Endless Evolution: Last Star

The original reason for Adam's rage was Magnus's experiments and the fact that there were children, mostly girls, in the pods.

Adam couldn't imagine what Magnus had to say to keep him from killing him on the spot, but... Magnus had managed to shock him.

It wasn't surprising, though, since Adam couldn't have known about the existence of hybrids.

After all, Nessa was the only one and it was unknown whether other hybrids like her would ever appear. As long as there were none besides her, she wasn't a separate species but simply an anomaly for which there was simply no explanation yet.

"As I said at the beginning, some of these children are here of their own free will, and some I took away when they were near death. You should know better than most that it's easy to get hurt in the slums, too easy, especially by children that don't yet understand the cruelty of our world." Magnus said calmly, glancing at the pods.

Adam nodded. Many times Leona, his mother, had scolded him when he came home with scratches and abrasions. However, Adam couldn't remember a single time after that when things changed and he acted less risky.

"Have I tried to turn them into hybrids? Sure, dozens, no, hundreds of times. All of those girls died, but they were in the same situation as Nessa. The wounds were too severe, their bodies too weak and so on, their only chance to survive was to become a hybrid to strengthen their bodies and let me heal them." Magnus said calmly. Their deaths were just a number in his records.

Magnus continued:

"Sure, I have done my experiments on both boys and adults. You know, if you put some effort into it, you can pick up a lot of wounded people from the Dead Lands that no one and nothing will ever be able to help. I'm talking about the military and the Harvesters."

Adam narrowed his eyes.

"Well... your history with Nessa is truly astounding, but we both realize you're not a kind man. I'm sure you've tried turning not only the terminally wounded into hybrids but those who might easily survive in other circumstances." Adam said coldly.

Magnus's story had answered many of his questions, but Adam wasn't going to forget what kind of man Magnus was because of it. Nessa may have been someone he cared about, but that didn't apply to the others....

At the same moment, Magnus grinned widely like a demon. He was back to normal after having been truly serious for the duration of the story.

"Naturally. Many were fatally ill to whom I offered a deal. Usually, they were poor people from the slums. They didn't have the money to pay for the treatment that would get rid of the disease anyway, it was impossible for them and the disease was becoming incurable." Magnus chuckled evilly.

In the Citadel, with money and resources it was possible to cure any human disease, but... how could the slum dwellers have hundreds of thousands or even millions of credits?

"Tsk. You could have just cured them, that's what you do here, isn't it?" Adam frowned, looking around. He didn't like Magnus's position. Partly because it was a bit personal for Adam since he was from the slums too.

Magnus nodded, then his face grew serious.

"Look, like you said I'm not a philanthropist, I have my own goals and I'm willing to make deals to achieve them, but not charity. The poor terminally ill slum residents to whom I come have two choices:

"First one: refuse me and die in agony, condemning their family to an even more miserable existence, because with the death of their family member, hopes for a brighter future become less as well.

"Second one: agree to the experiment, die with a 99.99% chance of never becoming a hybrid, and get so much money from me that his family can leave the slums forever." Magnus waved his hand with an excited expression.

Adam sighed heavily, shaking his head.

"So it's either die and do nothing or die and give your family a good life, right?" Adam clenched his fist tightly.

Oddly enough, he realized that such an offer was almost impossible to refuse. Adam seriously doubted how he would have responded, a few years ago, if Magnus had come to their family with such an offer.

"Yeah, something like that, but you think too good of people. I assure you, I've seen dozens of cases where mothers and fathers have given me their children, even if they weren't sick. All for the sake of getting some money and making their lives better." Magnus shrugged as if talking about something insignificant.

Adam's eyes went wide. Even in his worst nightmare, he couldn't imagine that his parents would do such a thing.

"And...? Did you agree? You took their children from them at their will and gave them money to conduct an experiment doomed to fail and kill them?" Adam asked, in a choppy voice.

"Of course." Magnus instantly replied, "I don't care about their fates, the main thing is to run the experiment and try to succeed once more. However... sometimes I have been offered children when I needed adults, over the years I have experimented on all age groups. In that case, I'd give the money to the children and take the adults."

Adam bit his lip. It was vile to hear that, but even worse for Adam was the fact that it was the people in this situation who were the worst and not Magnus.

If in the case of the disease, agreeing to Magnus's offer had been cruel, but pragmatically correct and even sacrificial, because it was for the well-being of the family. In the second case... people were literally killing their own children for the sake of a few coins.

Adam wasn't sure that these people were better than monsters and that they deserved to live, this act was an inferior one.

"Tsk. Is money really that important to these people..." Adam clenched his fists tightly.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha." Magnus laughed suddenly, "You should know how many perfectly healthy people died here, even from the First Ring. Some were set up, some were sentenced to life imprisonment, some came to me on their own in hopes of becoming stronger. Well, they all died."

Whooooooosh.

Magnus turned around sharply pointing at Adam.

"Adam, never forget that if given the opportunity, human nature comes out. Many of us are capable of terrible decisions and things, it just takes the right conditions."

Adam narrowed his eyes, not answering anything.

Then, he looked at the girls in the pods once more.

"In that case, what are they doing here? From the looks of it, you're not going to do experiments on them, are you?" Adam asked in a low voice.

"Agh... Like I said many came here of their own free will and they are simply being treated here in return for passing a few simple tests unrelated to the hybrid." Magnus shoved his hands in his pockets, "In a couple of days many of them will return to their homes and others will take their place. People get injured and sick with something serious all the time."

"Oh, why the sudden kindness?" Adam narrowed his eyes.

Magnus shrugged nonchalantly:

"Why not? I've done enough experiments to know that if I want to have even a 00.01% chance of success, I need the person to be near death like I did with Nessa. I can heal them and that's it, maybe one of them will be fatally wounded after a while and come back to me and maybe one of them will become a second hybrid someday..." Magnus said with a slight sadness in his voice.

Adam frowned and closed his eyes, pondering Magnus's words.

Even if most of the test subjects were beyond help, Magnus had killed many people with his experiment that were not sick or terminally wounded, they had just been abandoned by fate.

Perhaps if Adam had come here a few months ago, he wouldn't have even asked the next question, but would have simply attacked Magnus, accusing him of all sins:

"And? What are you doing all this for? Is a second hybrid really worth it?" Adam asked seriously. Explore stories at m-v le-mpyr

Then, his gaze turned cold.

"Show me, does the end justify the means?"

There was silence for a while.

But, very soon a sinister smile formed on Magnus's face, and an eerie aura began to emanate from him that was like a violet flame filling the room, at least that's how it looked to the others.

"Good question. Fine, I'll show you how strong Nessa is." Magnus pointed at Adam.

At the same moment, Nessa attacked.