It’s ben roughly half a day since Chesnokov became my instructor and he has already settled in, we gave him a room in the mansion so he now lives on the premises. This is a promising sign for the future of my clan but ill omens arrived before anything could come of it.

The ill omens came the form of a letter: the archaic piece of paper with a written message. The fact that someone still used letters was eerie enough, and the fact that there was a snake symbol on the front only made it worse.

“Who sent it?” I asked one of the goons that found the letter in our gate.

“Dunno, I ne’er saw ‘im…” said Goon A.

… ‘I don’t know, I never saw him’? Is that what he meant?

I raised an eyebrow and the even dumber-looking Goon B supplemented the explanation.

“My apologies, Milady. We were on our routine patrol when we found it, whoever left it was long gone by the time we found it. There should have been other patrols nearby so whoever left it must have had considerable skill to drop it off undetected.”

This is the intelligent one!?

“I see… hand over the letter…” I said to the goons menacingly. They nodded and handed it over in silence.

The letter read:

Miss Cusith,

We have heard of your new position and will soon be coming to check that you are worthy of it. Make sure you are ready for our visit tomorrow evening.

* The Viper Clan.

Well that explains the snake, but the whole thing was much too ‘to-the-point’ to be mysterious in any way whatsoever… the handwriting is also rather messy. All I’m sensing from this is a child who has an overblown ego and too much authority for his own good.

Anyway, we’ll be having visitors tomorrow so I better get the place cleaned up, but for now I’ll get some rest.

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A man in a lab-coat walked down the hallway. This man wasn’t me, but I was experiencing everything he did. It was the same as the dream I had before.

I began to ponder the meaning of these dreams as my host walked down the hall.

Snapping out of my trance as he entered a control room, I was shocked by the sight in front of me; I saw myself, a beautiful child with white hair and purple eyes.

“I still find it odd how subject 9 ended up so human… yet so inhuman at the same time…” said one of the scientists off-handedly.

“Yea, Subject 3 became a perfect pigeon, but this is clearly not a ‘perfect human’ is it?” replied another of the scientists.

“No, this might actually be a ‘perfect human’… skin like a supermodel, silky hair, purple eyes… all perfectly natural. Even the face, whilst not the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen, nobody here disagrees; it’s beautiful. Rather than being a transcendental beauty, its universal.” A third scientist interjected.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Maybe the pigeon was the same, but we just failed to notice it since it was, you know… a pigeon.” Said the first scientist.

“Very possible,” said a fourth scientist, the only women present, “but I think it has something to do with the original colours of the Kronos Cells.”

“You can chat after hours, but right now focus on work!” screamed my host in anger.

The room froze in terror.

No, ‘most’ of the room froze in terror.

The woman spoke up, “forgive me sir, but I have the hypothesis that the initial colorations of the cells are indicative of how the cell will turn out.”

“Oh? What… gives you that idea?” asked my host rather sarcastically.

“Subject 9 has white hair and purple eyes. Before it took shape, the cell had a purple nucleus and white webbing protecting the nucleus… I believe this to be more than simple coincidence.” Said the woman.

My host paused for a moment before responding, “investigate this hypothesis, find out if the initial appearance has any impact on the adaptation or appearance!”

The entire research team responded “YES SIR!”

The tense atmosphere took a moment to return to normal.

My host spoke up, “Anything to report while I’m here?”

“Yes, Subject 9 has begun responding to certain phrases. We believe it to now be somewhat capable of understanding words.” Said one of the scientists.

“Oh? Interesting…” said my host, “I’m going in.”

He said it like an arrogant prick, but I could feel his excitement. He was probably too excited to reason properly with the situation. Even I could understand that this was probably a bad idea.

“Wha- No! Subject 9 is unstable! We have no idea how it will react!” shouted one of the scientists.

My host ignored the warning and walked towards the door of the cell, picking up some guards on the way.

He entered the cell and looked down at the being inside, he looked at me with contempt and grinned.

“You’re somewhat attractive, from now on you will be my personal toy!” he exclaimed to the pitiful being on the floor.

I didn’t respond. This angered him greatly.

“You! Little! Bitch!” he shouted between swings of his fist. He beat my body in anger.

Suddenly I moved. I reached up and bit him. I bit hard and tore a large chunk of flesh out of his neck when he was least expecting it.

He screamed and tried to back away, but my body kept going. It lunged after him, grabbing his clothes it pulled itself back up to his neck and tore out his throat.

The world turned dark as his screams turned to gurgles.

In the darkness, I felt a rush, like seeing the world anew with fresh wisdom.

I opened my eyes and saw the corpse of my host and two frozen guards.

“The drugs!” screamed a voice over the intercom.

One of the guards pulled out a small gun and fired it at me. Its projectile lodged itself in my shoulder and my mental rush became a dark nothingness.

I slumped down and stopped moving, slowly reopening my eyes.

There was only one guard left in the chamber, who said “Did you see that?” as he glanced behind him.

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I shot upright in my bed, sweating and panting. I took a moment to recover my breathing.

I began to laugh maniacally as I came to understand the meaning of my nightmare.

“AHAHAHAHA! To think it was such a thing!” I shouted madly at the top of my lungs.

I understood who I was: A test subject, one who was given human form through experimentation. My very ego was stolen from a scientist. The very base of how my mind works is built on top of a symbol of fear!

That is why I find girls attractive, I have the mind of a man!

But the transfer was not perfect! I have portions of my own ego too, all beautifully blended into a single persona.

I also came to a deeper understanding of Dawn.

At the time, my confused mind couldn’t handle the influx of information. This resulted in me perceiving my new knowledge as a foreign entity. I did not reject the knowledge completely; I questioned the knowledge and it responded.

Whether Dawn was created out of the belief that there was a foreign voice inside my head or the influx of knowledge itself is uncertain, but that is how Dawn was born.

Nova was the same.

When I lost myself to lust, I was flooded with physical sensations and exertions I had never experienced before. The fact that I didn’t perceive a new persona before its birth does make the theory questionable, though perhaps Dawn made it to protect me. Regardless the reason, it appears that these new personalities were both born of an influx.

Dawn represents the mind, and Nova represents the body. Does that mean I represent the soul? It doesn’t really matter, we’re all part of the Cusith family. Whatever the cause, we are a team.