14 Jyu Viole Grace. (2)

Namo and Sola arrived in front of a secluded cave in the depths of the wastelands on the 28th floor. The duo went underground with the men they captured and not long after that, they arrived at a large iron door with the symbol of an eye on it.

Infusing the door with a bit of Shinsu, Sola said casually, "I wonder if Erik managed to create the technique he was working on. He seemed to be just on the cusp of it a few months ago." At the mention of 'that technique', Namo winced and responded, "I've never seen Shinsu being used like that before. It's like he rips things apart and...urgh, I don't even want to think about it again."

CREAKKKK!

The massive door opened slowly and the duo walked inside. The scenery was much different from before. Many scientists and lab technicians were running around tending to their own projects. The earlier rocky environment changed into one of pure metal and technology, signaling that the girls had now entered the actual FUG base.

As the girls made their way through the base, a certain middle-aged scientist ran up to them and shouted, "Ms. Namo, Ms. Sola! Welcome back! We haven't seen you in a few months!"

Sola then responded, "Ah, Carino. You're still alive? I'm surprised Erik hasn't turned the lot of you into training dummies by now."

"Haha, Ms. Sola, I think all of us have learned by now to stay out of Master Erik's way when he exits his training. We don't want to end up like ol' Benito, sigh, bless his soul."

The duo chatted a bit more before Carino came to a sudden realization. "Wait, today is...shit! Ms. Namo, Ms.Sola, since you came today that means Master Erik is coming out of training, doesn't it? ALRIGHT, EVERYONE. ACTIVATE PROTO-"

Sola put her hand on his shoulder and motioned to the captured men floating in the Shinsu bubble behind her. "Carino, calm down. We already have some volunteers so you guys don't have to worry."

Carino had noticed the men there before but he didn't realize that they were brought here for such a purpose. This was a stroke of luck.

"Ah, I see, I see. Whew. Well, don't let me hold you up any further. I'll see you around."

[A few minutes later]

Namo and Sola entered an empty room where a young man with black and pink spiky hair was meditating. The Shinsu around him was acting unusually aggressive as it seemed to rip and tear at itself or anything within reach.

If the duo hadn't seen this technique before, their clothes would've been destroyed as soon as they entered the room. Unfortunately, for the men in the Shinsu bubble though, they weren't as lucky.

Namo and Sola already activated a Shinsu barrier around themselves as they threw the men into the room and left, closing the door behind them. Sola then let out a breath of relief, saying, "Whew. I didn't want to spend one second longer in there. That technique always feels so sinister."

Back inside the room, the men fully regained consciousness as the Shinsu bubble was ripped apart by the technique.

"Urgh..."

"Where are we..."

The boss of the crew was the first to react to Erik's presence as he got up and drew a gun, pointing it at Erik. His nerves were on edge as he felt the Shinsu physically rubbing against his skin.

"Y-you, who are you? Where the hell are we?"

The darkness was mostly covering Erik's face and the only thing that could be seen was his mouth. Hearing no answer, the boss just started screaming and shooting at Erik in complete trepidation.

"Why aren't you dying?!"

He felt like he was in some sort of nightmare as his bullets just disappeared into the darkness.

A sinister smirk suddenly formed on Erik's mouth as opened his two red eyes and muttered, "Rip all of creation asunder and let it be absorbed into me..."

ZOOOMMM!

The Shinsu in the air immediately turned into a whirlpool as it started transforming, no, transmuting the men into Shinsu. They could feel the physical pain of their bodies being ripped apart by the Shinsu with no care in the world.

"AGH-"

Only part of a scream could escape out of their mouths before they were fully turned into Shinsu and absorbed by Erik. He called this technique "Usurper."

Its main purpose was to dismantle the enemy at the cellular level by turning them into Shinsu and absorbing them into himself. By doing so, he gained their skills, memories, and their very essence. But, the technique wasn't yet complete as Erik wanted it to be faster and even more vicious.

Fortunately, over the years, he had mastered most offshoots of the Eternal Evolution ability. Before he had thought it was just a passive power but when he started training on his own, he soon found out that the power had many uses.

It allowed him to shapeshift and augment his body down to the genetic level. He could grow fangs, although he already had some, grow extra arms, grow wings, and even give himself superhuman abilities. [I.e, superhuman strength, speed, agility, dexterity, etc.]

When he had gotten more adept with the ability, he discovered that it also allowed him to create life/grant life to inorganic beings. He had first tested this ability out on a robot he found on one of the lower floors and realized that he could even reshape the inorganic beings into a humanoid form.

All in all, it was a pretty handy ability.

The one most useful in this situation though was an ability called "power refining". This allowed Erik to refine his abilities/powers, allowing him to change/rewrite their attributes, strengths, weaknesses, damage, capabilities, traits, etc. He could customize his powers to deal with problems he encountered or to simply develop/refine his powers to a greater level.

"With this, I could keep pushing my shinsu control to the next level even faster than evolution could. My current limit is 70 baangs. My Myun and Soo are also around the same potency. These few months have proved fruitful." [Just for reference, Bam's limit was around 3 or 5 baangs at this time.]

Erik got up from the ground and fully put on his usual black-rimmed white robe. As he started walking out of the room, he thought, 'Those girls, they knew the Usurper would've destroyed the labs outside if it didn't devour something before being deactivated. I need to thank them for bringing those guys to me.'

*Yawn*

Erik stretched and opened the door, revealing the girls standing outside waiting for him. Seeing him, Sola smiled for the first time and said, "Erik, I see you're finally finished mastering that technique. Good. It's time to start climbing the tower again."

"Ah, Sola. Long time no see. Why are you so formal? Don't tell me that we've suddenly grown apart in these past few months?"

Sola was going to respond but Erik's pocket suddenly started ringing. When he saw who was calling him, he raised his eyebrow in surprise as this was the last person he expected to call him. Especially since they didn't really get along because of Erik's less than humane methods.

Erik picked it up and the voice on the other end said in an innocent tone, "Mr. Erik?"

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A/N: Finally, I can move the plot along. Even I was getting tired of the flashbacks lol.