Michael stared at the skies, still reeling from that encounter. He couldn’t believe that revealing such things to the professor would lead him to activate his failsafe and lure a Nascent Spirit cultivator right in front of him.
Now, he had no choice but to trust that the professor would soon recover from his strange self-imposed affliction.
Still... she’s his daughter? I would have never guessed that.
She only revealed that right before she left, so Michael didn’t have the time to ask her more about it.
However, it did give him more trust in her.
Will I meet her again? he pondered.
It wasn’t just her he was curious about, but the entire secret organization behind her. Just from her description earlier, it seemed to be an organization that was focused on humanity’s survival, which Michael was a fan of.
But with such a straightforward goal, he wondered why they would even keep their organization a secret.
This was a deep rabbit hole that would keep his mind in a wandering state filled with unending questions. Thankfully, someone interrupted him in time.
"Boss... that was something," Jaku said, wiping the sweat off his brows.
"I know. But you held up well on your own," Michael complimented.
Most 1st stage Maugnetics would pass out from the mere presence of a Nascent Spirit Maugnetic. But even through all the shaking and shivering, Jaku remained upright.
"Congrats on the breakthrough."
Jaku smiled, with his Diva manifesting above him.
It was a giant dark blue egg with lightning streaks all over its surface. Most of it was cracked, looking to be on the very verge of hatching.
Michael had seen this before. Sheina also had an egg for a Diva before it hatched into its new form: a white baby dragon.
"Why hasn’t it hatched?" he asked Jaku.
Jaku raised his eyebrow. "Hatched?"
It was at that moment that the Egg Diva above his head suddenly started to twitch and tremble, part of its surface starting to flake off.
"Woah!"
As the flakes dropped off, a blinding light emanated out of the cracks.
And as more and more cracks and pieces started to flake off, the more intense the activity that happened inside the Diva itself.
As the shaking reached a crescendo, the egg stopped moving for a second.
Then, it exploded into a blinding light.
Michael and Jaku closed their eyes, with only their bodies feeling the invisible pressure of the Diva’s Aubility Power emanating outwards.
Once the light settled down, Michael and Jaku set their sights on the true form of Jaku’s Diva.
It was a baby dragon, still in its infancy. It inherited Jaku’s dark blue scales, yet each of it seemed to be imbued with live lightning, still streaking and arcing even though it was embedded inside.
Its limbs were sleek, wings sharp. Its eyes were a stormy grey, as if it was the dark thunderstorm clouds that became the birth of pure lightning strikes.
It perked up upon seeing Michael, lightning arcing through its tail and towards the top of its head.
And immediately upon its birth, the dark blue-scaled dragon curled up into a ball and began to sleep.
Michael almost chuckled after seeing this scene.
He finally understood why Jaku only now hatched his Diva.
It was because he was lazy, just like him!
The only reason why it didn’t hatch right after his breakthrough was because it still wanted to sleep comfortably in its shell!
"I’m so jealous," Jaku said, his eyes starting to become heavy. "I want to sleep too."
But before Jaku could drift off into his dreams, Michael demanded a step-by-step explanation as to what happened during his breakthrough, as well as his new Aubility Power.
And after Jaku relayed it back to him, Michael was intrigued.
So his Aubility relies on him being lazy? How fitting.
"Boss, can we go home now? My throat is kinda sore..."
"Okay, yeah sure—"
Michael was about to activate his shadow teleportation skill, when he made a cursory glance at Jaku’s throat.
Since Jaku said it was sore, he thought that it was a simple sickness that could be cured with some honey lemon tea.
But then he noticed that Jaku’s light mana wasn’t actually in disarray.
It looked completely fine!
"Are you sure?" he asked Jaku again.
"Yeah, boss," Jaku replied, massaging his throat. "Ever since that weird thing happened, my throat’s been sore ever since."
Michael raised his eyebrow. "What weird thing?"
Jaku then began to explain the last part of his fight with Mauricio and the other swordsmen.
"I knew that if the other swordsmen escaped, then I would lose the tournament. I couldn’t let that happen, so I... just followed that weird feeling I had in my heart."
"What was it?" Michael asked.
Jaku scratched the back of his head, feeling quite awkward to share this thought out loud.
"It was dominance, boss. I wanted to be the only one who was fast. Those other swordsmen... they didn’t deserve their quickness. Only I can be fast.
And I don’t know what happened after I followed that feeling. But soon after, I regained my sanity and I suddenly saw the swordsmen lose control. So I took that advantage and won the tournament."
Michael listened to Jaku’s recollection and couldn’t help but be confused yet again.
What? Jaku caused the other swordsmen to lose their speed? I thought his Aubility Power allowed him to get speed after being lazy, not take it from others.
Those were two completely different powers. The only conclusion he could think of was that Jaku awakened two Aubility Powers, which was strange, but not inconceivable.
His throat hurt after that? Using an Aubility Power doesn’t make your body fatigued. It only tires out the GodForge pieces and the heart.
He would have thought that this ’sore throat’ was simply a hallucination from Jaku, but after observing him using the Drone Vision, he realized that something had changed within Jaku.
On his throat, right underneath the voice box, there was an entirely new part made entirely out of Aubility Power!
It was made out of these threads of Aubility Power that were woven together to create a cascading set of fabric around Jaku’s throat.
What the hell is that?!
It didn’t seem like an ordinary use of Aubility Power.
It wasn’t like his Quantum techniques, nor something that a Nascent Spirit realm Maugnetic was doing with their bodies.
If those had Aubility Power being used as veins to transmit strength, then this new thing on Jaku’s throat had Aubility Power being used as an entirely new organ!
Harbinger, what am I looking at?
[Kukuku... come on. The Goddess already told you about it.]
Michael’s memory flashed back to that time when he ’hallucinated’ his meeting with the Bratty Goddess.
She mentioned something about Kuno the Original Vampire, as well as the Iron Maiden/Gaia.
But it wasn’t just that. He remembered her saying something about the Dragonborns and how they were so close to awakening their true power.
Was this it?
Jaku could stop someone’s speed with just his voice. No Aubility can do that. This was something more powerful... something more ancient.