on the other side of the door was Sophia, she hadn't recovered her cultivation yet, but she looked much better from a mummy to a malnourished and pale 60-year-old woman, but she had time to get help remove the curse later, for now, Sophia was in a hurry to come here after she had exhausted both Maya and vincent to arrive a little earlier, and she said "hey Daniel, I'm home"
Daniel still recognized her and said "welcome back grandma, come in" in the last 3 months and a half, he had brought the egg to the lab and was drowning his feelings in school, and in the lab, since he couldn't reconcile with them
Sophia said "how are you? it's been a long while since you came to talk to me"
Daniel said "I've been busy in the lab and with school"
seeing his reaction Sophia felt that she had to be blunt, and said "look Daniel I won't pretend to understand how you feel, but can you come home for dinner tomorrow, everybody will be there to celebrate my coming back"
Daniel was a little reluctant, but grandma Sophia really supported him, she was the reason the lab existed, so he would feel bad if he didn't go and said "of course, I'll come to celebrate grandma's return"
Sophia said "good then we'll wait for you" before leaving, she didn't want to leave that fast, but Vincent was no physician and she had still some injuries and a curse that she couldn't tend to alone
so after Sophia invited Daniel she went back to the castle, where Andrea was waiting for her, and after a couple of hours of hard work she managed to lift the curse from Sophia, after using some of the Specter family purifying spiritual treasures, luckily she still remembered well the Empress favorite curses and had developed a great deal of experience in lifting them
Sophia had said to Daniel that her blood-bound treasure broke, and it was indeed true, but that wasn't the reason she couldn't retrieve her cultivation base and save herself all these years
the curse used on her by the empress of the hive was the real culprit, but since curses are a serious matter, even Sophia omitted that detail, and since now she was free, she started to slowly regenerate and look younger every second while recounting the events
"as you probably know, I was coming back with a full escort, when we were ambushed by the empress and her guards, but she didn't even try to kill me, after I was incapacitated, and the team was killed, she captured me, and brought me aboard the hive flagship . . .
a bloody and battered woman was chained to what seemed to be the wall of a cave, while a beautiful but cold woman with long black hair and completely black eyes that seemed to be as deep as an abyss was staring at her with an eerie smile
the battered woman was Sophia who spat blood and pulling on the chain said "what do you want from me, you stupid bug" she was now on board the hive flagship, that inside looked exactly like a complex and moist cave system, if someone told her she was in a cave, she would have believed them
the hive empress smiled and said "you will make excellent bait, I need more high-level flesh to ascend" not minding the insult
Sophia said "my blood-bound treasure broke, everyone will think I died"
the hive empress calmly said "we just have to dangle you in front of them, it doesn't matter what they think, once they see you alive" then she took the ring from Sophia's hand, and said "what good things do you have with you, that someone as powerful as you had an escort" but the ring was protected and the empress couldn't open it, even if she killed Sophia
Sophia said "hehe, after all, you're still a stupid bug, you wish you can open it"
the hive empress made a smug face and said "wow, I can't, you are right, but he can" pointing at a figure chained to the cell on the opposite wall
Sophia shocked said "the black refiner? wasn't he dead?" recognizing the man
the hive empress said "as you can see he's alive, it took a long time but he finally became very obedient" then looked at him and disdainfully said "unlock this" the man with dead fish eyes without uttering a single word took the ring and started working, and soon later the ring was unlocked and given back to the empress
the hive empress said "what do we have here, books, books, books, finally something interesting a pill, and feels powerful" after checking better, the empress discovered the pill function and said ecstatic "no wonder people were escorting you, did you make this pill to prepare for Vincent's breakthrough? well it's also useful for me to ascend to the eleventh stage"
Sophia laughed and said "the eleventh stage it's a myth, you may be the only one dumb enough to believe in it"
the hive empress said "we'll see" while throwing the pill in her mouth, suddenly the energy inside her started growing, after all those years consuming high-level cultivators and treasures she was at the limit, and this pill was the proverbial last drop
the hive empress said "this is truly good stuff, now watch pitiful human as this empress becomes a goddess"
Sophia was dumbstruck and couldn't believe it, but the empress was really showing the signs of a breakthrough, but just as the empress was about to start the breakthrough process, something Sophia couldn't understand happened
red water-like energy exploded and started turning, forming a vortex of what seemed to be blood out of nowhere sucking the unwilling empress in while tearing the hive flagship apart from the inside when she futilely tried to resist
Sophia still chained and cursed in her cell ended up has a meteor floating through the emptiness of space, luckily before the empress was sucked into the vortex, the ring in her hand fell into her cell, at least Sophia had some reading materials in those years of captivity even if the pill that could have saved her was lost
back to the Specter castle as the story ended Vincent exclaimed "the red vortex, like in the legend of the core of the universe"
Andrea said "do you really believe that there is a planet in the center point of the universe, where you are transported when you try to breakthrough to the eleventh stage?"
Obelix said "I believe it's more probable that one of her enemies caught up with her, the red vortex might be a blood law power and the timing a coincidence"
Sophia said "no, it was definitely a portal, it loosely reminded me of the energy of a wormhole"
Vincent said "wormholes aren't controllable, the holy grail of spatial element cultivation it's to harness the power of wormholes, but no one can even tell when they open or where they bring"
Andrea said "most importantly wormholes are a deep and dark shade of blue, and aren't vortexes"
Sophia was not willing to turn this conversation into a debate and said "as I said, I can't explain it, and from what you said no one ever saw her again, so, since it was definitely some kind of portal, she might have been captured or stranded somewhere"
Vincent said "all that matters is that you are back, we all had a rough time without you"
Sophia said "I saw it" she was mad at Vincent for the poor decision he made previously not telling the truth to their children, then continued "the most important thing now is to help Daniel, if he doesn't accept the facts, the situation might escalate"
Andrea asked "what do you mean?"
Sophia said "he may seem mature but he isn't, he's still a four years old kid, it's really true that smart people fall into depression more easily, anyway that's very dangerous"
Sophia was exaggerating a bit, it was true that Daniel was sad, but it's not like he was out of options after trying many times, so he didn't feel any hopelessness or other feelings that lead to true depression
as a free spirit and someone who always had it his way, he was just struggling to come to term with the fact that things didn't always go the way he wanted
in fact, if he could, Daniel would have already left to explore the universe, that was all he thought about lately, maybe in the universe there was a solution for his problem since in the Sun federation this situation was permanent
soon came time for dinner, and everyone was present, there were Andrea, Obelix, white, and many people Daniel had never seen before that were friends or colleagues of Sophia
when Daniel arrived he was still a little cold and distant towards everyone, even if he attracted the attention of everyone more than the person they were there for, making it a strange party
over the following day's thanks to Sophia's efforts, Daniel started to come back to normal, he wasn't able to accept the situation, but for now, he could put up with it and he was sadder about his battery failure anyway
a week later in the morning, they find Daniel asleep on the usual deckchair on the lakeshore, a sign that Daniel was really feeling better
after a while, they started chatting and smiling again while having meals, and Daniel moved the egg back to the castle, where he would spend the nights in school, but it wasn't completely the same as before
by the time his fifth birthday arrived, only the scar remained, and daniel also joked about it "now I can have my mid-life crisis" he said trying to make the family laugh, rather unsuccessfully
in the months before his birthday, many things happened, the robot project was finally almost complete, after studying long and hard how to do it, he was finally working on the robot chest, and after many botched products and failed experiments, he learned a lot about robotics
his blueprint became more and more refined, and 1 or 2 months after his birthday, Daniel would be ready for the big reveal to the family
Tickles was also growing and starting to show signs of true intelligence, even if he still didn't talk, he was no longer simulating an appropriate response, but just responding, it also helped that Daniel was treating him like a butler
his intention was originally different, he wanted to treat it like a brother or a friend, but neither Tickles nor Daniel understood how and they ended up like that
but that was for the best since the instinct of the nanites was to serve, being treated like a butler helped them become better at being living instead of machines, they were also starting to anticipate Daniel's needs, but never forgot to ask for permission
Sophia also recovered perfectly from her wounds during this year and was back to her original appearance a beautiful woman in her forties with blonde hair azure eyes and an olive skin tone
sadly her cultivation would take a lot longer to reach back to its former glory, but it wasn't like she completely lost time during her imprisonment, she had cultivated soul energy when she could, and studied many books that were once set apart because she was too busy, expanding her knowledge in many different fields
she also gave Daniel a full check-up and discovered that internally he was different from everyone else, his organs were smaller and more numerous, his veins were more subtle making it almost impossible for him to bleed to death has he didn't have major arteries
his organs were technically the same as those of a normal human but everything was smaller, and there were many of them, it was like having backups, even the brain wasn't 1 but 4 smaller ones working together, same for the heart and every other thing making Daniel body an anatomical mystery
from what Sophia knew about biology something like that shouldn't really be possible at least for the human race, but the proof was right in front of her, in the end even she failed to discover in what way Daniel's mutation will be affecting him
the day of his fifth birthday Daniel was brought up and after falling mysteriously asleep again before the formation was activated and waking up back at home, he was officially five years old
but his eyes became even stranger than anything else in his body, they were now an even more intense cyan that seemed to be glowing, and whoever looked at him in the eyes for too long, felt like they were lost, this illusion baffled the family, who had no explanations
but at the same time, Daniel finally asked for some explanation about the fact that he always fell asleep, but the excuse they gave was rather boring
Vincent said "it's to avoid the growing pains"
but for Daniel, the answer did make sense and the query ended there for now