I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1295: The Potential Of What Could Be

The tiny worm paused at the threshold between the right atrium and ventricle. Northern could sense Lord’s hesitation through their bond—a flicker of something that might have been awe, or fear, or both. The Chaos Heart’s presence was overwhelming even from this distance, a gravity well of corruption that pressed against Lord’s small form like an invisible hand.

But then the worm moved.

[Nebulous Lord Is Activating Omniform]

Lord’s form began to shift. Northern sat up the moment he saw it, a small frown knitting his brows.

’What is he...’

Nebulous Lord was doing something dangerous. He was shifting away from a worm—no, was no longer just a worm at all. He became something else. Something without true shape, something that could exist between states. The Formless attribute allowed him to become neither solid nor liquid, neither living nor dead. But there was a very delicate line to how this worked, a razor’s edge between transcendence and dissolution.

Northern suspected that Nebulous Lord was treading that line now, becoming not a thing but a potential of what could be.

[Nebulous Lord: Approaching Chaos Heart]

The shapeless entity that was Lord flowed through the heart chamber, passing through muscle tissue like smoke through a screen. He moved toward the dark mass that clung to the Queen’s heart like a tumor—a pulsing knot of wrongness that Northern’s Shingan rendered in sickening detail. The corruption had threaded itself through every layer of cardiac tissue, tendrils burrowed deep into places they had no right to be.

[Contact Initiated]

The moment Lord touched the Chaos Heart, Northern saw it recoil. The vestige felt the threat—something was trying to consume it for once, rather than the other way around. For a heartbeat, the corruption seemed almost confused, as if the concept of being prey was fundamentally foreign to its nature.

[Chaos Heart: Defensive Response Detected]

Dark tendrils lashed out, trying to skewer the formless mass that was Lord. But there was nothing to pierce—Lord simply flowed around each attack, reforming instantly. The tendrils passed through him like fingers through water, finding no purchase, no resistance, nothing to destroy.

[Nebulous Lord: Beginning Absorption Process]

[Warning: Chaos Energy Concentration Rising]

Northern’s eyes narrowed. This was the critical moment. Lord was attempting to eat pure chaos—to devour the essence of entropy itself and make it part of his being. Through the Shingan, Northern watched as Lord’s formless edges began to darken, taking on a violet tinge that hadn’t been there before.

The Chaos Heart thrashed violently, sensing its impending doom. The Queen’s body convulsed slightly, her breath catching in her throat.

Northern moved quickly, crossing the distance to the bed and taking her hand, pressing it gently but firmly against the mattress. It was fortunate he’d sent everyone else out. This would have been impossible to explain.

”Don’t,” he murmured, unsure if she could hear him in whatever twilight state she drifted through. ”Let him work.”

[Absorption: 23%]

Lord’s formless mass darkened further, taking on properties of the chaos itself. He was becoming a hybrid—part summon, part chaos entity. His Omniform ability allowed him to integrate the Chaos Heart’s nature without being consumed by it, to make foreign corruption into native strength.

[Absorption: 47%]

The Chaos Heart’s struggles grew weaker. Its tendrils, once deeply embedded in the Queen’s soul structure, began to withdraw—not forcefully ripped out, but eaten away from the connection points. Where Lord touched, the corruption simply ceased to exist.

[Absorption: 68%]

[Queen’s Soul Integrity: Stabilizing]

Northern could see it clearly now through the Shingan’s unblinking gaze. Lord wasn’t just consuming the Chaos Heart—he was carefully dissolving the connections between it and the Queen’s soul, devouring each tendril one by one to prevent traumatic separation. Precise. Methodical. The work of a surgeon, not a predator.

’When did you learn to be so careful?’

[Absorption: 89%]

The Chaos Heart gave one final, desperate pulse of corrupting energy—a last-ditch attempt to destroy its devourer. The wave of wrongness crashed against Lord’s formless body, powerful enough that Northern felt it even from outside, a pressure against his senses like nails dragged across glass.

But Lord had already consumed too much of it. The chaos energy that would have killed another creature simply became fuel for his transformation.

[Absorption: 100%]

[Chaos Heart: ELIMINATED]

The dark mass vanished completely, consumed entirely by Nebulous Lord. For a moment, there was only Lord’s presence within the Queen’s heart chamber—a small, dark sphere of concentrated power, pulsing with newfound strength.

[Nebulous Lord: Evolution Detected]

[New Attribute Acquired: Chaos Integration]

[New Ability Potential: Chaos Embodiment]

The sphere began to move, flowing back through the bloodstream the way it had come. Northern tracked it with his Shingan as Lord made the return journey—through veins, through capillaries, back up toward the ear canal. The path that had been treacherous on the way in was familiar now, the body no longer rejecting Lord’s presence.

[Queen’s Vitals: Rapidly Improving]

[Organ Functionality Restoration in Progress]

A few moments later, the tiny obsidian worm emerged from the Queen’s ear and dropped onto the pillow. It grew, expanded, reformed—the familiar humanoid shape of Nebulous Lord rising from what had been something so small.

He stood there breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling with breaths he didn’t technically need. Dark purple energy wisped off his body in lazy curls, energy that hadn’t been there before. His eyes—once purely dark—now held flecks of chaotic violet within their depths, like distant stars burning in a void.

Lord looked at his hands, turning them over slowly. Then he looked at Northern, bewilderment plain on his features.

”Master... I can feel it. The chaos. It’s...” He paused, searching for words. ”Part of me now.”

Northern’s Shingan faded, his eyes returning to their normal calm sea blue. He stood and placed a hand on Lord’s shoulder, feeling the strange new warmth radiating from his summon’s form.

”You’ve done well.”

Behind them, the Queen drew in a deep, full breath—the first truly clear breath she’d taken in years. Her lungs filled completely, freely, without the rattle of corruption fighting against every expansion. Color was already returning to her cheeks.

Northern opened the gate to the Soul Forge. ”Enter. Rest.”

Lord hesitated for only a moment before stepping through. As the gate closed behind him, a new notification appeared from Aoi.

[Nebulous Lord may be going through an evolution]

[A cocoon will be created over him since Chaos is evolved]

Northern processed the information, filed it away. There would be time to consider the implications later.

For now, he turned toward the door, opened it, and looked at the faces waiting beyond—King Ruger’s barely contained anxiety, Prince Rieren’s careful neutrality, Roma’s hopeful tension, and his mother’s knowing gaze.

Then he smiled.