Chapter 871: Alive
'I wonder if he is still a Captain,' Khan thought, lifting the fainted descendant with one hand to place him on his shoulder. 'It's been years since Istrone.'
Captain Foxnor had been part of Istrone's rescue party, but Khan was nothing more than a new soldier back then. He didn't even interact with that family during his political ascension, but a debt was a debt. Besides, Khan found the descendant's mana interesting.
Khan gestured at Princess Rebecca's tower to resume the tournament before his figure disappeared. His short trip didn't go unnoticed, leaving all the contestants stuck in fear, awe, and curiosity. Still, Princess Rebecca promptly gave the general announcement, and the battles continued.
Meanwhile, Khan reappeared on the terrace, the fainted descendant still on his shoulder. The guests there had also studied the event with the help of the floor's scanners, so Khan's return gave them a chance to appease their curiosity. Yet, Monica spoke first.
"Are we adopting him, dear?" Monica asked, standing up and approaching Khan to inspect the descendant's face. "I thought our first child would have been smaller. And cuter."
"I'm not claiming him for the Nognes family," Khan reassured the noble representatives. "I'm curious about his element. You can obviously attend the tests and will be updated on the results."
Khan had to make that point clear. The Nognes family's inability to claim descendants for itself was part of the tournament's appeal, and making the tests public would kill any inquiry about Khan's credibility. He didn't plan on hiding anything, abiding by his event's rules.
Of course, Khan's intervention and interest had increased the descendant's value. Far stronger and more capable contestants had appeared, but the Foxnor man had instantly outclassed them in terms of fame. That was the power of Khan's acknowledgment.
Khan summoned one of the soldiers on the terrace's back with a glance before dropping the descendant in his arms.
"Contact Abraham and have him set up a lab," Khan ordered. "Contact the Foxnor family, too. They can attend if they want to."
The soldier limited his military salute to straightening his back before returning to the terrace's back. He conveyed Khan's orders to the troops, and teams hurried to address them. Khan would probably have everything ready in less than an hour, but the tournament still demanded his presence.
Luckily, the afternoon had already arrived, so Khan wouldn't have to wait long to engage in that more exciting matter. He returned to his throne, pulling Monica back on his lap, but the terrace's guests seemed to share his mindset.
"Are there seats for the Empire, too?" Lord Exr asked when Lord Rsi glanced at him.
"Is the Empire interested in the man's element?" Khan wondered. The tournament's rules didn't involve the alien parties, so that request came as a surprise.
"The interest is in your interest, Prince Khan," Tlexicpalli explained, strangely agreeing with the Thilku. "Besides, it's a chance to see you in action."
"[Shaman]'s methods are always interesting," Lord Rsi agreed, creating a public event over which Khan had no control.
The battles continued and ended. A few events followed, but the audience eventually emptied the area, planning to join parties and other celebrations across the quadrant.
The terrace's guests would usually attend some specific parties, but Khan's actions changed their schedule. The Thilku Lords, Tlexicpalli, the Scalqa, the noble representatives, Mister Cirvags, Alexander, and Monica followed him into a square structure outside the main city, hoping to fulfill their curiosity.
Khan's soldiers had rearranged the structure for the occasion. They had emptied most of the reinforced area, leaving only the tools Abraham and the other scientists needed to perform the tests. They had also prepared food and drinks, knowing the terrace's guests wanted to be entertained.
The soldiers and scientists weren't alone in the structure. Members of the Foxnor family had gathered there, including people who weren't on Baoway. When Khan entered the area, he found the young descendant lying on an interactive desk with his relatives standing behind him, among whom he spotted a familiar face.
"Captain Foxnor," Khan announced, recognizing the black-haired man from Istrone's rescue team. "You probably don't remember, but we met during Istrone's rebellion."
"Of course, I remember," Captain Foxnor lied, crossing the interactive table to perform a military salute. "Prince Khan, I apologize for correcting you, but it's Major now."
"Oh, congratulations," Khan said while the rest of the Foxnor people performed military salutes. Using phones on the terrace would have been impolite, so he didn't check Major Foxnor's current status.
As for the lie, Khan didn't mind it. He wouldn't have recalled a random kid, either, and no one could have predicted his incredible political journey. Besides, the Major probably wanted to look good before the other guests, too, so Khan let it slide.
The Foxnor family was neither wealthy nor poor, so being in the presence of ten nobles was the greatest event of its life. Khan could clearly see the relatives' hope blending with the lab's synthetic mana. Still, neither he nor the representatives paid them any heed.
"Abraham, what did you find?" Khan questioned, leaving his group to approach the interactive desk. The descendant was awake now, but the occasional warning glares from his relatives kept him still.
"It looks like a mana illness, My Prince," Abraham explained, checking one of the lab's consoles. "That's all I have from the preliminary tests."
'Mana illnesses,' Khan thought, his piercing eyes running over the lying descendant. 'Didn't Professor Parver have something similar?'
"Prince Khan, our family already checked my nephew," Major Foxnor explained. "It's a mana anomaly that evolved into an illness. Sadly, it's incurable."
"Did the anomaly start since he received his mana core?" Khan questioned.
"Yes, Prince Khan," Major Foxnor confirmed. "We replaced his mana core, but the anomaly remained."
'It might not be an anomaly then,' Khan thought. 'Just anomalous behavior.'
The scientific difference between those two definitions didn't exist in the human rulebook, but Khan's perspective stretched far past his species. Moreover, he had learned much since his time in the Harbor, especially about the mana's behavior.
"Stand back," Khan ordered. "Abraham, the scanners."
"Already online, My Prince," Abraham said, activating a program on his console.
Major Foxnor and the other relatives retreated, reaching the lab's walls while Khan hovered a hand over the lying descendant. The young man's breath became loud, hinting at panic, but his awareness faded when Khan sent a wave of harmless mana toward him.
Khan had contained himself, limiting his action to a faint challenge. He had charged that small amount of mana with insulting feelings, hoping it would cause a reaction.
The descendant's mana didn't disappoint. Scarlet sparks accumulated at the center of his abdomen, rising to create a crackling sphere. The attack immediately identified Khan as the offender, shooting at him to respond to the provocation.
Nevertheless, the crackling sphere was weaker than anything the descendant had previously released. Those scarlet sparks seemed to have adapted to the challenge's power, which Khan had purposefully limited. The attack barely counted as the spell from a second-level mage, and Khan caught it with his bare hand.
The crackling noise intensified while Khan kept the sphere sealed in his grasp. The spell almost sounded angry, but its scarlet sparks couldn't do anything against the black blood
vessels covering Khan's fingers and palms.
Gasps and more interest filled the lab. Khan was a fourth-level warrior, but a spell remained dangerous. Mana-enhanced soldiers weren't immune to bullets, but Khan could handle lightning bolts with his bare hands.
As for Khan, he only focused on the sparks. Their violence reminded him of his element, but the matter was deeper. That mana had more than just a wild nature. It almost seemed aware.
The sphere abandoned the idea of piercing the [Blood Shield] spell and tried to send sparks through the spaces between Khan's fingers. Still, a chilling aura suddenly filled the lab, focusing on the attack.
The sparks reacted to that oppressive aura, lowering their noise and interrupting their expansion. The sphere also shrunk, seemingly terrified of the far stronger presence in the
area.
'It is aware,' Khan concluded, 'Like an animal before a larger predator.'
Khan closed his hand into a fist, crushing the crackling sphere. His attention lingered on the fainted descendant for a few seconds before moving to Abraham. The latter was immersed in the data recorded by the scanners, but the silence eventually made him turn. "The console is computing the data, My Prince," Abraham explained. "Though it will take a while to clean it up from your interference."
"I won't interfere in the following tests," Khan promised. "There's no point."
"Did you find something, My Prince?" Abraham asked, reading between the lines.
"It probably isn't an anomaly," Khan stated. "It's his element."
"But-," Major Foxnor said, almost forgetting his manners. "Prince Khan, we tested my nephew's element thoroughly. He has the Foxnor family's iconic lightning element, which the illness makes red and violent."
"It might have mutated," Khan suggested, "Or it's still mutating, or it revealed itself once the host was strong enough. I only know it's alive and decently smart."