........

________

Today is August 8, 2019, Meredith... although I doubt that the date is close to you when you hear this.

If who is reading this is you, Liam ... I hope you understand why I have cut off all communication with you. You have a future that isnt this, you are a good man who will undoubtedly know how to use the last MM that I have sent you ... if someone can win the Nobel, that is you. I dont care who among you is the one who finds this recording, but I hope that this last wish is respected.Take it to a news source, I dont care if it's radio, newspaper or television.

Take it and get it retransmitted, I want that by the time my storm has arrived this world can know a little more about its author. Well, now I must present myself as it deserves.

My new name, the one I have adopted, is Gyeseung. Professor or doctor Gyeseung, I'll leave the title to your decision. I am the author of the NEP and the potential author of the NEPF, a more diluted and basic version of my NEP.

With my NEP I have created who I hope that just by hearing her name makes the masses tremble, and with the NEPF the extension of its power to bring terror to this entire planet.Humans so powerful and different from you that you will refuse to admit that you are members of the same species.

Now, this shouldnt be understood as an apology or a sign of repentance, it is too late for both concepts. I am fully aware of the risks I have taken and the fate I have built for this country ... and I hope for this world. Take these last words as my way of admitting my crimes and my great work, my total and absolute recognition of my sacred mission as a scientist.

Now allow me to tell you a little about my story, the one that took me along such dark roads only to be able to challenge God.

When my daughter Meredith was born, the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The doctors began to despair, and although the gynecologist tried to calm the room, the tears of my wife and the nurses will never be forgotten.

It was almost 30 minutes of resuscitation, 30 minutes in which the midwife asked me to pray for the life of my first-born... but I couldn't; I cling to my knowledge and trust in medical science and put aside my wife's desperate prayers. She never resented me for my decision, not when our little one managed to survive and not in her last moments, where she was the one who had to comfort me by not being able to pray for her soul. I still remember how she stroked my head, telling me softly that nothing was happening, that there was something on the other side or she would not be waiting for me with a smile.

Since that day I have stopped asking myself again and again the same question, ask what I started doing to everyone around me: Meredith, Liam, our friends in the scientific community and even some of Liam's patients.

God exists? Is there the beyond? Is God compassionate or vengeful to those who went astray from his flock?

It didnt matter who I was trying to ask, nobody could give me the answer I was looking for. Once I built and designed the Liam MM, I decided to take a trip around the world, using our contacts to meet with different religious personalities all over the world.

Christianity ... Islam ... Hinduism ... Buddhism ... Shintoism ... Judaism ... Jainism ...

To know the unknown, I embarked on a journey seeking the answer to my fears ... but no one could please my quest for knowledge, no one could tell me for sure if Martha would be on the other side.

Therefore, I decided to do the only thing I knew: Science.

Design the NEP in complete silence so as not to attract the attention of even my dear friend and test it on thousands of animals, hundreds of different species in clandestine laboratories that later burned to destroy the evidence. I didnt allow myself to rest for a single day, because if God was always vigilant and had to be one step ahead of him ... to make him go down he had to create something that gave new meaning to his greatest creation, something that turned the product of his blood into my own creation.

Working the NEP until you find the most perfect shape, until it becomes the answer to the biggest question ... and I turned it into the seed that it would throw into the wind.

Of course the NEP is not my last bullet, who would load the revolver with only one bullet before his last instance?

That's why today I am here, in a forest near Brightside, observing the gigantic dome that serves as a cradle while I wait for my other bullet. My two faithful assistants work relentlessly to find the way to where our new home will be, one close enough to her but not so close to being discovered.

Addams looks like a great man and a better scientist, and the data he collects about the NEPF helps me in my retro investigation to find out the origin of such a curious sub-cap of my NEP.

According to him, my King of Reality is called Anne Barlow Holm and he is currently 8 months ... and seeing the pictures he has sent me and the weekly analyzes ... it's bad to say it, but that girl is extremely adorable-

......

______

"Professor!" Alexander screamed as he ran to the rock where he was sitting, climbing on Professor Gyeseung's leg to get him out of the state of concentration he was in. "Professor, please ..."

"Alexander" Gyeseung blinked a couple of times, trying to distinguish his assistant in the darkness of the night. With one hand the professor rubbed the bridge of his nose while with the other he stroked the head of his assistant, using the light that the security controls emit around the dome to distinguish it. "Something wrong? I was recording a new message for my daughter, one less personal and more autobiographical than the previous"

"Will you decide to send them sometime?"

Gyeseung closed his mouth, rubbing his beard as he thought. "I dont know ... Meredith is safe in Brightside, she doesnt need to know what her father has done... She will have time to discover it"

Alexander decided to respect the decision of his teacher, clearing his throat to recover the theme begins. "I have good news, professor. The first is that my cousins r03;r03;have found what we were looking for several kilometers deep under Brightside; they say it is close to an underground river"

The news was received as water for mayor by Gyeseung, who applauded happily knowing that he was one step closer. "When do you think we can move?"

Alexander crossed his arms thoughtfully, waving his tail from side to side meanwhile. "Bartolomeo says that he will have the road open in a day or so, and then we only need to acclimatize the cavern and seal the entrance. If everything goes well we should be able to move to the depths in a few weeks once we bring all the necessary equipment"

"That's good news, but I hope that before I have time to prepare the rain ..." Gyeseung stroked his beard as he began to listen to the footsteps in the distance, slow but sure and firm without stopping for a second. "The other news is what I think it is?"

"Indeed, Doctor-" Alexander bowed slightly as the lantern light bathed their bodies. "Our guest has finally arrived"

...

Gasping for the walk the colossus had to lean on one of the nearby trees to help catch his breath, leaving the lantern hanging from a branch as an environmental lamp. "I am glad to see that you have kept your word, Dr. Mo Bae ... although I would prefer that you have chosen a less hot place. I'm not already young enough to run so many kilometers in the middle of the night with these temperatures" With a smile Gyeseung got up from his rock, taking his backpack and offering his canteen. "I thank you Doctor ... although I do not understand why we should meet without Professor Cole present ... you have been lucky that I have agreed that-"

"There has been no coincidence, Sergeant Kayden Jackson. And call me Gyeseung ... I decided to abandon the name of Mo Bae" The professor's words confused his client, who sat on the stone near where he was sitting. "and although it's wrong to talk about Liam on his back, he's too far away to clean up the darkness that ravages your family, sergeant."

"What are you-"

"Listen to me, sergeant" Gyeseung decided to interrupt even if it was improper in him. "I am the creator of the NEPF" The professor's words fell between the two men as if it were a bomb, destroying any type of joint ground between them. Jackson breathed a couple of times deciding internally what was the appropriate course of action. "You have been called to Brightside at the request of General Black to become the Education Counselor of Handshake for your years and experience in the different educational cycles"

Gritting his teeth, the sergeant squeezed his knuckles and his teeth succumbing to the provocations. "It's true that William has offered me the position, but what I dont remember ... is having told you that, Gyeseung ..." Jackson stood up getting ready to take out his gun and stop the scientist in front of him ... when Gyeseung took out his phone, showing him to the general the photo of a couple. "..."

"Only I can cleanse the darkness that ravages your own blood, Jackson. Brightside, the Neohumans and I need you and your knowledge, they need a good man who knows how to educate them. Become my eyes on Brightside, the guardian of my children's future ... and I will be the one to return the future to yours-"

"Bastard! Dont drag them in this! I have sworn-"

"Your flag isnt helping your family, am I wrong? ..." The question fell like another bomb, this time directly on Jackson. "Jackson, you're a good man who loves children more than anything ... your years of teaching and the fact that you're one of the few professors to come to General Black's call speak for themselves. A serious and strict teacher who never abandons his students, be they children, teenagers or cadets. You must tell me if you are really hesitating in my words, since I need full confidence in my work. Liam is a good man and a good scientist, but neither he can nor this country is willing to spend so much in saving Julia ... only I can give you that. My conditions are simple and simple to comply with:

• Dont tell anyone what has happened here.
• Cut off communications with Liam Cole.
• Make sure that William Black selects you to be the Handshake education counselor and always have an eye on your phone"

Silence covered the forest again, interrupted only by Jackson's gnashing of teeth. "If I accept ... can you really save her? If I help you and I dont stop you right here ... can you really give her smile back to my daughter and her husband?" Gyeseung nodded slowly, fumbling in the inside pockets of his robe until he pulled out a bottle full of blue liquid. "What is that?..."

"I call it 'huimang-ui bi' ... you know him as NEPF." The mere mention made Jackson stand guard as Gyeseung approached and placed the flask in the sergeant's hands. "You only need to give it to your granddaughter ... its effects will be almost immediate, although the results will take time to become visible."

"Will it make her a neo-human?" Gyeseung nodded without saying anything else, seeing how Jackson protected the jar with both hands as if it were the most delicate work of art. "I guess ... it's a better future than not being able to get to wear her first school uniform ..."

Stroking the sergeant's cheek, Gyeseung rose on tiptoe to reach her ear. "Her smile will make it worth it ... you're a good man, Jackson, dont ever forget it"

The doctor began to leave quietly among the trees, leaving Jackson alone in the forest clearing. The lights of the security control returned to illuminate in the direction where the meeting had taken place, making shine the bottle that would turn to his granddaughter in one more of the children that already he wished to help. As if it were a deal with the devil, Jackson kept the bottle in the safest pocket of his vest.

No. Jackson was quite sure that he had accepted a deal with the devil himself.

But as long as it served to return the smile to his family, the sergeant would be a man of his word and honor his part of the bargain ... no matter what it cost.

Jackson left after 3 minutes in silence, running again towards the outer quarters of the dome. "Professor ..." Alexander climbed the trunk of the tree where Gyeseung was silently hiding, landing on his shoulder. "Has it been giving you the second version of the NEPF so ... nonchalantly, has it been a good idea?"

Nodding with closed eyes, Gyeseung dropped to the grassy ground. "Jackson needs to help his family, you can trust that there will not be a drop left to trace from that bottle. Alexander, meet with Bartolomeo and confirm that I look forward to moving to our new home as soon as possible ... and remind him not to close the cavern ... we will need all the space we can take advantage of"

"As you wish, Professor" Alexander said goodbye with a bow before jumping into the grass, running between her and losing himself in the darkness of the night.

With a smile from ear to ear, Gyeseung looked up at the sky, enjoying the stars for a few seconds before turning the recorder back on.

......

______

I have deposited all the ingredients in the city where my daughter was born.

The seed that contains my dreams and desires, the strongest flowerpot and the most perfect soil where to take root, solid nutrients that strengthen the seed, a calm and friendly environment, the expert hands of the best gardeners to take care of it and, although not I had planned them from the beginning ... hundreds of seeds that will test her determination and the integrity of the roots in the face of adversity when they seek desperate shelter from the storm.

Storm… Yes ... my storm. With which I have been dreaming for years.

I wonder if the sky will remain the same when that day arrives? Will they come to see the beauty in the stars that we once dreamed of?

The NEPF and NEP will set a new course ... but will this be the course that others want? Will they allow fears of the unknown to overcome the feeling of family that unites us as humans? If history has taught us something ... it is of course that they let themselves be carried away by fear and ignorance. That was our sin, the same one that God refuses to liberate us.

My whole plan revolves around that, so I dont think I could be wrong.

2024 is just around the corner ... I cat wait to see how this world reacts to Yong-ui gagseong! To see the ashes awakening and the earth crying out to its killers.

It will be a amazing show, one that I hope nobody cant forget again ...

So close, I can almost see it ... Although seeing it behind the scenes is not enough. When the day comes I will be over the top, sitting on my golden throne to see him in the face.

Even if it's a few seconds, I want to be able to see him with my own eyes ... I want to see him face his creation and see him suffer for abandoning us to our fate.

All this, of course, counting on my fears to be real. Or at least as real as my King and my NEPF children ...

...

_____

(August 8, 10:15 in the morning inside the dome)

The last thing the Brightside dwellers expected from living under a dome was to suffer a heat wave, so when the news that the outside heat had partially broken down the cooling systems and the climate processing unit could not go any further than 30 degrees Celsius people took it slightly wrong.

And we are talking lightly about riots in the town hall, the C.O.L.D ritos as the young people called them.

A week later, at the beginning of August, the cooling system began to work again, lowering the temperatures even partially but enough to go out into the street ... and just in the street is where our protagonists were right now, specifically in the Bright Hill park, on the Rivera de los Reyes as neighbors knew the banks of the main lake converted into a public beach behind the dome.

To cope with the heat wave the adults who stayed at home had decided to hold a refreshing breakfast on the lake shore to give rise to the energy accumulated inside of their children by the days living in the shadow. As soon as the group arrived, they separated into two other groups, leaving the teenagers on one side and the adults and babies on the other, on the condition that they leave the entire park clean after having lunch.

Without hesitation for a second the teenagers accepted taking the baskets that Erika had prepared and moving to one of the areas with picnic tables.

"I cant... believe it!" Vitor deCruz yelled, letting go of the measuring tape, clenching his teeth furiously while Fraje kept smiling with a disgusting grimace. "Leave me the tape, Max! You must have been wrong!"

"I told you or not?! 3 centimeters! Say hello to the 1.49 Fraje!" Picking up the tape measure, Fraje held it to Vitor like a bomb, causing it to move backwards until it hit the tree where a few seconds ago it had been measured. "Come on Vitor! We are going to measure you! Let's see who is still a European dwarf!"

"Dont believe the big thing, Fraje! I'm still pulling you 11 centimeters!" Vitor tried to defend himself, removing the tape measure and preparing to be measured. (wishing inside that his height had increased even minimally)

"We'll see how long! I also do not believe myself- Ah, it's true, exactly 11 centimeters ..."

While Fraje and Vitor had their absurd competitions animated by Max Fang, a more elegant group formed by the rest of the teenagers (Nellie, Cassio deCruz, Eliab Wall, Lulia Howee) and the much younger Lea Gray (who even having 6 years adored follow the elders everywhere and the girls in the group loved having her around) enjoyed the feast that Erika had prepared the teenagers for breakfast. (3 baskets full of all kinds of pastas and breakfasts that had taken several hours to cook)

"I dont understand what kind of fight they're having ... sincerely." Eliab poured her smoothie cup, tasting it with great pleasure. "You weren't lying about your mother's ability to cook, Nellie, this chocolate shake is absolutely incredible"

Nellie was clear that the claim was true seeing how the picnic table had already been almost emptied of the first batch of food. (Although she didnt want to admit that a lot was in her stomach)

"I guess thank you ... although I still think there was too much food-"

"Not with you!" The other 4 friends shouted at the same time, laughing at each other about something Nellie was not understanding.

"We're going to get to the level of those three idiots for a moment, okay?" Lulia pointed out to the trio that she was now preparing to measure Max. "If your brother has grown 3 centimeters ... that means you too, Nellie?"

"Yes, it's true that she seems taller ..." Cassio rubbed his chin slightly as he studied Nellie, smiling when he saw her turn redder.

"If you've grown up taller you've gotten fat, too?" Lulia thought out loud without cutting herself for a second, forcing the Swedish woman next to her to turn around and start joking. "That in feminine language is a yes!"

"Lu! It's not fair! Not that I can control my weight right now! ..." Nellie opened her eyes watching the whole table watching her with the same look of cockiness, forcing herself to shrink in her bench seat and play with her indexes to pass the shame. "Yes, it's true that I've grown ... 4 centimeters ..."

"Before all of you continue to bug Nellie, can you answer me a question?!" Lea shouted, waving her corn dog like a baton. "If Nellie and Fraje have grown up because Anne is a giantess ... I'm going to end up being a little bird like my little sister?"

The question broke the schemes of the group, giving an involuntary laugh to all. "I dont think it works like that, Lea ..." Eliab smiled as she rubbed the head of the future first-year student. "I think it's more something exclusive to Anne for closeness if my father understood it well ... if it really was something general, my destiny would be terrible"

"Dont get too excited, dude, your sister is like mine!" Cassio finished her own shake, beginning to suck Lulia's without even giving Nellie time to get the next thermos. "She doesnt have anything of neohuman, something that sincerely gives me some pity ... when I show Estela's photos people think she isn't a neohuman... something that makes it a real pain in the neck to explain why she is a truly neohuman"

Surrounding her eyes as if she were keeping quiet, Eliab sighed, picking up another of Erika's homemade cookies and giving her a bite. "I'm not talking about Ariah ..."

The tone of voice of Eliab invited to ask ... but nothing, of course that the adolescents pretended to ask and the small Lea was the winner of the race. "So, who are you talking about? You ... you only have one sister, right? When you moved to our street I remember that you were only you and Ariah with your parents ... "

Sighing and looking around to make sure his mother was not present, Eliab motioned the boys to come over. "You have to promise me that you will keep the secret ... the director Addams made us promise that we wouldnt say anything until we know what is happening"

Once everyone nodded and Eliab found in her heart to trust them, the teenager began to explain. "You see ... Ariah ... this is quite difficult to explain and even more to understand ... but Ariah has a twin sister ... who is there ... and isn't..." The confused look of his friends reminded Eliab himself of the face he put on when his twin pregnant mother had only one inside.

"It's frankly weird, but that's the way it is. Ariah has a twin sister ... but you can only see her with a pair of heat vision glasses, and she isn't tangible too... we cant hear her either but Ariah laughs sometimes alone so mama wants to assume that Yesterday is with her"

"..."

"If she's not tangible, visible or audible ... you know ..." Nellie rubbed the back of her neck looking how not to make the question sound weird. "Sorry to say it like that ... but how do you know she's ... alive? I mean .. how do you feed her?"

"I understand the question perfectly ... and sincerely I can only ask you to believe me, I still have a hard time understanding it. To answer the question Yesterday is always with Ariah and is only visible through heat vision, so Addams gave some special glasses to my parents and me to be able to monitor that Ariah is there ... and the question of how she eats... I have no answer. Ariah is a glutton and dad says she eats like two babies, so Addams prefers to think that... what Ariah eats somehow comes to Yesterday-"

"Wait a moment ..." Lulia hit the table with both hands confused and angry, making Eliab prepare for whatever came. "Her name is... Yesterday?! Yesterday?! Seriously?!"

Eliab couldnt help laughing, surprised by what Lulia had preferred to stay with. "Yes ... it's kind of weird. Tthe logic of my mother comes from a symbolic meaning: Ariah comes from the Italian word Aria and basically would mean a solo composition with musical accompaniment that is usually part of a larger composition.

Ariah was part of the larger composition that my little sisters would be, but since she apparently came alone, she is the soloist accompanied by Yesterday, who being there butnt being able to see her would be the musical part"

"And Yesterday?"

"Oh, right. Yesterday is for the song of the Beatles "And the silence consumed everything, even the soul and the words of everyone present. "Something wrong?"

Biting his lips, tilting his head, wrinkling his forehead, rubbing the back of his neck ... the amount and variety of gestures of his friends spoke for themselves. In the end, Nellie decided to take over again. "Only that? Your mother ... has named her daugther Yesterday just for a song? You know ... I mean ... I've had little in America, but I'm pretty sure Yesterday is not a name"

"Now it is. It's the name of my little sister ... that I havent even seen clearly ... it's weird but I guess there are weirder things-"

"Eliab, my friend ..." Grabbing him by the shoulder, Cassio sighed. "I dont think there is a weirder neohuman than one who ... physically is not there. I'm sorry dude ... I dont even know how to refer to this" Without saying anything Eliab crossed his hands on the table, lowering his head defeated by the situation. The other teenagers looked at each other without knowing what to do, arriving at a silent gentlemen's agreement for everyone to take Eliab's hands as a sign of support.

(Hours later, 13:00 noon in the garden of the Giantess Mansion (Name still tried to set))

Plock!

The pacifier fell on the rubber-padded floor, landing a short distance from the baby's hand.

"Grrrr ..." Anne roared in a primitive rage, watching intently as her older brother stood at the opposite corner of the enclosure of happiness and love now broken, a sort of wasteland drooling and shattered by the predator more dangerous than humanity confronted. A wall of cushions thrown from a safe distance separated the baby from the rest of the playground, which with all the changes in the last few hours looked similar to how the dinosaurs were separated from the public in Jurasic World

"Anne ... I'm going to put my hand here... and pick up my phone, okay? Slowly ... I'm going to do it slowly and carefully. You... take your pacifier ... and please, stay there" Fraje's voice indicated a fear similar to that of the Neanderthals of yesteryear in front of ... a saber-toothed tiger? The teenager was not clear if both species came to live together ... and frankly the situation wasnt to investigate.

Slow and precise movements in total silence, Fraje's arm slowly descending to the floor of the playground.He was so close, his fingers could almost touch the screen of the smartphone ... when ...

"ABRRRRR GRRRRRRRRRRR"

As if it were a lioness jumping towards its prey, the baby rushed towards the arm of her older brother pushing aside the phone. Fraje couldnt react, there was no physical time to even try it.

"Arrrrrrrggggggg! Damn, Anne!" Fraje waved his arm up and down, trying to get the baby to let go of his wrist before Anne's two teeth could cause him some kind of too serious injury. "How can such a small thing...- How can such a small girl...- How can a baby girl cling so tightly to the bone!? Your teeth came out yesterday!"

Giving the phone for lost, Fraje kicked the ground frustrated as he decided to join his sister in preparing the meal. "We have to find a more attractive pacifier, one dipped in whiskey or something ... Anne is insufferable"

"Look on the bright side, lilla bror!" Erika snatched the sausages from her little brother, rubbing his head and throwing them into the barbecue. The sound of the barbecue filled the garden, partially overshadowing the more worrying sound of Anne nibbling on the phone's casing. "Anne is only big, imagine if you were in the skin of Max Fang ... Dexter had this morning the whole hand full of bandages for the number of times Lisa had bitten him" 

"I was like this? a fierce and bloodthirsty monster?"

"You bite the cables that were within your reach"

"..."

"Dont look at me like that, it's true. Pappa was extremely worried about the bad mood and how much you cried that time ... but luckily you were just a quick phase. Anne is getting two teeth up and two down at the same time so the pain and rage is double! Right, my sunshine?" Approaching the playground Erika bent down to take her little girl. Fraje closed his eyes preparing for a scream of pain that never came; instead, when she opened her eyes, the teenager found that her Erika was using the kitchen glove to protect herself from Anne's constant nibbling.

"Dont take to long, our little girl doesnt seem to plan to stop biting until she gets to meat ... damn, with 4 half teeth and already pressing her jaw like that..." Erika pleaded while taking Anne to the table where the family planned to eat that day, taking advantage of the good weather and the cool shade that the huge house projected.

Already with his phone in his hand (wiping the slightly disgusted slime) Fraje sat down at the table next to Anne's high chair, trying to control her so that she stopped shaking. "Will this improve in the future? I mean ... I dont think a baby can be so angry for too long ... this phase will end soon, right?"

Erika could only smile and laugh to herself, throwing the sausages well done on a plate and preparing for the next round of meat.

"This phase will end soon, and the next one will start even sooner ... so yes, we can say that the future looks bright once all the baby teeth have come out!"

Fraje didnt understand (or didnt want to understand) what her older sister was laughing at, but seeing that Anne seemed to calm down and smile when she heard her mother laugh was enough for the teenager to let his guard down just long enough, stretching his arm in an attempt to take one of the pieces of toast from the center of the table.

"AGRRRRRRRR" It was all that Erika and Fraje heard before he cried out in pain again.