Katrin just absorbed an artifact, not a simple artifact but a powerful one, the Righteous Inferno was a Second Rarity level artifact, in rarity it was the same as Adam's artifact.
Usually, the stronger the artifact was, the harder it was for the Phantoms to find a suitable one so that the Evolution Tree and Initial Gene would be ready to take on a new part of their owner's power.
This was one of the reasons why Operators advised their Phantoms to develop their current artifacts instead of constantly searching for new ones. Each time, as the Phantom's power increased, it became more and more difficult to do so.
Could Katrin have just gotten lucky?
Sure.
But... hardly anyone watching this scene was willing to believe that.
From her actions and detached look, Adam, Refesa, Silvana, and Magnus immediately realized that something unusual happened.
The only one who still thought Katrin was just lucky was her Operator - Alan.
"What the hell...? Did she just become a Natural Phantom?"
Magnus muttered in disbelief.
He wasn't just surprised, since this event wasn't rare or unique, it had a whole other level of importance.
This was the first time something like this had ever happened.
Katrin was definitely an Artificial Phantom, she like almost all Phantoms had gone through a standardized path before entering Dead Lands for the first time.
All of this was recorded in detail in reports, documents kept by both the missions department and Fort Norton.
From the day when Katrin's Spark was discovered during a test to the day, she killed her first monster with the help of the Phantoms and the military.
Refesa, Magnus, and everyone else had no idea how it happened.
Everyone knew that there was no way that Artificial Phantom could become the Natural One, it was impossible because when the Spark appeared, it was already a predestined outcome.
Only if the Spark appeared immediately absorbing its gene, being at the peak of its powers, the Phantom could become the Natural born.
Aiden instantly realized that if Katrin's situation was possible to repeat, it could be one of the most important events in the entire history of the Citadel.
"But... if it happened for the first time in so long..." Aiden muttered with a deep look, "So, it's necessary for many conditions to coincide, in the exact order and time, and... I don't have anything, only the fact that it's most likely possible."
With a deep sigh, he shook his head. He was an experienced scientist, so he realized that even if he figured out how to replicate Katrin's situation exactly, how to turn an Artificial Phantom into a Natural One, it would be a difficult process and a long series of experiments.
Then, Aiden's amber eyes shifted to the side, looking at Adam lying on the ground. With his wounds, for now, it was best not to try to get up.
"Well, well, Adam Vinter..." Aiden said calmly, for some reason, there was an almost imperceptible pride and joy in his voice...
For a moment, Aiden's mouth corners lifted upward, forming a slight smirk.
"Years ago I was skeptical of the idea, but using my authority and sending youths to the Dead Lands under the guise of randomness has proven to be a great way to create strong Phantoms." Aiden ran his fingers together.
His eyes darkened, remembering the day he'd thrown Adam out of his lab, dooming him to end up in Dead Lands and die with a 99.7% chance.
Not that that exact number would make any difference, but it was Aiden's bloody statistic that he'd gathered over several years doing this sinister case, well... besides the many others that took place at Morton Observatory.
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Sure, the government, the missions department, and the military didn't approve of Aiden constantly sending some random youth to their deaths.
They didn't know why he was doing it, Aiden wasn't going to tell anyone his plans, but they preferred to turn a blind eye.
After all, it was always one youth from a group from the slums, amongst whom someone would occasionally have the Spark, the government wanted Aiden to keep running these tests.
The government's goal was simple, they didn't want to ruin relations with Aiden and these tests sometimes added newcomers to the Phantoms.
So Aiden kept sending random youths from the group to Dead Lands, and the government and everyone else pretended not to notice that not all the kids returned home after the test.
Aiden was well aware that the government was discouraging the promotion of Natural Phantoms, trying to keep information about them hidden, as they realized that it would be a disaster if the other Phantoms found out.
Artificial Phantoms would die by the hundreds in the ghostly hope of changing something in their lives, without even knowing how or if it was possible to do so.
This was one of the reasons why Aiden pretended that these were just accidents or some strange plans, after all... by his actions, he was trying to increase the number of Naturalborn Phantoms at least a little....