Chapter 269 269: Evolution complete

Lightning arced from Lucas's outstretched hand, a blinding flash of pure electrical force—only to be caught by the Purge commander, whose palm glowed with that same eerie red-tinged aura. The commander absorbed the energy with nothing more than a contemplative tilt of his head. "As I said," he remarked as Lucas's lightning dissipated harmlessly, "I've been looking forward to this. S ranked soldier they claim you are, Mr. Grey. Interesting... very interesting!" Lucas's eyes narrowed as the commander began generating his own electrical field, but with a red hue that spoke of a fundamentally different energy source than his natural lightning. This was going to be considerably more challenging than he'd anticipated. The commander's answering attack came without warning—a torrent of red-tinted lightning that tore across the space between them. Lucas dropped into a roll, the deadly energy passing overhead with a crack that split the air itself. Where it struck the wall behind him, concrete vaporized instantly, leaving a smoking crater three feet deep. 'Fast', Lucas thought, already calculating his next move. 'But not faster than me'. He shot forward, breaking the sound barrier in the enclosed space. The thunderclap of his movement shattered nearby monitoring equipment as he closed the distance to the commander in milliseconds. The man's eyes widened slightly—the only indication he was impressed—before Lucas's fist connected with his jaw. Or should have. The commander's hand intercepted the blow, catching Lucas's fist mere inches from impact. The collision sent a shockwave through the submarine bay, spider-web cracks racing across the reinforced floor beneath them. "Quick," the commander acknowledged, tightening his grip on Lucas's fist until the bones ground together. "But predictable." Lucas didn't waste breath responding. He channeled electricity directly through the contact point, sending enough voltage through the commander's body to stop a heart instantly. The commander convulsed, eyes widening— Then smiled. "Is that all?" he asked, his voice disturbingly steady as red energy crawled up his neck, neutralizing Lucas's attack. Lucas didn't hesitate. He twisted into the grip rather than pulling away, using the commander's own hold as an anchor point. His body rotated completely around the fixed point of his trapped fist, his left leg scything toward the commander's temple with devastating force. The commander released Lucas's hand to block the kick, the impact creating another thunderous crack. Lucas used the momentum to flip backward, putting distance between them as he reassessed. "You're wondering about the red energy," the commander said conversationally, flexing his hand where Lucas's kick had connected. "It's called dark chi. The true potential of human capability, unlocked." Lucas remained silent, electricity arcing between his fingertips as he circled his opponent. The submarine dock's lighting flickered under the electromagnetic disturbance his power was creating. "Nothing to say?" the commander prodded. "The famous Lucas Grey, turned speechless?" "I'm focused," Lucas replied simply. His eyes darted around the chamber, cataloging potential advantages. The water. The submarine's metal hull. The overhead crane systems. "You should be too." He struck again, this time low—a sweeping kick aimed at the commander's legs. The man jumped, easily clearing the attack, exactly as Lucas had anticipated. While airborne, the commander couldn't change direction. Lucas's hand slammed into the concrete floor. Surge Wave Electricity exploded outward in a perfect circle, ionizing the air and superheating the concrete itself. The floor beneath the commander's landing point liquefied, suddenly molten. As he descended, his eyes widened in genuine surprise. The commander twisted mid-air, red energy flaring as he attempted to redirect his fall. Not fast enough. His foot plunged ankle-deep into the semi-molten concrete, trapping him momentarily. Lucas didn't waste the opening. He flashed forward, crossing the distance in a blur that left afterimages, electricity coalescing around his fist in a tightly compressed orb. Thunderclap His enhanced strike connected squarely with the commander's chest. The impact was catastrophic—a focused explosion of kinetic energy and lightning that sent the commander hurtling backward. The man's body smashed through two support pillars before embedding in the far wall, concrete dust billowing from the impact site. Lucas remained in his follow-through stance, breathing controlled, eyes locked on the dust cloud. He knew better than to assume victory. Sure enough, a red glow emanated from within the settling dust. The commander stepped out, uniform torn, a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth—but otherwise intact. The attack should have liquefied his internal organs. "Impressive," the commander said, wiping away the blood with the back of his hand. "You truly earned that S-rank." He rolled his shoulders, dark chi flowing more intensely now, swirling around him like a second skin. "My turn." The commander moved with sudden, blinding speed that even Lucas struggled to track. One moment he was twenty meters away; the next, his fist was driving toward Lucas's face. Lucas's reflexes saved him, his forearm coming up to block. The impact still sent him skidding backward, boots leaving furrows in the concrete floor. Before he could recover his stance, the commander was on him again, a flurry of strikes too fast to fully counter. Lucas blocked what he could, electricity crackling around his arms to reinforce them against the onslaught. A punch slipped through his guard, connecting with his ribs. Something cracked. Lucas gritted his teeth against the pain, converting it to focus. Shock Step He vanished in a burst of static electricity, rematerializing twelve meters away. The commander's next blow hit empty air with enough force to create a visible shockwave. "Running?" the commander taunted. Lucas didn't respond. He was already executing his next technique, both hands thrust forward. Thunderstorm Grid Lightning erupted from his fingertips, but rather than striking directly at the commander, it formed a complex, three-dimensional lattice throughout the chamber. Bolts interconnected, creating a deadly web of electrical energy that hummed with enough power to vaporize flesh. The commander's eyes narrowed as he assessed the technique. Lucas wasn't attacking him directly—he was controlling the battlefield. "Clever," the commander acknowledged. "But ultimately futile." He stepped forward, dark chi forming a protective shell around his body as he pushed through the electrical grid. The lightning hissed and spat where it contacted his shield, but couldn't penetrate it. Lucas smiled. "That wasn't the attack." His hand clenched into a fist. The electrical grid suddenly contracted, every bolt redirecting toward a single point—the water beneath the submarine. The resulting explosion of steam and electricity was blinding, a controlled electromagnetic pulse that fried every system in the dock. Emergency lights flickered on as the main power died. In the chaos, Lucas moved. He'd calculated the commander's position precisely, and now he struck from behind, a precision blow to the base of the skull with enough force to separate vertebrae. His hand met resistance—dark chi again—but broke through. The commander staggered forward, momentarily stunned. Lucas pressed the advantage, channeling electricity directly into his muscles, pushing his body beyond normal awakened human limits. He unleashed a barrage of strikes too fast to see, each one breaking through the weakened dark chi barriers. The commander stumbled back under the onslaught, unable to counter the sheer speed and precision. For a moment, victory seemed within reach. The commander's defenses were faltering, his reactions slowing. Then something changed. The red glow around the commander intensified, deepening to a blood-red that seemed to absorb the very light around it. He caught Lucas's next punch with renewed strength, holding it immobile despite Lucas's freakish strength. "Enough games," the commander said, his voice different now—deeper, resonating with something ancient and malevolent. "I've assessed your capabilities. It is impressive, but limited." Lucas tried to disengage, to create distance, but the commander's grip was unbreakable. Dark chi crawled up Lucas's arm from the point of contact, an icy burn that neutralized his electrical field wherever it touched. "What the hell is this?" Lucas hissed, genuine alarm rising as he felt his power being suppressed. "Evolution," the commander replied simply. "What you represent is the past. What I represent is the future." With his free hand, the commander struck—a blow too fast for even Lucas to track. It connected with his sternum, driving the air from his lungs and sending him flying across the chamber. He crashed into the submarine's hull, the impact denting the reinforced metal. Before he could recover, the commander was there, moving with impossible speed. A hand closed around Lucas's throat, lifting him off his feet. "You rely on your natural gift," the commander said, studying Lucas with a strange detachment as he struggled. "Electrical manipulation—impressive, but ultimately just energy manipulation. Dark chi is something more. Something primordial. Something ancient!!!" Lucas kicked out, connecting solidly with the commander's chest. It was like kicking a mountain. The man didn't even flinch. "Noah Eclipse encountered one of my colleagues earlier," the commander continued conversationally, as if they weren't in the middle of combat. "I wonder how that went." Lucas's eyes widened at the mention of Noah. He redoubled his efforts, channeling every ounce of electrical energy he could muster directly into the commander's body. "That won't work anymore," the commander said calmly as the electricity dissipated harmlessly around him. "I've adapted to your energy signature." The hand around Lucas's throat tightened. With his other hand, the commander pressed his palm against Lucas's chest, directly over his heart. Dark chi began flowing from the contact point, spreading through Lucas's body like ice in his veins. "I could kill you," the commander mused. "But that would be wasteful. You have potential, Mr. Grey. Let's see what you're really made of." Lucas felt it then—an invasive force probing inside him, seeking something. His power responded instinctively, electrical energy flaring to repel the intrusion, but the dark chi overwhelmed it, pushing deeper. "Interesting," the commander murmured. "Your power is more fundamental than I thought. Not just awakened core. Something purer." Pain exploded behind Lucas's eyes as the dark chi forced its way deeper, seeking the core of his abilities. He could feel it trying to sever something essential—the connection between his consciousness and his power. "S-stop," Lucas gasped, his vision beginning to blur. This was wrong—violating in a way he couldn't articulate. This wasn't just an attack on his body; it was an attack on what made him 'him'. "Almost there," the commander said, his eyes glowing with the same red light that was now coursing through Lucas's veins. "Just a little deeper..." With a final, desperate effort, Lucas marshaled his remaining strength. Not to attack, but to communicate. If Noah had encountered one of these things and survived, he needed to know. They all needed to know what they were facing. He reached for his commlink with a trembling hand, hoping against hope that the signal jammers had been affected by his electromagnetic pulse. He pressed the emergency broadcast button as his consciousness began to fade. "Kelvin..." he managed to rasp. "Dark chi... can sever powers... they're hunting... us..." The commander frowned, noticing the commlink too late. With a gesture, he crushed the device, but the message had already transmitted—whether successfully or not, Lucas couldn't tell. "Brave, but futile," the commander said. "Now, let's finish this." The dark chi pulsed once more, redoubling its assault on Lucas's internal energy. The pain became unbearable, white-hot daggers behind his eyes. Lucas felt something fundamental inside him begin to tear—the very essence of his power being ripped away. His body convulsed, electricity discharging wildly, uncontrolled for the first time in years As darkness claimed the edges of his vision, his final thought was of Noah, who might already be dead. Of a threat none of them fully understood. 'I failed him,' His eyes rolled back as consciousness slipped away, the commander's satisfied smile the last thing he saw as his world went black. ____ Sophie checked Noah's vital signs for the third time in twenty minutes, concern etching deeper lines across her face. The medical scanner kelvin brought to her quarters showed his condition as weakened—severe energy depletion, multiple fractures, and some kind of contamination in his energy pathways the device couldn't identify. The strange girls... thing's body had been moved to her wardrobe and locked inside, a worry for later. Across the room, Kelvin typed furiously on his portable terminal, his face illuminated by the blue glow of multiple screens. "Anything?" Sophie asked. Kelvin shook his head. "His biometrics are all over the place. It's like when he had void sickness before, but... different. There's something else mixed in that I can't isolate. But that's not my only worry. Still haven't gotten anything on Lucas. I know Noah ran into purge members. What if Lucas is stuck down there looking for Noah or worse?" Sophie wanted to reply to that when she noticed goosebumps rising along her arms despite the quarters being set to standard temperature. She frowned, glancing toward the environmental control panel. The display showed normal settings, but the air felt... wrong. A shiver ran through her as she placed a hand on Noah's forehead, pulling back in shock. "He's freezing," she murmured, his skin ice-cold to the touch. Sophie's breath caught in her throat as she exhaled—forming a visible cloud in front of her face. She stared at it in disbelief. "Kelvin, are you seeing this?" Kelvin looked up from his screens, eyes widening as he saw his own breath misting in the air. "What the hell? The environmental controls say everything's normal." On a nearby table, a glass of water developed a thin sheen of ice across its surface. The transformation happened before their eyes—molecules crystallizing in seconds. "This isn't technological," Sophie whispered, watching frost patterns spread across surfaces. "It's like his void sickness, but externalized somehow." "Whatever it is, it's getting worse," Kelvin said, his voice tight with concern as he watched ice crystals form along the edges of his screens. A soft cracking sound drew their attention to the walls as the expanding ice created hairline fractures in the paint. "Noah," Sophie said urgently, shaking his shoulder. "Noah, you need to wake up." His eyelids fluttered but didn't open. His breathing remained shallow but steady. The temperature plummeted further. Sophie's teeth began to chatter as she pulled on her cloth tighter. Ice crystals formed on her eyelashes when she blinked. The walls were now covered in a continuous sheet of glittering frost. "We need to call for actual medical help. I don't care what secrets he wants to keep," Kelvin suggested, but Sophie shook her head. "No. What we need to do is get him close to dead bodies," A sharp crack echoed as the glass of water shattered, frozen solid. The ice continued spreading across every surface—thick, solid, inexorable. In Noah's barely conscious mind, floating in the darkness behind his closed eyelids, a notification appeared that only he could see: [Beast Evolution Complete: Storm has successfully evolved] [Warning: Domain Breach Detected - Elemental Effects Leaking into Physical Realm] [Warning: Summon Hunger Critical post Evolution]