Chapter 35: Teeth

Chapter 35: Teeth

The boy and the three-eyed wolf felt it before they saw it. Immense danger alerted something within them before any of their five senses could. Zan looked behind him to see the torn open chest of the black steel beast glowing brightly with a blood red light. Inside, a bright luminous core shined brighter than ever, and from it, red lines instantaneously flowed towards the broken maws of the beast, manifesting a red orb of pure energy.

Zan observed the whole process. The condensation of those red lines of energy was too fast compared to how the metal beast normally conducted itself. The focusing process was too reckless, too rushed, and the effects of that showed. The red lines of pure destruction annihilated the steel wolf's circuits as the energy flowed through them.

When the energy reached its deformed maws, the wolf's whole mouth started to turn orange from the heat, the black metal even starting to melt. Messily, the metal beast condensed a chaotic and unstable orb of energy that was on the precipice of blowing up on itself. And that it did. But not before erupting with an obliterating laser beam aimed at destroying whatever organic life was in front of it.

VWOOOSH!

The laser erupted. It was a solid four feet in diameter and was looming closer and closer with impending doom. Before it could reach him, Zan explosively dashed away from the path of the energy beam, watching as the massive red laser easily unleashed destruction ten times more powerful than he previously did.

In his hurry to get out of its way however, he noticed what was left behind in his previous spot. A small puppy was frozen in fear upon the path of sure death. It trembled and shook as it watched the laser beam inevitably approach. Its ears laid tightly back from its head and it started to pout and whimper. The brightness of his looming destruction cast a tall dark shadow behind his tiny frame.

The beam came faster and faster, the puppy's short life flashed in front of his very eyes and one second away from being completely and utterly vaporized, a giant paw hit him out of the grim reaper's path.

Zan watched with eyes wide open as a four foot energy laser entered the three-eyed wolf's chest, vaporized his heart, and came out of his back.

BOOM!!!

The unstable orb self-destructed and the metal beast's head exploded. Luckily the head bore the brunt of the impact, or he would have been seriously injured.

Scraps of flying metal crashed and smashed into the surrounding area. The force that it flew with was so tremendous that when it crashed into the ground, it left scars fifty feet deep into the Earth. The wolves hit by the metals exploded on the spot.

Zan expertly dodged all the metal debris while keeping his glowing red eye on the three-eyed wolf. The wolf unsteadily swayed left and right, it was already a wonder how it could still stand without a heart. With all of its willpower and inner strength, it used its body to shield the frail puppy, before several pieces of shrapnel embedded themselves inside the demon wolf. The puppy whimpered and cried as it stared at its protector's dying body.

The boy moved, but he did not move towards the three-eyed wolf. Instead he sprinted madly towards the metal beast.

Two contrasting emotions filled Zan's body at that very moment. A deep, unsettling feeling as if the worst was about to happen, and an exciting, electrifying feeling like an unexpected blessing was about to take place. Whatever was the case, the boy knew it had something to do with that bright orb inside the steel monster's body.

It somewhat reminded him of that colossal orb in his "dreams." And if this one even held a fraction of that power…he could already imagine the possibilities that came with that guess.

Reaching the colossal belly of the beast, he could confirm that everything his mind, body and spirit told him was right. The luminous orb was activating once again. Red lines of pure destructive energy were flowing towards the beast's metal limbs.

BANG!

SMASH!

CRASH!

The youth madly used all of his powers to rip the shining core out of the steel beast's chest. He even used his right stump to smash into the steel.

"Whatever this fucker is made out of is definitely not from nature."

While there were magical metals in the world that were as strong if not stronger than the wolf's particular black metal, Zan was correct. The metal was artificially produced by an advanced technological process.

The youth smashed and smashed, he used everything he could but he was too slow, too weak, and the worst had started to happen just as he predicted. Its legs started to twitch and activate, its tail starting to wag and whip. The previously fallen monstrosity seemed to be reviving.

The beast stood on its four legs once again. Zan had entered the beast's chest and stubbornly refused to come out until he was able to smash everything connected to the core. Unfortunately that plan was not going to come true.

"Fuck!"

"Power! I need more power!"

Frustration and infuriation welled up in him. Self hatred even started to rise and the boy found himself mercilessly slamming his body against the surrounding metal. Yet, it was all useless. But then…the youth shifted his eyes from the surrounding black metal to the bright luminous core. In a mad combination of recklessness and emotional immaturity, the youth came up with the only thing he knew how to do.

BANG!

Zan smashed the stump of his right arm into the core. Instantly he felt a terrible energy pervade his body. The energy was unlike Vital energy or Earth energy, or the orb's gentle but immensely powerful energy. No, this was different. This energy was not meant to be absorbed by humans, and the human body was not evolved to absorb this terrible essence.

Excruciating pain and torment seized him but he struggled with all his will to stay conscious. Everything in his being was telling him that if he lost consciousness now he would never wake again.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

The youth screamed in pain, he could feel his cells transform— no he could feel his cells deteriorating, feel them collapsing within his body. Fortunately…that was when all the information he read in the living library burst into his mind.

'A source!?!'

Zan did not have time nor the mental stability to properly think. The information in the library had mentioned a few things those "mutated" had transformed into, so he just focused on the first thing that popped up.

A drastic change happened as soon as Zan made up his mind. It still hurt like hell but this time his cells were not collapsing on him. Though…he would soon realize that he would be put through an even deeper hell.

Burning pain started to fill his eyes and he started to scream. His pupils started to dilate before they transformed into vertical slits, his red and brown irises started to transform into illustrious gold. The skin on his body started to transform into uniform shaped diamonds before they started to harden. Snapping and twisting, the muscles and bones of his human body started to change structure and density. Coughing out blood, his lungs and organs started to evolve. The youth was going through unimaginable pain but then…the transformations stopped.

Did he fail?

No…as his organs tried to evolve through the energy of the core, his black heart had awakened.

It sent out a high pitched scream that consequently awoke his other limbs. Zan could not see it, but within himself, his heart had grown eyes on its surface tissue that opened themselves wide in rage. Suddenly it was not the core providing him with power, but the black heart plundering its reserves.

A gigantic flow of terrible energy entered Zan. The previous draconic transformations were now undergoing intense purging from his body. Mouths grew on the connecting tissues between his gray appendages and normal human torso, and then…those mouths started to eat his human body alive.

As the mouths chomped on his flesh, his pale appendages started to grow at the same time. The flesh that they ate was replaced by new, better, gray flesh. Zan's right arm had now grown to the point of encompassing his right pec on his broad chest, while his left leg had now eaten to the point of encompassing the left side of his stomach. The youth did think about it, for frankly he did not have the luxury to think, but he was about to go through an even worse experience when the mouths start to eat into his reproductive system.

It did not happen yet, but Zan could not help but scream to the point where his vocal cords started to hemorrhage. Only, the black heart regenerated his cords so fast that he was now choking on black blood.

On the verge of losing his mind, a small brown hand attached itself to his face. A graceful yet sinister runic circle appeared on the hand and in the next moment, Zan's consciousness entered a deeper level of his being.