"If you want me to help you, please unseal both Lyra's and my abilities," Adam demanded.
Serbas looked at Adam before turning around and returning to his seat. As he poured himself some tea, he flicked his fingers, and a bright light emerged from the ground.
"Come have some tea, before you start on getting my family back," Serbas said, pouring tea for everyone there.
Adam and Lyra instantly felt their powers return. Adam's sealed abilities were back. Vlad walked over and put his hand on Adam's shoulder. Lyra immediately used the neuro-link to communicate with Azrael, updating him on the situation and stressing that the human evolution process must be carefully monitored. Adam instantly sent a duplicate of himself to Azrael's location, who quickly created a makeshift shelter and proceeded to encase the evolving individuals in mana pods to help stabilize and accelerate the process. Adam, Lyra, and Vlad took a seat, looking at Serbas.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to poison you," Serbas said, his tone softening. "Vlad told me about your friend and how he is able to bring us back to our timeline before it all happened. This is my last straw at any hope to see them again. Decades of isolation have made me experience hell, failure over failure in getting them back. After Vlad left me yesterday, I thought about it. If there is even a chance for me to see them again, I would do anything for it. You are my last hope. I'm putting my trust in you."
"Serbas, I believe I owe you an—" Vlad began, trying to apologize, but Serbas raised his hand to stop him.
"You don't need to say anything. I heard you when we last met. I know why you came to me yesterday," Serbas said, placing his hand on his chest.
"The truth is, I didn't cause the plague on the surface world. The Hand of Death wasn't able to revive my family. I had given up until someone came to me, saying that he knew a way to revive my family. He took the finger of the artifact and told me to wait for the good news. Before I knew it, the surface world turned into what it is now." Serbas sighed, the burden of his actions evident.
"As much as I don't want to believe it, it happened due to my decision to let him take part of the artifact." Serbas finished, staring directly at Adam.
"Then tell us who exactly caused the apocalypse?!" Adam demanded.
Serbas contemplated his answer, staring at Adam. "I don't think it will change anything to this world if you knew who it was. I just want to know if you can either revive my family or take me back to my world before my family was killed," Serbas replied, holding back what he knew.
Serbas then placed the remaining, large piece of the artifact on the table. "This is the other piece of the Hands of Death. You should have the missing piece of the artifact," Serbas said.
Adam took out the artifact finger and combined it back onto the main artifact. A dark aura from the artifact immediately glowed intensely as Adam's hands rested on it. The darkness of the aura crept into Adam's hands and surged into his body.
"Arggh!!!" Adam screamed as his body was suddenly consumed by the darkness.
Everyone was shocked by the sudden, brutal attack on Adam. Lyra instantly created a barrier with her weapon and aimed her spear directly at Serbas's neck.
"What did you do?!" Vlad shouted.
Serbas instantly vanished, reappearing beside Adam, and cast some magic to contain the spreading darkness.
"I didn't do this. It's something else in the artifact," he insisted as he carried Adam, gently laying him on a bed that emerged from the ground via magic.
The weariness of suspecting Serbas was momentarily put aside as Lyra and Vlad witnessed Serbas's genuine concern for Adam's safety.
Vlad tentatively touched the artifact, but nothing happened. Lyra, meanwhile, used her abilities to analyze Adam's body and the darkness that had attached itself to him.
"This is not right!" Lyra explained, her voice tight with confusion. "The mana of that darkness belongs to Adam?! It has the same mana signature as his!" Serbas's face twitched as he heard Lyra's analysis.
Out of nowhere, a skeleton hand came clawing out of Adam's chest. Everyone was stunned silent by the shocking development. Slowly, the hands and then the body of a skeletal figure climbed out of Adam's chest.