Chapter #25
Since the mood was ruined, Dana went back to the kitchen to cook something for her brother. It would be too cruel to not make him any of her special pastry after he smelled them.
Meanwhile Alex sat across Zeno, he put a lab report on the desk. Zeno glanced at his friend's grimm look before he read the report.
From what Zeno could understand, Alex discovered that the Blacklight in his system was receiving orders from an outside source.
"...Like a Hive Mind of sorts." Alex said his conclusions.
"Well, it is probable that Elizabeth might have had such an ability considering she is capable of commanding the lesser infected." Zeno put the report back.
He already knew all of these but he couldn't explain his meta knowledge.
"She wants to be free?" Alex thought out loud.
"Well, she does have a son somewhere out there that is literally, The Infected Jesus." Zeno reminded while getting her file out.
According to Blackwatch, Pariah didn't have any father and was born through the Virus naturally.
Zeno didn't have much info on him since Blackwatch didn't keep much about him in their network.
"If I want to overcome this, she needs to die." Alex said while staring at Elizabeth's photo.
"Yeah..." Zeno said.
He also noticed that Alex's body was not radiating hostility, Zeno knew that was not how you look at someone you are planning to kill.
Zeno had some ideas about what might have happened with Alex but he didn't delve into it.
'Well, he needs a girl too, right?' Zeno shrugged.
Zeno didn't mind his friend's weird taste, then again knowing Alex he is probably betting she'll have brain damage from her long coma.
'Just enough to mold her into whatever he wants.' Zeno shook his head and went back to his suit.
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Finally after years of effort and preparation, the Nanosuit was finally finished and ready to use.
Zeno knew it would take some time for him to fuse with the suit but he couldn't wait to try.
He didn't mind skinning the suit off himself later, he had to wear it now!
Siblings watched from a safe distance, they were hyped about the suit since Zeno couldn't stop talking about it.
Zeno finally wore the suit and booted it up, and nothing happened. Just as he was about to hit the suit with a wrench it suddenly worked.
Suit started to discharge electric sparks before it started to melt, while Zeno was shocked the siblings didn't even know if there was something wrong.
[Bloodline resonates with the Nanosuit, absorbing!]
Soon the whole suit had melted into a liquid sphere with Zeno in the middle of it. The sphere cooled down, from the outside it looked like an egg with scales.
Inside, the suit dug inside Zeno's body reaching deep into his bloodline and merged with it.
Not before long the egg cracked, but what left from it wasn't Zeno but an eastern dragon around two meters long.
Two meters was truly pitiful for a dragon with such bloodline but Zeno couldn't complain considering his age.
Zeno quickly transformed back to human, his dragon form didn't give him any advantages as far as he knew just yet, he didn't have a reason to stay in that form.
Zeno turned towards his audience and gave them a bow while cold sweat trickled down his back.
'I thought I reincarnated as a chick again!' Zeno's PTSD flared up.
"Zeno, are you okay?" Dana asked while checking him out.
"Well, it appears my bloodline has caused some unexpected changes in the suit." Zeno explained.
"I no longer have to harm myself to get stronger but I can still receive a buff if I get too injured." Zeno muttered before moving towards Alex.
"You want my blood." Alex said plainly while holding his hand out.
"Yeah, now that the suit is operational, I can make a cure for the virus and then create a strain special to my family."
"Why make more, this virus is bad news!" Dana jumped.
"Thanks sis..." Alex was dumbfounded.
"I can probably share my unlimited vitality and lifespan throughout the Hive, allowing me to share my immortality with my loved one's." Zeno revealed.
Zeno had no way to offer them immortal minds and souls just yet but he doesn't have any enemies that can do such damage anyway.
The River doesn't count...
[Holy shit!...] The system exclaimed.
{What?!} Zeno(Ouryuu) was shocked.
He wouldn't have to lose everything if he had such power back then, he was so agitated that some of his presence leaked through Zeno's eyes.
To the siblings Zeno was radiating a deep sense of desolation, someone that lost everything they loved to the cruel hands of time.
They realized that Zeno probably lost everyone he held dear over the years and this was one of the reasons that he didn't get attached to people much.
'Even the Harem Plan might be because of this!' Dana thought, the plan didn't sound so bad in her mind anymore.
She thought about Zeno falling in love again and again only for him to lose them to time. It made her sad just thinking about it.
'Even if he can share it, not everyone can handle immortality. It is smart to go for the quantity for him' Alex came up with his theory as well.
Well, they were not entirely correct but they were not wrong either. Zeno naturally didn't want to watch his loved one's die of old age but he has yet to lose anyone he cared.
While they were all going through emotions, Alex suddenly exclaimed. It was too abnormal for him to give such a reaction.
"The virus gone quiet!" Alex's face was enough for Zeno to know something went terribly wrong with Elizabeth.
At that moment the TV turned on with an alert.
"What?" Dana was shocked.
Meanwhile the boys focused on what was behind the infected. They could make out a gigantic flesh figure where Gentek stood formerly.
If Zeno had to describe the giant, he could say it looked like a Titan(AOT) that got infected with Redlight.
Right then, the camera focused on the head of the giant, where Elizabeth was embedded in the forehead of the creature.
'Something isn't right!' Zeno thought.
Elizabeth was strapped on the forehead like it was some kind of meat Susanoo but she had a device on her head covering her eyes.
Yet, Zeno could see the tears streaming down her face...
"She's crying?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, it appears someone is using her... Let me hack Blackwatch real quick." Zeno said.
The results were not that shocking to Zeno. Alex had taken the virus at a place where he could be recorded due to his urgency and people thought they could pull it off too.
So some of the soldiers tried that shit followed by some scientists, all have mutated except Captain Robert Cross.
Robert Cross survived but he was unstable and accidentally delved into the hive mind.
He soon encountered comatose Elizabeth inside the Hive Mind. The scientists have theorized that Elizabeth drove him mad but Zeno had a better guess.
Robert Cross was a man of principle and honor and Blackwatch had lied to him from the beginning. Zeno fully expected such a man to switch sides based on his moral compass.
That compass might have gone crooked due to the virus' mental effects.
So, his response was brutal. He broke Elizabeth out and subdued her with the experimental Blackwatch technology made just for her and made use of her to create the giant.
'There was no such device in the game.' Zeno noted.
Cross himself has gone missing after that, the scientists are guessing that he might have fused with the giant.
Alex and Zeno look at each other, they can both see the resolution in each other's eyes.
Alex has to do this because it is only a matter of time Cross reaches him through the Hive Mind.
Zeno has to do this because he needs as many samples of the virus he could get to perfect his own.
"Yeah, go ahead. Leave me here all alone." Dana grumbled while cursing her own underpowered ness.
"We'll leave tomorrow. Zeno still needs rest after all." Alex chuckled and left.
Zeno was confused until he saw Alex winking at him.
'Doesn't this bastard know sleeping with your girlfriend before war is a fucking death flag!?' Zeno was furious but he couldn't say no to Dana.
It might have been something in his expression that tipped Dana off but she didn't ask for anything too much.
She just wanted to cuddle to sleep, which was something totally fine for Zeno.
Not much for his second and third wheel who's suppressing his lust though.
Dana on the other hand had gotten a bit extra shy after her first kiss. She felt like she would have come off as too annoying and restrained herself.
'Also, having sex before such event is like having a death flag up your ass. Since Zeno is immortal I am not risking my life!' She thought.
Truly it shows that they grew up together...