Luca jerked in an awkward position. His spine arched backwards, his head tilted upwards and his eyes snapped open.
His joints clasped on themselves. Frozen like ice blocks, his mouth hung wide open. Immediately an ear-wrenching scream tore from his throat.
"AHHHH!!!"
"wha– what's happening?!"
A cacophony of heavy footsteps barged into the hospital room as the processors flared on end.
Blares and whirling crimson light that throbbed a deceitful colour on the room's walls.
Doctors scrambled in. Surrounded by armoured figures. Three in number.
"His– His waking up from the trance!" a doctor replied as he quickly assessed the situation.
A group of nurses rushed to Luca's side.
Sweat dropped down their foreheads as they began to restrain.
Pulling straps from the corner of the hovering bed.
"I can see that, you stupid doctor! Why is he screaming?!"
The man in armour barked again. His tone dripped with annoyance and wariness.
He watched from the sides with two others.
Cursing under his breath, he gripped his weapon with surgical force.
"Do we shoot?!"
"No, don't shoot!" another doctor screamed.
He began tapping the interface in haste. His gaze often snapped to Luca as the boy continued to scream.
He observed the digits fill down on the blue screen and slowly, his eyes began to widen.
"His vitals are fine and his status has been recorded. He's simply going through body reconfiguration."
The tension began to die down with his announcement.
The Patrol Guardian couldn't help but sigh in relief.
'Thank the gods that we don't have to experience another failure.'
The Patrol Guardians had been on call at the time.
With the Egoists taking their time and their numbers thinned from the numerous calls, they took the mantle upon themselves until the Federation sent its agents– Egoists, themselves.
"Screw all this! Do those bastards not know that normal civilians can't contain this number of Spawns?!"
The man couldn't help but curse his luck.
His attention was cut short by the boy's insistent screaming.
Even with the nurses pinning him down.
He had continued to jerk and wobble, as if he were having a stroke.
It was absurd. He had heard and seen many body reconfigurations, but none like this.
"... that doesn't answer the question." His voice boomed on top of the boy's voice.
The health workers and the other patrol guardians turned to him slowly.
"Why does he scream?"
The room froze at that. Unable to wrap their heads around their answer.
Indeed, this was different.
"What are his stats? You mentioned you've recorded them?"
The doctor at the panel glanced at him before shaking his head. "Wait for the agents to be here. They will be the ones to announce it themselves."
He turned to the nurses.
"Administering a muscle relaxant wouldn't help him since it's a process by the Trance. Observe him and take notes… Once the Agents are here, they would like to know of this."
The nurses nodded in unison. Their relaxed faces were testaments to the dying tension.
With their task handed, the doctor brushed aside the Guardians and walked away.
There were many more who were yet to awaken.
The Guardians did the same. Two walked out while one remained. His attention was fixed on Luca as he squirmed within the restraint.
'How odd,' he thought. 'What is going on in his head?'
'PAIN!!' The thought came like a proclamation and not a word. A definitive in the grand schemes of things.
Luca couldn't comprehend half of what was going on. In fact, he felt like he could yet, he couldn't.
The voices of the people that surrounded him were nothing but blurred speeches that caused his brain to prick.
It felt like with each thought and subconscious action, a thousand needles were stabbing his brain over and over again.
His body throbbed uncontrollably.
Whatever remodelled him tore off his very being from a molecular level without care and replaced it with surgical precision. Like an organ transplant without the anaesthesia.
As a result, nothing registered properly.
Yet, it felt like his eyes saw everything.
The Bullice titan! The raptors that swarmed him! The Grade 3 that nearly dragged him into oblivion!
Then the Grade 5s and finally the tomb!
Every vision warped together in a thin film.
Replayed more times than he could ask for until the golden face beamed in his skull. A face so pure, that impurities couldn't find a foothold, yet, the evil it held was profound. The kind that stretched on for aeons without a proper junction.
It was incomprehensible in the human sense.
Luca wasn't trying to comprehend such a being, though. In fact, he had not even bothered to care about this god until it revealed itself.
'The 21st god was it? I'll remember this favour.'
He gripped harder on the bed, clenched his teeth and sank in deep breaths.
Immediately, his spasms ceased as he took full control of his body.
His muscles knitted– hard. Resisting his mental fortitude in an erratic display of lawlessness.
It was like his own body resisted control.
Luca couldn't have that.
Control had been one thing he had been given from the start. Control of one's life. Of one's journey.
Their goals, desires… good and bad.
His parents opened a road for him to grab for himself. Only sticking around to help.
It was absurd. Most parents choose to show their kids the path– their path.
One that worked perfectly for them, or had been ingrained with so many regrets that they now ruin the lives of their children.
Luca experienced none of that, and as a result, he was used to being in control.
Soon, his gagged chokes and screams died down, and slowly… his senses returned.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
He panted as he released his hold on his body.
He could feel the tide dying. The sudden pain and changes began to reduce.
It was like steam from a dying flame.
But what it left wasn't destruction, but growth.
His body twitched slightly, but a form of semblance finally returned to the Hospital room.
It was then that he finally noticed the people around him.
Nurses, Men in armored suite who he recognised as the Patrol Guardians and a few more who had begun to walk into the room.
His gaze swept through them until it froze at a certain face.
A frown formed on his face and his brows knitted together. "Captain Khealon." He muttered with deep grievance.
Captain Khaelon, the head of District 13's Patrol Station and the blonde-haired man returned the boy's glare with a smirk.
"I see you survived kiddo." He teased. "Too bad those rebels of yours weren't here to celebrate with you, huh?"
Luca was ready to pounce on the man who had ruined everything when a stifling presence pressed his throat.
He whipped his head to the figures behind a doctor. Men in suits. Agents.
'The Federation is here already.' His frown deepened.
Five stood in his presence. Five with a deep, familiar power that couldn't be ignored.
'Egoists.'
Luca immediately attempted to use his Identification talent, but what he saw made him freeze for a second.
[EGOIST RANK TOO HIGH– INCREASE TALENT MASTERY]
'Of course.' Luca watched as they slowly approached his bed. Observing him and the readings handed to one of them through a tablet by a Nurse.
He tapped the screen and observed the holographic images that bounced in the air.
His brow arched.
And then he turned to the boy.
"Hey Kiddo, my name's Egoist Alenvir from the Special Group's Sector, Ministry of Welfare."
He flipped a business card at Luca and two agents– a male and a female approached from the other side.
A document and a pen were held out by both of them.
"I'd first like to congratulate you on your successful Trance. We can never have too many Egoists in the current world."
Khaelon visibly scoffed, but the entire room ignored it.
Luca on the other hand, began to steady his beating heart. It had begun to run rapidly.
"It is nice to meet your acquaintances." He nodded. "But I just woke up, why am I getting a letter to sign already?"
The Agent, Alenvir, adjusted his black neon glasses. His black pupils stared into the boy's as a smile tugged from his lips.
"It's simply procedures, young man. We're trying to keep the world a better place."
Luca couldn't refute that. But removing the autonomy of an individual was never the right way to make the world a better place.
In fact, it was a field for discord to grow.
He would know, after all, he is one of that discord.
He didn't reply immediately. Instead, he turned to the monitor next to him, then back at the Agent.
As if in understanding, Alenvir tapped the bouncing blue images in the air.
"Your current interface has been recorded.
Ego Synchrony at 5%, Manifestation at 10% and a whooping 100% at Null Resistance."
Luca bit down on his lips.
'Shit… but at least it works.'
That could be reason enough for the Federation to have its eyes on him.
"Your results are impressive, Lucamir. Not to mention you've become a 2nd stage Explorer."
The young boy's eyes flared open.
'Hah, when? I didn't take note of it since the rewards were so appealing.'
He blinked and turned to his left where his interface lined out in his retina.
With a nod, he confirmed it.
Name; Lucamir Elaric.
Archetype; Undefined.
Ego Rank; Explorer, 2nd Stage
Ego Core; Particle White (1%)
Indeed, he now had a Particle White Core.
'Must also be part of the rewards.'
"Though your Synchrony and Manifestation are poor, your Resistance is something else."
He slowly looked around the room, as if taking down the faces of those around him.
There was a reason why Egoists and the world at large put so much emphasis on those three digits.
They represented the core of an Egoist.
For them, Manifestation represented how much power, talents and traits they could display from their Archetypes.
Synchrony was how much in tune they were with those Archetypes. It directly affected their progression in ranks and how much potential they could derive from their Archetypes.
They say the higher the number, the more potential an Egoist possesses.
Finally, Null Resistance was resistance to the effects of corruption.
Corruption was an easy thing for greedy Egoists, and those who bite more than they can chew usually succumb to deprivation and become Null Born.
Alenvir cleared his throat and dropped his tablet. His smile widens.
"We are willing to encourage your growth, so signing this will only benefit you."
Luca didn't need to reason his words more than once. 'Lies.'
But how could he say that… and how could he resist?
'If they had found out my Synchrony was at 100%, then they would truly set their chains on me… but luckily, I am not the first to have a full Null Resistance.'
Perhaps, that was why he could feel he would get the lenient edge of the signature.
Though, his concerns lay somewhere else.
"When will I get to see them… my parents?"
Khaelon smirked at this and nearly decided to speak when the air turned chill and a cold crept up the back of his spine.
He quickly remained shut as he found three Agents staring daggers at him.
'Hah… crazy people!' He thought.
Alenvir's smile faltered for a moment.
"Sign it."
Luca held his gaze, then grabbed the pen and did so.
Afterwards, the air turned lighter. As if an unimaginable weight had been lifted off.
"Great." Alenvir clasped his arms behind his pristine, clean black suit. "Is there another?"
The doctor nodded and led the Agents out.
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