Chapter 185: Second Evolution
At this point Nyx and Adam began to walked inside a separate room, the room itself was empty however it was more isolated, as he goes even deeper into the castle underground section.
Though it appeared smaller on the outside, the underground sections of Tír na nÓg vastly outscaled even the largest towns within. It went without saying, its depths were as immense as they were hidden.
Several miles beneath the throne room, the subterranean structure stretched wide. A massive prison complex sat just above this level, with enough cells to house thousands of inmates. But this particular chamber? It was meant for isolation, cut off even from the rest of the facility.
Inside, Adam and Nyx stood side by side.
Adam activated the Box of Worth, accessing the metaphysical construct within. As it unfolded, it revealed the preserved body of Alustus. The corpse was headless… though the severed head floated nearby, its vacant eyes still wide open.
"So that's the Peak A-Rank Monster, huh?"
Nyx called out, eyeing the remains with a mix of curiosity and distaste. Adam gave a small nod in response.
"Yeah… still, are you absolutely sure I need to eat this bastard to trigger my next evolution?"
"Fraid so."
Nyx replied casually.
Adam scowled, clearly displeased as he stared down at the corpse.
"Ugh… fuck me, fine. This feels so damn wrong, kinda gay, honestly. But it's whatever I guess…
With a resigned groan, Adam opened his mouth wide. His body began to shift, breaking itself down and rebuilding it back anew into a new form, as a monstrous instincts took over. His cheeks stretched unnaturally, expanding outward to increase the range of his bite. His teeth blackened, sharpening into rows of jagged, shark-like fangs, and his jaw muscles swelled with unnatural force.
In one brutal motion, he dropped Alustus's headless body straight into the abyss of his maw. The severed head followed right after.
And with only a moment of hesitation…
He began to chew.
It was not long before Adam feel his durable flesh give away, his bone starting to break under the force of his jaw, flesh, and meat, organs and fat all mush into enjoyable feast as Adam began to eat Alustus corpse whole.
It took him a while to properly, chew it up, but as soon as the task was done Adam swallow, his metabolism increase, as monsterous stomach acid started to break it down taking the energy from the dead cells into Adam living cells.
But nothing happen, and seeing this, Adam looked at Nyx, and said.
"Ha, nothing change, so um, what no...
But before he could finish his sentence, Adam's body suddenly locked up. Red and black lightning began arcing violently across his form, crackling with raw fury. His very cells bleed light outwards with the same chaotic glow, radiating an ominous aura that made the air heavy.
A low growl escaped his throat as he clutched his stomach, or better yet, he was hugging himself, instinctively trying to hold himself together. Agonizing pressure welled up from within as his organs started to boil, his muscles swelling outward with unnatural force, reinforcing and expanding. His bones creaked and groaned, hardening under the strain.
"AaagghhhAAAWWHH!!"
A scream tore from Adam's throat as his energy burst outward, flooding the chamber in a torrent of raw power. The corruption within him began to evolve, wisting, changing its very nature.
Nyx stepped back without hesitation, her expression hard to read beneath the veil, but even she could feel it, the changes in Adam's body.
This was not something to stand close to.
Also she didn't want interrupt his ascension either.
On the Inside however, Adam was losing himself to the storm. His body was being broken down, atom by atom, and rebuilt in real time. He could both destruction of his body, and the improvement of it when it rebuild.
Like a furnace igniting in his bones. His glowing yellow eyes flickered with primal awareness as monstrous power surged through him, spiraling into something beyond anything he had felt before.
His Monster Energy attempted once again to override his Shinso bloodline, to become the dominant core, but it failed. Despite the fierce battle raging inside him, the Shinso bloodline held its place. The Monster Energy remained secondary, feeding off his main power source like an auxiliary engine, yet the fusion between the two was growing more stable.
Then his body began to change.
His long, braided hair burst loose, unraveling as if rejecting confinement. Each black strand radiated and flow with unnatural power, now moving like a nest of living serpents.
They even became longer, and more wild, given Adam a beastial and primitive look.
Behind him, energy and flesh coalesced, emerging from his lower back in a spectacular surge. A massive snake-like tail formed, coated in jet-black scales, glowing with detailed lines of cerulean light beneath the surface of the black scales.
At first sight, one might think it was tail, but in reality, that was far from the actual case.
It was more of an extension of his will, an external limb that obeyed via conscious and sub-conscious intent. Evident of which is that the tail hovered in sync with his spine, connected not biologically, but instead floated just inches away from his tail lower back where the tail bone was located.
At first, it was a meter long. But as Adam poured more of his Monster Energy into it, the limb began to expanded, and split, multiplying into more tails.
But as one tails, regenerate multiple more from its bio-mass, through instinct alone Adam began to test them out.
He could feel a lot of enhanced differences, among new changes.
Hanging on to that feeling, he began to work with, going with the flow for say.
The first of new abilities.
One tail broke off from the rest, shifting in midair as red light enveloped it. Then, impossibly, it transformed, taking the exact shape of Nyx when it separated, and slithered away a couple meters from him.
Adam could see through her eyes, hear through her ears, feel the air on her skin. It was a complete projection of her, a living extension of himself made real via his desires.
This new ability rely on both his external desire, and the result in his mind is made possible through the uses of his Gordon Tail.
For example he couple replicate things that are of the imagination, and make them real using his tail as medium for those desires to become true.
As such his desire, was to manifest Nyx form into existence, as such the tail itself began to transform in sync with what he had in his mind, as the result projected into reality.
As such it was so.
He focused again, another tail peeled away, slithered, and reshaped, this time into the form of a familiar tsundere vampire.
As it took the form of Priscilla.
Then another emerged, Minerva. Then came Keira, Nyla, Clara, Morgan, even Beatrice.
And although the sensation was strange, Adam experienced everything, from sight, touch, sound, and movement. Everything you could imagine experience in a body, he was experiencing every projection simultaneously. He was still within his main body... but also inside every tail, at once.
"Wow… this is insane."
Keira-Adam murmured, flexing her fingers in awe.
"So this is Stage Two, huh?"
Minerva-Adam added, her voice calm but intrigued.
"It's not too far removed from Stage One, but I can tell... my limits are completely different. And even some of my old powers feel... evolved."
"Forget all that."
Nyx-Adam said boldly, arms crossed, voice echoing with confidence.
"This new body? It's way more capable than we're giving it credit for. I can feel the possibilities... My evolutionary trance, it speaks to me."
On the sidelines, Nyx watched as Adam created multiple clones, each one, for lack of a better word, perfectly identical in appearance. Especially the one that mirrored her own form.
Still, what caught her attention wasn't just the physical accuracy. With her special eyes, she noticed something on a much deeper level, each of the newly made clones was wirelessly linked to Adam's soul. The tails that birthed them acted as conduits...channels that fed from Adam's Monster Energy while simultaneously forming their own independent energy cores within each clone.
They siphoned power directly from the main body, and in every sense of the word, they were reliable, self-sustaining puppets of flesh.
But even perfection has limits.
Adam was the first to notice the flaw in this ability of his, a weakness in his evolution for say
"I see... So that is how it works...
He voice his self analysis, loudly, even Nyx heard him speak.
"I can only channel one ability at a time through each vessel it would seem."
He admitted bluntly.
At that moment, the Minerva clone raised her hand and activated Veracious Lightning. Red sparks crackled from her fingertips, but once the ability was active, none of the other clones could use it, but the clone that got it.
More importantly, Adam's main body instantly lost access to that power, the moment it transferred to the clone, it was locked there.
Still, there was one upside.
Each clone, while dependent on his Monster Energy to remain active, had scalable physical stats. As long as energy flowed into them, their strength, speed, and durability could all be enhanced, at least as far as the vessel's structure could handle it.
"This is nice, this too.... Oh that is also good idea."
Adam said as he looked up, like a madman he could hear the many voices in his head, as he see the multiple possibility his evolution trance had to offer.
In this trance, it makes evolution easy, as it can allow one to see what is new about themselves.
Next he began to used the power of the Fourthwall, his form in the void. A panel manifest within, not one but nine different panels, and it through it that he sees the world in 2D.
He could see all the clones, individually at that, and similar to before he could move and control them, but since these were playable characters to him, it did not matter how much damage these avatars take, as he could just use his power from this realm, and ressurect himself as result of his unique perspective in the material world via the use of Positive Touch
But due to reaching stage two, a new power awaken, or rather the Fourthwall had evolve into a more complex ability.
In that moment, Adam began to feel the different connection from where he was.
Across the uncrossable, within the logical void, Earth, in the Human World.
He could sense Morgan presence, her Desires, from here he see from the void, red string, these strings all lead to a different person or location.
Representation of connection to person, place, or thing he has interacted with, grasping the feeling he focus on one of these very strings, and that was the one, that led him to Morgan to begin with.
At this moment, when he grab her string he could see her, as if she was going live on Stream.
She was driving in her red Ferrari, futuristic in design, in the night street at a fast speed, currently she was on the phone as the bud in her ears vibrate with every word the person on the other side spoke
[Did you locate the Basalik My Lady]
The man on the other side said, to which Morgan replied back, saying in plane British English.
"Yes, I have located the runner, I will send the coordinates now, but to be honest, I can handle a B-Rank monster easily on my own, but I guess the Doctor Wants this specimen for God knows what, given it's a mutant, but I will tell you now catching one of these things alive isn't easy, your better off just killing it and be done with. But oh well, it is, what it is, just be there when I knocked it out, to complete the transportation."
Morgan said to man on the other side.
[Noted My Lady, um by the way, the Captain of squad Hydra got in contact with me, she wants to know where is Lady Nyx]
"Ahh, Tiffany is being a pain again, I see?"
[I am afraid so my lady]
"Fine tell her that she left on personal matters, she should be back sometime tomorrow, most definitely in preparation for her performance."
[Very well, I will pass your Message on to Captain Tiffany, at the very least, she won't be annoying command center for a while]
The man said, with a slightly annoyed tone.
Adam on the other hand looked on as Morgan end the conversation right after. Like his avatars, he saw her in the 3D world as 2D being behind his screen.
It was like watching a cut scene in actual visual novel. But that aside, he wondered if it was possible now.
So he tried to go beyond the screen, a imaginary hand phase through the screen, as it phase into Morgan's reality.
The hands were dark, and creepy, non-existent to everything else to the void.
But base on its condition, interaction became possible in this instance, as Adam touched Morgan from the void.
SCCREEEETCHHHHZzz!!...
The sound of her car could be heard as she struggle to regain control, but her skill did not fail her in the end, thankfully she was the only one on the road this late at night, as she manage to regain control on the car before skidding unevenly and horizontally on the middle of the road leaving black tire marks on the asphalt.
"Bloody fucking hell, the fuck was that?!"
Morgan said in a pissed and scared tone, her red hair, flow over her eyes as she began sweath bullets in fear.
Touching the spot, Adam touched, her heart beating in fast, the sensation of his touch still lingering.
So much so, she began to cast, a series of complex analysis spell, affecting reality around her, searching in a variety of supernatural ways.
And yet she sense nothing or feel nothing.
"What was that, I am not going crazy am I?!"
She asked a little worry, and confuse.
Adam however mentally apologize, as he said.
'Oooopse... Sorry!?'
But soon after, he began to expirment more, trying again, as he touched Morgan, as she jump up in horror.
"Wha.... No who the fuck are you!? If you dont show yourself you will regret your choice of messing with me."
Morgan said grabbing her shoulder tightly, at this moment despite nothing being there, she can still feel the touch as clear as day.
But what happened next was not what she was expecting.
"Hello... Can you here me Morgan?"
Adam said from the void, and Morgan, a little more clam replied making an annoyed and slightly angry face.
"The fuck... Haaa... Adam i-is that you?"
She asked softly, her voice shaking at syllable.
To which Adam, got her attention, replying back to her saying.
"Yeah, sorry about scarying you earlier, it was never my intention."
He replied, causing her to reply with raised voice.
"You better fucking be, you almost made me crash, be fucking careful next time kiddo, AHHHH... Sigh... So is this some new power of yours, I don't remember you being able to just talk and touch me without being physically here."
Morgan asked confused by this sudden development.
"Yeah, I just got it... Or rather, I literally complete my second evolution just now while the trance is still active, and I am messing with my new abilities."
"I see, are you here by accident or by design?"
"Accident I am afraid, It hard to explain, but let's just say, you are the first person I manage to reach to with this new power of mine, but I won't disturb you further than this, again I am sorry."
Adam voice echoed in her head, to which Morgan quickly replied, catching his attention.
"Wait before you go, you know if Nyx is still coming tommarow?"
"Oh yeah, actually I plan to come with her, she invited me out to see her play at the Obsidian Rose."
"Hmm, so she manage to succeed egh...hehehe, big sis is something else, either way thanks for stopping by, but for the love of my heart, don't approach me so suddenly again unless necessary, you scared the living shit out of me."
"Noted, well bye now, see you when I come to the Human World with Nyx."
"Bye little guy."
With that Adam cut the connection, as of right now he was back in the void seeing from the perspective of the avatar again.
Then deactivate his Fourthwall ability, and seeing through the eyes of the main body.
After going through all that, Adam could not help but say.
"This is simply amazing."