Wizard Of Cosmos

257 - Mutant Champion

“Will Daddy come back, Mommy?”

“He did promise, didn’t he?”

Amelia tightened her hands around Hanna, feeling conflicted about her own words.

“Daddy promised to come back to Hanna and Mommy.”

Hanna’s voice was firm but refused to take her face off Amelia’s bosom. It was obvious she was sad without Jason, but she acted bravely.

“Then he will come back for us.”

Amelia again looked at the spot where Jason disappeared. 

This was the first time the mysterious entity took him away in broad daylight. However, this wasn’t the reason that made her worried, it was the message she saw on Jason’s armband before they took him away. 

‘Genetic shackles, isn’t it just a myth?’

The message directly said Jason should find a way to undo his Genetic shackles to successfully advance further. 

When he asked about the Genetic Shackles, Amelia wondered if he was joking. According to what she knew, Genetic shackles were a concept she only heard in legends. According to the legends, there was a genetic limit within humans at an early age. This prevents humans from breaking the limits of humanity until the first humans find a path to break the shackles. 

Later, they found methods to break the limitations and it disappeared with generations of human evolution. It said that humans had a difficult time breaking the limit of the genetic shackles before they vanished over time. 

The problem was that there were no scientific records or any form of real records about genetic shackles. However, Amelia believed the powerful entity like the one that teleported Jason away wouldn’t give a bland reason to take him. 

‘Even if it is true, why does he have it?’

Jason’s world was a special case where they had to be transported to another planet, but it wasn't the only world to face such destiny. There were many other worlds which faced the same fate, but none of those humans had a defect similar to a genetic shackle. 

‘Is it only his world? I don’t think it is possible.’

If the entire population of Jason’s world had such a trait, the Empire wouldn’t simply cover it up even if it was only eight billion people. Instead, this transportation process would be much more secretive and they would have already started experimenting on these people.

‘It must be only him. But… Why?’

She couldn’t understand the reason for Jason to have such a limit. If it was due to his genes, then his genes must be older than the recorded history. 

‘Wait! It can’t be.’

A sudden flash of realisation dawned on her as her eyes widened. 

“Mommy, are you alright?”

“Ah… Yes.”

Amelia didn’t expect to see Hanna looking at her with a careful gaze. It was obvious her daughter felt her changes in emotions.

‘Is she also… No, it can’t be.’

She swallowed her thoughts to prevent her mind from wandering into the dangerous zone. 

“I am alright!”

Amelia hugged Hanna back.

If what she saw in the message was true, Jason should have an ancient lineage beyond recorded history. The time before the time. If it was true, she understood why Jason failed to find his parents, because he might never have had a natural birth. 

‘He may be genetically engineered, but why do they leave a limitation in his body? Did they do it on purpose? Or if they had failed to remove it?’

This was only a speculation, but Amelia felt this might be increasingly accurate. This also explained Jason’s unimaginable growth. 

‘I can’t tell him any of these.’

If her thought process was on the right track, it might affect Jason more than any benefits he might get. However, she could only keep her thoughts to herself for the time being. Little Hanna was yet to grow up to a level where she could understand how much her father made Amelia worry.

…

“Who is teleporting him away?”

Amelia looked at the necklace around Hanna’s neck. It was a silver chain that anyone could easily miss, but she knew it was living metal. The same metal Jason used to make armours for her and Hanna. 

She checked Hanna’s breathing rhythm to ensure that Hanna would think they didn’t know of her little secret. 

“Are you really expecting us not to notice you? Jason might not know, but if you are the Warden I think you are, you must have connected with your main body already.”

She again whispered in a low voice.

“Should I call you The Titan King?”

Her words affected the entity hidden in the necklace, and a holographic image of a little boy popped out of the little gem at the end of the necklace. 

“You can call me either of those, First Mother. And I know the First Father doesn’t know you as the Demon Goddess of war, either.”

There was a brief silence between them.

“You know me well. So you are truly the Warden. Did he create you? Who is he?”

“First Farther is our creator, but no one knows his origin.”

“You knew me before?”

Amelia felt awkward by the way the projection spoke to her. This projection belonged to a being that could rival her in her strongest form.

“Yes, First Mother. I knew you and my sister from First Father’s memories. But this is not how you really look, aren’t you?”

Amelia clenched her fists with these words. This wasn’t her true self, and it was something she didn’t want to discuss with Hanna or Jason at the moment.

“Who took him away?”

She diverted the topic.

“I am not sure, First Mother. This entity is too powerful for me to track. But this is the same entity that took the First Father away when he left our world after he created life.”

“But your people are older than me.”

“Yes, First Mother. First Father wasn’t from the past. He had memories with you in this world and he never knew much about the universe. But he created us somewhere between the end of the fourth era to the beginning of the fifth era. So….”

“They are sending him through time?”

Amelia had to put effort into controlling her voice. 

Time travel should be impossible. Even the most powerful being wouldn’t last the process. Ripping through space and time meant travelling great distances with almost no time, but time travel wasn’t a reality. 

Powerful beings could accelerate the time of enclosed spaces such as a selected region, but this wasn’t simple time dilation.

“Yes, First Mother. I have no idea who could do that or what level of technology could perform such a miracle.”

“It can only be the Empire, right?”

“It should be, First Mother. I am afraid we are dealing with an ancient technology like the Pioneer. Something no one knows of, and something no one can decipher.”

“It is possible.”

Amelia felt her worst fears coming into manifestation. 

The pioneer was the project which brought people like Jason to the main dimension. It was a project rumoured to have started in the first era before the first known cataclysm. This was the fifth era of the known universe, and all four previous eras had ended with disasters only the rulers of this era were aware of. 

No one disclosed the details of the cataclysms that ended the previous eras, but it said almost no one had survived through those disasters. However, each civilisation, including the human empire, fought to survive those disasters by combining the best magic and technologies they had. 

The project pioneer was such a project all the civilisation that reached the galactic age in the known universe was aware of. The Pioneer was the ultimate weapon the human race had. The project was to farm humans in safe environments of the secondary dimensions and bring them to the primary dimension. 

It said that only the supercomputer responsible for the project knew of the locations of the secondary dimensions where they hid the humans. Even the empire didn’t know those worlds existed or how many more were there. In fact, if the supercomputer hadn’t chosen Jason’s world, Amelia would never even know such a world existed in the first place. 

Once the world was selected by the supercomputer, it said the empire could only facilitate the arrival of the new humans to the primary dimension. They still could interfere on certain levels, like the world in which the new humans would appear. 

Even though this was considered the most powerful weapon of the human empire which gave them an endless supply of new humans to rival the other empires, no one believed this was the true weapon of the human empire. 

If Jason was a part of an ancient technology, even the Emperor didn't have the power to break the cycle.

'Time travel? What is the price for such technology?'

Amelia sunk into thought.

She didn't resent the Titan King. His way of addressing her made her pleased. Her thoughts wandered between the possible challenges Jason would face and the entity that had the power to send a human through time.

“Do you know about the genetic shackles?”

“I am not sure about that either, First Mother. But I have two possibilities.”

“And?”

Amelia felt impatient.

“Either First Father’s bloodline is before shackles disappeared. Or… The shackle is there to restrain his mutation.”

‘Of course, how did I forget it.’

Amelia heard Jason had a mutation in his so-called simulation, but she couldn’t understand his degree of mutation.

“How bad is it?”

“Bad? I wouldn’t say it is exactly bad, First Mother. First Father had all the control over his mind, and his first level of mutation is enough to rival a Greater Demon.”

“Hm?”

Amelia’s eyes sharpened for a moment, but they naturally softened when she thought this entity was something Jason made. Besides, she liked the way the Warden addressed her. 

“Forgive me, but we don’t have another word for those things, First Mother. It hadn’t been long since your kin joined the human empire.”

“It is alright, go on.”

She felt amazed when she saw how the Warden had a realistic expression on his face. 

“Well… The First Father is already undergoing a second mutation, but it isn’t complete. Maybe he will grow even stronger after that.”

“I see.”

Amelia sunk into deeper thought. 

“That is the level of a Mutant Champion.”

She whispered in thought. 

Jason could easily take her on if he mutated into that level, but he wouldn’t have any position among humans after that. 

...

Sorry for the delay everyone. An important person in my life passed away, and I was in no position to write for the past two weeks. My sincere apologies for disappearing without a notice.