Half-Blood

Meanwhile, Kuma had just returned from Water 7 to the docking platform on God's Island.

Four wooden crates half a man's height were piled at his feet. They were made of dark ironwood, their corners plated with copper engraved with the Vegapunk Laboratory emblem—a brain surrounded by gears.

Diumil led people in carrying the crates to the storeroom deep within the temple and pried open their lids.

Glass tubes were neatly arranged inside each crate, filled with pale blue liquid that looked clear, almost transparent, beneath the Dial lamps.

Each crate had four layers, with twenty-five tubes per layer. The four crates contained four hundred tubes in total.

This was the second batch of serum Vegapunk had sent this month. The previous batch of two hundred tubes had arrived half a month ago and had already all been injected.

In the injection room next to the storeroom, Sariye held up a tube of serum to the Dial lamp and checked the markings on the liquid level.

A young Birkan sat before her with his sleeve rolled up to his shoulder, exposing his upper arm. Sariye swabbed the deltoid with an alcohol-soaked cotton pad, then inserted the needle and slowly depressed the syringe.

The pale blue liquid gradually entered the muscle, forming a tiny swelling beneath the skin before being absorbed by the tissue.

The Birkan gritted his teeth, fine beads of sweat seeping from his temples.

The burning sensation during the injection was something everyone had to endure. It felt as though a flame had been pressed against the bone, spreading outward from the injection site and creeping inch by inch through the body along the blood vessels.

After about ten breaths, the burning would suddenly fade, replaced by an intense itch surging up from deep within the shoulder blades—the