Chapter 293: Decaying Core

Quickly, Uhtred informed Zara of the development and headed straight to the facility, ending their sparring session.

They both arrived expecting a rowdy scene — one where the Prime Sapien would be causing a ruckus after just waking up, fighting against his restraints and sending the healers and personnel supporting Diya into a fright — but all they met was a calm, relatively dull scene.

If Uhtred hadn’t been specifically informed, he never would have even thought the high-value prisoner that all the ascenders here were working to heal was actually awake.

The moment he arrived at the floor where the Prime Sapien was being nursed, his eyes immediately locked onto his figure.

Diya was standing very close to him, administering something, while the other supporting healers stood a short but safe distance away, watching with tense expressions.

So, it seems there’s still some danger at least, Uhtred thought, walking up to the Prime Sapien with Zara right behind him.

He looked straight into the Prime Sapien’s dark brown eyes to see for himself whether there was really intelligence behind them.

At first, the Prime Sapien’s eyes looked vacant. He stared straight up at the white ceiling in his bound, strapped position. But once Uhtred’s face came into the frame, those eyes refocused with supreme clarity, a clear, spiteful recognition burning within them.

He opened his mouth to speak immediately, his voice raspy and weak:

"Heh! So the opportunistic scum decided to grace me before I die," he chuckled, then burst into a coughing fit for a good several seconds before finally regaining his composure.

Uhtred raised a brow, not replying to the Prime Sapien’s opening words just yet. Instead, he turned and looked at Diya.

She understood his unspoken question and replied:

"Yes. He is dying. I did what I could, but unfortunately, I couldn’t stop it. He’s healed to a large degree and most likely remembers everything we need to know, but the fail-safe planted inside of him operates on a very weird level..."

"What do you mean?" Uhtred asked.

"His Essence Core is decaying as we speak."

"What?" Uhtred frowned. "But Essence Cores aren’t physically within the body until a person’s dead."

He seemed almost unsure of the knowledge he knew was a certain fact. This was something that he’d learned long since, right after the integration. Essence Cores weren’t physically present within a body until that body was well and truly dead.

This applied to beasts, just as it did to humans and Ancient Variants... even Otherworlders were the same — based on that unfortunate Frost Daemon Uhtred had killed on the last Floor of his regional dungeon.

"Exactly," Diya nodded. "And that’s why it’s weird. Even despite that, his Essence Core is decaying. I tried to stifle the rate as much as I could, but even I am limited here. I can’t heal what isn’t present inside his body. Whoever set this up..."

Diya paused, her expression tight.

"...I hate to say it. But they’re more proficient than I am."

The Prime Sapien snickered at that. He said nothing, but it was clear to everyone that he was mocking Diya. Almost like he was saying that it was a given that the Ancient Variant side had someone more proficient.

Uhtred snorted and stepped closer, looking down at the Prime Sapien. He spoke, finally replying to his earlier words:

"What was it you said again? ’Opportunistic scum?’" Uhtred chuckled. "On top of being so weak, I didn’t take you for a sore loser."

Out of nowhere, the Prime Sapien jolted, his body flaring with a sudden surge of power as he pushed against his restraints for a brief second.

His movement startled everyone present, the healers and other personnel rearing back in fright. The only ones who remained unfazed were Uhtred, who was right up in the Prime Sapien’s face, Zara, who stood off to the side, Diya, who was right next to Uhtred, and the squad of guarding ascenders lining the edges of the facility.

The Prime Sapien began to laugh, a mix of a coughing fit and genuine laughter.

"If not for my unfortunate episode, would an ant like you ever have touched a single hair of mine!" he guffawed. "I best you in every regard! In a fair fight, you’re not coming out alive!"

"What rubbish," Uhtred looked genuinely pissed off, yet at the same time amused. "Fair? What are we, saints? If you’re fighting fair, then you’ve already lost!"

"Besides," he added. "I seem to remember you never even catching up to me once. Even if the fight were fair, you still wouldn’t have won!"

His words clearly bit deep into the Prime Sapien, as his demeanor rapidly soured with each word Uhtred spoke.

Seeing how easy the Prime Sapien was to rile up, Uhtred frowned even deeper. Perhaps his initial assessment of these Prime Sapiens was too generous. They clearly had an ego flaw.

Here was a Prime Sapien literally dying, and all he could think of were ways to justify the fact that he had lost to someone of a lower level.

Uhtred filed that information away. It was a very vital realization. If these Prime Sapiens had an ego complex, then that was a useful tool to use the next time he faced another.

For now, though, Uhtred switched the subject entirely, unwilling to humor the Prime Sapien’s ego any longer.

He looked to Diya.

"Where’s Minh Quan?" he asked. "Has any effort been made to pry information out of him before he dies?"

Diya grimaced slightly — not out of discomfort, but rather in clear disagreement with Uhtred’s line of thought.

She drew him closer by the hand, talking in a low tone. "We haven’t done anything yet... and that’s because we think it’s gonna be futile."

Uhtred frowned, and Diya quickly continued to explain.

"This guy would never spill anything. Torture isn’t going to work, for sure. He’s already enduring unimaginable levels of pain as we speak," she explained. "His Essence Core is literally rotting while he’s alive... that’s not a level of pain just anyone can bear. Anything more we do will be like a breeze to this guy."

Uhtred growled in dissatisfaction under his breath as Diya spoke. He cast a glance at the Prime Sapien in question and saw that his gaze had reverted to that vacant state yet again. That was clearly a response to the pain he was currently feeling.

"So, you’re saying everything we’ve done so far was for nothing?" Uhtred asked, unwilling to accept it so easily.

"Believe me, I’m more pissed off than you are," Diya said. "I spent days trying to heal him, only to realize I couldn’t stop the fail-safe like I expected..."

Her voice was thick with frustration, her fists visibly trembling. She had clearly cycled through every stage of bitter anger and denial before finally accepting that nothing could be done.

She patted Uhtred’s shoulder, shaking her head.

"I wouldn’t get so hung up on it if I were you. We still gained some useful insights from studying his body, which I’ll show you."

Uhtred grunted, recognizing the logic in her words. If anyone had a right to be angry, it was Diya — though that did little to ease his own frustration.