Chapter 361: Chapter 361 Buried History II

The man leaned back slightly, his sharp gaze cutting into Liam. His voice carried a weight that pressed against the silence of the room.

“After your father and I took more than we were supposed to… strange things started happening around us.”

Liam’s brows furrowed, his jaw tightening. “Strange things?” he repeated slowly, his suspicion dripping in every word.

The man nodded, his face unreadable. “Yes. We didn’t immediately use what was inside those bottles. Your father was cautious. He stored them away and told me he just wanted to study them. He said we’d be fools to unleash something we didn’t understand.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed. “So, he was scared.”

“No,” the man corrected firmly, shaking his head. “Not scared. Careful. Your father knew what would happen if we mishandled them. Using them recklessly would’ve been the beginning of something disastrous, something none of us could control. So, we decided to safeguard them, study them, maybe even recreate them.”

The man paused, his voice dropping. “I built the equipment your father needed. Everything—the scanners, the containment chambers, the amplifiers. But then…” He exhaled slowly, eyes falling to the ground. “He disappeared.”

Liam’s head snapped forward, his brows digging deep. “What do you mean he disappeared?”

The man didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he dragged a chair across the floor, the screech of its legs echoing sharply. He sat down slowly, his body relaxing as if finally admitting a hidden weight. He looked at Liam with eyes that carried a decade of unspoken hurt.

“Your father left no message,” the man said quietly. “No warnings. No explanations. No goodbyes. He just vanished. One day he was right there, working beside me, and the next morning his side of the lab was empty.”

Liam’s chest tightened as he stared at the man’s face. He didn’t need to be told how painful it must have been. The man’s eyes said it all. Building something great with a partner, someone you trusted, someone who shared your obsession, only for them to walk away without a trace—it was betrayal wrapped in silence.

The room hung heavy until Liam finally spoke. “Did you find him? Later?”

The man’s lips curved into a bitter smile. “Yes. How else do you think your system was built?”

Liam’s throat went dry. He leaned forward, his voice sharp. “What was he doing when you found him?”

The man’s shoulders slumped, his tone heavy with reluctant truth. “It turned out your father was working for the government.”

The words hit Liam like a strike to the gut. He almost scoffed but caught himself. “The government?”

The man nodded. “They offered him money. Enough to fund research without limits. And he took it.”

Liam’s fists clenched. “Research into what?”

The man locked eyes with him. “Into finding the location of the Aet-khanu-ra tomb inside the pyramid.”

Liam blinked, then let out a short, awkward laugh. “Are you serious right now? According to the way you’ve been talking, that place is supposed to be sacred. Hidden. Nobody could find it.”

The man tilted his head slightly, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. He studied Liam for a long moment, as if weighing his words, then said quietly:

“You have no idea how smart your father was, boy.”

The words silenced Liam’s mockery. His stomach tightened as he looked at the man’s expression—it wasn’t admiration, it wasn’t anger, it was something far heavier.

The man leaned forward, his voice calm but sharp as a blade. “Your father found the sacred tomb.”

Liam froze. The words rattled in his head like loose bolts in a machine. He wanted to deny it, to say the old man was lying, but something in his gut told him it wasn’t a bluff. His father—secretive, obsessive, brilliant—he was the kind of man who would chase the impossible until it broke under his grip.

But the tomb?

His thoughts raced, the room feeling smaller with every second. He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to breathe, forcing himself to anchor against the storm of revelations.

The man didn’t speak further, letting the weight of his words sink in. His eyes stayed on Liam, watching, waiting for the boy to process it.

Finally, Liam muttered, his voice quieter than before, “He actually found it…”

The man nodded slowly, almost regretfully. “Yes. And that’s when everything truly began to change.”

The old man leaned forward, his voice steady but carrying a heaviness that made the room colder.

“After your father found the tomb… he completely disappeared. Not even the government could find him. He tricked them into believing he was working on a serum—something that would create super soldiers for them. In truth, he was chasing something far bigger.”

Liam nodded slowly. That part didn’t shock him as much as it should. He had heard pieces of this before, a version of the story Vanessa once told him. Still, hearing it confirmed from the old man’s mouth felt different.

The man continued, his tone sharpening. “He was gone for a whole year. Nobody knew where he was. And then… one night, he came knocking on my door.”

Liam raised his brows slightly, his chest tight. “After all that? Just showed up?”

“Yes,” the man said, his eyes narrowing as if replaying the memory. “And when he did, I finally understood his madness—his obsession with evolution, with abilities, with uncovering the secrets of the ancients.”

The old man’s finger lifted, pointing directly at Liam. “It was all because of you.”

Liam blinked, startled. He pointed at himself. “Because of me?” His voice cracked with confusion.

“Yes,” the man replied firmly, without hesitation.

Liam’s chest burned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The old man’s gaze didn’t waver. His words came slow, deliberate, like hammer strikes. “You were born with Tay-Sachs.”

The name of the disease dropped like a stone. Liam’s brows furrowed in deep confusion. He repeated the words under his breath. “Tay-Sachs…?”

[Ding]

[System Notification: Tay-Sachs disease is a rare, inherited disorder. It destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Babies born with it appear normal at first but symptoms start within months: loss of motor skills, seizures, vision and hearing loss, muscle weakness, and eventual paralysis. Most children with Tay-Sachs do not survive past the age of 4 or 5.]

A diagram appeared in front of Liam’s eyes, red markers showing the breakdown of nerve cells, the degeneration spreading through a child’s brain. His throat tightened as he read, his pulse hammering.

The last line made his heart skip.

Most children do not survive past the age of 5.

His stomach turned cold. His hands trembled slightly at his sides. He whispered to himself, almost too low for the old man to hear. “I… I wasn’t supposed to live past five?”

The man leaned back, a small, grim smile tugging at his lips. “Yes. That’s the truth. But your father refused to let you die. He broke every rule, every limit, every barrier for you.”

Liam’s throat went dry.

The man went on, his voice steady, dragging Liam further into the reality of his past. “He injected you with the serum he extracted from those clay bottles. It bought you time—but it wasn’t enough. Even with that, you would never live long enough to grow up. That’s why he disappeared. That’s why he turned to the government. He needed their money, their reach, their resources. He needed everything just to keep you alive.”

Liam’s lips parted slightly, his words failing him. The truth pressed down like a weight he wasn’t ready to carry.

“All of it…” he muttered, his voice shaking. “Everything he did was for me?”

The old man nodded. His tone softened for the first time. “Yes. Every risk, every secret, every betrayal you think he committed—it all came back to you.”

Liam sat frozen. His chest felt heavy, his breath shallow.

He finally forced himself to speak, though his voice cracked. “But I never felt weak as a kid. Not once. I don’t remember being sick. I don’t remember…” His words trailed off.

The old man’s eyes softened with understanding. “That’s because your father injected the serum into you when you were barely one year old. It didn’t cure you, but it gave you time. It relieved you of the pain, rebuilt your body just enough to hold you together. It made you stronger than you should’ve been, long enough for him to keep searching for a permanent cure.”

Liam dropped his gaze to the floor. His hands curled into fists. His father wasn’t just chasing madness—he was chasing him, his survival, his future. Every sleepless night, every experiment, every secret deal—it wasn’t for glory or ambition. It was because his son had been born with a death sentence.

The room blurred for a moment as Liam swallowed hard, fighting to ground himself. He didn’t know what to say, so he stayed silent, just listening, his expression heavy.

The man leaned closer, his words dropping like lead. “But your father didn’t stop there. He found more. He took the powers of the Aet-khanu-ra themselves. And then he made the choice… to inject them into you.”

Liam’s head jerked up, his eyes wide.

The man nodded slowly, his voice grim. “He injected you with their power. But it was too strong for your body. Far too strong. Instead of repairing the damage, it destroyed you at an even faster rate.”

The words cut into Liam like blades. His breath stuttered in his chest. For a moment, he couldn’t even form a response.

The old man’s face hardened as he delivered the truth. “That was the price. Your father gambled your life against the power of gods. He saved you once… but the second time, he nearly killed you.”

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