The subterranean mag-lev transport glided silently through the reinforced service tunnel connecting Outpost Zero's central hub to Sector 9.
Inside the armored cabin, Commander Kael and three elite guards in heavy hazard gear checked the charge packs of their spirit-suppressor rifles. I stood near the front viewport, my dark field coat buttoned up to my collar, while Lina stood close to my left side, her hand resting lightly on the pommel of her sky-iron rapier.
Even through the thick titanium hull of the transport and hundreds of yards of solid volcanic rock, a heavy, rhythmic thumping vibrated beneath the floorboards.
Thump... thump...
It wasn't seismic machinery. It was the failing, erratic heartbeat of a creature that stood at the Stage 4 Beast realm—the biological equivalent of a human Martial Master.
"We're approaching the breach point, Master Ryuk," Kael reported, pulling up a holographic geological scan on the cabin console. "When Grandmaster Vance bombarded the Ashen Gorge above us, the shockwaves sheared off an underground fault line. That fault line intersected a dormant spatial pocket where this Rift Wyrm was resting. Two hundred tons of basalt collapsed straight onto its lower spine."
Lina leaned in slightly, studying the glowing red thermal outline on the screen. The creature was massive—nearly eighty feet long, shaped like a wingless, subterranean dragon covered in jagged, overlapping bone plates, with a maw lined with rows of rotating crystalline teeth.
"If it's a Stage 4 beast," Lina murmured, her brow furrowing, "even pinned under a collapsed fault, a single sweep of its tail or a breath of spatial radiation could wipe out a platoon of Martial Warriors. How wounded is it?"
"Its lower half is completely crushed, Miss Lina," Kael answered respectfully. "And judging by the spatial burns along its neck, it was already half-dead before it tore through the dimensional rift into our world. It has been bleeding out for hours. However, the toxic fumes evaporating from its blood melted through two of our titanium probe drones in under a minute."
Inside Lina's sea of consciousness, the Sovereign Dragon Empress stirred from her quiet contemplation, her voice echoing with sharp recognition.
"A Void-Tunneler Wyrm," the immortal observed, a hint of disdain mixing with caution in her tone. "They are scavengers of the lower spatial crevices, impure bastards with less than a ten-thousandth of a drop of subterranean draconic blood. Their flesh is coarse, and their veins run with filthy, corrosive spatial bacteria that rot the meridians of any mortal who touches them. However... its beast core and the marrow inside its spine are prime materials for tempering your Dragon Tendons into the Second Stage."
Lina's amber eyes lit up slightly. 'Its marrow can help me break through again?'
"If purified by your True Dragon flame, yes," the Empress replied, before her voice dropped into a low, uneasy mutter. "Though I suspect that monster standing beside you didn't come down here for the beast core. Look at his eyes, girl. He looks like a starving wolf staring at a banquet."
Lina glanced up at me.
My face was calm, almost serene, yet deep within my pitch-black pupils, a cold, calculating excitement was simmering.
The transport slowed to a halt at the end of the bored tunnel, where a hastily erected containment airlock stood bolted into the fractured cavern wall.
"Stay inside the airlock perimeter, Kael," I ordered as the heavy inner door hissed open. "Even with hazard suits, your men are only Martial Warriors and Adepts. If the Wyrm's airborne blood-rot breaches your filters, your lungs will liquefy before my physicians can reach you."
Kael bowed his head immediately. "Understood, Master. We will secure the blast doors and keep the extraction lasers on standby."
"Lina," I said, turning toward her. "Circulate your dragon aura around your skin and respiratory tract. Stay five paces behind me until I confirm the creature's nervous system is dead."
Lina nodded firmly, her vertical golden dragon pupils flaring to life as a thin, shimmering veil of azure-gold energy wrapped around her midnight-blue combat leathers like a second skin. "Be careful, Amar. Even a dying Stage 4 beast can lash out."
"I don't intend to get within reach of its teeth," I replied smoothly.
I stepped through the outer containment bulkhead, with Lina following close behind.
The moment the titanium door sealed behind us, the sheer, suffocating stench of the cavern hit like a physical wall.
The air was blistering hot and glowing with a radioactive, sickly emerald haze. Before us lay a vast, shattered fault line.Pinned beneath a mountain of jagged, thousand-ton obsidian slabs was the Stage 4 Rift Wyrm.
Even half-buried in rock, the beast was a terrifying sight. Its massive, armored torso was the width of an armored shuttle. From a gaping, twenty-foot wound across its throat and abdomen, a literal river of thick, luminescent green blood was pouring out, pooling into a boiling, steaming lake across the cavern floor.
The green blood was alive with volatile spatial radiation and hyper-aggressive alien microbes—hissing and eating deep holes into the solid volcanic stone.
GROOOOOAAAR!
Sensing our presence, the pinned Wyrm lifted its colossal, horned skull. Its milky, blind eyes locked onto our direction, and its jaws unhinged, letting out a weak, rattling roar that still carried enough sonic force to send spiderweb cracks racing across the cavern walls!
Green, toxic spittle sprayed from its maw, raining down toward us.
Before a single droplet could come within ten feet of Lina, I raised my left hand and released a fraction of my concealed Martial Saint domain.
Ice World: Frost Barrier.
CRACK!
A curved wall of translucent, absolute-zero blue ice erupted from the cavern floor, intercepting the toxic spray and freezing it into harmless green glass.
At the same time, I walked forward to the edge of the boiling lake of Stage 4 beast blood.
Plaintext
=====================================================
BIOMASS TARGET DETECTED: VOID-TUNNELER WYRM (STAGE 4)
=====================================================
[Host Condition]: Terminal (Vitality < 8%)
[Microbial Density]: EXTREME (Stage 4 Spatial-Rot Bacteria)
[Warning]: Direct cellular takeover of live Stage 4 tissue
is blocked by residual Martial Master-grade beast aura.
[Recommended Action]: Harvest external shed blood &
resident bacterial flora via Aerosol Swarm.
=====================================================
My eyes gleamed.
A live Stage 4 beast's organs were still protected by its innate beast aura—if I sent my phages directly into its heart while it was still alive, its remaining energy would crush millions of my clones.
But the hundreds of gallons of blood it had already bled out onto the cavern floor?
That blood was separated from its core. It was a massive, undefended nutrient soup teeming with trillions of hyper-dense, Stage 4 spatial bacteria!
"Stay right here, darling," I murmured over my shoulder to Lina, whose hand was resting on her sword hilt as she watched the thrashing behemoth. "This will only take a minute."
I crouched at the edge of the steaming green pool and rested my bare right palm directly above the bubbling ichor.
Active Aerosol Exhalation: Full Deployment.
Ssssshh.
I didn't hold back. Three hundred million active Bacteriophage Clones poured out of my pores in an invisible, concentrated stream, plunging straight into the lake of Stage 4 beast blood.
The moment my clones entered the green fluid, my secondary consciousness lit up like a starry sky.
In the microscopic world, the Stage 4 spatial bacteria were terrifying colossi—armored, multi-nucleated microbial monsters that thrived on spatial radiation and devoured metal and flesh alike. Against normal terrestrial viruses, their thick, radiation-hardened cell walls would have been impenetrable fortresses.
Against my Z-rank phages reinforced with Stage 3 Abyssal Chitin injectors, however, they were merely cattle with thicker hides.
Attach. Pierce. Hijack.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
Three hundred million diamond-hard protein needles slammed through the outer membranes of the Stage 4 bacteria. My dark, icy genetic strands flooded their cytoplasm, forcefully overriding their ancient alien ribosomes.
Because these microbes were fueled by Stage 4 beast essence, the energy density inside every single bacterial cell was ten times higher than anything I had harvested in the laboratory!
Plaintext
=====================================================
SWARM MATRIX: STAGE 4 BIO-HARVEST IN PROGRESS
=====================================================
[Substrate]: Stage 4 Spatial-Rot Bacterial Flora
[Takeover Efficiency]: 100%
[Replication Yield]: 3,200 Clones per Bacterial Host!
[Swarm Count Rising]:
705,000,000...
810,000,000...
940,000,000...
=====================================================
Before Lina's stunned eyes, the boiling lake of glowing green blood began to change.
The violent hissing stopped. The radioactive emerald glow rapidly dimmed, turning into a murky, lifeless gray as trillions of alien bacteria burst in simultaneous cellular lysis, surrendering every drop of their chemical and spiritual vitality to forge my new clones.
As the pool of blood was drained of its microbial life, the swarm crept upward along the bleeding trail—following the open wounds straight into the dying Wyrm's weakened, exposed veins.
With its blood drained and its vitality fading below five percent, the beast's innate aura flickered and collapsed.
ROOOA—gck!
The giant Wyrm's final roar caught in its throat as hundreds of millions of phages surged into its exposed abdominal tear, stripping the bacterial flora and decaying tissue around its ruptured organs. Within twenty seconds, the massive beast shuddered violently, its colossal horned head slamming down onto the stone floor with a deafening boom.
Its eyes went dark. The Stage 4 Rift Wyrm was dead.
And out from the gray, lifeless pool of fluid, an invisible, howling hurricane of newly birthed bacteriophages surged back into my outstretched palm!
BOOM!
A soundless explosion detonated inside my sea of consciousness.
My human body stiffened. Beneath my dark coat, every muscle, tendon, and bone plate vibrated at a sub-atomic frequency as the swarm count tore past the nine-figure mark and slammed straight into the ten-figure ceiling!
Plaintext
=====================================================
CRITICAL THRESHOLD ACHIEVED: 1,000,000,000 CLONES!
=====================================================
[Current Active Swarm]: 1,150,000,000 / 10,000,000,000
[Swarm Matrix Promoted]: TIER 2 SOVEREIGN COLONY
-----------------------------------------------------
[Z-RANK TALENT: FIRST EVOLUTION UNLOCKED!]
Genetic Extraction & Synthesis (Active):
- Swarm can now extract and permanently splice passive
biological traits from any consumed organism directly
into the Host's DNA.
Viral Hive-Brain (Passive):
- Mental processing speed increased by 500%. Complete
immunity to spiritual illusions and soul-probes below
Martial King realm.
Cellular Undying (Passive):
- As long as 10% of the Swarm remains active, fatal
organ damage (excluding complete brain destruction)
can be repaired at the cellular level within minutes.
-----------------------------------------------------
[HOST BREAKTHROUGH TRIGGERED]:
- Physical Realm: Martial Adept (Stage 2) -> Martial Adept (Stage 5!)
- Bio-Armor Density: Stage 4 Wyrm-Scale Lattice Integrated!
=====================================================
One billion, one hundred and fifty million clones!
A surge of icy, god-like power roared through my veins, pushing my physical cultivation straight from Stage 2 Adept to Stage 5 Martial Adept in a single, terrifying leap!
Beneath my skin, the previous chitin mesh was completely torn down and rebuilt using the genetic code of the Stage 4 Void-Tunneler Wyrm—forming an interlocking, sub-dermal lattice of biological dragon-scales that could shrug off the attacks of early Martial Masters without leaving a scratch!
I slowly stood up, flexing my fingers. The air around my palm gave a low, distorted hum under the sheer physical strength coiled in my tendons.
Behind me, Lina gasped softly, and inside her pendant, the Sovereign Dragon Empress nearly choked on her own spiritual essence.
"Stage 5 Martial Adept...?!" the immortal shrieked inside Lina's mind, her voice cracking in disbelief. "He just crouched over a puddle of toxic blood for thirty seconds and jumped three minor stages without swallowing a single pill or meditating?! And his flesh... he just assimilated the scale-density of that Stage 4 Wyrm into his human muscles! What kind of heaven-defying, cannibalistic monster is this boy?!"
Lina didn't care about the Empress's screaming. She hurried forward to my side, her amber eyes scanning my face with genuine worry as she saw the faint veins subsiding along my temples.
"Amar!" she said, catching my arm with both hands. "Your aura just surged like crazy... are you alright? Did the Wyrm's poison get into your meridians?"
I turned my head and looked down at her.
With my newly unlocked Viral Hive-Brain, the world moved in crystal-clear slow motion. I could see the microscopic flicker of her eyelashes, hear the warm, rapid thrum of her draconic heart, and feel the genuine, unmasked care radiating from her grip on my sleeve.
The cold, inhuman godhood of the billion-strong swarm receded behind my eyes, leaving only a soft, indulgent warmth.
"The poison?" I chuckled softly, raising my free hand to gently pinch her cheek. "It was a little spicy, darling, but entirely digestible."
Lina swatted my hand away with a flustered huff, though her shoulders sagged with obvious relief. "Stop joking when I'm worried about you! You nearly gave me a heart attack crouching next to that boiling sludge."
"I told you I wouldn't get hurt," I murmured, stepping past her toward the massive skull of the dead Stage 4 Wyrm.
With a sharp kick of my boot—reinforced by my new Stage 5 strength and Wyrm-scale lattice—I shattered the brittle bone plate of the creature's forehead with a loud CRACK, reaching inside to pull out a fist-sized, glowing emerald-and-silver beast core pulsing with immense Stage 4 spatial energy.
I wiped the dust off the core with my handkerchief and tossed it straight into Lina's hands.
"Catch," I said with a faint smile. "A Stage 4 core, plus an eighty-foot spine full of draconic marrow. That should be enough to keep you and your 'secret teacher' busy in the cultivation room tonight, shouldn't it?"
Lina caught the heavy, radiant core against her chest, freezing completely in place.
Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. Inside her pendant, the Sovereign Dragon Empress went dead, petrified silent.
"Your... secret teacher?" Lina stammered, her voice dropping to a tiny, shocked squeak as she stared at me. "A-Amar... how did you...?"
I walked back to her, leaning down until my lips were an inch from her ear, my voice a low, magnetic whisper that sent a shiver straight down her spine:
"Lina, darling... I know every breath you take, every heartbeat in your chest, and the exact warmth of that silver pendant around your neck. Did you really think I wouldn't notice an ancient guest whispering in my girl's ears?"
I pulled back slightly, giving her stunned, blushing face a gentle, possessive smirk before tapping my comm link to call Kael's extraction team in.
"Don't worry," I added softly, taking her hand as the blast doors hissed open behind us. "As long as she helps you grow stronger, she can stay. Now come on—let's have Kael harvest that spine before our tea gets cold."