### Chapter 714: Evolution
In the middle of the night, in the vast desert of Busairite, a battle that should have ended suddenly reignited after an unexpected event, becoming fiercer than before.
“What on earth is happening over there!?”
On a small hill in a large oasis beside the ancient city of Bastis, the robed Nephnis anxiously watched countless people collapsing on the ground in the camp, their cries echoing across the area. Remembering the distant booming and tremors in the once-quiet desert, a heavy worry began to fill her as she thought about the ongoing war.
“Is Miss Dorothy not faring well out there?” Nephnis gazed into the distance, her concern growing.
…
In the far desert beyond Bastis, after receiving some mysterious external power, Amayaba re-burst into growth from a near-d*ath state, instantly evolving into a giant, terrifying monster.
Fueled by a torrent of spiritual energy, the rapidly growing Amayaba released large swathes of green rust mist from its body across the ground. This dense mist quickly spread out from Amayaba’s center, covering vast areas of land within moments, spanning kilometers and thickening to hundreds of meters. Amayaba’s grotesque, bug-like form hid within this thick mist, continuing to grow while using it to evade the relentless artillery fire raining down from above, launching counterattacks all the while.
Suspended three thousand meters in the air, Evi aboard the Holy Steel Ship relentlessly bombarded the center of the spreading mist below with various firepower channels, but this time Amayaba’s released mist was so heavy that it far exceeded previous amounts, creating a vast, dense cloud. Thus, even Evi’s powerful physical shells began to fail; for the moment, she could only rely on energy shots for firepower, which couldn’t deliver fatal damage to Amayaba. Since the mist was created directly by Amayaba’s body and not deployed by flying insects, Dorothy’s spiritual threads struggled to suppress the mist’s expansion.
As Amayaba grew larger, it gradually lost its agile movements, now just a stationary target in the mist enduring the bombardment. Fortunately, Evi’s firepower was severely limited by the mist, and Amayaba’s massive size had reached a point that made it extraordinarily hard to wipe out entirely. Combined with its terrifying regeneration speed, Evi could merely slow Amayaba’s growth but couldn’t completely eliminate it.
Amid the continuous explosions, countless light shells rained down from the hovering steel giant and plunged into the dense green mist, accurately hitting the enormous, grotesque body well within, causing thousands of thick juices to splatter out. The bug with a human face shrieked and writhed while expelling numerous bug eggs from its body, shooting sharp, chitinous projectiles from its many orifices.
Those eggs either hatched into flying bacterium bombs with gigantic wings charging towards Evi or into beetles armed with chitin launchers, using pure muscle to sh**t stinging chitin arrows skyward towards the three-thousand-meter height. Facing these continuous attacks from the mist, Evi’s close defense system was quite effective, intercepting them all, but with Amayaba’s continuous growth, the number of bugs and chitin arrows it spawned increased drastically. With the passage of time, Evi’s defenses would inevitably buckle under the pressure.
“This is bad… This guy has an endless supply of spirituality… I can’t fully suppress its growth, and if this continues, the situation will spiral out of control…”
Hovering in midair, Evi’s holographic form said grimly. She found herself in a stalemate with Amayaba. Although Evi initially had the upper hand, with Amayaba under suppression, as long as the constant spiritual support given to Amayaba remained, that advantage was bound to flip.
“Amayaba’s spiritual power comes from the infected people in the whole of Busairite; this plague was primarily created to widely gather spirituality from regular folks… Now it looks like the symptoms of those afflicted in Bastis are worsening, likely because this creature is increasing its extraction of spirituality from the patients,” said Dorothy’s zombie puppet to Evi, who grew more serious upon hearing this.
“If that’s the case, this monster has millions of spiritual reserves! In terms of attrition, we can’t possibly exhaust it.”
“Exactly. Looking at the current situation, to deal with it, we must first tackle the plague…” Dorothy’s puppet said somberly, and after that, a heavy silence fell between Dorothy and Evi, mulling over how they got into this mess.
Dorothy and Evi had come to capture Amayaba specifically to extract the cure for the plague, but now they were hit with the realization that they first needed to deal with the plague before Amayaba, making their overall goal a bit more convoluted and difficult.
“Do you have any solutions on your end? This was once the land of the First Dynasty; with your ancient powers, can’t you think of something that could reverse our current predicament?”
Evi solemnly asked Dorothy’s puppet. Naturally, with her abilities, she couldn’t offer any plague cures; she had to rely on hope resting on the mysterious ‘Enlightenment’ inheritance.
After listening to Evi, Dorothy fell silent for a moment, seemingly pondering deeply, then let her puppet respond slowly, “I do have an idea… but it’s quite risky.”
“Risky? Are we talking about executing some high-stakes battle plan?” Evi asked with curiosity, while Dorothy’s puppet shook its head slightly in response.
“No… the one facing the risk isn’t us, but Vania.”
“Vania, the nun…” Evi exclaimed, her expression one of surprise, quickly continuing, “What risk does she need to take to solve this?”
“We need Vania to conduct an experiment. If it succeeds, our current dilemma could effortlessly resolve, but it’s not without its risks. Perhaps you might have some methods to reduce that risk…” Dorothy explained, continuing to relay details of the experiment to Evi, who grew increasingly grave as she listened.
“This kind of experiment… the risk is completely out of control. No way, Vania cannot participate. My job is to assist her in completing the ascension task; if that fails here in Busairite, we can simply relocate elsewhere. There’s no need to put her in such danger.”
After hearing about the experiment, Evi spoke seriously, and Dorothy nodded in agreement.
“You make a good point, Evi; Vania is important to us, and we never intended for her to take on such risks. If you have no way to assist the experiment, then I guess we will have to let it go.”
Dorothy commented through her puppet. The reason she had detailed the experiment was to see if Evi could find a way to assist, but since she couldn’t, it seemed they’d have to abandon it.
Considering the current circumstances, Dorothy intended to temporarily abandon the struggle against the Eternal Life Cult in Busairite, allowing Evi and Vania to retreat while she stayed behind to delve into the virtual historical world to investigate how to find Heoperis. After all, the Eternal Life Cult wouldn’t know the location of the virtual history world, making her solo stay much safer.
Faced with Amayaba, with the spirituality of millions boosting it, Dorothy began to plan for a strategic withdrawal. Just then, Vania, situated aboard the steel giant, suddenly broke the silence.
“Wait a moment! Evi the Nun, Messenger of the Deity… please wait, I am willing to participate in this experiment!”
At Vania’s declaration, both Dorothy and Evi looked at each other in unexpected surprise.
“Vania, how did you hear our conversation?” Dorothy inquired through her puppet. She was sure she hadn’t conveyed the details of the experiment through communication channels.
“Um… I’m sorry for overhearing, but it was unintentional. The blessing bestowed upon me by the Deity is quite powerful, and combined with Evi’s temple, it makes it hard for me to miss anything…” Vania said, her tone clearly apologetic. To allow Vania to better comprehend the battlefield, Dorothy had directly allocated significant computational power to her. With Evi’s temple to investigate all life forms within a dozen kilometers and the computational power from Dorothy allowing Vania to closely observe and monitor each being from the largest of animals to the minutiae of insects and bacteria, she gained an extraordinary dynamic life-detection ability.
The combined support of Evi’s temple and Dorothy’s computational power even enabled Vania to read the subtle movements of Dorothy’s puppet’s mouth, essentially allowing her to lip-read what was said. Although she didn’t fully understand the intricacies, utilizing pure calculation allowed her to comprehend the conversation almost effortlessly.
“Vania, you want to proceed with this experiment?” Evi inquired earnestly from her position, while Vania nodded affirmatively.
“Yes… Evi the Nun, I truly wish to conduct this experiment. While we can escape, the millions suffering from the plague in Busairite cannot. I cannot abandon them!” Vania proclaimed with determination, and Dorothy’s puppet further asserted, “Vania, your ascension doesn’t have to occur here in Busairite. There are people in need of salvation everywhere in this world; it would be far wiser to conduct your ceremony elsewhere instead of taking this risk.”
“True… but while I could choose another location for the ascension ceremony, how could I have peace of mind saving others when there’s an opportunity to help those here?” Vania expressed solemnly, feeling the pain of the countless suffering individuals in Bastis. She had already given up on hundreds and thousands to remedy this plague, but abandoning the millions to escape the plague was unimaginable.
“Vania, you need to realize that you don’t have to take such risks to become a Red Tier…” Evi said gently, but Vania remained resolute.
“Evi the Nun… I believe what I learn on the Path of the Holy Mother is meant to serve as the Path of Redemption… Redemption is the goal of ascension, not the means to it. If I have the chance to save the millions before me and choose not to, what worth does that ascension hold?”
Vania stated with unwavering resolve. Hearing her words, Evi paused briefly before softly exhaling and refraining from further argument, while Dorothy, after some initial surprise, used a private communication channel to speak to Vania.
“Vania, are you serious? The risks here are no joke.”
“Don’t worry; I know what I’m doing, Miss Dorothy. Things have come to this point. I won’t abandon those who need saving…”
Vania reaffirmed through the communication channel. At this moment, Evi, who had been quiet, spoke up.
“I understand. Since this is your decision, I will not hinder you. In my storage, I have some emergency medical supplies, rare exceptional medicines, and a portable altar that can serve as a makeshift temple for rituals. If you take them with you, it should significantly aid the experiment…” After a resigned sigh, Evi added, and upon hearing this, Dorothy’s puppet reacted in surprise.
“Medicines… life support devices… a portable altar for a temple? These will undoubtedly help to greatly mitigate the risks of the experiment. Why didn’t you mention this sooner?”
“We don’t share a hundred percent trust. I wasn’t comfortable outright handing Vania to you. But now that she has made her choice, I can’t hold back any longer. Go quickly, I will restrain this creature and buy you some time.” After glancing at Dorothy’s puppet, Evi spoke candidly. Listening to Evi, Dorothy didn’t press the matter further and immediately instructed her puppet.
“Alright, I promise we won’t take long…”
…
After concluding her communication with Evi, Dorothy immediately set her plan in motion. First, she directed Evi to descend in altitude, letting several of her puppets enter Evi’s ship through flight. Following Evi’s guidance, they located her ship’s emergency medical supplies, medicines, and the altar, then stored these items in the chapel.
Next, Dorothy had Vania temporarily halt battlefield perceptions and brought her to the storage site. Afterward, Dorothy ensured that her puppet, Vania, and the supplies made contact and suspended in the air.
Finally, from her distant location, Dorothy retrieved a manuscript from the magic box and wrote a passage upon it. The moment she put pen to paper, she, along with Vania and the supplies aboard Evi’s ship, instantly vanished without a trace.
“They disappeared… The secrets of ‘Enlightenment’ are truly numerous…”
Evi mused as she observed the vanished puppets and Vania within her ship. After briefly scanning for their whereabouts without success, she redirected all her focus back to suppressing Amayaba, unleashing firepower down upon the land.
…
Using the hidden media in her puppets, Dorothy transferred herself, Vania, and the supplies into a virtual historical world of her own creation. She then utilized a temporal scroll to regress their timeline by three years, arriving at the past of the virtual historical world.
In the year 1358 of the Ateria Dynasty’s extended virtual world, Dorothy and Vania found themselves in a much more expansive Bastis oasis compared to the real world, witnessing a serene, harmonious life scene.
“Is this… Bastis? It looks completely different… It’s even more beautiful… Everyone lives peacefully here, is this real?”
Vania marveled from a small hill, gazing at the open gates of the bustling Bastis city, while Dorothy replied nonchalantly, “This is Bastis that doesn’t exist in history; it’s both real and illusory. But at least for us here now, it is real… Let’s complete the experiment here.”
“Right! We shouldn’t delay; let’s get started right away, Evi the Nun is buying us time!” Vania urged anxiously, and Dorothy smiled and waved her hand dismissively.
“Relax, we have all the time in the world here; don’t worry about those steel nuns. Let’s first go into the city and unwind a bit, then we can hire some help…” Dorothy said, while she left her puppet to handle the materials, leading the still-curious Vania toward the distant Bastis city.
…
Upon arriving in the virtual history dimension, Dorothy quickly set her plan into action. After a brief rest, she hired a local workforce along with her puppets to renovate a purchased residence in a distant valley. Then, she transported the materials brought from real history and crafted a laboratory using those resources within.
Subsequently, within the laboratory, using the altar provided by Evi, Dorothy arranged for a “Lamp” level temple ritual space. After more than a month of preparation, everything was finally ready.
In a clean, organized room filled with all sorts of strange apparatuses within a secluded stone structure in the wind-swept valley, Dorothy brought Vania into the ritual space and took out a syringe.
“Alright, Vania, our preparations are nearly complete. Are you ready?” Dorothy said with seriousness, and Vania nodded firmly.
“Yes! I’m ready; let’s begin, Miss Dorothy!”
After confirming Vania’s readiness, Dorothy handed the syringe over. Vania took a deep breath, rolled up her sleeve, and punctured her arm with the syringe, injecting the liquid inside her body before pulling it out again.
Setting down the syringe, Vania sat cross-legged in the laboratory’s ritual space, linking into the ritual as she closed her eyes, diligently probing her body’s condition. She could perceive the foreign substances that had been injected and were now flowing through her bl**d—tiny viruses.
Observing these viruses, Vania activated her powers, commanding her exceptional immunity as a practitioner of the Path of Redemption to ignore these viruses, allowing them to breed freely within her body.
Days passed, and the viruses spread throughout Vania’s body, so extensively and unimpeded that even she, as a “Cup” remarkable being, began exhibiting clear symptoms: weakness, fatigue, pain…
All of these were symptoms of the plague; Vania had injected herself with the plague virus, intentionally infecting herself, increasingly becoming a patient of the illness.
“Ugh… Ugh… Ugh…”
Sitting in the ritual space, drenched in sweat, Vania gasped amid the suffering surging through her body, while Dorothy stood before her, a concerned expression etched across her face.
“Are you okay, Vania?”
“I’m fine… everything is alright. Now we can commence the first round of immunization…”
Vania said, then closed her eyes, officially activating her abilities to stimulate her immune system to exterminate the plague virus coursing through her. During this process, her body temperature soared, exacerbating her symptoms while introducing waves of nausea. Battling through severe discomfort, Vania persisted in her self-treatment to annihilate the viruses. After a prolonged struggle, she finally eradicated the resilient viruses from her body.
“Ugh… Ugh… Ugh… How did it go? Miss Dorothy, did they change?” Vania panted in the ritual space, while Dorothy, garbed in a white lab coat and engrossed at a table, examined a petri dish with Evi’s provided optical instruments.
“There is… after your previous immune action, these interconnected bacteria underwent a structural transformation. Their immunological resistance appears to have strengthened further…”
Sitting at the table, sunglasses perched upon her nose, Dorothy relayed her observations regarding the weakened Vania, who couldn’t help but smile upon hearing the news.
“Really? There are changes? That’s great…”
“Alright, well done, Vania. We’ll wrap up today’s experiment here. Rest for a few days, and we’ll start the next one.”
“Sure…”
…
For the ensuing period, Dorothy and Vania continued the process of infecting Vania with the plague virus, followed by her immune responses to eliminate it. Despite the plague viruses increasing their resistance to a level generally too vigorous for common White Chalk Redemption practitioners to manage, Vania still managed to cope.
Following an incomplete ascension ceremony, Vania, being an extraordinary practitioner of Redemption White Chalk, combined with her ability of immune manipulation, greatly improved her efficiency. Coupled with the support of the temple ritual space, Vania found herself able to defend against the plague viruses without too much difficulty, successfully killing them after repeated infections.
With each bout of infection spaced out every few days, Vania whetted the plague bacteria Dorothy had brought into the virtual historical world, making them tougher and tuned her immunity… or more straightforwardly, intensifying her resistance to microbial combat.
Eventually, her defenses reached a point where her own efforts couldn’t hold against the rapid evolution of the plague bacteria.
At this juncture, Dorothy began introducing various other bacteria into her system, which she had discovered in Gemar’s laboratory. Each bacterium came from various corners of the natural world, boasting one shared trait: their propensity to viciously consume each other.
Once Vania injected these external bacteria into her body, she manipulated them to enhance their behavior within her system, guiding them to battle the plague bacteria. Any external bacteria that wouldn’t engage in combat with the plague would be eradicated by Vania’s own immunity.
These external bacteria began acting as mercenaries within Vania’s body, tethered in a continuous war against the plague. Consequently, the plague bacteria began to accumulate experience in combatting these external enemies, slowly evolving into new mutations.
Thus, within this virtual historical world, the plague bacteria carried over by Dorothy engaged in round after round of survival against diverse adversaries. Through confronting all sorts of enemies, the plague bacteria adhered to its foundational design, continuously evolving to become more potent, ultimately being able to withstand strong immunity bolstered by extraordinary abilities and competing strains of other bacteria.
The evolutionary journey of the plague bacteria seemed endless…
However… for living organisms, evolution doesn’t come without consequence. Gaining certain attributes often entails a loss elsewhere, just as whales, when transforming their limbs into fins for deep-sea survival, sacrificed their ability to thrive on land.
Evolution doesn’t come without a cost; every evolutionary step for life carries potential limitations, true for macroscopic life as well as microscopic life…
When a microscopic life form evolves to achieve a specific function, the structural arrangements corresponding to other functions become constrained. As the pursuit of this single function becomes more intense, complex, and powerful, so too does the structural space required for it grow, diminishing the space allocated for other functions.
What happens when someone equips all their limbs with weapons and clenches swords in their teeth? How will they go about eating?
