178 THE CALL OF THE BEACON
The unsuspecting staff struck by the corrosion of the corrosivers were soon forming from their bodies, new corrosivers… screeching, twitching, and relentless.
Security tried to hold the line, but every fall added to the horde. Each death fed the next wave.
Screams echoed down the tower, floor by floor.
And from the hovering helicopter, Shawn Zetheris could only watch as his tower, his empire, was devoured from within.
His smirk was gone. His reflection in the glass showed nothing but terror.
"No…everything is over."
Below, the at Heap howled—a sound that seed to laugh at him in unintelligible language, "Can't breach your shields heh? Never say never…"
-----
[Before the breach of Zetheris Tower's force field]
While Shawn Zetheris and his staff descended into panic above, Dan was already inside the tower, dashing down the ergency stairs. His footsteps echoed like thunder through the smoke-filled corridors.
He rembered the plans Kail had given him long ago—back when they were still figuring out how to make Zetheris bleed. The schematic had revealed everything: every vault, power grid, and hidden passage in the tower.
The power room lay deep below, buried beneath seven layers of reinforced plating and private defense fields.
The halls were chaos.
Staff ran past him in panic, desperate to escape the monster tearing the building apart. None of them noticed the invisible figure slipping through the smoke toward the restricted sector.
Inside the power chamber, the scientists were still at work.
They had no choice. If the tower's force field failed, it wouldn't just cost them their jobs—and it would cost them their lives too.
Dan moved silently through the shadows, scanning the machines. "Where should I look…" he murmured.
Then he saw it—the main generator, thrumming with crimson light. The design looked familiar. It was almost identical to the Genesis Core reactor he'd seen in GenSyn.
But this one was different.
While most cities powered their shields with Aur stones, Zetheris Tower's defense grid drew its energy from sothing far darker: Bloodstones—crystallized alien blood extracted from the space rift.
And there, in the center of the reactor chamber, pulsed the core.
"Core of Genesis."
Without hesitation, Dan reached out and placed his hand against it. The light surged through him.
"Congratulations. Core of Genesis successfully assimilated."
"Core of Genesis Level 2 activated: 2/2."
The machine flickered, then died. The generator's hum vanished into silence.
"What's happening?" one of the engineers shouted. "Power loss…total system failure!"
Before they could react, the building shook violently again. Panic spread through the lab.
"We can't fix this now! Evacuate!" soone scread.
Within monts, the power room was empty.
Dan stood alone, surrounded by rows of Bloodstones glowing faintly in containnt racks. A dangerous idea crossed his mind.
He extended his hand. "Might as well…"
In a surge of energy, he assimilated every last one.
The Bloodstones dissolved into his veins like fire. His blood roared.
Blood Stats increased by
1000.
Current Blood Rank: BBB.
A sharp pain lanced through his head. His vision wavered. The familiar hunger clawed at the back of his mind… his bloodlust was returning.
Although he's controlled his blood lust with the source of unknown, it only protects him to a certain extent.
Beyond Rank BBB, it was all up to himself.
He clenched his jaw and forced his will through the darkness. "Not now."
Luckily, he had more than one treasure that could suppress the blood lust.
He quickly activated The Core of Blood Level 3, suppressing the surge. His pulse steadied, his mind clearing again.
"Taking the Bloodstones was a bad idea," he muttered, exhaling. "Too much of a good thing will kill you."
He scanned the ruined lab. There was nothing else of value here. There was only one place left to go-
-The secret vault.
There were countless locks and layered defenses between him and it, but Dan didn't bother searching for the access codes.
He simply broke through.
Walls split apart under the impact of his plasma-charged strikes. tal flowed and dripped from the heat. He tore through the last barrier and finally stood before it—an enormous vault door, gleaming with the golden insignia of Zetheris Corporation.
He paused, the ground trembling as the at Heap pounded sowhere above.
"So, this is it," he said quietly. "Zetheris' special vault."
The Black Halo on his chest pulsed, gathering its light into a single point. With the assimilation of the Genesis Core, he could fire more shots of plasma beams without his power exhausting.
"Halo's Judgnt."
The beam fired, and the vault shuddered under the weight of divine plasma. The vault door was pulverized.
Dan stepped into the secret vault of Zetheris. The place was packed with treasures—credits, artifacts, alien tech—but there was no way he could carry them all.
He grabbed a large bag and filled it with what mattered most: aur cards worth at least half a billion.
"Damn it, if only Liorea were here," he muttered. "She'd have cleaned out the whole place."
He scanned the vault quickly.
Rows of alien cores, experintal devices, rare components… most of it he didn't need. Then his eyes caught sothing gleaming at the center pedestal.
The Heart of Ra.
It was the sa relic Zairgid had promised to the Trionix Corporation. Dan smirked.
"Sorry, Trionix…but this one's mine."
Without hesitation, he assimilated the Heart of Ra. Power surged through him, pulsing like a second heartbeat.
Then he found two more Core of Electricity. He assimilated them too.
Above, the tower trembled…the at Heap had nearly consud the structure. Ti was running out.
Dan slung the bag over his shoulder and raced toward the exit as the floors caved in behind him.
When he erged into the open, the night sky was on fire. The at Heap's body had swallowed most of the crumbling Zetheris Tower, and high above, helicopters hovered like vultures.
He looked up, recognizing who they carried.
"Damn you, Shawn Zetheris," he said coldly. "Serves you right."
-----
Dan was about to leave when a thunderous roar echoed behind him—the bellow of corpses screaming in unison. He turned just in ti to see another at Heap rising from the burning ruins.
"Dammit," he muttered. "How many of these at freaks do I have to deal with? And why the hell are they all after ?"
Before he could think, two more at Heaps erged from the smoke, surging toward him.
For so reason, they were all drawn to him…like he was so kind of beacon.
"Well, this leaves
no choice," he sighed, launching himself toward a nearby rooftop.
He dropped his heavy bag of aurs there for safekeeping, then shot back into the sky toward the approaching monsters.
The at Heaps roared in response, following him imdiately. And soon, more of them began to rise across the city…massive, grotesque, writhing forms drawn to Dan's presence.
Within minutes, an entire horde of colossal at Heaps was trailing him through the city streets like so nightmarish parade.
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