Monroe narrowed his eyes slightly, his voice low and cold.
"We, the Shadow Tribunal, are the chosen. This Earth was always meant to be ruled by us. Seraphine's appearance changes nothing. It's already time to purge the inferior races."
He turned to the contemplative Tom. "I believe the Tribunal feels the same. Otherwise, how do you explain half a century of funneling 500 billion annually into the Doomsday Shelter Initiative?
So be prepared. Be ready to launch world-ending nuclear strikes at any moment. When the [Crucial Moment] comes, do not hesitate, and do not fear.
If we can't ensure that this world belongs to us, then let it burn. Better to reduce it all to radioactive ash than to let it fall into the hands of lesser beings."
"Hoo. Alright."
Tom let out a long sigh, his eyes full of shadows as he nodded. "Understood. Then, Mr. Monroe, what about Seraphine? Do you have a plan?"
"No need to rush. The nuclear annihilation protocol is merely a last resort. Odds are we won't even need it."
Monroe tapped the armrest of the sofa lightly, smiling as if it were all a game. "Strategically, yes, we must treat Seraphine with the utmost seriousness. But tactically, perhaps I can handle her myself."
As he spoke, an eerie glint flickered in his eyes.
There, in the Gray Palace, Monroe quietly invoked his most arcane and enigmatic superpower: Laocoon's Eye.
Skill Effect:
Upon activation, the user's conscious projection can leap forward and merge with their own future mind at any moment within the next 120 hours.
This is a literal traversal into future spacetime, allowing the user to directly experience what's to come. Once there, the user can either permanently overwrite their current consciousness to continue in that timeline, or stay temporarily to gather information before leaping back to the precise moment of activation.
By wielding this power, Monroe had spent a lifetime sidestepping disasters, outmaneuvering foes, and securing an unbroken legacy of victory. And now, he was about to wield it against Seraphine.
BUZZ!
The ability activated.
Everything around Monroe, the couch, the walls, even Tom, began to blur and dissolve into nothingness. In an instant, his consciousness was severed from the [Present].
He leapt.
Hurtling straight toward the [Future], 120 hours ahead. There, he intended to investigate Seraphine's actions firsthand, gather intelligence, and design the most meticulous strategy for eliminating her.
...
BUZZ!
In a blink, Monroe's awareness snapped into focus. He had arrived five days into the future.
"Hm? What is this?"
To his shock, everything around him was darkness. A void. Nothing remained. Monroe's heart clenched. He had seen this before. This void always meant one thing: in five days, he would be dead.
"What? How?!"
Suspended in the abyss, his projected consciousness trembled. "Other than that ancient freak from the Secret Society, who else could kill me? Seraphine?"
He searched his memory. For centuries, no one had been capable of truly killing him. He was armed with regeneration, self-healing, and even resurrection. Unless someone detonated a nuclear warhead in his face without warning, no existing weapon could kill him.
"I have so many powers, so many safeguards. Who could it be? How is this possible?"
Confused and deeply rattled, Monroe immediately reversed the jump, his consciousness snapping back to the past.
...
"Mr. Monroe, you."
Monroe opened his eyes slowly, meeting Leader Tom's concerned gaze with a calculated smile.
"No need to be alarmed, Mr. Leader. I've found a way to deal with Seraphine."
He rose from his seat. "However, I'll need to make a few intricate preparations first. If you'll excuse me."
"Uh."
Tom looked up, momentarily surprised, then nodded. "Alright, Mr. Monroe. I won't keep you."
WHOOSH!
Before he could finish his sentence, Monroe vanished into thin air.
"Okay then."
Tom blinked, a bit bored, and gave a small shrug. Just then, a staff member of the Gray Palace entered. Walking up beside him, the man whispered:
"Mr. Leader, you're scheduled to attend the bicentennial celebration of the Capital City Grand Museum later. Your speech has been finalized."
Tom casually brushed his bangs aside. "Ah, right. I remember. Okay, I'll head out soon."
...
South Pacific, Madek Trench.
Ten thousand meters beneath the ocean surface, inside a massive base buried under crushing pressure, Monroe suddenly materialized. His body had traversed thousands of li through super-psionic transmission. His expression remained calm, but there was a trace of unease in his eyes.
"Who killed me?"
Still gripped by this question, Monroe stepped into a room echoing with smooth jazz. It was a bar, his private one, nestled deep within the base. The white-suited bartender straightened and bowed respectfully.
"Boss. Good evening."
Monroe gave a brief nod. "Mm. One Imperial Deer Praise."
The bartender quickly moved to retrieve the rare brandy. Monroe took it, settled into the music, and began to sip slowly. He wasn't indifferent to the vision of his death, but panic would get him nowhere. Laocoon's Eye required an hour-long cooldown between uses.
...
Dozens of minutes passed. Monroe finally set the empty glass down. The eerie glow returned to his eyes.
Laocoon's Eye activated again. This time, he chose to leap 72 hours ahead.
BUZZ!
His consciousness surged forward, only to awaken again to the same darkness. Still the void. Still nothing. It wasn't five days later. It was three. And he would be dead.
"Damn it!"
He snapped back to the present once more.
Brushing past the bartender without a word, Monroe exited the bar. His steps echoed down a sterile corridor as he walked deeper into the base, a shadow of melancholy flickering across his face.
Eventually, he arrived at a secluded laboratory. Inside, a powerfully built white man lay in artificial stasis atop an operating table. This was none other than Catastrophe Star, Saloyan Atley.
Towering beside the table was a massive, strange machine covered in arcane circuitry and shifting metallic patterns: the Abraham Machine. A device Seraphine had long been curious about, but had never managed to obtain.
As for why Saloyan now lay in this suspended state, it was because Monroe intended to harvest his superpower genes and corresponding tissues using the Abraham Machine. He would implant them directly into himself.
The so-called Hexagram was originally a select group of rare superpower [Hosts], painstakingly cultivated by Monroe through brutal refinement methods.
Through this very process, and with the help of the Abraham Machine, Monroe evolved from a man with just three abilities, Laocoon's Eye, telekinesis, and immortality, into a superpowered overlord wielding dozens.
...
"Alas."
Monroe slowly approached the sleeping Saloyan, bending down to speak with a cold indifference.
"Your fellow companions... Their abilities were not as rare as yours, but Seraphine slaughtered them all the same. What a shame."
"But thankfully, you're still intact. Your [Annihilation Breath] remains within you. Otherwise, I'd have taken a significant loss."
He paused, a slight twinge of regret in his voice.
"Only Sorren... tsk. That woman. A pity. I quite liked her."
With a soft sigh, Monroe turned to operate the Abraham Machine.
As he moved with practiced speed, the surgical table holding Saloyan began to tremble, sliding slowly along hidden tracks toward the massive machine.
Once the table arrived, the Abraham Machine shuddered and unfolded.
Like a mechanical kraken, hundreds of arms burst forth in synchronized motion, gleaming with dense, glowing threads of light. They surged forward, engulfing both Saloyan and the table.
Next, a segment of the colossal machine split open. From within, tendrils emerged, weaving into a strange 'bed' over three meters long.
Monroe, having undergone this procedure dozens of times, lay down in the cradle-like formation with a blank expression.
Over the centuries, the Hexagram had not emerged only once. There had been many generations. In the beginning, each new generation produced a remarkable superpowered "fruit" that delighted him.
But as centuries passed, Monroe acquired more and more powers:
Psychokinesis, self-healing, regeneration, resurrection, immortality, Laocoon's Eye, super-psionic transmission, weather control, lightning manipulation, flame manipulation, low-temperature fields, intangibility, super strength, super stamina, steel physique, rubber body, kinetic energy absorption, thermal absorption, electric absorption, energy manipulation, molecular control, telepathy, empathy, life force deprivation, lifespan bestowal, illusion casting, limb detachment, hyper-frequency brain activity, force field generation, toxin immunity, high-density energy storage, hypnosis, information symbiosis, and consciousness digitalization.
As he grew stronger, his appetite grew sharper. He no longer desired everything, only the exceptional. This generation's standout was Saloyan Atley, the Catastrophe Star.
The power that intrigued Monroe most: Annihilation Breath.
Annihilation Breath: By generating a unique oscillating field, the user fires a beam that disrupts atomic structures, dismantling all covalent bonds. When struck, all matter collapses into a chaotic soup of unbound atoms. No physical body can survive; even telekinetic barriers are shredded instantly.
As the cradle closed, Monroe muttered with a faint smirk:
"I'd like to see who can kill me now."
RUMBLE!
With a deep mechanical hum, the Abraham Machine powered on. Nearly an hour later, the operation concluded.
Mechanical arms withdrew, the metallic bed unfurled, and Monroe sat up. Before him, Saloyan's mangled body was rolled out, crushed by the power extraction process.
"You're useless now."
Raising one hand, he activated Annihilation Breath.
With a sudden exhalation, a radiant beam of iridescent light shot from his mouth, cutting through the air toward the half-dead Saloyan.
THUMP!
The moment the beam made contact, Saloyan and the table twisted violently, melting into a shimmering, luminous fluid. All signs of life were gone.
Monroe didn't spare it a second glance. He activated Laocoon's Eye once more.
The third temporal leap began, targeting 48 hours into the future. He had to uncover the identity of the one who could kill him.
BUZZ!
He emerged back in the laboratory. It wasn't darkness.
"Hoo..."
He exhaled slowly.
"It seems that unknown enemy..."
Monroe suddenly froze. The Primis concentration around him was far too high.
"What the?!"
The very air was vibrating, surging with torrents of Primis. Every cell in Monroe's body groaned, awash in overwhelming comfort. He quickly ran a mental calculation.
"At least... ten thousand times!"
"How is this possible?! A second Primis outburst?! This defies all logic!"
Dread gripped his heart. He recalled that ancient aberration—the thousand-year-old monster from the Eliondra Secret Society. Could this surge allow that thing to move freely once more? Could it now awaken from its abyssal slumber and kill him?
"Damn it."
Monroe paced with growing agitation.
"That ancient freak... even Laocoon's Eye's timeline warps can't stop him. None of my trump cards work against him!"
"What the hell do I do now?!"
Just as fear threatened to spill over...
CLANG! CLANG!
A deep, thunderous vibration rocked the entire undersea base.
The tremors were so intense that the entire massive steel structure, embedded into the continental shelf thousands of meters below sea level, began swaying violently.
CRACK CRACK CRACK SCREEEEECH!!!
Deafening, metallic shrieks echoed from the outer hull. Monroe's mental power surged outward, and what he "saw" froze him in place.
The entire exterior layer of the base, walls several meters thick forged from reinforced alloy, were folding inward like damp paper. They were being crushed by some immense, invisible force. It felt as if a giant hand had plunged into the ten-thousand-meter-deep abyss and was slowly curling its fingers around the fortress.
"Telekinesis!!"
Monroe recognized it instantly. Who on Earth could possibly exert such Telekinesis to compress a deep-sea fortress as if it were nothing?
Before he could finish the thought, that boundless force surged inside. It moved with terrifying precision, locking onto Monroe alone. It swept in like a black tide, crashing from every direction. The overwhelming force enveloped him and began annihilating his body on a cellular level.
Monroe was pulverized into dust in the blink of an eye. Under the opponent's titanic and incomprehensible Telekinesis, all Self-healing, Regeneration, and Resurrection were meaningless.
"Argh, argh, damn it!!"
Monroe's soul let out a tormented scream as it burst from the mangled heap of bloody dust. Just as he prepared to burn his Soul-body to escape from his soul core, that monstrous Telekinesis withdrew. From within it, a suffocating Spiritual Power locked onto him, compressed him into a minuscule orb, and swallowed him whole.
...
"Damn it! That was way too fast!"
Monroe's eyes snapped open, fury flashing in them. "If I had been fully prepped, fully combat-ready, there's no way you could've killed me that fast!"
For a superpower user like Monroe with dozens of overlapping abilities, full activation required a specific sequence. He forcefully suppressed his frustration and waited. One hour later, he reactivated Laocoon's eye, initiating a timeline jump back several hours earlier.
He now had time to fully activate every last power. First came the Self-healing, Regeneration, and Resurrection systems. Once deployed, even if his body were shredded into a mist of blood, it could reassemble in seconds.
Next: his Steel and Rubber Dual-form physique. Unbreakable hardness like carbyne combined with unmatched elasticity. To reinforce this, he activated Auxiliary Molecular Control, restructuring every molecule in his body into a cohesive fortress.
Then came Kinetic Energy Absorption, Electrical Energy Absorption, and Thermal Energy Absorption. Even if struck by a hundred cruise missiles, he could absorb the impact into his internal Super Energy Core. He deployed his Force Field Shield and Telekinetic Field at full output, a defense that had once allowed him to tank a cloud burst bomb point-blank.
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ!!!
The air trembled as he activated Annihilation Breath, wielding Dragon's Breath as his spear to overwhelm the incoming wave. Finally, he primed his Super Psionic Transmission, capable of teleportation across half a planet, as a contingency.
In this fully deployed state, Monroe's physical strength exceeded a million tons. His layered defenses could withstand a direct hit from a high-yield nuclear strike. He was ready for the entity from the Secret Society.
Outside, the primis field began to stir, its density spiking upward.
"Is this the primis outburst? Theoretically, that mysterious enemy will descend soon."
Monroe tracked the atmospheric changes, but his brow furrowed. "No... wait. It's only a hundred times? Wasn't it supposed to be ten thousand? That's... odd."
BOOM!!!
The primis suddenly exploded into chaos.
Several times.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
It hit him like thunder: this wasn't just a primis surge.
It was a double outburst, a second and third phase descending simultaneously.
Monroe stared into the air, breath shallow.
"The world… is about to descend into chaos."
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ!!!
Time surged forward.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!
The deep-sea base began to shake violently.
With metallic groans echoing from its outer hull, a colossal telekinetic force erupted from all directions, bearing down straight on Monroe.
"It's here."
In that instant, he unleashed Annihilation Breath, letting it explode in every direction.
Chairs, instruments, long tables, and even the distant metal partitions instantly disintegrated into a swirling haze of particles, reduced to a glowing atomic soup.
But even that terrifying annihilation was like soap bubbles against a tsunami, insignificant before the tidal wave of telekinetic force.
His force field and Telekinetic Field shattered instantly.
His trio of energy absorption abilities were useless.
They were like a household pump tossed into the heart of the Pacific, incapable of even making a ripple.
His internal energy organs overloaded on the spot, rupturing with wet, sickening pops, turning into mangled flesh and bloody froth.
His Steel and Rubber Dual-Form, along with his molecular reinforcement, didn't even delay the attack for a fraction of a second.
Then, the worst blow.
His last resort, Super Psionic Transmission, the failsafe teleportation escape, functioned not at all.
Completely inactive.
He was once again crushed into dust.
And his soul was devoured.
...
BUZZ!!!
Time reversed.
Monroe's consciousness was flung back into the [Past].
His entire body trembled as he rose from the circular chair.
A twisted grimace stretched across his face as he howled at the ceiling:
"F——CK——!!"
His voice shook with rage, fear, and helpless frustration.
After several deep, ragged breaths, he slowly began to calm.
One hour passed.
And then, without hesitation, he activated his ability to jump again.
BUZZ!!!
The future.
Monroe's eyes snapped open, instantly flooding his body with every available ability.
Pulsing with high-energy vibrations, he rose and marched out of the lab.
Through twisting corridors of silver-grey alloy, he passed through seven turns and eight descents, heading deep into the core of the base.
He arrived at a small, hidden chamber.
Inside stood a strange suit of armor, encased in webs of wires and coiling cables.
Its surface shimmered with an alien design of gold-etched patterns, neither metal nor wood, yet exuding a faint, unmistakable vital aura.
"Holy Spirit Armor."
Monroe stepped forward slowly, his eyes transfixed as he brushed his fingers across the inhuman patterns.
"After all this time... after all the resources I've burned through... you're finally whole again."
He had discovered this armor within the wreckage of an alien craft.
Based on his analysis, it was a semi-mechanical, semi-biological, direct-integration exosuit.
To restore it, and to tailor it for his own use, Monroe had invested over two centuries.
He'd built miniature ecological derivation labs in each of his bases, carefully crafting alien gene compound rings to match the armor's gene-lock authentication system.
Progress was painfully slow until the last Primis outburst.
When Monroe's Information Symbiosis ability surged to a whole new tier.
Information Symbiosis: Enables the user to decode any system's underlying architecture, directly from the fundamental information embedded in physical matter.
Even with such a gift, deciphering alien technology remained nearly impossible.
The disparity between civilizations was staggering, a framework so foreign it was like trying to build a bridge across the void.
An insurmountable chasm.
But after the Primis outburst, or more accurately, the Great Ether Surge, Monroe's energy levels skyrocketed across all abilities.
The insurmountable problems of yesterday became finally within reach.
The Primis outburst had changed everything.