1.21.2 The scary tentacle monster 'was' here.

<Adapting to current circumstances… Two wills are found in the body.>

<Temp Mutation: Two-Headed Hydra>

[Cost: 250 Biomass]

*Boom...

With the explosion, a cloud of gray dust ate away part of Girisia's body. It wriggled and twisted in pain, its survival instincts tried to find more mutations to survive, but it was the limit. Girisia's body was running low on biomass and the gain at which he obtained it from his mutated roots was not enough.

So his body struggled to stay alive, after finding that it couldn't go through a full-body mutation. The body mutated only around the area where the nanoscopic nanites were eating away at his body.

They changed their forms each millisecond, countless cells died off and were sacrificed, Girisia's vitality was rapidly declining. But his body kept pumping up different mutated cells that may be immune to the degeneration brought by the nanite dust.

Slowly, but surely, it showed the effects pretty fast.

Now running on fumes, a piece of bark infected with nanite fell off the mutant tree that Girisia had become. And following it, more barks fell from his body.

His roots also spread all around the area, searching for nutrients, the concrete floor under his feet didn't contain many nutrients and the bestial instinct inside Girisia has noticed the fallen body of Wilkis.

The sweet smell of flesh and iron attracted him instinctively.

His body couldn't move from the bed he was laying in. But it didn't stop his vine-like roots to inch toward Wilkis's fallen body bit by bit.

And as it moved closer to it, the vines slowly fattened up and formed up a face, a face Girisia was very familiar with. It was not the face of Korus Fedorov, but his original face from before the accident, when he still used to have a family.

But for the current him, who had lost his sense of self in madness. Girisia completely ignored it as the metallic flesh was all he desired.

And this desire was reflected on the fake head made out of Girisia's root as it opened its jagged jaw and bit toward the head of Wilkis whose body had completely gone gray.

But before it could close its mouth, the whole wooden head burned to ash in an instant. Whose pain caused the bestial Girisia to screech in pain as all the wooden vines on his body wriggled under the stimulus.

The beast tried once again to approach the old man's body, but it failed again. The lack of biomass was making it harder for the beast to grow new vines which fed into the beast's desire to consume more flesh. The body of Girisia slowly uprooted itself from the concrete floor and dragged its body slowly toward Wilkis.

The beast felt weak, it had neither eyes to see nor ears to hear. The only reason the beast could locate Wilkis, was through its primal instincts alone, a stat that Girisia invested before he lost control.

But what this stat along with his passive of danger discernment couldn't perceive was the high amount of radiation leaking out of Wilkis's body that was increasing the temperature of the room bit by bit.

<Adapting to current circumstances… High radiation.>

<Error: Failed to obtain a temp trait due to lack of biomass>

<Error: Lack of elements and nutrients to secrete radiation immune enzymes.>

<Volatile Mutation: Survival mode activated.>

<Abandoning form and using the base body as fuel>

As the beast stepped closer to Wilkis's body, more mutated it became in a struggle to adapt to this new environment.

The beast was completely lost in its hunger to notice the changes its body took. All of Girisia's stats fell to the bottom, his health remained only a fraction of what it used to be, his wooden body slowly decreased in size, his organs shrank, his remaining head hidden inside his wooden chest hid deeper.

By the time he reached the body of Wilkis. The only thing left of Girisia was a contorted body with wooden skin that released yellowish enzymes to fight off the radiation that was released from Wilkis's body.

But even this didn't stop the radiation from eating away at Girisia's body. The inert energy leaked by a grade-four entity is too harsh for a normal body to handle. If a grade four or higher entity didn't put some constraints on themselves, every life form around them usually dies or gets assimilated.

The same was happening to Girisia, being an entity that had just entered Grade two. He couldn't handle the impact this accidental discharge had on him

And seeing that the vessel of her daughter might die. The entity once again hurled her tentacle toward Wilkis.

But this time, something different happened

The body of Wilkis that seemed to be dead all this time suddenly opened its eyes. There was no humanity in it, it had fallen to sleep by the entity observing the room. All that remained was a cold calculating machine after the biological cells were forced suicide by the entity.

-Core Sentience is damaged. Time to reboot 5d:11hrs:56min:11sec

-Backup sentience is active.

-Mission: Defend Ursula Entario Riber and Riber City.

-Scanning for danger.

-Dangerous entity detected, energy level… Can't be determined.

The entity, sensing the danger Wilkis suddenly posed, stopped her action. The vessel of her daughter was already at a breaking point, which was not helped by the fact that her daughter had long been suppressed by the maddened will of the vessel. If she didn't save this vessel in time, the chance at the revival of her daughter will be long gone.

The tentacle reached out to the ball of meat that Girisia had turned into and injected some vitality inside it. Stopping any further degeneration and even recovering some of his stats.

As for Wilkis, she knew that she can't make any other radical moves anymore. The man below was something she can't handle through her weak projection. And if a fight actually happened, the safety of the vessel was in question. It was not just the backup AI of wilkis that feared for its people.

-Entering Combat mode.

-Strength inhibitors disabled.

-Tool restraint disabled.

-Void engine activated.

-Geopositioning enabled.

-Collateral damage assessment… insurmountable.

-Finding a better place to initiate combat.

-Place found.

-Primary Target of elimination: Tentacle of ???/ Secondary Target: Corrupted Korus.

So knowing that there was no other choice. The transparent tentacle wilted up and fell down on the ground, its life ceased to exist.

Error: Can't find Primary Target, expanding search scope.

Wilkis got up, his eyes darting around the room looking for the tentacle. But nothing of such horrible reading was detected. The room was empty besides the edition of a wilted skin on the ground. Girisia was slowly rebounding from his deathly state and recovering his humanoid appearance.

The mutated cells in his body were slowly reverting to their original state. And due to a burst of vitality that was sent to him by the tentacle, his body was gaining original shape as his cells started to multiply at a fast pace.

-Secondary target: Immobile. Activating Void Prison.

A space ruptured around the body of Wilkis, from which four two-meter Halos floated out, each halo a bit bigger than the previous one.

These halos slowly fell around Girisia's body activating a field that made Girisia's body float up. And as they started turning around his body, the strength of the field got stronger. Actively suppressing Girisia inside.

Before the Halos along with Girisia were devoured by Wilkis.

-Unable to find Primary Target, activating surveillance drones.

With this simple order, even the skies of Riber City ruptured up as countless small drones floated out of it and flew in all directions to the horror of the citizens, military, and players alike.

Wilkis won't stop until he finds the tentacle and either eliminates or seals it. This was one of the safeguards he created inside himself.

And the event would have gone out of proportions too, if not for the sealed-up door of the building suddenly opening and a worried voice shouted. "Stop it, father!"

Farsight, who was completely disheveled out of worry, entered the room after seeing the entity was long dead. She was followed by Vanras who also had an expression of absurdity on his face. He never thought that things would go this bad.

"It's enough, you can go to sleep." No one knew Wilkis better than his daughter. She knows all the secrets of her father and the kind of failsafe he has set up. And she also possessed some authority over these fail-safes.

-Primary objective is not completed, the Danger level is 0. Request denied.

The mechanical voice of Wilkis said, but he didn't take any further actions. Waiting for clarification for Admin2 who was his daughter.

"Your primary target is dead, the creature is on the floor, to your right." She had seen all the events in the security footage, she knows the events that transpired here without a pause. She also didn't want the events to go from bad to worse.

They have already attracted all sorts of attention, so they didn't want it to get any bigger. And the best way to do that was reigning in the AI inside Wilkis body.

So following the words of Admin 2, the AI-controlled Wilkis lifted his hand causing the space to rupture. The AI was not going to take chances, so it sealed thin skin just like it did to Girisia's body.

"Just go to sleep father and recover father. We will see to it that everything in the city remains safe." She said, urging the AI to calm down. And this time it worked.

The eyes of Wilkis slowly closed.

"Others in the city will be worried, I will go and deal with them. You should help the mayor."

"You go do whatever you want… Just leave him with me. I will take care of him." Farsight replied in response to Vanras's suggestion.