As Max floated out of the evolution pool, the strange water he had just been submerged in rolled off of his massive frame in unnaturally large, marble-sized balls, despite being much more viscous than normal water.
He touched down on the slick floor outside of the evolution pool with one of his oversized toes and stayed balanced on that one point, he rubbed his giant hands together vigorously while smiling at his interface and happily expanded the description section of his super body.
Max wasted no time in checking the introduction of 'Twins of Fate'.
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Super Body - Twins of Fate:
There once were two sisters who could tamper with fate; you are their legacy...
'Lady Luck' : Probability Cascading - This half of your super body instantly alters probability and luck of the micro-environment within a range of 10 meters, according to your will.
'Lady Providence' : Evolved 6th sense - Born from the convergence of absolute foresight and localized causality manipulation, this half of your super body grants 360-degree sensory awareness of cause and effect. Allows perception of physical intent before actions are taken.
Upon activation, this super body traces out the 'probability web' of the battlefield. It detects the precise trajectory of incoming attacks, structural weaknesses or environmental hazards, and bends the will of the universe itself to an extent, within a limit of 30 feet.
Whenever an action unfolds within your sphere of influence—whether an enemy launches an assault or raises a defense—you instantaneously perceive multiple 'ghost' timelines of their movements through the absolute synthesis of foresight and prediction.
When 'Twins of Fate' is activated, any similar foresight or seer-like abilities will no longer function within your super body's range.
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Max raised an eyebrow while pursing his lips and whistling. After reading through the information he was even more joyful about his evolution.
He wanted to be surprised by what kind of super body he might get, and what it would be named, so he decided against using [Destiny] to peek and ruin the moment.
In fact, until he laid eyes on the name 'Twins of Fate', he had thought for certain that his super body was going to be associated with his [Electromagnetism] powers.
The bulk of human society was composed mainly of Evolvers. While most people starting out in the First God's Sanctuary usually landed within the sixteen-to-thirty age bracket, the demographic from ages 20 to 300 was more or less dominated by Evolvers.
'Surpasser' tier was where most called it good enough, with only the most top-shelf and talented of elites successfully becoming Surpassers and surviving.
This massive divide didn't exist because regular Evolvers lacked the capacity to secure one hundred geno points.
Instead, it was a choice driven by fear of the Third God's Sanctuary. That realm was a hyper-lethal battleground; entering it with a subpar fitness rating was nothing short of suicide.
There had been too many lessons learned the hard way; most people would rather hang out in the Second God's Sanctuary all their life, which made evolvers the majority amongst the adult-human population.
There were hundreds or even thousands of millions of Evolvers. However, among all of them, only people that evolved with their Super genes maxed out would receive a body with a name and attribute or talent attached.
An Evolver with Mutant geno points maxed would gain a mutant body, while an Evolver with Sacred Blood geno points maxed out would gain a sacred blood body. There was no other name or quality to it - including Sacred Blood class, all these bodies could do ability-wise, was add a qualitative fitness boost.
The Second God's Sanctuary was totally different from the First God's Sanctuary in quite a few different ways.
First off, there were no natural human shelters present in the Second Sanctuary to call home. There was nothing but nature around the randomly placed teleportation machines, unless a 'Spirit Shelter' housed one. We'll get to what a spirit shelter is in a moment.
Humans were pretty much on their own, unless enough random humans banded together and made camp around a teleporter.
Secondly, creatures living in the Second God's Sanctuary were much more intelligent and organized than in the First God's Sanctuary. On top of that, there were many of the aforementioned spirit shelters, aptly named as they were ruled by 'spirits'.
Spirits were way different from most of the creatures found in the sanctuaries. They almost all looked just like humans. They could be male or female, their bodies were not comprised of normal flesh and blood, however.
Spirits were also insanely hard to truly kill. The only way to seal the deal was by destroying their 'spirit stone', a gem like object that more or less kept them immortals.
As long as the corresponding spirit stone was safe and secure, a spirit could respawn endlessly.
To make things worse, spirits were able to control creatures.
If there was a spirit shelter, nearly all of the creatures in the surrounding area would be attached to the spirit and form a creature army.
Naturally, high-tier creatures refused to bow down and take orders from lesser-ranked spirits; a spirit's rank and raw power strictly dictated the level of beasts they could boss around.
Driven by their spirit masters, huge monster armies frequently attacked human-established shelters. Humans and spirits generally hated each other in the Second God's Sanctuary, so Evolvers who lacked the strength to defend their walls were simply killed outright.
Getting rid of a spirit permanently required invading their stronghold and shattering their core spirit stone. Alternatively, an Evolver could snatch the spirit stone and try to force the spirit into submission.
Submission was usually a pipe dream, though. The higher a spirit's nobility, the more violently they resisted human authority. Most spirits preferred to blow up their own core stones in an act of prideful suicide rather than become the henchman of a human, leaving the possession of a spirit slave—or companion, depending on who you were asking—a luxury few in the Second Sanctuary ever enjoyed.
Every now and then, one would drop their pride to submit to survive and then enter their new master's sea of soul.
Unlike beast souls, which were basically just mindless weapons waiting for a human to pull the trigger, spirits were fully sentient entities with their own brains and independent agendas.
They didn't need to be micromanaged to get a job done. That said, becoming a human's asset stripped them of their birthright; a tamed spirit could no longer boss around local monsters, but they did gain the ability to wield beast souls just like an Evolver.
Most importantly, the contract was a one-way street. Once a spirit surrendered their stone, their autonomy vanished completely—their new master held the ultimate kill-switch, able to snuff their life on a whim.
Max summoned his godly tracksuit and slipped out of the Evolution Palace. He kept his stride casual as he navigated the familiar, weathered streets of Steel Armor Shelter, eventually stopping in front of the apartment building-like tower that housed the room technically belonging to him for years.
Stepping inside, he was greeted by the stagnant smell of a room left untouched. A thick, grey layer of dust coated the ancient stone platform in the center of the room. With a sharp exhale, Max blew the debris away from the teleportation device, watched the particles dance in the dim light, and prepared to step onto the smooth stone platform.
This would be his official entry into the Alliance and then into the Second God's Sanctuary.
Max didn't care where he landed. Whether the universe dropped him into a barren wasteland swarming with hostile creatures, or directly into the courtyard of an aggressive Spirit stronghold, it didn't make a shred of difference.
To anyone else, it was a terrifying gamble. To Max, it was just playtime.
"Hmm," Max muttered to himself, checking his internal clock. "Quickly slip into the Alliance, and then right back out."
Max mentally triggered the gate, teleporting completely out of the First God's Sanctuary and crossing over into the high-tech universe of the human Alliance—burning one of the five precious Alliance visits he had carefully hoarded over the years. Not that Max cared.
A brief, sharp wave of universal disorientation washed over him, but it vanished as quickly as it came.
When Max blinked his eyes clear, the mystical stone architecture of the Sanctuary was gone. Instead, he was sitting inside a state-of-the-art Alliance transit capsule. The pod was a masterpiece of cold, militaristic engineering—enclosed by thick sheets of carbon-reinforced alloy, pressurized by hissed vacuum seals, and humming with the low, rhythmic vibration of particle dampeners stabilizing his molecular structure.
Directly in front of his face, an ergonomic control console jutted out from the dash, dominated by two massive, industrial-grade manual triggers. One flashed a steady, rhythmic crimson, while the other pulsed with a welcoming green light.
Max didn't feel like guessing this time. He fired up his mutant [Destiny] ability, letting his gaze slip across the temporal threads to see exactly what would happen if he pressed either side of the console.
"Ah, the red one is a hard-lock shutdown safety device," Max chuckled softly, the light in his eyes fading as he deactivated the power. "Could've probably guessed that one, huh?"
Before he could even ponder it further, a harsh electronic chime pinged from the overhead speakers. The ambient lighting in the capsule flickered as the pod's automated terminal flashed an amber warning.
The advanced artificial intelligence governing the station had just completed a biometric facial scan, instantly flagging his genetic signature. Because Max had been off the grid in the Sanctuary this whole time, the system's database treated him like a phantom, automatically routing a high-priority alert to the local spaceport authorities.
Max didn't plan on sitting around to answer questions or deal with military bureaucracy. Before the local guards could even scramble to his docking bay or shut his pod down, Max casually reached forward and slammed his palm down onto the flashing green button, triggering the teleporter to launch him straight into the Second God's Sanctuary.