92 Chapter 92 - New Plans?

Lily's retreat wasn't simply a matter of her being weaker than the reinforcements—rather, she believed that, for various reasons, it would be best not to directly engage in actions against the Brotherhood.

To list a few— she was unsure of the current fighting strength of the Brotherhood, but even in their earliest days they had quite the line-up of mutants that could pose a threat to her and her Hive.

Furthermore she knew the influence the Brotherhood held thanks to her knowledge about the Movies and the Comics— and from skimming through the Marvel Wiki. 

The Brotherhood was powerful enough to influence politics and connections, with reach in almost every industry and country behind the scenes.

Even if this was still in their early days, she believed that they still had enough power to outclass someone such as herself, so it was an unnecessary risk.

But the main reason she didn't want to get involved with the Brotherhood yet was because of the mutants behind them. 

The Brotherhood consisted of multiple Alpha-Level mutants and even had mutants that were skilled in forsight or deduction abilities— such abilities would prove to be heavily disadvatagous to her if they exposed her.

With those reasons as the leading contributor to her retreat— she believed she had made the right decision.

She needed not worry about her Hive Units, as the ones that were still alive followed closely behind her, leaving only one Scout behind to keep an eye on the situation.

The ones that had perished had their bodies turned to a dust-like substance that instantly evaporated into nothingness. 

Lily wasn't sure the exact reasons behind why they did this, but it was somewhat like an instinctive defense mechanism that the Hive Units had built throughout her entire species.

They would turn to nothingness upon death— that way, they would leave behind no form of DNA or remains that could be used against them. In fact, this extended to Lily herself.

If Lily were to be injured, or matter of any form were to leave her body and her control— they would instantly evaporate. It was a natural defensive mechanism her species had evolved, but it was useful for cleanup.

With the night as a cloak, she quickly made her way through the lands and towards the Causeway that connected Bahrain to the mainland. Her decision was without hestiation— she would leave Bahrain.

She had already spent quite some time in Bahrain and caused a lot of mess here— now, with her inadvertently entangling herself with a faction as formidable as the Brotherhood, it was all the more reason to finally move on.

Granted, she did not plan to stop her attacks— in fact, with the new information she had gained, she had all the more reason to keep attacking bases connected to the Mutant Group.

Lily understood that in the grand chessboard of power, knowledge was a weapon— one that could be wielded with devastating effect by the weak or the strong.

With knowledge it didn't matter how strong she was because at least then she could hold her ground against some of the superpowers of the world.

By continuously attacking mutant bases connected to the Brotherhood— or others she came across— not only would she gain the genetic material provided by the slain mutants as immediate spoils of war, but she would gain information that she could extract from them.

With her abilities, she could pry into the minds of the people she defeated and learn everything they knew— the more power they had in the organization, the more knowledge she would gain.

A new plan had already taken shaped as Lily made her way through the city— a plan that would unfold over the course of the next few months.

But for now— having made considerable distance from the original location, she decided to stop at the outskirts of the city and devour the mutants she had collected.

As Lily settled down her mind buzzed with the information of the recent events, the Scout she left behind also gathered more information that expanded her sights.

But for now, she left that as a matter for another time and decided to first devour the mutants she had acquired.

Not including the mutant team she had fought that were quite skilled, she had collected a total of 15 bodies. Because she couldn't simple tell which ones were mutants and which weren't from their dead bodies alone, she had to collect all she could.

Either ways once she devoured them she would gain additional information— human or mutant they would be beneficial to her.

So, without hesitation, she quickly devoured all the bodies around her— even the mutants from the Ace Team were devoured, leaving only the mutants that had passed out behind.

She planned to use them to collect information before devouring them; that way, she could gain a deeper understanding of the group.

After devouring all the dead mutants, she had gained a total of 12 new mutant abilities— a large harvest that filled the lingering greed that rested in her mind.