Beast Evolution Forge

Vell felt it before he saw it - the breaking of bonds that connected him to his family. Each snap felt like a knife through his heart. He ran faster, ignoring the pain that shot through his exhausted body.

When he reached the safe house, he found the door broken open. Inside, he froze at the sight before him.

A man in a black coat stood in the middle of the room, his presence overwhelming even to Vell's weakened senses. Around him lay Vell's family, motionless.

"No..." His voice cracked as he saw Wren's human form sprawled near the window, her usually playful face now still. The twin slimes, Sia and Mia, had been reduced to small puddles, their attempts at human forms dissolving away.

"You're late," the man said simply. He held Yenna by the throat, while Kana lay unconscious at his feet. "I watched your fight with Lucia and Suzy. Impressive, but they were just pawns."

"Please," his voice shook as he fell to his knees. All his earlier confidence vanished. "They're innocent. They're my family."

"The Organization doesn't leave loose ends," the man replied. His grip on Yenna tightened. "Even after all your displays of power, you're still weak. Attachments make you vulnerable."

"I'll do anything," he begged, tears streaming down his face. "Take me instead. Kill me. Just let them live."

The man's expression didn't change. "This isn't a negotiation. This is a lesson."

Yenna's eyes met Vell's. She tried to smile, even now trying to comfort him. "It's not your fault," she managed to whisper.

"No..." he tried to stand, but his body wouldn't move. The earlier fight drained him completely, any more and his body would shut down. "Please, no..."

The snap was quick. Yenna's body crumpled to the floor.

Vell's scream shook the building. He crawled toward her, past the remains of his family, reaching for her hand.

"One left," the man said, moving toward Kana's unconscious form. "The Organization sends its regards."

"Stop..." his voice was barely a whisper now. "She's just a child..."

"Rank 10 of the Western Branch," the man continued as if Vell hadn't spoken. "Remember that when you think of this moment. This is what happens when you go against us."

The last snap of a bond breaking echoed in his mind. He collapsed, surrounded by what remained of his family.

The world seemed to slow down as he stared at his hands, covered in Yenna's blood. His mind replayed every moment - Wren's morning jokes, Sia and Mia's childish arguments, Kana's bright smile, Yenna's gentle touch. Gone. Everyone was gone.

'I promised to protect them,' his thoughts spiraled. 'I promised they'd be safe. I promised...'

His chest felt like it was being crushed. Each breath brought memories - teaching Kana swordsmanship, watching the slimes learn to transform into various human forms, Wren's first successful human form, Yenna's bright smile...

'My fault. My fault. My fault.'

The man turned to leave, his footsteps echoing in the quiet room. Something inside Vell twisted, a deep, primal pain that went beyond physical limits.

"No..." His vision blurred with tears and rage. "NO!"

'If I die, I die. But you don't get to walk away.'

"All limiters..." his voice cracked as he forced his broken body to move. "Release!"

Blue lines erupted across his skin, but they were unstable, crackling with dangerous energy. His mana pathways, already strained from the earlier fight, began to tear.

"Oh?" The man turned, raising an eyebrow. "Still trying?"

He screamed as he forced himself up, blood pouring from his nose and ears. The mana lines pulsed erratically, his body rejecting the surge of power.

'Just let me hit him once. Just once.'

He lunged forward, but his legs gave out. His mana pathways exploded one by one, sending waves of agony through his body. He collapsed at the man's feet, coughing blood.

"Pathetic," the man said, looking down at him. "You can't even die properly."

Vell's vision began to fade as his body shut down, his last sight being his family's bodies scattered around him. His last thought was a simple, broken apology.

'I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...no, fuck that, I won't let you leave, no matter what. Its your turn, fuck him up.'

'Hehehe, leave it to me, rest for a bit.' His alternate self took over the body and all the restrictions on the body came undone, as he is different from his counter part, he is made of pure corrupted mana, far more pure than even Vell realised.

The man in the black coat took a step back as dark energy began pouring from Vell's body. Something was different - the blue lines that had covered his skin earlier were being consumed by waves of pitch-black corruption.

"What's this?" The man's confident smile wavered slightly. "Our data didn't mention this."

A laugh that wasn't quite Vell's echoed through the room. His body rose up smoothly, despite the broken bones and torn muscles. The corruption spread across his skin like living ink, forming patterns that seemed to move on their own.

"Data?" The voice that came from Vell's mouth was deeper, rougher. "You can't measure what you don't understand."

The man launched forward with incredible speed, aiming to end things quickly. His fist passed through empty air as the corrupted form simply wasn't there anymore.

"Too slow." The words came from behind him. Before he could turn, something slammed into his back with enough force to send him through the wall.

The man recovered quickly, rolling to his feet in the street outside. His black coat was torn where the hit had landed, revealing gleaming armor underneath. "Impossible. Your mana pathways were destroyed."

"'His' were." He stepped through the hole in the wall, moving with an unnatural grace. "I don't need them."

For the first time, a hint of worry crossed the man's face. He pulled out a device similar to what Lucia had used earlier. It sparked and died in his hand.

"Your toys won't work on me." The corruption around his form rippled. "I'm not bound by the same rules."

The man's armor began to glow as he activated his own enhancement systems. "The Organization has contingencies for everything."

"Oh do they?"

The fight that followed was nothing like before. Where Vell had been tactical and precise, his other self was pure savage force. He moved like smoke, striking from impossible angles, each hit carrying enough power to crack the man's enhanced armor.

The street around them began to decay wherever the corruption touched. Plants withered, metal rusted, concrete crumbled. The man found himself being forced back, his attacks passing harmlessly through the shifting mass of corruption.

"What are you?" he demanded, genuine fear creeping into his voice.

He paused, his form solidifying briefly into something almost human. "I'm what happens when you break someone completely." The voice was a mix of Vell's and something older, darker. "I'm your nightmare."

The man tried to retreat, but tendrils of corruption shot out, wrapping around his limbs. His armor began to crack and decay where they touched.@@novelbin@@

"You killed his family." He moved closer. "You broke his last thread of humanity." The tendrils tightened, spreading corruption through the cracks in the armor. "Now you get to see what that unleashed."

The man screamed as corruption began seeping into his body. His enhanced systems tried to fight it off, but they were never designed for this. The decay spread through him, turning his carefully engineered improvements against him.

"The Organization..." he gasped out.

"Will learn." The corruption consumed him completely, leaving nothing but dust that scattered in the wind.

He stood still for a moment, looking back at the broken safe house. He moved silently through the wreckage, dark tendrils trailing in his wake. Each step left decay in its path, but he carefully directed it away from the bodies scattered across the floor. His gaze swept over them with clinical detachment - they meant nothing to him directly, yet they meant everything to Vell. Continue reading at My Virtual Library Empire

He paused at Wren's body, head tilting slightly as he studied her still form. "You made him soft," he mused, his voice a rough whisper that seemed to absorb light rather than create sound. "Made him think he could have a normal life, a family." The corruption swirled around him agitatedly, but never touched her.

"You were always there, from the beginning, reading his memories showed that he has a very special place in his heart for you." He knelt beside her, the corruption drawing back to reveal a more solid shape. "He spent so much time teaching you, I truly don't understand it." A bitter laugh escaped him.

His hand hovered over her face, darkness coalescing between them. "I truly don't understand it, this need to connect, to protect. Power should be used for survival, for dominance." He glanced at the other bodies - the twin slimes and Yenna. "But watching him with all of you... perhaps there was something to it. He was stronger, in his way. Different than my kind of strength, well, his strength but you know... "

The corruption around him began to pulse with a bright light. "He's unconscious now, broken in body and spirit. Even if he recovers, losing all of you will destroy what makes him... him." His form started to dissolve, particles of pure corrupted mana floating in the air. "I am not meant to feel, to care. But I cannot watch him suffer, be purposeless and alone."

The dark particles gathered around Wren's body, forming intricate patterns in the air. "So I will do what he would do - something foolish, something weak." The patterns began to glow with an intense purple light. "My essence is pure corrupted mana, the very thing that gives you life. I can transfer it, give it new purpose."

He placed his rapidly dissolving hand on her chest. "Live again, little weasel. Keep him happy for me." The corruption surged into her body, carrying with it the last words of Vell's other self: "Perhaps... I did learn something from him after all."

The dark particles faded away, leaving no trace of his existence. For a moment, everything was still. Then Wren's chest rose with a sudden, desperate breath.