Rise of the Limitless One

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〈A vast amount of contaminated Mana exists in this place. It's toxic for beings of your original orientation.〉

'Oh? I didn't expect the stone to warn me of that,' Lucian thought. Although he had just revealed his identity as a Guardian, he now wondered if whatever rested on the other side of these doors could infect him as well.

'Could that be possible?' Lucian questioned.

〈Impossible. One result of my superiority is infinite purification. Even if it infects your body, it's incapable of infecting me, which is now also you.〉

'Right,' Lucian answered. As the stone revealed in the beginning, it had melded with Lucian. So they were now one entity. Therefore, whatever the stone could withstand, it would do its best to bring Lucian's vessel up to the level of withstanding those same conditions.

Granted, the conditions of a Minor World weren't even worth mentioning when it came to a divine item like the Limitless Stone.

Meanwhile, Doctor Arc finally awakened from his stupor, "Did you just say you're a Guardian?!"

"Correct," Lucian said with a faint nod. "Now, can you open the door, please?"

"Sure," Doctor Arc agreed wholeheartedly while also forming some questions of his own. 'Could that be why his structure has become so compact? It's possible if he is truly a Guardian; an Awakened who has undergone a second awakening.'

In addition to his thoughts, Doctor Arc also knew the only cure for the Zero Point Disease was the cleansing that a second awakening provided. So, the more he thought about this, the more he felt Lucian's claim was true. But, if that was the case, then he had truly hit the jackpot!

'Who would have thought that I'd come across not just a powerful Awakened, but now a Guardian as well. With this, I'll be able to request greater assistance from both the Guardian Corps and Awakened Association,' Doctor arc thought with an excited grin.

The entire purpose of forcing Lucian and Cyrus to attempt an awakening was to obtain the materials needed to carry on with his research. Although the presence of the monolith was great in its current form, it wasn't beneficial to normal Awakeneds.

However, Doctor Arc, with his overzealous ways, sought a way to counter this. Though, it was unknown if it was even an accomplishable goal.

Conversely, Doctor Arc opened the heavily fortified door by going through a biometric scan such as his iris and fingerprint. Multiple locks unlatched followed by a deafening whirring noise as some heavy gears turned emitted a loud hissing noise.

"Decompression. The room inside is a vacuum to prevent anything inside from leaking out. You can never be too careful with these obscure illnesses," Doctor Arc muttered before taking a step inside, with Lucian followed behind him.

Still, there was something Doctor Arc couldn't get off his mind.

"Just how did you get to this floor? Aside from me, no one else has the clearance to come down to this floor," Doctor Arc asked. Despite trying to come up with an explanation this entire time, he couldn't figure it out.

If Lucian used brute force to damage the door, then the alarm would have been triggered. Plus, breaking through the metal used to make the elevator would require at least B+ level strength. 

Even then, one strike wouldn't be enough to force open the doors with the high fortitude. 

In light of Doctor Arc's question, Lucian merely smiled, "It was you who opened the door for me."

Again, Doctor Arc froze while utterly confused by Lucian's words. Just how did he open the door for Lucian when he was down here monitoring the situation?!

Of course, Lucian didn't mean it in the literal sense. While Doctor Arc was truly the one to open the door, that wasn't entirely true. After all, it was Apollo who duplicated his eye and hand to access the elevator.

While it seemed like a complicated process, it wasn't. All it required was for Lucian to remember the hand that he shook and the eyes that gazed at him when he found out about his disease. With the help of increased cognition from his Hypervigilance, the rest was simple.

Lucian replicated Doctor's Arc hand and eye to the best of his ability. Though he couldn't do something as complex as mapping the mana routes of said extremities, remembering the external superficial traits wasn't difficult at all.

Needless to say, this wasn't something Lucian revealed since the cameras failed to catch his actions. On top of hiding from them, Lucian wasn't aware that most cameras couldn't record him due to the abnormal frequency of his mana.

In a sense, it formed a kind of barrier towards surveillance. If even the Monolith failed to surveil his power, how could the meager capture devices of Alteria?

It was impossible.

Sure enough, even after sifting through the surveillance records, all Doctor Arc saw was Lucian standing before the elevator as it opened up a few moments later as if he had been granted entry.

Unable to sense any foul play, Doctor Arc could only chop this up to a system malfunction.

Meanwhile, Lucian arrived before the sealed capsules containing his brother and sister side by side. Although the room was at normal temperature, the capsule was cool to the touch as Lucian glided his hand against it.

"Have you frozen them?" Lucian questioned.

"Not at all. This is the effect of the Astral Corrosion Sickness. As you know, space is a frigid vacuum. This sickness mimics that property," Doctor Arc answered calmly as he arrived next to Lucian.

As he stood before the capsule, Lucian witnessed as a thick layer of frost steadily covered the small glass pane. However, a gentle wave of heat melted the frost every 60 seconds before sucking the water out of the chamber.

"This is the most we can do―prolong the time before they freeze to death from the absolute zero properties of the mana they emit," Doctor Arc said with a faint sign.

Meanwhile, Lucian wasn't quite in the talking mood as he simply stared at the pale faces of his siblings with a callous expression. His jaw clenched continuously as the pressure he put on the glass continued to escalate.

A cracking noise echoed from under his hand as Doctor Arc's eyes widened in shock.

"D-don't! Lucian! Don't break that glass!"

However, Lucian didn't listen. The fact that his siblings were suffering like this angered him beyond belief. Soon enough, the glass under both of his hands shattered completely, allowing Lucian to touch his siblings' cheeks. 

Immediately, Doctor Arc retreated while holding his breath. Although the first stage of the sickness wasn't contagious, Stage II was, since the mana at that point was akin to a virus, capable of infecting many. Hence, why all Stage II infected were forced into isolation chambers.

Whereas Doctor Arc became cautious, Lucian was only worried about the safety of his siblings. "Don't worry. Big brother will heal both of you. I won't allow you to die."

Though they couldn't respond, Lucian didn't need them to. 

Simultaneously, footsteps sounded behind Doctor Arc, causing him to turn around. 'Ah, that's right. It's about time.'

As a part of his daily routine, after training, Cyrus would come to this room to sit with his siblings for an hour. However, instead of sleeping after, he simply returned to training even more. As a result, Cyrus's Awakened rank had already elevated to C- a few weeks ago.

Although it didn't seem like much, 10 days to elevate into another rank category was a shocking pace!

"L-Lucian?" Cyrus muttered. Aside from Lucian, there was no one else who would risk touching these two. However, he also couldn't tell due to the abnormal change Lucian went through.

"Yes," Lucian nodded while turning towards Cyrus with a sorrowful expression. Though, for some reason, it started to change gradually. It wasn't because of the sight of Cyrus, but rather the information that appeared before his view.

〈You can fix them personally if you gather enough destiny.〉

Until now, Lucian thought his only route to healing his siblings would be by acquiring 100 million Credits. However, one thing he overlooked was that it was the price required to treat one patient. So, in truth, Lucian required double that amount.

But now, according to the stone, he could use destinies to solve that problem!

'Truly?'

〈Of course, the cause of the issue is the monolith's temporal Mana. So, you simply need to introduce them to the source and have that source absorb the issue.〉

From sorrow, Lucina's expression brightened because destiny was something he could acquire easily by overwhelming the floors!

However, Lucian blanked when the stone revealed the number of destinies needed.