Chapter 185 Ultimate Alienation, Holographic Projection
Chapter 185 Ultimate Alienation, Holographic Projection
Six black locking pylons ignited at once, blue beams locking onto David's chest. High-frequency streams erupted from their tips, and the entire control room shuddered.
David raised his hand. Telekinetic force slammed head-on into the six streams, detonating blinding ripples through the air.
The metal floor beneath his feet buckled layer by layer. Every suspended screen around him exploded—files, childhood photos, experimental data scattering into a storm of flaming fragments.
Liam sat in his elevated seat, wearing that superior smile. "You know what I like most about you, David?"
He reached up and tore two energy tubes from his chest. Blue liquid sprayed from the connectors.
His arm joints elongated. Curved metal claws snapped out from his fingertips. His leg structure warped completely—heels lifting, like a predator ready to pounce.
"You're the perfect specimen. Survive, grow stronger, struggle, then destroy whatever garbage gets in your way."
Liam rose slowly, the blue glow in his eyes intensifying. "I watched you walk out of that prison. Watched you edge closer to this moment, step by step. You think you're getting revenge, but you've only been walking the path I laid out for you."
David stared back. "You talk too much."
Liam laughed out loud. "Humans always rush to deny reality. You're no different. You're holding that knife, bleeding from that flesh-and-blood body, and you actually dare stand in front of me."
He flung both arms wide. Every energy tube behind him ruptured.
The control room felt like it had taken a direct artillery hit. A storm of blue energy exploded outward from his body, tearing apart ring terminals, control chairs, mechanical arms, suspended screens—whole sections shredded to pieces.
The meteorite core chamber overhead spun wildly, blue light cascading down in torrents, engulfing Liam completely.
"I surpassed the limits of carbon-based life a long time ago." He spread his arms, voice dripping with fervor. "The K serum was just the ticket. The higher-dimensional meteorite is the key. Look at me, David. I've evolved."
The moment he finished speaking, he vanished.
David blocked horizontally with his blade.
Liam's metal claws slammed into the Crimson Tear. The shockwave exploded outward from the point of impact. The entire floor shattered instantly. The central console flipped into the air. Load-bearing columns behind them snapped in half.
Mia's voice crackled through his earpiece, laced with static. "This thing's too fast!"
Liam pressed against the blade's edge, face almost touching David's, blue eye sockets full of mockery. "You blocked once. How many more times can you block?"
His right knee shot upward. David lifted his leg to meet it head-on. Both recoiled, then collided again the next second.
Blade and claw clashed, metal screeching loud enough to pierce eardrums. Liam's speed blurred into afterimages. Ceiling, floor, walls—all became launching points.
He sprinted along the wall, then lunged at David from above, claws crossing for a downward strike.
David raised his blade to meet him.
Sparks exploded. An entire section of ceiling collapsed.
Two figures collided repeatedly amid falling steel beams and cables, dark red and blue light bursting in waves. The control room's outer armor warped continuously. The entire floating fortress trembled.
Liam landed on the wall, limbs locked in reverse like a cold-blooded predator, smile still on his lips. "Feel it yet? Your body can't keep up with me."
David didn't answer. He kicked off and shot straight toward him.
The blade carved a dark red arc through the air.
Liam dodged by an inch. His left arm stabbed at David's ribs. David dropped his shoulder, tanking the blow, then unleashed telekinetic force from within. Point-blank, it slammed into Liam's chest.
Liam flew backward, crashing through two alloy partition walls.
David followed, charging into the wreckage.
Liam had already pulled himself from the steel plating. The dent in his chest rapidly healed, blue liquid flowing beneath the wound, sealing the damaged area in seconds.
He glanced down, grin widening. "See that? That's the gap between us. You get tired. You bleed. You die. I don't."
He snapped his hand up. Broken steel beams, scattered mech debris, chunks of flooring—all lifted in a blue magnetic current, hurtling toward David.
David's telekinesis swept most of it aside, but a few heavy armor plates grazed his shoulder and back, smashing craters into the wall behind him.
Liam used the barrage as cover to rush in again, faster than before, claws aimed straight for David's heart.
David raised his blade. Three heavy strikes in succession.
The control room's remaining glass exploded. Outside was the black night sky at thirty thousand feet and storm clouds. Wind roared through the breach, scattering sparks across the command level.
Liam attacked relentlessly while he spoke. "Your parents' car accident—the report was beautifully written. Brake failure, nighttime rollover, scene incinerated."
He locked eyes with David, smile venomous. "I approved it."
The blade hesitated for a fraction of a second.
Liam seized the opening. Metal claws drove deep into David's left shoulder, tips nearly piercing through his back. Blue corrosive fluid poured into the wound. Muscle sizzled on contact.
Mia shouted over comms. "David!"
Liam whispered with a laugh. "Does it hurt? Your parents before they died also—"
David slammed his forehead into him.
Liam's nose collapsed on impact, his whole face snapping back.
David's left hand clamped onto that mechanical arm. Blood streaming from his shoulder, he let it flow. His right hand drove the blade upward between their bodies without hesitation.
Liam released and retreated instantly, but a scorched knife wound now marked his chest.
He steadied himself and wiped blue fluid from beneath his nose. The smile was gone. "Good. Finally worth my time."
David wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "You shouldn't have mentioned them."
The air in the control room grew heavy. Floating steel plates, shattered terminals, metal frames—all began to vibrate faintly.
Mia stared at the monitoring screen, voice shifting. "Your telekinetic readings are spiking again... No, wait. This time it's not dispersing. It's compressing."
David's grip on the blade steadied further.
The Crimson Tear burned hot against his chest. Dark red patterns along the blade lit up inch by inch. Residual energy from absorbed weapons, heat from the star-sand field, violent pulses from meteorite fragments—all converging into the blade's edge.
Liam sensed something wrong. He spread both arms. Blue patterns beneath his feet spread outward instantly.
"You think you're the only one who grows?"
His back tore open, ejecting six mechanical spinal spikes. Blue-white propulsion flames shot from their tips. He launched himself forward, speed surging another level, nearly becoming a streak of light cutting through vision.
"I have infinite power!" He closed on David, both claws along with the spinal spikes striking down together.
The world seemed to quiet. Every movement Liam made slowed in David's eyes.
Left claw first, then right shoulder pulling the torso. The blue energy core in his chest had a half-beat lag in its high-speed cycle. In that half-beat, a tiny fracture appeared in the energy circuit.
David saw it.
Liam was still roaring. "Die!"
David struck. Telekinetic force compressed into the blade's point. The dark red edge became a line of destruction, slicing straight into the joint of Liam's left arm.
The mechanical arm and its outer energy membrane severed together. Blue liquid sprayed wildly.
For the first time, Liam's face changed completely. "What—"
David was already inside his guard, reversing his grip.
The Crimson Tear followed the severed arm's opening inward, tip piercing precisely into that lagging point in his chest, penetrating the shell, driving through the energy core.
Time seemed to freeze for half a second. Liam looked down at the dark red blade buried in his chest, eyes full of disbelief.
Blue liquid gushed from the breach, streaming along the blade, hissing as it burned the floor.
"This isn't possible..." His mouth hung open, voice trembling. "I already... surpassed..."
David stared back. "You just turned yourself into an uglier lab specimen."
He pushed the blade half an inch deeper. The core ruptured completely. A deafening blast followed.
Blue light exploded from Liam's chest, collapsing backward through every energy conduit in his body. Spinal spikes snapped off one by one. Mechanical limbs convulsed uncontrollably. Gray-white skin cracked open rapidly, blue liquid spraying out like depressurized pipes.
Liam staggered back, hands reaching for the blade, but even his fingers were disintegrating. "I am... new life..."
"You're a dead man." David pulled the blade free.
A larger cavity burst open in Liam's chest. He toppled backward into the wreckage, body still shaking uncontrollably. The blue glow in his eyes flickered, then went dark seconds later.
Only the ship's alarm continued shrieking in the central control room, red lights flashing in circles.
Mia spoke first. "Baby, this place is coming down."
David shook blue liquid off his blade and turned to leave. A soft click sounded at his feet.
The back of Liam's skull split open. A thumb-sized silver-black chip ejected itself, hovering in midair, projecting a holographic image.
The instant David saw the image, his expression turned exceptionally grim.