Beast Evolution Forge - Chapter 139

Chapter 139: Cain 8
Vell’s crystalline form fractured the air, prismatic shards lashing out like serpents. The twelve Guardians didn’t flinch. The woman with mercury hair snapped her fingers, and time seemed to stutter.

The shards froze mid-air.

“Cute,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain. “But crude.”

Her companion—the man wrapped in chains of light—flicked his wrist. The chains unspooled, each link humming with celestial energy. They coiled around Vell’s shards, not to restrain, but to purify. The fragments hissed, black smoke curling from their edges as the light seared into them.

[Master, that’s holy mana! It’s countering your absorption!]

Vell’s laughter echoed through the chamber, warped and layered. “Holy? Please.” His fractured voice sharpened. “I’ll make it unholy.”

The corrupted shards pulsed, the darkness within them swelling. The light chains dimmed, their brilliance leaching away as Vell’s power inverted their essence. The man in chains staggered, his perfect posture faltering.

“Enough games,” growled a third Guardian—a hulking figure armored in molten rock. He slammed his fists together, and the floor erupted in geysers of lava.

Vell’s shards reconverged, his form solidifying just in time to leap above the molten onslaught. The heat scorched the air, but his body refracted it, scattering beams of searing light back at the Guardian. The molten armor glowed brighter, absorbing the attack.

“Fire doesn’t work on me, whelp,” the armored Guardian rumbled.

“Good thing I wasn’t aiming for you,” he smirked.

The refracted light struck the runes on the walls. Ancient symbols flared, and the chamber shuddered. The lava geysers faltered, their flow disrupted as the room’s magic destabilized.

The mercury-haired woman hissed. “You dare tamper with the sanctum’s runes?”

“Dare? I’m bored,” he shot back. His form dissolved again, shards embedding themselves into the walls. The runes flickered erratically, their power siphoned into his crystalline matrix.

The Guardians exchanged glances. The air thickened with unspoken strategies.

“Pathetic,” spat a fourth Guardian—a spectral being wreathed in storm clouds. “You rely on tricks because you lack true strength.” Lightning crackled in their palm, condensing into a spear. They hurled it, and the bolt split into a hundred forks, each seeking a shard.

Vell’s laughter multiplied. The lightning struck his fragments—and stuck there, crackling energy absorbed into his form. His shards glowed blindingly, then unleashed the stored electricity in a single, catastrophic blast.

The spectral Guardian vanished, reappearing beside their comrades, robes singed. “He’s… adapting.”

“Obviously,” the mercury-haired woman snapped. She stepped forward, her hair flowing like liquid metal. “Let me handle this.”

Her form blurred, elongating into a silver river that flooded the chamber. Where it touched Vell’s shards, his crystalline edges dulled, their darkness smothered under her mercurial tide.

[Her mana—it’s neutralizing your absorption!]

“Not neutralizing,” he corrected, voice strained as his shards corroded. “Drowning.” He forced his fragments to spin, creating a vortex. The mercury river spiraled inward, but instead of resisting, he let it consume him.

“Fool,” the woman’s voice reverberated. “You’ve sealed your—”

Her triumph died as Vell’s core—a black hole of condensed hunger—activated. The mercury imploded, sucked into the void. The woman screamed, her form tearing apart as his power consumed her essence.

The remaining Guardians recoiled.

“Impossible!” the chained man shouted. “She’s a Primordial! No mortal can—”

“Mortal?” He reassembled form glowed with stolen silver light, his eyes now flecked with mercury. “You still don’t get it.” He flexed his hand, and the chamber’s runes detonated, their energy funneling into him. “I’m not here to ascend.”

He lunged at the nearest Guardian—a lithe figure cloaked in starlight. Their dagger of pure void slashed at him, but he caught the blade, his fingers cracking as the void bit into him.

“You’ll lose that hand,” the starlit Guardian sneered.

“Worth it,” he grinned. His other hand plunged into their chest, fingers closing around a pulsing star. He ripped it free, and the Guardian’s scream echoed like a supernova.

The star dissolved into his palm, and Vell’s cracks healed, glowing with cosmic fire.

[Master, your body—it’s reaching critical mana saturation!]

“Then I’ll burn brighter,” he growled, turning to the remaining ten.

The Guardians hesitated. For the first time, fear flickered in their immortal eyes.

The chained man stepped forward, his voice trembling with rage. “You… you are an aberration. A blight. We will unmake you, even if it costs us this realm!”

The others nodded, their power coalescing into a single, devastating spell. The air warped, reality itself fraying at the edges.

Vell’s smirk didn’t waver. “Finally. A challenge.”

His form erupted into a supernova of stolen powers—shadow, mercury, lava, lightning, starlight—all swirling into a maelstrom. The Guardians’ unified spell collided with it, and the tower screamed.

—

**Elsewhere, deep within the tower’s core**

A pulsing crystal—the source of the tower’s power—flickered. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface as the battle above raged.

A voice, ancient and weary, whispered from within it:

“He is not the candidate…

…He is the calamity.”

—

[System Notification]

[WARNING: MANA OVERLOAD IMMINENT]

[HOST INTEGRITY AT 12%]

[Master, you have to stop! You’ll—]

“Quiet,” he snarled, his voice raw with power and pain. “I’ll… gnaw through the bones of this world… before I stop.”

The Guardians’ spell intensified, but so did his hunger. The room—no, the tower—began to collapse.

And somewhere in the chaos, the Gold Card in his inventory glowed, its hidden feature finally unlocking.

The Gold Card pulsed with impossible light, cutting through the maelstrom of clashing powers. Time seemed to slow as its glow enveloped Vell’s form.

[System Alert: Gold Card feature unlocked – Reality Anchor Protocol]

[Warning: Experimental feature detected]

[Stabilizing host matrix…]

“What’s happening?” the chained Guardian demanded, his voice distorted by the warping reality around them. “What is that light?”

Vell’s laughter echoed strangely as the card’s power spread through him like liquid gold, filling the cracks in his oversaturated form. The overwhelming surge of stolen powers that had been threatening to tear him apart began to stabilize, finding new channels through his transformed body.

“You know,” he said, his voice clearer now, “I was wondering why this thing felt special.” His eyes now back to normal flickered with golden light as he held up the card. “Turns out it’s a key.”

The remaining Guardians’ unified spell faltered as they sensed the change in him. Where before his power had been raw and volatile, now it flowed with terrible purpose. The mercury he’d stolen from their fallen companion rippled through his form like veins of precious metal.

[Master, the card… it’s not just containing the power, it’s…]

“Organizing it,” he finished, flexing his transformed hand. “Every type of power has its place now. Shadow, holy, void, cosmic – they’re not fighting anymore.” His smirk turned predatory. “They’re cooperating. What a cheat”

The hulking Guardian in molten armor roared, “Enough of this!” He slammed his fists into the ground, and the very foundations of the tower buckled. “If we cannot contain you, we’ll bring this entire sanctum down!”

Cracks spread through the chamber, but they seemed to bend around Vell, reality itself respecting his newfound stability. The Gold Card’s light pulsed in time with his heartbeat, each wave bringing more clarity, more control.

“You still don’t understand,” he said, his voice carrying an echo of ancient hunger. “This isn’t about containing power anymore.” He stretched out his hand, and the stolen powers within him moved like instruments in an orchestra, each playing its part in perfect harmony. “It’s about conducting it.”

The chained Guardian’s eyes widened in horror. “No… that’s impossible. The Convergence Protocol was never meant to—”

“So that was the gate I was hearing about huh?” His eyes fixed on him. He took a step forward, and reality rippled around him like water. “Too late for regret now.”

[System Alert: Reality Anchor Protocol fully integrated]

[Warning: Tower core destabilization detected]

[Recommendation: Complete absorption advised]

The remaining Guardians backed away as Vell’s form began to shift again. But this time, instead of fracturing, he grew more defined. The crystalline shell of his body became faceted like a perfect diamond, each surface reflecting a different aspect of his stolen powers. Mercury flowed through him like blood, starlight burned in his core, and shadows danced across his surface like living tattoos.

“You know what the real problem with you Guardians is?” He raised his hand, and streams of pure power began flowing from the tower’s failing core into his palm. “You spent so long hoarding power, you forgot what it’s meant for.”

“And what’s that?” spat the starlit Guardian, clutching the void where their cosmic heart had been.

His answer was simple: “Evolution.”

With that word, he struck. His transformed body moved, each motion precise and devastating. The Gold Card’s power let him wield every stolen ability in perfect concert – holy chains corrupted into bonds of darkness, mercury formed into blades of starfire, void energy compressed into bullets of pure force.

The Guardians fought back with desperate fury, but their individual powers couldn’t match his unified assault. One by one, they fell, their ancient energies absorbed into his ever-growing arsenal.

As the last Guardian crumbled, their essence joining the symphony within him, Vell turned his attention to the tower itself. The core crystal pulsed weakly, its surfacewebbed with cracks.

[Master, with the Reality Anchor Protocol, you could stabilize the tower instead of—]

“Why would I want to do that?” He approached the failing core, his hand reaching out. “Sometimes, to reach the next level…” The Gold Card flared with blinding light as his fingers touched the crystal’s surface. “You have to break everything that came before.”

The core shattered under his touch, and the tower began to fall.

But he wasn’t falling with it.

He was ascending.

[System Alert: Tower Core absorbed]

[Reality Anchor Protocol evolution detected]

[Warning: Dimensional stability compromised]

[New feature unlocked: World Walker Protocol]

As the ancient structure crumbled around him, his laughter echoed through dimensions. The Gold Card had given him more than stability – it had given him purpose.

“So,” he said to the void, his many eyes gleaming with possibilities, “who’s ready for the next level?”

The tower collapsed into nothingness behind him, but he was already looking ahead. After all, there were so many other realms to hunger for, but this was cut short.

[All stats and skills earned in this dungeon have been locked]

[User is deemed not ready]

“What the fuck?”