52 Progress on all fronts

His mind finally at peace, Joshua slept like an angel. His dreams involved exploring the universe on a spaceship, building giant robots and solving a bizarre murder case involving someone stabbed to death with frozen carrots. The culprit was obviously the pet rabbit.

When he finally woke up, he found himself lying in a bed. He quickly recognized the place as Catherine's room, except she had added an additional bed for him. She was asleep in the other one on the other side of the room.

He jumped out of the bed, feeling really energetic.

'Looks like I've recovered all my energy, I wonder how long I've been asleep.'

[28 hours 32 minutes and 16 seconds.]

'Luna! Good to see you're operational again! Wait, I was unconscious for that long?'

[After the intruding presence was cleared, User Catherine deemed it safe to turn the system back on. This allowed your energy reserve to recharge rather quickly and you could have been woken up earlier, but User Catherine insisted on letting you sleep.]

'I see.'

He checked the time, Catherine's alarm clock would go off in about ten minutes.

Looking at her beautiful sleeping face, Joshua suddenly felt warm on the inside. Thinking back to everything he had blurted out to Diana, he couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed, especially since Catherine had heard all of it. Oh well, he had just spoken the truth and he was the senior of the two, he should act more like it.

He knelt next to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

'Thank you for everything. I would never have overcome this without your help.'

###

Catherine woke up a few minutes later. The first thing she saw was that Joshua had woken up, which relieved her greatly. However, he was currently kneeling in front of her, his eyes closed and his hands clasped together. She instinctively bit her lip, she had heard everything he had said the day before and didn't really know what to make of it.

"You know I'm not an actual goddess, right? I can't hear your prayers."

"You are to me, that's all that matters. You'll better get used to it, once we realize your plans, the whole world will venerate you as one."

She sighed in reply. She knew Joshua enough to tell his jokes apart from his serious statements and he totally meant what he said. "My goal has never been to become the subject of idolatry."

"And how do you think people will view you once you succeed?"

"Look, those words you said… I was really moved by them and yet… I'd like it if you stopped acting like this. I don't want my Joshua to turn into a blind zealot, devoted to my cause. You're at your best when you're the good old crazy inventor Joshua Lockman. Please, don't change your attitude for my sake.

She leaned forward and softly kissed Joshua's lips.

"There is some irresistible charm to that endless creativity of yours, you know?"

####

Joshua was taken aback for a moment. He had wondered if he should change his attitude toward her. He had pondered over many idiotic scenarios, like changing his appearance to look like a medieval knight in armor but discarded all of them in the end. If she wanted crazy Joshua, he wouldn't disappoint her. As for what the future held in store for them, who knows…

Joshua grinned and said: "If that's what you want, fine. I do have one request, though."

"And that is?"

"Can you still baptize me with some holy water?"

Hearing this, Catherine sighed, rolled her eyes and made a flood of water appear above Joshua's head. She let the water flow for about 30 seconds as Joshua just put his arms in the air while laughing. When the flood stopped, he was drenched to the bone.

Catherine smiled mischievously and said: "Happy?"

Joshua nodded and replied: "Now, that's 'my' Catherine!"

###

Joshua just dismissed his body and made a new one in order to dry himself. He went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast, while Catherine took a shower and got dressed. The other members of the group soon came to eat as well. Catherine had brewed up a story to explain his absence the previous day. She had informed them about Jacques' visit and told them they would leave the complex soon. However, some preparations were necessary, notably the removal of the rune inside their brain. Joshua had designed a way to remove the rune without harming them but the process was very tiring he had exhausted his energy reserve while working on it, forcing him to rest for a day, which wasn't too far from the truth.

Since they planned to leave soon, the others were in charge of gathering supplies. For example, they picked out several rune weapons from the armory. This place was still holding up a lot of resources, but they could always come back later to pick them up.

After they were done eating, Catherine and Joshua headed back to the rune inscription lab in order to finish up their little project. Joshua volunteered as a guinea pig again, with the progress they made the previous time, they should be able to finish soon. Indeed, after a couple of hours, Catherine was able to attain a hundred percent success with the operation.

"Excellent work, Dr. Killgood!" Joshua said in satisfaction, "We can now move past the clinical trials and perform on a live subject."

"Very well, you've been an adequate test subject but I suppose it's time we switched roles?"

"Indeed, Luna recorded everything so I'll take care of that nasty rune inside your head. Afterward, I'll let you handle the rest of our group."

Joshua jumped out of the operation chair and swapped his clothes for a surgeon outfit. He then materialized a chainsaw and turned it on, holding it above Catherine.

"Ready?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I can never be prepared enough for your antics. But yes, go ahead," she replied, smiling.

Joshua got rid of the chainsaw and took a deep breath. It was the moment of truth and to be honest, he was fairly nervous. The simulated procedure had worked fine, but what if the rune had an unknown reaction he failed to predict?

Catherine seemed to notice his worries on his face and said :

"Don't worry, everything will be alright. You did an excellent job, it can't go wrong."

"You know, it's usually the doctor who reassures the patient, not the other way around."

« I'm not worried, I'm in your capable hands. Now get on with it! »

Joshua nodded and picked up the rune inscription device. He instructed Luna to assist him and began disassembling the rune with utter care. Catherine just kept her eyes closed, a serene expression on her face. Stroke after stroke, the symbol was breaking apart. As soon as energy began to leak, Joshua absorbed it, letting not a single drop harm Catherine. As he proceeded, he grew more confident and he felt a lot of pride seeing the rune fall apart. While he could only applaud the ingeniosity behind its design, the rune's functionality had always disgusted him. Something created for the sole purpose of limiting mankind's growth, capacities and knowledge was in direct conflict with his values and deeply offended him. No matter, that millennia-old legacy of a distant past was coming to an end today.

The operation went on without a hitch. Joshua performed the last stroke, absorbing the final part of the rune and said: "It's done. How do you feel ?"

###

Catherine's mind was at peace. Joshua had put so much care in the preparations that she blindly trusted him with her life. And she was right to do so. As soon as Joshua finished, she began to feel a change. It was a feeling that was hard to describe, she had the impression a part of her body that has never functioned properly suddenly sprang to life. One could compare the feeling to a blind person recovering their sight and opening their eyes for the first time and being flooded by a world of colors.

The sensation she felt as she was breathing was simply wonderful. Energy was flowing through her like never before. Thanks to the rune Joshua had made, she had been able to make an enormous amount of progress in a short time and yet it was nothing compared to what was happening to her right now. A couple of breaths seemed to absorb as much energy as a whole day using the old method. The euphoric state she was in didn't cloud her judgment, though as she felt a breakthrough was near. She began taking very deep breaths, allowing even more power to flood into her energy veins. It didn't take long for her body to reach its current limit and to evolve further. Ranking up like this was always a wonderful experience, it was a pleasurable sensation that resonated through every cell in her body. As the transformation came to an end, she had the impression to be invincible and felt like she could lift mountains.

But she wouldn't stop there.

She had made some great progress in her soul world recently, by absorbing the fragments Damien had gifted her. With no more locks in place, her mind began to process everything she had learned recently. She had a very clear idea of how she wanted to evolve her soul world and used to the opportunity that she was in such a euphoric state to have an epiphany. A massive amount of energy rushed toward her as her soul world began to expand. The lake that was once the center of the place surrounded by rivers, forests, and mountains was now just a small area in her expanded world. The whole space was quickly filled with water, forming a large sea in which the aforementioned zone became a small island. Several more islands soon popped up. One could clearly see the inspiration as her expanded soul world largely resembles Damien's… without the crazy Hydra.

Her second transformation came to an end, she opened her eyes and looked at Joshua who was staring at her like a bewildered idiot.

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