Read Novel Full Chapter 236: The Edge Of The Truth
Chapter 236: The Edge Of The Truth
"Huh? Can you explain it more, Bella? Use simpler terms." Mark said gently, noticing her confusion at the technical language.
Bella tilted her head slightly, her brows knitting together as if trying to translate what she had seen into words she could understand.
Robert chuckled softly from behind them. "Just tell them what you see."
Bella nodded.
"The white snowflakes," she began carefully, staring into the microscope again, "they move toward the vampire blood. When they touch it... they don’t just mix. They change it. They make the dark parts brighter. The black parts become red again, and then... gold."
She lifted her head, eyes glowing faintly. "It’s like they give it life. Like they’re feeding it."
The doctors leaned closer. Mark felt his pulse quicken.
Further testing confirmed her description. The white crystalline particles reacted aggressively to vampire blood cells.
They merged, strengthened, and altered their structure entirely. Rotten looking samples became vivid red with faint golden veins running through them.
It was unlike anything they had recorded before.
They eventually named it Crimson Activation Cell.
What had once been called Crimson Nectar was no longer just folklore or rumor. It was a biological reality.
Months turned into years. Years stretched into a decade.
Mark aged. Lines appeared on his face. His hair thinned slightly at the temples.
Some of the Caduceus doctors withdrew from the research one by one, unable to endure the lack of progress toward their original goal of strengthening humanity safely.
They had hoped to elevate humans.
Instead, they only made Latros stronger.
Robert took more and more blood from Flynn. The boy grew taller, but thinner. His face sharpened unnaturally, skin pale despite the rich meals and luxurious living conditions he was provided.
He had privileges, yes. Fine clothes, education, and a grand room.
But those privileges did not erase the truth.
His body was a laboratory.
Every new medical breakthrough became a new procedure inflicted upon him. Open body surgeries. Cranial operations. Internal examinations. Endless extraction.
All for knowledge.
Bella was always present.
She watched every incision, every organ exposed, every pulse weakening and returning again.
At first, her eyes would tremble when she looked. Eventually, they stopped trembling. They darkened instead.
"There is something in his heart," she whispered during the first open heart operation, her voice detached as she stared at Flynn’s exposed chest. "It’s shining. Like a small sphere."
The surgeons paused. "Can you take it out, Bella?" Mark asked.
Bella reached toward it instinctively, her hand hovering above Flynn’s beating heart. But she could not grasp it.
"It’s there," she insisted. "But it isn’t solid. It’s like light. I can see it, but I can’t touch it."
That discovery shook them.
The sphere resembled a Vitalis Core. Yet unlike a vampire’s core, which could be extracted, destroyed, or materialized physically, this one remained intangible.
Invisible to all but Pharos.
If they could find a way to materialize that sphere without altering human DNA into something else entirely...
Then maybe. Maybe their research would finally reach its conclusion.
And that possibility was enough to justify everything they had done.
At least, that was what Mark told himself.
The research grew more extreme as the years passed, especially after Mark finally found a possible location of the progenitor’s remains.
He spent weeks reading the records of the Kingdom of Morum, page by page, ignoring sleep, ignoring food.
One detail kept resurfacing. A place mentioned repeatedly in personal letters and royal journals.
It was said to be the King’s favorite refuge. The place where he often met his beloved concubine in secret.
If any part of the progenitor’s body remained intact, it would be there.
They moved North immediately.
The location, however, was strictly controlled by the government. They needed official permission just to approach the mountain region. Paperwork, bribes, agreements. That part was manageable.
The real obstacle was something else entirely.
The closer they got to the site, the more violent the weather became. A storm of wind and snow formed unnaturally, shaping itself into a massive half sphere around the mountain’s core.
It was not natural weather. It was deliberate. The storm intensified the moment they approached, as if aware of their intent.
Even with government approval, they could not pass.
Strangely, the villagers in the nearby settlement reported nothing unusual. They entered and exited freely. Many worked in the mountains as miners because of the rich mineral deposits beneath the land.
But when Mark’s team tried to follow the same paths, the storm reacted.
It was as if the land itself rejected them.
They tried using villagers as informants, asking them to report what lay deeper inside the mountain.
Yet no matter who they used, the barrier remained closed to anyone connected to their group. Anyone tied to their purpose.
"What should we do?" Mark asked one evening in the house they had purchased near the village.
Robert remained calm, seated comfortably by the window.
"Bring Flynn here," Robert said. "He will be able to enter."
Mark stiffened. "You want to bring that boy here? He just survived another procedure. He’s weak."
Robert did not turn at first. Snow spiraled endlessly outside the window.
"Do you know where the Crimson Nectar lineage originates, Mark?" he asked quietly.
Mark frowned. "No. I always assumed it was an anomaly. Like Pharos. Something random."
Robert chuckled. "They descend from the King himself. From his bloodline after he became a vampire."
Mark’s breath caught. "That’s impossible. Crimson Nectar is human. Vampires cannot reproduce."
"Have you ever questioned why I insisted Flynn remain central to this research?" Robert turned slowly, his gaze sharp.
"How disappointing. You are the head researcher, yet you are blinded by your own triumph. You are intoxicated by the fact that your work is finally bearing fruit. You have forgotten why you began."
Mark remained silent.
Robert stepped closer. "That boy is the closest answer humanity will ever have. The key to bridging the gap between humans and vampires. And possibly the key to the progenitor’s body."
His voice darkened. "The King loved that concubine so deeply that people called her a witch. I do not believe that was superstition. There was something extraordinary about her."
Robert’s eyes gleamed. "Bring Flynn here. The father will not reject his beloved son. Even if that son brings disaster."
Mark felt his stomach tighten.
But he nodded. It was too late to withdraw now. They were standing at the edge of truth.
"He just needs to get inside," Mark told himself. "Nothing will happen to him."
It was a lie born from desperation. From greed. From a hunger to uncover knowledge humans were never meant to touch.
And so Flynn was brought to the mountain.
This time, the storm parted. It allowed him through without resistance.
No one knew what happened inside. The boy vanished into the white veil for hours. When he finally emerged, he was different.
His expression had changed. His silence carried weight.
Robert was ecstatic because they had found the progenitor’s torso. The King of Morum’s preserved body.
But something was missing.
The heart was gone.