had to be him.

George slowly turned around.

Right there, a mysterious figure not too far from him, completely covered by a cloak that seemed to be made from shadows itself made into a solid form. Its edges shifted gently, swallowing all the light around it. The aura exuding around the figure carried a strange, inhuman presence that could not be explained.

George’s smile returned, but it no longer reached his eyes.

"Is there something you need?"

The cloaked figure didn’t answer immediately. Its face was hidden beneath the hood, leaving George unable to see even a hint of its expression.

Then the figure spoke in a strange eerie tone.

"He is calling you."

George went completely still. The same person with that calm sort of confidence he always wore around people so naturally slipped. And then what looked like a rare flash of fear crossed his face before he could suppress it, causing his fingers to instinctively tightened around the edge of the table.

George lowered his gaze, forcing his expression back into something that at least looked composure

"I see," he replied quietly.

He picked up his dark coat and slipped it on, taking care to straighten the collar as if this were an ordinary appointment. Then he glanced once at the notebook on the table, leaving it unopened.

There would be time to study Alex later. As for now he couldn’t keep him waiting or else he’d have to go through that same horrible experience again.

"Tell him I’m coming."