novelraw Chapter 54: Who Am I?
Chapter 54: Who Am I?
All of it rumbled; the city quaked beneath the stampede of the colossal elementals; cars were crushed into burnt sheets of metal beneath their fiery feet. It was a scenery viewed from those fleeing on the other side of the sector; the sight of the giant creations of burning blue, trampling and reducing all to ash.
[//Spontaneous Ev0lut10n: Psionic Mind]
The lone human was no larger than an ant, peering up at the incoming stampede, staring at the foremost steed with a head that stood over skyscrapers. A calm exhale passed his lips, emitting from the obsidian mask as he looked onto the incoming march.
With his hands outstretched, the entire city around him was attached like a sixth sense, feeling the rough grain of the concrete, the sleek panels of highrises, the soil beneath it all.
["Tear it from the seams. Anything–anything to stop him."]
In the approach of the all-burning stampede, he raised his trembling hands as if resisting a tremendous weight. The ground rumbled with lines forming in the asphalt, spreading into the neighboring buildings.
["Right now, I’m feeling it. Every moment, I’m having an epiphany. I’ll evolve into something capable of saving mankind, this entire world."]
It gave; the street split with one half rising in front of him, lifting from the roots beneath as a rainfall of soil came. With it, the buildings laid on the foundation were hoisted up as well, tilting the entire chunk of the block with it.
[//Internal struct^&ure–[email protected]...@%]
Beneath the strain of the immeasurable weight he lifted, his bones splintered within his skin, yet his body reformed itself as quickly as it broke. He didn’t let up, raising both hands above his head, hoisting the chunk of land into the air, intercepting the incoming stampede.
Even for the golden figure that originated across the universe, there was genuine surprise in the fear accomplished by the human. Into the air, Ignatius took place, dissolving the elementals into fuel for an abundant flash of heat above.
"You’re becoming something quite troublesome," the fulminare general reprimanded to himself, hovering above the peak of skyscrapers.
Seven looked up as the temperature sharply ascended, witnessing a blooming flower in the sky that burned with a hot-blue radiance. From the form of the blazing construct, a rainfall of fire wept from the sky, conjoined with rays of solar energy that danced upon the cityscape.
"Nnrgh!--"
Using the telekinetic force like an extra limb, he hoisted the uprooted chunk of land, hovering it over himself like a shield made for a giant. Beneath the mounds of unearthed soil, he stood his ground as impacts exploded against the top.
"If you accepted my offer, this could have been avoided! Instead, I’ll have to burn it all away–this city, you, and your comrades!" Ignatius’ mighty voice boomed through the sky.
All of it was vaguely heard through the hellfire that burst against the blockade, blasting it apart. Knowing his cover wouldn’t last more than a few moments, Seven clenched his fist, shattering it himself as he set his sights above–
Folding the space between himself and the sky, he bypassed the distance within an instant.
Complete freedom laid at his feet; the open air welcomed them both as he pointed his ire directly at the destroyer just an outstretched hand away.
So close, enough to grab ahold of the fulminare, though he chose to do so by grabbing him with the unseen force he adapted.
["Even after everything I’ve thrown at him, evolving moment by moment into something greater, I noticed it–the fulminare had yet to bleed even a single drop."]
"Meager."
Ignatius’ flexed his body, dismissing the telekinetic hold, retaliating with a sharp swipe of his hand. In Seven’s view, what followed from the warrior’s motion was a flash of colors. Fire bloomed, lashing out in all directions, cutting across and piercing into his body with its burning judgment.
Dipping into the hollowness that clouded his consciousness, he was startled back awake by the pain.
"Ghh...!"
An isolated bubble of nothing but fire, burning bright-blue with no regard for life. He fell through the mass of heat before colliding with the ground, gasping before being riddled with further impacts.
Explosions as tiny as the pop of a bubble to those like the fireworks in the night sky; each volatile force ruptured against his body.
["No matter how hard my body tries, it can’t adapt to his heat."]
The unending barrage of fiery missiles bombarded the sector, engulfing it in tsunamis of melting heat. At the bottom of it all, he endured, feeling his flesh and blood boiling beneath it. Every cell in his body fought for an escape, only coming to one answer–
From all points of his body, blackened barrels formed, extending in all directions and humming with a great build-up of energy. His body convulsed with the abundance within him, the organic guns trembling before–they fired.
All at once, the assembly of weapons born of his body erupted. The air pressure clashed against the wave of fire breath to dust. Each shot from the bio-formed railguns pierced the sky with a lapis pulse, passing like fleeing stars.
Freed from the pinning hellfire, his unstable body reformed itself like an unwoven fabric. He felt himself slipping, his own name faltering as his sense of self tumbled into the deep, dark abyss.
The supernatural sense his mind adapted reached out, dozens of miles from the city. As his telepathic sense reached, he heard the murmurs and chattering of the dormant aliens in the sector. Most were concerned, frightened for the chaos brewing, but he reached further. It wasn’t of his own volition, yet his subconscious desperately searched until–he found it.
"...May..." The name traveled through his rasp throat, escaping his charred lips.
Across the region, at the same moment, the wounded girl’s eyes opened again with a sudden alertness.
"--Seven?" She said out loud.
"Seven?" Alexander heard, leaning over curiously from his seat.
Connected across the region, both recipients were laid out, one on the floor of the armored truck, the other on smoldering asphalt. As the air burned, filled with ash and cinder, outside concepts held no trouble to him as he connected himself to the thoughts of his peer.
"You’re fighting out there, aren’t you?" May asked in a quiet whisper, staring at the black steel of the vehicle’s roof.
Countless miles away, the question was heard loud and clear in the burnt man’s mind as his body rebuilt itself.
"//Yeah.//"
"Even if I ask you to run, I’m sure you can’t...no, even if you could, you wouldn’t, would you? Somehow, I can’t imagine you doing that," May spoke gently, exhausted as she clung to consciousness. "You’re quiet and gentle, but when you’re out there fighting...There’s nobody meaner than you, is there?"
"//No.//"
Hearing the missed voice of his comrade, it felt like his body was amped by a million volts.
[//Spontaneous Ev0lut10n: Mind Scaping]
[//Sp0ntan3ous Ev0lut10n: Limb Growth]
[/@#/Spont–ous Ev0leeut10n: Vibration Emission]
[/–)/Spontaneous Ev0lut10n: Levin]
["My purpose–my one meaning–is to fight. Regardless of my name, regardless of who I am or what I become, that won’t change."]
[^#22/Sp0ntaneous Ev0lut10n: Terraforming]
[--Sp0ntan3ous Ev0lut–n: Rapid Cellular Creation]
[/@#/SUont–ous Ev0leeut10n: Energy Emission]
[/*(23/Spontan3ous Ev0lut1000n: Space-Faring]
Much of the city had been burnt already, reduced to cinder on soil no longer able to produce life. In the lone human’s mind, one moment was disconnected from another; his consciousness flickered, and with it, his body continued to evolve.
It was difficult to tell if mere seconds had passed, minutes, or hours, yet he found himself clashing with the unstoppable, unbreakable force. Through buildings, he burrowed with tremendous speed, smashing through alongside his enemy.
"Hrrr–" Ignatius strained, though remained unflinching.
Seven relentlessly kept up as the high-rise building collapsed around them, the beige rooms crumbling as he placed his feet on the falling ground. From his body, an assembly of uneven limbs sprouting, morphing into the shape of bio-cannons.
["I’m Seven."]
As the barrels fired off, rupturing the air with shining sparks, he clung to his identity, feeling it slipping the more his body adapted. One moment from the next, one exhale, one blink from the other, he found himself in the sky.
["I am—"]
With the clouds beneath him and the bare cosmos at his back, the proud stars looked upon them, facing the blazing, golden figure beneath the radiance of it all.
["I am evolution."]
At the summit of the world, where breaths could no longer be had, the remnants of skyscrapers levitated, hovering at the behest of what little self remained of the human. The halves of buildings once rooted into the land far below pierced the fluffy clouds.
Across the pale formations, he raced, expelling black masses in his step. Each of the dark lumps quickly expanded, morphing into amalgamations; an elephant crossed with a rhino, tigers and wolves, gorillas and hyenas. The beasts made of the black gump followed with him, granted supernatural gifts.