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Last Embryo Volume 3 Chapter 1 Part 1

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

German Joint Star Particle Bodies Research Center, 「Ymir」.

「Ouch! Goddamn it! Fu..!」

Homura woke up after losing consciousness for a short while after he has been struck to the head. Surprisingly enough, he was more concerned about the pain in his cranium than with the contents of the nightmare he just had, but that was understandable, because he has been having exactly that same dream for a couple of days in a row now. The only thing that he found strange about it was the fact that he was having daydreams about it, but maybe he should have expected that since he was in the middle of an important experiment now. Maybe it was a sign given to him by his body that the fatigue and stress have finally began to catch up to him and it was high time to have a break and take it easy for a while?

The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was that there was a bright flash of light followed by an explosion which was powerful enough to cause an earthquake, and that was probably why he lost consciousness in the first place. His guess was that he must have tripped due to the tremors and hit the back of his head on either a wall or one of the shelves and that send him on a trip to the dreamlands, but that was not all that important right now.

Right now they were in the middle of conducting an experiment which was being held at the Star Particle Bodies research center that Everything Company co-founded with the help of Germany, but out of all the research personnel gathered at the place today probably no one could have ever imagine that the resulting backlash would be so great as to cause an explosion and an earthquake of such a magnitude.

Fixing his glasses, Edward Grimnir, Everything Company’s head of the Department of Development looked at the fallen Homura with a gaze that contained no emotions as he stated the obvious:

「That earthquake was quite powerful. Are you all right, Dr. Homura?」

「Y-Yes, I’m fine, thanks for asking. But I have to say, that surprised me as well. I mean, I expected that the explosion would destroy the 「Iron Coffin」 from the inside, but I never expected the resulting shockwave to reach all the way here to the observation room.」

「True enough. The data on the visuals and measurements have just arrived, so I would appreciate it if you could verify them without delay.」

Next, the two of them silently watched the video of the moment when the experimental Star Particle Body exploded. Even though they saw everything from the observation room which was separated from the designated laboratory where the explosion took place, they couldn’t help it but to swallow their saliva when they saw the results which could only be described as overwhelming in every sense of the word. And that was not only because of the data depicting every little detail of the process that came along with the video, but also because of the phenomenon they just witnessed.

The flash of light was so bright that even when they saw it through the recording, both of them have had their vision temporarily stolen from them. On top of that, the measuring device which they had left in the room was eviscerated in an instant by the intense heat generated by the explosion, and there was not even a spec of it left now that things seemed to have calmed down over there. Even the walls which have been reinforced with a special alloy intended to withstand the hottest temperatures known to men was now melting like heated butter. The sight of that, combined with the particles of light which persisted in the air for a few moments before they finally fell onto the ground and disappeared was something that could definitely be called unbelievably fantastic, even more so if the ones using such a non-scientific term to classify it were top-notch scientists themselves.

In a sense, they should consider themselves lucky that only a small portion of a single part of the entire facility was caught in that explosion, but what served as the cause for it? Was such a ridiculous amount of force generated because of the plant they used as a test subject, or was some other, unknown factor behind it and that was how it was going to be from the start?

Glancing back at Homura as he was putting the observation results together, Edward proceeded to check on the crystalized Star Particle Bodies that have been stored inside of a vacuum capsule.

「So these are the crystalized Star Particle Bodies that were used to create 『The Bull of Heaven』? I know we only managed to recover a miniscule amount of them, but they are nevertheless quite a fascinating thing indeed. I heard that just one of these bad boys can easily surpass all of the weapons of mass destruction known to mankind, but I wonder if that is true?」

「Oh, you mean NBCR’s, right? (TL Note: Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Radiological weapons) Hmm, I wonder about that myself, actually, although I am sure that the final results of such comparisons would be greatly influenced by our 「Genome Tree」 project. We have already started the test centered about nullifying the radioactive weaponry by implementing Star Particle Bodies into the radioactivity removal technology, but I won’t lie, I definitely would want to see the future where they can be used to counter any and all NBCR weapons.」

「I have to admit, hat is some top tier goal. But if Star Particle Bodies really could carry both the power equal to that of the weapons of mass destruction as well as the methods of their successful neutralization, then how would you have them named?」

「Hahaha, if such a thing would ever become possible, then I think that for the time being I would have settled for something simple, like 「General Weapons」. Or maybe we would simply call them Armaments, assuming that they would become something that even an ordinary foot soldier would be able to use effortlessly… ah, damn it! All of this data is one giant mess! I think the shockwave might have jammed up the circuitry in the entire facility.」

「That so? Then why don’t we just go and grab it from the main server ourselves?」

Nodding at Homura’s proposal, Edward picked up his phone and connected with the inner line they used in the facility for emergencies and exchange a few words with whoever was on the other side right now.

The room in which they were currently in was not the only one designed for the purpose of observation. For this particular experiment they were allowed to use as much as three of them, and all of the data obtained from it was to be stored directly on the facility’s main server. As for the personnel in the other observation rooms, Chief Carla was in the 2^nd, and Director Weser in the 3^rd one. Since Homura couldn’t handle being around both of them for an extended period of time he would rather avoid meeting with them to discuss the results of the experiment in a larger group, but then…

「What’s up, guys? I brought the data!」

The door to the observation room opened up with a loud clank, and Homura got taken aback when he saw who waltzed right through them as if he owned the place. The youth who entered the room looked like he was about the same age as Homura and had white hair and a pair of shining golden eyes. Homura might have been at a loss for words on how to react to this sudden visitor, but that was not the case for Edward at all. He simply furrowed his brows and clicked his tongue in visible displeasure.

「I don’t remember giving you permission to enter the observation rooms at your own leisure… Your Highness.」

「Y-Your Highness?!」

「I don’t remember you giving me permission either. I just came here because Carla told me to bring you the data.」

The boy whom Edward called Your Highness made his way into the room without paying any mind at all to Homura, who was still too shocked to do anything, but he simply felt so unsettled by this sudden development and the appearance of someone whom he didn’t expect at all that he could do nothing about it. Having white hair and golden eyes was unusual enough, but once you added the title 「Your Highness」 to the mix, you got a true combo breaker. Next, Homura tried looking at the clothes the mysterious youth was wearing, and he immediately noticed two things which caught his attention.