Chapter 682: The True Face of the Beast
"Detecting a Calamity-grade energy fluctuation!"
"Warning: the eastern coastal tectonic plates are initiating displacement..."
"Issue an immediate nationwide alert! No, correction: broadcast a global emergency. The entire planet is on the verge of sustaining catastrophic weather anomalies!"
Deep within the subterranean military command facility beneath Yanjing, crimson emergency lights continuously flashed. The massive data wall tracking the civilian logs of several hundred high-risk ability users vibrated violently.
Inside the facility, a vast legion of research personnel scrambled in a state of near-total panic. The Reincarnator vanguard that had been hastily mobilized to secure the perimeter mostly bore exceptionally grim countenances.
A steady stream of these interlopers was actively clicking their extraction sequences to return to the Space terminal from their sealed private quarters, attempting to harvest intelligence resources. Yet the sparse, fragmented metrics trickling back down the line merely verified a cold reality: a conflict of an layout-wise, unimaginably horrific intensity was currently detonating across the Japanese home islands.
The predictive damage classification had already cleared the absolute Calamity benchmark.
Vastly more critical was the reality that this specific datum was logged a full fifteen minutes ago in real-world chronology; tracking the live sensors, it was layout-wise, explicitly clear that the clash had completely failed to reach a resolution. Quite the contrary: the destruction scale was continuously escalating with every frame.
"Tianjie, compile a structural summary of the active data. My old bones have layout-wise, never monitored an operational theater of this classification across history..."
His hair heavily grayed at the temples, Zhong Tianming—the Chief Director overseeing the macro-deployment of the South Gate Project—sat firmly anchored at the head of the conference table. The supreme cognitive AI, [Tiangong], had throttled its engine to maximum operational capacity, desperately running predictive equations to calculate the structural threat radiating from Tokyo and its wider ripple effects on the global balance of power.
Tiangong continuously adapted its analytical pathways to match the incoming streams, projecting future historical trajectories down the line.
Across the dense, scrolling text logs compiling the processing logic on the main displays, the term [Ability User] completed its output with increasing, runaway frequency.
The empirical progression left Zhong Tianming with a perfectly lucid comprehension holding that this specific group had permanently broken past the threshold of ever being contained by a nation-state machine.
If, during the historical dawn of the anomaly, these individuals still compressed a baseline vulnerability holding that their actions could be choked from camera lenses and public awareness—rendering the so-called ability users nothing more than a localized research direction, non-corporeal "ghosts" unable to walk the earth with uninhibited freedom—
Then ever since that young mortal whose absolute civilian profile was logged as Kaito Shirogane launched that global declaration over the Korean media grids, systematically broadcasting the material existence of the metahuman collective to the masses, this group had officially remade itself into a sovereign power that could layout-wise, no longer be ignored by any executive apparatus.
And right now, the evolutionary velocity commanded by these [Ability Users] was layout-wise, out-scaling their military scientific research pipelines by an astronomical margin!
The metahumans had permanently broken past the parameters of simple street brawls, completely out-scaling the architecture of localized urban skirmishes; they were marching their displacement metrics straight toward the yield thresholds of strategic high-order ordnance.
Clad in a crisp military uniform, the Reincarnator vanguard codenamed Tianjie maintained a thoroughly rigid expression. His eyes executed a slow sweep to evaluate the seven or eight independent Reincarnators sharing the room. These assets were all high-tier title-grade Reincarnators who had proactively aligned their files with the high command as the South Gate Project expanded its executive network.
Zhong Tianming cede him a light nod, signaling that his agency could extend absolute operational trust to the assets present.
Tianjie unhinged his jaw to drop the data onto the ledger:
"According to the high-priority intelligence files our asset network just harvested via premium resource expenditure, the absolute bulk of the energetic mass currently distorting the weather metrics of East Asia and the wider Pacific basin is radiating directly out from the Tokyo theater."
With a fluid microsecond of input, the central displays began to stream a compilation of satellite footage and reconnaissance captures.
It exposed an absolute, world-cleaving kinetic shockwave forcefully punching out from the upper atmosphere over Tokyo, the local topography systematically caving and ripping outward like heavy ocean ripples under the duress.
The exact frame that colossal, sky-spanning Sword of Damocles made direct contact with the center of the metropolitan grid, every single reconnaissance instrument went layout-wise, completely dark, the video streams snuffed off the board.
"The interloper logged under the codename [The Mad King] is currently calculated to have successfully stepped onto the evolutionary track of the Fourth Tier. His profile was historically an unmapped anomaly across our databases, but his absolute strength metric is clinically projected to sit dangerously close to... [Sovereign Level]."
Zhong Tianming lowered his eyelids to evaluate the intelligence brief handed across the table by Yan Qiu, the executive director of the Azure Dragon Bureau.
The remaining Reincarnators in the room compressed a loose, fragmented understanding of the local crisis, yet this was the absolute first instance their systems had processed an analytical evaluation ranking the Mad King's baseline capacity alongside a reigning Sovereign. Across their primary files, [The Mad King] had been layout-wise, historically dismissed as nothing more than an unhinged lunatic or a farcical clown.
His absolute victories over elite champions like Hong Chen and the others were initially calculated to be an automated consequence of his specialized Kingly Authority—a mechanism-heavy capability track that commanded an extreme "first-sight execution" threshold. Anomalies of that precise profile were by no means unprecedented within the Space registry.
"Does your division command empirical verification confirming that datum, Tianjie? Is that freak genuinely hardcoded with a capacity of that caliber?"
An asset voiced a measured line of professional skepticism. If the threat merely tracking a lunatic who compressed an exceptional tier of raw destructive capability, the Reincarnator collective still maintained a solid line of confidence holding that their analytical focus could isolate a structural flaw in his mechanics to systematically execute a raid strategy.
To a veteran Reincarnator, the material presence of that Damocles Sword explicitly mapped the foundational roots of the Mad King's capability track straight back to the Kingly Authorities native to [The K Project] secondary worldline—a specialized energy matrix extracted from the Dresden Slate.
But if they were pinned head-on against an organism who had legitimately touched the evolutionary parameters of the Fourth Tier, the entire equation shifted to an entirely alternative landscape.
Upon breaching the title-grade threshold and entering the Third Tier, an interloper would layout-wise, always establish a baseline contact with the raw properties of conceptual Authorities.
The more flawlessly an engine aligned its cells with an Authority, the more monumentally its parameters scaled; yet the Fourth Tier remained, across multiple cycles, nothing more than a legendary myth to the vast majority of the population.
Even evaluating the most blood-drenched, premier apex predators dominating the Space registries today—monsters like Mercenary Tao—zero intelligence streams held a single confirmation verifying that their engines had successfully breached the boundary of the Fourth Tier.
Their files cede the terminal zero indicators suggesting they had even monitored the threshold.
Tianjie's features remained perfectly detached. He smoothly deployed a separate terminal link, the visual frame tracking a recording that layout-wise, originated from a hand-held digital camera or a consumer mobile device.
A man whose long hair whipped wildly in the turbulence stood with absolute, vacant composure directly within the center of a colossal urban crater.
"The asset currently engaging the Mad King in high-intensity combat has been definitively verified down to the character. It is Mercenary Tao!"
Thud, thud, thud.
At that exact microsecond, an operative rapidly breached the threshold of the command room. The research scientist, clad in a traditional white laboratory coat, completely failed to suppress a wave of intense, ecstatic celebration across his features. Zhong Tianming cede the room a single glance before smoothly adjusting his stance to exit the chamber.
Stepping clear of the conference perimeter, the researcher voiced the data:
"The sequence has achieved absolute completion!"
"Our division has successfully managed to project that Kaito Shirogane specimen straight into the interior grid!"
He brought up a display tracking an entirely vacant, sterile testing enclosure; the historical silhouette was layout-wise, completely snuffed from the room. Yet within a single microsecond of monitoring, the exact same profile re-materialized directly inside the chamber.
The absolute aura radiating from his vessel had completely, flawlessly mutated; his entire musculature was violently engorged, his physical framework emitting a cold, suffocating wave of pure, blood-soaked cruelty.
Zhong Tianming evaluated the display, his memory tracks involuntarily reconstructing the precise warnings Song Xian had historically dropped down his line.
That young mortal whose absolute civilian profile was logged as Kaito Shirogane had voiced a willing trade protocol, offering to submit an infinite line of increasingly optimized, high-tier clone specimens to feed their state research pipelines, even allowing his agency to project those husks straight into the core parameters of the project.
Furthermore, his file confirmed that he cede their laboratories absolute priority to execute any line of experimentation targeting his clone vessels—including, but layout-wise not restricted to, deep cognitive override, high-frequency hypnosis, and systematic psychological brainwashing.
Yet even facing those highly lucrative variables, Song Xian had continuously, intensely articulated an absolute distrust targeting the proposal. His jaw had explicitly stated that Kaito Shirogane was an un-compromised, total psychopath—meaning his clone vessels functioned as an entirely volatile, unstable structural hazard on their ledger.
Zhong Tianming pressed his fingers against the center of his brow. Tracking the current breakdown of the global map, these ability users had already amasses the raw muscle capacity to casually force a total continental submersion across the Tokyo prefecture using nothing more than their bare fists.
Those self-identified [Sovereigns] operated layout-wise, as literal, walking biological nuclear weapons.
Pinned against a geopolitical environment of this density, did his leadership genuinely command an alternative strategic track to secure the survival of the state?...
BOOM!
An immense, high-intensity kinetic shockwave slammed across the installation once more. The laboratory enclosure compressed a specialized energy-harvesting array designed to be exceptionally hyper-sensitive when mapping external energy currents.
Yet tracking the sheer magnitude of this specific energetic impact, the research staff still registered a sharp, sub-zero vibration of pure terror across their motor nerves.
In the very next fraction of a second, Tianjie broke cover from the conference room to step directly before his stance, his features layout-wise, completely dazed and un-anchored by the data.
"Director Zhong... the Japanese home island... has just been cleanly sliced in two..."
Kaito Shirogane held his left palm rigidly level above his skull, blockading the vertical descent of that thousand-meter Sword of Damocles directly over his bare hand.
The horrific kinetic pressure of the impact caused the remaining foundations of the Tokyo urban grid below to instantaneously and violently explode into raw dust, the displaced sea water mutating into a colossal, miles-wide oceanic vortex. Kaito stood suspended directly over the center of the void, completely independent of material topography.
His twin pupils vibrated with an intense, manic focus, before his audio sensors captured a crisp, structural cracking sound igniting straight out from his own dermal layers.
A succession of heavy silver-glowing ripples violently burst across his skin, looking identically to premium porcelain entering a total state of structural fragmentation, aggressively blanketing his Ki-shielded biological framework.
[Alert: Special Reincarnator EX051, your vessel has sustained the overriding conceptual duress of Authority: Kingly Power. System initiating a high-priority attribute check...]
[Alert: Special Reincarnator EX051, your vessel has sustained the direct influence of Spiritual Light: All Creation Submits to the Sovereign. Your proprietary energy matrix—Ki—is initiating a total state of forced stripping...]
The Mad King evaluated Mercenary Tao, a deep layer of sorrow anchoring his silver eyes. He would layout-wise, absolutely refuse to ever permit his crown to experience a soft, vulnerable configuration of this classification across the future timeline.
He would remake his ego into the absolute King governing this planet, guiding this world line—which was mathematically hardcoded to slide into total cosmic expiration—to smoothly step onto an entirely fresh historical track!
A single Card slowly completed its sub-atomic compilation within the center of his palm, silver-white ripples vibrating violently across the atmosphere as the stygian card face locked its parameters into reality.
[EX00? · THE GOD KING]
High across the boundless upper stratosphere, Ryo cede the presence of Sosuke Aizen a deeply mocking, detached look.
"The half-finished, unrefined engine your hands put together is layout-wise, being systematically smashed into raw biological pulp down there. It appears that when the board clears, the lone [Card] that rogue entity meticulously preserved to dominate this epoch is poised to finalize an absolute win across this hand?"
Sosuke Aizen monitored the sovereign down below as he clutched the Card face, looking for all intents and purposes like an elite monarch poised to finalize his absolute coronation to guide the world line toward a fresh destination. Staring at the spectacle, the smile mapping Aizen's features could layout-wise, no longer be suppressed.
Crack.
The precise acoustic profile of a foundational lock fracturing was flawlessly captured by his analytical arrays.
"Does your intellect capture that sound, Ryo-kun?..."
"That child... is finally on the event horizon of exposing his absolute, unadulterated face to the table."
The smile tracing his lips contorted into an exceptionally twisted, beautifully monstrous register—compressing an array of deep, nostalgic recognition intertwined with an immense sense of absolute release upon witnessing an asset he had painstakingly bided his time across cycles to monitor finally step onto the map.
Ryo smoothly redirected his eyes to dissect the parameters below.
His tracking arrays locked onto that wild predator whose physical armor had just been sliced open by a highly optimized, near-perfect conceptual Authority, his cognitive faculty concurrently subjected to the absolute override of a dominance-type sovereign Spiritual Light.
A stygian, absolute black coloration was violently igniting across the demon's biology.
Those pitch-black light rays violently punched out from the interior tracks, screaming straight through the silver-glowing fractures of his skin.
ROAR!
An absolute, thoroughly non-human biological roar instantaneously and flawlessly pierced the high heavens.
(End of Chapter)
~~~
Get early access to 50+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 5 new reviews = 2 extra chapters
Every 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter