Luke's mood was bleak. The "very meritorious" Old Bat of Hebron, who had fought back from the brink of death so many times, had finally succumbed to his fate. Even though Luke had many options, a resource as high-quality and resilient as the Old Bat was worth every penny. With gratitude in his heart, Luke proceeded to perform one final experiment on the Old Bat's corpse.
He didn't know whether his final experiment was a success or a failure, but he did get something extraordinary.
Or rather, the material.
A crystal-like object, made of an indescribable material. The size of a baby's fist, it was a translucent black-gray color. Rubbing against the skin, it felt warm and alive. Simple instrumental analysis revealed it to be a crystal of an unknown material, imbued with a strange energy.
After the experiment, the old bat's corpse crumbled to ash at the slightest touch, leaving only a translucent black-gray crystal. After extensive research and extensive scanning and analysis of this crystal, Luke reached his conclusion.
This was the crystallization of the old bat's essence. The strange energy within the crystal also belonged to the dark energy originally within the old bat's body.
This is what Luke wants to achieve with this experiment.
Next, another experiment.
"Holy Light!"
Luke called out, and a gentle golden light appeared on his hand.
Of course, he did not become a wizard or a so-called paladin, and there was no messy energy inside his body. He was able to do this only because of the energy conversion device in front of him.
A jar-like metal object was fixed to the ground, surrounded by scattered wires. A translucent black-gray crystal was embedded in the top of the jar-like metal object. A silver metal ring on Luke's right index finger was the terminal of the energy conversion device in front of him.
"dark."
Luke shifted his thoughts, and the gentle golden holy light in his hand transformed into its opposing dark attribute. Luke could clearly sense the insidious nature of this energy. After a few experiments, he dispersed the energy in his hand, reopened the instrument, removed the black-gray crystal from the energy conversion device, and retested it.
Tests revealed that the energy within the crystals was practically non-existent, and even the energy consumed was being replenished at an extremely slow rate. This intrigued Luke, as he also wondered where this replenishment came from and whether it could be controlled.
Luke considered cutting the dark grey crystal, but while it appeared as fragile as glass, it was surprisingly strong. Conventional cutting methods could only chip away a layer of powder. Unconventional methods, while effective, would require the crystal to resist, like a living being, automatically consuming its internal energy.
In general, cutting is possible, but it will damage the quality of the crystal, causing some of its internal energy to be wasted meaninglessly. Moreover, the result of cutting may not be satisfactory.
For example, the fingernail-sized crystal Luke cut off contained almost no energy, seemingly consuming the energy in that area and failing to resist being cut. Its color also changed from its original dark gray to a lighter gray. Before Luke could figure out what else he could do with this crystal material, he unexpectedly discovered that the symbiote seemed extremely interested in it.
Little Harbour and Mistletoe were still young, and they simply drooled over the fingernail-sized off-white crystal. Serenity, Venom, and the other symbiote sent by Nick Fury nearly fought their brains out over the crystal. Not to mention Venom finally daring to challenge Serenity, even the other villainous symbiote, who had been completely subdued by Venom's physical training since arriving in Hyperion, couldn't help but rebel against its leader.
Enveloped in Gwen's An Jing and Luke's custom-made cybernetic body, Venom, the two men, regardless of the circumstances, nearly dismantled Luke's symbiote laboratory. Ultimately, Luke, who had rushed to the scene, forcibly stopped them and sealed Venom back into its jar, once again depriving him of his precious freedom. An Jing was also deprived of food for a week, leaving her to wail and rage, even nearly escaping Gwen's body, clawing at the metal door of the laboratory, staring at Luke with longing eyes, but was ultimately dragged away by Gwen, who had regained control of her body.
Finally, Luke cut the fingernail-sized off-white crystal into two equal halves and threw them to Little Hab and Mister respectively. Like hungry tigers pouncing on their prey, the two little guys quickly covered the off-white crystal with their entire bodies, tightly enveloping it, and lay still, contentedly.
Venom's eyes turned red with envy upon seeing this scene. He grumbled and accused Luke of being too partial, giving all the goodies to the two little guys first! He was clearly the main force in this lab! He worked tirelessly, parasitizing whoever he was told to parasitize, doing whatever he was told to do, and remembering to return home on time when he went out. He received all the credit and hard work, but no rewards.
Luke, who was a little annoyed by Venom's nagging, simply threw all the crystal powder to him.
This time, the villain symbiote that had just moved into the symbiote laboratory not long ago couldn't help it. Unfortunately, in the words of his new boss Venom and the boss's big sister An Jing: You haven't sacrificed your life for Heberon, you haven't fought for Heberon, you haven't even done your best for Heberon, so what qualifications do you have to ask for treatment?
For the next period of time, Luke focused on observing the two children, Little Hob, and Venom. Venom couldn't see anything, perhaps the powder hadn't had any real effect on him. Venom said he felt stronger and more powerful, and even if he took more, he would soon surpass Riot and rival An Jing in strength.
But Venom always loves to exaggerate. Just like An Jing, who can lie endlessly and without principle just to get a bite to eat, it's hard to tell how much truth there is in his words.
However, the two little Habs had indeed grown considerably in size, expanding by about a third from the size of a palm, giving them a slight feeling of overnutrition. Luke even gave them a thorough checkup, confirming that everything was currently normal, before returning the undigested off-white crystals to them.