Chapter 417: Creep

Elias was treating the entire situation like a game.

To him, Kaela wasn’t simply an intruder.

She was an opportunity.

He had spent countless hours studying Monsterification, Titled abilities, artificial mana manipulation, and the strange effects that had begun appearing in Mark’s body. Yet there were still limits to what he could learn from observation alone.

Now, one of the strongest people he had ever encountered was tearing through his facility. It was the perfect opportunity to see exactly what Kaela’s body was capable of.

More importantly, it was a chance to see how his creations would fare against her.

Elias leaned back in the control room, watching the security feeds with an almost amused expression.

“Let’s see what happens.”

The lights in the corridor ahead of Kaela suddenly went out.

She slowed.

The darkness stretched farther than she could see.

Then something moved.

Several distorted figures emerged from the shadows.

Kaela’s eyes narrowed.

At first glance, they almost looked human.

Almost.

Their bodies were twisted into unnatural proportions, with limbs that no longer matched human anatomy. Some had elongated arms ending in thick claws, while others had enlarged legs that bent at strange angles. Patches of hardened skin covered their bodies like scales, and several had additional mouths or eyes growing from places where they had no business existing.

Kaela stared.

“They’re worse than I expected.”

These weren’t simply humans who had consumed the Blessing drug.

They were something far beyond that.

The experiments had pushed their bodies into monstrous forms, creating grotesque hybrids that looked like humans had been forced to evolve into beasts without any concern for what the final result would look like.

A voice echoed through the chamber.

“How do you like my creations?”

Kaela immediately recognised it.

The doctor.

Elias.

“My Chimeras.”

Kaela didn’t even bother responding.

She looked at the nearest creature, then at the others.

“I knew he was a creep.”

The first Chimera lunged.

Kaela disappeared.

A claw tore through the space where her head had been a moment earlier.

She reappeared beside the creature and drove her fist into its ribs.

BOOM!

The Chimera flew sideways and smashed into the wall.

Before it could recover, another one charged.

Kaela ducked beneath its massive arm and drove her elbow into its jaw.

The creature’s head snapped backwards.

It staggered.

Kaela grabbed its arm.

Then she threw it into another Chimera.

The two collided with enough force to crack the wall behind them.

Kaela grinned.

“Okay.”

She rolled her shoulders.

“These things aren’t bad.”

Elias watched from the control room.

The Chimeras were powerful.

Each one possessed physical abilities around the B Rank level, with bodies enhanced through artificial mana and experimental Monsterification. Their strength varied, but all of them possessed some form of abnormal physical trait.

One could stretch its arms several metres.

Another possessed hardened scales capable of stopping conventional weapons.

A third had four arms and incredible coordination.

Several possessed regeneration.

Under normal circumstances, any one of them would have been a serious threat.

Kaela simply wasn’t normal.

A Chimera’s claws tore across her stomach.

Blood sprayed.

Kaela didn’t so much as wince and casually glanced down at the wound that was already closing. The flesh knitted itself together so quickly that it almost looked as though she had never been injured.

Another creature slammed into her from behind.

She was thrown through a metal railing.

Kaela hit the ground, rolled, and immediately sprang back up.

The broken bones in her arm were already repairing themselves.

She flexed her fingers.

“That all you’ve got?”

Three Chimeras attacked simultaneously.

Kaela’s foresight activated.

The world seemed to slow around her.

She could see the attacks before they fully committed.

The first claw came from the left.

She stepped aside.

The second struck from above.

She ducked.

The third tried to catch her from behind.

Kaela spun.

Her fist connected with its face.

CRACK!

The Chimera went flying.

Kaela immediately followed.

She grabbed it by the throat and slammed it into the floor.

The impact shook the corridor.

Another creature rushed her, and Kaela kicked it in the chest.

It crashed through a reinforced wall.

She followed straight after it.

Then another.

And another.

The fight moved deeper into the facility as Kaela tore through the Chimeras one after another.

There were dozens of them.

Elias had spent an enormous amount of money creating them.

Years of research, countless failed experiments, specialised equipment, mana-infused materials, and even human subjects. Everything had gone into producing these creatures, yet Elias couldn’t have cared less about losing them.

He wasn’t watching his creations being destroyed.

He was studying Kaela.

His eyes remained fixed on the monitors.

“Interesting.”

A Chimera struck Kaela across the back.

She stumbled forward.

The wound closed almost instantly.

Elias leaned closer.

“Her regeneration is even faster than the previous data suggested, and if it could be replicated…”

The man smiled to himself maniacally.

He watched with fascination as another Chimera attacked.

Kaela caught its arm.

“Too slow.”

She twisted.

The creature’s body spun through the air and crashed into several others.

“Excellent!” he called out through the speakers.

Kaela continued fighting, ignoring the creep and letting loose on the twisted creatures that seemed to be swarming in out of nowhere.

She didn’t even seem tired.

Every injury disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.

Every attack became easier to anticipate.

Her foresight was becoming more natural with every exchange, allowing her to react to movements before they were fully executed.

The Chimeras were strong, dangerous, and the culmination of Elias’s research. But Kaela was tearing through them like they were training dummies, and they simply couldn’t compare to the A Rank who was still progressing.

Eventually, she stood alone in the middle of the corridor with dozens of mangled Chimeras scattered around her.

Kaela wiped some green blood off her face.

“That was fun.”

Elias smiled behind the security monitors.

‘Would these things help Mark?’ she asked herself.

That was the question.

The Chimeras possessed monstrous bodies and artificial mana.

But they weren’t true monsters.

Would their living essence be enough to satisfy Mark’s body?

Or did the demon mean actual monsters?

She wasn’t sure.

As such, she continued deeper into the giant facility, planning on finding exactly what she was looking for.

She smashed through reinforced walls like they were tin foil. Security doors were torn from their frames. Automated defences fired at her from hidden compartments, but Kaela simply moved around them or allowed her regeneration to deal with the damage.

The deeper she went, the more heavily fortified the facility became.

Elias was clearly throwing everything he had at her.

Kaela couldn’t help but laugh.

‘He really doesn’t want me in here.’

Eventually, she reached another large chamber.

Unlike the previous corridors, this one was strangely quiet – there were no automated weapons, Chimeras, or alarms.

Kaela stepped inside.

A single figure stood waiting for her.

Elias.