Only I Can Adapt: Genetic Evolution System-Chapter 53: From The Depths of The Universe

He swung the shard into himself without any restraint, plunging the fragment into his gut. It was a pain unlike any other; every muscle tensed with such intensity it felt as though his entire body was ripping itself apart.

"Nnnaaagh...!" An agonized groan turned into a scream as he keeled over.

Out from his pores, a black substance oozed as his mind scrambled, his senses in turmoil as the air around him felt hot and fuzzy, breathed into his lungs like a silk. The asphalt at his fingertips felt like puddy, unable to find a grip as he coughed, wheezed, then spat up.

From the depths of his being, the dark bile spewed out endlessly as his mind struggled to form a coherent thought.

[All internal organs failing. Brain fu–tion c-mp–ized.]

[@&^...Att3mPt1ing g3net1c adapt@t1i0n.((]

It felt like his own consciousness was being swallowed by a deep mass, a shade looming over his sense of self. He focused, intently, on even the grain of the street, anything to keep himself awake as his body convulsed.

What felt like an accursed substance began to form around his body like a shell; the black liquid hardened, molding into the shape of what was missing from his form.

’It doesn’t...hurt?’ He realized.

Off the ground, the young man rose to his feet, looking down at his body. The black shell around him persisted, though he could feel what occurred beneath.

Ever-shifting, moment by moment, his cellular structure changed.

"You possess the ability to evolve. I understand now."

Across the burning road, the fulminare general descended, observing him as though he were a foreign entity.

"If that’s the truth, then what you’ve just done–there is no way of knowing what may come of it," Ignatius remarked as his flaming hair flowed in the wind. "What you allowed into your body was a fragment of an Akashic Cube."

Each word of the fulminare was only heard vaguely in its meaning as the young man stood there, swaying, regaining his balance as his entire body altered by the moment.

"The Akashic Cubes...They’re materializations of the universe’s memories. Near infinite concepts, forgotten worlds, discarded civilizations, elements, diseases–the scope of what’s within the Akashic material is endless," Ignatius furthered. "Do you understand what you’ve done, then?"

"--" Seven silently stood, experiencing each cell in his body vibrate and morph.

It took every ounce of will to maintain his sense of self, feeling it slip away. There was no stability within his body; a constantly changing, ever-evolving form–it left behind everything he was, moment by moment.

"You’re adapting to a raging river, where each drop of water is a separate concept," Ignatius deduced. "I wonder, what are you becoming? No matter what that form is, I suppose, I will burn it away all the same."

The answer was lost on the lone human as well, as only the thumping of his heart played in his ears. As his cells fluctuated and the air around him pulsed, he observed the fulminare launch towards him.

Before Ignatius set off, he sensed the shift in heat just a moment prior. Instantly, his cells adapted, fluttering through the endless pages within the sea of knowledge infecting his body–

[//Spontaneous Ev0lut10n: Spatial Manipulation]

He raised his hand without urgency, only with the intent of pushing the almighty destroyer back. The air was folded like a paper, connected by two halves, condensed before being forcibly expanded.

With a push, the fulminare was thrown back by the expanse of space. The boundaries of logic were stretched as he contorted the area around him with a wave of his hand. It bent and curved; the scenery folding as the skyscrapers were folded like dough.

–

Across the cityscape, within the fleeing trucks, the distortions in space were felt. In each of the speeding trucks and helicopters, the soldiers all experienced the turbulence.

Haoyu stayed at the buzzing monitor of his laptop, tapping at the keys frantically, "What’s this...?"

"Do ya hear that?" Alexander asked, seated across while keeping a steady hold on their unconscious comrades.

The air vibrated, sending a hum that echoed off the metal interior of the vehicle. All the soldiers could do was sit there in quiet disbelief, listening in on the chaotic rumbling from the other side of the sector.

Laying on the floor that trembled along the bumpy road, the brunette hair girl’s eyes opened, if only slightly. From the glossy look in her eyes, it seemed as if the consciousness she displayed was nothing more than a fleeting gambit.

"May–?!" Alexander shouted in surprise.

"It’s Seven, isn’t it?" May wondered breathlessly. "He’s still out there?"

"There’s only one force on our side capable of combating whatever disaster is brewing out there," Haoyu answered, adjusting his unsteady glasses. "It’s him alright."

—

A conductor guiding the tune of space; he moved his hands, warping the scenery around him. Each time the blazing fulminare erupted towards him, he flung the figure back. Keeping the warrior away wasn’t enough as colossal ropes formed of burning energy emerged from the figure’s grasp.

Even a kilometer away, the heat was felt, whipped around at Ignatius’ behest as the elemental lines cut through any buildings in their path. He moved with instinct guiding his step, hopping up as one of the far-reaching whips passed beneath his feet, leaving the asphalt beneath melting in its passing.

As he returned to the ground, ducking beneath a burning rope that cut through the bronze highrise to his right, another shift bubbled through his cells.

[//Spontaneous Ev0lut10n: Hyper-Barreled Appendagemancy]

The burning light in the form of a man approached as his right arm shifted. It wasn’t against his own will, though not of his own accord, driven by instinct. With an unnatural orchestra of cracks and snaps, his palm split and retracted as though his flesh was segmented steel.

An obsidian barrel emerged from within his arm, reinforcing itself with a stock extending from his elbow. It stretched several meters in length, vibrating with an unknown force swirling within its form–

Like tensing a muscle, he squeezed as the flesh-formed rifle fired just as the fulminare drew close. A force expelled with such thunderous arrival every window in the vicinity shattered into thousands of fragments.

The dust settled to an emptied husk of a street, nothing left of the disintegrated road ahead.

"Powerful, but obvious; slow."

From above–the stoic words reached his ears like a distant whisper as he looked up, only to find the Sun itself descending upon him. The scalding hand grasped his head, flipping his vision as he found himself smashing into the ground beneath him.

It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, even with the exoskeleton around his body, the vibrations that hummed through his body with the residual impact rattled him nonetheless. He attempted to pick himself up from the man-shaped crater in the ground, though the immovable hand held him there.

"Burn," Ignatius coldly issued. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The temperature shot up with a heat that boiled the blood in his veins, instantly feeling himself being cooked from the inside-out. He flexed his entire body, folding the space between himself and the direction quickest from the fulminare’s grasp–

Pop.

In that single moment, he found himself back to his feet, freed from his brief captivity. The evolving man turned, holding his hand out to the golden figure that had already noticed his relocation.

There was only a block at most between them, but in that fraction smaller than milliseconds, more infinitesimal than the grains of sand on a beach, Ignatius moved.

Yet just as quickly, Seven clenched the space around his enemy.

"Hrrrmph...!" Ignatius strained, his entire body seeming to flex in response to the unseen grasp.

From above and below, the fold of space itself compressed the larger-than-life figure, pressing the mighty commander from several meters into less than a twig in scope. It felt like he was attempting to flatten an orb of titanium with two wooden blocks, as if the air itself would burst from the bewildering constitution of the fulminare.

Beneath the immeasurable grip of the folded space, somehow, the strength of the fulminare commander fought. The bright-orange fiery hair elevated into an azure shine as the temperature rose from Ignatius’ position, gripping the formless hold.

"I cannot...be held."

From a single moment away to being turned into a liquid, the fulminare pried and burned away the folds of space that held him. In the same instant the grasp he had was overpowered, the blazing figure rocketed to him.

A fist empowered by the sun itself struck him in the chest, sending him flying back as his body bounced against the street. Pain was a faraway concept as his body continued changing itself from the inside and out, feeling nothing of the damage taken a moment prior.

["I’m still human–I’m still me."]

He held onto his flickering consciousness, flipping onto his feet as he slid back on the asphalt, looking ahead.

Ignatius was fixed in the sky, summoning gargantuan gatherings of fire shaped into beasts; from great, burning steed to creatures resembling squids and gorillas. All of the elementals dwarfed the nearest buildings.

"The march of incineration will bring this land to ruin," Ignatius quietly claimed, gesturing his hand forward.