Chapter Seventy-Eight: Torment

For decades, no one had set foot in this forest, but now smoke and chaos filled the air as hundreds of inhuman titans fought with abandon. Every movement could destroy a city or tear up the very roots of the forest. Even someone like Atonsa, surrounded by over a hundred Vein-Bearers, found it nearly impossible to break through. Even flying creatures risked being shot down by the Vein-Bearers’ thrown weapons if they flew below five hundred meters. Those bizarre elemental daggers, blood-drippers, and storm-needles, all infused with Qi, surpassed the power of conventional firearms. The split-forms that could soar above five hundred meters had specialized so much in flight that their combat prowess could not sway the outcome; even if they crossed over, it meant little.

Ahead, the battlefield was a scene of chaos. The Vein-Bearers’ immense strength and mobility had widened the conflict, creating a vast zone of war. Trees snapped like toothpicks, the earth furrowed by inhuman force, and swirling dust could not obscure the Vein-Bearers’ dominance. Through the omnipresent vision of Atonsa’s split-forms, it became clear that the Enforcers were being thoroughly suppressed by Zhang Liaoyuan’s followers. Many of these followers were martial fanatics released from the Great Snow Mountain Prison—deranged, yet wholly dedicated to the martial path. The price of such devotion was immense, but it granted them powers far above ordinary Vein-Bearers, and even Atonsa’s regular split-forms had suffered heavy losses. Originally, these Martial Phantoms had been imprisoned out of respect for their strength, kept alive for the secrets they could yield. No one anticipated that Zhang Liaoyuan would bring them all to heel.

“Atonsa, can you break their blockade?” Qiu Qiuchan appeared by the side of one of Atonsa’s split-forms, dust-covered and weary, having barely escaped the fray for a moment’s rest.

Atonsa replied, “The resistance is greater than I expected. I must take further precautions. Buy me some time.”

Qiu Qiuchan gave Atonsa a long, searching look, then—quite out of character—simply said, “Alright.” She vanished back into the fight, clashing once more with the Martial Phantoms.

One by one, over thirty bizarre split-forms gathered at the edge of the battlefield. None rushed forward blindly; instead, they clustered together, preparing for something unknown. Each had a strange and unnatural shape, some in defiance of all physical laws, unsuited for battle. Yet Atonsa had designed them that way, willing to pay the cost in casualties to send these grotesque forms.

From the massed army of split-forms, heat shimmered as their cells underwent violent transformation—only Atonsa’s evolved heat-resistant proteins could support such ferocious metabolism. The amalgam of flesh writhed and shifted, joining together to form a five-meter-tall furnace of living tissue. Alien creatures embraced, fusing at the skin, their cells morphing at high speed, bones and organs shifting like blocks in a grotesque, seething mass.

“Atonsa, what are you waiting for? Do you hope to swoop in at the end and claim the spoils?” A furious roar swept across the battlefield, drawing every eye to the monstrous transformation overtaking Atonsa. Some began charging toward the threat.

Atonsa calmly controlled the still-forming giant, sending a fist flying to swat a Martial Phantom aside like a ragdoll. Its neural reflexes and physical prowess now roughly matched those of a Vein-Bearer. A burly man, over two meters tall, blocked the next blow, veins bulging at his temples as he roared and broke Atonsa’s arm clean off. Yet in the next instant, a bone spike shot from the severed limb, piercing the giant’s heart. This mantis-shrimp-inspired mechanism packed the power of a bullet, capable of punching through five millimeters of steel at close range. Even a Vein-Bearer’s formidable flesh could not stop it.

The man convulsed, a ferocious snarl on his lips as he tried to lunge again. But the bone spike in his chest exploded outward like a sea urchin, shredding his heart to pulp. His life was snuffed out in an instant.

As Atonsa fought, more split-forms hurled themselves into the body’s gaps, filling and reinforcing it, making the form ever more complete and powerful with every passing moment.

“Bone support structure assembled.”
“Carbon-nanotube synthetic muscles functioning well, contraction normal.”
“Bio-mimetic neuro-optic gel pathways connected, reflexes stable.”
“Circulatory circuits unimpeded, high-energy blood flow normal.”
“Combat organs in place, control optimal.”
“Diversified neon-condensed energy supply running flawlessly.”

“War Behemoth Chimera, assembly complete!”

At last, with no one daring to rush in, Atonsa’s form unfurled, revealing its true nature—a composite abomination stitched from myriad limbs. Countless bones, muscles, organs, and nerves had been reconfigured and combined, culminating in the creation of a fearsome war beast: Chimera.

Against Vein-Bearers, Atonsa believed sheer numbers meant nothing; only the ultimate war machine would suffice. Yet calculations showed that such a force, capable of confronting Vein-Bearers head-on, would need to be enormous—hard to conceal, easy to intercept. So Atonsa chose to break it down, move the Chimera in parts, and reassemble at the destination, hoping to face Zhang Liaoyuan in its most perfect form.

For Chimera’s birth, Atonsa had shaped the split-forms into their strange, impractical bodies, keeping only the bare minimum mobility. Now, all those oddities contributed to Chimera’s formidable structure.

Some vestigial limbs and heads still marred Chimera’s exterior—minor flaws that could not be addressed in the heat of battle. From a distance, it resembled a bloated lizard, its heavy armor plates covering a host of gruesome biological weapons: bone-hammers that fired like bullets, acid sacs that corroded steel, high-voltage cells, and swarms of shrieking parasitic creatures—every lethal trait Atonsa knew, marshaled together.

Yet such direct confrontation was a disadvantage for Atonsa; its true strength lay in the vast resources of endless split-forms and their unparalleled efficiency, making any enemy feel beset by foes on all sides. The Martial Phantoms were cowed by Atonsa’s alien aura, and even the Enforcers eyed it with naked hostility, clearly seeing Atonsa not as an ally, but as another threat.