The ascent out of the First Continental Reserve was completely, terrifyingly silent.
Ren did not walk up the massive marble staircase; he glided. The Tier-3 physiological overhaul had completely eliminated the heavy, grinding mechanical friction of his previous evolutions. His Level 40 frame remained a towering two hundred and seventy pounds of hyper-condensed kinetic mass, but the dark, iridescent obsidian plates of his Chitin Shell were flawlessly flush with his pitch-black, tungsten-sheened skin. His heavy combat boots made absolutely zero sound against the pristine, moss-covered marble.
His striking, angular facial features remained completely unchanged, exactly as they had been before the apocalypse, but the absolute void of his solid violet eyes stripped away any lingering illusion of humanity.
He had become a localized black hole.
