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The other option is for someone to explain that once the Antichrist is born, Satan will not receive another soul for another kid.

I was trying to think of a better way to handle the fact that Connor is much more powerful than his "cousins" from the breeding program, rather than just say it's due to some unknown in Campagna's DNA. If I do use the mother's DNA as the source of why Connor is much more powerful, the geneticist could be the one who verifies that her DNA augments the DNA that Satan bred into the kids he used. In other words, she could be a carrier of the genes for those abilities, though not herself able to benefit from them. But when you combine them with De Rosa's enhanced DNA (from his breeding program), you get Connor, the most powerful human of all time. But, you ask, how did she get those genes? Simple. One of her ancestors was among the few who ever escaped from the South American compound. Since her ancestor took off, she's descended from a breeding line that Satan lost access to. After many generations, she's a wild variable unintentionally injected into the breeding program by Satan himself, when he raped her. How's that for karma?

Although Connor is the most powerful human, he's not as powerful as he'll be when he eventually gets into the final battle. There are a number of ways I could handle that. For example, perhaps St. Michael brings him ancient wine derived from fruit from the Garden of Eden. I like that, but Connor may also go back to the Sea of Galilee for some skinny dipping at the urging of everyone's favorite kooks, Moses and Elijah. If you recall, an angel in book one confirmed that the waters had been blessed by Christ, perhaps when he performed his miracles there (e.g., Peter's huge catch of fish), and that the waters are supernatural. That's why modern Christians go to the area to be baptized in its waters. The waters or the wine, or both, enhance his powers to a degree he doesn't realize until he gets into battle. I'm thinking of having Michael withhold true knowledge about what the wine can do; he'll tell Connor a made-up legend of the wine's powers to improve virility, or some similar nonsense. Connor will discover his power boost when he enters battle.

When you combine Connor's DNA-driven abilities with the wine and Galilean water, he goes off the scale, power-wise. For example, he'll be able to swing his sword across the throat of a demon, decapitating him. But, there's nothing too special about that. Where the fun starts is when the heads of the next three demons near the decapitated one also go flying off, all the result of Connor's first slash. Since one sword can't reach four heads at once (unless they surround him), the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th demons are decapitated by a directed concussive force or shockwave resulting from the power of Connor's slash. It happens so fast, the force/wave behaves as if an extension of the sword itself. Physics-wise, it's total crap, but I don't care. It's a cool effect that I intend to use a number of times during the battle.

Better yet, Connor has his cousins join him for a swim in Galilee, and Michael shares some of the same wine with them. Naturally, they won't reach Connor's level of power (only he'll have the ability to mow down multiple enemies with just a slash, punch, or kick), but it would be easy for a small fighting force to hold its own against a much larger army of demons. One issue will be the stench of so many demon corpses in close proximity.

Last item, then I'm going to bed: Naming contest. I need a great name for Connor to call his genetically enhanced cousins, which includes both young men and women. He could call them simply "cousins", but I'm hoping for something more interesting, relevant to the story.

G'night.

>I'm a little nervous about breeding in supernatural powers but will comment later.
It's no different than if the powers were the result of artificially editing the human genome. Basically, my story implies that humans can have such powers (i.e., the "potential" to have such powers exists in all humans), whether by editing the genome or breeding the necessary edits into the genome.

Just a quick note before I forget: Although Connor's soul was provided by God as part of the wager with Satan, Connor's predecessors originated far in the past from human parents, and all descendants through to the present day are fully human, the result of Satan's carefully controlled breeding program. Both boys and girls are part of the program, so both lineages can be controlled to produce the Antichrist more quickly since, as Christ said in the NT, no one knows when the end will come except the Father. Turns out it comes not long after prophecy about the coming of the Antichrist is fulfilled. Just in the nick of time, too. Close one!

A brief history about the compound and breeding program can be related to Connor by one of his genetic relatives, so it doesn't all have to be experienced firsthand by Connor, although I definitely think he should visit the compound. Perhaps that's where the most recent generation of kids still live, hiding away because people fear their powers. That could lead to a coordinated attack by superstitious locals while Connor is there. I think he should also be challenged by one of the kids (alpha male), who wants to see if he can best Connor and take over as leader. They fight physically and Connor seems to lose, pinned to the ground by the other kid. Just when the kid thinks he's stronger and better, Connor surprises him by throwing the kid off and overpowering him. This could be the first reveal that Connor is truly more powerful than any of the others. Another step in revealing his true power to the other characters and the reader could come while Connor is being trained by St. Michael. It might even be a surprise to Connor just how strong he really is. The final step would be during the battle, when Connor holds nothing back when fighting the demons. Heads will fly!

I had a neat idea for book three. Since Connor needs a human fighting force at the beginning of the final battle, I thought that Connor, being the result of genetic manipulation based on Satan's millennia-old breeding program, would have had predecessors from the breeding program. Turns out, many of them are still alive, even though Satan had ordered them destroyed once Connor was born. The program was run from a compound in the the jungles of South America, run by a trainer who took pity on the last batch of kids created for the program, so he led them to a local priest, who assumed their care.

In book three, Connor learns of their existence, so he goes there to discover the rescued kids all look very similar to him, he being the culmination of the breeding program. All those kids (now young adults) have powers similar to Connor, just not as powerful. The reason Connor is stronger than expected is because Campagna is his mother.

Satan's zombie body is a dead version of one of the past generation of kids from the program, whose DNA Satan forced into Campagna's body for the birth of the Antichrist. Satan is unaware of how powerful Connor is as a result of being Campagna's son.

The problem with the breeding program is that it eventually runs into a dead end, when the last few batches of kids turn out to be increasingly sterile. Satan's zombie body was created long before the batch of sterile kids, so he can still reproduce using his assumed body.

Connor tells his predecessors from the breeding program the truth about what Satan had been doing with them, and asks for them to fight for him, which they agree to do. The end result is that a batch of super powered young adults become Connor's human army in the battle.

There are some issues with making this work and simplifying the details, but it could be a great way to give Connor an interesting ancestry and a cool fighting force for the final battle, all relatives of Connor through Satan's zombie DNA. And it should be a great addition to the plot. These kids all underwent rigorous training before Satan ordered them destroyed, including knife and sword fighting. Handy, huh? Connor also undergoes similar training in preparation for the battle, probably overseen by Michael the Archangel, an ancient friend of Adam's. Connor is a natural at this, in part because of his enhanced intelligence, strength, and speed and in part because all his ancestors were bred to be good fighters.

I'll have to come up with a reason why Campagna's DNA makes Connor so powerful. Perhaps it's just random luck involving the DNA, although I'd prefer a better explanation. TBD.

The breeding program might completely eliminate the need to have a geneticist in the story. Not sure yet.

A little more detail:

If I click on the link inside the TNBW email I receive following another member's newest posted chapter, I get this from Bitdefender on Windows 11:

Then Google Chrome intercepts it as well, yielding:

Good one, but it's for the other story. I went with Julius Caesar. The WW2 quote is too far off topic.
The other one is a variant of the elite quote: as easily as spotting the Imperial elite in Rome, fat capital of the Imperium. Of course, that one's a little rude and long. Caesar will probably win by default.

Of course it's insulting. The book makes all kinds of insane commentary about modern society.
I was born in Quebec. Surely they wouldn't get upset at one of their native sons?

Just a wee bit.

I typically get kicked out after about 15-20 minutes.

That's what I've always read. It makes sense really since they can't make money if the same material can be had for free. I doubt that prevents you from posting a small number of the poems on social media platforms as a teaser to build a following. One of our other members, who writes sci-fi and fantasy books, started building his social media presence in the last year or so. He has his own website, where he announces new releases of material, offers free companion stories to his novels in return for signing up to his email distribution list, and posts monthly newsletters about the writing process and his opinions of writing tools he uses. So, you could post poems that won't be available in book form. That's a win/win for you and potential publishers.

With regard to keeping your poems available for free at present, keep in mind that the internet has a long memory.   I posted a short story (fan fiction) set in the Dune universe, which I obviously can't publish for profit since I don't have any rights to do so, and discovered later that it had been nicely repackaged with a e-book cover on another site and made freely available. Cool, but thankfully, it was meant to be distributed for free (all my short stories from this site are posted here with the widest possible visibility, including the internet). I'll probably leave instructions for my executor to make my books available for free after my death as well, assuming I ever finish one.

If you ever need a good laugh, check out my (very) short story called Ms. Bunny Divine, which is itself just a teaser of one of my novels-in-progress. Currently it's only meant to attract site members to read/review the novel, but I could easily post it on the internet for free as a teaser for potential book buyers later.

Regards,
Dirk