56 New High Humans

One of the soldiers looked around and, with a hesitant expression, addressed his superior: "S-sir, I have something to report."

"What!?" Horium replied irritably.

The Astrylite took a deep breath before disclosing the news: "It's about Lophius, sir. His ship is still down there and shows no signs of ascending."

"?"

Upon hearing this, the other soldiers also became aware of the situation.

Horium frowned and descended to check what was happening. To his surprise, upon inspecting the ship, he found it completely empty!

He ordered his men to search the surroundings, but unfortunately, they found no traces. This led to a disturbing conclusion: one of them had been captured by the enemy without his knowledge...

"Shit, today is definitely not my day," exclaimed Horium, frustration evident as he brought his hand to his face.

With no other option, he was forced to activate the ship's autopilot to move along with them. Later, he reported what had happened at this location but deliberately omitted the part where he was attacked by Major Zarok's enemy and also made no mention of the missing soldier.

Reporting those incidents would be too humiliating; he simply couldn't bring himself to do it!

...

Zuuuummmm!

After thirty minutes, a sleek black ship appeared in the distance, initially just a dark spot that, in a matter of seconds, approached Horium and his soldiers' location.

When the ship came to a halt, in a brief moment, two pyramid-shaped, red ships positioned themselves behind the black one.

Ssshhh...

The hatch of the black ship opened, revealing the presence of a feminine figure with beautiful curves wearing black armor. It was Morynthia, who was there because both Eldran and the other high-ranking officers had been informed about the destruction of a mining tower near the artificial island.

She understood the importance of these towers for the Astrylites, as they were crucial to fulfill their mission.

Both Eldran and Morynthia were not naive; they were clear that the same bastard causing havoc was likely responsible for this chaos. They didn't buy the excuse that Sergeant Horium provided about the mutated creatures caused by Verdantia crystals being responsible for the tower's destruction.

So, voluntarily, Morynthia offered to investigate and search for clues about the whereabouts of that individual.

She was even considering the possibility of surprising her brother when he returned; her desire was to capture the Astrylites' enemy and prove to Mykarion that his journey to the council was in vain.

Leaving her alone in this place would cost him dearly!

The two sliding doors of the pyramid-shaped ships revealed Rylokian and Zyrgon.

Horium approached her, and with a serious tone and raised voice, he began to speak: "There was no need for you to come and check; my men are already taking care of-"

"Getting straight to the point. I don't believe the excuse you gave. Tell me what happened here, only the truth," Morynthia interrupted authoritatively, with no intention of wasting time. She needed to catch that threat before her brother returned.

The soldiers, watching from their ships, began to feel sweat bead on their foreheads. No one expected the woman to speak to the sergeant like that; many even considered that a fight was about to break out. Amid the uncertainty, some hesitated on whether to intervene or just stay as spectators.

"..."

Both Rylokian and Zyrgon also became somewhat nervous. After all, neither of them was "crazy" enough to talk to a sergeant like that. They couldn't be blamed; they were taught to obey their superiors or face punishment since birth.

Of course, between the two, Rylokian felt less uncomfortable. Raised as a prince in his family, he had an almost nonexistent sense of subordination.

Horium, on the other hand, with his imposing figure, looked at Morynthia, tilting his head down as if she were a little girl.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment; the atmosphere felt tense, as if a fight could erupt between the two at any moment. But, contrary to everyone's expectations, he touched his head and, with a relaxed expression, said, "If you don't believe me, then see for yourself. Everyone, let's go. The council lady will take care of everything."

He entered his ship, and with his men, they left without saying anything more, leaving the three silently watching the red dots fading in the distance.

Fortunately, the empty ship went unnoticed by everyone.

"What a cheeky bastard..." muttered Morynthia, annoyed. She looked at the two men and asked, "Are all of his kind like this? It seems like they don't care about anyone other than that fat guy."

Zyrgon said with a somewhat uncertain tone, "Not really, but the Astrylites in this battalion are a bit special."

This was confirmed by Rylokian, who nodded silently.

"Anyway, let's look for clues," she said as she descended with her ship into the depths. The two did the same, and in an instant, they were next to the ruins of the mining tower. Despite the earlier commotion, the structure was in good condition. The only damaged areas were the bottom, connecting to the ground, and the upper end, where the bioluminescent creatures, the robot, and Horium had emerged.

Morynthia meticulously examined the terrain from her ship, and soon, on various holographic screens, images appeared showing signs of an intense battle.

Mostly, plasma weapon-generated craters stood out. Additionally, she found one of those mutated creatures cut in half, clearly divided by an energy weapon, probably an energy blade, quite common. She also observed the completely destroyed remains of an Astrylite ship, accompanied by the charred fragments of one of their own.

According to Sergeant's reports, one of his soldiers had died at the hands of these mutated creatures, and indeed, it was true, as only energy samples from those crystals were found, and nothing else.

However, these were not the clues she was looking for.

When she was on that artificial island, which ultimately sank, she managed to take samples of the biomass energy those automatons were using. It was complicated, as almost all the androids had been melted or destroyed in the explosion.

In fact, it was the only thing she could find; any other kind of clues had been obliterated.

"There are annoying traces of that biomass energy here," Zyrgon grumbled, as he was one of those who suffered the most from that damn biomass.

The other two ships approached where he was, and upon inspecting the area, they did find small traces of biomass in the seabed. It was very little, so scarce that only with the search and analysis tools installed in the ships could it be found.

Rylokian looked at the hole leading to the Verdantia crystal deposit and asked through his HoloSync, "Should we go down?"

After reviewing the biomass energy traces, Morynthia approached the hole and hesitated for a moment. In the end, she gently shook her head: "No, it's impossible that our target is still here. We know he's very cunning; he's probably already hundreds of kilometers away."

"I think taking a look wouldn't hurt," Zyrgon commented.

She looked at them and said, "If you want to go down, go ahead, but the ships won't fit. So, you have to go alone with your armors, and, as far as I know, the creatures mutated by the Verdantia crystals are incredibly strong."

"Take, for example, what happened here. Even a soldier died while protected by his ship," she smirked under her helmet.

They remained silent, showing their hesitation. Finally, one of them asked, "... So, what's the plan?" They weren't naive enough to venture into a place full of those creatures; there were less painful ways to commit suicide if that was what they wanted.

Morynthia hesitated for a moment, her gaze shifted from the island to the collapsed tower and then elsewhere. With an agile gesture of her hands, she unfolded an extensive map on one of the screens.

"According to this map, that nuisance is moving towards the mainland; that's where we should look. Unfortunately, even though this world is quite small, it's still too big for the three of us to search without an exact direction," she pursed her lips in frustration. With three nearby continents, they had to make a random decision, as they didn't have time to explore all before her brother returned.

Zuuuuummmm! Zuuummmm! Zuuuummmm!

This peculiar trio, consisting of two vengeance-seeking Astrylites and a woman determined to humiliate her brother, finally made a decision and headed in a direction without further hesitation.

...

Kraynnor stood in front of the newly created genetic manipulation capsules he had devised, assembled by the androids in record time. He was genuinely satisfied with the efficient work of these automatons, as it allowed him to save a significant amount of time.

Of course, creating these capsules earned him Knowledge Points, although it was only three points per three capsules.

Checking his user interface, he realized that these points were insignificant compared to the thousand he needed to complete the bar, not to mention if he spent points on passive or active skills...

In three of the ten capsules in the room, three Astrylites lay.

One of them was the first soldier whose head he cut off with his biomass energy saber in Caelum; the second was the alien captured by Cognitron X-12 when his ship was shot down by decoy drones, and the third was his most recent capture, whose neck was twisted.

Two of them remained unconscious, completely sedated, unaware that they would never open their eyes again. The third had been dead for a long time.

Why was he standing in front of these capsules? The answer was simple: he was about to initiate the procedure to create three new High Humans. Since he couldn't extract useful information from any of these individuals, he preferred to use them for something more beneficial!