The heavy workshop door slid shut with a satisfying BWOOSH, sealing them off from the rest of the world.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there were no colonels, no headmasters, and no staring crowds. It was just Jonah and Vanessa, alone in their sanctuary.

The weight of the last few days came crashing down on them both. Jonah flopped onto the small couch in the corner, his body feeling like a lead weight. Vanessa slumped against the workbench, looking like she’d been run over by a large troll and then asked to write a report about it.

“Okay,” she said, her voice muffled by her hands as she rubbed her tired eyes.

“No more politics. For at least five minutes. Please.”

Jonah managed a weak smile.

“Agreed.”

He pushed himself up. He forgot his tiredness for a moment because of a more important need. He looked at the empty space in the center of the workshop, his mind replaying the Broodmother’s desperate plea.

“Let’s see what she left me,” he said, his voice quiet.

Vanessa nodded. Her tiredness was gone, replaced by her usual strong interest in learning. This was what they were good at. This was their territory.

“Right. The Mana Sieve should be able to handle it, but we’ll have to be careful. The psychic residue on that thing is off the charts.”

She moved to a large, crystalline apparatus in the corner – her upgraded version of the Mana Sieve she’d used before. It hummed with a steady power.

Jonah took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused. He reached into his Beast Space. The Alpha Broodmother Essence wasn’t a simple mote of light; it was a tiny galaxy, a swirl of starlight and shadow, humming with a thousand different lives.

With a gentle pull, he summoned it.

A sphere of swirling, multi-colored light appeared above the Mana Sieve’s central platform. It didn’t radiate rage or power. Instead, it had a complicated and powerful feeling of life.

“Okay,” Vanessa said, her fingers dancing over a control console.

Crystalline arms extended from the Sieve, surrounding the essence in a cage of filtered mana.

“Beginning the primary dissection. I’m filtering for the dominant combat signatures first. Brace yourself.”

The hum of the machine deepened. Jonah felt a jolt as the Sieve did its work, peeling back the first layer of the essence. A wave of primal power washed over him.

He felt a psychic roar, a flash of fangs and claws. The essence of a hulking bear. Then came a cold feeling, the scent of venom and scales. The ghost of a massive serpent. He felt the piercing strike of a territorial hawk and the brutal strength of a charging boar.

“That’s what we expected,” Vanessa noted, her eyes fixed on her readings.

“A library of all the creatures the Bureau used in their experiments. Powerful, but… standard.”

“Keep going,” Jonah urged, his own senses probing deeper. “There’s something else. Underneath all the noise.”

Vanessa nodded, her focus absolute. “Going deeper. Filtering for sub-signatures and passive traits.”

The hum of the Mana Sieve shifted, becoming a higher pitch. The raw, violent feelings receded, and something new began to emerge.

It started as a gentle warmth that felt like standing in the sun on a perfect spring day. Jonah recognized it instantly. “Sunpetal Flower,” he whispered.

He remembered reading about them in the Academy’s archives – a rare, magical plant whose essence could purify complex toxins.

Then came another feeling, a sensation like cool water washing over his mind, filtering away all the psychic grit and exhaustion.

It was clean, calm, and incredibly resilient.

“Crystal Tortoise,” Vanessa breathed, her eyes wide as she stared at the new readings on her console.

“Their shells are said to be able to filter corrupted mana. They’re almost extinct.”

One by one, they discovered many healing and peaceful powers. These were natural parts of the Broodmother’s being, but they had been completely hidden by the violent abilities the Bureau had forced on her.

And then, they found the core.

They filtered away all the external layers, all the memories of other creatures, until only one thing remained.

It was the Broodmother’s own unique essence. It didn’t feel like a beast. It felt like a forest. A calming hum came from it, a powerful feeling of peace that seemed to calm everything in the workshop.

Jonah finally understood. In her long, peaceful life before she was captured, the Broodmother hadn’t just been a powerful creature. She had absorbed and learned from the world around her – from the gentle, healing flowers, from the resilient tortoises, from the very life of the forest itself.

She had been a complete ecosystem unto herself.

The Bureau scientists had seen her as a blank canvas for their monstrous ambitions. They had taken this complex library of life and had only read the most violent chapters.

“Vanessa,” Jonah said, his voice filled with emotion. He told her of his promise, the one he had made to the dying creator.

“I’m not using her legacy to build another Maul.”

He looked at the swirling heart of the essence, his own purpose crystallizing into a single point. “I’m going to use the ‘good’ parts. The parts they ignored. I’m going to use her memory to create something… beautiful. Something restorative.”

Vanessa looked at him, seeing the strong will in his eyes. Her usual smart curiosity was gone, replaced by a deep understanding. A slow smile spread across her face. She didn’t question him. She didn’t ask for a thesis or a projection.

She simply just believed in him.

“What’s the project called?” she asked, her voice soft.

Jonah thought for a moment, the weight of the promise and the hope for the future settling over him. This was more than just a synthesis. It was an act of remembrance, a final song for a life that had been stolen.

“Project Requiem,” he said, and the name felt right.

His goal was now clear, a noble path stretching out before him. He would create a Grade-5 Progeny, a creature born from the pain of a monster, but designed to heal the scars of the world. It was a promise to a fallen queen, and a new beginning for him.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep