Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 373 Black Initial Gene

Sometimes, the initial goal could change a lot, from the path that needed to be completed to the final result, but it could still be accomplished.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Plague Reaper's body trembled as energy began to flow out of him. Oddly enough, unlike Scarlet Pyromancer, the energy streams were black instead of white.

Normally, genes would have followed, but since Katrin had removed her Initial Gene and her life was coming to an end, something else was rushing out of Plague Reaper's body.

A black star, ominous and majestic, a thick dark fog hovered around it, revealing that it was a dangerous force not everyone was capable of handling.

Katrin smiled bitterly, her strength was getting less and less with each passing moment. She didn't know how many seconds she still had, maybe three, maybe just one, but her eyes tended to close, and she couldn't control it.

Pretty soon, Katrin saw only darkness in front of her, sinking into a sleep that should have been an eternal dream for her.

But strangely enough, in her case, it was the darkness that was going to bring the light back into her life.

A black star flew into her Revolve, which in a moment disappeared as Katrin's time had already passed.

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

Her Evolution Tree, which usually shone brightly filled with energy, was completely empty, it was bleeding, having previously drained the life force out of Katrin to last a few seconds longer in this world.

Cracks covered the entire Evolution Tree, growing rapidly like an imminent disaster.

Pretty soon, the tips of the farthest branches of the Evolution Tree began to break, shattering into splinters, they fell into the void only to disappear.

Tremble.

Space trembled as a black star appeared next to the collapsing Evolution Tree. It had just arrived at its new home, which was already ready to be lost.

It was worth realizing that Evolution Tree was just the center of everything, but Katrin's entire inner space was under the shock.

Her Vault, the artifact, the ghost copy of her Nexus, and even the Transmutator that usually lurked in the shadows, all them trembled ready to break down in the aftermath of Evolution Tree.

Black Star stood in one place for a while, as if assessing the situation, before moving forward at a leisurely pace.

Even though this gene now belonged to Katrin, there was still something of Plague Reaper in it. Despite the critical nature of the situation, the black star did not panic, moving confidently towards the center of the Evolution Tree.

However... for some reason, the black star was in no hurry to become the new core of this space. It simply stopped in front of the Evolution Tree, watching as it was covered in cracks, gradually collapsing.

No one could know or see what was happening here. Only Katrin had such a chance, but right now she was down, rapidly approaching the gates of death that were ready to open for her to close forever.

After an unknown period, something reflected in the black star.

It was a small light burning inside the Evolution Tree, like a spark..., which was impossible to see, only in the reflection of the black star as if it was a magic mirror capable of revealing what could not be recognized otherwise.

Even though the black star was supposed to save Katrin as her new Initial Gene, it waited, watching as space shattered into shards.

Whoooooooosh.

Like a candle blown out by a torrent of wind, the spark inside Evolution Tree disappeared.

At the same moment, Katrin's heart stopped, halted beating.

Before the next moment could pass, the black star, burst forward, taking its rightful place at the center of the Evolution Tree.

Nevertheless... the destruction continued, the inner space seemingly resigned to the death of its owner and not noticing that it had a new core.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The black star shuddered, releasing dense streams of darkness that quickly enveloped everything around it.

The new Initial Gene was going to show that it was now in charge here, while death and total annihilation were postponed for another day, which unknown when would come.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Katrin's heart began to beat again, while the darkness inside her adjusted her inner space to its needs.

Thump.

Katrin's artifact, which looked like a multitude of intertwined rings, cracked in many places before darkening and turning to ash.

Then, the same thing happened to the ghostly staff hovering next to Evolution Tree.

When the Initial Gene changed, the Phantom also lost his artifact and Nexus. There was no way to avoid this.

It wasn't difficult to create a new Nexus, but it could take a long time to find a suitable artifact. Well, only if it was an Artificial Phantom, for a Natural Phantom, finding a new artifact was actually simple.

Whooooooosh.

The energy from the environment quickly headed towards Katrin, who was lying on the ground.

Her new Initial Gene greedily absorbed all the energy around her to at least partially fill the Evolution Tree, which had not yet collapsed just because of the black star's will.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The black energy streams coming out from Plague Reaper's body quickly headed towards Katrin, but they didn't begin to enter her body. Her new Initial Gene wasn't going to use this energy to fill up Evolution Tree, it had another purpose...

With each passing second, the black energy grew thicker and thicker, completely covering Katrin like a veil or an impenetrable barrier.

Then, the black star shuddered, transforming into something else - a true form like any Initial Gene should have, not just a blob of energy.

Gradually, the black star took the shape of a long coat, the hood hiding the face, leaving only a shadow, but from the sleeves two bone hands like death were visible. The bone hands firmly held an all-black scythe, emitting an eerie aura.

Katrin's new Initial Gene was ready.

And... this could only mean that a new story had begun for her, something she hadn't even realized when she went to Black Cinder Forest to kill Scarlet Pyromancer.

Whooooooooooooosh.

The Initial Gene shone brightly, a white flash covering the entire space, renewing this small world.

All the cracks in the Evolution Tree disappeared at once, the inner space returned to normal and the emptiness in the massive tree began to gradually fill up with energy, both from the Initial Gene and the environment.

Sure, it would take Katrin quite some time for her Evolution Tree to regain all the energy it spent, but the process was underway.

Then, just for a moment, the blade of the scythe reflected the spark that burned within Evolution Tree once again.

It was much brighter than before, though... could it be related to the Initial Gene?

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The dark energy covering Katrin shuddered before her Initial Gene flared brightly again and the energy began to thicken, turning into a long, black coat with a high collar.

Katrin's eyes slowly opened, they were black and deep as the abyss.

As if awakening from a deep sleep, Katrin leisurely rose from the ground, leaning on her hand, then she looked around with a detached gaze.

Before she could regain consciousness, she saw brightly colored projectiles flying out of the flame pillars in the distance, a trail of fire following them.

They flew in different directions like comets, painting the dark night sky.

They were artifacts, anomalies striving to become wider, wanting to absorb more territory within the flame ring.

One of the comets, the brightest one, moved straight toward Katrin as if a gift from fate itself for escaping death while already being in its bony embrace.