"Intruder! Open fire! Open—"
The lead mercenary’s command was cut short by a sound like a tearing canvas.
Asher didn't just move; he shattered the acoustic baseline of the room. With his Agility at 30, his forward lunge didn't look like a sprint—it looked like a camera skipping frames. The three matte-black Federation exo-suits didn't even have time to bring their high-frequency plasma repeaters to bear before Asher was already inside their defensive perimeter.
He didn't suppress it anymore. In the enclosed, echoing metallic vault of the Hydro-Plant, Asher let the human facade crack.
Thump-thump.
His demonic core beat like a war drum. Thick, obsidian-black horns burst violently through his hairline, curving back over his skull like a dark crown. The skin across his face went deathly pale, starkly contrasting the jagged, brilliant violet veins that erupted across his jawline and neck. When he opened his eyes, the calm brown was entirely gone, replaced by a pair of bottomless, burning crimson apertures that radiated a suffocating weight.
[Monarch Aura activated automatically.]
[Enemies within a 15-meter radius experience: [Fear], [Accuracy Reduction -25%], and [Stamina Drain].]
The nearest Iron Fang enforcer dropped his shotgun, his knees buckling under the sheer, unadulterated weight of the evolutionary pressure bleeding off Asher. He didn't even have the breath to scream before Asher’s hand, now tipped with four-inch obsidian talons, drove straight through his ballistic chest plate.
Squelch.
Asher’s hand retracted, dripping with dark crimson, and without a backward glance, he spun on his heel, his cloak flaring out like the wings of a predatory bat.
"What is that thing?! It's not a beast! It's—"
A mercenary in a black-ops exo-suit tried to boost backward using his auxiliary thrusters, but Asher was already there. He caught the mercenary by the face plate of his helmet. The matte-black titanium alloy creaked under the 23 points of raw Strength pulsing through Asher's fingers.
[Skill Activated: Plasma Claw.]
[Consuming 15 MP...]
Superheated violet-blue plasma hissed from Asher’s fingertips. The mercenary’s helmet melted instantly, the high-frequency energy vaporizing his skull in a brief, blinding flash of white smoke.
Before the corpse could hit the steel grating, the remaining two black-ops operators synchronized their fire. Twin streams of heavy, blinding blue plasma rounds chewed through the air, tearing up the concrete pillars behind Asher. But Asher didn't dodge. He stood his ground, raising both hands as his Intelligence calculated the incoming vectors with machine-like precision.
[Skill Activated: Cyber-Hacking.]
[Targeting: Exo-Suit Fire Control Systems.]
[Consuming 30 MP...]
The blue plasma streams suddenly went wild. The internal targeting computers of the two remaining black-ops suits glitched violently, their HUDs flashing with lines of unreadable, demonic code. The suits forced the mercenaries' arms to turn inward, locking the barrels of their weapons directly onto each other's chest cores.
"No! Wait! My suit is overridden! I can't—"
BOOM!
The two mercenaries blew each other into scrap metal at point-blank range, their micro-fusion batteries detonating in a synchronized explosion that painted the reinforced glass walls of the Hydro-Plant in black soot and fire.
The remaining fifteen Iron Fang thugs completely broke. They threw down their weapons, scrambling over one another to reach the exit doors, but the exit doors didn't open. Lucy had already locked down the security matrix from the control booth.
What followed wasn't a fight. It was a harvest.
Asher moved through the screaming syndicate members like a reaper through wheat. His Plasma Claws left glowing, molten trails through the dark air, slicing through armor, bone, and steel turbines with effortless fluidity. Every time a life was extinguished, a thick, cold mist of dark lifeforce flowed directly into his chest, fueling his core.
Within three minutes, the factory floor was a graveyard of melted metal and silent corpses.
Asher stood before the massive, blast-proof vault door, his breathing perfectly steady. The crimson glow in his eyes slowly receded, his black horns withdrawing smoothly into his skull, and the violet veins retreating beneath his pale skin. Within seconds, he looked completely human once more, save for the wet obsidian talons that slowly softened back into regular fingers.
He placed his palms against the massive vault door, locking onto the experimental military hardware sealed inside.
[Passive Skill: 'Assimilation' activated.]
The blast-proof door began to liquefy, dissolving into a massive, blinding torrent of blue data and silver tech-matter that roared directly into Asher’s body. This wasn't just a small cache; it was Briggs' entire reserve stockpile for Sector 9.
The massive influx of power made Asher's soul core shake violently.
[Assimilating: Elite Military Logistics Reserve (Sector 9).]
[Gained: 1,200 EXP!]
[Level Up!]
[Level 4 ──> Level 5 (800/1600 EXP)]
[All stats increased by +2. Unallocated Stat Points received: 5]
[System Alert: Evolutionary Threshold Reached!]
[Your High-Blood Imp lineage has absorbed sufficient tech-matter and biological data.]
[Lineage Evolution Available: Advance from 'High-Blood Imp' to 'Cyber-Demon Vanguard'?]
Asher let out a long breath, a thick cloud of blue plasma static escaping his lips. He turned his head as the sound of applause echoed from the observation catwalk.
Jax and Lucy walked down the steel steps. Jax was staring at the empty space where the vault door used to be, his new matte-black obsidian arms humming with excitement. Lucy, however, was looking at the security monitors.
"Asher," Lucy said, her voice tight with urgency. "The tactical feed just updated. The moment those three black-ops mercenaries died, their biometric lifelines cut out at the main headquarters. Commander Briggs knows his clean-up crew failed."
She looked up from the screen, her eyes locking onto his. "He’s mobilizing his personal flagship. He’s coming down to Sector 9 himself, and he's bringing a heavy mechanized battalion to flatten the entire district."
Asher’s lips curved into a cold, lethal smile as the notification for his lineage evolution blinked in his peripheral vision.
"Let him come," Asher whispered. "I'm tired of hiding.