After the plane's miraculous landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, located in the northeast of the city, Eric and the company found a restaurant in the airport and decided to have an early dinner.
They were all exhausted from the flight, especially Ruby and Zoe, who were shaken by the plane almost crashing down. At that moment, they felt that it would be their last day on this beautiful green Earth.
The four sat on the chairs around a rectangular table. Eric and Ruby sat on the left side, with Max and Zoe on their opposite side.
Being near death just a few hours ago made Ruby and Zoe realize how much they value the others in their life, especially their husbands.
While eating, Ruby and Zoe sat very close to Eric and Max, respectively. Under the table, Ruby had her right hand tightly clasped with Eric's left hand and was eating peacefully. Zoe, on the other hand, was completely shaken and grabbed Max's right arm with both of her hands, not letting go no matter how much Max insisted. He even had to feed her, hug her, and embrace her in his arms as he stroked her hair and kissed her forehead, whispering in her ears to calm her down.
Ruby witnessed Max being so caring and loving, then she turned to look at Eric. He was simply eating his lunch. She also wanted to be calmed down like this, but Eric only tightened the grip of his hand around her, nothing else. Ruby, however, understood that Eric didn't like physical contact and just rubbed her thumb around the back of his hand. Ruby's lips curled up into a small smile as her cheeks blushed a little.
After having their early dinner, Max decided to head for the bathroom. Zoe was uneasy but let him go and reminded him to come back in 5 minutes. She had calmed down a lot after his reassurance. Max nodded and ran into the crowd, disappearing.
As Max ran away, Eric felt the calm and peaceful feeling in his body and mind grow weaker. This wasn't his intuition triggering, but rather the sense of familiarity he feels when he is with Max. This was something he noticed when he was 6.
Whenever Max is near him, he feels a sense of familiarity in his body and mind, and with it, his body becomes calm and peaceful, removing all disturbances and negative thoughts and increasing his focus. To this day, however, he has not been able to find the reason for it.
After 5 minutes, Max ran back to them, and the two couples left the airport and were about to take a taxi when Eric's intuition was triggered. His eyes widened slightly, he straightened his back, and looked straight ahead. On the other side of the road, there was a small family consisting of 3 and a half members walking on the footpath.
The father was a burly man with a beautiful mustache and a plump body. Anyone could tell that he was quite handsome in his youth. He had an amiable smile and laughed and talked heartily with his wife, who walked beside him. He had dark light-blue hair and blue eyes that were almost black. In his arms, he lifted a cute girl with black hair and eyes, eating ice cream silently while looking at the sky curiously.
The mother was a lady in her 40s and had long black hair with a tint of dark blue. Her blue eyes shone like the ocean while she talked and joked with her husband. She was old, but there were no wrinkles on her face, and she still looked beautiful and pure as the ocean. Her womb was bloated as she massaged it from time to time with her right hand. Anyone could tell that she was pregnant—6 months in, to be exact. However, Eric stood there in a daze, staring at them.
"What!?" Eric thought in shock. He had just felt a sense of familiarity with the family across the street! Even though it was far weaker than the sense of familiarity he feels when with Max, what was stronger were the supplementary emotions that came with it. They were so strong that he stopped feeling calm and peaceful completely as rage, fury, hatred, envy, and bloodlust enveloped his body and heart!
This was something he was feeling for the first time. Before he could get out of his daze and act normal and start to make some plans, another shocking thing happened. He heard the aged voice from the depths of his mind speaking to Eric in a commanding tone:
"Kill them, especially the baby in that womb." The voice had hints of rage and hatred, as if it were a volcano about to erupt.
Eric was in a daze for a few seconds due to one shocking thing after another, but he shook his head and looked at Max beside him. He saw that Max was also looking at the family with a furrowed brow, his hands clenched as if he would run and attack them at any time.
Eric, using the golden liquid, advised him to remain calm. Just then, Ruby and Zoe, who were busy finding a taxi, finally found one and sat in it.
In the taxi, the corners of Eric's lips curled up into a faint smile as he whispered to himself:
"Interesting."
...
Pitié-Salpêtrière, one of the most famous universities and hospitals in the whole of Europe. In the main office of the hospital sat a tall and slightly muscular man with curly golden-brown hair. He sat on the seat behind the desk, looking at some paperwork silently with his glowing white eyes that seemed to hide infinite warmth in them, as if they could placate everyone they gazed upon. He had a faint smile on his face. He was already 32 years old but looked like he was still 18.
It was none other than Dr. Murphy House, the most famous and renowned doctor in the entire world, who was publicly recognized as the best doctor currently alive! He had been rewarded with the honor of being the best doctor in the world by every important figure in the world.
On the right side of the office hung a holy cross, and on the left side hung a picture of Jesus crucified with the Virgin Mary mourning him.
Suddenly, Dr. House heard a knock on the door. He put down the documents on the desk, clasped his fingers, and said in a warm tone:
"Come in." Upon hearing that, the man standing outside opened the door slowly, entered the room, and closed the door behind him.
The door opened from the outside, revealing a tall figure who had short blonde hair. His blue eyes had turned gray due to cataracts. He entered the room with an amiable smile on his face. It was none other than Claude, who had come here to discuss the procedure of his eye surgery.
House smiled at him and gestured for him to have a seat with his right hand.
This man who had entered the office was none other than Claude Perrin, the commissaire de Police of the Poste De Police station in Paris.
Claude walked up to the table, pulled back a chair after touching the table a few more times to make sure it was the chair and not the table, sat on it, and looked at Dr. House as he greeted him in a gentle and respectful tone:
"Good afternoon, Dr. House. Please fill me in on the process of my procedure."
House clasped his hands together and put them on the table as he started to tell him about the procedure. "Good afternoon, Sir Claude. Let me fill you in now. So what we will first do is..."
After informing Claude about the procedures of the operation, House stood up and told him that they would need to do one last test for today before the surgery next week. Claude also stood up, and they both started to walk toward the test room. Claude was obviously having problems seeing and was walking carefully as he touched the wall to make sure he was going straight and kicked in front with his legs to make sure nothing was in front of him, but still occasionally bumped into things.
Claude was requested to buy or get a cane from the hospital staff, but he refused, saying firmly that he would be fine.
"High-ranking police members sure do have their pride," House thought as he walked by the nursery of the hospital.
House's premonition was suddenly triggered as he stopped walking and looked into the nursery through the glass. The nursery was, as anyone would imagine, a white room with many cradles placed in a row, in which babies were sleeping or looking around with their cute, limpid, wet big eyes. By the walls of the room were tables, desks, drawers for medicine, etc.
Everything seemed to be fine except the baby in the cradle in the middle of the room. That baby was fully awake and looking coldly at House with his wet, huge black eyes. Instead of being filled with curiosity and innocence, they were filled with coldness and indifference. House felt a chill run down his spine as his eyes widened in shock and his forehead drenched in cold sweat. He felt that some invisible person was pressing on his back, causing him to bend slightly.
Claude walked up to Dr. House and placed a hand on his left shoulder. "Are you okay, Dr. House? Do you want me to get you a cup of water?" Claude asked with a worried tone, ready to go and fetch water even if he couldn't see properly.
House straightened his back and took a deep breath, wiped off the sweat on his forehead, and smiled with a tired and scared expression as he spoke in a shocked tone:
"I-It is nothing, Sir Claude. I was just overwhelmed by the cuteness of the babies and was thinking of having one of my own. Then I remembered that I neither have the time nor a partner to have one. Hahaha, how stupid of me?"
Claude was still worried about him, but pulled back his hand from House's shoulder and smiled as he joked:
"It is not that much of a problem, Doctor. You are young and handsome. If you want to, I can find you someone. I have a lot of connections. Just tell me your type, haha."
Claude laughed and walked past him.
Dr. House took one last look into the nursery and saw the baby still staring at him. He didn't dare look any longer or stay there, as he turned around and walked to Claude to get him to the test room.
The baby with the blood-red hair and abyss-black eyes that seemed to have no end stopped staring at the glass window after Claude and House left. He looked around and saw the whole room empty with no one there.
The baby sat up in his cradle, and out of the skin of his left hand came a golden flame with golden particles in it. As it extinguished, the baby looked up and saw thousands of golden strings flowing around without coiling or intertwining with each other. Out of all those strings, one in particular was shining far brighter than the others. The baby focused on that string and made a connection with it, causing the string to glow. After the connection was made, all the other strings disappeared except the one he connected with.
The baby lay down in his bed again and reported,
"Father, I have been reborn again. It is my 11th rebirth, I guess? I would like to report to you that the 2nd and 3rd ones have arrived in Paris. The 1st one has already been spotted by me, and I have guessed that the 7th one is the most likely to show up next. I have also discovered another thing—that is, another person with powers like ours. He is the CEO of the hospital where I am staying right now. He doesn't know much about the power system from what I've observed. He is not that high level, and his power is also not that great, but still useful. He can be recruited as a member whom I've recommended. Another thing is that the patient he has been treating recently has been 'tainted.' It means that one or even more of our competitors have arrived in Paris. This is all I have to say in this report of mine. What are your orders?"
The baby sent the report and closed his eyes as he waited. After five minutes, through the connection, the baby felt a voice resound in his mind. The voice spoke with a deep and commanding tone,
"Focus on hiding for now. There is no need to make contact with the other competitors for now. Don't bother with the 'tainted' person either—he is as good as dead anyway. There is no value in him even without it. And about that CEO surgeon—he is more suited for the Truth Seekers, and they already have an eye on him. Trying to recruit him will only reveal you to the enemies, putting you in danger. What you need to do in secret right now is make contact with the 3rd one as soon as possible and make an alliance with them. Also, don't go trying to recruit him, attack him before you regain your strength, or let your guard down. Even with your passive ability and premonitions, he still has many means to kill you or backstab you at the critical moment. Focus on using the alliance with him to regain your strength and keep a low profile before the critical moment. Make sure to contact me often and don't take risks that—"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I just wanted simple orders, not a whole lecture. Geez. I am not a baby anymore. I have grown up and am not the older me who was ignorant. I can take care of things myself. Bye."
The baby scoffed and replied to his father as he grew tired of the long lecture he had heard many times before and cut off the connection. He completely forgot that he was a baby as he yawned cutely and drifted off to sleep.
On his cradle was a rectangular piece of wood attached that had his name written on it. It had two words written on it: this was the name of the baby.
"Michael Voyage"