The Ancient Genes

It was late in the night.

The environment at the hospital was still a bit tense. The people still didn't seem to have gotten over the shock. There was no further information from the Doctors on Lear's progress, and it would only be in the morning that they would once again hear something.

Ander still hadn't arrived at the hospital. It seemed that they weren't able to get in touch with him. And, the last contact that they had was Melinda informing him that everyone was fine.

Well, that certainly wasn't the situation now.

Max quietly sat at his seat with his eyes on the door. And, finally the moment that he had been waiting for appeared. The nurse got out of the room for a moment, and walked towards the other end of the hallway.

"I will be back…" Max quietly stood up, and exchanged a look with Mark and Wilson. He then proceeded to move, pretending to go to the washroom.

"Ahh!!" Wilson suddenly groaned in pain attracting everyone's attention.

"I told you. You should be taking a rest as well." Mark frowned at Wilson.

"I am fine." Wilson shook his head stubbornly refusing to leave.

"You shouldn't take your health this lightly. Take him to his room." Melinda looked at Mark and ordered him.

Max, who had just walked a couple of steps ahead of Lear's room, immediately backtracked and entered the room in a swift and silent manner without alerting anyone.

Once he was inside the room, Max finally felt a bit relieved.

He was not a Doctor, so there was no way that Melinda would have taken his crap for checking on Lear's condition.

But, even if he didn't have medical knowledge. He certainly wasn't a loser in this field. He had the ability to sense life force, and even manipulate it to a limited extent.

Max slowly walked up to Lear's bed, and his face turned a bit depressed seeing him like that.

They had been lucky all this along to have always come out of their troubles alive. But, this was definitely a warning sign, that their luck wasn't going to last long, strength would determine their fate once again.

Even if Max was barely managing to hang on to the strength requirement, the rest of the guys sure were falling out. If it continued like this, then…

Max slowly clenched his fist as he looked at Lear and then made a conscious decision on his side.

He would be going to use SHOP in the system. That thing had the ability to help them power up if used correctly. But, the downside was that it required a massive amount of energy. Max and Bahamut had been looking for it, but had failed to find any such source.

The only option available to them was to use their own energy. But, that would mean that they would have to sacrifice their own growth for it in the process. After all, they couldn't have long intervals in this energy feeding process otherwise, the energy stored in the SHOP system would dissipate. This meant that they had to cut their training time.

That certainly wasn't a good exchange.

Max seemed to hear the commotion outside settling down a bit and immediately turned his attention towards the matter at hand.

He grabbed Lear's hand, and closed his eyes.

'His life force surely is slipping away..' He muttered inwardly with a frown on his face. He then tried to see if he could share his own life force with him.

A white milky flame lit up on Max's palm, and the next second, he pressed it on Lear's chest.

'It's working…' Max's face changed to that of delight. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

"Whoosh!"

A strong repulsive force originated within Lear's body, and it clashed with the life force, devouring it entirely.

Lear's vitals on the screens around immediately fluctuated for a second, going into total chaos.

Max couldn't help but frown. He had no idea what just happened. He couldn't sense just what hit him there for a moment.

'Andriel, you there?' Max called for her.

'Should I try putting more life force? I surely think I can overpower it..' He further added after explaining what had happened a second ago.

Max wasn't sure about the results that his action might have and hence decided to ask Andriel, who had more knowledge on the topic.

'No, don't.' Andriel shook her head with a frown on her face.

She could see Lear's condition inside the Spirit world with Max's help. And, her face certainly didn't look good after hearing what had happened.

'With him in such a weak condition, it would be disastrous if there was a clash between different energies in his body.' Andriel explained it to Max. It was different in Lithiya's case, they were passing life force to her with the spirit as a medium. Not to mention, there wasn't any rejection from her body.

But for Lear, it was different.

'If something is able to clash with the Spirit Energy, then it has to be…' Andriel didn't need to complete her words and Max certainly had felt it as well.

There was some kind of different energy within Lear's body, and it was poisonous to him probably. It was harming him, and the bad thing was that it was probably a first grade energy as well.

And, from the fact that Max wasn't able to sense it, it definitely meant that it had come from a person or a creature way above Max's level.

Someone had targeted Lear.

Max's face immediately darkened on this revelation.

And, the first person that came to his mind was Arnold. But, he was just a puppet. Not to mention, it was very unlikely for him to be capable of something like that.

So, the main suspect definitely was James.

'That guy…'

Max didn't think that guy had such ability as well. But, he sure was the one with the greatest chances of being the culprit here.

Max stood there with a menacing look on his face. He sure had been angered today. If it really was that guy, then he wasn't going to care about anything the next time they met. He would probably outright just kill him and care for the consequences later.

At this moment, footsteps entered Max's ears and he knew that the time was over.

He looked at Lear for the last time and muttered, "Don't worry, we will definitely find a way to wake you up."

With that, he took to the window and jumped down before the nurse entered the room.