Endless Evolution: Last Star

"So... What do we have to do... Just get our hands on it?" Adam muttered, a bright white light reflected in his blue eyes, it was Midnight Crystal overlapping his entire field of vision.

Midnight Crystal was actually big. Compared to it, Adam, Katrin, Osana, and Nessa looked small and weak. Even if they all held hands, they couldn't surround Midnight Crystal, at best, only half of it.

"We should summon Revolve, I think it's something like that." Katrin said before reaching forward with her hand.

Slowly, a white vortex appeared in front of her palm, causing Midnight Crystal to tremble slightly.

The dense energy waves traveled towards the point Katrin stood in front of, to release a powerful stream of snow-white energy outwards. It was like a beam was absorbed into her Revolve, filling her inner space.

Obviously, Phantoms could not place any physical objects in their inner space, however, there were a few exceptions, one of which was artifacts.

Two conditions were important, that the object had a large amount of energy and that the inner space had room for the object.

Thus, the Artifact as well as Nexus were near Evolution Tree because they had a strong connection to the Phantom, and Evolution Tree understood why these objects were there.

The energy from Midnight Crystal was in the same situation. It couldn't make the Phantom stronger directly like Artifact or Nexus, but it was an important component to create the Key and a straight path to evolving the Phantom to the next level.

Katrin's eyes grew deeper while she continued to absorb energy. It wasn't a quick process, it would take some time as the energy was high.

Osana stepped forward, intending to do the same.

And... soon it was going to be Adam and Nessa's turn, but... no one but Adam knew that Nessa couldn't summon Revolve.

Magnus assumed that Nessa would now be able to absorb energy since in her battle form she used energy to enhance her body and boost her strength to a new limit.

However, despite her development, Nessa was a Hybrid, not a Phantom. That was no secret to the higher-ups in the Citadel, but ordinary K1-Phantoms were not supposed to know this, it was the ultimate secret.

However... Nessa couldn't just refuse to show her Revolve which she didn't have. No one would believe her that she was willing to forfeit the opportunity to absorb energy from Midnight Crystal.

Magnus and Refesa glanced over at each other. They realized they had to come up with something, but... Nessa had beaten them to it.

Clutch.

Nessa grabbed Adam's hand, making his eyes go wide with surprise.

"Adam... It's really hard for me to move, my wounds are too serious. Could you help me, just... let's move to the other side of the Midnight Crystal, where it'll just be the two of us..."

Saying this, Nessa cast her eyes downward.

Katrin looked at her, baffled, then a smirk appeared on her face as if she had guessed exactly why Nessa wanted to be alone with Adam, without her and Osana's gazes on her.

"Well, well, it looks like someone doesn't have the patience to wait for a return to the Citadel." Katrin said caustically before glancing at Adam.

"I didn't know you liked such... strong women..."

Whoooooooosh.

Nessa turned around abruptly, throwing Katrin an angry stare.

"Shut up. Don't open your mouth if you don't know what you're talking about!" Nessa exclaimed angrily, her face reddening with anger.

Such a reaction would have frightened any ordinary person, but... Katrin only smirked slightly, covering her mouth demonstratively with the palm of her hand.

"Oh, I see... On the outside you're a wild beast, a true warrior, but inside you're a shy girl... Hah, don't look at me with that gaze, I'm not going to interfere with you, do what you want."

Nessa only snorted irritably before taking Adam's hand and hiding behind Midnight Crystal, hiding from Katrin and Osana.

Now, they were on the other side of the massive crystal, so Katrin and Osana couldn't see how they would absorb the energy from Midnight Crystal.

Before Adam could say anything, Nessa pushed him in the chest and pressed him against Midnight Crystal, taking him firmly by the collar.

"I don't know what you're thinking, but I suggest you get rid of every thought that may have popped into your head at the last minute. I didn't do it because I have feelings for you, I did it because they can't find out what..." Nessa said aggressively, leaving no room for argument.

Toward the end, her voice became quiet as she looked at her palm.

"Right... It's not like you can use it..." Adam whispered, realizing that this little scene was just a cover for Nessa.

He wasn't upset or anything, after all, he and Nessa had only seen each other a few times, and two of those they had fought, together and against each other. Their relationship was clearly not in a state for either of them to develop romantic feelings for the other one.

Adam was just confused by Nessa's strange behavior, but now everything was falling into place. Unlike Nessa, he hadn't even thought about Katrin, and Osana must not know she was a Hybrid.

"But... How are you going to absorb the energy? Osana and Katrin won't notice anything now, but besides Revolve, you must have some way, right?" Adam suggested, hoping Nessa had a plan.

Nessa's eyes went wide as she blinked a few times.

She didn't have a plan.

"Well... I can use energy now, supposedly, so just putting my hand on it will be enough..." Nessa gulped, reaching out her hand to Midnight Crystal.

However... even after ten seconds, nothing happened. The energy wasn't going to go to Nessa. She didn't have Revolve, so the energy just didn't realize that Nessa wanted to absorb it.

She and the energy needed to find contact, but without Revolve it was impossible to do so.

Nessa shuddered, as her body became covered in goosebumps. She didn't want to lose this opportunity, it was a real nightmare and the worst possible outcome for her.

She knew she could use energy, but... she didn't know how to absorb it.

"Hmm... Maybe you should get into your battle form? What do you think about that?" Adam suggested thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

Nessa tilted her head in confusion.

"How...? I haven't learned how to do it freely yet. I need a strong motivation for that, preferably during a fight." Nessa frowned, lowering her gaze to the ground.

She needed some kind of trigger to get into battle form, both times it was a look of pity or contempt directed at her side, first from Adam, then from Plague Reaper.

She needed a good reason to force her body to act at its limits, mere desire wasn't enough. That was different from Resonance since Nessa wasn't a Phantom, but the conditions were similar.

'Hey, Nessa, try to do this...'

Suddenly, she heard Magnus's voice, who had an idea.

When Nessa had first gotten into her battle form, Magnus had been trying to figure out what the cause was.

He reviewed the camera footage hundreds of times, pretty quickly Magnus realized that it was Adam's blood that got into Nessa's mouth.

Could it have been that simple?

Well, Magnus didn't believe it. He assumed it was just the catalyst that allowed Nessa to use her battle form for the first time, it worked because of a lot of other factors running into each other at that moment.

But, something Magnus knew for sure. Adam's blood had energy like any Phantom's blood, which meant it could help Nessa.

Clutch.

The next moment, as Magnus explained his plan, Nessa grabbed Adam's arm tightly before opening her mouth wide.

Without warning, she sunk her fangs into his wrist, about to drink his blood like some kind of vampire.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Normally, there was no way Nessa would do such a thing, it was embarrassing and shameful, but... the stakes were too high. She had Midnight Crystal in front of her, she couldn't miss out on something so important to her development.

Nessa wanted to be stronger like everyone else, but she had a different path to follow, one that she had to figure out for herself.

Blood filled Nessa's mouth while confusion came to her. She expected Adam to cry out in pain, or at least ask why she was doing this. Instead, he just stared at her in silence.

'Hah, he's not weak after all. He's strong...' Nessa internally muttered with a slight smile on her face.

But... Nessa didn't know that while Magnus was talking to her, Adam had also been contacted by someone.

It was Refesa, who by agreement with Magnus, told Adam his part of the plan. They were to get Nessa into battle form, and Adam's blood was only the first step.

"Agh... What a strange feeling..." Nessa gasped, pulling her fangs out of Adam's wrist, leaving two deep holes, trickles of blood flowing from them.

"Give me some time, I think with your energy I can get into battle form." Nessa said, closing her eyes.

Grasp.

Suddenly, Nessa felt something squeeze her neck tightly.

Opening her eyes she saw Adam's cold stare and his hand that was gripping her neck.

"W-what... the..." Nessa barely wheezed, not realizing what was happening here.

Stay connected with empire

Bam.

Before Nessa could say anything, Adam plunged her head into the ground, pressing it tightly against the dust layer.

"Come on... Get into your battle form, or else... I'm going to kill you right now."