Eiran was inside the bubble, moving. Looking down at his body, he saw that around his hands and legs, just close to the stumps, bandages were wrapped—more like normal thin white fabric bands.
His talent energy was very low, accumulating but also being siphoned into the fabric bands.
Understanding came to Eiran regarding Talent Energy and the Essence Vessels in his body. He had assumed that Essence Vessels were energy containers that took in Talent Energy and converted it into Celestial Blood Essence. But that wasn't directly the case.
His Talent Energy was the very thing that molded into the Essence Vessels. Then his own blood passed through them. Upon entering, the blood shifted into something else and vanished completely.
If enough blood passed through over long periods while he ate nutritious food, a mist would emerge from the Essence Vessels, attracting liters of blood and reforming it into Celestial Blood Essence.
"Dr. Gerard, can you tell me more about Talent Energy." His soft, celestial-like voice echoed inside the doctor's mind.
"Let us reach the ship first," the doctor spoke in his grating voice.
Eiran then focused on his body and the changes the bandage brought him.
His Born Traits—the Essence Vessels—had become very minute due to lack of Talent Energy, but they were still working, absorbing absurd amounts of blood every second with no visible change.
More understanding about his physiology came to him. His body was in constant creation of blood. From what he could infer, no drop of blood circulated through his heart twice.
As blood passed through his heart, taking oxygen, most of it vanished inside the Essence Vessels while a few drops reached around his body before they too vanished.
The Essence Vessels took both oxygenated and non-oxygenated blood. But there were also certain elements in the body carried by the blood that were absorbed into the Essence Vessels.
"Are all Alterborne the same?" Eiran asked when they were inside the ship and he was out of the bubble.
"No. But families of Alterborne tend to give birth to their kind." The man stared at the bands on Eiran's hands.
"The bandage chose you. I thought it would be the prosthetic arms or the Mannequin."
Eiran stared at the man, expecting his earlier question to be answered.
"Talent Energy is more important than the talent itself. It conditions the body and mind to support the talent. More importantly, it serves as energy for healing, immunity, evolution, and adaptation." He paused, scrutinizing the baby.
"Phase 1 can only use their Talent Energy passively when powering their Talent Skills, but from Phase 2 and above, one can control it to facilitate healing, enhance strength, and resist the influence of other talents. Most importantly, one develops an aura that resists mental attacks, airborne harmful radiation, and much more."
"Talent Energy itself is versatile," Eiran said with wondering eyes.
"Yes. How do you feel with the bandage?"
Eiran tapped his face with his stump, laughing. "It's cold!" He pulled his leg stump to his face and tapped his cheek again. "It's cold. They're cold."
The rest of his body was normal warm temperature, but the stumps around the bandages were cold. His attention focused on them as he began to play. He tried biting the bandages with his gums, which made him frown—for the first time, he wanted teeth.
But he didn't stop giggling at the slight itchy coldness of the stumps. His mind was also processing the doctor's explanation. Talent Energy was the source of everything special about the awakened.
Since his Essence Vessels were also Talent Energy, he would be able to control them when he reached Phase 2. The idea made him smile more.
Playfully, Eiran asked, "What do the bandages do?"
The doctor was ready with an answer. Clearly, he wanted Eiran's attention but also didn't want to disturb the boy's excitement over his new toy.
"Do you know when they'll properly bond with you?" the doctor asked.
"Yep. In about a day. My talent energy is seeping faster into them, and they're improving and... I don't know!" Eiran began to crawl around. The itch was increasing, and this time his whole body seemed to be responding.
"It's mostly called Bandage Form. Golden Man uses it to make clothes, cover his wounds. When he loses limbs, it can create replacements until he gets them back. That's all I know."
"They're fun! Haha!" His chirping laughter was contagious—even the doctor smiled, feeling at ease watching the boy have a good time.
"I had prepared you for the Mannequin. But if you could be very useful, I can speak with the Golden Man to let you have it."
"Nope. I'm good. But what can the others do?"
Dr. Gerard sighed. "The Mannequin allows you to create an avatar—"
"What's an avatar?" Eiran chimed in. He was now standing on his four stumps. The posture was hilarious, and the doctor could already tell the itching had increased.
"There would be two of you. You could be in two places at the same time. No matter which one gets harmed, the other becomes real. It's very effective from Phase 1 to 3. Above that, its effect diminishes."
Eiran stopped playing, understanding fully why the doctor wanted him to have it.
"I still don't like it." This surprised the doctor, who leaned forward. "Why? Is there something wrong with it?"
"I don't know. I just don't like it."
"Your intuition is off the charts for a baby. There's wisdom in whatever you do. I really need to know—perhaps think harder for a reason or idea." Dr. Gerard was more eager now than ever. Something was clicking in his mind, connecting experiences he had pushed away but were now surfacing.
"It looked at me. That's why."
"It has consciousness?" Dr. Gerard asked. "That's part of its ability—to have subtle consciousness that accommodates its user and becomes almost one with them."
"It's aware," Eiran said before trying to stand on his stumps with help from the wall. It was slightly painful on the leg stump but served as scratching the giggling itch.
"Awareness," the doctor muttered. "Hmm. That might be trouble. Do you sense someone other than itself linked with it, or is it self-aware?"
"I don't know... waa!" Eiran fell down, which almost made him cry. He had to hold himself back.
"The liquid metal is blood from a special creature." Eiran turned to look at the man. "It seeps into your body and enhances all bodily activity. You attain strength akin to Power types and augmentation akin to Enhancement types. You can create metal constructs and gain limbs made of metal. Quite useful. It's what I used until Phase 3. Golden Man also used it during his time—he became ridiculously powerful."
"I felt attracted to it..." Eiran commented before biting his hand.
"The prosthetic arms will turn into real arms, then facilitate regeneration of your natural ones. You can send force blasts using them and convert your energy into barriers. They're very good because they allow rudimentary control of talent energy from Phase 1."
"Ha. Useful. Argh!" Eiran had hooked his hand on the crib and was now climbing with difficulty, his face red and body strained.
"The stone will give you limbs too and allow you to control stone, rocks, and related elements. If you're in Gravel Ruins, you'll have easy access to controlling relics. Also, all attacks or harm on... don't do that, you'll injure yourself..."
"Waaa! Waaa! Waaa!"
"Haha!" Dr. Gerard chuckled, unable to hold back his amusement at the boy's antics. He quickly created a bubble that wrapped around Eiran, pulling him from the crib where he had hooked his hand wrongly, causing his arm to twist and create intense pain.
Settling him back in the crib, he said, "You should rest."
Eyes filled with tears, Eiran nodded and became silent.
"Now that you've heard about each, which would you have chosen?"
"This." Eiran's tone still had lingering poutiness.
"Any specific reasons?"
"It's amazing. I like it."
"Emotion-based reasoning," the doctor mused, "maybe intuition-based reasoning," He took a deep breath, confirming the boy had calmed down.
"How did you explode that man? I mean, he was Phase 2. You can affect Phase 2 even with talent energy barriers around them?"
"It wasn't me—it was the blood inside him." Eiran quickly said before becoming thoughtful. "Dr. Gerard, what is evil and good? What's considered right and wrong?"
Dr. Gerard was shaken and looked at the baby.
From what Eiran could remember from six months with Mama Thorne, he had seen and heard things. The world was simple but also complex.
He felt he was walking on a thin line—an imaginary boundary between right and wrong. His knowledge and insights came from his blood, and he feared there might be an effect from the Blood Monarch on him.
But worse, he knew there was knowledge in him that his small body and brain were limiting. What bothered him was thinking about the man who had exploded. In his eyes at that time, it might as well have been a tomato exploding, but the look in the man's eyes—now that he was accused of exploding him—came back to him. It was pleading, afraid, praying to live just one more moment before it was snuffed out.
He had felt nothing then, but now those eyes made his tongue taste bitter, just like when he thought of turning blood into venom like the Blood Monarch.
The doctor coughed. "That's not important. Golden Man has a mission for you." Desperate to change the topic he pointed to a large screen showing a vast swath of earth floating in above ground. On it, something resembling buildings could be seen.
"He has selected you to be his candidate. Congratulations—you are now Crown Prince of Ethiopia."
The child's expression didn't change. But the air shifted again—sharpening like broken glass.
"Not doing it," Eiran said.
His voice echoed in the doctor's head like a bell struck too hard—clear, ringing, and absolute.