CHAPTER 454: FREEZING VESSEL

"The generator room is definitely not the hottest area on the ship. It’s the coldest! They must’ve done something to the generator, so it takes warmth away from the environment instead of warming everything up!"

Vicky’s voice echoed loud and clear around the office. Henry sat in his mother’s chair while thinking hard about their next step.

Nearby, Valerie still hadn’t hit the ground, but her face showed signs of both terror and satisfaction. Each emotion belonged to different creatures occupying the same body.

"Thank you, my love. Could you bring everyone here, so we could plan something on our own?"

Silence followed his request, but soon Vicky’s voice resounded again and asked in a doubtful voice... "Even General Bryce? He’s probably infected too!"

"Yes, even the General. As much as it pains me, we need a test subject so we can figure out a safe way to eject these creatures. He would rather sacrifice himself than let anybody else die in vain... It’s what he would want..."

Henry didn’t sound convincing even to himself. This decision clearly bothered him, yet his face remained expressionless and cold.

If everything went well, Bryce would survive the experiment. That was Henry’s lone hope, which kept him going even when he felt melancholic.

A few portals opened around him, and soon everyone gathered inside Valerie’s office.

Will and Sarah glanced around in confusion, while General Bryce’s eyes landed on Valerie’s floating form. His face went pale, then angry as he lunged towards Henry.

He didn’t place him in a reverse time sphere. Instead, using brute force, he grabbed the man’s shoulders and pushed him onto the ground.

It knocked the air out of him, and using the opportunity, Henry pulled down the General’s jacket to reveal the back of his neck. There, he saw a similar parasite right on Bryce’s spine.

"Uh... What the fuck is going on? Why is that gigantic woman floating midair, and why’re you holding the General down?" Asked Will, while staring into the reverse time sphere with curious eyes.

"I would like to know that too!... Also, what’s that bump on these two’s necks?" Asked Sarah, while pointing at Bryce’s neck.

Suddenly, General Bryce moved. He swiped with his free leg and knocked Henry over. He carried over the momentum and jumped to his feet.

His movements might’ve been fast, but the General was just a regular human. He had decades of experience in close-combat fighting and wrestling, but against four Transcended, no physical prowess would work.

Before he realized it, Sarah was already moving. She summoned a small cloud above his head, then with a single lightning strike, knocked the man out.

She made sure the lightning didn’t carry enough voltage to kill someone, but it still left burn marks on the bright red rug.

"Hey man, are you okay? That old geezer moved faster than I expected!" Said Will while bending down and helping Henry back to his feet.

"Yeah, I’m fine. He caught me off guard too. I forgot that back in the day he fought against Evolved as a hobby. He even beat many Ascended in close-combat and, supposedly, even a weaker Transcended fell victim to his excellent technique."

Will whistled in awe while looking over the unconscious middle-aged man. He prodded the General’s side with his foot, but he was out cold.

Henry knelt down beside him and touched the man’s arm. His body felt much warmer, and tendrils of smoke escaped from his burned jacket.

"Your lightning strike heated up his body. I wonder... Was it enough to kill or expel the parasite?"

With a thoughtful expression, Henry pushed over Bryce’s body, and pulled off the jacket again. The bump was still on the General’s neck, but the parasite began moving under his skin!

"My love, could you—"

Before Henry could’ve finished his sentence, the Princess already stood next to him, holding out one of her knives.

"Thank you!" Said the Prince and grasped the knife’s handle.

He made a minor incision atop the bump, then reached in and pulled the parasite out. It made a loud screeching noise, which didn’t faze anyone inside the room... The thunder from Sarah’s lightning was much louder...

"Ugh... What the hell is that?!" Both Will and Sarah shouted simultaneously.

The tiny tick-like creature wriggled between Henry’s fingers. However, he didn’t care much about the parasite. He didn’t care that the creature had intelligence or that it made such pitiful screeches.

With a simple squeeze, he ended the parasite’s life. The tick disintegrated, making a disgusting squelching noise, and leaving Henry’s fingertips bloodstained.

"That creature was a parasitic lifeform, which infected many if not everyone on this ship, including my mother. Luckily, they can’t access their Evolved abilities, otherwise we would all be dead by now..."

He didn’t go into details, and only informed them about the parasites’ weakness to heat. Vicky also told them about the generator and its state.

"Well, no wonder it’s so cold inside the ship! All the heat is being sucked out, providing perfect living conditions to those beasts!"

Will’s words made everyone realize the room’s low temperature. Their warm breaths created small clouds before their faces, while parts of the room showed signs of freezing.

Their Transcended constitution kept everyone’s inner temperature in check. They couldn’t feel the freezing air touching their skin, so the only sign remaining was their breaths.

"That’s interesting. It seems they want to freeze the entire ship so they can take control of everyone. However, the main corridor, where people gathered, didn’t have freezing temperatures, which means only a select few have parasites!"

While thinking out loud, Henry reached down and placed the unconscious General Bryce into the leather chair.

"There are still many unanswered questions though... How do they infect people? These small ticks can hardly move on their own... But if they used something or someone else to move—"

Suddenly, Vicky’s eyes widened and she shouted, interrupting Henry’s words.

"The vents! While we walked through the corridors, I scanned the ship with my spatial perception. Above every corridor, service and ventilation shafts stretched everywhere! I felt something move inside them, but they disappeared before I got a proper feel for their body’s structure."

Henry’s mouth fell open in surprise. Will could barely follow along, so he also remained silent. Sarah, however...

"Wait, you couldn’t feel their body’s structure? So they weren’t human?"

The Princess raised an eyebrow, as if Sarah’s question was extremely dumb. But soon she sighed in understanding.

"Yes, they aren’t human. I failed to mention, but the shafts are too small to fit even children inside. Only something tiny or palpable can move inside them—"

"Like octopuses, or similar cephalopods, which can fit into everything that their beaks can enter?" Asked Henry, cutting into Vicky’s speech.

He also searched through the piles of paper and showed a picture to Vicky and everybody else... "Like these?"

The picture he motioned to revealed a large octopus-like creature... A Scigny!

"I suppose they could fit inside, but I thought the Scigny were extinct or at least moved away to another Realm. There shouldn’t be any inside this ancient ship."

Henry walked up to his floating mother with a comfortable smile. Her expression again showed mixed emotions, pure hatred and love.

"Many of them probably got infected, which means they remained inside this Realm carrying those disgusting Priphias. They must’ve snuck onto this vessel after our arrival, and during the last sixteen years they silently plotted in the shadows!"

The young Prince reached inside the reverse time sphere. His movements weren’t slow, unlike his mother’s.

"I just can’t understand why they want to control us. What’s their purpose or goal?"

He sighed as his hand gently touched Valerie’s face, causing the hatred in her dark blue eyes to worsen.

"It doesn’t matter. My mother must’ve already figured out the answer. When the General wakes up, we’ll see if this lightning method works. Then we can kill you and all your kind."

A strange coldness appeared in Henry’s eyes. It wasn’t hatred or anger, but pure disgust. In his eyes, this parasite was nothing but a filthy pest, a beast needing to be exterminated.

This feeling, this loathing. This feeling was something new. After witnessing the loss of the most precious person in his life, something inside Henry changed fundamentally.

He leaned forward and stuck his head inside the reverse time sphere. His words echoed inside, but didn’t leave the sphere.

"You hurt someone very important to me. I don’t care about your goals or reasons. You made a grave mistake, and for that, I’ll make sure not a single parasite survives!... I’ll destroy this entire Realm if that’s what it takes to exterminate all of you!"

Henry stepped back from the sphere. His facial expression remained emotionless, yet Vicky sensed that something was wrong. However, this wasn’t the time nor the place to discuss such delicate issues.

"Hey, Henry! Enlighten me, please... Did you say they spent sixteen years inside this Realm. Does that mean time passes four times faster here than on Earth?... Is my assumption correct? I didn’t need to travel through that giant ray?"

Deep anger burned in Will’s gaze. It surprised Henry so much that his emotionless expression broke into an embarrassed smile.

"Oh, about that... I only learned about it a few minutes ago, sorry..."

Will chuckled a bit madly, then stepped forward and held onto Henry’s shoulder. He whispered into the Prince’s ear, so nobody else could hear his words.

"You owe me big time, little Prince, and I never forget to collect!"

The atmosphere turned awkward, but soon the General’s coughing broke the silence.