Chapter 46: The Doctor’s Secret

General Rhyder Drakeheir’s direct question hung suspended in the heavy air between them like a physical barrier.

"Could your body absorb a Core?" he asked again, his tone devoid of any emotion.

For several long, suffocating seconds, Raviah Solomon offered no verbal response. The cool afternoon breeze swept across the scorched grass of Field Twelve, carrying the faint, metallic scent of burned soil and black, mutated blood.

Behind them, Rhyder’s elite soldiers continued securing the shattered remains of the mutated wolf, while a medical transport vehicle sped toward the subterranean facility carrying an exhausted Daniel.

Rhyder stood his ground, his dark eyes fixed entirely on her face as he waited for an answer. He did not bother repeating his question, which somehow made the confrontation far more intense.

Raviah finally lowered her diagnostic scanner, resting her hand against her hip. "I do not know, General."

Rhyder’s eyes narrowed slightly, his brow furrowing in deep suspicion. "You don’t know?"

"I have never attempted to absorb a Beast Core into my own biological system," she answered smoothly.

Her statement was technically truthful. She had never attempted the procedure in her current life.

Rhyder studied her calm posture, taking in every subtle shift in her body language. "You possess an extraordinary amount of clinical knowledge regarding this absorption process for someone who claims to have never attempted it."

Raviah maintained absolute composure, her medical demeanor shielding her internal thoughts. "Medical analysis and scientific deduction do not require personal physical experimentation, General."

"That is true," Rhyder conceded, taking one step closer. "However, that was not the question I asked you."

Raviah met his sharp, calculating gaze without flinching. "My answer remains unchanged."

She turned her attention toward the hazardous containment squad standing nearby. "Transport the Beast Core directly to the primary subterranean laboratory. Place it under level-four isolation protocols with zero direct human contact."

Rhyder watched her turn and walk toward the command bunker. He was clearly unsatisfied with her evasive response, yet he did not make any attempt to physically stop her.

Two hours later, Raviah stood alone inside the deepest isolation chamber of her subterranean medical facility. The heavy reinforced steel door slid shut with a pneumatic hiss, locking her securely inside.

The room’s automated systems chimed softly:

[BIOMETRIC LOCK: ACTIVE]

[ENVIRONMENTAL SEAL: ACTIVE]

[EXTERNAL MONITORING: DISCONNECTED].

Only after the internal monitoring systems were completely severed did she allow her professional mask to slip. She pressed both of her gloved hands against the cold, sterile surface of an examination table and slowly exhaled.

Rhyder’s blunt question had exposed a terrifying possibility that she had deliberately forced herself to ignore since her rebirth.

If Beast Cores interacted directly with dormant human Roots, what was happening inside her own body?

Over the past few weeks, her physical body had been repeatedly exposed to high concentrations of anomalous atmospheric energy.

She had entered the energy radius of the buried Core, analyzed the anomalous readings at Sector Seven, witnessed Daniel’s sudden fire awakening, and handled a harvested Beast Core. Yet, despite all that exposure, she had manifested no obvious physical awakening.

There were no fireballs, no ice formations, and no visible elemental manifestations rising from her skin. She felt completely normal, at least on a superficial level.

Raviah stripped off her white lab coat, hanging it neatly over the back of a stainless steel chair. She stepped onto the glass platform of her advanced bio-scanner and initialized a deep diagnostic protocol.

"Run a full-body cellular and bio-energetic analysis," she commanded the terminal.

The high-tech medical scanner hummed to life, projecting a pale blue optical grid that passed slowly over her body from head to toe.

The display screen beside her initialized with rapid text prompts:

[ANALYSIS INITIALIZING].

Raviah kept her eyes glued to the primary diagnostic screen. Her cardiac rhythm was perfectly normal, her pulmonary function was clear, and her baseline blood chemistry fell within standard human ranges.

Then the scanner reached her internal cellular mapping, and the line graphs spiked wildly.

Raviah froze, her breath catching in her throat. "Re-calibrate and run the scan again."

The optical grid swept back over her torso a second time, but the diagnostic result remained unchanged.

A high-priority notification lit up the glass console:

[ABNORMAL BIOENERGETIC PATHWAY DETECTED].

Raviah’s sharp eyes narrowed as she pulled up the three-dimensional rendering of her nervous system.

The anomaly was not isolated inside a single organ or muscle group. It spanned her entire anatomical structure, forming an intricate, glowing web of microscopic channels alongside her nerves, blood vessels, and deep tissues.

These delicate pathways were completely invisible under standard medical X-rays or conventional magnetic imaging. Only this modified bioelectric scanner could detect the faint, ethereal energy pulsing within them.

They formed a second, hyper-complex circulatory system mapped directly over her biological framework.

Raviah’s heart hammered hard against her ribs as she stared at the screen. "This is impossible..."

She quickly reconfigured the machine to run a specialized electromagnetic resonance mapping procedure.

The three-dimensional rendering sharpened instantly, revealing faint streams of energy moving through those microscopic channels. The energy was circulating slowly, flowing through her body in a gentle, continuous loop.

The terminal generated three distinct diagnostic summaries:

[INTERNAL ENERGY FLOW: DETECTED]

[ROOT STRUCTURE: INCOMPLETE]

[ENERGY ACCUMULATION: MINIMAL].

Raviah stared at the glowing blue projection in absolute shock. She possessed a Root. Or rather, her body housed an intricate Root structure that was actively developing beneath her flesh.

Unlike Daniel, whose Fire Root had ruptured violently into an E-Rank thermal release, her own Root was developing silently. She clearly remembered observing awakened Elementals during the dark years of her previous life.

Their awakenings had been abrupt, violent, and messy, tearing open their energy pathways in an instant. Their primary elemental abilities had manifested immediately out of sheer physical shock.

Yet her own energy channels appeared partially formed, refined, and smoothly integrated into her biological framework. How could her body possess developed energy channels without an active elemental awakening?

Raviah pressed her right hand flat against her sternum, feeling her steady pulse. The diagnostic monitor registered another faint, rhythmic pulse of internal energy echoing her heartbeat.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath to compose her thoughts. "Focus."

She tried to force a reaction, picturing scorching heat flooding her palm, but nothing happened. She imagined freezing ice, but her skin remained warm and dry. She pictured gusting winds and crackling electricity, but her surroundings remained completely still.

Then, her mind drifted away from basic elemental forces and settled on the vast, peaceful expanse of her personal spatial storage dimension. She visualized its silver sky, its rich soil, and the mysterious life force that allowed crops to flourish inside that isolated pocket of space.

The second her thoughts connected with that dimension, something deep inside her chest answered. A soft, electric vibration traveled down her arm, pooling at her fingertips.

Raviah’s eyes snapped open instantly.

The diagnostic interface flashed a yellow warning banner:

[ENERGY FLUCTUATION DETECTED].

She raised her right hand, staring intently at her open palm.

For a fraction of a second, nothing was visible, and then the surrounding light began to bend. A delicate, translucent thread of energy materialized above her skin, shimmering like liquid glass. It possessed no color, no heat, and no cold, radiating an ethereal, weightless presence.

Raviah stopped breathing entirely, her gaze locked onto the floating shimmer. The translucent energy moved in direct response to her conscious thoughts.

When she mentally willed the shimmer to draw closer, the translucent thread coiled softly around her index finger. When she thought of pushing it away, it detached effortlessly and hovered half an inch above her skin.

Her expression shifted from clinical detachment to sheer, unadulterated awe. "This is not environmental atmospheric energy..."

The shimmering thread pulsed once more, echoing her mental intent. It was reacting directly to her mind, her spatial awareness, and her will. Staring at the translucent thread hovering over her hand, she realized a terrifying truth six months before doomsday.

Her Root had not been absent. It had been quietly absorbing energy and waiting for her mind to wake up. And now, the hidden power within her had finally begun to awaken.