NOVPUB
Chapter 173: Chapter 173 Exogens I
Liam kept staring at the black screen, long after the video had ended. The room felt unnaturally quiet now, the kind of silence that screamed with buried truths. His father’s words echoed in his mind: You may already have abilities...
He clenched his jaw. So that was it? Was he just an experiment? A product of one of those horrifying procedures carried out in the bloodstained depths of this hidden lab? The thought twisted something deep inside him. The System, the enhancements—did they all come from here? From his father? From this place reeking of secrets and suffering?1
Lana must have seen the conflict etched on his face, the haunted look in his eyes, because she stepped forward and said softly, "Maybe he didn’t tell you everything. Maybe there’s something more to all of this."
But Liam didn’t answer. His body moved on its own as he walked toward the object covered by a thick, dust-cloaked tarp in the center of the room. With a single motion, he pulled it off.
All three of them froze.
Beneath the tarp lay a bizarre scientific device unlike anything they had ever seen. It stood about six feet tall, shaped like a massive vertical ring supported by a crystalline base. The material it was made of shimmered between black and silver, almost as if reality was glitching around its edges. Strange coils spun slowly in orbit around the ring, suspended by invisible forces. At its center was an empty space, framed by dozens of micro-thin filaments, like a giant mechanical iris. The surface shimmered as though it rippled with a pulse of its own.
Liam stepped around it cautiously, trying to understand what it was. The symbols etched along the base were alien—not just foreign, but inhuman. Even with his System-enhanced mind, he couldn’t decipher them. Lilith narrowed her eyes and circled the opposite side, frowning. "I don’t recognize any of this. This isn’t just advanced... it’s unnatural."
Lana tilted her head slightly, peering closer. Then she noticed something along the side of the machine: a small circular compartment that contained a glossy black liquid. It didn’t move like a normal fluid—it was thick and still, like tar encased in glass.
Curious, Lana reached forward and tapped it with her fingertip. Not hard. Just enough to test the texture.
The moment her skin touched the glass, the liquid shimmered with a strange black light.
A low hum vibrated through the floor.
Liam spun around. "What did you do?"
Lana held up both hands, eyes wide. "Nothing! I didn’t even press anything, I swear! I just touched it!"
The hum deepened. The device flickered to life, filaments lighting up in a slow spiral around the central ring. Lines of faint black light crawled along the etched runes. It was awakening.
Liam’s instincts screamed. He stepped back. "Both of you—get back! Now!"
He was already moving, darting behind one of the nearby steel tables for cover. Lilith didn’t hesitate either—she jumped back as instructed. But Lana... she remained frozen. Her gaze was locked on the center of the machine, her body trembling.
"Lana!" Lilith shouted, her voice laced with urgency. "Move!"
But Lana didn’t blink. Her eyes were wide with shock, lips parted, as if the device had reached into her mind and chained her in place.
The machine whined louder now, heating up. The air distorted, and a dark radiance spilled from its core, painting their faces with shadow.
Lilith saw Lana wasn’t going to move.
Without another thought, she lunged forward—straight into the glowing circle’s field.
She grabbed Lana’s arm. Lana turned her head, and her breath caught in her throat.
Lilith’s face was changing—not burning, not injured, but becoming... black. Her skin, her eyes, her lips—they were all being painted with that same dark radiance that pulsed from the machine.
Lana gasped. She reached for her.
Liam was already running.
But the machine had reached its climax.
A blinding burst of black light erupted from its core, and the gravitational pull changed. Everything in the room—papers, equipment, tools, even the air itself—was sucked toward the center.
Lilith and Lana were at ground zero.
There was no time. No escape.
Then it exploded. 𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝙤𝙢
The blast that erupted from the machine wasn’t like anything Liam had ever seen or felt before. It wasn’t just force—it was presence. Dark, ancient, unexplainable. The instant the black energy expanded outward, it engulfed everything within the room. Time seemed to stretch. The air grew thick. A low hum morphed into a deafening pulse, followed by a surge of violent power that threw all three of them into the air like ragdolls.
Boom!
The force smashed Liam into the metal table behind him, sending pain through his side as he crumpled to the floor. His head struck the cold ground and his vision blurred as the lights blinked in and out. Somewhere across the room, Lilith’s body slammed into a glass cabinet, shattering it. Lana hit a rusted metal cart, her legs folding beneath her as she dropped.
Silence followed.
A long, dreadful silence.
When Liam’s eyes fluttered open, they stung, as if something dark and cold had passed through them. He blinked twice, then again, struggling to get up. His body trembled. Every part of him ached. But through the ringing in his ears, he could hear the faint sound of breathing—labored, but alive.
His eyes locked on Lilith. She lay a few feet away, her hair strewn across the floor, her chest rising and falling in ragged motions. His heart thumped painfully in his chest as he crawled toward her, every muscle screaming.
"Lilith!" he said hoarsely, grabbing her shoulders.
Her arms fell limply at her sides, making him panic. "Lilith! Wake up!"
He gave her a small shake, and then, like a jolt, her eyes snapped open. Her pupils were wide, almost glowing with a faint silver sheen. She gasped sharply and latched onto his wrist with trembling fingers, trying to catch her breath.
"What... what happened?" she whispered, voice dry and cracked.
"I—I don’t know," Liam muttered, shaking his head. "That... that thing exploded. It just... it blasted us."
Lilith tried to sit up, groaning in pain as Liam helped her into a seated position. She leaned against his shoulder, still catching her breath. His heart was racing. That explosion—it hadn’t just been a machine malfunction. It was something else entirely. Something alive. The room had gone completely still again, except for the flickering overhead lights that barely hung from their wires. The device at the center now looked... calm. Dormant.
But Liam noticed it immediately: the black liquid was gone.
He froze, eyes narrowing as he walked past Lilith toward the now-silent machine. The small tank that once contained the swirling black liquid was now empty. It hadn’t spilled. It had vanished. Absorbed. Merged.
"No..." he muttered under his breath. "That can’t be good."
But Lana.
His head snapped toward the far side of the room. She was still down.
"Lana!" he called, rushing to her side.
She was lying flat on her back, her face pale, her chest slowly rising. He dropped to his knees and gently touched her cheek. "Hey. Come on. Wake up. You okay?"
Lana groaned weakly and stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she stared up at him with wide, dazed eyes. But she didn’t speak. Her lips parted as though she wanted to say something, but no words came.
He held her close, steadying her as she sat up slowly. "You alright?"
"I... I don’t know," she whispered. "It was like... like I was somewhere else. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I just—" Her voice trembled. "—I felt something staring back at me in that light."
She clung to Liam for a moment, trembling. He kept his arms around her until he felt her steady. But then he felt it.
The temperature had dropped.
Suddenly and sharply.
Liam’s body stiffened. His breath became visible in the air. He turned around slowly... and that’s when he saw her.
Lilith.
She stood several feet away, no longer leaning against the wall. Her back was slightly hunched, her arms hanging loosely by her sides—but the most terrifying part was her hands.
They were coated in frost.
Thick, shimmering frost that pulsed and glittered with unnatural beauty. But it didn’t stop there. The air around her hands seemed to twist and spiral, condensing into foggy vapors and shimmering specks of white. Her fingers moved—and the ice followed. It responded to her.
As though she was calling it.
Manipulating it.
"L-Lilith...?" Liam stepped forward, cautiously.
She didn’t respond at first, just stared at her hands. Her brows were furrowed in confusion, and her lips slightly parted. Slowly, she raised her hand—and a spike of ice suddenly formed out of thin air, growing rapidly from her palm like a crystal bloom.
Lana gasped.
Liam’s heart thundered.
Lilith turned toward them, and her eyes shimmered with an unnatural silver gleam.
"I... I can feel the air," she said softly, her voice hollow. "The molecules... they’re slowing down. I can see them. I can twist them... and freeze them."
Her fingers clenched into a fist, and the spike shattered instantly, sending flakes of snow across the floor.
"What... the hell just happened to us?" Liam muttered.
