Reborn: My Two Systems at War

The inky darkness of the corridor was interrupted sporadically by the gleaming marble underfoot, which reflected the white lighting of the LED panels in the ceiling.

The red-eyed woman and Tia, clad in black, made their way through the marble corridor. Their footsteps echoed in the silence, a rhythmic pattern that underscored Tia's tension.

'Where is she taking me?' The entire corridor was empty without even a single human in her sight, yet it was wide and spacious, taking up precious space on the spaceship.

'They wouldn't make it so large if it wasn't important...' Tia's thoughts were interrupted as Red abruptly paused.

"Here is vault number twelve." She waved her hand, and the air shivered, the image changing as the projection vanished and revealed dark-metal vault doors.

'A hidden room?!'

The dark metal seemingly rippled like the surface of the water under the faint glowing aura of forcefields, casting an otherworldly glow that illuminated the stark, stoic features of the red-eyed woman.

"I must warn you. Do not speak about what is inside. Even I wouldn't be able to protect you if you blabbed."

Tia gulped down, her eyes nervously darting over the imposing doors, the desire to know what was behind them bubbling within her.

With an air of authority, the red-eyed woman approached the vault. The forcefields, recognizing her presence, and the massive doors retreated smoothly and silently, their movement fluid, revealing the room of darkness behind them.

The red-eyed woman strode in, her coat and skirt swaying behind her. Tia, following closely, found her breath stolen by the spectacle before her eyes.

The interior of the vault was an opulent visual symphony of darkness. Black metal, rich and lustrous, clad the entirety of the room, imbuing it with an ominous elegance.

A massive glass tube, a cylinder of crystalline clarity, dominated the room's center, encasing a fluid of unfathomable darkness—a liquid so black, it seemed to devour all the light yet radiate an ethereal glow at the same time.

'What in...' Tia's thoughts faltered—the voice interrupting them.

"Behold, the tenebrous Eldritch God particles—one of the reasons behind superhumans!" Red's voice echoed, a storm of reverberation that filled every corner of the silent hallway and the vault. Her arms spread wide as the darkness, pulsating within the glass container, throbbed with life, reacting to her.

"But why the secrecy?" Tia's voice was barely above a whisper.

Red's laughter, a sinister symphony of menace and revelation, echoed ominously. "Ah, my dear Tia. A touch of this darkness or its counterparts, when met with a compatible host, births people with theoretically infinite potential—superhumans. Governments, rulers, empires—they hoard those particles and want to control them."

Tia's heartbeat thundered in her ears. 'People would murder and revolt just to get it...'

Red continued, "We are artificially reducing the number of people born with powers. Instead, we produce our own superhumans that are loyal to us. What do you think would happen if the number of superhumans was allowed to get out of control?"

"Anarchy and chaos..." Tia muttered silently. She already saw a world like that, a world filled with monsters where the entire civilization stopped developing, relying only on personal might—her old world.

Red snapped her fingers, and a single flake of darkness enveloped in a red bubble appeared within her open palm, Tia's eyes lingering on it.

"Its absorption is also needed for superhumans to grow stronger, so by keeping most of it locked away, we are slowing down their growth."

'No wonder they hid this fact. By collecting it and keeping it for themselves, they hamper the growth of unaffiliated superhumans while they grow stronger.' The entire thing sounded to Tia like one of the insane conspiracies she heard from her fellow patients, yet it was reality.

"Why didn't you absorb it all?" Having the opportunity to peek into the secret information, Tia decided to use it and extract as much as she could.

"There is a limit to your speed of ingestion and absorption without any side symptoms."

Without any warning, Red flicked her wrist, and before Tia could blink, the darkness shot toward her.