Chapter 468: 466
The previous version of D99 had already reached the limit of its concentration, making further improvement nearly impossible.
Now, after undergoing a new round of modifications, its effects had been amplified by more than tenfold.
Unfortunately, no one could actually use it. The resulting agony was beyond what any human being could endure.
And it seemed to affect more than just the body. The mind suffered as well.
The physical pain alone was unimaginable, likely no less severe than the surgery Kain had just undergone.
As for the psychological effects, those were harder to determine. Mental suffering was far more subjective and difficult to measure.
After having every foreign object removed from his body, Kain left the base and traveled to an uninhabited area.
Well, it wasn't entirely uninhabited.
Several people had been stationed at staggered distances around him. They would serve as test subjects, allowing the researchers to determine how far Kain's Untouchable field would expand after D99 reactivated it, as well as how much stronger it had become.
Naturally, every test subject was human garbage. Execution would have been far too merciful for them.
Kain currently held a pair of syringes connected side by side.
One contained a bright crimson liquid resembling fresh blood. It was the vaccine serum developed to counter D99, designated "83:9."
The other contained a liquid so dark red that it appeared almost black. That was D99 itself, teeming with viruses.
In a sense, the two substances shared the same fundamental composition. Their relationship was similar to that between positrons and electrons.
Since Kain had already taken the Panacea, he didn't technically need the serum. It was only being used here to accelerate D99's effects.
Under normal circumstances, D99 would be administered first, infecting the patient with the virus and disrupting their immune system. Various transplants could then be performed without triggering an immune rejection response.
Once the transplant was complete, the antidote-like serum would be administered. That was the standard three-stage procedure.
This time, however, both steps would occur simultaneously. Cellular reconstruction and breakdown would accelerate to a terrifying degree.
It was time to begin.
Kain plunged both connected syringes into his body at once and slowly pressed down on the plungers. The crimson and dark-red liquids flowed out of their respective barrels, merged inside a single tube, and entered his body together.
The moment they did, Kain felt as though he had injected concentrated sulfuric acid directly into his veins.
The liquid spread at an astonishing rate.
At the same time, something resembling an electrical current surged through his entire body.
According to the explanation he had received, this was caused by his genetic material transmitting information to every cell at extreme speed. Neural signals were racing throughout his body so rapidly that the sensation resembled exposure to intense radiation.
At that very moment, his Untouchable field activated.
In the terminology used here, it was essentially a field capable of rendering ability users powerless.
Both its expansion rate and overall strength had increased.
Kain continued depressing the plungers. The nearly five hundred milliliters of liquid inside the two syringes visibly drained away.
When only a hundred milliliters remained, he suddenly stopped.
His consciousness was flickering on the verge of darkness, like a light bulb rapidly dimming and brightening.
One mistake, and the light might go out completely, never to shine again.
He looked at the hand gripping the syringes. It was trembling slightly.
Was his body finally buckling beneath the unbearable pain?
Or was he afraid?
In the past, his attitude had always been that if he died, then he died. He had already given up on life to some extent.
But now, he was reluctant to let go.
Had he already started valuing his life this much?
Was he worried that death in this world might be permanent?
Had he truly developed feelings for Lacus and the others?
Or was he simply unwilling to abandon all those genuinely beautiful women because of his own desires?
It was all of the above.
If it were nothing more than lust, he wouldn't be this unwilling to leave them.
As for how deep his feelings ran, that depended largely on how charming each woman was. He really was that much of a bastard.
Put simply, his morals followed his eyes. Beauty was justice.
To put it more crudely, he was a piece of trash ruled by the head between his legs.
How many more women did a man like him plan to fawn over?
But they weren't fictional characters.
They were real, living people.
Huh?
Through the haze, Kain thought he heard Lacus or Aerith speaking to him.
He couldn't make out the words. They sounded like something they had told him before, something incredibly gentle.
Then he felt as though another hand had covered his own.
It wasn't trying to stop him or prevent him from pressing down on the plungers.
That hand was simply there to remind him that they were beside him. Whatever happened, they would face it together.
If he fell into darkness, they would become the light that illuminated it.
In the next instant, Kain felt his consciousness truly plunge into darkness, like a computer shutting down.
More precisely, it was like pressing the power button and watching the screen go black as the illuminated keyboard went dark. It appeared to have completely shut down, yet internal processes continued running as the system finished its final tasks. Somewhere within, the faint whirring of the hard drive could still be heard.
It was just like the last time, when the Tyranid Hive Mind had bitten his head apart.
He was fully aware that his consciousness was sinking into darkness. As long as he hadn't disappeared completely, he could still faintly perceive what was happening around him.
Even now, Kain could barely sense that something about his body had changed.
Steam seemed to be rising from him, but the vapor appeared to have color.
Blood-red?
It must have been a mist of blood seeping from his capillaries and pores.
The blood mist seemed to be burning, surrounding him in what looked like a crimson aura.
It reminded him of Dragon Ball, when a Saiyan unleashed their power and became enveloped in a visible, almost tangible aura.
Huh?
The blood-red aura was gradually taking on a golden glow.
Kain focused on a nearby mirror. His blurred vision, already on the verge of fading, brightened just enough for him to see that one of his irises had seemingly turned gold.
More accurately, the blood spilling around his eye was burning more completely, transforming into golden flames. Those flames formed a thin layer over his iris, making it resemble a colored contact lens.
Wait, those golden flames...
Kain immediately stopped paying attention to the outside world and focused on the depths of his consciousness.
Sure enough, the pocket of the Warp deep within his soul had changed.
A star was on the verge of igniting.
It was actually an enormous quantity of spiritual energy being compressed to extreme density.
That energy had come from the Greater Daemon he had devoured. The power that had yet to be consumed as nourishment was now being compressed into a star.
At the same time, Kain sensed several projections.
They were projections of the souls belonging to everyone caught within his expanded Untouchable field.
Each projection resembled a candle flame being battered by the wind, constantly twisting and swaying as though it might be extinguished at any moment.
Or rather, the Warp was producing a pulling force that steadily drew in those flames.
Among them, one flame shone brighter than all the others, and its movements were less violent.
In the next second, it stopped flickering entirely.
Kain froze.
He had merely wanted that flame to remain unharmed, and it had stabilized in response to his will. Perhaps that was because this particular projection occupied the central position.
He moved the tiny star closer.
The nearer it came, the steadier the candle flame grew. Soon, it regained its former vigor.
Kain even felt that if the flame were extinguished, he could simply cast it into the star and ignite it again.
In reality, that would cause the corresponding "candle," the person, to be "lit" again.
In other words, they would be resurrected.
That was exactly what he had done when he resurrected the Astartes last time.
Kain then performed a different operation on the other violently flickering projections.
The golden starlight could also serve as fuel, but it didn't restore those flames to their original condition.
Instead, it accelerated the burning of their souls. The "heat" they produced rapidly flowed into Kain's spiritual space.
This reminded him of the man seated upon the so-called Golden Toilet. To sustain the Emperor's life, psykers were burned like firewood every day, their psychic power extracted and fed to him.
Was this the change brought about by injecting the enhanced D99?
He could now perform something similar, at least to a certain extent.
This ability was likely also the reward the Emperor had given him for completing the previous mission. When Kain connected through that room aboard the ship again, a speck of light had entered him.
He had assumed it was another extra life.
Apparently, it wasn't.
It had instead granted him an understanding of his current condition and taught him how to use this ability.
Did that mean he could create his own extra lives?
What he had done to bring Aerith back was different. She hadn't truly died at the time. He had only needed to repair her wounds and return her soul to her body.
Huh?
When Kain returned his attention to reality, both syringes were already empty.
At some point, he had injected the remaining serum into his body.