Chaos Heir

Chapter 1170 Mercy

Khan wanted to curse but couldn't find the energy to do it. He had already seen a few species ruined by the Nak's mana, but that scene seemed to have come out directly from Nitis, and his mindset regressed for a second.

Terrible images from a village near a lake crossed Khan's vision. His memories played a grim video, ending with the image of a simple crib. A flash of despair shone in his glowing eyes, reminding him of how lost he had been many years ago.

Of course, Khan wasn't a lost kid anymore. His mindset quickly recovered, and his eyes regained their usual coldness. His gaze grew more piercing, planning to uncover whatever that horrid tree was hiding.

Sadly, Khan's first inspection was as complete as they came. The tree's mana didn't carry anything specific or enlightening. It simply was a mutated being, which was somehow stable in that twisted form.

The tree's sole peculiar detail was its occasional breathing. It didn't happen often. Khan had to wait an entire minute to hear it exhale again, but the event didn't conclude anything. The plant relied on that human-like behavior to keep on living as if it were no different from animals in a different shape.

Khan didn't know whether the tree had gained that ability after mutating or retained it after the transformation. It was impossible to learn that without specialized tools. The equipment in his ship could probably discover more, but Khan didn't see the point. Whatever that plant was, it was too long gone and useless to his mission.

The tree didn't react to the more piercing inspection, and Khan eased it after a while. Usually, a living being would act differently under a clear threat. Still, the plant simply kept existing, seemingly unaware of Khan's presence or unable to do anything about it.

Still, there was one unanswered question that made Khan curious. He didn't know how the cycle of life worked on that unnamed planet, and nothing about the mutated tree revealed its age. Khan couldn't figure out how long it had existed, and his experience didn't help him.

Wild mutations were famously unstable. Khan was a perfect example of the opposite end of the spectrum, but he had seen what he could have become. Nitis' village had been abundant with proof, and Yeza had even shown him one of the worst cases to appeal to his mercy.

So, Khan didn't know how deadly those unstable mutations were. He was aware they could kill due to their wild nature, and plenty of Tainted animals and Niqols had suffered from that fate. Yet, Khan didn't have actual stats and had been too young and inexperienced to learn them back on Nitis.

Khan didn't even know which abilities the tree had developed after mutating, but his scout training and the Great Old One's hunches led his thoughts in a specific direction. Tainted plants famously lived longer than Tainted animals or monsters, so chances were that the tree had been around for centuries or more.

An inexperienced soldier wouldn't understand why Khan lingered on those seemingly trivial topics. However, he was a full-fledged scout. Professor Parver had made sure of that. Learning about the tree's age could tell Khan how unchanged the unnamed planet's environment was, which could significantly help his journey.

If the mutations had given the vegetation a miraculous long life, Khan would be standing on a canvas that perfectly depicted the immediate consequences of the Nak's assault. Any clue he found would be ancient but extremely close to the initial phases of the Nak's mission, acting as a contemporary and intact record of that long-lost time.

Of course, Khan was only guessing but had good reasons to do so. A single tree couldn't reveal a planetary pattern, but Khan had studied the celestial body from the ship, which found plenty of lifeforms but no trace of movement.

The ship's scanners might have missed something. As great as Khan's vehicle was, technology had its limits. Small lifeforms could have escaped its inspection, and the mana made everything possible, especially when it came from the Nak.

Khan didn't spot interferences during the inspection, but some lifeforms might have developed cloaking abilities that empowered the chaos element's nature. For all Khan knew, the unnamed planet could be filled with Chaos Wielders in countless shapes, secretly thriving in those azure environments.

Nevertheless, Khan's senses lacked his ship's flaws. Now that he was on the planet, his perception confirmed his scanners' conclusions. The unnamed planet was alive but still, seemingly stuck in its place. Khan only had to discover whether it was stuck in time, too.

Also, Khan had to check whether that blue scenery had what he was looking for. As dreadful as that planet's fate was, Khan wasn't there to pity it. He had traveled that far into the uncharted universe to find answers, and something in that environment did make him dare to have hope.

The Nak's curse was too widespread, too even. Khan had never seen such deep traces of that species' passage. The Nak's assault had been different there, and Khan couldn't understand why.

The similarities with what Khan had witnessed on Nitis could give him some ideas. Those wild mutations probably involved preexisting mana or something close to that, which was entirely possible. After all, the Niqols had mana since birth, so that unnamed planet's lifeforms could, too.

That wasn't limited to the Niqols, either. Other species had mana since birth, but the Nak had attacked them all the same. The latter wanted to spread their version of that energy, other than filling the universe with it. The Nak needed to create a suitable heir to inherit their legacy, even if they had to cull the galaxy in the process.

However, the Nak's assault had always followed similar patterns. It was random and unrestrained, but its method hardly changed. Meanwhile, that unnamed planet had been an exception, and Khan dared to hope that feature could finally bring an end to his journey.

Still, to do that, Khan had to fly elsewhere, searching for something even more alive. He would have normally sprinted away already, especially since his senses had already found something suitable, but his job there wasn't done.

Khan stepped forward, approaching the three-meter-tall twisted tree before placing his palm on its horrid trunk. He didn't notice it, but his eyes grew sad, lost in duties he had decided to accept long ago.

"Do you want mercy?" Khan asked, instinctively resorting to the Nak's way of communicating.

Khan didn't know what to expect, but the answer disappointed him anyway. The tree didn't react to his question or the Nak's language. It only breathed again, continuing to live in that cursed shape.

Khan sighed, placed his forehead on the trunk, and closed his eyes. He tried to feel something, anything, but the tree kept on existing, seemingly unaware of its surroundings or external influences.

Then, a series of cracks opened on the tree, spreading from Khan's palm to cover the entire plant in spiderwebs. The latter also covered its insides until its whole shape crumbled into a rain of shards that turned into dust before they could touch the Tainted ground.

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