Chapter 822 Rules
Khan met the Nak's gaze, and tension inevitably built in the hall. The air grew electric, seemingly ready to explode as Khan's mindset changed. The event hinted at his success, but things weren't easy for him.
First, that sample differed from the previous ones. It stood still without hovering or trying to absorb the nearby energy. Its vibe was also odd, lacking the primordial behavior of its predecessors.
Second, Khan was face-to-face with the source of his nightmares. The previous samples were mere maimed body parts, but he was looking at a proper face now, flaring his urges and risking losing control.
The long-sought enemy had finally appeared before Khan, and his mind barely cared about its wounded state. The hall disappeared, and the same went for the symphony. Khan focused solely on the Nak, and his rational side lost ground as violent thoughts intensified.
Khan knew he wanted nothing more than to destroy that wounded body. It would be the proper retribution for the almost two decades spent suffering from its curse. The air froze, and his aura began emitting a suffocating pressure, but he didn't move.
The silence perdured as Khan studied the Nak. Its three eyes still pointed at him, but the symphony didn't show any change. The same went for the mana inside the alien. Khan knew it could move, but it didn't.
'Is it brain dead?' Khan wondered. It would make sense for the Nak to be off. Reviving it had filled it with injuries, and its mental capabilities couldn't be great after spending centuries in a dried-up state.
Nevertheless, Khan had fixed those problems, at least partially. Theoretically, the Nak could do more than just standing there. It simply didn't, and Khan couldn't figure out why.
'Should I just wait?' Khan considered. 'Give it more energy?'
Khan immediately crossed off the second idea. The Nak could start absorbing energy on its own if it wanted to, but the fact that it didn't had to mean something.
The Nak's unwavering eyes slowly annoyed Khan. He didn't like feeling powerless before his long-sought enemy. He wanted to take control of the situation, but his brain could only devise one idea.
Khan opened his mouth before closing it. Expressing emotions was easy, but speaking complicated sentences required some thinking. He didn't have problems with the Nak's language. It probably was part of his legacy. Yet, Khan didn't know what the maimed Nak could understand in its current state.
"Scarlet eyes," Khan announced, filling his words with the feelings experienced during the mental trip.
The Nak didn't understand the human language, but the terror Khan experienced during the mental trip was something it could relate to. That feeling was an instinctive response generated by the Nak's genes, which conveyed the image Khan wanted to address.
The revived corpse finally experienced a reaction. Its mana moved toward its intact head and converged into its eyes. The Nak's gaze grew piercing, but Khan's aura acted as an impenetrable shield.
That seemed to be enough for the Nak. It couldn't study Khan, but the fact that he was able to block its gaze confirmed something, making the mana move again.
Tinges of mana escaped the maimed corpse, shaking and spinning while hovering above its face. The energy's movement created a faint buzzing noise, but emotions permeated it, expressing meanings Khan's brain instinctively translated. "Host?"
The Nak's mouth didn't move, but the alien had spoken anyway. The question even echoed in Khan's mind, threatening to set his most violent urges aflame. He didn't like to hear that language, and his reply made him hate the process even more.
"Yes," Khan said, doing his best to overcome the language barrier with his emotions. Still, that effort was unnecessary since his body instinctively knew how to talk with the alien.
"Successful host?" The Nak asked, using the previous speaking method. It wasted mana to respond, but Khan was ready to refill its tank if necessary.
"Yes," Khan claimed as the air around him got even colder. He actually didn't know if he was a successful host, but all the clues gathered throughout the years pointed in that direction.
"Scarlet eyes is enemy," The Nak continued, "Mana's enemy."
Khan had already guessed as much, but the Nak's confirmation removed any doubt. There was an enemy out there, something the mana itself feared.
"What is scarlet eyes?" Khan asked.
"Enemy," The Nak replied. "Mana's enemy."
The identical response told Khan the Nak wouldn't or couldn't expand further. Khan could even come up with a couple of explanations for that. Either the sample was too damaged for those complicated concepts, or the entire species acted out of instinct.
Khan fell silent as thoughts raced inside his head. He had prepared some questions before the procedure, but the Nak's seemingly limited mental capabilities forced him to review his approach.
"Can't mana win?" Khan eventually questioned.
"No," The Nak said. "Mana will die."
The direct reply took Khan by surprise. The answer left no room for doubts. Apparently, the scarlet eyes completely outclassed the mana.
"Why?" Khan asked.
"Mana's enemy," The Nak responded.
Khan held back a curse. It seemed any question involving the scarlet eyes' nature would get the same answer.
'Maybe it goes beyond being a simple enemy,' Khan considered. 'Maybe the mana itself can't understand what the scarlet eyes are.'
That guess made sense on many levels. The mana was technically alive but didn't wield real intelligence. Maybe that energy perceived the scarlet eyes as a threat without knowing why.
'Like a prey with a predator,' Khan thought, 'Only knowing that it has to run.'
Khan had triggered similar reactions in monsters and other Tainted animals. The latter didn't know why but still decided to bow down to Khan. That behavior was instinctive, resulting from his overwhelming presence.
The mana could have experienced something similar, which forced the Nak to act. However, those conclusions didn't bring Khan closer to an actual explanation.
'Are the scarlet eyes a form of energy?' Khan wondered. 'But I've seen an army.'
Truth be told, the universe was strange enough to have answers Khan couldn't even try to consider. His reasoning used his experience as its foundation, and he couldn't claim to know everything. Actually, Khan believed to know very little.
"Can't the Nak defeat the enemy?" Khan continued.
"No," The Nak said. "The Nak will die."
"Why?" Khan asked.
"Nak are mana," The Nak explained. "Scarlet eyes is mana's enemy."
The explanation was useless and only confirmed what Khan already knew. Yet, the Nak had added a few details. It seemed able to speak more freely about its species.
"Why the genocides?" Khan questioned.
"Nak has to create hosts," The Nak declared. "Mana needs hosts."
Usually, the language barrier could create misunderstanding, but Khan knew he was getting and conveying the message loud and clear. The Nak didn't care about his words. It only listened to his emotions, preventing mistakes, doubts, and confusion.
"Why?" Khan asked.
"To defeat mana's enemy," The Nak revealed.
"Are the hosts stronger than the Nak?" Khan wondered.
"Successful hosts evolve past Nak," The Nak stated, "Evolve past mana."
"How?" Khan asked. The topic was finally getting interesting, and the second part of the Nak's reply fueled his curiosity.
"Chaos has no rules," The Nak explained. "Chaos has no enemy."
Khan fell silent. The Nak's reply resounded in his mind, creating the first doubt since the beginning of the conversation. He wasn't sure whether the alien was talking about his element. Khan didn't even know whether that species was aware of that concept in the first place.
"The chaos element?" Khan asked.
"Chaos is free," The Nak said. "Chaos is life and death, fire and water."
Khan had to fall silent again. The "life and death" and "fire and water" weren't necessarily connected to their real counterparts. His brain could have linked the Nak's explanation to the most similar words available in his knowledge.
"The Nak have chaos," Khan eventually declared. "How is it different?"
"Nak's chaos is mana," The Nak explained. "Nak's chaos has rules. Nak's chaos has enemy."
Khan seemed to understand something, but more doubts popped up. His mana differed from the Nak's, but his element didn't carry unique properties. His arts and techniques were special but only compared to human methods. The core of his energy remained the same.
"How do I break the rules?" Khan questioned. "How do I become free?"
"Break the rules," The Nak said. "Be free."
"How?" Khan asked.
"Break the rules," The Nak repeated. "Be free."
"How!?" Khan shouted, his aura achieving its peak density. Tremors even ran through the symphony, echoing the nature of his presence. The hall's air became an extension of his mind, which was far from calm.
Strangely enough, the Nak noticed the change. It didn't deliver an immediate reply, either. It fell silent, and more mana converged toward its head, spinning and condensing to prepare a new answer.
"Find Nak," The Nak explained. "Nak will give mana to host. Host's chaos will become free."