Fear of the Apex

At the same time, over two kilometers up.

-What a waste of time... Said a person wearing a rather bulky piece of protective clothing.

-It's not a waste Nango, with this operation, we confirmed the condition of the crystals. And thankfully they aren't creating a Depression… Said the captain, he has a red stripe mark in his right arm.

-But we still don't know what is draining their energy, we went up to the 2000 M mark and still didn't find anything. We went 250 M deeper than ever but still came up empty-handed. As far as we know, a Depression might be happening in deeper areas. There is also the decrease in the fragments, most likely due to natural decomposition. Said Nango.

-That's not for us to discuss. Let's just leave and let those scientists blabber their mouths. Said a rather tomboyish girl.

… A few hours later, the team was in a special waiting room close to the elevator. In order to get to the mine, one would need to follow a cave system all the way down here, but a few years back, with the collaboration of many countries, this elevator was built, connecting the surface with the direct cave containing the crystals. There isn't much else apart from that though. As electronic devices don't work properly down here.

The elevator has a base speed of 5M/s, which is kinda fast, but nowhere close to the average elevator speed of today's era.

The wait was excruciating, even more so in this terrible place. They had been here for over a day, collecting samples and analyzing the situation. Earlier they sent Jun to the surface after they confirmed that there wasn't a depression in the uppermost regions of the caverns.

-How much do we have to wai…

Before Nango could finish his sentence, his body was paralyzed by a strange feeling. Even in this cold, his body started sweating. He was afraid.

But he wasn't the only one his entire team was feeling the same.

THUMP

THUMP

THUMP

Heavy footsteps came from the corridor, like a metallic "CLUNG". Insinuating that the person was using some type of metal shoes.

The person… Didn't look like a monster, it was rather normal. He was using an "armor" rather similar to what we were using, but much more refined compared to our bulky suits. It had some small plates protecting all parts of its body.

The lower half of his helmet was a blue visor. Staring at it was… excruciating. Whoever was behind it could kill us easily. Not even my guns give me any safety.

My rationale told me this was just a man and nothing more, but my body… It screamed danger at me…

…

I finally reached it. The exit. Hum? Is that people? They are using exploration team suits… Ah, I see. It was because of the crystal energy drain… I imagine that draining hundreds of crystals worth of energy might have caused some deviations in their calculations up there…

Why are they frozen like that? Is there something behind me?

{Of course not you idiot. They are afraid of you}

Me? Why?

{It's your bloodline. Think. Most animals have this thing called "instinct" that allows them to avoid danger, humans also have it but it's heavily suppressed by their psyche. But at this moment, you're not a human anymore, you are a humanoid Tyrant, the absolute apex predator in this world.

Isn't this a problem then? How am I going to talk with people if they all just freeze?

{It's temporary, once you get used to your body, this feeling will get away, and humans in general who are not sensitive to such things will not perceive it, only animals and other beings who are used to high levels of danger will be able to feel that something is off about you.}

{Thankfully, a month has already passed since you awakened it, else these people might have just died out of shock. It's possible to kill people with surprise, and you did a bit more than just surprise them. It didn't appear earlier because you were in a rather calm environment.}

…

This is… strange, yet cool. But how long till this completely disappears?

{It will never truly disappear, but a few more weeks should make you no different from a normal person, there are also some ways of training this. But some sensitive people might feel something off about you.}

Alright then… But this is a problem, if only this protective clothing did not make so much sound every time I walked I could have remained hidden, I don't really care if I had to wait a few hours down here…

-...Wh-Who are you? Ho-How did you manage to get down here?! Said the captain.

They don't have any high-tech weapons, because of the interference from the crystals, but they are carrying some traditional guns, due to some past incidents where terrorists breached the caverns.

-...If you don't reply, we will shoot! He pointed the gun at me, feeling safer with it now pointed in my direction.

Since I was found out, time for plan B.

{They don't know your identity}

I know, but that is irrelevant, they could probably infer some things when they realize I disappeared from Japan.

I started to walk in their direction.

-FIRST AND LAST WARNING! STOP RIGHT THERE!

I continued to walk

-SHOOT!

BANG! BANG!

BAM! BAM!

BOOM!

They opened fire in my direction. They weren't like stormtroopers. They hit every shot. But my armor is more than enough to stop these, I don't even need to activate my shield.

The impact of the shoots was heavily decreased due to my portable inertia nullifier.

(The same one used in the IS, just smaller, it has a very limited energy counter.)

-It… It isn't working! Captain, what are our orders?! Said the tomboyish girl.

...DING!

-The elevator! Everyone retreat! Rock! Glass! Retreat for now! The others continue firing!

I extended my left hand and a small hole appeared.

ZAP!

THUMP!

Suddenly, a small lighting bolt shot out from the hole hitting the group that was shooting.

-Arg!

-AHH!

…

The ones hit by it started to spam and groan in pain.

-FUCK! You all retreat! I will stay!

-YES CAPTAIN!

No hesitation. Are they trained soldiers, or a bunch of assholes?

The elevator shut and started to go up

-Como on asshole, let's dance.

-... Is this even necessary? Just get out of the way, and everyone will be happy.

-And let you get away with it? In your dreams.

-Why are you trying to stop me? You don't even know what I am doing here.

-Nothing good. That's all I need to know.

-Says the people who dominated this country against their will under the cause of "world peace". Who financed all of this? Wasn't it... Your country? Mr James. Didn't the US do this before?

-You don't understand! The dangers of these crystals are much greater than you think!

-Sigh, this will lead us nowhere. Good night Mr James.

-What do you…

James suddenly fell to the ground.

-... The elevator is already so high up? I guess they are really desperate.

Normally the elevator has a set speed, but it can speed up when needed.

I forced the doors open, looking into the elevator shaft.

-How much longer until you finish my unit?

{Almost there, but I can increase the speed if you want.}

Do it now, I will need it soon enough.

{Done, you just need to put the second core inside.}

I asked her to also finish the second core according to my wishes, but I still don't know the effects.

With a flash, a deactivated mech appeared in front of me. It wasn't that big, being more like an armor than a big mech. The chest cavity opened to a small hole just big enough for me to put the cores.

I took out the two cores, one made from Tabane, enhanced with many small crystal pieces. The other, made by the goddess using the perfect crystal, using my ideas as a base.

I placed both of them in their respective places and the chest closed up.

-It's done, I won the bet. Even if I cheated a little…

But something happened, mid start, the mech chest area started to get red hot, in a few seconds, the chest metals alloys had started to melt.

-Are the cores fusing?

{I can stop it if you want.}

No. Let's see. Try to help if something bad happens.

The plates and metals started to melt, until a pool of molten metal had formed on the ground. The cores were floating in the air while orbiting each other. The metal pool started to levitate towards the cores.

The cores continued to spin faster and faster until they hit each other.

{If things continue like this then the Core Tabane made will engulf the other core due to it dont having a conscience yet.}

Will she still have control over it?

{No, the core that will come from the fusion will be completely different, the only thing that will remain will be the AI memory. At this point, it isn't an AI anymore.}

After a few minutes, the fusion ended. In its place, was the world's first Fifth-generation Dual-core IS.