This is the final hour. The end of the age of law has arrived. My descendants—I leave behind a path for you to find us. Use it well.
"O great ancestor, I can finally follow in your footsteps," the mother dragon murmured, having just read the message left by her ancestors at the Dragon Descendants' holy ground.
Her ancestor was far larger than her. A majestic golden dragon with five claws and glimmering scales. That dragon was hundreds, even thousands of times her size—countless times larger. It seemed as if even the stars were mere toys beneath his claws. When he coiled up, he became a planet.
This was the primordial dragon race from the earliest era of the universe—too sacred to defy. Compared to him, the mother dragon was like a caterpillar. But that didn't matter. As long as the bloodline survived, if she could find the path her ancestor left behind, she could become just as large.
The problem now was: how to find that path?
Maybe that strange man could help her. Since her genes were activated by Kaitou Kid, technically, he could be called her father. Even if not, he was still her benefactor. When trouble came, he was the first one she thought of.
So, from the depths of the Abyssal Ravine, a dragon slithered skyward, vanishing into dark clouds, riding the storm once more toward the Test Continent.
Back at the outpost, Kaitou Kid had just finished healing Rafaela. He still didn't understand why the Dragon Descendants had suddenly shown up on the Test Continent. He couldn't have guessed it was because Luciella planned to betray him.
Of course, Luciella hadn't given up on that decision. But since Lulu couldn't be trusted, she decided to sell the intel to the Organization instead. She didn't believe she couldn't earn her first lump sum that way. Still, with Kaitou Kid around, she was feeling guilty and didn't dare move. But she knew he would leave eventually, and when he did, she'd head straight for the Organization.
Inside the lab—the most secure building at the outpost—An Rong was nervously watching the condition of the test mice. Demon blood had been extracted and injected into the mice, causing them to grow extremely aggressive.
The research into a cure wasn't going well. The parasitic cells had already blended into human blood—removal was impossible. And trying to kill the cells would only poison the blood. Even if the demon turned back into a human, he'd die of severe illness soon after.
But the appearance of Claymores gave Earth's scientists a new idea: fusion. They'd make the parasitic cells harmless by turning them into symbiotic ones inside the human body.
"Test Subject No. 3... same result again. Looks like we have to start over." Ever since coming to this alien planet, An Rong had grown more versatile. She used to dabble only in biology, but now she was being forced to specialize.
She wasn't feeling hopeful about the subject, but Sony was more upbeat. "My lovely Dr. An Rong, didn't you notice the eye color of Subject No. 3? It's silver now—just like a Claymore's."
"?" An Rong quickly flipped through the logs and saw that Subject No. 3's eyes had originally been gray. "It really changed?"
"Exactly. Looks like we're close to success. If we can turn the demon's parasitic cells into the same kind of symbiotic cells found in Claymores, then they won't transfer hosts through eating organs anymore. Not exactly a full cure, but at least it won't be as terrifying," Sony said optimistically.
An Rong watched the mouse pacing nervously inside the glass cage. She wondered, 'How long will it take until we succeed?' Every day they delayed creating a cure, more people would die. More tragedies would unfold.
"Start the next round of tests immediately. I feel like we're almost there."
These mice were carefully screened Earth rodents. None could be allowed to escape. Once the experiments were done, they'd all be humanely euthanized.
Of course, Liu A'dou had thoroughly studied the biological differences between species from different planets. He discovered that Earthlings and locals shared the same immune systems. Diseases on Earth also existed here, and vice versa. Viruses too. So when a large number of Earthlings arrived, there was no need to worry about them causing or suffering biological disruption.
After a period of geological research on the surrounding rock formations, geologists found that this planet didn't have much oil or coal. But it had abundant gold and many substances not found on Earth.
The humans of the Einstein Planer also used gold coins, and their coins had very high purity. Bit by bit, the value of this planet was being uncovered—making some nations extremely anxious. After all, China had sent the most expeditions here. Word was they were building a second-generation spacecraft at any cost.
This so-called second-generation spacecraft would have electromagnetic shielding and be able to handle much higher speeds.
The potential of the nuclear pulse engine hadn't been fully tapped. Since it could provide continuous thrust, the longer it fired, the greater the acceleration. Current spacecraft speeds hadn't yet reached the point where resistance could counterbalance the thrust, so the engine could still push the ship faster. The only issue was that ships couldn't structurally withstand that speed.
Unless this structural weakness was solved, spacecraft couldn't go any faster. That's why China came up with the idea of using electromagnetic shielding to protect the ship's body and counteract drag.
If the second-generation craft succeeded, travel time through wormholes could be cut in half.
Even though humanity still couldn't leave Earth's solar system, space exploration had already begun. Competition among nations and corporations had also started. That's right—space exploration had officially kicked off.
China had opened a Moon-based instance, and Kaitou Kid had created a wormhole instance—together enough for Earth to explore for decades to come.
Back on Einstein Planer, Kid began studying the gigantic dragon descendant skeletons. He confirmed they were indeed the raw materials used in forging Claymore swords. But those swords weren't made from just bone—there had to be other materials involved. After repeated tests and detailed inspection, he finally discovered the formula for smelting the Claymore weapon.
It was time to build himself a spaceship.
Though he could travel at near-light speed unaided in space, he still needed food, water, and a toilet. He couldn't just find a random planet every time he needed to go. And he needed a kitchen too. So a proper ship was necessary—preferably one that could fly fast. That reminded him of the destroyed Kryptonian ship. Maybe he could salvage parts from it to build his own.
Since the Kryptonian ship was destroyed, every country on Earth had basically forgotten about it. Even An Rong's repeated requests to study it were denied. Actually, the issue had gone through a lot of back-and-forth. The American stance was: sure, study it if you want—but since they had no ships of their own to go with, only China would benefit. That wasn't okay. Out of respect for Superman, they decided to leave it alone. The other nations followed the U.S.'s lead.
China didn't really care. After all, Earth had Superman, and the Kryptonian ship should count as his people's legacy—best to let him handle it. Plus, China was already leading in spacecraft development. If the others weren't going to study the ship, they could maintain their lead without offending Superman.
But Kaitou Kid still had his eye on the Kryptonian ship. In the end, though, he didn't take it apart. He realized he could build a brand-new spaceship from scratch—no need to rely on secondhand junk.