Season 3 chapter 86
The Denial of Biology
The biting wind whipped across the 86th-floor terrace of Kavilson Steel. The heavy industrial smog of the capital blurred the city lights below, but the cold realization hitting the two billionaires was crystal clear.
Malesh paced across the concrete, aggressively loosening his dragon-themed tie. His deadpan mask was fracturing under the weight of an impossible calculation.
"Kniya," Malesh started, his voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly analytical register. "Upon seeing what we just saw in that park... I need to say one thing."
Kniya dragged his hands down his face, leaning against the glass door. "What?"
"We were actively denying facts," Malesh stated, stopping and pointing a finger at his own chest. "We were looking at evidence from our own biology, and we convinced ourselves it was just normal. We have been denying something that truly exists in the real world, simply because our logical brains are entirely unwilling to accept the raw data."
Kniya frowned, genuinely lost. "What the fuck are you even saying, Malesh? I cannot get this thing."
"Kniya, look at us," Malesh said, his dark eyes wide. "We stopped aging. Our biological age has literally been stagnant at twenty-four for years. When we sustain critical injuries, we heal instantly. What is even happening to us right now? We just ignored this fact for so long. We thought it was just a highly efficient metabolism, but it is not like that!"
Kniya scoffed, shaking his head, though the fear was visible in his eyes.
"But we were injected with that glowing sludge in our childhood, bro!" Kniya argued passionately, thinking back to the terrifying underground lab in KDC. "How could a single chemical injection from when we were twelve even affect us at this time? The dosage should have completely processed out of our systems decades ago!"
"Do you remember what Mantouse told us in the dirt field?" Malesh whispered, sounding disgusted with his own conclusion. "He explicitly stated that the Limitless formula could grant a person a lifespan of a thousand years with a stagnant biological body. I completely ignored it. And let me tell you one thing more that you know, we thought of that portion as a thing that it could you know grant us instant regeneration. We didn't believed us that, it was some kind of thing that could grant us the lifespan of 1000 years and I still didn't believe this thing. Aren't I think so. Good. Yeah, you are still thinking about the same when you are talking about the dosage that could have gone, but I don't think so. I didn't believe him because I don't believe in magic. Magic does not exist. It is a fucking weird, illogical thing to say in the first place."
"Well, Malesh, I don't know about this thing," Kniya muttered, staring at his own hands. "But yeah, you are right. It was totally suspicious from the very beginning. But I don't think it is some kind of magic. It has to be some kind of highly advanced science or huge genetic technology that my grandfather funded. In my opinion, it is absolutely not magic."
"But Kniya," Malesh snapped, his framework of reality completely failing him. "I don't believe in this kind of shit! You take a fucking injection as a kid, and it literally grants you the lifespan of a thousand fucking years?! I don't believe in this shit!"
"Malesh, we cannot say anything about this right now," Kniya sighed heavily. "Because now we are finally asking ourselves the exact questions that we have been running away from for a very long time."
The Missing Name
Kniya crossed his arms, staring out at the city skyline. The heavy silence hung over the terrace for a few seconds before his chaotic brain abruptly shifted gears.
"Well, there is one highly interesting thing that I have to say, bro," Kniya noted, popping a fresh piece of mint gum into his mouth. "Speaking of things we blindly ignored... we even forgot to ask the name of the Priestess."
Malesh glared at him. "Excuse me?"
"I mean, think about it," Kniya laughed, a spark of absolute absurdity breaking through the panic. "After the massive fight we had alongside her, and the great set of events that kicked off the Civil War... it all literally started because of her. And we still don't even know her name! Can we—"
"Kniya, what the fuck are you talking about in between like that?" Malesh interrupted, his deadpan glare returning with lethal force. "You are aggressively changing the topics right now! We can ask her later whenever we go back to a religious town! We have massively more important mysteries that we have to solve in the first place!"
"Okay, chill out, logic-boy," Kniya smirked faintly. "Well, upon talking about mysteries, Malesh, there is one specific thing I want to say. Do you think Mantouse Adeius is our biggest mystery in this entire thing?"
The Greatest Anomaly
Malesh paused. The mention of the shadowy syndicate leader brought his focus crashing back down to reality.
"I don't know, bro," Malesh admitted, adjusting his glasses. "But the data surrounding him is deeply flawed."
"Think about it," Kniya said, pacing the terrace. "Mantouse knew everything. He knew that Clist died before anyone could know about this thing. He knew about the attack on the military base, two months before it even came out on the official news. He literally handed us a loan of thirty trillion credits out of thin air, and he didn't even ask us the reason for it!"
Kniya stopped pacing, looking directly at Malesh.
"I know that the interest rate was high, but still, how is a single person able to manage this massive amount of liquid assets?" Kniya demanded. "When we first met him at the island, we were totally shocked. He was literally not afraid of our high-caliber guns at all. But then, when we met that random doctor at the hospital... Mantouse was actually afraid of him. I don't know about this guy, Malesh. It doesn't add up."
Malesh nodded slowly, his analytical brain processing the sheer lack of verifiable data.
"Yeah, you are really, really right about this thing," Malesh agreed softly. "We cannot say what he actually is. I don't know his reach, where he came from, or what his actual business model is."
"And you know what I did when we first met him?" Kniya asked, a dark look crossing his face. "I checked every global world record to find anything about his name. There was nothing. Zero."
"Yeah, you are right," Malesh confirmed. "I did the same. There is absolutely no record of his name or any data regarding him in the entire books of any global registry. I was not able to find a single detail about him from his birth records to his financial filings. There is totally nothing about him. Mathematically, no guy like him exists in the real world according to the official stature. I don't know if he operates entirely in illegal business or what... but he is the absolute greatest mystery to us."
They stood on the terrace of their massive corporate empire, two immortal billionaires staring out at a city filled with ghosts, finally realizing they had no idea who was actually pulling the strings.
The Syndicate Anomaly
The biting wind whipped across the 86th-floor terrace of Kavilson Steel. The heavy industrial smog of the capital blurred the city lights below, but the cold realization hitting the two billionaires was crystal clear.
Kniya crossed his arms, his usual arrogance entirely replaced by intense, street-level paranoia.
"How does a person hide his entire birth record so easily?" Kniya demanded, pacing across the concrete. "Think about the sheer scale of the logistics, Malesh. Who the fuck could effortlessly grant us a loan of thirty trillion credits out of thin air?"
Malesh leaned against the glass doors, his dark eyes narrowing as his analytical brain crunched the impossible variables.
"He literally knew about everything from the absolute start," Kniya continued, his voice dropping into a dark, frantic register. "He was the one who handed us the deeds to the islands! How did he know about the Fisluation and Petroleum reserves in the first place? And how did he know about the SUM terrorist base when we first met him as freshmen?"
Malesh adjusted his dragon-themed tie, his deadpan mask completely failing to hide his profound unease.
"He is a truly mysterious anomaly," Malesh stated flatly. "Why the hell is he even helping us? I don't know. Reading his facial micro-expressions is a statistical impossibility. It gives me a strange, highly uneasy feeling whenever I look at him. He is funny, yes, but he is the kind of guy I am completely unable to process. I am unable to deduce what he is even trying to convey to us."
"Yeah, it is really, really weird," Kniya muttered, staring out over the sprawling, corrupt capital. "I cannot even say what is actually going on around here anymore."