16 Absorbing And Evolving

With a thought, I triggered the absorption "muscle" in my mark and started absorbing his bioenergy. It was like a floodgate had been opened, and I was immediately swept away by a torrent of sensation.

It was as if I had raw electricity coursing through my veins as his energy surged into me. My body trembled, my eyes widening in joy, a wave of ecstatic pleasure rippling through my body as with each second, more and more of his lifeforce flowed into me.

I could feel every fiber of my being electrified, as if each cell was pulsating with newfound vitality. My bones seemed to solidify, while my muscles contracted and tightened, coiling to becoming more dense and stronger.

It was as if I was being forged anew, every sinew and tendon honed to perfection, every fiber of muscle rippling with strength and resilience.

Also, I felt all the pain, discomfort, and distress in my body disappearing as my body healed rapidly, filling my body with a profound sense of vitality and energy that bubbled within me.

Relishing the intoxicating experience, the high died after a minute, and when I looked down, I saw the cyborg's shriveled gray body with its mouth wide open.

He looked like a desiccated corpse that had had its entire moisture content drained out of it. Even his exoskeleton looked worn out and brittle with no sign of energy coming from it.

I stood up on my feet and clenched my hands into a tight fist, enjoying the increased density and tightness of my muscles, and grinned.

I felt so much stronger than before. It was as if I'd gotten a three times multiplier in power. It was surreal. Almost like I was a different person.

If one person gave me this amount of power, then what about if I drained more? I couldn't even imagine it. But I didn't have to. I had the opportunity to find out.

Scanning the smoke-drenched place with my eyes, I pinpointed the locations of the five people I left unconscious. There were four now since Andreas had been blown to bits by the residual blast of the rocket.

I walked away from the cyborg's dead body to one of the closer bodies and bent down to check his pulse. He was alive but barely breathing.

Without wasting much time, I placed my right hand on his head and promptly absorbed his lifeforce, leaving him dead and shriveled up like his leader.

As the exhilarating sensation of added vitality and raw power in my body, I moved to the rest and began draining the lifeforce of each of the remaining unconscious men.

With each successive absorption, the sensations grew more intense, more ecstatic, more intoxicating. It was as if I was being reborn.

Each infusion of energy turned me into something greater, more complex, and vaster than any human. It was incredible.

The moment I drained the last guy, I had to grit my teeth as my body started shaking uncontrollably.

The energy within me was rumbling, burning up my system as it boiled and coursed through my veins like molten lava, and I could feel my hunger gnawing heavily at the edges of my consciousness, urging me to seek and consume more.

My aura flared up without my consent, much brighter and more intense than before as the burning sensation only increased, my body quaking rapidly, like an active volcano about to erupt.

I tried to stop it, clear my mind, and calm myself, but failed, only adding more fuel to the fire. The lack of control made me knit my brows in annoyance, and deciding that enough was enough, I forced my right leg to raise up.

Using my whole might, I brought it crashing down into the concrete ground. My eyes immediately widened in shock when the result played out before me.

The deafening and thunderous roar echoed all over the room as the concrete floor groaned and buckled under the force of my stomp, large cracks spiderwebbing out from beneath my foot, spreading all over the floor like tendrils of lightning.

The ground beneath me crumpled up like paper and collapsed, sending chunks of debris flying into the air that scattered in all directions, spreading all over the place.

Large amounts of dust billowed up in thick clouds, mingling and mixing up with the smoke, obscuring my vision as the whole building shook like it was in the middle of an earthquake, as I stood firmly in the destroyed ground.

Through the haze, I could make out the extent of the damage with eyes widened to their maximum in shock and disbelief.

The once solid floor was now nothing more than a shattered maze of broken concrete and rebar with mangled up and twisted dead bodies and charred or burning wooden pieces mixed within.

Silence gradually descended in the place as the echoes of my stomp and the dust settled or died down, giving me the chance to finally survey the ruins as my body finally cooled down.

The whole place was wrecked beyond repair. The pillars and walls were covered in cracks, the ground was destroyed and sunken, and all the crates had been broken up into flaming pieces, the plasma rifles scattered all over.

I was lost for words. I didn't know what to say or do. So I just stood there mutely and observed the scene like a third person, utterly shocked and surprised.

With just one stomp, I had almost collapsed the entire warehouse. Just one stomp. It was just a few days ago I learned how to fly, and now I was almost on the verge of collapsing a building with just my body?

I chuckled and placed my right hand on my face, bursting into mad laughter that disrupted the disturbing peace in the place, as the implications ran laps in my mind.

My power never ceased to amaze me, and I didn't think it ever would. At this point, I was even frightened a little.

Not by my increased hunger that had now become a noticeable echo at the back of my mind, whispering and beckoning me to feed more, but by my growth.

If I continued to grow at this geometric rate, I wouldn't even need a month before I'd become akin to a monster in human flesh. A monster capable of rendering even entire civilizations moot.

I realized it was a bit far-fetched, but the thought alone was enough to make me stop laughing and crack a broad grin that would probably unsettle any onlooker.

"A monster huh?" I muttered, my lips falling into a thin smile, "Let's see how it goes. For now, it was time to go home," I said as my ears managed to catch the faint cries of sirens.

My aura covered me as I calmly ascended, my body considerably lighter than before, and after glancing at the room one last time, I flew out of the building into the open air.

Floating high above, a few meters away from the building that had black smoke and dust billowing out of its windows, I turned my head in the direction of the sirens.

I could see a column of Bellwood police vehicles and a couple of ambulances rushing towards the place in the distance. Their sirens blaring at max volume and their lights flashing.

Shifting my eyes back to the building, I smiled as an interesting thought crossed my mind. It was time to get rid of any evidence and cover my tracks thoroughly.

If it was my previous self, I would've just left since by the time the police and fire trucks got here and did their jobs, the fire would've already consumed most, if not all, traces of evidence.

But I was a different person now. And I had a very colorful way of doing just that. I hoped the arriving party would appreciate the fireworks.

With a smile

on my face, I raised my hand up into the air and channeled my powered-up energy through it, my palm facing upwards.

It spiraled above my palm and slowly formed into a large golden sphere of crackling energy that pulsed with power, its luminescence casting a bright glow upon the surroundings below.

I brought my hand down after a few seconds, releasing the large sphere towards the warehouse, watching it streak through the air like a raging comet.

The moment it made contact with the building, it erupted into a blinding explosion of light and sound.

The force of the explosion threw shockwaves rippling through the air with a thunderous boom, shattering windows and tearing through walls with reckless abandon.

The warehouse buckled and groaned under the attack, its foundations trembling, as the structure collapsed in on itself, a cascade of debris tumbling to the ground below, crackling flames licking the sky and engulfing everything in its path.

Clouds and clouds of black smoke and dust filled the air, blocking my view. As the local authorities drew closer, seemingly increasing their speeds, I peered through the haze to see the state of the building.

The once towering and large dark warehouse had been replaced by or reduced to a smoldering ruin with the walls and watchtowers that previously secured the place reduced to piles of concrete debris.

I hovered in the air quietly and admired the aftermath of my handiwork, my smile broadening to its limits.

Nodding in satisfaction, I turned around and flew away, creating a loud boom as I willed myself to speed up, accidentally breaking the sound barrier.

...The future looked most promising...