Chapter 469: Sacrifice (1/2)

Number 3 froze at the boy's last reveal. She couldn't properly react… no, she couldn't process or register the meaning behind Aiden's words.

Did she evolve? H-how? What did that really mean?

Number 3 slowly turned away, looking at her arms, her hands, her body once again, looking for something, anything that she could lean on. Any hint, that could serve as support and assist her already befuddled, scrambled, chaotic state of mind.

Yet, no matter where she looked, how she looked, besides the crystal core humming inside her chest, pulsing and continuously, rhythmically releasing a surge of this new source of energy, nothing was amiss. Other than having an additional solid, hard-shelled organ working inside her body, fitting perfectly in place, she seemed normal.

Well, truth be told, she did notice that her youthfulness has seemingly returned, feeling like how she was in her early teenage years in terms of vitality, but she could count that as a side effect of her emergence of that black egg-like object.

Evolution? Did she really evolve? She just couldn't accept such a thing. Something like that was completely, utterly, biologically impossible for a human such as her to achieve. But then, what happened? Why does she feel the same, yet so different, so 'alien' in her own body at the same time?

Still, despite she really wanted to, she couldn't refute the boy's claims. She did feel that something was amiss, something was not right, she just couldn't accept the reality Aiden had painted.

In the end, she sighed, focusing on her own memories instead. She tried going back in time, recalling the events leading before her recent awakening. Yet, just like previously,  as she focused her mind, and tried to remember, she found that there was a huge chunk that was lost to her. Like a video, these visions, images were corrupted, dark, containing no visual information, or sound.

The only thing that she could sense, was some emotions that were pushed to the back of her heart, weighing heavily down on her. Feelings of sadness and sorrow, lingering despair of losing something, or… someone important to her, were the most dominant, most powerful sensations that she kept away.

Whenever she gleaned into this pool, this reserve, she had the urge to cry, to lash out on the world. Yet, she couldn't understand why she was feeling anything like that.

”I…” Seeing that she wouldn't get ahead by herself, Number 3 decided to speak up. Still, she felt it incredibly difficult to explain any of what she was experiencing. ”I can't recall anything, other than this overwhelming sadness, this grief… I can't really explain it, I feel a lot at the same time. I am… scared? Angry? Sad? Maybe all of that at the same time…”

She looked at her little boy with a bitter look, feeling weird at the strange reversal of their roles. Unlike in the past, now it was her that was lost and confused and needed guidance, hoping to get it from the person in front of her.

”I see…” Aiden nodded thoughtfully. ”And you can't remember anything at all? What is the last thing you remember before today?” He asked after a bit of silence.

Trying her hardest, Number 3 closed her eyes, focusing on her mind. She inhaled, taking in a lungful of air, before repeating the same breathing exercise that Aiden usually did: Keeping it inside for a few, brief seconds, before slowly, gradually exchanging what she used up with the fresh, new oxygen from the outside, whilst clearing her mind from all the distraction.

After a few repeats, her shoulders eased up, her body relaxed. The turmoils of the outside world calmed down, became irrelevant as she began her descent to the depths of her own mind.

Images of the day roughly 2 weeks ago soon appeared on her mind. She slowly recalled her morning, continuing her dream-like journey flipping through the events of that day at a fast, swift pace.

She could recall her meeting with the other executors, her assignment given directly by the Reaper, The Grandmaster's Right Hand…

She frowned, feeling the gradual loss of her recollection just after she felt a sudden surge of an invisible current ripple through the city.

Energy, a power…

Suddenly, the realization hit her, her eyes snapped wide open looking at the youngster in front of her. With quivering lips, the only word she managed to force out was: