“Who’s that?” Asked the General.

“That’s…um…What’s your name?” Prometheus looked at the side, where the guy he had kidnapped stood. He didn’t respond at first, so Theo nudged him with a tiger claw.

“It’s Giuseppe.”

“There we go! He’s Giuseppe, sir.”

The General looked straight through Theo, completely unmoving like a tree.

“And why did you bring him here alive?”

“Because he has a cool power! Let me show you.”

Prometheus turned to Giuseppe, and asked, “Can I cut off your head to show the General your power?”

The young man shrugged.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Theo swiped his massive blue claw in a blur of speed, which severed Giuseppe’s head cleanly, which began flying in the air in an arc, falling to the ground soon after. When his headless body fell to the ground, and a large pool of blood formed on the ground, the General stepped up, “What’s so special about him? He’s dead and a tier zero.”

Not a moment later, all the blood on the ground began flying back into Giuseppe’s neck, with the severed head flying back into place.

“See? Isn’t that overpowered? It’s not even a Soul ability! It’s an Awakened power!”

The General sighed, and continued, “Private, Awakened powers aren’t the ‘lucky advantage’ you’re thinking them of. They come from the place where the Unsafe monstrosities live. We don’t know where that is, just that it’s not something we want to be in. Awakening a power puts a sort of ‘mark’ on you, that attracts more of those entities. The higher tier you are, the more dangerous it becomes to possess a power. That’s why I don’t mind Private Zilch’s intangibility.”

“Oh. But that just means that as long as we don’t let him tier up, we should be fine, right?” Prometheus asked.

“That would be correct. If you want to keep him, it’ll be your responsibility to take care of him. Is that clear?”

Prometheus raised his claw on his tiger's forehead, in a gesture of a salute, “Sir, yes sir! On another note, I wanted to ask for some help with my Soul ability.”

“What is it?”

Back inside the training room, only Theo, the General and Giuseppe were the ones in the large chamber, as the others were busy helping the Majors with various errands.

“I want to absorb some specific types of abilities. I’ve thought of a fire-based ability, a dimensional one, and possibly a healing one, for my allies. Is there anyone with those ones?”

The General shrugged, replying, “I don’t keep track of every single ability our enemies have, Private. There are hundreds of thousands of them. You can go to the ones we keep prisoners and choose the ones you want.”

The blue tiger shook his head, “My soul won’t let me use prisoners for my ability. It thinks that’s ‘unfair’, so I need to find them in the open.”

“You could find and exterminate that group that kidnapped the Doctor. There were many high-tiers in there, so I would assume they have a wide variety of abilities.”

“They’re too strong for me. I don’t think I can do it on my own.”

“Find a way then, I need to be somewhere else now. Good luck.” With that, the General moved out of the training chamber, leaving Theo and Giuseppe alone. I wonder what the limits of his powers are…

“Hey, Giuseppe,”

“Mhm?”

“Feel like helping me with some experiments?”

Once again, the young man shrugged.

---

Over the next few hours, the shapeshifter managed to understand the man’s power quite well. First, no matter what, the regeneration would always work, with no exceptions. He had killed Giuseppe with fire, electricity, blunt damage, acid, and tons of other ways using Enchanted items that one of the Majors had given him, and the young man had always come back together without issue. Apparently, the brain was the focal point, so the cells would always combine at the neck and downward, if possible.

Theo had even tried splitting the brain into thousands of pieces, but they once again came back together, pushed by a mysterious force that he couldn’t stop. After the tenth death, Giuseppe had also become numb to pain.

A kamikaze build would be perfect for him. Just strap him to a bomb and throw him at the enemies.

“Are there any more experiments?” Asked the young man.

“Not for now, no. Thanks for your collaboration!”

“Sure.” Giuseppe then sat on the ground, looking at nothing in particular.

“Is there something exciting about the ground?” The shapeshifter asked.

“What? No, it’s not that.”

“So what is it?”

“It’s just… I don’t know. Why am I here, what am I doing, where am I going in life. I feel lost. I don’t know what to do or how to feel.”

“Ah, you’re probably overwhelmed. Is that it?”

“I…could be, yeah.”

“I understand. Well, the answers to those questions are really simple. You’re here to help me achieve revenge!”

“What? Revenge against who?”

“Just a bunch of weird priests that kidnapped someone that I need to protect.”

“Oh. Okay. How can I do that?”

“First, we need to find a way to reach their base. I think the Administrator, or the Hacker, won’t like it that much if I achieve my mission with the help of someone strong like the General. I need to do this with my own strength.” The shapeshifter explained as he paced back and forth in front of Giuseppe.

“Do we need to kill them?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Yes! Why do you ask?” Asked Prometheus, looking at the young man’s eyes.

“I don’t think I want to kill anyone.”

Prometheus sighed, lowering his head.

“It’s not a choice of whether we want to or not. We have to, otherwise the Gods will punish me. Plus, I’ll be the one to do all the killing, so your conscience will remain clear.”

“Mhm, okay then. Are we going now?” Asked Giuseppe while standing up.

“No, we need to equip ourselves properly. Follow me.” Prometheus walked to a pile of items that he had requested from the Majors, and they had partially accommodated him. First of all, he moved to make gunpowder. It wouldn’t be strong enough for a weapon, but it would be great as a distraction. Thankfully, all the ingredients for it were present in the materials he had asked for. Spending the next hour creating tennis-ball-sized bombs, he gave three to Giuseppe and kept ten for himself, putting them into his inventory. Naturally, he used his Inventory to get rid of the impurities in the gunpowder, making the better.

Moving on to more advanced weapons, he decided to test the effectiveness of mustard gas on Soul-enhanced humans. This one did take a bit, as he had to synthesize the chemicals necessary inside of his body with the Alchemist form, which was a slime-like form that helped with synthesizing substances. He decided to store the gas in glass spheres, so he had to start by taking glass and heating it up with a jet of flames from burning his energy reserves very quickly. His Perfected Manufacturing skill felt like a guiding hand that helped Theo every step of the way. After placing the spheres in his inventory, he made the mustard gas and put it in his inventory as quickly as possible.

Wait. Can I move it inside the spheres?

He could. Without creating an opening into the spheres, he simply willed the gas to be pressurized enough to stay in three glass spheres. He made sure the pressure was enough to make the gas concentrated, but not enough to break the glass.

“Perfect! Now, we need to gear you up. Since you’re basically immortal, you won’t need any armor or protection. What weapon would you like to have?”

Giuseppe lowered his head and replied, “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Theo sighed deeply, shifting into his Golden Ant form. He rested a foreleg on the young man’s shoulder and said, “I understand that very well, but we don’t have a choice. We need to kill these people.”

“So why can’t you do it yourself?”

Theo closed his eyes. Why is he so stubborn?

“Fine. What do you want to do then? You can’t just laze around and watch me do all the work.”

“Um, why are you talking like this is my responsibility?”

Oh. He’s right. He doesn’t have anything to do with it.

“Whatever. I’ll take another Soul-masking pill and we can move.”

Prometheus and Giuseppe flew out of the training chamber, which had an entrance on the ceiling, and moved to the closest Major to take a pill that would make Theo’s Soul look like a human’s. Giuseppe didn’t need to hide anything so he simply changed his clothes to have simple and fitting ones to blend in with the city of Golden Lake.

Prometheus took his cheetah form and shifted a saddle-like structure on his back for Giuseppe to sit on. That would be the fastest way to reach the city without flying. Flying would be too dangerous, as he didn’t know how strong aerial defenses were.

He urged Giuseppe to move on to his back, and they moved outside the Vulcano that made up the base where the General resided.

“How far away is it?”

“Good question, I haven’t checked. Let me see the map…”

Oh. Two days at my top speed. Now I understand why the General used those launch pods.

“It will take a little bit. Just be patient.”

Giuseppe nodded, and the two began moving towards their destination. Prometheus sped up when he noticed that his companion managed to stay stable on the saddle. The only sounds present were those of Theo’s cheetah paws hitting on the ground at tremendous speeds, and the occasional animal in the distance.

Giuseppe tapped at his own temples.

What? What does he want?

The man tapped his head again and then tapped Theo’s head.

Oh, he wants me to do the mental spell again.

“What’s up? I can speak English, you know, I just prefer how fast and efficient mental communications are.” Theo said.

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know that. I also like telepathy, yeah.” The young man said, in English out loud.

“So, uh, what exactly are you? You change your form all the time.” Giuseppe said, mentally.

“Me? I’m just the most amazing creature that ever lived. My name’s Prometheus, also.”

“That’s cool. So why can you change shapes? Are you like a shapeshifter or something?”

Theo scoffed internally.

“Shapeshifting would be an understatement. I can change the molecular structure of my cells at will, and with my recent progress, I can do much more. I can make glass and rubber with my cells,” Prometheus demonstrated by shifting one of his years into a transparent glass.

“So why didn’t you make glass back at the base with your body instead of using normal one?”

Prometheus replied by separating the glass ear from his body, which flew on Giuseppe’s chest and broke down into a grey powder.

“Most cellular structures I make break down when out of contact with my…’ nerves’ we can say. Some, like bone or leather, don’t.”

“That’s cool. You seem very smart for a monster. Every other monster seemed kind of dumb to me.”

“I’m not a monster. I was created by LifeScience Innovations to be the most perfect defensive creature alive.”

Giuseppe nodded, looking into the side at the gravel plains.

“What about you? What’s your story?”

The young man seemed surprised at the question, whipping his head forward and humming.

“There’s nothing to say. I was on Earth, I died, and I appeared here. I wasn’t special back then, I’m not special here. Nothing changed.”

Prometheus nodded.

As the day progressed, the Unsafe Hours got closer, so the shapeshifter stopped in a somewhat flat area to rest. He created blankets made of leather and fur for Giuseppe, and he gave them to him.

“There’s this thing called the ‘Unsafe Hours’, it’s like night back on Earth. The difference is, that if you stay awake during the Unsafe Hours, weird things will appear. Literally. So you have to sleep.”

“Weird things? Like what?”

“One time a table appeared out of nowhere and continued shouting ‘chair’ inside of my mind over and over. Then, it crumbled my body into a chair shape. Crazy, right? Let’s sleep now.”

Prometheus watched Giuseppe until he was sure that the young man had gone to sleep, so he did the same, shutting off his mind.

- - -

When morning came, Prometheus slowly got up, stretching his muscles. It always felt amazing. A small breeze made Theo much more relaxed, so he took a deep breath. I love nature. Fresh air was something that he had never had back in his laboratory, so even though he technically didn’t need oxygen, he loved breathing it.

Giuseppe was right next to him, sitting on the ground with two sticks and beating them together to make a slow rhythm. Wait a second. The Unsafe Hours ended just twenty minutes ago.

“How long have you been awake?” The shapeshifter asked quickly. Please don’t tell me he was awake.

“I don’t know, like a couple of hours.”

Shit!

“Did anything weird happen?”

Giuseppe looked up from his sticks and tilted his head to the side, “I don’t think so, no. The only thing that happened was a guy with a big backpack. He said he needed some money to buy food so I gave him some that I had in my wallet.”

“What money did you give him?”

“Just a five euro note.”

Prometheus slapped his own face.

“Listen, we’re not on Earth anymore. They don’t use Earth money here. Wait, that’s not important. Why did you stay up when I told you not to?!”

“I didn’t feel like sleeping again, so I just woke up.”

Right, forgot about that. The unsafe Hours last ten hours so not everyone is going to sleep that much.

“Too late now. Try to sleep next time. We’re going, leave everything behind,”

Giuseppe nodded and moved on top of Prometheus once again. The two continued on toward their destination, without exchanging a word. At one point, the gravel and dry terrain slowly shifted into more traditional soil, with wisps of pink vegetation appearing. They were getting close to Theo’s enemies.

Perfect. Now that I have no vulnerable allies near me, I can freely use a Tribulation on those assholes.

“So what exactly are we looking for?” Giuseppe asked.

“It’s an underground base. I remember its entrance, we just need to find the spot where the external wall of the city is breached.”

Prometheus continued sprinting at insane speeds when he finally knew he was close to the city. He didn’t see the walls, as there was some enchantment to make them invisible at a distance, but rather he felt the intense Influence inside of them. Five minutes later, he saw them. The massive structures, as tall as mountains, stood proud over the flat, pink plains.

He looked around, trying to find the massive opening he had created with the Tribulation last time. There it is!

Sprinting towards it, he noticed that it was much smaller than he had thought. It meant that the city was repairing it and with tremendous speed. There are millions of tons of materials in those walls. How…?

He heard Giuseppe gasp at the sight of the walls, which Theo understood.

At a distance of a couple hundred meters, he saw exactly why getting into the city would be difficult. Dozens and dozens of high-tier warriors were stationed just outside the opening, guarding it fiercely. They were at least tier six, many going into the seven. Theo would not be able to win against so many of them. He could beat one, as he had done with the playing cards Guard, and possibly even two, but dozens were too much.

Shit. What do we do?

“We can’t get inside, there’s too many guards there. We’ll get killed-captured, in your case-before we even step foot on Golden Lake.”

“Mmh? Can’t we attack at night?” Giuseppe proposed.

“What?” Replied Theo, tilting his cheetah head to the side.

“I mean, since you said that weird things attack at night, I guess those guys will have to sleep as well right?”

“That’s actually…let me think about it.”

It's true that he can’t die, but I can. Honestly, it’s not a bad idea. It’s probably less of a risk to get inside at night, rather than try to pass through. If the anomalies aren’t more dangerous than what I’ve seen until now, it could work.

“That’s a good idea. It’s worth taking the risk, plus the priests will also be asleep, so they'll be easier to kill.”

Giuseppe nodded.

The two moved to the side, camping distant enough so the guards wouldn’t notice them. After playing various games to pass the time such as rock paper and scissors, which Prometheus continuously lost, one hundred percent of the time, the Unsafe Hours approached. The feeling of wrongness in his gut intensified, testifying that anomalies would be much more likely to approach them. He called them anomalies as he had no other way of giving a label that both included a table that teleported around and a mushroom disease that killed an entire kingdom.

When Theo noticed the guards moving to the inside of the city, leaving the opening vacant, he notified Giuseppe. The young man yawned heavily, groggily getting on top of the shapeshifter.

“Time to go, we need to move fast. Get on,”

Prometheus decided to wait another half an hour, to make sure that all the guards had gone to sleep. Taking Giuseppe with him, the cheetah sprinted into the opening, moving at incredible speeds. He was sure he could run alongside a supercar and come out on top.

Looking around, he oriented himself and flew off running to the priests’ underground base, ready to deliver revenge.