Endless Evolution: Last Star

Lana found herself pressed against the wall as her eyes went wide, with astonishment. She didn't expect anyone to attack her, especially here - at the preparatory academy!

She couldn't even move since Adam vastly surpassed her in strength. Since she had become a Phantom, Lana had never felt so helpless before, because she was an Artificial K0-Phantom while the Natural K1-Phantom was in front of her.

Even if they were on the same level, Lana would have to try hard to get out of Adam's grip.

At first, she wanted to call for help or use her Order, however, after a few seconds, she recognized Adam.

"Wait... Isn't that you...? But, is that possible?" Lana muttered in disbelief.

They had also had a medical examination before taking the test, so the youths had time to get a good look at each other.

"Yeah... Aiden Henk decided to get rid of me, and now you're going to tell me what happened next." Adam said coldly, squeezing Lana's shoulder tightly.

"Let go, you're hurting me!"

In response, Adam only pressed even harder.

"Tell me!"

"I don't know what to tell you! After the test, Aiden Henk attended to me personally, and after two weeks, let me kill a monster prepared in advance." Lana exclaimed.

Adam clenched his teeth.

"Experiments. What about experiments? Did the same thing that happened to me happen to someone else?"

Lana shuddered.

"I don't know. Aiden only trained me and performed examinations. Before I became a Phantom, I lived at Morton Observatory! I don't know what experiments you're talking about."

"Adam, that's enough."

Suddenly, from outside came Silvana's calm voice. She had heard the entire conversation, and in fact, she knew that Lana was there. It wasn't a problem for her to get the test results from Morton Observatory.

"Shit. I just want to find out if he did what we saw. If he did, then I can make a decision..." Adam sighed heavily, letting go of Lana.

He looked at her once more, and something caught his eye - a long scar stretching from Lana's shoulder to her arm.

"Hmm? Where did you get it? Did Aiden Henk forbid you to go to a military hospital? A scar like that would be easily removed by a good doctor with the right equipment." Adam asked, calming down a bit.

"Don't say that..." Lana muttered, it seemed that Adam's words offended her, even though he was talking about Aiden.

Adam gave her a questioning look.

Lana touched her scar.

"It was a lot bigger a while ago. I got this scar during a battle with a monster to become a Phantom and light my Spark. Mr. Aiden made the scar several times smaller, he said he would get rid of it completely in a few treatments."

Adam and Silvana glanced over, for something about Lana's words was odd.

"Wait... You fought a 1 vs. 1 monster?" Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Sure. I became a Phantom, what else was supposed to happen?"

Adam and Silvana fell silent.

They realized that Lana was speaking sincerely and not trying to deceive them, it could only mean one thing - Aiden Henk had limited her information field, and she still didn't know how Phantoms went through their first fight.

"Could you tell us more about how it went down? Did someone help you? Was the monster immobilized? Please answer us, it's very important." Silvana asked.

Lana looked away to the side.

"I can't... Mr. Aiden forbade me to talk about it. He said it was too early for others to know about such an easy way to fight the first monster."

Lana, like Adam, had lived in the slums all her life, so if Aiden wanted to, he could convince her of almost anything. After all, he had everything, and Lana only had her status as a rookie Phantom whose path Aiden completely controlled.

Silvana tried to convince Lana, but she just kept quiet, it seemed impossible to convince her to talk.

Whooooooosh.

A multitude of silver threads appeared next to Adam's left hand.

In a heartbeat, Lana's neck ended up trapped between the silver claws. Adam wasn't choking her, but he only needed to squeeze his fingers a little to inflict life-threatening wounds on Lana.

"Tell me everything in detail. What kind of monster was it, how did your fight go? What condition was the monster in, and did anyone help you?" Adam said calmly, but his look made Lana flinch, goosebumps went all over her body.

Lana gulped. She was left with no other choice, and humbled, she began to speak.

"It was Frost Wolf, White Threat Level, White Book. Mr. Aiden gave me a weapon, a long sword with a laser blade. Frost Wolf was previously captured by other Phantoms and Mr. Aiden injected the monster with a huge dose of the strongest sleeping drug.

Naturally, it didn't put the monster to sleep, only slightly weakened it. The monster had heavy shackles on its paws, weighing several hundred kilograms, but after a while Frost Wolf got rid of them.

However, because Frost Wolf was weakened and acted slower than usual, I was able to win in the end. But... I got horrible wounds, I almost died, even with all of Mr. Aiden's knowledge, he had a very hard time healing me and practically pulled me out of death's grip...

I'm such a failure... just nothing..." Lana muttered as tears came out of her eyes, she slowly rolled down the wall to the bottom.

"I was lucky to fight the monster using Mr. Aiden's method, the Frost Wolf was weakened, and I had a weapon, but I still almost lost. Shit... Compared to the others, I'm really nothing..." Lana continued to self-defeat under the shocked stares of Silvana and Adam.

Adam and Silvana looked at each other.

Then, they thought of only one thing - 'Was Lana actually Naturalborn Phantom?'

Well, they only had one option to check this, and the accuracy depended on Lana's answer.

"Lana, I'm sorry for being rude earlier, but this was important to me. However, I need you to answer one more question." Adam pronounced, his voice calm, "Do you have the Artifact? Did Aiden Henk say anything to you about it?"

Strangely enough, Lana didn't struggle any further.

"Yes... I know what artifacts are, I'm a Phantom, too. Mr. Aiden hasn't found the right artifact for me yet. My Evolution Tree and Initial Gene didn't want to accept the artifacts Mr. Aiden had.

I'll probably have to find ice one, to match with the Frost Wolf Gene." Lana said quietly with a slight wave of her hand.

Lana didn't realize it, but she had just answered their question, which they hadn't asked her.

If Lana had a problem with artifact compatibility, then she couldn't be a Naturalborn Phantom.

In that case, could she be different in any way, or was she just like all the other Phantoms?

"Hey... Lana, what about your first mission?"

"Pffft!" Lana snorted like an offended child, "Mr. Aiden said he picked up the regular Phantoms, but he must have set them up so I could prove myself because, on my first mission, I saved them! I'm a rookie rescuing experienced Phantoms! Hah, I'll never believe that. Mr. Aiden just decided to give me a confidence boost, but...

I wish he'd trust me more."

Adam and Silvana looked at each other again. Lana had become surprisingly talkative, she seemed worried about her progress and wanted to impress Aiden. To her, he was a teacher and a major ally, while to Adam, he was a mortal enemy.

"Thanks for answering my questions..." Adam muttered, shocked.

Silvana quickly followed him, and they moved away to a safe distance where no one could overhear them.

"She's definitely not Naturalborn Phantom, is she?" Adam asked, he wanted to be completely sure.

Silvana nodded.

"Sure. Even Naturalborn Phantom can't absorb absolutely all artifacts, but the chances that none of the artifacts Aiden Henk had was a match for Lana are minimal. I'd say the chances are zero."

Adam sighed heavily, shaking his head.

"However... Apparently, she turned out to be a bit more capable and stronger than the other Phantoms, even if they were also newcomers... Either, Lana is just talented, or... calling her an Artificalborn Phantom we're making a mistake..."

"Fuck... What does he do in his lab...? Looks like torture and cruel experiments aren't his only interests." Adam muttered with a deep gaze, trying to make sense of it all.