“What is that red thing you just put on the bed brother? It looks like an oversized ruby, but it feels…….. How do I say this, electrifying?” Elise asked Alex who at the moment has walked to the bathroom washing the blood of the zombies he had killed off of his body and his clothes.

Out of curiosity she and Edith climbed the bed and started observing the rune crystal up-close.

“It looks like there is some sort of electricity inside of it! Although it is faint I can still feel it.” Elise said and Edith nodded in agreement.

“I cannot feel anything, but I can see it, little fizzling sparks of energy coming from the crystal.” She said.

Elise reached her hand to touch the crystal but Alex has already come out of the bathroom and grabbed her hand just before she touched it.

“I forgot to mention you should not touch this just yet, it has very highly condensed rune energy.” He said.

Both the girls were looking at him dumbfounded by what he just said.

“Just what is it brother?” Elise asked again.

“That is a shard of the meteorite, the name of the pieces that fell all over the place is rune crystals. This brings me to what I want to tell you. Sit down both of you and pay attention to what I am about to say, after all I owe you an explanation as I have promised yesterday.” Alex said.

Elise and Edith all sat down at the side of the bed, giving all of their attention to Alex, who is seated on the middle of the bed topless and exposing his scar filled skin.

“Like I said yesterday, the meteorite will fall on us and as you have all seen, it happened just as I said it will but that is not what I want to tell you. The meteorite that shattered and fell has another thing that came along with it, a virus; the rune virus. When the infernal rain stopped, not just you or the people you saw outside through the window, I also fainted at the exact same moment, so does everybody in the while world.” Alex said.

Stopping for a second to listen to a screaming sound coming from outside the hotel before he continued.

“The rune virus has infected all of the people on the planet, those of us that did not die from fainting upon infection, those of us that woke up before the zombies rose have a body that resisted the viral mutation, but those of them outside, those that did not wake up on time are already dead. What woke up is no longer the person that it used to be. All of those people are already dead. It is the virus that is controlling them, mindless dead bodied that seek human flesh and blood to thrive, the zombies.” He said.

“You mean to tell me that all of those people right out the window on the street walking weird and chasing others are already dead? But they can still move, a virus can’t do that.” Edith said.

“Believe me Edith, they are all dead. The zombies are still unexplainable phenomena but the rune virus is not your typical type of virus, it is not even technically a virus if we are only reliant on the knowledge we have so far, but if we look at the reality of what is happening it is fair to say that our conventional knowledge of things is now a thing of the past, as I am talking to you right now, there is no longer the government, police or military. All the chains of command have been broken and the entire world is in chaos.” Alex said.

“No! It can’t be.” Edith said in disbelief.”

“I know what you are thinking, but this is as true as the fact that I saved you from the serial killer. And the world will only plunge into more chaos for now, our normal weapons work on the zombies and as long as you have a gun with bullets in it, you can kill the zombies. But that is only until they start to mutate and evolve ridiculous powers. Then weapons like normal guns will stop working in them and people will die, the improvised strongholds that will be formed in a few weeks from now will all fall.”

“So that’s it? We all die when the zombies mutate? How long from now will that be happening?” Elise asked.

“Of course not. Humans will eventually develop an awakening machine and start to evolve. The evolvers among the survivors will have powers that can rival that of the zombies, but it is a world of survival of the fittest and not just zombies, human greed will start to show. Powerful evolvers will be obviously be using their powers to trample on the weak ones.  But this time around, I will not let us be among the trampled ones.” Alex said.

“What do you mean?” Elise and Edith asked in a synchronized manner.

Alex picked the rune crystal that is on the bed and walked off of the bed. He asked the two of them to follow him to the open area of the room and sat down with them there.

“The rune virus contains what in the future we will call rune energy. A type of energy that can speed up the rate of cellular evolution in humans and any other living thing. For the zombies, they become what they are because their brain is dead. If a living human is to somehow activate or trigger that power, and be able to control it. The person becomes an evolver and I have found a way for us to become the first evolvers in the world.” Alex explained.

He looked down at the crystal and activated his system. ‘

Clairvoyance skill activate!  He said in his mind and a window appeared in his sight that says.

Please put the item in field of vision.

Alex looked down on the rune crystal in his hand and the skill read it and displayed.

Rune crystal: 100% pure, five kg size, compatible skill found.

Special privilege for the vessel of Nemesis, the avenger: able to activate evolution in others and yourself. Normal rune rules do not apply to the Avenger of Nemesis.

To activate evolution, trigger the crystal by pouring rune energy into it, then start absorption to evolve.

Remaining rune energy: 25

“I will trigger my evolution first, you just sit and watch all the things that I will do, and then I will trigger yours after I have controlled mine.” Alex said.

He gained some distance and used up 15 rune energy units, pouring all of it into the rune crystal in his hand. Because of the strength of the rune energy in the crystal, Alex’s hands were trembling. As soon as he started absorbing the rune viral activated energy of the crystal, the reddish color of the crystal begin to fade as his eyes begin to bleed.

After a few seconds of excruciating pain, a glowing red pattern starts to appear from his navel, spreading to his chest like branches and extending all the way to his upper arms. The patterns stopped glowing and look just like normal tattoo at this point.

“I see, I am a very lucky man, I have awakened the most versatile evolver pattern in the world, not only that bit this is also a very rare type of ability. This makes it easier to explain to you before I trigger your evolution.” Alex said.

He stood up and picked one of the iron hockey sticks they have bought and gave it to Edith. He activated his power stretched out his hand. Instantly, he hardened it.

“Strike my hand with the stick as hard as you can. Don’t hold back!” Alex said.

Edith raised the stick and although he said to strike him as hard as she could, she only hit him enough to cause him pain but not break his arm. As the hockey stick lands on his hand however, both Elise and Edith herself were left amazed and in shock.

The metal which would normally injure his hand upon contact, dented in and bent inwards around his hand with a sound the sound like the ding of when a metal hits a metal.

“The human evolution patterns are divided into four classes. The first class is the enhancers, which is what I just demonstrated for you. An enhancer can do two things. Either to use the viral energy to enhance their body, making it stronger, faster and tougher or enhancing the strength of their weapons. High level enhancers can do the two at once.” Alex explained.

He now asked Edith to hand him over the hockey stick. He held it with one hand and raised the other up for them to see. In an instant, the hand raised up started to grow scales and thick large claws. He adjusted the grip he has on the hockey stick, then with a single strike with his claws, the metal stick was cut clean.

“The second class is the transmuters, they can shape-shift any part of their bodies into that of any animal they want. High level transmuters can even completely transmute their bodies to be covered in scales, feathers or even grow wings to fly.” He said.

Then he went to the fridge in the room and picked a can of soda, he drank all of the soda, smiled at the two of them and held the empty soda bottle up. Small amounts of steam started forming around his hand and before they realized, a flame is burning the soda can and after a couple of seconds the can melted completely.

“The third class are the emitters. They can use their viral energies to manipulate nature, set things ablaze, freeze things, use wind, lightning, telekinesis and in some rare cases even healing abilities” Alex said.

“And of course each person who becomes an evolver can only possess one class of abilities. Once awakened, you cannot change the class your genes unlock.” He added.

“And why are you able all the three of the abilities you just explained?”  Edith asked

“And didn’t you say that there are four classes?” Elise asked as well.

Alex smiled and said.

“That brings me to the final class, the rare evolvers called the generalists. Just like I have demonstrated earlier, the generalists can use all three of the powers of the other classes, I know you want to say that they have an advantage but they have a limitation. Since they can use all they powers, they are usually never as good in using any of the three powers as efficient as an evolver from that class.” Alex said.

Having explained the different types of evolver classes, Alex asked them to sit back down and they sat.

“The process is somewhat extreme, it comes with some pain but it will also burn your clothes since it requires skin to skin contact, take your shirts off and turn your back for me please.” He said.

Edith was having second thoughts about taking off her shirt in front of a man, even if it is the man that has saved her from a serial killer, even if it is Alex.

But to her greatest surprise, when she turned around, Elise was already unzipping her hoodie.

Elise took off her hoodie, leaving her only with her bra on, she turned around and Alex sat behind her. Placing his two palms on her back just below her shoulders and said.

“As soon as you start to feel the viral energy gathering in your gut, you should start sucking it in until you have a core formed and awaken.”

He placed started passing the viral rune energy to her body and both their bodies were letting off small amounts of steam until Elise’s body produced small greenish glowing patterns scattered on her shoulders, belly and chest.

Alex smiled again and said. “As I expected, Elise is a rare emitter, she has just awakened as a healer.”

Alex picked a razor from the cabinet and slightly cut the tip of her finger and instantly, it healed.

Elise was very tired so she crawled to the nearest bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Edith on the other hand has refused to take off her shirt to expose her bare skin to Alex.

“The awakening, can it not be done via holding hands?” she asked.

“Not unless you want your hand bones to wither and crumble from the heat of the viral rune energy, Edith, it is okay if you dint want to, there is no pressure. But this is not the world we know anymore, the weak cannot survive so you should think about it carefully.” Alex said.

Elise thought about it for a second and said, “I will do it, but please don’t let what you are about to see change how you view me!”

With a new resolve, she immediately unzipped her hoodie and took it off, leaving her with only her bra and trouser. But as she turned her back, what Alex saw made him understand why she has been hesitant to take off her shirt. ‘It was not because she fears the pain of the awakening process but she was instead afraid that once I see the abuse scars on her back it will change how I see her.’ Alex understood.

“I am sorry you had to go through that Edith, and this will not change a single thing about you in my eyes.” Alex said.

As Edith sat down, he could see her face brightening up just a bit after what he had said.

He placed his hands on the large scars on her back and started injecting her with his rune energy until small black dots appeared all over her abdomen and back.

“I can tell that you are an emitter too, but this pattern does not give me any clue to which emitter attributes you have awakened with. Anyway, we will figure it out eventually so let’s call it a day for now.” Alex said and managed to stand up really exhausted from all the rune energy he had used up.

“It is already evening so let’s just sleep for now. I will eat something before I go to bed.” Edith said and as Alex was thinking about the safety of Elise, Edith suddenly said to him out of the blue in a sleepy voice.

“You should not worry too much about Elise’s safety. I will make sure no harm ever comes to her when you are not around! I made myself a promise about that since the first time I saw you crying over just seeing her. That burden in your heart, I will help you relieve It.” she said and continued go through the refrigerator full of assorted sandwiches and drinks.

“No way, did she just read my mind?” Alex asked himself.

“Activate clairvoyance!” he said and the window appeared.

Edith Grey.

Level one awakener

Special ability: Telekinesis [level1]

Innate skill: Telepathy [level 1, SSS+ class skill]

Alex’s Jaw dropped open for a while in surprise, knowing Edith will become a very desirable character very soon because of her skill set.

He slide further into the bed just beside Elise and fell asleep.