The elevator doors closed behind Bert, and Merlin caught a glimpse of Adam before they shut.
The young man stood there surrounded by ether devices, a mess of ingredients, two reddish serums held in his hands. He was frozen like a Bloodbath Deer in domelight.
“He’s still scared?” Merlin furrowed his brows, meeting Adam’s eyes only for the young Blessed to become even more rigid.
Yet, as scared as he was, something about the boy was different. He was afraid, that much hadn’t changed, but he looked prepared. His presence was completely reined in, his muscles condensed to push forth with supernatural force at a moment’s notice. Behind all that fear, there was more.
It was almost like Adam was a beast that had been pushed into a corner, and he had yet to decide whether to strike out or to run. In a way, that was ballsy. For a young Blessed like Adam to believe he had a chance against him. Merlin smiled as he imagined Adam attacking him.
He was momentarily weakened, but dealing with a brat at the Expert Rank would be no problem. Even if Adam was strong enough to spar with Lea and in possession of a creature of myths, Merlin was confident.
That did not diminish how much he had learned to respect the young man. Adam was careful. Cautious. Determined. A confident and powerful warrior was hidden beneath that fear of his, the fear of getting exposed.
Definitely a ballsy kid. He chuckled, glancing at Bert when the Master Beaster looked up in confusion.
“Ignore me. I was just talking to myself,” Merlin said, which was enough for Bert. He turned back to his screens, his lips curled upward like they often were these days.
Bert enjoyed his time with Adam. That much was obvious, and Merlin could not hold it against him. Adam was interesting.
To walk around fooling scientists into believing the Elemental Phoenix was a Sacred Flame. Merlin shook his head. He wondered how Adam made that happen. The scientists were mad, some crazier than others, but they were not stupid. They studied Worlds, Soulkins, and whatnot for decades, if not centuries. Fooling them shouldn’t have been easy.
How did you do it?
Adam was interesting, but so was the Elemental Phoenix. When Merlin first heard about the Emperor beast from his higher-ups, he was unsure what to do. He couldn’t compromise the mission by warning his nephew, let alone Adam. As for stopping the Rulers… Merlin was not strong enough. His higher-ups could have acted, but neither they nor the Elemental Phoenix were willing to leave. The reasoning was still unknown. All he knew was that some people were satisfied with the turn of events, which, frankly, didn’t make any sense.
They were supposed to protect the Pact. Their mission was to ensure nobody would be stupid enough to break it, yet the Council did exactly that.
Truthfully, their actions were not without reason. Mankind was weak. They had only survived so long thanks to the Pact. And now, to grow stronger, they broke the very protection that helped them retain a foothold on Razarn’s land.
Merlin shook his head. The Council was hard to understand at times. Their desperation did make sense, but they could have worked something out. Could have found a way to earn an Emperor beast’s favor. Adam made it happen, and so could have the Rulers.
Ruler Saphira wouldn’t have had to die. War with several races would have never started. All the Council had needed was patience and Blessed with Worlds the Emperor beasts deemed worthy.
His higher-ups were disappointed that the negotiations failed and that war was waged, but Adam’s bond filled them with joy. And, indeed, it was a joyous occasion.
Adam was the first Blessed with the means to become an Emperor. The Elemental Phoenix had chosen him–his World–over the Ruler of Fire. Did the phoenix know Adam would have to spend decades growing stronger, or was that a desperate measure?
Maybe it was necessary. Raffael’s broken World might be unsuitable for the phoenix. Or the Ruler’s personality is at fault.
Whatever it was, Adam carried power like no Blessed did. Merlin could see that Adam knew that. He saw something in the young Blessed’s eyes, but he couldn’t understand if he deserved it. Was Adam’s World really that great? Was his personality that much better, or was he just as greedy as the Ruler of Fire?
Merlin knew the answers to all of this. He researched all there was to know about Adam, be it his medical records from when he was a child, his rapid growth before the Grand Camp, everything noted about his achievements and actions in the Grand Camp, as well as all there was to know about phoenixes. And the hours spent researching were not wasted.
Merlin learned many helpful things. Very much so, even if it did not unravel much about the mystery clinging to Adam. He was powerful. Carried the potential to make it further than any human ever did. Yet, he was a catalyst at the same time. He pushed Daniel back to the right path and rekindled a fire in Lea that Merlin had thought was lost.
“How’s Adam doing? Is he a good student?” He turned to Bert.
“Adam?” The Master Beaster looked up. “Adam is doing great. He’s a smart one. Quick to catch up on my cues. I’ve been teaching him for what…I guess it hasn’t even been a year yet…And his Base’s efficacy has reached 100%. Basic Base, of course. Adam can already concoct some of the most common serums as well. Pith Potency, Lectarn Oria, and about half a dozen other serums. His healing potions and ether concoctions are not bad either. Just now, he concocted a new type of serum. We came up with the recipe together, to help his little Ferronox Mantis grow.”
“He has that same innovative spirit I had in my youth, when I researched the Soilbacks and Craglings in the Oridon Mountains. Those were good times.” He smiled, though there was a hint of sadness in his voice. That sadness dispersed as he continued, “But Adam is nothing like me. While I followed my teacher like a mindless pup, he questions everything. He wants to know how every little detail works and asks questions even I struggle with. You have no idea how much I struggle these days.” Bert chuckled in amusement.
“Some questions are a little weird, but they make me question the recipes my teacher taught me as well.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “Now that I think about it, Adam pushed me to use Glacial Flower extract to spread the potency of pyromantic crystal powder throughout the serum. Using opposite elements in the same serum feels odd, but it worked. Exceptionally, if you ask me.”
Bert looked up to see Merlin staring blankly at him. “Uhm, yeah… Adam is smart. He’s still a little rough around the edges, but I have many years left to teach him.”
There was a shimmer in the Master Beaster’s eyes. He was excited to teach Adam, and maybe even to question the ways of the Beaster himself, prodded by Adam’s relentless curiosity.
“How is he compared to Daniel?” Merlin asked. The elevator doors opened slowly after a painfully long ride to the deepest parts of the Zerog estate, yet neither of them stepped out.
Bert turned to Merlin, one eyebrow raised. “You want me to compare them?”
“Why not?”
The Master Beaster shook his head, but answered anyway. “It’s impossible to compare them. They have different mindsets, for starters. Both studied similar material, but they digested it very differently. Adam learns faster, if that’s what you’re curious about, however, it would have been strange if it were any other way. I taught them in completely different stages of their lives.”
Daniel had been a child when he was first introduced to Bert. He did not have a beast augmenting his brain as severely as Adam’s Soulkins did. That didn’t mean Adam would ever catch up to Daniel.
Merlin’s nephew already had a decade of study and practice behind him, and he was beginning to learn how to concoct Advanced serums on his own. Setting aside the Advanced serums he had created with a Grandmaster Beaster’s help, Daniel was now approaching the leagues of true experts.
Chloe was mesmerized by her son’s growth. She praised Daniel as though there were no tomorrow. As impressive as it was for someone his age to concoct Advanced serums, her nephew still had a great deal to learn. Only one in every hundred attempts had been deemed acceptable, meeting the minimum efficacy of sixty percent. That was not much, yet it showed Daniel had what it took to become a Master Beaster. All he needed were a few more years of practice and thousands of hours of research to develop more creations.
Didn’t he create some serum for Adam? The one that caught Grandmaster Heros’s interest?
Merlin shrugged and stepped out of the elevator once it became clear that Bert was finished with the comparison. He could have gone into more detail, but it mattered little that he hadn’t.
“Daniel has grown a lot,” Merlin heard Bert say behind him.
“He will catch up to his sister soon enough.” Merlin nodded in response as he walked across the massive floor, heading toward a towering, cylindrical glass container.
“He will?” Bert hurried to catch up. “Does that mean Grandmaster Heros helped Daniel evolve Coco? That’s amazing news!”
It was. Being a favored student of a Grandmaster Beaster came with its advantages.
So is being friends with a Master Beaster, Merlin thought with a faint smile. If not for Bert, Dirk would already be dead. Merlin would have lost his beloved Soulkin–the same brown wyvern now floating motionlessly in the glass container before them. Dozens of tubes were embedded into the mighty creature, whose physical body no longer possessed the strength to move. It was beyond broken.
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“He’s still alive. His brain is intact, his brainwaves are regular. Most of his organs have recovered, but I haven’t removed the support devices yet. I don’t want to move Dirk too much.” Bert spoke in a low voice, his earlier excitement completely gone.
Even the slightest movement could kill Dirk. Still, Merlin felt relief. Dirk was alive. He had prevailed where most would have succumbed.
“You said you had a way to fix him. Some solutions you believe are feasible,” Merlin reminded him, referring to what the Master Beaster had mentioned in the message he’d received that morning.
“I do have a few theories that might work. Some are more likely than others, while a few rely heavily on luck and your Soulkin’s will to survive.” Bert spoke the harsh truth plainly. He had no reason to lie to Merlin. “You’ll have to prepare yourself for the recoil if Dirk doesn’t make it.”
The wyvern was Merlin’s only Soulkin above the Unblemished Rank. Dirk had been with him for decades, and their growth as a unit had shaped them into who they were. Still, Dirk was not Merlin’s only Soulkin. He possessed several Unblemished ones, though none of those bonds were nearly as strong as his connection to the wyvern.
Dirk was his everything.