Seth was led to a back field where all military agents stood at attention, waiting for him and the others.
Both the new bloods and the iron bloods stood in separate groups, wearing two distinctly different shades of uniform, but Seth pretended not to notice.
Though technically he was among the new bloods, he could even be seen as a leader. Still, he didn’t want to affiliate himself with them.
He wanted to avoid unintentionally dragging himself and his teammates into the political struggle. Some might say they were embroiled in it anyway.
But he didn’t care. As long as he and his friends weren’t messed with, they wouldn’t give the ironbloods the privilege of a thought.
Lara quickly, excitedly, proceeded to start distributing their stash of evolution crystals to her subordinates and teammates.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Charles Holmes attended to his subordinates.
Once everyone was ready, they proceeded to start absorbing the ethereal element contained within the evolution crystals.
Seth let out a heavy breath and closed his eyes, carefully letting strings of his will filter out of his grasp, making them as light as possible so as not to affect the world.
As the agents sat cross-legged in meditation, absorbing the evolution crystals, Seth’s voice rang loud and bold.
"Everyone, in a moment you will feel a force attempting to establish a connection to your souls. Do not resist by any means."
The echo of his voice still lingering in the air, everyone instantly felt the chilling penetration of something immaterial seep into their beings.
They couldn’t even grasp the concept of what this force was, and even if Seth hadn’t alerted them, they knew they couldn’t resist it anyway.
Well, that was because Seth’s words weren’t addressing everyone but the select few — the elites.
The moment the Alpha Team and a few veterans on the ironblood side felt this force, it was instant enlightenment.
Registering a similar force in their bodies, they couldn’t wield it yet, but they knew they could stop this foreign invasion if they wanted.
The Alpha Team remained relaxed, already fully trusting Seth, but the ironbloods remained wary, some even considering whether to destroy the connection.
But recalling the consequences of that, they hesitated. Starting alone, in some random location all alone in a realm filled with alien beings... yeah, they couldn’t take that chance.
Beads of sweat dripped from Seth’s forehead as his eyes remained shut in silent manipulation, his heartbeat and breathing steady as he poured his all into manipulating the individual streams of will strands.
This might be the most taxing stunt he had pulled with his will so far. The delicate mastery he employed was one he had learned from the Oracle Crystal.
Suddenly he felt a spark within one of the agents — someone had begun their evolution. Seth remained calm as he felt the reaction of the X-cells fizzling, forcing the human cells of the soldier into a hyperactive state. Dormant gene prints blazed as the individual’s body instantly began to undergo groundbreaking changes.
Seth silently observed the process. It wasn’t until he felt the spark of the Origin Gate formation that his dormant will strand reacted, springing into action. The will strand pulsed alive and snaked deep, locating the Origin Gate formation and seeping right into the binding process.
A low, resonant hum reverberated from Seth’s mind as his Origin Gate reacted, communicating with the newly formed Origin Gate through Seth’s thrumming will strand. The coordinates were instantly imprinted.
A brilliant flash of milky gold burst out as an individual vanished, but everyone remained unperturbed, lost in the wonderful flow of X-cell absorption.
Instantly another blaze sparked, then another, and another. Beads of sweat pooled down Seth’s gray top as he regulated his body, his mind split into different directions, intricately manipulating each strand delicately.
The exercise was extremely taxing, especially due to the fact that Seth had to be extra careful. His will was so powerful that not only would the space around them shatter if he mishandled his control, but also all the evolvers under his care might die, as their fragile souls might fracture into tatters if his will strands weren’t maintained beneath a certain threshold of density.
Time progressed slowly, occasional brilliant flashes sparking at every beat as evolvers were swallowed one by one by the Origin Gate, sent straight into the wondrous realm of the Origin.
At a certain point, Seth had to mobilize his essence to bolster his mind, as the taxing exercise chipped at his resilience and control.
But fortunately, he lasted till the very last evolver. Lara herself, after absorbing the ninth evolution crystal, was swallowed by the Origin Gate.
Seth collapsed weakly, his body trembling from the mental strain, his head plagued not only by a pounding migraine but mired in a foggy mass, his thought process slowing.
His chest rose and fell heavily as he let out ragged, shaky breaths. Sweat soaked his shirt, causing it to cling to his skin. His eyes glowed as the revitalization of the World Saint title kicked in.
"Fuck..." he gasped, getting to his feet. He combed his fingers through his silver hair as the ache slowly eased and the fog dispersed.
That was something he wouldn’t like to do again, but he knew very well when the next batch of evolvers were ready — ironbloods or new bloods — he would still offer to help.
They were all human anyway, and the war that was coming wasn’t targeting a single faction; it was targeting his entire species.
And as much as Seth would have loved to handle all this on his own, it just wasn’t realistically possible.
Humans needed to get stronger. They needed to take the only two advantages they had for this incoming war: numbers and freakish talents.
And even if that meant feeling so drained every time he had to assist evolvers to ascend to the Origin Realm, he would do it.
His body glowed as clinks rang out, a compact elite-grade armor coating his frame. He tapped into his connection with the Origin Gate and vanished.
His teammates would have been shocked if they saw this. After all, their Origin Gate connection was dimmed and in dormancy since they got back, and it would only slowly recover over the course of the day. Maybe later at noon it would be ready for transportation.
But somehow Seth’s Origin Gate was still active... well, that was the benefit of Infinite Spawn.
Seth didn’t bear the limits of regular evolvers and could access the Origin Realm whenever, and however.