"A Black Gatogran, and a Tagamar, well, I can officially say this is going to be the weirdest thing I have eaten thus far in my life."
Merciless spoke with surprise and perplexity, giving those creatures a strange expression. The monster on the right side was a 30-meter-long, massive alligator-like creature with no eyes. It possessed thick and spikey scales that resembled an otherworldly black metal fashioned to seem like scales, and they wrapped over its entire body, producing a natural armor of sorts. Behind this creature were four massive scaley and spikey tails, with similarly spikey and energizing black mace-looking tips with red lighting coming from each of them.
However, this black gator creature had one distinguishing feature: on its back, it released a viscous black mucus that was much darker and thicker than the muck beneath its feet. And it was as if a blight, or better yet, a stein on reality, had appeared. A pair of massive and terrifying black mucus-like wings occupy its back, with the wingspan being twice as huge as the gator monster’s giant monster body itself.
On the other hand, the Tagamar, to be more specific, was eerier in appearance. It was a massive, shimmering, blue-disfigured snail. It was as enormous as the Black Gatogran, with the only difference being that it was floating in the air, and its entire body was covered with hundreds of menacing-looking tint and black eyeballs, each of which gave Merciless a very terrible feeling for some unknown reason.
And while he stared at each of them, Abadis informed him as much.
"Well, Merciless, do your thing; I want to see these so-called genetic fusing powers of yours for myself."
Merciless, of course, closed his eyes, folded his hands, and nodded in accord. The rest kept an eye on him, with his servants being the most enthusiastic; after all, they had the privilege of witnessing their lord exhibit his amazing power before their eyes. On the other side, a stoic blonde beauty looks more carefully than the rest, her inner voice mute and her head vacant, yet in the flash of that vessel is a power unlike any other. One that was gradually creating the essence of her existence. Nobody noticed, yet in those dead eyes, a faint glimmer of awareness appeared.
’mas~~ter...
’Subst..ance!’
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"Damn, I can’t lie; your power is a true piece of art. No, this is beauty personified; it is life, with many diverse species and a magnificent environment. This gloomy environment; I’m not sure why, but this kind of environment just feels the best."
"That I can agree with Merciless, the environment those monkeys rely on is horrible; if I wanted to breathe purity, I would have just walked inside a church; at the absolute least, merely doing so causes me to feel the burn I desire... Huhuhuh!! Aghhh, by the way, do you like insects?"
"Insects... hmmm I don’t hate them I used to catch them a lot when I was a kid."
Merciless responded to Abadis; nonetheless, Merciless returned the query and inquired of her.
"Why did you ask that?"
"Oh, it’s your tattoo; they felt kind of alive, so I was just curious; apart from that, it’s basically a cluster of nothing but insects."
"Hmm, ohhh, these guys, yeah, I guess they kind of are in a weird way."
"Cool!"
"I presume your also an insect lover?"
"Mee. I adore all things esoteric! Humans are only cool when they have developed past their squishy stage; regular, soft humans are only useful as food for me and my children. The super ones, though, are sort of dangerous, especially the ones beyond A-rank; I don’t even want to speak about the X-rankers, and if what the professor claimed is accurate, there are even levels above X-rank; now that is scary as fuck."
"X-rankers, huh?" How powerful is an X-ranker, by the way?"
Merciless inquired Abadis, who began to shake after remembering a horrific incident on one of her previous missions with her elder brother and Ella. The only reason they were able to repel that fucking monster was because of Ophis, who arrived at the last minute to save their asses.
Merciless inquired of Abadis, who began to shake after remembering a horrific incident on one of her previous missions with her elder brother and Ella. The only reason they were able to repel that fucking monster was because of Ophis, who arrived at the last minute to save their asses.
"A-rank superhumans can match, if not outright kill, senior elder vampires; the S class competes with the lower tiers of the grand elders. While the SS-Class competes with the higher echelon, the SSS-Class consists of hier-level monsters. Then there’s the anomalous X-class, which are virtually godlike humans and are said to be akin to the progenitors in terms of skill and power alone."
"What’s beyond the X-rank?" Even I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out either; I despise it when your food can easily turn on you. Overall, however, superhumans are not even humans in the natural sense; as the good doctor has stated, comparing a superhuman to a human is like comparing a human being to a Dryopithecus; either way, we call these evolved humans high-humans."
Merciless, on the other hand, simply shook his head in accord as he reflected on his thoughts.
’Dryopithecus’ is a scientific term I haven’t heard since high school; weren’t those things early humans, primates even? So, according to Abadis claims, these high humans are so complex on the evolution tree that one evolutionary transition from a mere and feeble human to a high human is equivalent to the grand voyage; that it took Dryopithecus to reach the level of homo-sapien; Eos above, that’s practically a perfect example of super evolution theory but on more natrual scale than a technological one.’
’...’
’Wonderful, simply wonderful... so these humans aren’t as weak and useless as I thought they were, which is great. However, it makes me question if it was the result of natural selection, mutations, or something completely out of the ordinary. How intriguing! I should capture one of these superhumans and do tests on them to gain a greater understanding of their biology.’
Merciless thought to himself; on the other side, Abadis watched Merciless closely as she began to ponder to herself, recalling what Professor Zeno’s said to her 42 years ago.
"Damn it, why can’t I get it to work?"
*ROARR-- AGHAGAWWHHHH!!
In the distance, there was the sound of a massive, horrific-looking, bloody, gravely hurt, and abstracted blight the size of a large building; a mixture of six different powerful alien species could be heard weeping in anguish at unthinkable degrees of collective misery. They were fused together in an attempt to produce new, superior life forms, but whoever did so to these poor creatures failed horribly.
"Sigh! Yet another failure, I see?"
An old man’s voice could be heard speaking to Abadis, who was irate and similarly upset. On the other hand, Abadis turned to face the well-known scientist. Dr. Zeno was an average-sized guy, somewhat taller than the normal 5’0; he was, in general, 5’3 tall, with a clear complexion and brilliant, flashing red eyes. He wore a standard lab coat and had finely maintained gray hair that glistened like silver. On his coat is a bizarre mechanical gadget with a red flashing light and a spherical form.
The good doctor, both hands in his coat, gazed at the massive monstrosity of beasts before him. Despite the initial disappointment, Abadis Ichor has grown stronger as a result of the relentless devouring of her acquired type, that being animal lovers in general. On the other side, her Ichor went through another development until she could only create normal-sized planets that took eighteen days to generate, and these worlds could only spawn insect and mammal-type alien creatures.
As of late, the time has decreased by four days, allowing her creation period to be twelve days at a time, and she has even gained conceptual features to her World of Evolution, such as the ability to actualize the concept of others states of being appearing on her planets. Or she can do the opposite and actualize a portion of the planet on another structure, leading to the creation of a domain spanning 25 kilometers in a flawless sphere.
She also obtained the power to merge multiple creatures, which was a complicated procedure to do. Man has attempted and succeeded in fusing genomes over the years, but he has never completely mastered the subject. He has barely understood one-tenth of the strange alien species Abadis creates within her world of evolution. As of right now, Abadis is attempting to create chimera-like creatures or a new species altogether by fusing these alien life forms together, effectively gaining stronger monsters on her side she can use in battle. But, thus far, she had failed at every try; yes, she could combine these beasts, but genetic compatibility was also something to take into consideration.
Genetics as a whole is a complicated topic of study; one cannot simply evaluate and comprehend a species’ genomes so casually; after all, so much information and genetic memory were compressed into a single DNA strand, spanning millions, if not billions, and maybe trillions of years across and throughout time. And that was only on planet Hellmora alone. A place man has studied and interacted with over the course of many years.
So the fact that not even a vampire, such as Abadis, could merge the genetic information within two, much less six species, was quite understandable. Even after analyzing some of the creatures’ basic genetic codes and giving Abadis the necessary knowledge, the accomplishment still remains impossible to do to this day.
"*Sigh* Professor, any hot takes? Tell me, what can I do to succeed in constructing a new and better lifeform? At this point, I’m just torturing them."
"Well, if you want my advice, you should continue your non-stop eating of more and more, animal lovers, to grow your strength and hopefully evolve your Ichor to a higher degree. But this will take some time; your previous development, prior to this one, took you ten years of nonstop feeding. This one took you 40 years, and God knows how long your next Ichor evolution will take. You should try to seek assistance from those with biotype ichors similar to yourself, as you specialize in producing life. It’s likely that at least 1/100,000 of the current existing vampires have access to at least some form of genetic manipulation."
"Either way, you don’t have much of an option. You either become stronger on your own or you must locate a third party with the ability to casually merge and modify DNA. And so far, the only individual I know who can do something relatively close to that is the 7th progenitor, but his ichor isn’t even biological in nature either; his ability to integrate components of existence with other components of existence just makes that possible. On the other hand, those options are the only ones I can give you to give rise to the lofty life forms you seek."
Professor Zeno spoke to Abadis, who sighed to herself.
"Just fantastic!!! Sigh. Where the heck am I going to find someone like that? It’s obvious as day that the 7th will not listen to my request, and it’s very hard to gain an audience with the royal progenitors as well; even my grandparents don’t have time for me and my brother."
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’Well, I’ve gone a long way since then, and even the Professor’s groundbreaking Ichor booster injections, which improve a vampire’s total power and efficiency in general, couldn’t help me achieve my goal of combining living life forms to make stronger, new or mixed ones.’
’But, Merciless, if what you mentioned about your ichor is true, I’ll finally be able to do what I’ve been attempting to do for years. I would do anything to get my hands on that power; after all, that is what I need to propel myself to greater heights.’
Abadis spoke inwardly to herself; Merciless, on the other hand, began scratching his head and spoke openly.
"Men, I’d like to get my hands on a superhuman—preferably a living one. But, oh well, let’s get this over with."
With those words spoken, a purple eye began to emerge from black tails as it pierced through the earth’s surface, following and attacking its target from beneath the murky black ground. The environment encompassing them began to quake violently, as did the ground underneath the two aliens.
And what the others witnessed could only be described as a genuine nightmare given form. The tip of Merciless’ tail was no longer black; instead, it had turned into a massive goblin head measuring forty meters in overall size. It opens its massive mouth to expose many rows of strong, sturdy, sharp, pointed, and menacing-looking gigantic teeth composed of metal and steel. Each of the teeth spun at hypersonic velocity, resembling a drill straight from the pits of hell, as these metals were covered in Merciless miasma-infused flames as well.
The mouth consumed the dirt, muddy gravel, and black mud underneath, as well as the two alien creatures, one of which had long been blended down to nothing and swallowed. That was the Tagamar, leaving just the Black Gatogran behind.
Unlike the Tagamar, which had a soft and light body despite its massive size, this gator-like monster’s defense was truly something worthy of praise. Even with his drills spinning at Mach-35 speeds, there was not a single blemish on this black gatogran outer exoskeleton.
"This is harder than I thought; the metals and steel would have constantly been destroyed if I wasn’t regenerating them faster than the rate of deterioration."
However, he suddenly felt a hand! No two hands on his shoulders, and he was surprised to find Albedo on his right and Jordan on his left. Jordan was, of course, the first to speak, followed by Albedo.
"It appears you’re having some issues; that gator must be something else; no worries, let me help you out; those Miasma flames are outstanding; however, you’re going about it incorrectly; but you don’t have any souls in your reserve either to improve them, how strange. So I’ll give you five of them, and you owe me 10 as compensation. How does that sound?"
Jordan asked Merciless, who just nodded his head at that message. And to his surprise, Merciless instantly sensed the presence of five low-grade souls within him; from there, Jordan proceeded to explain.
"Take all of those souls and attempt to feed them to the flame. Think of it as throwing coal into a furnace. The combined anguish of all those dying spirits will amplify the severity of the Miasma flames threefold if you do so."
Jordan replied, and Merciless just nodded in response to his advice. Moments later, he did as instructed. To his surprise, the black flame burst in intensity, causing the surrounding environment to melt and ignite. So much so that a tiny heat wave swept across the area where they were all standing.
At that point, the Black Gatogran’s roars of anguish could be heard, but the biting force used on this callosal was insufficient to bite through even its reinforced organs, which were as hard as the exterior.
But it was quickly resolved when Albedo’s hands began to glow pink. Albedo, of course, began to say to Merciless.
"I will give you a hand as well, Merciless; just focus on tearing apart that thing."
"Max, you too, ha? Alright, let’s do it."
Merciless said, to which Albedo nodded his head in agreement.
What occurred next startled Merciless, as an odd pink energy flowed from Albedo’s fingers and spread throughout his entire body in an instant. He could feel his entire being surging and flowing with unexplainable power that was not his, and it was only increasing with each passing second.
*Crack--CRacK!!!*
Merciless is entirely reinforced by the energy running through him; his bones have grown stronger, and his overall physical strength has increased by a factor of twenty. Previously, the metal and steel teeth were chipping, if not burning away, at a rapid pace. But now they are unfazed utterly and completely; even the intense heat of the miasma fires could not harm him. At that point, Merciless regeneration that was constantly repairing what was being destroyed did not repair anything at all.
His numerous rows of innumerable thick, long, and enormous metallic teeth, each spinning at Mach-35, were now spinning at an astounding speed of Mach-700, which was twenty times faster than before.
But the most monstrous improvement was the biting force. Originally, Merciless’ default bite force was a terrifying 40,000 PSI, rivaling the likes of Megalondon in pure physical jaw strength because of his Michellian lineage. On the other hand, with Albedo’s overall physical prowess increasing, that monstrous biting force and the shared pressure alone had made his bite force reach a horrific 800,000 PSI. But despite the corrosive effects of the Miasma flames and Albedo’s enhancements, the Black Gatogran’s exoskeleton and armored organs fought valiantly, even under such monstrous conditions.
However, it wasn’t long until it hit its endurance limitations, as Black Tail was reinforced by Jordan’s guidance on how to correctly employ Miasma flames, while Albedo was strengthening Merciless from within with his own reserves of energy. And, like glass hitting the floor, the beast shattered into multiple pieces and was torn, ground, burned, and churned into bits and chunks. At this point, the screams faded as the bodily parts of this durable gator were slowly absorbed and consumed by Black Tail, who was chowing away at its meal brutally.
This horrible and brutal exhibition of consumption lasted for 10 minutes until Black Tail reverted to its normal shape. The others watched Merciless from a distance, with Abadis breaking the stillness and questioning him.
"Soo?"
"Amazing!!"
Merciless spoke simply those words; at this time, he was surging and flooding with a strange sensation of arcane power coursing through his blood and veins. And suddenly it appeared: a familiar blue glow enveloped his entire being. His feet slowly rose off the ground as Merciless began to hover in the air, not by defying gravity but rather by controlling plasma.
This was the Tagamar’s natural power; it had the inherent ability to manipulate the plasma surrounding it as well as generate a special type of esoteric plasma that freezes an adversary in place rather than burning them. The eyes themselves were dangerous, for a single glance could set humans or anything else on fire by simply igniting and blasting the plasma around the item or person in question by magnifying each particle by a hundred times.
However, the major show had only just begun; the Black Gatogran had a variety of powers, one of which was the capacity to detect vibrations. Its wings were made of very stretchy, sticky, and smooth-looking esoteric black mucus that could generate countless amounts of floating black mucus bubbles that could imprison its prey inside once you touched them. They were also very corrosive, and this monster did not utilize its wings to fly but rather to glide and defend its body from long-range strikes, as it was extremely resistant to both physical blows and lightning.
However, its two most notable characteristics were neither its weird mucus nor its capacity to perceive and detect the smallest of vibrations. No, its greatest offensive weapon was the capacity to emit red lightning from its entire body, which contained a strange poison that could destroy all five senses of anyone who was hit by the smallest amount of it.
While its natural inner and exterior body armors were its greatest protective qualities, they made it difficult to hunt, and since this creature had no weaknesses to exploit, it was one of the few species on this planet that was at the top of the food chain. Its superior offensive and defensive qualities made it a force to be reckoned with.
And now Merciless had complete control over all of its traits, which he could utilize any way he chose. As such, it was time for him to fully display his powers. Black Tail immediately gets to work, modifying and combining the characteristics of both the Black Gatogran and the Tagamar. As a result, his physique started to alter.
As black scales expanded throughout his entire body, from head to tail, the procedure was analogous to manipulating a natural exoskeleton, leaving no apparent locations to hit. But, as compact as the armor appeared, it was similar to being naked for Merciless since it was his skin that began to alter; hence, the movement was as fluid and natural as being nude itself. On the other hand, a big pair of black mucus-like wings sprouted from his back, with numerous black tendrils and the appearance of a stein manifesting upon the fabric of reality itself.
In contrast, the black tail began to gradually break into six smaller tails. Finally, from all over the armor, with the exception of his wings, a series of multiple eyes began to slowly open. Their glares were so intense that you couldn’t see the pupil; yet, when more eyes opened, the plasma around Merciless began to intensify a hundredfold.
On that note, Merciless looked around his body; his primary concentration was now on his hands, and the plasma itself seemed like an extension of his body as well. As a result, utilizing Solidification Magical Nature, he forged two swords out of hot, burning plasma that could easily slice through diamonds like a heated knife through butter.
But he quickly got the plasma under control and began to glide down towards the rest. Jordan was the first to greet him with an amused smile, as he remarked.
"You, my friend, have a weird and amusing body."
"That I agree on."
Albedo confirmed with a puzzled expression. Lucy smiled as if she had found something too delicious to pass up. While Abadis was internally happy, the benefits of this Michellian would allow her to create many new species; in a sense, he owed her one. To everyone’s surprise, though, the human known as Zane approached Merciless with a battle-hungry grin on his face, both hands in his pocket, and spoke out aloud to him.
"Wooow! That’s a significant shift in power; heheh... say vampire dude, you want to test out your new armor. I’m hungry for some action, you see? It’s the main reason why I came along with the boss this time around; if you want to go a round with me, I can show the team leader what I’m capable of accomplishing as well. What do you say?"
Zane asked with a broad smile; on the other hand, Abadis said to Merciless.
"This is an excellent opportunity to put your new abilities to the test; after all, he is a superhuman. Aside from that, you appear to be inquisitive about their kind; there is no better time than now to see for yourself just how monstrous these types of humans can be."
Abadis was correct; he, too, wanted to test out these new traits for himself, but he was also intrigued about Zane. Just how powerful was he? And why do Abadis seem to have a genuine fear for their kind? Well, all that and more, he was about to find out.
As such, he looked at Zane and said.
"Sure, let’s go for a round; show me what you got, man thing!!"
This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.
With that stated, Zane smirked menacingly and said.
"Now you are talking my language, vampire dude."
