"So... you also want to participate in this still immature project?" she said, looking at the young man in front of her. "You should know that the Fusion Warrior Project was proposed by Mei. She herself cannot guarantee the success of this technology, let alone me?"
The young man paused for a moment, then said, "But apart from you, I can't think of any other way to become a Fusion Warrior."
She sized up the young man who came from the European branch. She had heard that he was originally a member of Alicia's team, but later left the team for an unknown reason and went to the European branch.
"Let me make this clear first, I don't do things that are meaningless," she said. Coincidentally, the fusion warrior project that Mei proposed could potentially become the path for the future evolution of humanity in her eyes, so it wouldn't hurt to get an experimental subject to practice on in advance.
"I understand. It's just an exchange of equals. If I die in this surgery, you can study my body as you see fit," the young man said expressionlessly. "And if the surgery is successful, whatever you need, I will get it for you as long as it's within my power."
Ha, what an interesting fellow.
She gently curved the corners of her lips: "Then it's settled, Klein. Go and prepare the relevant paperwork."
The young man signed the agreement and looked up at her: "Dr. Möbius, I would like to know the earliest the surgery can be performed?"
"Don't worry, you can have the surgery at the same time as Kevin." She said while flipping through the theory proposed by May, "However, little guinea pig, you should think carefully. The theoretical success rate of this surgery is currently zero. You're basically sending yourself to your death."
"If I can't successfully undergo this surgery, then there's no point in me staying in this world," the young man said.
She paused in her work, looking at the young man with a somewhat surprised expression. The young man remained expressionless, but his gaze was unusually firm.
"Fine, whatever. But I'm quite curious, what exactly makes you so eager to die?" she said with a hint of sarcasm.
The young man got up and left: "I was just presumptuously trying to get close to someone... If I can't stand by them side, at least I can be qualified to fight alongside her."
"Her? Does she mean Alicia? After all, in the information I found about the young man, his record was quite good, but compared to Kevin and Alicia, his record was not impressive."
She scoffed, "A boring reason."
After the young man left, his deputy came to her laboratory.
"And who are you?" She looked at the silver-haired woman. Why were there always people recklessly running into her laboratory lately?
The woman smiled and introduced herself: "Hello, Dr. Möbius, I'm Iliya, Yuriel's deputy. Yuriel seems to be preparing to participate in this Fusion Warrior program, so I'd like to ask if the success rate of this program is really zero?"
"Do you, as his deputy, not know whether he's planning to participate?" She continued with her experiment, her head bowed. "The agreement has been signed. If no miracle occurs, you can probably start preparing to take over his position."
Iliya's voice was filled with worry and curiosty: "So the rumors were true? Yuriel is really something, even for Alicia's sake, he doesn't cherish his own life at all."
{P.S.: Btw, I took this name Iliya from Slavic myth, Elijah the god of thunder, and the word Ilia from Greek. .}
It really is Alicia.
She thought to herself that, but she wasn't particularly interested in other people's gossip. She simply said, "If there's nothing else, you can go now."
Although Iliya's voice was full of emotion, she could still sense the malice and excitement hidden within it. Where did that guy find his second-in-command? Wasn't he afraid that Iliya would betray him one day?
The experiment arrived as scheduled. Compared to Kevin's vital signs, which dropped to zero during the surgery, the surgery on the young man named "Yuriel" went relatively smoothly, at least on the surface.
As soon as the surgery was completed, the two immediately rushed to the Australian battlefield. One went to the location of the Seventh Herrscher, and the other went to the location of the Judgment-class Honkai Beast Surie. They each killed their targets individually.
Compared to Surie, the Seventh Herrscher Himiko dealt a more severe blow to the Flame Chaser, and as a result, Kevin, as the protagonist, received everyone's praise and blessings at the subsequent victory banquet.
Yuriel is currently lying in her laboratory undergoing examination.
"Little mouse, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear?"
He said, "...Let's talk about it together."
"The good news is that your Honkai energy resistance has improved significantly compared to before the surgery. However, the bad news is... the reason you are experiencing a burning sensation all over your body is because the hypermutant factor is constantly stimulating your nervous system. Compared to Kevin's extremely low body temperature, in some ways, your side effects are more severe." She stated her examination results.
Yuriel remained silent, perhaps because the constant burning sensation left him in no mood to offer any opinion.
"Do you regret it?" she said, looking at the young man with a mocking expression. "This pain will stay with you for the rest of your life, until you die."
"To be honest, a little," Yuriel said. "After all, Kevin and I are different. He's a hero born of heaven, while I'm just a mortal..."
If you, who can undergo an immature surgery, are considered a mortal, then everyone else doesn't even deserve to be called a mortal.
That's what she thought.
She continued, "However, considering that you brought back the remains of Surie alone for me, I might as well try to develop a drug that can suppress this pain."
"I understand. Consider this a contract. If you need any experimental materials or test subjects in the future, you can contact me."
"Oh? No hesitation at all? Getting involved with Möbius isn't a good thing within the Firemoth, you guinea pig."
"I never care about anyone's opinion. What they think or do is none of my business," Yuriel said coldly.
She laughed. Suddenly, she felt that this young man was indeed quite interesting. At least... the feeling of being with him was not bad.
Shortly after developing the corresponding drug for him, Yuriel proposed another possible plan to her: "Project Chimera".
That plan that she later wished had never existed.
Based on the Fusion Warriors, the final stage of this plan, which integrates as many Honkai Beasts as possible into their bodies as materials for secondary or even multiple surgeries, is what she personally named the "Divinity Project".
She watched the young man undergo surgery after surgery, and saw the side effects he suffered gradually worsen. She once asked him, "Is Alicia really worth all this?"
Yuriel's answer was: "It's not just for her, but for the many more people I care about."
Tsk
She couldn't detect any falsehood in it.
"Your answer is even more boring than before... Heh, considering you're at least a useful assistant, I'll stop calling you a guinea pig for now, Yuriel."
"My pleasure."
And in fact, she was probably the only one who witnessed firsthand the changes in Iliya's feelings for Yuriel, from the initial feigned affection to the later tacit understanding, and... finally, her eyes were filled with nothing but him.
"Doctor, it seems Iliya confessed to Maple." Klein said while organizing the experimental data.
"Ha, what does this have to do with me?" she said, but her mood inexplicably turned little sour.
Iliya became a Fusion Warrior some time before the Eighth Herrscher incident. After the Eighth Herrscher incident, she voluntarily applied to join the Chimera Project and became the second executor of the Chimera Project.
Zero is Yuriel, and One is Kevin.
At that time, she said something similar to what Yuriel had said to her earlier: "I want to stand by his side, at the very least I have to be qualified."
Fragments of Yuriel and Iliya kept popping into her mind, making her even more irritable.
Tsk
"I suppose Yuriel will agree to Iliya's request, after all, they've been together for so long." She said stiffly, "Klein, there's no need to worry about such trivial matters."
Klein: "...Yes, Doctor." But I only mentioned it casually after hearing it from someone else. Does that count as paying a lot of attention?
In the incident involving the Tenth Herrscher, Klein, as one of the Tenth Herrscher individuals, died, and afterwards, Yuriel took over her daily care.
After learning the truth about Klein's death, Yuriel told her about it. She was devastated by the fact that she had killed Klein and even cursed him for leaving the Moth of Fire for Africa at that time. She thought that if he were there, everything might have been different. But Yuriel just stood there and waited for her to vent her anger.
They didn't say anything.
The battle to subdue the eleventh Herrscher was also a tragedy of restraint. The Seraph squad was almost completely wiped out, and the once huge Fusion Warrior force was now reduced to only fourteen members. After killing the eleventh Herrscher, Yuriel brought the doll Klein back and handed her over, and then spent a night alone with the Seraph.
"Don't you hate Alicia?"
"If she didn't do that, she wouldn't be Alicia."
He said that he was lying in a container with the remains of twelve fallen angels beside him, and he was about to perform the most insane surgery, using Vishnu's properties to devour all twelve fallen angels in order to achieve the final "evolution".
After the surgery, his side effects became increasingly severe, and even the drugs she had specially developed could not suppress the pain. She could only watch him suffer through the night, enduring such pain without anyone else knowing.
During the Twelfth Herrscher incident, he was shot with Honkai energy interference bullets by soldiers because of his guardian bell. As a result, many of the super-mutant factors in his body became mutually exclusive, and he almost died at the hands of the people he had always protected.
It wasn't until then, when she realized he might die because of it, that she understood the true nature of her feelings for him. Anger and regret led her to tell all the heroes present about the pain he had been carrying.
She felt a deep sense of responsibility for the young man. She watched over him with the care of a protector, guiding and guiding him like an older sibling or mentor, always wanting to ensure his younger sibling's safety. Every decision, every warning she delivered, was based on a sincere desire for Yuriel to survive, thrive, and remain whole.
She berated their uselessness, their incompetence, and, in turn, herself.
In that final battle, she saw the end he had reached, saw him ascend the throne of the gods in his human form, and saw the ultimate human evolution that she had been pursuing.
She also witnessed... the fall of the one who ascended to godhood.
She exhausted all her resources, yet in the end, she couldn't even win back one person—the one who had always walked alongside her on the path to godhood, the one she only understood at the very end, the one she loved as brother, her understanding one.
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