Sushil and Ravi rushed through the tunnel towards the bunker anxiously. They had received a call from Ananya telling them that Bose was killing people in there. When he had asked for the source of her information, she had said that it was Aman who had told her.

He’d have questions for that brat later. He was full of surprises.

But right now, saving lives was more important. Even if the information wasn’t correct, he’d rather assume that it was true and give up his advantage of stealth than let some people die.

It was the same reason why the police cars carried sirens. Ever watched a movie about gangs and street fighting and wondered why the police always blared their sirens as they approached?

Rather silly, don’t you think?

If they had come silently, they might have been able to catch the entire gang but due to the siren, the hoodlums had a chance to run away.

But, was it stupid, really?

The reason the police cars blared their sirens wasn’t to show off but to warn the criminals of their approach. Even before they reached the crime scene, the sound of the sirens would. How many hoodlums would have the balls to continue fighting when they heard the noise?

If they hadn’t turned on the siren, maybe they’d be able to catch the whole gang but in the few moments of delay, someone might die in the fighting.

The job of the police wasn’t to catch criminals, but to safeguard the lives and properties of the people.

The same logic applied to Sushil. If possible, he wouldn't allow anyone to die on his watch.

As the two men finally burst into the bunker, they stopped short at the gruesome sight before their eyes.

They realised that they had come too late. It was a scene of utter carnage. Ten people, five couples lay impaled on metallic spikes at the corners of a pentagon. Their agonized groans showed that they were still alive as they writhed on the spikes even as their lifeblood spilled out and trickled down the metallic stake, pooling beneath them.

The blood flowed into channels cut into the floor, filling them up and painting the sanguine design of a pentagram.

In the very centre of the design, a naked man lay curled up in a foetal position.

It was Bose.

Sushil immediately pulled out his gun and aimed at the man. “Put your hands up and surrender, Bose. Your game’s up. Illegal construction, drug dealing and now, human sacrifices for some dark ritual… You’re going to jail. Now, come with us quietly or we won't mind shooting you up a bit. The Gods know that you deserve it.”

“Gods?”

A deep, powerful voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere. It seemed to be filled with unparalleled might as well as an infinite charm. Sushil and Ravi’s eyes glazed over as they were caught under its spell.

But, their wills weren’t weak and they managed to shake off the fetters of the voice. They both retreated to the entrance to the cavern and pressed their backs against the wall, sweeping their guns all across the room, trying to figure out the position of the speaker.

In the middle of the pentagram, Bose slowly pushed himself up from his prone position and stood swayingly.

Both of them snapped their guns towards him at the sudden movement.

When Bose looked up, his eyes were glowing red in the darkness of the room. There they stood, gazing at each other from across the room.

One of the bodies on the stake moaned, breaking the stalemate. Ravi fired. The report of the gunshot rang out in the room, echoing down the tunnels.

With a clink, the spent bullet dropped onto the ground.

It had simply bounced off the calf of Bose, without even bruising it.

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“Hah. Foolish mortal. Don’t you know that I can't be harmed by a man? After all, you’re the ones who created me. I’m but a mere figment of your imagination. How interesting. Really, this day is just so full of surprises.

“I conquered hell, I conquered Earth, I conquered Heaven. The three Realms bowed to my might. Ruling over the race that created me? It seems like a worthy goal. Come then, show me what warriors of humanity have to offer.

“If it is only that toy in your hand, then this world is already mine.”

Sushil swallowed his saliva, repressing his nervousness. He had no idea what Bose was blabbing about but he seemed to have gone insane from the result of whatever fell ritual he had conducted here.

He shifted his soul sight onto the man to gauge his threat level. In his vision, Bose turned into a swirling mass of greenish-blue.

His eyes widened in shock. Both he and Ravi had greenish-yellow souls. From his investigation, Bose had a yellow soul at the most. How had he managed to leap nearly two levels within hours?

What in the seven hells was this ritual?

He turned to Ravi and they shared glances. Sushil took a deep breath. “You go aboveground and try to evacuate this area and call for reinforcements. I’ll hold him off for as long as possible.”

Ravi turned on his heel and ran outwards. But just as he was about to take a step, with a rumbling sound, the tunnel collapsed. No, not only that tunnel, all three of the tunnels leading out of the bunker collapsed, filling the now sealed room with a plume of dust.

“What did you do!?” hissed Ravi.

Bose simply smirked with his arms crossed before his chest. “How could I possibly let two such delicious morsels escape? The tunnels had been rigged with small explosive charges in the supporting crossbeams. I had meant for it to be a quick fix for demolishing this base after I was done with it. Never imagined I’d seal myself in.”

“Are you insane!? There's two metres of soil above our head, not to mention the pandal. How will you escape? Dig yourself out?”

“Precisely.” Bose said, smirking.

“Well, that’s quite stupid. With the ruckus created by the collapsing tunnels, people will soon come to investigate. You’ll be discovered by the time you make it out.” Said Sushil.

“I’m so touched that you worry for me so… but the ones you should worry about are yourselves.”

Suddenly, his form blurred and he reappeared in front of Ravi, grasping to his face with his hand outstretched in a claw. His speed nearly exceeded Sushil’s ability to react to it.

Just as Sushil managed to turn to Ravi, he saw a form flying away from him in a blur and hitting the opposite wall of the room while Ravi remained unmoved.

The only damage on him was the left-hand sleeve of his clothes.

It had shattered and revealed the genetically modified arm underneath.

Unlike a normal arm, with two bunches of muscles in the upper arms and the forearms, it had two continuous strips of muscular tissue running from the shoulder to the wrist. One in the back of the arm, the other in the front.

Right now, his arm was straightened out in a fist.

He had apparently punched Bose right across the room.

Sushil had heard of this sort of modification. It was done with the mantis shrimp as the model. The two forelegs of the shrimp could snap out with an explosive force strong enough to create super cavitation bubbles underwater.

It had been calculated that if the muscle within them was scaled up to human size, the man would be able to throw a baseball fast enough to send it into space.

That was all theoretical of course and the bones of the arm would snap even before anything close to that happened.

But, after the gene era had arrived, there had been a lot of research into strengthening a human body beyond the limits of 10 strength.

Several solutions had been proposed with one of them being using the genetic code of the mantis shrimp’s muscles to remake the human arm.

It had been partially successful. The gene ampoules developed allowed for the arm to have a huge explosive force but it could only be used once or twice in an hour as the muscle tired really fast.

Also, the strength of the punch was great but it was far from the theoretical projections.

Which, was actually a good thing as even with this reduced strength, the user of the gene ampoules had to undergo surgery to have his or her arm bones reinforced with carbon nano-tubes to withstand the reactive force of the blow.

Also, it was damn expensive.

Sushil himself had chosen a cheaper option where his key muscles had been replaced by muscles made to the template of his jaw muscles. The muscles of the jaw were the strongest in the human body. Although they tired easily, they were very good for short explosive fights and grappling techniques.

He had also had some of his muscle groups replaced with the muscle structure found in his heart. These additions seriously bumped up his endurance as these muscles nearly never got tired.

Thus, he had chosen a very balanced build for his modifications. And since all the genes needed for it came from his own body, the compatibility was really high and it was the perfect base to build on.

Unlike Ravi, who had become a one trick pony, he could branch out in various directions as the need arose.

He turned to look at the cloud of dust which covered the form of Bose.

After taking that kind of hit, even if he had some strange technique to negate impact, the man would suffer severe internal injury. If he was lucky.

He was probably dead though.

The dust cleared, showing the form of the man.

Behind him the dirt wall had been cracked up by the force of his body’s impact on it. To their great surprise, he stood up shakily and spat out a gout of blood. When he looked at them, the both of them took a step back at the sight of the bloodlust in his red eyes.

“Good. Very good. Although your punch didn’t injure me, my impact with the wall did. I underestimated the both of you. It seems that I’ll need to squeeze a bit more use out of my dear disciples. Hahaha.”

Listening to his maniacal laughter, the two of them felt their hairs stand on end.