Chaos' Heir-Chapter 1141: Losses

Garret's words and tone didn't bode well, but Khan couldn't find the strength to worry anymore. He couldn't think of anything that could hurt him at that point. He had lost all that already.

"What is it?" Khan asked, being quite casual about the matter. "Am I dying or something?"

Khan was no scientist but had sort of become an expert in mutations. His Tainted status had forced him to learn about them, and he had even seen how wrong they could go on Nitis. Inheriting the Great Old One's abilities only showed benefits now, so Khan wouldn't be surprised to discover deadly side effects.

"Nothing of the sort, My Prince," Garret assured. "The opposite, actually."

Khan shot a questioning look at the scientist. If his health wasn't at stake, he couldn't understand what had triggered such a serious reaction from Garret.

"Before that," Garret exclaimed, drawing a rectangular device from his pocket, "Will you allow me to check something?"

The device resembled a phone, but not quite. It was bigger and thicker, barely suited to be stored inside a pocket. Garret had probably kept it there to hide one of the reasons behind that visit to the training hall.

Khan nodded, guessing what the device was about, and Garret didn't hesitate to approach him. The scientist pointed the machine at his nape, forehead, chest, and abdomen, recording all kinds of data before facing him again.

"Your last recorded attunement with mana scored eighty-one points," Garret recalled, studying the device screen. "Am I correct, My Prince?"

"I'm sure you know that better than I do," Khan pointed out.

"It's eighty-four now," Garret revealed. "My compliments for raising it so quickly despite your problems and duties."

Khan couldn't take that compliment to heart. His training speed had always been one of his best qualities in the past, but his growth had slowed down to a crawl after completing the procedure with the toxic pool.

Increasing the attunement with mana by three points during a period mostly spent flying through space was still incredible, especially for Khan's evolved body.

However, over nine months had passed since Khan's departure from Baoway. Adding only three points to the attunement after so long remained Khan's slowest record yet. Ordinary descendants could do better than that, and things were bound to get harder for Khan.

Increasing the attunement level became harder and slower at the higher percentages, and Khan also had the Great Old One's mutations to take into account. The issue sounded hopeless, with only the improved version of the [Blood Vortex] making it somewhat doable.

"What else?" Khan asked, knowing his attunement with mana couldn't have made Garret use such a serious tone.

"You are," Garret replied, slowing down to find the best way to explain the issue, "Hardly human anymore, My Prince. I'm surprised your tech can still recognize your genetic signature, to be honest."

Khan still couldn't spot the reason behind such seriousness. The Nak had already mutated him past the human boundaries, and all evolved warriors encountered similar problems. Garret wasn't saying anything new or worthy of his concern.

"Garret, get to the point," Khan ordered.

"It's about your reproductive capacity," Garret admitted. "I ran some simulations, and the likelihood of a human woman accepting your genes is very low, to say the least."

"Wasn't that already the case?" Khan wondered. "I was briefed about the problem when Miss Solodrey and I considered it."

"I minced my words, My Prince," Garret apologized. "It was unlikely before. Now, it's nigh impossible."

Khan didn't take the revelation too seriously. He had already achieved impossible feats, and the best scientists the Global Army had to offer were under his command. Khan was sure they would find a solution if the situation ever arose. He was even confident his genes would find it for him.

"That's not all," Garret continued. "It's unclear what would result from that union. Life tends to find a way, but some instances of that should never get the chance to breathe. It would be mercy."

"Ah," Khan blurted as some understanding finally dawned upon him. "Would it be dangerous for my potential partner, too?"

"Extremely, My Prince," Garret confirmed. "Even if she somehow accepted your seed and tried to give birth to a proper child, the nutrients required by the pregnancy would be unbearable."

"Is this because of the snake's mutations?" Khan questioned.

"Indeed," Garret stated. "Your vitality is off the charts. If the fetus even carries a fraction of that, it would eat your partner dry from the womb."

Khan opened his mouth but promptly closed it, lowering his glowing gaze to the floor. Even from a layman's perspective, Garret's explanation made sense, especially after Khan experienced what his sated body could perform. Pregnancies were already harsh on women, so Khan could guess how harder it would be to give birth to something similar to him.

Truthfully, the issue wasn't impelling. Khan couldn't see himself deciding to set up a family any time soon. Only two women had made him consider that future, and both had happened under special conditions.

Besides, Khan had always known that the subject would have been problematic for him. His Nak mutations created countless issues on their own, so he only had to add the ancient creature and his evolution to the equation. Nothing had really changed, and Khan didn't desperately need a solution now.

Nevertheless, there was a stark difference between not needing something and being unable to do it. The finality of Garret's conclusions managed to deal a harsh blow to Khan's already desperate heart. It turned out he could still lose something else.

"The simulations aren't definitive yet," Garret claimed, feeling the need to bring some hope. "I can run some tests and develop alternative ways. I can already think of some. The easiest would be having a fellow evolved warrior as a partner."

Khan lifted his gaze and nodded, but Garret added something else. "Also, if I could be so bold as to request samples of your semen. I could conduct more accurate tests with it."

"Let's avoid spreading my genetic material for now," Khan joked. "I can think of a few people who would use it in the wrong way."

Garret opened his mouth to speak and reassure Khan, but the latter lifted his hand, interrupting him as he turned toward the training hall's center.

"Well," Khan chuckled. "It's good that I'm not engaged anymore, isn't it? That would have been a problem."

"My Prince," Garret called, but Khan simply looked at him, showing an empty smile.

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"Thank you for the great work, Garret," Khan expressed. "Keep looking into it and my genes, but that's enough for now. I want to test this training hall."

Garret didn't have words to help Khan, so he performed a military salute and returned to the metal bridge, using the ship still attached to it to fly back to Nott Station.

As for Khan, he waited a few minutes before closing his eyes and summoning his cell's power. His figure rose through the training hall on its own, without needing techniques or mana, only stopping when it reached its exact center.