The hivemind is conquering for me?

As I made my way out of the bedroom, I was immediately greeted to quite the sight. Valerica was sitting on the ground naked with her legs crossed together and her hands on her knees as she read the scroll that was rolled out in front of her.

I took in what I was seeing for a moment and nodded my head in appreciation before I continued my exit. ”See you tomorrow Valerica.” With a voice finally getting through to her after hours, Valerica looked around confused. ”Apollo? When did we get upstairs? Hmm, I suppose that’s a good thing, I don’t want horny imbeciles drooling over my form after all.”

I wiped my mouth just to be on the safe side as I nodded in agreement. ”Well, I am heading to bed I-” I tried to say goodnight again as I could get a response, but Valerica interrupted. ”Apollo, come here, I need your help with something.”

I shrugged my shoulders and knelt down next to Valerica, who caught my gaze towards her breasts and smiled. ”Men. At least we all know what they like huh?” I smiled back. ”Well in my defense, yum.” I moved my hand in a zig-zag, directed towards her whole body, causing Valerica to snicker.

”Tut, you really are a charmer my son. That tongue of yours is going to get you into some serious lady trouble one of these days. Now come, look here. Your note specifies that four hours is the maximum before the body explodes? Now who in the empire were you testing on? The pain simply becomes too much with my current technique after ten minutes, I couldn’t fathom anyone going for hours at a time, Especially with the new strengthening process, it sounds like hell and I am a bit of a secret masoc- Do not tell Kitten I just said that!”

I chuckled at Valerica’s so-called ’secret’ . It was obvious with how much she likes to exercise her body. Pain is gain after all and she got them gains. ”Don’t worry, mother/son confidentiality.” I said, Ignoring the blinding smile of Valeric after I had said that. I then looked towards the notes to jog my memory and went.

”Oh, right. I cloned myself. I used homunculi’s fully formed beings with no pain receptors or brain functionality. I made them female and manually did the exercise for them with my science doodads. The body can survive four hours before exploding into meat paste, but as you said, the pain a person with a functioning brain can take is only so much so you won’t be in any real danger... What? Is there something on my face?”

Valerica was looking at me with a mixture of shock, confusion and surprise. ”You were able to artificially create life? On your own? Just like that?” She asked, causing me to wiggle my hand on a horizontal plane.

”Meh~ Yes and no. Jewel and her assistants helped, my teacher is amazing after all. And it’s not creating ’life’ Life requires a few more quirks. A Psionic Existence is a start. I basically just created a bunch of meat sacks that were... I suppose synthetic life would be better? No... when I hear synthetic, I hear synth. Beep boops. But I suppose the cells were alive? but only in the strictest of conditions, outside of those vats they would have died, not enough…”

”Apollo!” Valerica said sternly, causing me to look up in shock .”Hmm?” Valerica looked at me warmly. ”Your eyes lost themselves then, it was like you were disappearing. Forget I asked anything, I am just so proud my only child is so talented! Goodness I wish you had a grant or something to study your profession legally, I could boast to all my bitch friends about how amazing my Son is and how he can create life from nothing! Just like the...”

”Valerica? Are you ok?” A quietness took over Valerica as she looked directly through me. She seemed to come back a moment later with a deep breath. ”Ugh, I fucking hate those twats.”

”Huh? What twats?” I asked confused, causing Valerica to turn her attention back to me. ”Oh don’t worry about it Apollo, You might be adopted, but you unfortunately do not carry my blood, the old fuckers won’t come for you.” She said, like that wasn’t cryptic as fuck.

”You do realise you have just opened yourself up for a buttload of questions? What just-” Valerica’s lips just planted on mine. There was no further aggression, just a simple peck, but she looked at me with a smile.

”Oh, that was naughty. I am still a little drunk from earlier, but it’s ok. I am just giving my baby some love. Sorry love, I needed you to stop speaking. My rank as a guardian of Spartari allows me to chat shit about... *Ahem* ’THEM’ but I can’t actually tell you much about them except for the fact they know when they are being talked about and they are absurdly powerful.”

I flipped my head back and sighed aggressively. ”That just creates more questions Valerica, you are killing me here! Wait! Does Kathrine know about these ’Them?’ Valerica didn’t say anything but nodded her head

’Well, I now have an idea... Though powerful Psionic entities, I’m assuming, that can tell when Valerica is talking about them... Best wait till I’m back with Jewel to be safe. As much as I hate that.’ I cursed myself for a moment for always being a magnet for mystery and history as it was truly a blessing and a curse depending on the scenario. I craved to know more, Sol’s empowerment of my driving emotions didn’t help with that feeling either, but I did my best to put it out of my mind.

”How powerful are we talking here? Fuck!” I cursed, causing Valerica to softly giggle, but continued to say nothing. Her silence had begun to worry me, so I decided to drop the whole thing... For now, and asked one final question.

”Valerica, are you safe?” I think her heart melted a little judging from her facial expression, she could clearly tell that I cared about her and she nodded her head, replying this time. ”Yes, Apollo. I am perfectly safe. I am not being oppressed, I am just... Protecting ancient interests. It goes beyond my own feelings after all. If I could tell you everything, trust me my baby, I would. But the noble families of spartari are playing an incredibly long game and- Alright I can feel your presence, I’ll shut it!... Fucking looking at my soul like that, I’m speaking to my child after all... Trying to scare me, I’ll spark you out you daft little...”

She then looked at me and smiled painfully, like she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have done. ”Let’s get back to this. So aside from the pain, I am concerned about something. You mentioned to me that my clot was caused by Psionic energy forming around my blood cells correct? However, here it looks like the technique causes me to infuse my blood with this energy temporarily, before removing it over and over before a small part of my blood cell becomes Psionic energy?”

I furrowed my brows and pinched my glabella so I could try to explain this very important difference to someone who doesn’t know how to visualise the difference.

”Ok. So are you at all aware your technique comes from a species of Aliens called the Ungulaps?” Valerica looked down at the scroll and went. ”Oh! is that why that word kept on coming up? Yes, grandma told me about that once, I thought she was just getting old at the time and was losing her mind, glad to know she still was coherent”

”Ok then. Well, since your original technique was made for an alien species, despite your best efforts to adapt it, your technique would every so often pull in incompatible ambient Psionic energy. That then got stuck in your system, causing the clots. What my improvement does is invite energy in that the person using the technique is compatible with. Strengthening you before leaving your body with the second part of the technique so it causes no damage to you. Honestly, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I really went to town on this one, one of my greatest accomplishments that stemmed from my greatest pain.”

Judging by the look on Valerica’s face, I think she understood everything I said, but just to be on the safe side. ”The Psionic energy will not stay in your body long enough to cause any damage and any that could on the miniscule impossibility did get stuck, would be compatible with your body and would be absorbed over time instead of getting stuck.”

Valerica nodded her head and then pointed to another part of the scroll. ”Ok then, now explain this to me.”

I lost track of time as I got in the zone with Valerica. I pushed the mystery power Valerica mentioned out of my mind as I began going over every detail of the technique with her, but I had forgotten something.

A certain part of my existence really, really hated not being in the know. In fact, this certain part of my existence manifested a power I shouldn’t even had access to yet as I was too weak to consistently get within the state, but as the part of my existence continued to demand to know knowledge, it started, my Mindspace cleared, my inhabitants placed in a safe space as a blackness descended throughout with nothing but a series of strange red lines, many more than the last time it had manifested.

Answers were to be had!