"Mom, Dad, you two head back first. When Mr. Wallace and Old Monroe get back, try to stay in your room and don’t come out. I think I know where Caleb is."

Caleb Bloom looked at his daughter curiously and asked, "Where is he? Let’s go together."

Flora Bloom shook her head. While watching Holly’s furtive figure slip away, she said, "No. Mom doesn’t have a superpower. Dad, you need to stay here and protect her."

Caleb Bloom sighed and nodded. After returning to the eleventh floor of the lighthouse, he and his wife didn’t go back to their room. Instead, they stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the stars gradually appear in the night sky, their hearts growing anxious.

"Darling, don’t worry about me. I’ll stay in the room. You should go follow Flora. I’m worried she’ll do something impulsive. If anything happens, you have a superpower now—you can help our daughter. I’ll let Mr. Wallace and Old Monroe know when they get back."

Caleb Bloom thought it over and gave Jade a worried look. She simply smiled. "Don’t worry. This is a military base, after all. A grown woman like me isn’t going to just disappear. Now go. I’m worried about Flora."

Flora Bloom was now tailing Holly, matching her quick pace. The sound of the tide was loud tonight, so Holly, despite her military background, didn’t notice she was being followed at all. Or perhaps her guilty conscience left no room for any other thoughts.

Back in the lighthouse, she had received a message on her communicator that Flora Bloom had returned to the base with the convoy. The news had shocked her, and her heart had sunk.

’How is that little bitch Flora Bloom so damn lucky? A zombie horde couldn’t kill her, and now she’s successfully brought a convoy back with the food the base desperately needs. So many experienced soldiers and commanders failed that mission, but a little bitch like her pulled it off. It’s infuriating.’

’But after hearing the news, she thought of Sienna Kensington and her two companions, and a sense of foreboding washed over her. No, I can’t let this go. Sienna may only be nine, but she’s cunning and ruthless. The soldier she burned is still clinging to life and could die at any moment.’

’If I don’t give her the news soon, there’s no telling if she’ll sell me out and expose what happened. After all, I was there when her two bodyguards knocked out that little boy, Caleb, and dragged him away.’

’What was making her even more anxious now was that she hadn’t reported the incident to any of her superiors. With Milton Adler in control of the entire Naval Base, and her being Sherman Lynch’s direct subordinate, the slightest misstep could cost her life.’

She took the less-crowded paths to the refugee camp, winding her way to a specific tent.

The scene before her made her legs give out. She collapsed to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

’Psycho. Sienna Kensington is a complete psycho.’

"BLECH!"

Holly sat trembling on the ground and began to retch, tears and snot smearing her pale face.

"Holly, you’re pathetic. Getting this scared over a little scene like this."

"Is... is he dead?"

Sienna Kensington shrugged nonchalantly. "Dead or not, why don’t you go see for yourself?"

Holly looked at the mangled, bloody form of the little boy on the ground. Her eyes darted around, her face twisted in fear, and her stomach kept lurching.

A ball of intense flame ignited in Sienna Kensington’s hand. The moment it appeared, the temperature inside the tent soared.

"Remember that soldier who brought me my meals? My fire isn’t so easily put out. If that pretty face of yours were to get burned... I wonder what would happen."

Before she could finish, Holly scrambled closer to Caleb, pleading, "No, no, don’t! I’ll look! I’ll check right now, right away!"

Flora Bloom had followed Holly all the way to the refugee camp on the base’s outskirts, only to lose sight of her in the blink of an eye.

The military tents in the refugee camp were all exceptionally large, and there was no telling which one Holly had ducked into. The camp was densely populated, with everyone huddled inside their own tents.

Flora Bloom had thought it would take some effort to find Holly. But the moment she entered the camp, the thick stench of blood wafted from one of the tents.

Relying on her five senses, which had become much sharper since her evolution, Flora Bloom quickly pinpointed the source of the stench.

From outside the tent, Flora Bloom could sense five people. One had a Water Element superpower, another a Fire Element. A third person’s superpower field was in chaos, making it impossible for her to identify its element. It felt bizarre—a type of power she had never encountered.

However, among the five, one person’s life signature was so faint it was nearly undetectable.

A terrible premonition seized Flora Bloom. She rushed forward and flung open the tent flap. The scene before her made her mind go instantly blank.

Blood everywhere. A faint breath.

It was Caleb.

She knew with certainty that the person lying on the ground was Caleb. But the image that flashed in her mind was from her past life: Polly, bleeding to death at the hands of Shelton Underwood.

"Who’s there?"

When Sienna Kensington and the others saw someone suddenly appear in the tent—and realized it was Flora Bloom—they knew they were in trouble. A gout of flame shot from Sienna’s tiny palm, aimed straight at Flora’s face.

Under the approaching flames, Flora Bloom’s exquisitely beautiful face took on an otherworldly, almost demonic, allure. In the firelight, her blue-black mole was like a blooming blue lotus, releasing a deep blue aura that consumed the toxic flames threatening its bloom.

A fist-sized column of deep blue water materialized in front of Flora Bloom’s face. It was silent yet appeared with jarring abruptness, shooting straight toward Sienna Kensington’s flame.

No one present thought such a small orb of water could have any effect on the large Fireball. They were all waiting to see Flora Bloom’s breathtakingly beautiful face burned and disfigured.

But Flora Bloom, acting as if she already knew the outcome, paid no attention to the collision of fire and water. Instead, she knelt beside Caleb, who lay on the ground covered in a dense web of cuts.

When the deep blue column of water met the massive flame, it was like a drop of oil spattering in a fire, letting out a SIZZLE of evaporation. But the SIZZLING grew louder from within the inferno. The fist-sized column of water, despite its tiny form, had halted the flame’s advance. It then suddenly burst at the flame’s edge, its droplets infiltrating the massive blaze.

With a PFFT, the massive flame was completely extinguished by the bursting droplets. After dousing the fire, the scattered drops of water traced their paths back, reforming the deep blue orb. The fist-sized sphere of water, having extinguished the flame, was utterly unchanged, not even a wisp of steam having escaped it.

Flora Bloom knelt by Caleb’s side and untied his bonds. A bottle materialized in her hand. She removed the cloth gag from his mouth and poured the spiritual water into it.

Now that she was closer, she realized the source of the chaotic superpower field she’d sensed was emanating from the unconscious Caleb. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

She already knew Caleb was on the verge of awakening his superpower. Now, under these circumstances, she was even more curious to see what kind of power it would be.

The awakening of a superpower is often accompanied by a physical transformation and enhancement. As Flora Bloom gave him the water, seven-year-old Caleb, driven by pure survival instinct, managed to choke down two mouthfuls, regaining a flicker of consciousness.

"Flora..."

His voice was hoarse and weak, but Flora could feel his Life Force rapidly strengthening.

"Good boy, Caleb. Drink all the water. Just lie here and rest. I’ll get revenge for you."