Chapter 69: A Mother’s Love

The moment Mana Devour was activated, the woman’s body began trembling violently.

"AAAH!"

This scream didn’t even sound like it came from a single person. It was half shrill and half agonized, as though it belonged to some sick creature from somewhere dark.

At the same time, massive amounts of silver gray energy surged wildly from her forehead and neck, forcibly extracted by Victor.

[Decomposing artificial control energy.]

[Control Node Integrity: 93%.]

[88%.]

[81%.]

The second personality finally realized what was happening.

"Stop! You have no idea what she is!"

Victor pressed his palm harder. "Then tell me."

"She isn’t Elena!"

"I know."

The woman visibly froze.

"You..."

"The real Elena died three years ago."

Victor continued devouring the energy as he spoke calmly.

"She told me that herself just now. So stop wasting time with useless nonsense."

[74%.]

[69%.]

The second personality truly began to panic.

"You think destroying me means you can preserve her?! This body was created according to failed specifications from the beginning! Zero doesn’t have a complete soul! She doesn’t have an independent core!"

"She’s nothing more than a portion of Elena’s memories and mental fragments left behind before her death!"

Victor’s eyes glinted. Although he had already figured this out, it didn’t hurt to know more. Who was he to refuse?

"Continue."

"You..."

"Where is Experimental Zone Twelve?"

The woman’s expression froze.

That reaction...

[61%.]

"So you do know."

Victor continued.

"How many Astral vessels do you have?"

No answer.

"Besides you, are there any other vessels modeled after Elena?"

Still nothing.

"What are you planning to do with Leah’s Astral Core?"

The moment he asked that question, the second personality began struggling again, even more violently than before.

"Shut up!"

"You have no right to know!"

Whether he had the right wasn’t important.

Her reaction already told him enough.

Victor stopped asking. He didn’t need to dig out every secret in one go.

As long as he confirmed the direction, he could investigate the rest later.

[Control Node Integrity: 48%.]

The instant the value fell below half, the woman’s face suddenly twisted.

Then...

"Victor..." Her voice changed.

Elena’s consciousness had returned once again. But it was very faint, as though it were coming from somewhere far away.

"Can you hear me?" Victor asked, still keeping Mana Devour active.

"Yes..." The woman struggled to raise her eyes. "Don’t destroy all of it."

"Why?" Victor’s movements paused.

"She knows..."

That habitual imitation of breathing appeared again.

"She knows where Experimental Zone Twelve is."

The second personality immediately resurfaced.

"Shut up!"

But Elena’s consciousness didn’t retreat as she struggled to maintain control.

"She knows who created me. Who took my research."

"And..." A tear suddenly slid from her silver eyes. "My corpse."

Albert’s expression changed when he heard this.

Victor’s gaze sharpened as he asked, "What happened to your corpse?"

The woman’s lips trembled slightly.

"The one in the grave wasn’t complete."

"What was missing?" Victor pressed on.

Elena’s consciousness was clearly weakening rapidly, and from her expression, one could tell she was fighting to stay.

"My Astral Core..."

"You had an Astral Core too?" Victor’s pupils widened.

"No..." The woman shook her head.

"Not like Leah’s. It was a prototype. Something I developed... The first artificial Astral Core."

The moment those words were spoken, the second personality seemed to go completely insane, and the body began to tremble violently.

"SHUT UP!!"

BOOM!

A muffled explosion suddenly came from inside Zero’s body, and black patterns that had never appeared before abruptly spread from her chest.

Victor’s pupils contracted when he recognized them.

It was Abyssal power!

And those patterns were a soul erasure mechanism!

"Albert!"

"I see it!"

Golden mana instantly surrounded the woman’s body.

But this technique wasn’t being activated from outside.

It had been buried inside the vessel from the beginning.

Once triggered, it would begin destroying the mental structure from its deepest core.

[Warning!]

[Self destructive soul structure detected inside target!]

[Mental fragments are rapidly collapsing!]

Victor’s expression completely darkened.

Just how terrified were these people of having their creations captured alive?

The fake Ron had been like this.

The other three attackers had been the same.

And now even an artificial lifeform had been equipped with the same failsafe in advance.

"Devour!"

Mana Devour erupted at full force again.

Black curse energy was violently ripped from the vessel’s body.

[Decomposing high concentration Soul Curse Energy.]

[High quality special energy of the same type has already been recorded.]

[Type will not be counted again.]

Victor didn’t care about the System notification because this time, he could clearly feel it.

Even as the curse energy was continuously extracted, the fragment of Elena’s consciousness was still rapidly fading.

It wasn’t because she lacked energy. The mental structure that had originally supported her had already been destroyed by the self destruct spell.

"Victor."

The woman suddenly stopped struggling.

Victor looked up. He studied the face for a moment, and it was only after confirming that this was Elena that he stopped Mana Devour.

"Don’t waste your strength. It’s not over yet. I know my own condition."

She actually smiled. It looked a little like Leah’s smile.

"I was never really her. I just... remember being her." She said those words calmly.

If someone possessed another person’s memories...

Possessed her emotions...

Possessed her love for her daughter...

Even possessed her deepest fears and regrets...

Then what exactly were they?

A copy?

An artificial lifeform?

A memory trapped inside a body?

There was no answer. And simply thinking about it was beginning to give Victor a massive migraine.

"How long do you have?" he asked, deciding to push the chaotic thought to the back of his head.

"I don’t know."

The woman looked down at her hand, which was gradually losing its light.

"Maybe a minute. Maybe less."

"Then tell me what’s important."

Elena paused slightly, then displayed a warm smile like that of a mother.

"Leah will probably like you."

Victor’s expression became strange.

"That’s important?"

"To a mother..." she answered as though it were obvious. "It’s very important."

"..."

Albert silently turned his gaze away as if he hadn’t heard anything.

Victor suddenly felt that arguing over the definition of "important" with someone who had less than a minute left to live was completely pointless.

"Get to the point."

"All right."

The smile on Elena’s face gradually faded as a much more serious look appeared on her face.

...

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