Mutagen

Day 138 - 5:34 PM - Aimee's House, Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon Province, Philippines

Even though the problem was still not resolved, just getting a proper explanation about it could give relief to anyone. It was the case, especially for Aimee, that turned into an infected, mutated, and regained consciousness knowing nothing but confusion.

Nevertheless, Aimee was less concerned about herself, comparing to her worries towards her supposed child. Ever since she woke up, looking like this monster, the child in her womb was gone, and instead, there was this egg-shaped stone. Others could call her crazy, but she could not shake off the feeling that this stone was what became of her child.

"Then, what about that stone?"

Mark asked, making Aimee obviously happy. He actually took the initiative to ask about her child's circumstances. Still, it also made Aimee a bit afraid.

What if she was wrong, and this was nothing but an odd-shaped stone? 

What if the child she and her late husband happily waited for was long gone after she became infected?

What if everything she was feeling towards this stone was nothing but her own delusion?

Aimee was both anticipating and anxious about the answer she was about to receive.

Seeing her troubled expression, Nineteenth smiled.

"Miss Aimee had nothing to be worried about. It may look like a lifeless stone, but that is definitely your child. A daughter to be exact."

After hearing that, all anxiousness vanished from Aimee's face. Relief and happiness overwhelmed her as she picked up the egg-shaped stone and put it into her embrace.

Still, there was another question to be asked.

"Did you know how her daugther ended up that way?"

Mark said. He was also interested.

And Nineteenth, the Embodiment of Interest, was more than happy to share what she knew.

"Like Miss Aimee, her daughter also had the bloodline of a Lost Eye. Thus, it is also the very same circumstance. Like I said before, Mutagen can bring back the hidden genes of a person and make it a catalyst for mutation. However..."

Nineteenth then waved her hand, flipping the pages of the book. It then showed a scene of a pregnant infected, presumably a Biter, giving birth, or rather, ejecting the contents of her womb. It was not the most pleasant sight to see, but it was necessary for her explanation.

"I'm pretty sure that Sir already knew about this. The infectious and most mutagenic strain of Mutagen can only be spread from an infected's saliva, specifically, from a bite. If the saliva was taken out of an infected's mouth, although it will remain infectious for a while, the potency will slowly drop, and the strain will die. Even if a person was to drink an infected's blood or eat an infected's flesh, they will not get infected by Mutagen. Of course, it did not mean that there would be no other repercussions considering that the infected are constantly mutating."

This meant that, like what they were watching from the book. While the mother was infected, the child did not seem to. It had the perfect appearance of a human infant.

"Neo Humans."

Mark murmured.

"Yes." Nineteenth nodded. "Still, even though the fetus inside an infected's womb would not get infected in the same way, there are still repercussions. In fact, Neo Humans are too rare, and I'll say it, only ten of these infants existed living on Earth right now. Actually, there are other cases, considering how high the infected population and the number of pregnant women that got infected. However, just how many of them could be found before they got eaten by their own mothers? Not all infected are [Breeder Types] that would care for their children."

And as Nineteenth said that, the infected mother on the book kneeled on her newborn baby and started eating it.

"As for the fetuses that did not become Neo Humans, they ended up mutating along with their mothers." Nineteenth said as she flipped the book, showing an infected mother with her mutated fetus taking control of her body like a parasite. "Like this and others."

This situation was not really unexpected. Once a pregnant woman got infected, her body would start to change, especially during mutation. As the changes in her body occurred, it would definitely include the womb that contained the fetus of an infant. As the structure of the womb changed along with the chemicals and other substances that the fetus would end up absorbing, they would also mutate, even without turning into an infected.

It was a similar case to non-infected animals that became feral.

"By the way," Nineteenth added. "Although these mutated babies were not infected by normal means, they also carried a different type of infectious strain on their saliva. Consider them as a new kind of infection carriers. The only exceptions are the Neo Human infants. These infants mutated in a way that counteracted the mutation. They can be distinguished as babies that came from an infected mother but retained their human appearance."

That was right, like Theodore that was now Jaeya's adopted son. He was an infant that came from an infected mother that did not carry any infectious strain and also had a perfectly human appearance.

Mark then remembered the other babies that were together with Theodore back then. They all had unsightly appearances and mutations that anyone would think twice or thrice to call them human babies.

"Well then, let's get back to Miss Aimee's daughter." Nineteenth turned to Aimee. "Miss Aimee had gone into a mutation, and of course, her daughter also did. Both of them might have turned into mindless infected if not for one fact that Miss Aimee's mutation used their ancestor's bloodline as a catalyst."

"Please remember that Mutagen is a pathogen affecting the infected's physique for the main part and erasing their consciousness as the infection took over. However, before all of Miss Aimee's consciousness was snuffed out, her blood that carried the bloodline of a Lost Eye stopped the erasure of her consciousness, recovering it and saving both her and her daughter."

"I'll just add this in case, but us Eyes, specifically, us Embodiments, can also get infected since we have a Physical Body. However, we won't become mindless. Our consciousness is too strong to be erased by a physique affecting pathogen. That is why Miss Aimee's consciousness recovered."

"And Miss Aimee, your daughter is at a state called [Returning to Origin]. She was a fetus still in development and her mutation was too strong that she inherited more traits of your ancestors."

"That egg-like stone is a form all of us Embodiments had before we are born."

That last sentence was unexpected.

It exactly meant that while Aimee mutated into an Eye-like creature, her baby became an actual Eye, a supposed Embodiment.

And here, Nineteenth's expression became a bit complicated.

"Even though I just said a happy thing after confirming that it is really your daughter, Miss Aimee, I'll need to cut it soon. Your daughter might not likely wake up for eternity."

"GRA?"

Aimee froze after hearing that.

"Us Embodiments needed the concentration of human emotions to keep our existence. We are created by the emotions of humans on Earth. In order to wake your daughter up, you will need to do the same as us. But your ancestor did not come from Earth."

"And that is where the issue lay, isn't it?" Mark interjected. "All of you Eyes can gather emotional energies from humans all over Earth because you are all created from these emotions. And Aimee's bloodline came from another dimension. For her daugther to form and wake up, she needed emotional energies from that planet."

"Exactly." Nineteenth agreed. "The Eyes can absorb emotional energies from the world they were created automatically. And for it to work, they needed to be in the same world. Since Miss Aimee's ancestor came from another world, her daughter needed to be there to absorb the energy she needed automatically."

Hearing the bad news, Aimee started to weep.

Her heart had been on a rollercoaster this time.

"Isn't there any other way?"

Mark asked. Aimee was one of his people and a very important asset to the base. It would be a bad thing if she lost heart now.

"I'll be direct. I don't know." Nineteenth shook her head. "In the first place, it is the very first circumstance that this happened on Earth. A human [Returning to Origin] and becoming an Eye is unheard of, at least not on Earth."

"How about gathering Emotional energy artificially?"

Mark suggested.

"That might work, but an Eye only needed a specific emotion and not a mix of it. That is why each of us is an Embodiment of a certain human emotion. Mixing it is a bad idea as you might end up with a chaotic monster."

"Then, can't I do it?"

Mark suddenly said, making everyone look at him.

And as it was not the topic, they all forgot.

Mark was an Empath that was automatically absorbing the emotional energies of people around him. In fact, he was the strongest human Empath in the history of Earth. Furthermore, he had the ability to channel emotional energies to others which was the thing they needed the most for this to work.

"RIGHT! THAT'S RIGHT! Why didn't I thought of that?!" Nineteenth exclaimed happily. "I was too focused at Miss Aimee's circumstances that I forgot!"

Aimee was still in tears as she looked at Mark. In her eyes, however, there was no Mark in front of her but only Hope.

"GRAA?"

Aimee was begging for Mark to do it if he could.

It was when Fourth voiced an issue.

"I wonder if this will work. To wake up an Eye, the energy of a specific emotion is needed at a quantity comparable to the entire population of Earth. I don't think that you will have that much even if you lived for a hundred years."

And, Fourth was right. Mark was only twenty-eight and as a shut-in, the number of humans he encountered for his whole life was far smaller than others of the same age. It was impossible for him to have enough Emotional Energy stored that was comparable to Earth's entire population.

"Does it need to be one time? It can be done slowly, right?"

Mark asked.

Nineteenth and Fourth looked at each other and nodded. Even the Eyes look it slow as they gathered energy to resurrect themselves.

"Doing it slow should be fine." Nineteenth said. "But there is still one problem left. The population of people in your base is too small. Gathering the leaking emotional energies from them will be too slow."

Yes, that was still the problem. The source of emotional energies that Mark would need to channel to Aimee's daughter.

"Do I need to go to other places for this?"

Mark grumbled. He still hated places with too many people.

But then, the lightbulb above Mark's head turned on.

"If its a source of emotional energy, we also have that, I think."

Those words made Aimee, Fourth and Nineteenth stare at him. Mark shivered. Seriously, being stared with these many eyes could make anyone uncomfortable.

Mark then turned to Nineteenth.

"Have you investigated everyone in my base with that book of yours?"

To that question, Nineteenth shook her head.

"Not fully. I only focused on the Blood Demons as my master ordered."

So, that was why Nineteenth had no idea what was in Mark's mind.

"Why don't you look at the girl named Elise with your book."

Nineteenth was confused as to why Mark said that but still followed.

And as Elise's information appeared on the pages of the book, Nineteenth's eyes turned wide.

Under Elise's skills and abilities, there was one that they needed the most in this situation.

[Bottomless Emotion Well], the energy from her emotions are bottomless. 

It was not something controllable though, like how she ended up harming people once her emotions got chaotic.

Nevertheless, the problem was solved. The only thing they needed was to slowly work it out as not everything would happen instantly. Besides, Mark was not immune to the overflow of energy since even Elise's chaotic state could make him feel pain.

"Well, that's all I guess. We just needed to wait until it is filled with Determination."

Mark said, looking Aimee's daughter.

"Pfft!" Nineteenth suddenly burst out laughing. "I did not expect that you're kind of a joker."

"No, I'm just tired. I don't normally bring out references like this."

Mark shrugged, making Nineteenth laugh even more.

"Hey, what's so amusing?! Tell me?!"

Fourth shouted as she did not understand what the knowledgeable Nineteenth was laughing about.

In any case, aal izz well.

There was hope for both Aimee and her daughter.