Chapter 116: The Past That Hunts

Jonah’s success with Leo and the Griffon did more than just help a struggling student; it solidified his new role at the Academy. He was a teacher, a mentor, and the head of a department dedicated to understanding the very nature of life. With this new status came new privileges.

For weeks, Jonah had been busy with his new duties, but his personal quest had never left his mind. Project Requiem was a success, but Sylva was just the first step. He needed to understand Nexus-level synthesis on a deeper level. He needed to learn how the Artificers had worked their magic, how to weave multiple essences together into a stable form.

With the new privileges he possessed, he made his way down to the Restricted Archives.

It was a cold vault, the air thick with the smell of old paper and unused magic. The shelves were not made of wood, but of a dark, polished stone that seemed to absorb the light. Instead of books, they held rows upon rows of glowing data crystals and magically sealed scrolls, each one containing a piece of dangerous or forbidden knowledge.

An elderly curator with eyes that seemed to have seen a thousand years of secrets simply nodded as Jonah entered, recognizing his authority.

Jonah walked through the silent rows, his footsteps echoing softly. He was looking for anything related to multi-essence weaving, soul-binding, or the pre-war Creators. He ran his fingers over crystals labeled with dark titles: “Theories on Demonic Inversion,” “Essence Corruption and Psychic Backlash,” “Forbidden Rituals of the Crimson Warlocks.”

Then he saw it.

It was put on a lower shelf, partly hidden behind a bigger scroll case. It was an old data crystal. Its crystal shape showed faint cracks from age. It glowed with a weak, blinking light. The label, carved into a small metal plate at its bottom, was simple but caught his eye right away.

“Project Chimera – Final Report.”

A cold feeling washed over him. Station Chimera. The monstrous hybrids, Draven’s failure, and his own first taste of true, high-stakes combat. He had absorbed the essence of the Alpha Chimera, a corrupted blueprint that had unlocked the secret of the Nexus Core. This had to be related. Perhaps it was a report from the original research team, something that could give him more insight into their failed experiments.

He picked up the crystal. It felt cool and heavy in his hand. He carried it to one of the archive’s secure reading terminals. He inserted the crystal into the slot.

The console came to life, projecting a page of text into the air. Jonah began to read, and his blood ran cold.

This wasn’t about Station Chimera.

The date on the report was from over a century ago. It was from the founding days of the Mystic Pheonix Nation. This was the original file. And it wasn’t about creating monsters.

It was about creating heroes.

The report detailed the creation of the very first Elites. It was a horrifying, world-shattering truth.

The “Divine Serum” is not a new discovery, the first paragraph read. It is a reverse-engineered application of pre-war Artificer soul-binding technology, the same principles used to animate their Golem constructs.

Jonah’s mind flashed back to the sunken city, to the Golem who had called him a fellow “Creator,” to the data he had absorbed from the long-dead Artificer. He suddenly understood everything. It made him feel very sick and scared.

He kept reading, his heart pounding in his chest.

The report explained that the serum didn’t “awaken” latent abilities in a person. That was a lie, a comfortable story told to the masses. The truth was far more brutal. The serum forcibly binds a piece of a powerful magical beast’s essence to a human soul.

The pain. The unimaginable agony of his own Awakening. It wasn’t the feeling of a power being born; it was the feeling of his soul being violently carved open and having something alien shoved inside. This explained why the process was so violent, why the failure rate was so high. For every student who walked away with a new power, how many were simply torn apart, their souls unable to handle the strain?

Elites weren’t chosen ones. They were human-beast hybrids, created through a brutal form of artificial synthesis. Their entire society, their entire defense against the monsters of the world, was built on a process that was a dark, evil reflection of Jonah’s own unique ability.

He scrolled to the final entry. It was encrypted, but his new clearance level sliced through the protective runes like they were nothing. The final secret, the source of it all, was laid bare.

It spoke of the nation’s founding myth, the legend of the “Immortal Golden Dragon,” the divine being who had supposedly blessed the first humans and granted them the power to fight back the darkness.

It wasn’t a divine being.

The report was terrifyingly cold. The template for the original serum was derived from the essence of Subject Zero: a captured, god-like draconic beast of unmatched power. The creature, referred to in mythological texts as the Immortal Golden Dragon, was not a willing partner but the first, and most powerful, resource in the creation of our nation’s defenders.

Jonah felt like he couldn’t breathe. The entire foundation of their world was built on a lie. They hadn’t been blessed by a god. They had captured a powerful creature, killed it, and used its soul as a template, a battery to power their civilization. They had stolen their power.

The data crystal felt very heavy in his hands. He held a truth that could ruin the whole nation. This truth made him see his whole life and everything he fought for in a new, bad way.

Was this real? Was this horrifying story the actual truth?

There was only one person who would know for sure.

Jonah pulled the crystal from the console. He didn’t run. He walked out of the archive and towards the highest spire of the Academy. He had a question for the Headmaster.

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