Beast Hack: Customizing Beasts and Capturing Beauties - Chapter 404

Chapter 404: Silver Sun Cannon
Smoke and ash swirled as another Chimawren crashed into the ruins below.

Body still twitching, wings torn clean off by twin plasma rounds.

Liora didn’t slow.

She stepped over its corpse like it wasn’t there, eyes already tracking the next one.

Three more dove in from different angles.

Fiona ducked behind a rusted pillar, whispering into her mic.

“Okay, she’s not even blinking.”

“That’s kill number twelve, maybe thirteen? I’ve lost count.”

In the sky, Liora pivoted.

Leon’s cannons pulsed.

Then split apart and reformed mid-air into sleeker railguns.

A second later, two streaks of condensed solar fire lanced through the clouds.

Two more Chimawren dropped, smoke trailing from clean, molten punctures.

Chat exploded.

—

[Luxoria Castle App – LIVE CHAT]

@InfernaGirl: I’m SORRY that’s illegal

@WraithFox: Did she just change weapon modes mid-combat?!

@BeastHuntrZ: This is why Luxoria Castle stays untouchable

@SnipeMeDaddy: SHE’S NOT EVEN SWEATING WHAT IS THIS

—

Fiona grinned.

“Oh, you saw that? That must be Liora’s beast.”

“But I don’t know its real identity. Sorry for not knowing.”

Suddenly the air shifted.

The remaining Chimawren screeched as something massive stirred above them.

Fiona instinctively glanced up—and froze.

One of the buildings was moving.

No—something on top of it.

A monstrous winged creature uncoiled itself from a collapsed tower.

Twice as large, plated in jagged half-metal scales.

Its wings sparked with unstable mana.

One eye was glowing red, the other fused with cybernetic mesh.

It let out a low, garbled shriek.

Fiona gasped. “…Okay that’s new.”

“Chimawren Alpha,” Liora muttered, her tone flat.

“Failed Sovereign candidate.”

The beast launched from the rooftop, aiming straight for Liora.

Fiona shouted, “Liora, that one’s huge! Should I—?!”

“Stay back.”

Liora’s cannons disassembled mid-air, parts hovering around her.

She reached out.

Leon quickly reformed into a colossal solar cannon.

Longer than she was, fused to her shoulder like divine artillery.

No words. She pointed and fired.

The cannon flash was blinding.

A beam of pure silver-sun plasma detonated through the air.

It sliced the Chimawren Alpha in half mid-flight.

Its upper body vaporized instantly; the lower half crashed down behind Fiona.

Silence followed. No more screeches.

No more flapping wings. The sky was clear.

All Chimawren—gone.

Fiona blinked, still crouched behind cover.

She slowly stood, brushing dust off her jacket.

“…Are you kidding me.”

One of her drones zoomed close to her face.

She stared into the lens, wide-eyed.

“Did you all SEE THAT?”

She pointed at Liora, who stood still in the smoke, cannon dissolving into light.

“That’s not a hunter. That’s not a general. That’s a damn executioner.”

She stepped forward, arms wide, voice rising with passion.

“Luxoria Castle’s Silver Sun Executioner! Liora Luxoria!”

“You just watched her take down a sky full of mutated beasts.”

“And a failed Sovereign candidate like she was on her lunch break!”

Liora turned slightly. “I said I’d handle it.”

Fiona laughed. “You didn’t handle it. You annihilated it.”

—

[Luxoria Castle App – LIVE CHAT]

@WipedZone: “I said I’d handle it.” Bro that line needs to be on a T-shirt

@GodTierGoose: Fiona laughing like a proud stage mom and I’m HERE FOR IT

@CoreSync_: Chimawren Prime? More like Chimawren Piledrive

@TamerTrash: Replay that cannon shot. Slow it. Frame by frame. I’m studying this for life.

—

Fiona kept her drones hovering while the battlefield cooled.

She lowered her voice, her tone shifting from excitement to curiosity.

“By the way…”

Liora didn’t turn.

She was scanning the edges of the ruined city, eyes always tracking, always ready.

Fiona walked up beside her, brushing soot off her sleeve.

“Just who the hell made those things?”

“I mean, those weren’t natural. At all.”

Liora glanced at her sidelong. There was a pause.

Fiona tilted her head.

“What?”

“Don’t tell me it’s some random black market lab or a rogue cult again.”

A smirk touched Liora’s lips. “You already know the answer.”

Fiona blinked. “What?”

“You know them. Everyone does.”

“You just don’t understand them.”

Fiona’s brows knit. “Stop being cryptic and just say it.”

“The Aurelius family.”

Fiona’s jaw opened slightly. She didn’t say anything for a full second.

“…Wait. What?”

—

[Luxoria Castle App – LIVE CHAT]

@StreamBeasties: SHE SAID AURELIUS??

@FionyxRider: Wait wait wait… are we talking the Aurelius?

@GlitchFeather: Oh hell no this just went from content to conspiracy

—

Liora finally looked at her. “You’ve heard the name.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Fiona said, blinking.

“Beast researchers, war sponsors, old-money nobility.”

“I thought they did… contracts and medical upgrades. Not this.”

Liora chuckled.

“That’s the surface. The smiling heirs, the branded uniforms, the golden labs. All for show.”

She swept a hand toward the carnage behind them.

“This? This is their real work.”

Fiona stared at the wrecked Chimawrens.

“You’re telling me these… freakshows are Aurelius projects?”

“These are just Elite-Tier trash. Failed designs.”

“Stuff they dump in unstable zones like this one.”

Fiona took a slow step back, voice quieter.

“And what, they just release them?”

“Let them hunt whatever’s unlucky enough to walk through?”

Liora shook her head.

“No, they monitor their aggression cycles.”

“Study performance. Cull the failures. Upgrade the rest.”

Fiona shivered slightly. “That’s insane.”

—

[Luxoria Castle App – LIVE CHAT]

@MistyTruths: They’re testing them on civilians??

@FlamecoreFanatic: Failed designs?? These things almost ripped Liora’s face off

@ExoSplicer: THIS is what elite-tier trash looks like?! What’s their definition of a success then?!

@RankDropSurvivor: Fiona get out of there before they cut the feed

@OblivionFox: They’re using real zones as live labs. That’s war crimes tier

—

Liora also reminded her.

“You’ve already seen one of their Sovereign-tier successes.”

Liora’s voice dropped into something colder.

Fiona narrowed her eyes. “…Wait. You mean—”

“Nyxfang.”

Fiona flinched. “That thing? The blood-mutant?”

Liora nodded once, slowly.

“Yes. The one Beast Castle used.”

“The one Victor Aurelius deployed against Luna.”

Fiona ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head.

“We all knew it was an Aurelius creation.”

“That thing was all over the feeds.”

“But we thought… I thought it was a one-off. A nightmare prototype.”

Liora’s tone didn’t shift. “It wasn’t.”

Fiona looked over the smoking field of dead Chimawren.

“I never imagined they made more. This many.”

“These… they weren’t Sovereign-tier, sure—but they weren’t normal either.”

“They’re field tests. Bio-weapons. Each one records data while it fights.”

“All of that gets fed back into the Aurelius labs. And then they improve.”

Fiona stared at her. “They improve? Off the kills?”

“Yes.”

—

[Luxoria Castle App – LIVE CHAT]

@BlightEater: So wait… THESE ARE AURELIUS FIELD UNITS?!

@GeneJunkie: The wings, the talons—yeah, they match old Aurelius mutation threads

@StreamDrip: Nyxfang was the flagship. These are the mass models

@FionyxForever: FIONA GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW

—

Fiona’s voice lowered as she glanced toward her drones.

“So this is what they’ve been doing in the dark.”

“While we were watching the sovereigns in the arena…”

“They were growing nightmares underground.”

Liora gave a faint nod.

“And releasing them into zones where no one would ask questions.”

Fiona turned back to the camera drone, staring into it.

“They wanted us to see the perfect monster.”

“But they didn’t want us to see the army underneath it.”