Chương 59: CHAPTER 58 – Unexpected Answers

"I had imagined it differently." Lance commented, descending the stairs toward the laboratory alongside Lucas. The passage was wider than expected, but compared to the agency's typical silver corridors, it had a far more sinister appearance. The lights illuminated it at intervals with a grim, greenish glow.

"Since I work with dangerous materials, I preferred to keep it away from the living quarters." Lucas answered, slowly descending the steps ahead of him.

"But where do you live, then?" Lance asked, picking up his pace to keep up with him. Lucas brushed his hand along the walls as he descended to keep his balance.

"Here. The laboratory is also my second room." Lucas turned, fixing Lance through the glass fogged with condensation.

"But you said it is full of dangerous materials…" The boy smiled faintly, continuing to follow him deeper into the cold, grim space.

"To everyone else. I am immune to nearly every substance present at NOIR." He answered quickly, murmuring a few more words through his filter. Lance swallowed, keeping himself in complete silence. Suddenly, the sensation beneath his feet changed, and his eyes had to adjust to the renewed light filtering through the windows. The landscape outside gave directly onto the forest, occasionally interrupted by patches of fallen snow.

The greyish floor reflected the colours of every substance bottled across the counters and tables. Fluids and solids of every shape and size were kept in peculiar vials and dishes. The smell inside was both sweetish and strangely bitter, leaving Lance in complete turmoil.

"Forgive the mess. I had things to attend to yesterday." Lucas murmured, seizing two flasks of black and violet powder. He carefully placed them on the shelf and offered Lance a chair, sliding it across the floor toward him.

"In any case… Why am I here?" The boy asked, sitting slowly on the black chair, tall enough to leave his legs dangling. Lucas turned toward him with a syringe, shaking it faintly.

"Anxious about a medical visit?" He murmured, ignoring the pale colour Lance's skin was beginning to take on.

"But I feel fine, Lucas. Come on… Can't you see I am in excellent shape?" He laughed intermittently, shaking his hands and smiling warmly despite the spasms and his ragged breathing.

"Nothing invasive. Just stay seated on that chair and relax." He answered, setting all the instruments on the table and slowly bringing his hands toward the back of his neck. With a click, his mask slid from his face, landing on a cushion right beside the counter.

"Lucas… What is that?" His gaze lit with attention at the sight of that man's face. Normally the mask obscured every feature, yet now only a bandage covered him from the bridge of his nose to his forehead. His long, dark hair showed tips of an intense blue, resembling the sea. His neck was marked by a deep black stripe, like tar. Lance stared at him a moment longer, focusing on that young face nonetheless steeped in a certain maturity.

"This? This is the second layer of my mask. To use even a fraction of my ability, I must remove at least the outer mask." He answered, touching the various reddish scales across the bandage's plating.

"Second? So the true relic is under that bandage?" Lucas nodded with a smile, pointing his index finger at his own right eye.

"This small swelling you see is actually the true limiter. The mask and the bandage you see are additions, but what truly allows me to control and slow the progression of my powers is a relic of the same calibre as Lachesi." Lucas announced, seizing a chair to sit directly in front of Lance.

"You will not use needles, will you?" He drew back slightly, raising his hands. Lucas laughed faintly, setting the syringe down on the counter calmly.

"This is an examination that requires no instrument whatsoever, though it may be somewhat embarrassing…" His pale lips curved into a smile as his hand approached Lance's forehead. The moment their skin touched, the boy was struck by a glacial sensation, as though he were slowly being submerged in snow.

"All right, we are done." Lucas murmured, pulling his palm away from the boy and moving to write something on a small computer left at the edge of a desk.

"What was that cold?" He murmured, pulling his clothes tight and rubbing his shoulders hard. Lucas connected a tangle of cables to his machine, turning it toward the wall and switching off the lights.

"That is part of my ability, and one of the reasons I brought you here." He answered, positioning himself beside Lance and letting the projector cast a large image onto the wall. Lance stared, entranced, as the light took shape and became a strange series of numbers and letters.

"You have seen holograms and computers, and yet you still get excited over cinema?" Lucas asked with a smile, addressing him from the side.

"Well… Computers and holograms are extraordinary, but I did not even know they existed. Cinema, on the other hand, has always felt like something distant to me. It is a dream to see it for the first time, even if it is only this!" At that answer, Lucas let a laugh escape and nodded, sitting on the counter.

"You are quite right! I used to think the same about things I did not know…" He added, ruffling Lance's hair as the boy remained fixed on the image.

"What you are looking at is your medical record, which I have just registered. There is data here that would normally require dozens of tests to establish, but fortunately the time factor is not an issue for me." He seized a thin iron rod, pointing it at the letters in constant flux.

"Optimal heart rate and pressure. Perfect blood levels for every substance. Bone and muscle density are superhuman. All organs are functioning at full capacity. Every fracture scar has healed without a trace. But there are still some inconsistencies…" Lucas let the pointer disappear between his hands, only for it to reappear on the wall, hanging from a small bluish hook.

"Now we need to talk about your Frequency, and about other… Factors." He seized the chair again, positioning it before Lance and sitting down immediately.

"First of all, Lance… Have you had any sexual relations, or any excessive stimulation lately?" Lucas asked, completely shattering the boy's composure.

"W-w-why do you think that…" His voice immediately grew faint, his breath accelerating. Lucas apologised at once, sitting back down. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Do not misunderstand! It is only because your organs are functioning far too well, and… Let us get straight to the point." The scientist drew a breath, gently taking his hands and looking him in the face.

"You suffer from nocturnal emissions, do I have that right?" Lance tried to defend himself, but not even a thread of voice could penetrate the embarrassment enveloping him. The only thing he managed was a slow nod.

"That would explain why your stress levels were so unusual… and why Arte saw you sneaking out the blanket. Well, do not worry, it is a perfectly normal phenomenon. You should learn to set aside a little time for yourself as well." Lucas smiled, gently squeezing his shoulders and tilting his head.

"Now and then a bit of 'relaxation' can only do you good, but you need to find for yourself what helps you release that kind of emotion best." Lucas rose from his chair, opening the window and letting the sunlight back into the room.

"Ours is not even really a job, at least not any more. Very few people at the Institute know of us, and they do not even want our names. We are paid so well because no one wants monsters like us nearby, and when we go out we must change our names and do as little as possible. Living here is a form of imprisonment, and everyone knows it, no exceptions." Lucas's nails began scraping along the windowsill as his voice grew more and more distorted.

"That is why I feel such great sadness for you and Jeanne. You are not used to it yet, and yet here you are, already facing problems too great to manage." He turned toward Lance, a single tear on his face.

"Lucas…" Lance murmured, pressing his lips together, unable to move his tongue.

"You two have already killed, and you have nearly been killed yourselves, and you are barely adults… That is why I wanted to tell you: whatever you two do to free yourselves, no one here can judge you for it. Awareness of that reality is what unites us." His fingers, stained with paint, slid along his pale skin, wiping away the tear.

"Did you tell Jeanne this too?" Lance asked, fixing his gaze on the black fabric of the bandage. Lucas shook his head, casting a glance at the tree branches stirred by the wind.

"That girl is in an even worse condition than you, from that same point of view." Lance swallowed, getting back to his feet and noticing the weakness in his own legs.

"Now, however, I would like to speak to you about the other issue…" He cleared his throat, seizing the handle of one of the many drawers present. A row of black cylinders emerged, stacked one atop the other. Lucas took two of them, marked respectively with the initials L. K. and J. G. A shiver ran through Lance the moment he saw them in Lucas's hands, enough to make him clench his teeth.

"Out of respect for your presence, I will begin with you. Please listen calmly." The cylinder's cap fell to the ground, and slowly Lucas began pulling out a large sheet of yellowed paper, rolled a couple of times over itself. The moment he let it go, it unrolled across the counter like a tablecloth.

"Is that my Frequency?" His fingers moved by instinct along those thin waves traced on that strangely rough paper. In that large diagram, several waves and peaks mixed before merging into a single great black trace.

"Correct. To be honest, I felt a chill down my spine when I laid my eyes upon it." Lucas murmured, tracing a series of dark, dense circles with his finger, as though he were secreting ink directly from his own nails.

"Up to this point, it is a normal pattern. But here a branch begins to form, and here another. There are three completely different frequencies mixing. The highest peak represents your use of Lachesi, and as you can see, other frequencies mix in here as well." Lance stared at those many circles, dismissing every possible truth that was beginning to emerge in his mind.

"The reason I was horrified is that you and Jeanne are the only recent Metas to have developed something of this kind." Lucas glanced at the drawer, slowly extracting a second cylinder, this one thinner and covered in damp stains. Lance seized it, opening it slowly and with dread, sensing a certain darkness emanating from that sheet. His trembling hands began untying that old, dark-toned parchment. It was smaller than his own, allowing him to open it directly.

His breathing immediately accelerated, and his eyes fled at once from that chart, seeking out Lucas's bandage.

"What is this?" He asked in a thread of voice, returning his gaze to that contorted mass of waves and peaks, painted in an unsettling black ink.

"That is the chart of one of the founders of the First Generation team…" Before Lucas could even name him, Lance unfortunately made out the name of the one who possessed that horrible diagram.

"August Noir…" The sheet slipped from his hands, landing at their feet. Lucas nodded slowly, picking it up from the ground and returning it to its case.

"I do not understand… How is it possible? Why should Jeanne and I be similar to him?" Lance leaned against the counter, pressing his head, now heavy as a boulder.

"Your Frequency distorts and multiplies, and yet every single case is different. My own began functioning this way too, after the confrontation against the Unnamed, and it started again the moment Dirac awakened." Lucas answered, scratching his temple.

"My theory concerns my own ability as well. This power I have functions in a way completely different from a typical Meta factor. It is almost as though I had it from birth." Lance began rolling up the sheet, offering it to Lucas.

"Grayson… Also had markings and horns, after he fully awakened." The scientist gave a glance at his hand before returning his gaze to Lance.

"Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to examine the reports. You may go. The examination is concluded." Lucas smiled, closing the drawers and bidding him farewell. Lance nodded, heading toward the stairs.

"Lance!" He turned immediately, focusing entirely on Lucas's figure. The scientist held his cylinder between his hands.

"Everything will be fine. I will find a solution for all of you. So do not worry about yourself or about Jeanne. I will find a way for everything." Lance smiled back, nodding quickly.

"And in any case… About the stress and everything, mind you do not speak to Jeanne about it, for any reason. If you want help, ask Lautre. He is an expert in stress therapy, so long as you do not let him take you somewhere disreputable." Lucas let him go, listening to Lance's many reassurances fade away up the stairs. He fixed his own arm with disgust, counting the numbers continuously spreading across his skin.

"So Grayson Dirac is the same as me, then… Truly, no one in this world has ever handed me an easy task." He murmured, fixing the sunlight, noticing Lance's bags at the base of the window. Immediately, he heard a thud coming from the stairs, and a moment later the boy tumbled back through the entrance, clutching his head.

"Forgotten something?" Lucas smiled, picking the bags up from the ground.