Chapter 98: Chapter 98: Genetic Collapse
H'el walked through the cold, steel corridor and entered the storage room.
Originally, Kandor City was placed in the command room by Brainiac-7, but the command room was tailored for Brainiac's operations and had many features that weren't suitable for H'el's needs. To avoid altering the command room and to protect Kandor City, Zero had moved it to a specially designated storage room.
As H'el entered the storage room, the wall lights illuminated, revealing Kandor City securely placed on a central platform. Under a superconductive dome-like structure, the distinctive high-rise buildings of Kandor City were visible, with countless Kryptonians floating inside, their eyes closed as if in meditation.
H'el activated his X-ray vision to scan Kandor City and saw many familiar faces floating within. These included Superman's grandmother Keira Van, his aunt Mala Van, Kara's mother Alura, Kara's friend Thara, Professor Kimdor from the Science Guild, and various high-ranking officials. Among them was Gal Kur, the leader of the civilian representatives, and numerous clones of Kryptonian high-ranking individuals that H'el had created underground.
Unfortunately, H'el couldn't find Zor-El, the brother of Jor-El and an exceptional scientist with whom he had closely collaborated.
"Zero, maintain the atmosphere within Kandor City and the room."
H'el commanded, and the gas levels in the room started to decrease as a chemical compound with a sleep-inducing effect was introduced through the ventilation.
"Open the superconductive shield."
The dome-like shield gently lifted, not disturbing the numerous Kryptonians floating within the tall buildings.
H'el used his control over the biological magnetic field to precisely access the location of the Biological Therapy Department of Kandor City's Scientific Council. This department was reserved for the treatment and recuperation of high-ranking members of Kandor City and had the best medical equipment.
Beneath the Biological Therapy Department was the underground layer of H'el's cloned Kryptonian high-ranking individuals. H'el had once cloned many Kryptonian high-ranking members using the equipment in the Biological Therapy Department.
He delicately manipulated the biological magnetic field, penetrating the entrance to the underground layer. The biological magnetic field acted as a sensory extension, and he located his loyal subordinate, Branch, who had once assisted him in many tasks while remaining hidden.
Carefully and gently, he guided Branch, who was as small as an ant, out of hiding. Branch, wearing a white coat, moved in an arc and landed in H'el's hand.
Immediately, H'el covered Branch's entire body with the biological magnetic field, using his size-changing ability to assist in his recovery.
Under H'el's control, Branch's body underwent a transformation. From an ant-like size, he expanded to the size of a banana, then a pineapple, followed by an infant, a five-year-old, and finally restored to a height of 1.76 meters.
Seeing his once-loyal subordinate again, H'el felt a sense of relief and satisfaction. Finally, he had the ability to save his former subordinate.
Branch's eyelashes trembled as he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze lost and bewildered.
Suddenly.
Branch, who had been restored to his original state, began to shed his skin. Bloody flesh was exposed, the intestinal mucosa started to peel off, and almost all of his skin fell away. Blood and bodily fluids seeped from various parts of his body, and his eyes filled with blood.
It all happened so quickly, and Branch felt intense pain. His eyes, filled with a desperate gaze, turned toward H'el. His pupils were filled with misery as his hand reached out, attempting to grasp H'el.
In the end, his heart rate reached 280 beats per minute, and his immune cells became aberrant, attacking normal cells. His white blood cell count dropped to nearly zero.
Everything happened too fast, and H'el's emergency measures to shrink him back to the size of an ant proved futile.
The genetic chain within Branch's body seemed to be pierced by microscopic bullets, countless particles striking through his body as if hit by a point-blank range supermachine gun fire. A large amount of DNA was broken, causing errors in cell replication, which, in turn, led to various problems in the body's tissues and organs due to problematic cells.
Chromosomes were completely shattered, some broken into pieces, others stuck together, becoming chaotic and disorganized, leading to extraordinarily rapid death.
His once-trusted assistant had died just like that.
"How could this happen?"
H'el's eyes were filled with confusion, his face tense. Seeing Branch's condition, he acted swiftly, attempting to shrink him down to a manageable size first.
But even shrinking him was in vain. His genes had already collapsed.
H'el was certain that his size-changing ability was not the issue; it could be applied to the human body as well. H'el had changed his own body size before, growing to a height of five hundred meters and then reverting to his normal form.
Although Branch hadn't been exposed to the sun and hadn't awakened Kryptonian physical abilities, under H'el's control, this level of genetic collapse leading to death shouldn't have occurred.
"Could it be that prolonged shrinking caused his genes to become incompatible?"
H'el pondered deeply, his face reflecting the depth of his thoughts.
Preparing to experiment once more, he was absolutely certain that the issue wasn't with his size-changing ability. The synchronous and balanced resizing had produced consistent results.
So, where was the problem?
H'el once again extended his biological magnetic field into Kandor City. This time, he refrained from taking any of his assistants; it was rare to have a few dozen loyal and capable assistants, and losing one was a significant loss.
Regret flashed through H'el's mind.
In the prison within Kandor City, he randomly selected a prisoner and, with his penetrating and microscopic vision, began observing him closely.
The prisoner in H'el's grasp underwent a slow and balanced enlargement process during which no issues arose. However, when he fully returned to his original size, his genes collapsed.
"Over three thousand gene chains collapsed after a successful restoration, with the majority of them affecting the chromosomes responsible for Kryptonian talents and physical brain strength."
"Why are they collapsing?" H'el remained perplexed.
This collapse was incredibly strange; it occurred precisely at critical nodes, where chromosomes couldn't withstand the strain.
H'el dismissed the current prisoner and selected another from the prison. This time, he focused intensely, his eyes showing veins popping around the eyelids. He enhanced his penetrating and microscopic vision with a celestial magnifying glass, concentrating entirely on those three thousand chromosomal data points.
Once again, the prisoner in his grasp underwent enlargement, and when H'el used his size-changing ability to return him to his original state, there were no signs of abnormality in those three thousand chromosomal data points.
However, right after successfully restoring the prisoner to his original size, the three thousand chromosomal data points seemed to tighten like taut ropes, and they began to rupture. From these fractured data positions, a faint mental power emerged, mixed with genetic encoding information.
Observing this, H'el's eyes widened.
°°°
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