Beyond the Bloodline

Chapter 441: Two Sides of a Corrupted Coin

Olivia’s pocket universe was a fully self-contained dimension where she possessed absolute dominion over its internal aspects, from the level of cosmic energy within it to the laws of physics and space-time.

As such, altering the rate at which time flowed inside it naturally fell under that authority, since time itself was part of the dimensional framework.

Because of this, she and Richard could spend extended periods dissecting and experimenting on the Dead Lifeforms they captured, even while the war outside the pocket universe was still ongoing.

She used Estea’s calendar system within it, so a ’day’ inside was counted after 24 hours had passed, and she intended to adjust the ratio of internal to external time to 10:1, meaning that even if ten days passed inside, only a single day would pass outside.

With so many test subjects available, Olivia and Richard planned to proceed slowly, examining every available factor to determine as many characteristics and weaknesses of these dead lifeforms as possible, down to their Existential Graphs...if they even possessed one.

Another thing the siblings wanted to understand was the Power System of the dead lifeforms.

Not all rules of the Cosmos within the Dead Zone that they originated from functioned properly, and the ones that did operated unstably. That was why energies could still manifest within it.

However, stable and structured systems like the standard Existence Realm progression and Authority acquisition were non-functional.

"So, how do these guys increase in power? Do they just endlessly accumulate law echoes through inverse comprehension, or are there actual levels or stages to it? What about this negative magic power of theirs? Are there dead lifeforms capable of using cosmic energy, too? If there are, then do they possess varying levels of Cosmic Superiority? And how do they attain Cosmic Superiority? The same way we do, or do they have some completely different method?"

"Calm down, Olivia," Richard said, placing a hand on his sister’s shoulder to stop her string of muttered questions.

"Besides, some of those questions have already been answered," he added while taking the tablet from her hands and ticking off several checkboxes.

"We’ve only gotten partial answers, and we’ve got no way to verify them," Olivia immediately argued back, snatching the tablet from him and unchecking the boxes again.

"Sure, they do appear to possess stages of power, with energy levels that correlate to the standard ranges of our Existence Realms, but we still have no way of verifying their progression methods."

Richard smiled wryly at her response and glanced toward the now-empty operating table before speaking again.

"Didn’t I already say that they probably increase through these stages based on how much broken-down law echoes they’ve fed on?"

"That’s still just a theory," Olivia replied.

"It’s a theory supported by facts we’ve already confirmed," Richard countered. "We’ve confirmed that they inverse comprehend laws. Just as we comprehend laws according to the Ranks of those laws, what reason do we have to assume they don’t inverse comprehend according to the Ranks as well?

Higher Rank law energy releases higher level law echoes, which they likely can’t absorb until they’ve already absorbed a sufficient amount of the lower-level ones."

His theory made sense, but Olivia wasn’t convinced by that alone.

"This is still just an assumption. Sure, they inverse comprehend, but that’s no reason to assume they do it in the same way we comprehend laws.

Don’t forget that the Dead Zone itself is an anomaly. These dead lifeforms that somehow came into existence are also anomalies born within a region where cosmic rules are destabilised."

Olivia dropped into her chair and spun around once before pointing at Richard as she concluded.

"What I’m trying to say is that Logic can fail us. And you’re using Logic to understand things whose very existence is illogical?"

"Are they really illogical?" Richard asked, raising a brow.

"How are they not?" Olivia asked in return, disbelief obvious on her face.

Richard exhaled lightly at the sight before sitting on the nearest table as he began explaining.

"I think their existence is just as logical as ours. We were born in the structured part of the universe, with stabilised rules and universal laws governed by Concepts.

They were born in the part of the universe corrupted by nothingness, unstructured, with destabilised rules, broken down universal laws, and lacking certain levels of Conceptual influence."

Snapping his fingers, a gold coin appeared in his hand, and he spun it across his index finger as he said, "In a way, it’s like we’re two sides of the same coin."

He flicked the coin toward Olivia before continuing. "Rather than immediately concluding that ’these beings are anomalies so logic fails,’ we should also consider the possibility that they ’follow a different, corrupted logic system we don’t fully understand yet.’

Which is exactly why we’re experimenting on them. To analyse them and understand this logic system."

Olivia pursed her lips for several moments as she considered Richard’s words, then lightly shook her head.

"Just because a system appears structured doesn’t mean it behaves like a structured one. You can’t just assume symmetry between corrupted and non-corrupted systems without proof."

She tossed the coin back toward him, and after catching it, Richard shrugged.

"That’s why I said it’s a ’possibility’ we should consider. Don’t default to calling it illogical."

Olivia sighed at his response and nodded lightly as she turned her attention back toward the hundreds of containment tubes lined against the walls of her research hall.

Suddenly, she blinked and sat up in her chair after noticing something strange.

"Hey, Richard."

"What’s up?"

"Did you experiment on Subjects B20 to B34 yet?"

"Hmm?"

Richard raised a brow at her question and silently shook his head as he turned to look at the containment tubes Olivia had mentioned.

After arranging them into 5 rows stretching across 40 columns along both sides of the corridor, Olivia had categorised them according to letters.

Rows A-E and F-J, Columns 1-40.

So far, she had only run tests on A1 to B14, every single detail she’d gleaned documented alongside all the information and characteristics of the subject she’d obtained from them, from their original race to the laws they inverse comprehended and their level of corrupted magic power.

However, despite not having done anything to B15 and above, the tubes containing B20 to B34 were empty.

"No, they aren’t empty."

Olivia got up from her seat and teleported in front of B20, with Richard appearing beside her as both of them looked through the transparent tube now filled with faint grey fog.

"What the hell?" Richard muttered, looking at the other containment tubes filled with grey fog as well.

"This is where you kept the human-based ones, right?" he asked. "I think there were a few elves too."

Olivia nodded silently and went off to inspect the rest of the containment tubes, all the way until she reached B34.

When she glanced at B35, she saw that it was still unconscious, the tube lightly fogged, but something else quickly caught her attention.

"Haven’t we already finished working on all the ones with energy equivalent to Low-Tier Deities?"

"Yeah. We just finished," Richard answered, flying over to B35 to take a look.

Immediately, his expression turned confused as the amount of corrupted magic power he sensed from inside the tube was still within the Cosmic Limit of the Low-Tier Deity Realm.

"That’s weird."

"Very weird," Olivia agreed. "It’s one thing if I missed one, but there are two of us. There’s no way we’d both make the same oversight."

She flew over to B36, noting nothing different, then moved on to B37, continuing down to B40.

Frowning lightly, Olivia moved down a row to C40, but the dwarf-looking dead lifeform inside was still floating within the tube, unconscious.

"Something’s terribly wrong here," she muttered. "How did several dead lifeforms go missing, and we didn’t notice?"

"Olivia."

She turned at the sound of her brother’s voice calling her name, and saw him on the other side of the hall, staring at the tube containing Subject G30.

"I don’t think they went ’missing’."

Richard’s words made Olivia’s expression change, and she instantly closed the distance, her eyes widening in shock at what she was witnessing.

Inside the tube, G30 was a giant-based dead lifeform, its body around 7 metres tall and classified at the level of a Mid-Tier Deity based on its corrupted magic power.

But currently, the magic power they could sense from it was definitely at the level of a Low-Tier Deity.

However, that wasn’t what made Olivia gape in shock.

It was because, right before her eyes, she could see the dead lifeform’s body gradually breaking down and crumbling into faint dust and grey fog.