Vylt: The New Dawn

Chapter 15: OoM

"Working hard, Anna?" I asked. We were almost done eating by the time she arrived.

She sat down and sprawled herself on the table. "I'd say it was more lengthy than difficult. We had tons of new data to process."

"Anything you can share with us?" Allison asked.

"Sure," the elf replied, getting up. "Though I suppose you'll need some context first. A few days ago, we were able to confirm that it's possible to determine what each individual will become based on their genes alone. For example, if we look at Nora's earliest sample, we can say with certainty that she was meant to be an elf, like me."

I frowned at her. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Hey, you never asked." She laughed at my pouty expression. "Don't look at me like that! I told you about all the important stuff, didn't I? If I shared everything we learned, I would bore you all to death. Plus, I've said this before, but many of our findings become do obsolete almost as fast as they come up."

I glared at her, but accepted her argument. "Fair enough. You said that was days ago, though. What was it that kept you so occupied today, then?"

"Well, while it's now easy to tell who will become a metahuman, elf or draell, we still had certain races whose triggers were a bit trickier to identify. Do you remember what I said about vampires being considered elfkin?"

I nodded. "That they share enough traits with elves to be considered close relatives."

"Right! And that became a fact today. Vampires do have the same genetic triggers as us, elves. It wasn't until today, however, that we noticed their transformation is altered by an additional element which completely overrides the elven genes, and yet, it's still dependent on them.

"As you all know, vampires need to consume blood regularly to stay healthy. The question here is 'why?'. Well, from our experiments, we concluded that this is the result from the MAV trying to fix a blood-related disease or condition."

Allison hummed, "If that is the cause, why did it take so long to be discovered"

"Because, no matter how strong or insignificant the problem is, they are all triggers for the vampire mutation," Anna responded. "So, to give you an example, let's assume Nora was never bitten and had a mild iron deficiency instead. Since she had the genes needed to become an elf, this health issue would've been enough to change the virus's behaviour and make her a vampire. The problem is that it's not always that evident. Additionally, it wasn't the only race with a similar issue, which is why I say it was more time consuming than anything. In fact, as of today, only ghosts' triggers remain a mystery."

"Is that why Dr. Blake is still in there?" I asked.

Anna shook her head. "No. Unfortunately, the only way we can confirm it is by finding a suitable candidate, and that is quite difficult. We believe ghosts are also the result of a disease. In this case, a terminal one." She made a brief pause and bit her lip before she continued. "Anyway, unlike any of the elfkin, the tests we tried didn't affect the blood samples we have. No matter if it's a normal human or a potential elf, the virus can't turn a few drops of blood into a ghost, so we need to find someone who meets all the requirements."

"It needs the person's soul, right?" asked Allison.

Anna snorted at her question. "We don't know. It's not like we can prove the existence of souls either. I seriously doubt it, but your guess is as good as any, I suppose. Back to your question, Nora, the reason my dad is still in the lab is your little accident with that hawk."

"It's just frozen, though," I commented, confused.

She laughed. "Yes, it's nothing more than a frozen bird to the naked eye. However, when placed under a microscope, we detected traces of residual mana. Even if it didn't have anything out of the ordinary, the way it was frozen is still amazing enough. Tell me, Nora, what is cold?"