Book 4 Chapter 21.5 - Devour
The nucleus throbbed like a heart, the energy inside flowing about with the pulsating rhythm. Energy was being sucked out through the paths that had been severed. After undergoing a system alteration and crystal purification, it would be able to provide and eliminate energy. The manner at which the energy was being exchanged was simple, effective, and powerful, and the efficiency of conversion was even greater than Su's.
After a bit of observation, Su understood that the so-called nucleus actually represented an extreme evolution method. It could be treated as a highly advanced engine for biological weapons. Even if it was an ordinary soldier, upon having the nucleus implanted, they could still easily defeat more than ten other soldiers at similar levels. Meanwhile, the greater one's abilities were, the greater the amplification nucleus would bring.
Madeline's body slowly descended through the gentle force field, returning to the crook of Su's arm. When he saw her delicate sleeping face, Su released a light sigh. If one only looked at her from the outside, there was no way anyone would associate her with a battle weapon. However, she was indeed a hundred percent a murder machine. The nucleus actually matched Madeline quite well, both of them simple, highly effective, and focused on an explosion of maximum might without the slightest bit of waste.
Su was still hesitating whether he should give this nucleus to Madeline. The nucleus had some intruder cells that were similar to his own, a type of adaptive body cell. Once it selected a host, it would completely merge with the host, and in addition, based on the host's genes surrounding environment, it would choose the most suitable method to produce a new nucleus. However, once one accepted the nucleus' alteration, it would mean that one's body and even genetic structures would experience great changes. At that time, Madeline, from a biological standpoint, would no longer be considered human.
Would she be willing to do this? Su hesitated.
If it was eight years ago, Su would immediately make the decision for her. However now, Su felt that maybe it was best for Madeline to make this decision for herself, even though she already displayed a desire for evolution. However, when he held this nucleus in his hand, Su suddenly discovered that things weren't that simple.
If these nuclei were biological weapons other intelligent races produced, then the level of technology they represented was who knew how many eras ahead of earth! No one knew what kind of unexpected events would happen after merging with a nucleus.
Su frowned as he looked at the general's corpse. Her genetic composition was vastly different from the other strange creatures. It seemed like it should be the result of accepting the nucleus' alteration. In addition, after obtaining nucleus, only then did he discover that General's power should be far more that what she displayed on the surface, but for some reason, she wasn't able to completely display this nucleus' abilities. Of course, if General completely displayed this nucleus' power, the result of victory or defeat would be hard to say.
While muttering to himself irresolutely, the left arm that was carrying Madeline unintentionally tightened a bit. The distance between nucleus and Madeline became closer, and a breath of air she released reached this nucleus.
Like a volcano, the speed at which this nucleus moved at suddenly increased ten times! Meanwhile, the power it throbbed with increased to hundreds or even over a thousand times! In that instant, Su almost couldn't hold the nucleus and let it fly out from his hand!
Su was greatly shocked. He did everything to clench this nucleus. His left hand even more so released countless wisps of flesh, binding tightly around this nucleus! However, the power the nucleus throbbed with increased unendingly, immediately reaching a level at which Su couldn't hold onto it anymore. The wisps of flesh that were as sturdy as superalloy were broken one after another! Out of helplessness, several tens of spikes shot out from his palm into the nucleus crystal, infusing a small amount of intruder cells in an attempt to weaken its power.
An intense battle instantly erupted at a cellular level, and then Su discovered with shock that the intruder cells that entered the nucleus were all defeated! Meanwhile, when the offensive cells this nucleus released entered Su's body, they were also wiped out. When the element of numbers was ignored, this nucleus and Su's intruder cells were of similar power; this was something that had never happened before.
Right at this moment, Madeline's body suddenly moved, the rhythm and core pulse the exact same. Su discovered that her entire body was resonating with this nucleus!
Madeline released a soft breath of air, slowly awakening. As soon as she recovered consciousness, her azure eyes stared at the nucleus in Su's left hand and said with shock, "Nucleus?!"
"It should be. However, this thing seems to be extremely dangerous." Su replied while carefully controlling the nucleus. Even though the nucleus ought to be at a great disadvantage, he felt like it was more and more difficult to deal with. Large amounts of incomparably ferocious combat cells entered Su's body through his blood, forcing him to produce large amounts of intruder cells to intercept them. At the same time, nucleus was still absorbing Su's body's energy, while Su had no way of stopping this. What left Su upset was that it was precisely the energy he provided that allowed this nucleus to rapidly produce combat cells, which then came back around to attack him.
Su looked calm on the surface, but the battle against nucleus was actually incomparably vicious. If an ordinary ability user had their body invaded by Su's intruder cells, even if it was just a small drop of blood, they would turn into lumps of flesh after a few minutes. Meanwhile, in this battle against nucleus, if his intruder cells couldn't hold on, in less than ten minutes, Su would become a part of this nucleus.