Chapter 131: The Genetic Phantasm (Please Subscribe)

Unlike He Yingchu, who treated the Godzilla skin fragments with a sense of reverence, Kureha Do handled them with brutal carelessness.

After extracting a fragment, he merely adjusted its position roughly and slapped it directly onto the pre-stripped wound. He did not even bother to wipe away the murky yellow liquid coating the Godzilla skin—the notorious "Godzilla Cell Inhibitor" said to be capable of corroding an ordinary human down to the bone.

"Sizzle—"

The sound, like cold water hitting a hot pan, erupted from Kure Raian’s wrist. The agony of living flesh being corroded was enough to shatter the stoic resolve of even a "Monster" of the Kure Clan, forcing his body into uncontrollable, instinctive convulsions.

"Ugh!"

Bound to the surgical table, Raian writhed like a dying fish. He gritted his teeth so hard his veins bulged across his entire body, his eyes threatening to pop from their sockets.

Kureha Do, meanwhile, seized the moment to retreat from the reinforced containment cell as if fleeing from a catastrophe, quickly slamming the heavy door shut behind him.

Before Hakudo Kyo could even pose his curious questions, the scene inside the cell explained everything.

The Kure Clan’s secret technique, "Removal," triggered involuntarily. Raian’s entire body turned a deep, bruised purple, and veins stood out like thick cords beneath his skin. Around the fragment freshly grafted to his wrist, blood vessels swelled even more densely, as if desperate to plunder nutrients for the graft. The skin of the god-like, demonic beast took this opportunity to melt and fuse rapidly with human flesh. Simultaneously, a ghastly, greenish-gray hue began to spread across Raian’s body like an infection.

As this transformation unfolded, his physical strength surged exponentially.

"Creak, groan—"

The high-tensile restraints and the titanium surgical table began to warp and deform, slowly but surely, under the raw force of Raian’s movements. As for the murky yellow liquid that should have dissolved a human, the now-graying skin ignored it entirely, letting the caustic fluid drip uselessly onto the floor.

"Graaaah!"

The physical metamorphosis seemed to carry immense agony. The same Raian who had just moments ago stared calmly at his own flayed skin was now howling with a voice more akin to a wild beast.

Godzilla’s signature dorsal spines began to emerge, piercing through his bones and tearing through his skin. The Kure Clan’s trademark black-and-white eyes shifted, the irises turning into glowing, murky yellow slits.

"Incredible! The Kure Clan’s 'Removal' actually accelerates the fusion process! This is a major discovery!" Kureha Do, having shed his surgical gown, watched with fanatical eyes as Raian took on a form seven-tenths similar to a Godzilla derivative.

"Bang!"

The "Monster," his form now stabilizing, possessed not a shred of reason. His first impulse was destruction. The sturdy titanium table was reduced to a mangled heap of scrap metal within seconds. The rampage continued; Raian roared, his jagged, spike-covered body slamming against the containment walls and showering the room in sparks. His razor-sharp claws gouged deep, horrific furrows into the reinforced metal.

"Ho! Even the power of the initial transformation exceeds the average?" Kureha Do rubbed his hands together in anticipation and turned to Wakatsuki Takeshi. "Wakatsuki, I’ll have to trouble you. We can’t let him destroy the room."

The honest Wakatsuki, looking utterly resigned, stripped off his shirt and stood before the containment door. On his shoulder, a thin, finger-like sliver of Godzilla skin was already fused into his flesh.

"Honestly, Dr. Do, even if you have a flash of inspiration, do try to be careful! To cause such a mess without a word..."

"Clack—"

The door opened again, and Wakatsuki stepped into the room with steady, measured strides.

Raian, prowling on all fours like a predator, lunged from the other side of the room in an instant. A hideous tail had burst from his coccyx, and the spikes along his body tore through the steel walls, leaving trails of sparks in his wake. Though his form was only seventy percent similar to a derivative, his speed and power were unmatched. Even those upgraded versions capable of firing radioactive heat rays from their chests could not match this ferocity in close-quarters combat.

His jagged, bestial claws tore through the air, wreathed in white shockwaves, whistling as they aimed for Wakatsuki’s throat. Metallic debris in the room was swept up by the air pressure generated by his limbs, clattering against the walls.

It was a claw strike at the speed of sound!

Yet, facing this wild assault—which achieved sonic speed through raw force alone—Wakatsuki’s expression remained unmoved.

"Boom!"

A massive, even stronger beast-like hand slammed forward, catching the sonic-speed strike in mid-air.

Then, as if hoisting a small chick, he grabbed the arm, slammed the creature against his own body, and drove him into the floor!

The violent impact, despite the cell’s soundproofing, could not help but reach the ears of the two men outside.

Hakudo Kyo’s expression of surprise was a practiced mask. The battle between the two old acquaintances inside was, compared to their previous levels, a difference between heaven and earth. But compared to the progress the young man had made in this time, it was truly nothing. Having absorbed the blood of two Godzillas, not only had his fundamental Dragon Blood internal energy surged, but his Nen, rooted in his life force, was growing by leaps and bounds daily.

The speed of sound was a casual stroll; supersonic was merely a jog. Only when speed broke Mach 3 could it be considered "strenuous exercise."

Kureha Do found Hakudo Kyo’s "surprise" perfectly natural. After all, just over a month ago, he had crushed these two with ease. Now, both possessed the power to end his life in an instant.

"You mentioned... 'qualifications' and 'initial transformation'? What does that mean?"

Guided by his internal AI, Hakudo Kyo maintained his look of surprise, laced with a hint of longing. Ever since joining this research project, Kureha Do had seen this expression on countless martial artists and fighters. He was used to it.

Ignoring the question, he proceeded with his explanation as if reciting a script.

"The experimental program of directly transplanting beast tissue into human bodies is crude and substandard. But this is the only thing that has succeeded."

Inside the cell, Wakatsuki—whose arm was now partially beast-like—tore Raian off his body and slammed him into the floor once more.

"Bang!"

"The original masters of this world were not us humans, but a group of god-like, skyscraper-sized behemoths!" Kureha Do smoothed his light-red hair and smiled. "That is what the scholars at Monarch have been propagating."

"Those Titans are the primordial life of Earth. Like deities, they are the 'source' of all evolutionary chains in today’s biosphere, and the 'ultimate' end of all those chains."

"That is why humans experience this 'beastification' when Titan tissue invades the body."

"Because it is a craving from the depths of our genes, an ancient phantasm yearning for 'completeness' and 'greatness'!"