Chapter 4 - Metamorphosis

XXX5 .12 . 21

Twenty days have elapsed inside the distorted time field. During this period, Kazuki Suzuki has been continuously injected with Daoyrl blood. Once he woke up, the injected blood inside him is stimulated once, thereby making him lost his consciousness again due to copious feelings of pain. Thus, a constant cycle of waking up and passing out was made.

During the first ten days, there was no visible change in his physique. Another five days later, his body demonstrated the ability to breathe underwater by developing gills at the sides of his neck. These gills are shown to disappear when given pure oxygen to breathe.

Sitting in a chair, Alacritas looked over the collected data of Kazuki's body, comparing it to when he first arrived here. She then peered at the transparent glass in front of her where she could see Kazuki inside the glass tank.

'This much should be enough for the operation to begin.'

She contemplated to herself. Pressing a button on the table in front of her, she called five guards. After a few seconds, five men wearing black military-like uniforms entered the white room.

"Take him to the operating suite and send these data to Mu Feng."

The guards bowed and went inside the room in front of her. Due to the work of some skilled Space Gate users, the room Kazuki was in was shifting from one place to another once every hour. It was set up to only shift to five places. These places were known only to a few trusted people in the laboratory.

The guards took him out of the glass tank and carried him to the operating suite. Alacritas watched them carry out Kazuki and then walked out into a white room where vessels for the power of the End were made. The room was spacious, about as large as a hall, and separated by a transparent glass screen in the middle.

Half of the room is filled with captured and restrained people inside the glass tanks filled with green liquid and they were to be used as ingredients to make vessels of the end. Mechanical hands limply hang down from the white ceiling and numerous peculiar circles can be seen on the grey floor.

On the other side of the glass screen were six people in white uniforms who were looking over the processes to make a vessel of the End and seeking to find ways to improve them, while three people were analyzing an ancient tome made of some type of synthesized carbon.

A middle-aged woman with black hair hurriedly walked to Alacritas. She then bowed and asked her.

"Welcome, Lord Alacritas. What can we do to help you?"

Alacritas nodded at her.

"Prepare a vessel. I need it for my experiment."

"Yes. Would you like for us to send the vessel later to your place?"

"No need. I will wait here."

"Yes, Lord Alacritas."

The woman bowed to Alacritas and walked over to a machine. Her hands quickly typed on the holographic keyboard. Mechanical hands grabbed six glass tanks and gently dropped five of them at the five marked circles drawn inside a circle written with indiscernible words. The last glass container was then dropped at the middle circle in the center of the larger circle.

The woman continued typing while glancing at the holographic screen in front of her. The six circles began to shine with a dark light. Ancient words appeared and linked the five circles, generating a grey circle of indistinguishable words with the last circle as the center.

Words written in the language of Uiora appeared on the holographic screen in front of the middle-aged woman.

"Space, Time, Distortion, Death, Destruction, bring the End with Oblivion as the Beginning."

Alacritas looked at the circle and read the words in a low voice. She personally thought these words were rather senseless. Then the five people inside the circle began to move. They tried to scream, but no voice came out. Their limbs bent and turned in unnatural directions, and their bodies began to turn inside out. Then, the bodies burst into pieces and splattered inside the glass tanks.

The dark light of the five smaller circles increased in intensity. Then, the words themselves, which were of grey color, turned pitch black. Then, black words crawled to the center circle and turned the grey words into pitch black.

The man inside the center circle suddenly regained his consciousness. He wildly looked around and began to hit the glass tank desperately. However, his body began to spasm irregularly. He held his head with his hands while his face twisted with pain and suddenly, he stopped moving.

His left arm turned completely black, and if one were to look at it carefully, the blackness was spreading slowly to his other body parts. His face stopped showing any expressions, and he stopped blinking. He then let go of his head and floated still inside the glass tank.

"Another partial success, Lord Alacritas. As per our calculations, his mind has lost all sense of self and been controlled by the commands added in the processes, thus he will follow all of our orders, but he won't exist for long."

"No problem, thank you for your help, Joan. See you later."

"Yes, Lord Alacritas."

Alacritas took the man out of his glass tank and made him wear some clothes. She then told him to follow her. The man followed her without any kind of expression. They walked into the operation suite. There were several people examining Kazuki's body and looking at his body's data.

"How are the examinations?"

"This is simply extraordinary, Lord Alacritas! Although the adaptability and regeneration of the subject's body are not equal to the Daoyrl we have found, but its body showed adaptability vastly superior to any of our test subjects. With it, I'm at least seventy-five percent certain that we can make a perfect vessel."

A man who seemed to be the leader of the examiners energetically said to her.

"That is great. Now, you all leave this room, I have some experiments to perform on it."

The man hesitated a little, but nodded and told the others to leave the room. But before he left, Alacritas called out to him with a small smile.

"Mu Feng, when you finish your personal project of how to absorb other souls without harm, I will teach you some methods to make a new body suitable for your son's soul."

The man's face brightened, and he bowed deeply to her.

"Thank you for your kindness, Lord Alacritas."

He then left the room happily. The smile on her face disappeared and she impassively looked at Kazuki.

'Now then, let's make sure your body is empty of that slut's genes.'

Of course, she knew that it is nearly impossible to change his heritage, but she will try anyway. 'That slut's genes don't deserve to be in his body, after betraying his father like that.'

She took some surgery tools and cut open his right chest. She looked at the wound carefully, noting the noticeably faster healing rate of his body and his blood which has some black color mixed in. She turned around and faced the man she had brought. She opened her arms wide with a smile.

"Okay, subject .....02475, use the power of the End and take out my heart."

The man nodded and reared back his left hand. The blackness spread to more of his body, covering the left half of his body. He clenched his fist and punched straight through her right chest and took out her heart. As soon as he took his arm off her chest, the wound healed so quickly that it more or less disappeared in an instant. He then gave her heart, which is strangely white, to Alacritas.

'As I thought, if the vessel for the power of the End is not perfect yet, even if it can end the connection between the existence of my {heart} and myself, it is not enough to end the link between me and Gate of Life.'

Due to her very strong affinity to life which continues to increase as she ages, she has long ago gained a unique link with the Gate of Life and then the World itself after a thousand years. This made her nearly unkillable as long as life exists in this world, but no one knew about it, only thinking she can live this long due to being a possessor of the Gate of Life.

However, most people underestimate her in combat compared to other Avatars of Gates due to her inability to use her life powers externally and doing her best to avoid fights. Of course, there were some fights, but she made herself win some battles and lose some without appearing too weak or too strong.

She stood still for a while, thinking to herself if she should use a Life Command Art or not. Seeing no harm in it, she decided to use it. It was an application of her control over life that she created. It allows her to write a command on the target's concept of life that the target is compelled to obey. The strength of compulsion depends on the caster and the accuracy of the command.

She originally made this art to subtly influence some people. But later, she found that she could improve the strength of the compulsion if she used some existence related to her and that the closer it is to her concept of existence, the greater the strength of compulsion. Proportionally, the strength of compulsion decreases if the command itself is vague.

The tip of her left fingers began to light up with white light. She smiled to herself while writing down the commands with her {heart} as the base.

'First, to make sure you can look out for yourself, I will add [Be cautious] and [Be calm]. As for the last, I think I will add something more instinctive. Hmm..., I think I will add [Survive]. I can add two more commands, but I won't be a good parent if all I do is ordering you to follow my commands, even if you won't have much problem resisting them except for the last one, due to the instinct to survive being present in practically all creatures. Well, no matter. After all, the job of a parent is to look out for and guide their children, a task that slut failed horribly at.'

Her face contorted into an angry look. She forcibly calmed herself and continued inscribing commands. After about twenty minutes had passed, she finished her art. Then, her left hand started trembling in pain.

Two white bone-like horns began growing out of her forehead. Her face twisted into a frown. She took deep breaths and counted one to ten to distract herself from the pain. But being unable to handle extreme feelings of pain, she collapsed to the floor. Even after hundreds of years, she still couldn't get used to this kind of agony.

She could normally leave that pain at the back of her mind after she got used to it somewhat. But sometimes, particularly when she used her powers, the intensity of pain spikes up and all she can feel is pure agony.

Normally, it feels like she just has countless spiders biting on her flesh just below her skin. In times like these, it feels more like grinding her flesh and bone out with a stone while being burned by flames simultaneously. She tried drowning herself to see if she would die while she was still in her insane suicidal phrase, but evidently, it didn't work.

After ten minutes, the pain receded to normal. She unsteadily stood up and checked the art if she had made any mistake. After finding none, she took some surgery tools and was about to begin transplanting her heart, but she had to re-open Kazuki's chest since it was completely healed during her preparations.

She cut open his right chest and made the blackened puppet end the link between his {heart} and his existence. Alacritas then began transplanting her heart and replacing the existence of Kazuki's {heart} with her {heart}.

'My heart has not been destroyed during the last five hundred years, and I made sure I concentrated most of my naturally generated life force and the life force of about two thousand people to my heart after I confirmed Kiyoshi-kun died.'

She smiled happily.

'The amount of life force inside my heart should be equal to at least that of a hundred thousand people. Kazuki-kun's body should also be compatible enough with my heart due to prolonged exposure to my blood. I have to test that later. At most, after three years, this heart will be fused completely with his existence and become inseparable.'

Five hours later, she finished the heart transplant. She turned around and walked out of the room. The man followed her. She told the guards waiting outside to put Kazuki back into the blood transfusion room and walked back to her personal room. Suddenly, the man following her stopped moving. She turned back and observed the man.

'Ah, is it already his limit? He is rather weak compared to other ones.'

The man's whole body became covered in black. It became very hard to tell whether his eyes are open or not due to the blackness covering his whole face, even his eyes. Then, his left arm began to turn into black dust that disappeared in the air without a trace. After thirty seconds, his left leg disappeared and he fell down. Nearly three minutes later, only the right half of his face was left. During all this, he has no change in expression, as if he doesn't feel a thing. Then, after ten seconds, his whole existence ended and faded into nothing.

'Have better luck in the afterlife, if there is one for a being such as you.'

Alacritas closed her eyes for a while and walked away as if nothing happened.

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'Is it that time again?'

I thought to myself. I think I've been here for at least twenty days. But it is hard to keep track of time in here. I've been injected with that black blood continuously, but I keep losing consciousness every time I wake up due to that woman doing something with my Daoyrl blood. That floating head told me that she is planning to awaken my Daoyrl heritage. I subtly looked down at my right hand, which has a black bone-like armor covering my index finger.

Floating head told me that I have begun to awaken to my Daoyrl blood, but unlike all other awakenings he has witnessed and experienced, my awakening was very slow. He told me that it would only take five days at most to awaken into a Daoyrl. He suspects that the white blood that I am immersed in might be a factor in this.

I've been conversing with him every time I wake up, which is not much, and sometimes I don't even remember what we were talking about since I lost consciousness not long after. Nevertheless, I gained a lot of knowledge of the world, things like Gates, Clans, and the Alliance, and so on.

The one thing I'm sure of is that my sister is coming to rescue me. I can still feel the link with my familiar. But it is moving slowly. And I have no idea why. This pain is unbearable, no wonder Alacritas wants to die. I wonder if this is what people with third-degree burns feel. Ah, I don't want to feel this agony anymore.

Then I felt the pain beginning to overwhelm me and black spots appeared in my vision. Just before I lost consciousness, I wished.

'Please, Yuhino. Please come here as quickly as possible.'

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This should be the fortieth day since I was kidnapped if I'm not wrong. The bone-like black armor that covered my index finger now covers till my wrist. I don't know what is taking her so long to come here. I can still feel my familiar getting closer, but it is taking too long. Floating head tells me how long I have fainted, but even he is not clear about the exact time. Moreover, the pain I feel every day is getting worse. I don't know how long I can keep up.

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XXX5 . 12 . 23

"The experiment has been completed, Lord Alacritas. As you said, we made him hate the Gatekeeper of Oblivion irrationally. Other than that, all of his mental facilities are completely fine. Moreover, we are able to extend his life for ten more minutes, thus giving us seventy minutes."

John Welter bowed and said to Alacritas in a low voice. A teenager of average face and average height walked out behind him. Only his eyes, which seem to alternate between five colors representing five elements, and white hair can be said as remarkable. Otherwise, he would only be nothing more than a faceless person from a crowd of people. He turned to Alacritas and bowed.

"Nice to meet you, Lord Alacritas. My name is Himura Yoshikage. Thank you for giving me this chance to prove my worth to you. I won't fail your faith in me. I will kill that liar Kazuki and prove that I am more worthy of the power of the End."

Alacritas nodded in acknowledgment.

"Good. You will go into the arena and wait for him to arrive. Don't fight him till he regained consciousness. Otherwise, it won't be a fair fight."

"Yes, Lord Alacritas."

Himura bowed and left towards the arena. The man watched Himura walking to the arena and turned back to Alacritas.

"I also added some more specifications to make him more loyal to us. I hope you don't mind, Lord Alacritas."

She shook her head.

"I don't mind. This will make the fight more entertaining to watch."

The elderly man bowed and left.

'I have faith in you that you will win this farce of a fight, Kazuki-kun. After all, you are Kiyoshi-kun's son and you have my heart. You are no different from our son. And what kind of parent doesn't believe in her child?'

Alacritas smiled dreamily to herself and left towards the room where she, a few people who will be monitoring the two combatants' physical states and twenty guards to subdue Kazuki after he completely awakened as a Daoyrl.

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"Bring him out."

Alacritas said from the monitoring room. Two guards dressed Kazuki in a simple white shirt with loose pants and dragged his unconscious body to the arena, where Himura was waiting for him. After about two minutes, he regained consciousness. Kazuki fanatically looked around the place, seeing only a room in white. He then saw Himura. His face changed from confused to bewildered.

"Himura! What are you doing here!? And since when did you have white hair? And Is it just me or your eyes look weird?"

Kazuki asked while still looking around, clearing his dizziness and trying to find a way to escape.

"You lied to me."

Kazuki stopped looking around and focused on Himura.

"What do you mean?"

"You never told me about all of this. I thought we were friends. And friends never lie to each other, right?"

Himura said while looking hurt. Kazuki stared at him in shock.

"I didn't even know about all of this until I got captured! We were kidnapped Himura! We should be trying to find a way to escape now that we are together here!"

'Hey, floating head, what's happening? Himura is acting really strange. I've never seen this guy being this serious. And this room, I can feel people outside of this room. I think they are watching us.'

'[Your friend is losing his grasp on reality. From what I can sense from him, he has five artificial gates grafted into him. It is a miracle that he is completely fine right now, physically speaking. As for his mind, he exhibits signs of mind control, comparing his current behavior to what he normally acts like in your memories. And even if you could cancel out mind control, I doubt he will last long.]'

'He's going to die!? Is there anything I can do to help him!? You have the knowledge of all Soul Gatekeepers right?'

'[No, there is no way to help him, not with his current state. He will die sooner or later.]'

'Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT ALL. It must be that Alacritas bitch doing this.'

Himura stared quizzically at Kazuki who was staring angrily through him.

"Kazuki, you have all these powers, and my Lord told me that people like you can grant powers to us. So why didn't you do it? Why don't you give me power? Is it because you are jealous? Yes, you must be jealous of me, since I am better than you, even without powers. So to prove it to her, I will kill you, and take your powers! HaHaHa!"

With each word he said, Himura became more and more sure of his thoughts. When he heard about all of this from his benefactor, he really didn't believe him, and then the man had told him all about Kazuki, about his Clan and showed him proof.

When the man noticed Himura didn't really believe him, he smiled and told him Kazuki will act like he didn't know any of this because Kazuki didn't want to give him powers and that Kazuki never considered him as a friend. But he will see the evidence of Kazuki's lies with his eyes. The man told him that. Even then, he was only half-convinced and remained suspicious of the man. But when he noticed the strange black gauntlet wrapping Kazuki's right arm, he snapped.

"Himura, calm yourself. This isn't you. This is not who you really are!"

"Himura, Himura, Himura! Stop acting like we are such close friends! What do you know about me!?"

He angrily shouted to Kazuki. Flames burst out from his right hand and purple lightning enveloped his left hand. With a burst of wind from his legs, he arrived in front of Kazuki and punched him in the gut. He then straight-kicked Kazuki in the abdomen. Kazuki tumbled away and hit the white wall of the room due to the the force behind the kick. Blood leaked out from his clenched teeth. He coughed and blood dripped down to the floor. He shakily tried to get up.

But Himura jumped toward Kazuki with blasts of wind from his legs and kicked him again in the abdomen. He then held up Kazuki by the neck with his left hand, electrifying Kazuki. A sadistic smile grew on his face. He punched Kazuki in the abdomen again and again with his flaming right hand, inflicting burns on Kazuki.

"See, all these powers, all this strength. I can use them as easily as breathing. Why aren't you fighting back? There's a black gauntlet covering your right hand. Why don't you use it? I know that gauntlet is just the beginning of your powers. Is it because you are afraid of me? Yes, it must be. You are afraid of me. Yes. Besides, if you are just a normal person like I was before, that kick from before would make you lost your consciousness. Then I would have at least plead to Lord Alacritas to get you out of here. But you are still conscious, even now. So fight back. Struggle against a friend who you lied to. A friend who is now far stronger than you."

Himura rambled on to Kazuki and tossed him back across the room. Kazuki's back hit the wall of the arena again with a sickening crunch. He fell down to the floor limply.

"Hey, are you going down with just this? Come on, get up, and fight me. And feel the bitter taste of true defeat, that of knowing that you have expanded all of your strength, will, and intellect, and that they are not enough to defeat me."

Himura looked to Kazuki with a disappointed expression. Then, Kazuki's hand began to twitch, and he shakily stood up, swaying slightly on his feet. He breathed in the air and took a basic stance for fighting, with his left hand in front of him and right hand clenched to a fist held closely to his body. When he can feel his body stopped trembling, Kazuki charged at Himura with a shout.

The disappointed expression on Himura's face changed to a crazed smile.

"Yes! That's the spirit! Now, come and fight me with all you got and feel despair!"

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"He speaks a lot, doesn't he?"

Alacritas noted with a frown.

"My apologies, Lord Alacritas. We have to make sure the subject doesn't notice his own altered state of mind. So we added some insurances, such as his...tendency to talk and I also told him some half-truths."

She sighed.

"No need to apologize. In fact, it is even better that he talks a lot. It will at least serve to confuse Gatekeeper of Oblivion, if nothing else, due to their personal connection."

'Besides, I can sense that Kazuki-kun has already begun to use my powers subconsciously to heal himself.'

She thought to herself as she watched the holographic screen displaying Kazuki's physical state.

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As the white-haired woman thought, the transplanted heart inside Kazuki shone with soft white light, barely noticeable unless one searched for it with concentration. It used his blood as a conduit for healing himself back to perfect condition.

The healing rate that is normally faster than an average man was boosted and became significantly faster than the fortieth days ago. In just under a minute, the bones and organs that are damaged healed enough to let him move if he exerted strenuously. But in an outmatched fight like this, it was only drawing out the inevitable.

"Is this the best you can do? Just wildly throw punches at me and hope it hits? Let me show you how a real fighter hits with his punch!"

Himura avoided all of Kazuki's sloppily thrown punches almost lazily. In truth, the only difference was that while Himura's body was strengthened to withstand the strength of all five elemental gates, thus increasing his strength, speed, and endurance equally to become a weapon, Kazuki's body was enhanced only in adaptability and vitality to act as a perfect vessel for the power of the End, nothing more than a glorified battery.

Himura punched Kazuki in the jaw with an uppercut, sending him up in the air. He then kicked Kazuki away with his right leg, tossing Kazuki towards the wall again. However, due to the kick not being as strong as the previous kick, Kazuki didn't hit the wall but tumbled and rolled away helplessly on the floor with leftover momentum from the kick.

Himura watched him fly away and falling down to the floor with a disturbingly large smile.

'I'll finish this right now, this is not fair anymore if he doesn't use any of his powers. Hah. What a naive guy.'

Jagged rocks began forming around his arm. They then covered his right arm, much like armor, with sharp edges protruding from his fist. In that time, after lying on the floor for a few seconds for his injuries to heal, Kazuki shakily stood up again.

'Damn it. I don't know what to do anymore. I want to help Himura, but I don't know how to. And I'm sure that bitch is watching thi-'

With a potent burst of wind, Himura lunged towards Kazuki and punched straight through him in the gut with all his strength, cutting off his wandering thoughts. He then created two floating flame spears above him and willed them to stab Kazuki in the back.

The flame spears raced down and pierced straight through Kazuki's body from behind. The smell of burnt flesh reached the combatants, but none pay it attention, one coughing out blood and the other laughing hysterically.

"See, this is another difference between us. You are too sentimental. That is also one of your weaknesses. Hahaha hahaha!"

The mad teenager took his right hand out of Kazuki's body, leaving a bloody hole in the center of his chest. Released from what is holding him up, Kazuki began to fall down to the floor, a blank look in his eyes. However, Himura then held the twin spears stabbed in Kazuki, smiled down at him, and added lightning gate energy into them, intent on frying Kazuki to death. The smell of burnt flesh got stronger and stronger.

"AHHHhhhh...."

Himura dispelled the spears and let go of him. Kazuki limply collapsed to the floor with a thud, three holes on his body, and numerous burns covering him. Himura looked down at him with a sneer. He kicked Kazuki a few times, making sure he was dead.

"The weak will always be weak, whether physically or emotionally."

He laughed quietly to himself. He turned around and walked to the edge of the arena, preparing to leave.

"Huh, why are my eyes getting blurry?"

He rubbed his eyes.

"These are t-tears? I'm c-crying for that bastard?"

Himura sobbed with tears, disbelief apparent in his eyes.

"I-It doesn't make sense, why am I crying for him? Why do I feel sad? Shouldn't I be elated?"

Himura looked back to Kazuki and saw a sight that filled him with both joy and dread.

The black gauntlet that previously covered only Kazuki's right hand now consumed half of his body. Soon, in place of Kazuki, only a black humanoid figure was left. Suddenly, black appendages grew out of his body and enclosed itself into a sphere.

"You're alive! I knew you wouldn't die with this much! Is this your final form!? Your true power!? Then I will beat it and become the hero! And I will get a harem and go around the world! With lots of girls! Hahahaha!!"

Himura desperately laughed with insanity. He lunged and tried to break the shell with his gate energy-powered punches and kicks, but only small cracks appeared. He leap back and concentrated all he could into a bright sphere of myriad energies and launched it to the black shell. After a bit of struggle, the shell broke off and a black mass flew out of it, dodging the energy sphere. It then landed on the floor in a crouching position, its armored feet leaving dents in the floor. It opened its jaws impossibly wide and screeched in unholy voice at Himura.

Himura gazed at the black figure with horrified wonder. He could feel a strange and eldritch aura emanating from whatever Kazuki has become. He muttered to himself.

"I have no idea you are hiding such a monster inside you, Kazuki."

The black figure only has a little resemblance to a man, with four black wing-like things similar to that of ravens and eight black, long appendages similar to spiders moving erratically on its back, which is covered by black, segmented armor that seems to pulse with life every second. Black, inky and long tentacles waved in the air violently, originating from three places of his upper abdomen, the parts where Himura impaled Kazuki.

The creature was covered in armor which seems to be made up of black muscles with veins visible inside it. It has four arms, with jagged black bones extending from its arms and claws extending from each of its five digits. Its two legs have disproportionate bone-like extensions protruding from its lower thigh. The sides of its neck had gill-like openings.

The only similarity to a normal person was in the shape of its eyes, with other parts twisted and changed into horrifying imitations of them. With sharp, uneven teeth in two impossibly wide jaws set in a twisting black mess of muscles and bones in the place of a face, a very long white tongue visible in its wide maw.

Then, after screeching madly, numerous eyes opened from its body, from its wings, tentacles, arms, and legs. Those eyes have red sclera circling gold irises, with no pupil in them. It then wildly leap at Himura, intent on brutalizing and devouring him.

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The people watching the fight began to whisper to each other. The guards in the monitoring room were also staring at the Daoyrl as if they were ready to fight it for their survival.

"So t-this is a true awakened Daoyrl, caring nothing but destruction."

The elderly man, one of the anatomists, muttered to himself with a shudder, only having read records about them. Seeing it in person, it was honestly both terrifying and disturbing.

"Step three complete. With this, he will surely become a perfect vessel, once he devoured that fake."

Alacritas stated to the people around her, making sure they heard her so that they will be less disturbed and distracted by the spectacle before them. After all, in her rather long life, she has seen this kind of awakening many times. But these inexperienced children haven't seen anything like this. Only some people here have seen imperfect Daoyrl awakenings and a Breeding-type infant Daoyrl which was still a frozen statue.

"In the Uiora ruins I have found, the Uiora race categorized the Daoyrls into five types based on their abilities. First, Breeding-type. The Daoyrls have no organs to multiply themselves except for two types, which are this Breeding-type and the other, the Perfect-type. Three other types are Endurance-type, Growth-type, and Parasite-type. As the name implies, the Uiora race used the Perfect-type as a template to make the H-XIORYL race."

The people quieted down, listening to the information of Daoyrl that Alacritas very rarely gives since she is the only one who can read Uiora language completely. Even if they have translated all the Uiora tomes they can find, having someone as old and knowledgeable as Alacritas talking about Daoyrl was sure to at least offer a new perceptive to them. She continued talking while closely watching how the Daoyrl was tearing Himura apart brutally.

"The Perfect-type has the characteristics of all the other four, but those characteristics are not as extreme as them. You can also call them balanced-type. All types go through five stages of maturation, with some differences between the types."

"The infant stage should be what we see before us, their forms are most similar to us only in this stage. They are also very adaptable at this stage. The next is the growth stage, where they rapidly grow and resemble us less and less. After this is the maturing state, where their physical bodies stabilized and their growth rate crawled to a halt compared to the previous stage. The next one is the evolving state, with each of them further developing their own physical mutations based on environment and nutrition. As for the last one, the records on them are ruined, so I don't know what it is."

The researchers listened to each of her words with undivided attention, paying the fight playing out on the screen a little less focus, with several of them thinking that she had been in a good mood during these days.

"Lord Alacritas, I have some questions to ask about what you said."

A woman stopped writing down notes and asked her. Alacritas inwardly smiled, pleased that most researchers have calmed down and concentrated more on her than the fight, thus making them unable to notice the subtle difference between a normally awakened Daoyrl from previous experiment subjects and Kazuki.

'Well, they haven't even seen what a normal Perfect-type Daoyrl looks like, but it doesn't hurt to have some more precaution.'

"Ask your questions later. This kind of fight is important for all of us to gather some data on how strong a Daoyrl truly is."

"I apologize, Lord Alacritas."

She barely nodded to the apology, watching what Kazuki will do in this.

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I fell down to the floor painfully. This pain isn't as bad as when I was inside that tube, but I can't even move my body. Come on, get up. This isn't much. I have to help him.

I tried to move my hand, but I can't even do such a simple action.

'Damn it. I can't even do anything. I'm powerless. Even if I can somehow defeat that bitch and the group that kidnapped us, I have neither the means nor knowledge to save Himura from his death.'

'[I'm sorry for my incompetence.]'

'No, don't be. It's all my fault. After all, Himura wouldn't get dragged into this if he weren't a friend with me. And now, look at what happened. You know, these wounds don't even hurt that much, and yet I can't even move.'

I replied to him bitterly.

'[Your pain tolerance has increased exponentially, but your body is still that of a normal H-XIORYL, albeit one with very high vitality and adaptability.]'

'Yeah, good to know my body's status. Just before I died.'

'[You won't die. You are too valuable for them to kill you.]'

'But my friend will still die.'

'[I can understand your loss. But there is nothing you can do to help him. This is due to circumstances outside of your control. Unavoidable collateral damage, if you will.]'

Huh. This guy really doing a bad job if he's trying to console me.

I thought to myself. I can feel myself fading. There are black spots covering my vision now.

'It was nice meeting you floating head. I'm sorry I can't do anything for you, Himura. It's all my fault. Goodbye.'

'[As I said before, yo-'

%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%

Suddenly, I was flying in the air. I dropped down to the ground.

'Huh. I feel different. My body feels good, actually, better than ever. I can see more places and think more clearly.'

I glared at Himura and shouted. After all, he wanted a fight to the death. And I will give him that. It is at least a friend can do before a feast. I rushed to him and engaged him in a fistfight.

'Not really a fistfight, since I'm using all my appendages.'

I bemusedly thought. He's fast than me, but none of his attacks are damaging me since I closed my eyes whenever his attacks got near one of them and I have more appendages than him. I swiped him with a low kick and he jumped to the air to dodge it. Big mistake, Himura.

All eight of my spider-like appendages tried to impale him. He tried to avoid them with fancy air maneuvers using his gate energy. But I got him stabbed through in the leg with one of them. He grimaced in pain. Hmm, I don't know they're this sharp. He has no idea how to fight. Well, I don't know either. He's been getting by with his superior physical stats.

'It's balanced right now, with this body of mine. I wonder why that guy stopped talking. Hey, floating head?'

....No reply. What to do. What to do. Should I stop watching Himura's pathetic attempts to remove my spider appendage in him and kill him? Nah, it's too boring. Still, it's a wonder that I don't even feel anything from my appendage, considering that he's throwing all those fancy elements at it.

He even threw me with lightning and flames but my wings protected me.

'Hmm. I wonder what should I do. Okay! I know how to make it more epic and fun!'

I used my tentacles to tie both his legs together. I feel like my wording is somehow wrong.

'Hmm, it hurts a little. Being hit by these five elements.'

He was able to destroy them quickly. Guess my tentacles aren't as strong as my appendages. But I simply used more and began spinning him in the air for a few seconds. These tentacles growing inside me are awesome, no thanks to you, Himura.

'Payback! Himura.'

I triumphantly screamed and threw him to the wall. Now, there's a crater in the wall. I also heard some crack sounds. Must have hurt a lot. Now you know my pain. I grabbed him with my hand and lifted him out of it by his neck.

----------------------------------

"Is that space manipulation, Lord Alacritas!?"

Several of the researchers frantically asked Alacritas. After all, from all the experiments they have done, no subject has exhibited the ability to use Gates after turning into a Daoyrl, even if they are failed awakenings. Moreover, what it had done was warping space using Space Gate, completely different from Oblivion Gate Kazuki was supposed to have.

"We have to recheck his ancestry after this. And make sure he has Gate of Oblivion. If the people who brought him here made such a foolish mistake, I will send them to Gatekeeper of Destruction. If he has Gate of Oblivion, we will continue what we are doing before. We will have to analyze his physical data more thoroughly. But remember, we are to create a perfect vessel of the End, nothing more, and nothing less."

Alacritas declared solemnly to the researchers and told them to pay more attention to the fight.

'It should be related to the incident that killed Kiyoshi-kun. Did Kazuki-kun obtain Space Gate from killing Jack Adela? Huh, how ....wonderful. No awakened Daoyrl in recorded history has shown the ability to use Gates before. With this, he has an even more high chance of killing me.'

She smiled grimly.

---------------------------------

'Let's see how much you can scream with pain. After that is a feast for me.'

I licked my tongue hungrily. Glittering flames suddenly burst out from his body and tried to burn me. At a range this close, I can't avoid it and tentacles moved to protect my face. Since these flames are much stronger than before, I have to use most of my tentacles just to buy some time to fly away.

"Hah, with these three elements-infused flames, you will be incinerated to death!"

Now free from my restraints, Himura proudly declared to me while limping on one leg. His leg wound isn't healing as fast as me. He should also have some internal injuries. It will take him at least ten minutes to heal them completely. On the other hand, my tentacles are regrowing very quickly. Soon, they will grow back to normal.

'I guess I can get more serious.'

I moved down to the ground and snarled at him, taunting him to come close to me. At the same time, from my feet, my tentacles pierced through the ground and began to take root inside it quickly. Some of them hit a boundary, it should be some sort of space manipulation since I saw only an empty space with my eyes. These places should be the limits of this room. Guess I can't do anything to that bitch watching me now. I should add this to my checklist.

'Devour her as painfully as possible. And kill and eat as many as I can find.'

Even thinking about it has me salivating uncontrollably.

"Die. You monster!"

Himura once again leap at me with flames blazing from his body. What an idiot. Who would get close to a Daoyrl if one knew he will lose? Still, I can't move from here just yet. I still can't control my tentacles remotely if they are detached. I used my spider appendages and tried to pierce him. He incinerated them easily with those glittering flames. Huh. I feel like his flames got a lot stronger. At the rate he's using his powers, he'll die soon. Still, these flames really burn.

'It hurts.'

I was forced to detach my appendages since the heat will hurt me if I still have them. They will regrow, but it would take time and some nutrients.

"This is the end. Beast!"

He got close to me quickly and with a triumphant shout, tried to behead me with dual swords of five elements. Too late, Himura. Besides, this was never an equal fight. This was an exercise before eating a particularly delicious meal.

Several black tentacles ruptured out from the ground below him and impaled him viciously in arms, legs, elbows, knees, and shoulders, thus effectively trapping him. Of course, he won't die from it. At least, not immediately. The glittering swords in his hands exploded, leaving both me and him with some severe injuries since my head was close to them. Suicidal, but smart. I'll give him that.

Numerous tentacles burst out from the floor and encircled us in a constantly twisting sphere of black tentacles. The wounds on my head began regenerating. Other injuries will be healed in five minutes.

"D-Do y-you t-think I-I would d-die from t-this?'

With severe burns and lacerations on him, Himura coughed out blood and asked me weakly. I ignored him and cut off one of his fingers with my claws. Huh, with red blood and yellow fat encircling white bones, it seemed really delicious. I felt the coppery smell of blood inside my mouth. I chewed it with some crunching sound. And I swallowed it. Hmm, delectable. His expression quickly morphed into a mix of disgust and terror.

"W-what a-are y..you doing? It c-can't be. Y-You m-monster!"

Come on, don't be such a stingy guy. It's just a finger.

Six more of the tentacles immediately pierced him in the abdomen. More blood and pieces of organs leaked out of him. Ah..., such an appetizing smell. I smiled with all my teeth. I'm going to enjoy eating him. One organ at a time.

'Thanks for the meal. I'm gonna dig in. Goodbye, Himura. It was nice knowing you.'

---------------------------------

"S-Stop! D-Don't do it! AHHHH!!"

Loud, crunching noise and screams full of agony filled the air for several minutes. Most people who were watching averted their faces uncomfortably. Even if they are scientists researching and examining their own people, they have some moral standard, no matter how low it is.

Alacritas stared unblinkingly at Kazuki's physical state monitor, which has quickly turned into a mess of numbers and lines since he changed, only thinking about what kind of change such an act would bring to him.

The screams only stopped after several minutes, even then the sounds of eating, crunching didn't stop.

"Rrrahh!!"

A loud burp sounded from the arena only after the sounds stopped. Then the tentacles enclosing it retreated back into the floor, revealing it crouching down over a bloodstained place, with no evidence of Himura left. The researchers looked on with bated breath, wondering what it will do next.

Then, it suddenly howled at them. Numerous tentacles arose from the ground and hit the space barrier with tremendous force. They wildly whipped around the room, trying to destroy the barrier.

The guards glanced at Alacritas, waiting for her order. She signaled them not to do anything for now but to stay alert.

"How did he know we are here? Daoyrls don't possess any kind of intelligence like ours."

The researchers were a little surprised with this kind of unexpected action from it, as they thought it to be only a mindless monster.

'He showed quite a high sign of intelligence for what is supposed to be a mindless beast. These tentacle-like objects will never be able to break this barrier with this kind of force. Strange, the complete awakening should have already started. Is this because of his differences with normal Daoyrls? Or did he eat too slow? Do I need to prepare another one?'

Alacritas calmly thought to herself, not bothered in the least by the beast's howls and the sight of tentacles hitting the invisible barrier. The original plan was to subdue it after this fight and turn it back to Kazuki with these twenty guards present in the room.

'It seems I have to wait till he calmed down at least a little. With his signs of intelligence, it would be useless to fight him in his ground. He won't be able to use these black tentacle-like things for long since he's just awakened as a Daoyrl not too long ago.'

However, the beast unexpectedly collapsed to the destroyed floor with a loud shriek and its tentacles immediately slumped down to the ground, detached involuntarily from it. Numerous intertwined white lines spread across its body, originating from the location of its heart. It wildly thrashed around, clawing at its face as if trying to relieve the pain it was feeling.

The white lines slowly fused back into its black body, the inky black color of its body turning into sliver-grey color. However, the colors never stopped changing, repeatedly turning from black to grey, silver, white, and vice versa.

It then shakily stood up. Two arms dropped off to the ground and its remaining arms regained a more normal appearance, with claws and jagged bones disappearing. The wings folded themselves back into its back. The places where tentacles were visible on its chest were sealed off by bone-like armor appearing there.

The armor enveloping it began to lose its more inhuman features, with the armor itself smoothing out and resembling more of the armors of knights. Its legs lost the bone-like extensions.

The eyes that seem to exist anywhere on its body closed, leaving only two eyes visible on its face.

However, its face is the one that changed the most. It was no longer a black mess of bones and muscles, turning instead into a smooth surface of bone-like mask covering its whole head and devoid of any features save for its two eyes and a curved black horn on the upper right side of its forehead. The sclera turned normal and lost their red coloring. However, his irises remained gold, black pupils reappearing inside them.

Then, intense white light blasted out of its body, temporarily blinding the observers. After it faded, Kazuki was lying unconscious on the ruined ground. He looked no different from when he had entered the arena.

--------------------------------

Silence filled the room. After a few seconds, Alacritas stood up from her seat.

"Don't just stand there. You people work on analyzing the data from this fight. I have to check his body to see what exactly changed. I will send those data to you all later. Dismissed."

The people watching the fight looked over to Alacritas and nodded. They then stood up and collected both the recorded footage of the fight and the physical data. They bowed to Alacritas and left the room. Alacritas sighed and called some guards. She gave one of them a glass tube.

"Call a Space Gate user and repair this room. And put the test subject back inside specially made glass tank. Also, take that some blood over there and send it to my personal laboratory."

The guards bowed and began doing the tasks given to them. She decided to take a break to relieve the stress from working restlessly for the past sixty days.

'It seems I have to increase his vitality more since it was quite low after turning back. It might decrease his adaptability. And I also have to check how his heart is functioning.'

With numerous thoughts, Alacritas walked back to her room, planning on how to enhance Kazuki even more.