Endless Evolution: Last Star

Katrin just absorbed an artifact, not a simple artifact but a powerful one, the Righteous Inferno was a Second Rarity level artifact, in rarity it was the same as Adam's artifact.

Usually, the stronger the artifact was, the harder it was for the Phantoms to find a suitable one so that the Evolution Tree and Initial Gene would be ready to take on a new part of their owner's power.

This was one of the reasons why Operators advised their Phantoms to develop their current artifacts instead of constantly searching for new ones. Each time, as the Phantom's power increased, it became more and more difficult to do so.

Could Katrin have just gotten lucky?

Sure.

But... hardly anyone watching this scene was willing to believe that.

From her actions and detached look, Adam, Refesa, Silvana, and Magnus immediately realized that something unusual happened.

The only one who still thought Katrin was just lucky was her Operator - Alan.

"What the hell...? Did she just become a Natural Phantom?"

Magnus muttered in disbelief.

He wasn't just surprised, since this event wasn't rare or unique, it had a whole other level of importance.

This was the first time something like this had ever happened.

Katrin was definitely an Artificial Phantom, she like almost all Phantoms had gone through a standardized path before entering Dead Lands for the first time.

All of this was recorded in detail in reports, documents kept by both the missions department and Fort Norton.

From the day when Katrin's Spark was discovered during a test to the day, she killed her first monster with the help of the Phantoms and the military.

Refesa, Magnus, and everyone else had no idea how it happened.

Everyone knew that there was no way that Artificial Phantom could become the Natural One, it was impossible because when the Spark appeared, it was already a predestined outcome.

Only if the Spark appeared immediately absorbing its gene, being at the peak of its powers, the Phantom could become the Natural born.

So what happened to Katrin became an unexplainable reality.

Well... actually, besides Adam, Silvana, Alan, Refesa, and Magnus, there was someone else looking at Katrin, and that person was in the Citadel.

Sure, the military and the missions department were watching closely, but the ordinary spectators weren't smart enough to immediately realize what had happened, much less accept it. After all, even Alan hadn't realized it yet.

...

On the far side of the Citadel, on top of his own laboratory, a middle-aged man sat in a dark room.

The only light in the room was a blue hologram, showing a multitude of images, from various cameras in the NEPs. Now, his gaze was directed to the center one where was Katrin immersed in her thoughts.

The faded light fell on half of his face, leaving the rest in shadow. The tips of his snow-white hair fell slightly below his eyebrows, rippling with every movement.

Out of the darkness, his amber, rich eyes stood out brightly, it was a rarity, almost an anomaly, to find such eyes in a human.

It seemed that his eyes concealed both all the wisdom and cruelty of the world, a gaze that would not waver in the face of anything that stood in the way of his goal.

Such eyes belonged to the third free scientist in the Citadel - Aiden Henk.

Like Refesa, it was no problem for him to hack into the Operators' channels and closely observe the momentous battle in Fallen Crypt.

First, Aiden Henk was curious about Adam's performance against Plague Reaper, then Midnight Crystal had piqued his interest, and now he was watching Katrin intently.

Aiden blinked a few times, resting his cheek on his hand with a calm look.

"Oh, she practically died, most likely even her last ten seconds have passed, but she didn't just survive and gain new powers, she became a Natural Phantom... I didn't expect that something could happen with this insignificant arrogant girl that would arouse my curiosity..."

Then, Aiden slightly raised his sharp chin.

"Did it happen because her time was up because it was Plague Reaper's gene taking advantage of the situation, or was she just lucky enough to discover something new?"

Aiden already had a lot of ideas related to how Katrin had managed to not only change her Initial Gene but literally her origins as a Phantom.

Immediately after the ideas, his mind was full of plans on how he could test it, which of the candidates was the most suitable, and which had the best chance of success.

Aiden instantly realized that if Katrin's situation was possible to repeat, it could be one of the most important events in the entire history of the Citadel.

"But... if it happened for the first time in so long..." Aiden muttered with a deep look, "So, it's necessary for many conditions to coincide, in the exact order and time, and... I don't have anything, only the fact that it's most likely possible."

With a deep sigh, he shook his head. He was an experienced scientist, so he realized that even if he figured out how to replicate Katrin's situation exactly, how to turn an Artificial Phantom into a Natural One, it would be a difficult process and a long series of experiments.

Then, Aiden's amber eyes shifted to the side, looking at Adam lying on the ground. With his wounds, for now, it was best not to try to get up.

"Well, well, Adam Vinter..." Aiden said calmly, for some reason, there was an almost imperceptible pride and joy in his voice...

For a moment, Aiden's mouth corners lifted upward, forming a slight smirk.

"Years ago I was skeptical of the idea, but using my authority and sending youths to the Dead Lands under the guise of randomness has proven to be a great way to create strong Phantoms." Aiden ran his fingers together.

His eyes darkened, remembering the day he'd thrown Adam out of his lab, dooming him to end up in Dead Lands and die with a 99.7% chance.

Not that that exact number would make any difference, but it was Aiden's bloody statistic that he'd gathered over several years doing this sinister case, well... besides the many others that took place at Morton Observatory.
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Sure, the government, the missions department, and the military didn't approve of Aiden constantly sending some random youth to their deaths.

They didn't know why he was doing it, Aiden wasn't going to tell anyone his plans, but they preferred to turn a blind eye.

After all, it was always one youth from a group from the slums, amongst whom someone would occasionally have the Spark, the government wanted Aiden to keep running these tests.

The government's goal was simple, they didn't want to ruin relations with Aiden and these tests sometimes added newcomers to the Phantoms.

So Aiden kept sending random youths from the group to Dead Lands, and the government and everyone else pretended not to notice that not all the kids returned home after the test.

Aiden was well aware that the government was discouraging the promotion of Natural Phantoms, trying to keep information about them hidden, as they realized that it would be a disaster if the other Phantoms found out.

Artificial Phantoms would die by the hundreds in the ghostly hope of changing something in their lives, without even knowing how or if it was possible to do so.

This was one of the reasons why Aiden pretended that these were just accidents or some strange plans, after all... by his actions, he was trying to increase the number of Naturalborn Phantoms at least a little....