Caelus stumbled out of the sealed off section of the space station. He now knew why Herta sealed it off, seeing as Ruan Mei chose the space for her dangerous experiment.
Crazy.
They were all crazy.
There was no way Herta would've allowed Ruan Mei to run that experiment aboard her space station without giving her permission. Which meant that Herta allowed it.
Herta allowed Ruan Mei to reconstruct the Emanator of Propagation.
The Emanator of Propagation was a universe-wide threat. It took several Aeons to stop the path, along with trillions of lives and several planets. Though this one was a clone, even capturing a sliver of the strength the original had would've plunged the entire station and the nearby planet into extinction.
Even Caelus didn't know if he would've escaped alive after meeting the emanator. Its thick suffocating presence clogged up on his body like thick goo- slowing him down and weakening him as he fought the humongous bug.
It didn't survive for long though. It only lasted a minute before the propagation clone self-destructed. Caelus didn't know why, but he was thankful for it. He wouldn't have held out against the emanator if the fight prolonged itself, much less how much damage it would do to the surroundings and the space station.
Even though the abomination was gone, its effects surely weren't. Caelus could still feel himself drowning in the weird energy that clung on to him during the fight. He didn't know how to get it off him, and looked for the cause of all his problems.
"Doctor-" Caelus looked around to find Dr. Ratio. "-I need your help finding..." He trailed off when he couldn't utter Ruan Mei's name. It looked like her drug was still in his system. He couldn't talk about the Genius Society member without uttering something completely disconnected from her. "...the creator." Caelus waved his hand in the direction of the propagation emanator's last position.
"This...is why you shouldn't accept anything from strangers." The Intelligentsia Guild member sighed while rubbing his temples. "She did something to you didn't she?"
Yes! "No." Caelus nodded his head to counter the answer he didn't intend to give.
"Fortunately for you, I have her location." The statue-headed figure manipulated a small interface in front of him and flashed the screen in his direction. "She's on the same bridge you first met her."
"Do you know how to get this thing off me?" Caelus gestured at his body. "That insect blasted me with something and I can't get rid of this feeling."
"No, and I'm not really here." The Dr. Ratio in front of Caelus glowed blue indicating he was a hologram. "I wasn't going to risk myself going anywhere close near that thing."
His eyes twitched. Did everyone really send him down here alone to clean up after them? At least Dr. Ratio showed up to guide him to the swarm- if that was considered helpful.
"Are you sure you can't give me an idea to get this thing off me?! You can't see it but there's something sticking to me even after the bug disappeared." Caelus asked one last time before he hunted down the Genius Society member responsible for this mess.
"I don't have the tech nor the means to inspect your status outside of the normal parameters. From my side, all your vitals are operating nominally. Whatever that bug did to you, I wouldn't be able to help you with." Dr. Ratio gritted his teeth. Loath was he to admit it, but he didn't have an answer to Caelus's current dilemma. "Your best chance is to ask her."
And with that, Caelus was off. He didn't wait for another word from the Intelligentsia Guild member, too focused on getting rid of the unnatural feeling that soaked his body. Whatever it was, it felt like it was seeping through his body and entering him. All Caelus wanted to do was immediately get rid of it.
It felt unnatural.
Caelus rushed back to the bridge he met Ruan Mei at. Just as Dr. Ratio said, the Genius Society member was there. "You-!" He stomped over to the woman who was the cause of his problem.
"Welcome back, my assistant." Ruan Mei turned around and gave a soft smile. "Congratulations on a job well done."
Caelus scrunched his face at the solemn beauty. "Job well done?! I could've- I would've died down there!" The emanator was beyond his league. Caelus had the blessing of Preservation, but he couldn't pull out its full power at any time. He couldn't even use the Stellaron inside him. So far, it had only appeared during that time his life was in danger when he woke up in the Herta's Space Station.
Ruan Mei tilted her head. "But you didn't. Just as I predicted. The swarm emanator would've destabilized long before you were truly in any danger."
"That's not the point." Caelus ignored the weird feeling his body was undergoing. Whatever the swarm emanator did, he wanted it gone quickly. "My life was in danger because of your experiment. Everyone's lives were in danger if it got out of hand."
"But you were there, no?"