BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

The vial's contents disappeared down Vania's throat in a single swallow. Her body seized, and her muscles tensed as if electricity coursed through her. Her eyes widened, the pupils expanding until they consumed the whites entirely. All in a matter of seconds.

"Everyone, get back!" Erik said. "Now!"

The clones withdrew immediately. The remaining blackguards hesitated, torn between following their commander's order and staying to fight.

"I said go!" Vania screamed, her face starting to distort as her jaw shifted beneath her skin. "That's an order!"

The Vindicators and the rest of the blackguards retreated, forsaking the command center in the process, and dragging their wounded with them as they fled through the shattered doorway.

There were thousands of people, but so were the clones. Though none of them could face Erik and the first division commander.

However, the battle wasn't going to end just because the first division commander gave the order.

The blood splattered across the floor rose and swirled around Vania in a whirlwind, accelerating as her mana surged and her strength likely increased.

Amber appeared at Erik's side, her face rigid because of concern. "What's happening to her?"

Erik, at that point, understood what was happening. Vania drank a vial, and based on what the blackguards did, on what he knew about them, and how they got their powers, it was clear she took one of the new serums.

The problem was that it was clear it was making her mutate, and if this led to the same results as with the human abomination in Liberty Watch, then she was bound to turn powerful.

After all, if whatever experiment they did on that man, who had no brain crystal powers and no neural links, turned him into a nightmare for normal people, what was it going to do to someone like the First Division Commander?

"She's mutating," Erik said, his eyes never leaving the woman as she convulsed in the center of the blood storm. "Whatever was in that vial is turning her into a monster."

The remaining blackguards left through the exits, leaving only Erik and some of his people to see the transformation.

The air in the command center grew thick with mana, and the pressure rose until it became difficult to breathe. Consoles exploded in showers of sparks as the energy overloaded their circuits.

"You should leave too," Erik said to Amber.

She shook her head. "I'm staying."

"Amber—"

"I'm staying," she said.

But Erik was not going to allow her nonsense this time.

"Rick."

The clone nodded.

"Yes, Master."

Rick grabbed Amber. Based on the amount of mana that was being released, there was no way she could survive whatever battle was going to take place. Even with her powers, even with his powers. Erik didn't want to risk it.

The mana swirling through Vania reached absurd levels, far beyond what any human should be capable of channeling without the biological supercomputer's help.

The surrounding blood glowed red. It was no longer just manipulated but somehow transformed by whatever was affecting her and her mana.

Erik didn't wait for whatever change was taking place for her to complete. In seconds, she had already changed a lot; he wasn't going to let her change more. He summoned his power, concentrating mana into his palm before releasing a wind blade.

The attack should have bisected her. Instead, as her body continued to twist and change, she moved with inconceivable speed, avoiding the attack.

The wind blade cut through space, shattering a bank of monitors behind where she stood and cutting the walls behind her. The blade came out on the other side of the building and reached the forest.

Trees were severed at their bases, their trunks split cleanly through. Roots as thick as a person burst from the ground, showering dirt and debris across the forest floor.

Erik blinked in surprise. His attack missed. <No, she dodged it.>

Somehow she had been able to anticipate it even amid her transformation.

Essence Flow was already replenishing his mana, but a cold realization settled in his gut: whatever the first division commander had taken was making her frighteningly powerful.

"We need more space," he said to himself, gathering mana again.

This time, he aimed upward. Then he released mana, blasting a hole through the command center's ceiling. Debris rained down, but Erik deflected it with a telekinetic shield.

Without waiting to see if Vania would chase, he wrapped himself in telekinetic force and fired himself into the air through the opening.

He hovered above the facility, looking at the scene below.

Fires burned in three of the complex's wings, and black smoke billowed into the night sky. The sound of combat already reached his ears.

<The clones and the blackguards are already at it.>

Movement in the rubble below caught Erik's attention. Something emerged from the command center—something that only vaguely resembled the woman who stood before him minutes ago.

The first division commander wasn't human anymore. Her body became hulking. Her muscles bulged, and her skin rippled and changed color to a deep gray.

Her head got larger, the skull elongated and misshapen. But most disturbing was her mouth, which split into four separate parts, allowing it to open both vertically and horizontally like some nightmarish flower.

Her hands ended in curved claws, and her ears had stretched into pointed protrusions that swept backward along her skull.

She looked awfully similar to the human abomination Erik had found in Liberty Watch—the twisted result of forbidden experimentation on humans the Silverline corporation did centuries earlier.

But unlike that creature, Vania had a brain crystal, meaning she had brain crystal powers and neural links.

<Shit…>

The sight sent a wave of unease through him. The mana coming from her was unlike anything he had seen before—dense, chaotic, and powerful beyond measure.

For the first time since the battle began, Erik felt a flicker of doubt. Had the mutation made her too powerful, even for him?

He pushed the thought aside. He still had his advantages—the Chimaeric Demons with Essence Flow were increasing everyone's mana regeneration, even their own.

Thanks to this, not only he, but all his troops, would be able to fight as long as they didn't get killed, and that was going to turn impossible with the Chimaeric Demons around. They could heal themselves and the others, making everyone harder to kill.

Vania rose from the rubble, her mouth opening in four ways to release a roar that shook the remaining structures. The blood that swirled around her during the transformation now coated her body like armor, hardened into gleaming plates.

<Analyze her!>

—[Analysis]—

Name: Vania Physical Description: A 3-meter-tall monstrous being with gray skin and enhanced musculature. Features a four-part split mouth and deadly claws. Brain Crystal Powers:

Blood Manipulation (X54A): Controls and shapes blood into weapons, shields, or other constructs. Can extract blood from enemies and use it to heal herself.

Spectral Chains (X54A): Create mana chains that bind and restrict opponents' movements. It has the ability to drain energy from targets that are trapped in its grasp.

Mana Hammer (Xξ3C): Conjures massive mana hammers able to deal devastating blows.

Earth Control (Xξ3B): Manipulates terrain and stone for both offense and defense.

Pyrokinesis (Xξ3B): Generates and controls intense flame bursts.

Hydrokinesis (Xξ3B): Commands water in all forms.

Aerokinesis (Xξ3B): Controls wind currents and air pressure.

Toxic Talons (Xξ3C): Claws secrete deadly neurotoxins that cause paralysis and organ failure in victims.

Enhanced Hearing (Xξ3D): Detects sounds from extreme distances and through solid barriers.

Bone Armor (Xξ3C): Grows and controls protective bone plates that can be altered, moved, or launched as projectiles.

Cryomancy (Xξ3B): Manipulates extreme cold temperatures, freezing opponents and creating ice constructs.

{Attributes}

STRENGTH: 1129 INTELLIGENCE: 3 DEXTERITY: 1055 ENERGY: 1543

{Others}

Power Level: 2570 Estimated Experience per kill: 2,180,586,665.31 —[End]—