Chapter 49: | Evolution
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Hours passed as I descended, deeper and deeper, into the sunless depth.
The light above thinned, swallowed by the abyss, until only memory clung to its dying glow.
Darkness pressed in from every angle, broken only by the glint of lurking eyes.
The sea-grass swayed like drowned hair across the seafloor.
Pillars jutted like mountain peaks, ancient and waiting.
Silent sentinels lurked in the dark, thirsty for light.
For blood.
I moved among them.
My colossal form sliced through the water faster than a wyvern can cut the clouds.
Faster than beast that could run.
Faster than thought.
My maw opened.
Snapped shut.
Stage 1 monsters vanished into pulp, crushed beneath the weight of my hunger.
Violent this time, but obedient.
My spawned creations had already dispersed hours ago, slipping into the dark to hunt in my name.
Then I saw it, the arena.
A clearing of swaying seagrass, glowing with bioluminescent green.
Vast murals coiled in a hundred-meter ring, carved into the trench stone.
Their designs pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
This was the place.
The gate to maximum levels.
The final opponent to devour before the awaited evolution.
And there it was.
My opponent.
A shrimp-like eel stood at the center, scythe-claw raised, massacring Stage 1 creatures with surgical elegance.
Steel parted like fruit skin beneath its strikes.
Interesting.
I grinned.
So this time it's a pre-heated shrimp with a scythe?
Let's test your melt-point.
Blur-Lance Execution Drive.
My body blurred.
Then vanished.
Impact.
My tail detonated the seafloor as it launched me forward, the water screaming in my wake.
Tentacles coiled into a fist.
I tunneled through the trench like a torpedo, unstoppable, unreadable.
But the eel moved.
No...
It disappeared.
Pain flared towards my brain.
My left dorsal fin tore clean off.
Then I crashed, hard, into the ground, the force rippling out in a localized quake.
I lay stunned for only a blink, then snarled as the twitch returned to my maw.
Good.
If I devoured that thing…
I might gain its reflexes.
Its compound eyes.
Its explosive muscle structure.
My blood surged, heart hammering like war drums.
I reattached the fin, flesh reconnecting with a wet snap.
Veins flared red as tomato.
My strength surged.
My tentacles thickened.
My muscles bulged.
I bellowed, and the water shivered.
Fist shifted into a claw.
And then.
I struck.
The sea split.
My claw cleaved through the water like the sharpest blade.
Blood sspattered into the water, but not mine.
The eel's carapace peeled off like fruit skin, arms and legs extending.
Its headplate ejected with a hiss of steam, revealing.
A humanoid.
I froze mid-thought.
What should I adress this badtard?
Eel?
Shrimp?
Overseer?
Overseer.
Yes.
That title fit.
My gaze shifted towards the Overseer.
I saw it...
Thin plating clung to a heavily muscled frame, each structure precise and volatile.
Its legs was built for impossible dashes, there was no waste, no drag.
And it's muscle structure was the definition of raw efficiency.
Then in a split second, it vanished like a ghost, then reappeared, circling around me like a predator.
Pain flared across my flesh, as my body was shredded second by second.
Cuts bloomed shallow, dozens of them, annoying.
Not fatal.
I snorted.
Too slow.
My claw pulsed.
Water bent, no, tore.
The Overseer flinched, pulled by the vortex.
Then a second claw, appeared sweeping in a wide arc...
Impact.
Shards burst outward as its lower body was cleaved clean off.
I bellowed in triumph, maw opening wide.
This kill was mine.
Then...
Pain.
My left gills flared.
Something sharp pressed against my bone.
I staggered.
No.
Impossible.
A scythe-like limb jutted from my skull.
How?
I had already struck.
I had won.
I'd cut that thing in half.
Unless...
Unless it had an Ascension III skill.
Something that let it move… even after death.
Or maybe just once.
A final burst.
Could it really be that fast?
No.
No.
With my transformation stacked.
Speed, power, durability, multiplied by Imperial Bloomcore.
No creature below Stage 2 should've matched me.
So then... the only explanation left.
An Ascension Trait.
A skill beyond the norm.
A cheat.
That let's its body, to move at a paranormal speed and counterattacks me.
And in that given time it nearly ended my life.
But not this time.
Its blow hadn't reached the brain.
Just nearly.
Lucky me.
My tentacles had already regenerated.
I unleashed the stingers.
Snatched its body, the half I'd split.
Snared the scattered plating.
Pulled it all inward.
Devoured.
As the Overseer dissolved in my grasp, I turned back to the bioluminescent murals.
My gaze then shifted to the hologram blooming in the water before me.
And I smiled.
---
[You have slain the Overseer of this floor]
• [Abyssal Eviscerator 5★]
[Flawless Victory achieved.]
[You have gained 10 levels.]
[You have reached the maximum level and tier available for Stage 0.]
[Evolution is now possible.]
[Do you wish to evolve?]
[Yes] / [No]
[Access to the next floor unlocked.]
---
[You have successfully devoured]
• [Abyssal Eviscerator 5★]
---
[New Skills Acquired:]
• Execution Claws
• Phase-Dash
---
[Your grotesque physique would like to devour]
• Execution Claws
• Phase-Dash
[Would you allow it]
[Yes] / [No]
---
I let out a thunderous bellow.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
At last.
After days, weeks, months of unrelenting struggle, agony, and bloodshed.
Finally… I was being rewarded.
I couldn't stop the memories from rushing in, those bitter trials, the searing pain that left me howling in silence, the cold void left behind by my sister's departure.
I clenched my eyes shut.
I had endured the unendurable.
And yet…
Look at me now.
Look at how far I've come.
Because of her.
Because of them.
The glorious sacrifice of my siblings, of my sister.
That I…
I…
Reached this far.
It was never just me.
My rise was not forged from solitude, but from the echoes of those who had fallen before me.
Their strength fed mine.
Their deaths carved this path.
I couldn't help it.
I smiled.
Then laughed.
Hah…
Hahahahah…!
At the madness of it all.
At the absurdity of my journey, the path to Emperor.
The dream to elevate my kind, to drag our name through fire and triumph and ash…
Until we stand above all.
I…
I, Alister Von Fai.
Shall make it all real!
I shall ascend.
I shall evolve.
I shall become the greatest Emperor our race has ever known.
Mark my words.
I will trample this world beneath my feet.
This was the end of my weakness.
This was the beginning of everything.
I turned toward the pulsing hologram, approving the grotesque transformation of my twisted physique.
Then I confirmed the evolution.
The system stirred.
---
[Evolution Confirmed.]
[Your flawless foundation has been acknowledged.]
[As recognition, the Dimensional Record grants a reward.]
[Select one of the following:]
• Affinity
• Bloodline
• Blessing
• Race Selection
[Only one may be chosen.]
[Choose wisely… Young Emperor.]
---
A rare confusion gripped my mind.
Which path…?
Affinity?
No.
Too common.
I could devour those affinity when my bloodline becomes unsealed, those were too basic.
Blessing?
Too vague.
Too risky.
What if it turned out to be worthless?
No guarantees.
No control.
Race?
Hah.
Meaningless.
Power follows me, I don't need to chase it through a different form.
Bloodline...
Now that was tempting.
I glanced down.
My tentacles twitched with tension, instinct pulsing beneath my skin.
If I could unseal even a fragment of the Harbinger of Myth, my devouring might reach an entirely new tier.
Yes.
That's it.
Bloodline.
I stabbed the choice with a slick, trembling limb.
The hologram shifted.
---
[Bloodline Detected.]
[Current Status:]
• Sealed
[You may now choose one of the following options:]
• Obtain a Random Bloodline
• Evolve an Existing Bloodline
• Unseal Your Sealed Bloodline
---
I paused.
Gamble?
Or reclaim what was already mine?
My body answered for me.
A violent surge rolled through me, my bloodline screamed, writhing beneath my skin like a beast in chains.
It demanded release.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
I didn't hesitate.
I chose to unseal.
A new hologram burst into existence.
---
[Unsealing Initiated…]
[Chains of Destiny, Fortune, Karma, and Fate resist the process.]
[Dimensional Record intervenes.]
[Unsealing Sequence Restarted.]
[3…]
[2…]
[1…]
[Unsealing Failed.]
[Dimensional Record overrides resistance.]
[Reattempting Unsealing…]
[3…]
[2…]
[1…]
[Unsealing Complete.]
[A fragment of your bloodline has been revealed.]
---
• Harbinger of Myth [9/10]
---
[Evolution Commencing…]
---
My vision dimmed, swallowed by the dark.
I drifted.
And then, dreams rose to meet me.
They shimmered like echoes of a forgotten world, and I smiled as I stepped into them, knowing, deep down, this might be the last moment I would ever exist as me.
So why not enjoy it?
Outside the dreamscape, my body lay still.
Its heartbeat slowed, each thump softer than the last.
Scales spread like molten armor, plating sealed flesh beneath, and a cocoon began to form.
Evolution had come.
And then, the sound.
A gong, deep and resonant, rang across the floor like a divine heartbeat.
All across the battlefield, the abominations froze.
Hunts paused mid-charge.
Heads tilted.
Eyes widened.
They had heard it.
The pulse of their creator, beating like a war drum, calling them home.
And then the water stirred.
Limbs twitched. Legs moved in sudden bursts, erratic and panicked.
The call had been answered.