BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM
Chapter 1372 - 1372: For her (3)

A soft scratching sound made Erik turn around. One of his dark shapes had returned, moving across the floor in the form of a tiny insect. In its mandibles, it carried something much larger than its body.

<What did you find?> Erik asked, taking the item from its tiny mouth.

It was a photograph, protected by a yellowed plastic coating. Despite its age and the damage around the edges, the image itself was clear—a newborn baby, wrapped in hospital blankets.

<Where did you find this?> Erik asked.

<Behind some fallen ceiling tiles in one of the upper labs, master.>

Erik turned the photo over. The plastic crackled but held. On the back, barely legible through the aged coating, was a date and a name: "Lauren."

Then the system got a sort of flashback. A surge of emotions went through Ella.

<Did you…?> But then Erik's answer came. It was an overwhelming feeling, coursing through both of them.

The photograph had triggered something deep within the biological supercomputer. These were memories.

Not just that. Raw, unprocessed feelings that flowed like electricity through circuits made of memories. But they were splendid memories, splendid feelings.

Through their mental connection, Erik saw it—Ella in a hospital bed, exhausted but happy, cradling her newborn daughter for the first time.

The memory was so vivid it felt like his own: the weight of the tiny bundle, the overwhelming love, the pure wonder of new life.

He felt Ella's joy as she counted ten tiny fingers and toes, memorized the shape of Lauren's nose, and watched those first unfocused eyes trying to take in the world.

[My baby…] The system was crying. Not physically, of course; she was incapable of that. Nonetheless, the joy, the longing, and the yearning were there.

The photograph wasn't just an image; it was a gateway to one of the most precious moments of Ella's life, maybe the only one she would be able to get given the damage her death caused her brain and the transformation into the biological supercomputer inflicted.

But that was a memory that proved she wasn't just code or an echo—she was a mother who had loved her daughter with every fiber of her being. It was a memory that proved there still was someone inside of that hybrid thing the biological supercomputer was.

<Are you ok…?>

[Y—yes… It's just that…]

Erik knew it. Ella didn't expect to have that memory, of all those she could get. Though, even if that was sweet, it was just one of them.

Images flickered through their shared consciousness: a baby's first cry, the warmth of tiny fingers gripping a hand, the weight of responsibility for a new life, and the lightness of joy.

Then, everything crashed down, because, followed by the feeling of elation at remembering her daughter's birth, grief came.

Lauren lived hundreds of years earlier, and her death must not have been peaceful.

Imagining her daughter eaten alive by a thaid or dead here, probably starved, wasn't easy for her, and for Erik, given their connection.

Then, the grief was followed by a yearning so intense it made Erik tremble. Love, pure and maternal, mixed with an aching loss that seemed to echo through every fiber of their beings.

<Ella…>

There was no reply.

<Ella!>

The biological supercomputer finally got a hold of herself.

[You must calm down…]

But it wasn't easy.

[Sorry… I…]

<It's ok…>

Then Ella asked Erik to make a mental link with the clone who brought the photo.

[Thank you,] she said.

<It was a pleasure, ma'am,> the clone said. When Ella calmed down, she mentally turned to Erik.

[It's her,] Ella's voice wavered. [My Lauren. Not just data or code telling me I should care—I feel it. I remember feeling it.]

<What did I say?>

He paused.

<You are human…>

[Yes… Yes!]

She felt happy. For the first time since they merged, or whatever happened. The biological supercomputer, Ella, felt happy. Felt human. Felt love, after centuries, even if that love was distant.

Though that moment got shattered when another clone scuttled into view, its form shifting and elongating as it approached.

In that weird face of his, there was a serious look.

Erik felt the apprehension in the clone even before it spoke.

<What?> Erik asked. Not that happy about the bad timing. Yet, if the clone was worried, it meant something bad was on its way to him.

<We found something, master. The other dark shapes are already clearing the area to let you pass, but…>

<Clearing the area?>

Most of this place was free of debris, so it was possible to pass. Erik, though, sent the clones to search where he couldn't because of his large body.

At the same time, he was worried the clones would make noise, and the clone sensed it.

<We have no choice, master; you need to see this.>

[What's so urgent?] The system asked.

<We found a creature…>

[See? I told you there was something down here! Maybe it is the Thaid who killed Lauren!]

Erik turned to the clone.

<Where is it, exactly?> Erik asked. <Is it alive?>

<We are not sure…>

The clone led the way through the still clear corridors while the other dark shapes worked ahead, pushing aside broken equipment and fallen debris.

Their movements created unavoidable echoes—scraping metal, crumbling concrete, and a hiss of displaced dust.

Erik tensed at each sound, knowing that thaids lurking nearby the lab might hear it, but what the clones found seemed too important to wait. They had no choice but to wait for the clones to clear the debris and see what was so urgent.

Then, they found themselves in front of a weird metallic cube. It was something they had never seen before and was as large as a small room.

<What is this?>

The system was as confused as he was.

[Metal? But I can't…]

It couldn't determine what it exactly was. The molecular composition was weird, and…

[There is no mana coming from it.]

Which was even weirder given mana permeated everything in the universe.

<Come…> a clone said.

There were some dents and small openings inside the cube, not enough for Erik to pass, but large enough to allow the clones. They opened the door from the other side, and Erik entered.

Then he saw it. The system did too. Though the amount of mana released by that thing, by that body, was immense, at least tens of times higher than what Erik could make.

It wasn't just that. The corpse was strangely intact, as if it had died minutes earlier. But it was inside something built by the Silverline corporation, so it must have been there for centuries.

<Is that a thaid?>

The system hesitated.

[No, I don't detect a brain crystal from it.]