The rectangular apparatus flashed with light, illuminating the entire room, highlighting the figures of the old man and Henrietta. Henrietta carefully removed her clothes, in fear of exerting strength that might weaken her further. Wearing not a shred of fabric, she stepped foot on the berth, feeling the soft surface that felt like jelly, forming a depression at the point of contact due to her body weight.
Laying flat on the berth, she watched old man Bone press a button on the top of the apparatus, his eyes failing to conceal the joy and delight he experienced. The shafts closed shut, making her feel suffocated, the lack of air inside being made apparent.
Filled with sounds of the machine whirring, the trace amount of air within the rectangular apparatus was sucked out, leaving Henrietta to clench her throat, her face turning blue. Pressed for time, old man Bone took out a glass bottle from his overcoat. The glass bottle, filled with a viscous liquid shone with a resplendent hue, drowning out a small grey dot hovering in its centre. The grey dot looked similar to the neuron of a human, its nerve endings flashing with black lightning.
Old man Bone inserted the glass bottle inside a bore into the rectangular apparatus, twisting it clockwise, allowing the solution inside to flow within a tube. Her vision cloudy, but the moment she looked at old man Bone inserting the glass bottle into the apparatus, she revealed her palm, facing it towards a small hole in the inner surface of the apparatus.
Immediately, through the pores on her palm, blood seeped out, converging into numerous tendrils that coiled around each other. The tendrils of blood fused into a sphere, forming many granules across its surface, a faint blood mist surrounding it. A pair of eyes—its cornea filled with threads thinner than a spider's web—emerged on one side, parting two parallel lines across the sphere, growing along as it covered the entire surface, until it was completely divided into parallel lines.
Two feelers emerged before the pair of eyes, lifting the head; the parallel lines slowly separated from each other, revealing contracted rows of legs, numbering in the dozens. When it was fully separated, it formed centipede, squirming in a lazy manner, looking weak.
Its two eyes gazed at Henrietta, looking at her weak figure, twisting and turning atop her palm. It then swerved its head up, lifting it to gaze at the sole hole inside the apparatus, seemingly waiting for something. Its feelers wriggled in the air, its body half lifted, perching up. Faint blood tendrils seeped out of her palm, maintaining a stable connection with the centipede of blood.
Drop by drop, the viscous solution from the glass bottle seeped out of the hole, falling on the head of the centipede. Opening its mouth, the centipede caught each droplet with its mouth, swallowing them, not wasting even a single drop.
After every drop it devoured, its body turned placid, no longer squirming, slowly but surely, turning still. Henrietta struggled to hold her breath, her body losing strength, her brain failing to think. There was no longer any oxygen inside the apparatus; even the air she had breathed out had been sucked away, creating a vacuum.
Even through the hole from where the liquid seeped in, it didn't carry with it any oxygen. It only sent in drops of the viscous solution in regular intervals, all having been devoured by the centipede. If not for her body that had scaled beyond human limits, Henrietta would have long lost her consciousness, dying due to suffocation.
The centipede had long turned stiff, its open mouth directly below the hole through which the viscous solution seeped in, capturing all the droplets without fail despite not being able to move. One of the droplets, emitting a resplendent hue, concealed a small grey dot within it. When it emerged out, the stiff centipede showed signs of moving, looking alarmed, showing an intense rejection.
Unfortunately, having swallowed countless drops of the viscous solution with a resplendent hue, its body could no longer move, allowing the droplet carrying the grey dot to fall into its mouth, getting absorbed into its body.
Its body started to shiver, forming cracks along its carapace, emitting a grey light from within. Immediately, Henrietta felt as if her entire body had been struck by a lightning strike. Her body convulsed as the centipede on her palm shattered, becoming a pool of blood, turning into tendrils of blood that seeped into her body through the pores on her palm.
"Henrietta!" A rage-filled shout, looking like the ravings of a deranged lunatic, filled with indignation appeared in her mind, making her thoughts come to a halt, freezing up her senses. Her mind became blank, unconsciously shivering in response to the shout, one that came from deep within her.
Immediately, a large mass of blood mist seeped out of her body, forming into a huge centipede the size of her body. It looked ready to pounce at her, planning on devouring her body and escaping out of her control. The moment it had appeared, Henrietta's body further deflated, looking like it had nothing but bones in her body.
Seeing the scene from the outside, old man Bone clenched the glass bottle, noticing the remaining solution present within it. Twisting it further clockwise, the old man pressed another button, sucking away the remaining solution into the pipe.
Immediately, a small change occurred within the rectangular apparatus; small holes, its diameter equivalent to the tip of a sewing needle appeared all around the inner surface. Immediately, the solution was sprayed through them, falling on the body of the huge centipede, immobilising it in an instant.
Henrietta's body stopped convulsing as her eyes regained a moment of clarity. She hurriedly clenched her fist, forming an action akin to inhaling a mouthful of air through her mouth. Immediately, the centipede dissipated, the tendrils of blood making up its body flowed into her mouth, settling within her body.
Her body regained some liveliness, no longer looking like a shrivelled mass of dried husk. The shafts opened immediately, allowing a gust of air to hit her body, making her wheeze, greedily breathing the air, allowing her to feel alive.
Henrietta sat up, panting; her forehead was covered with sweat as she gazed at old man Bone who had slumped to the floor in relief at some point in time. He smacked a button on the apparatus, prompting it to flash a green light that scanned Henrietta from head to toe, once, twice, thrice.
It continued for a dozen times before flashing a set of images and graphs to old man Bone. On seeing the figures displayed, old man Bone clenched his fists, his body shivering, and his face showing intense emotions for the first time in history.
"Haha," Old man Bone clutched his forehead, tears streaming out of his eyes as he stood up, his back unconsciously straightening up. "Hahaha, this is awesome. The Heavens have blessed my family for the first time!"
The gaze at which he looked at Henrietta changed, filled with a sense of accomplishment, "It was a resounding success. Henceforth, you have unlimited power at your disposal."
Henrietta could feel some mild changes in her body, but she wasn't sure about them yet, planning to research it in detail later. She stood up, picking up her clothes strewn on the floor. Wearing them she noticed old man Bone having already returned to normal, his face still like a placid lake. He gazed at the data the apparatus displayed, noting for any changes he should make in the future.
"In four days, I'll nurse you back to full health. I'll then accompany you to the frontlines, training you to the fullest until you gain control of the Unranked Skill. It is, after all, the first of its kind. It is vastly different from the half-baked products that I and the other elders of our family possess." Old man Bone said.
"Okay," Henrietta nodded, walking out of the room, not intending to stay in the room for a second longer. She then entered a room where she was being nursed, strapping a nutrient solution to her arm. The nutrient solution looked vastly different as compared to the ones used at the Limitless Tower, looking expensive. It also exuded a suffocating aura, looking like it was extracted from the powerful figure.
Not bothering to think about it any further, she closed her eyes, meditating. A weak voice immediately resounded in her head, the ravings trying to distract her focus. As if she had been used to it, Henrietta meditated, focusing on sensing the Unranked Skill implanted inside her body.
'It is slowly fusing with my neurons, using their connection with one another to spread like a plague. Moreover, it is not affecting my fusion with the Rhachis Parasite, acting like a parallel path in my nerves for its use, one belonging to my sole control.'
'I now have a power I can call my own!' Henrietta smiled, her worries dissipating as she meditated in silence. The only sound in the room was that of the nutrient solution dripping, and of course, the weak ravings ever-present in her mind.
After Henrietta left the room, old man Bone finished his inspection, thinking, 'There are some steps that are difficult to proceed with if the person is strong and healthy. So, I must use some other method to make them weak and powerless. Just the act of suffocation will not make the cut, that too when their bodies are robust, and filled with power. Just a mild shiver from their side will destroy the apparatus, making the implantation a failure.'
He then muttered his thoughts aloud, as if in deep discussion with himself. He slowly walked out of the room, taking a lift to reach the top-most floor. Entering a wide hall where many people were in heated talks, old man Bone signalled for their attention.
"It was a success. Henrietta is the first complete Warrior in our family. There are still a couple of factors that have to be changed in the implantation. After 2 days, we can begin the implantation process for the remaining Shifters in our family."
The people hurriedly stood up and bowed at him, their facial expressions akin to unconcealed joy. Before they broke into a discussion, they heard old man Bone declare a frightening statement.
"Send an application to Central Command, requesting for the right to proclaim ourselves as a Noble Family. This day will mark our, Bone Family's rise, as the Noble Family of our city."