The sea floor accepted him like an ancient womb, wrapping him in the silence of forgotten depths and the crushing weight of unknowable pressure.
Far below even the reach of light, beneath trenches that yawned like the broken jaws of old gods, Mark lay curled in on himself, wrapped in a dozen coiled limbs, his vent slits sealed, his muscles locked into the stillness of pre-evolution.
Everything in his biology, his mind, his instincts; all of it had grown tight with pressure, with promise, with imminent eruption. And then, without sound or fanfare, it began.
From the centre of his being, a tremor passed outward, not of pain, but release. He did not scream. He did not thrash. He simply expanded; not in size, but in complexity, in nature, in form.
His genes, once divergent and violent and incompatible, now embraced, wove together, folded and fused into something new. And then, his size ballooned.
And as the lightless trench hummed with impossible resonance, the System Interface blinked alive, flooding his thoughts with lines of cascading information.
[System Update: Evolution Complete]
[Subject: Mark]
[Species: Synthetic Apex Hybrid]
[Evolution Tier: Omega Class]
[Genome Saturation Index: 0.00%]
[Stored Genetic Templates Identified:]
[Enteroctopus dofleini (Base), Ambystoma mexicanum (Axolotl), Carcharodon carcharias (Great White Shark), Hexanchus griseus (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark), Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni (Colossal Squid), Hapalochlaena abyssalis (Deep Sea Blue-Ringed Octopus Variant), Lupus Porcospina (Mutated Wolf), Gorilla Albino (Mutated Albino Gorilla), Titanus Chiropteris (Female MUTO), Loligo vulgaris (Common Squid), Aplysia gigantica (Giant Sea Slug), Somniosus microcephalus (Greenland Shark), Thermococcus abyssalis (Deep-Sea Volcano Archaea), Chironex leviathan (Variant Box Jellyfish), Gymnothorax colossus (Mutated Moray), Paralithodes regalis (Royal Mutant Crab), Sus scrofa (Feral Boar), Capra aegagrus Hircus (Mountain Goat), Panthera onca (Jaguar), Crocuta Crocuta (Spotted Hyena), Varanus Komodoensis (Komodo Dragon), Crocodylus Niloticus (Nile Crocodile), Cranilux Saurivorus (Skullcrawler), Gigantopithecus Titanus (Ape Titan Kong)]
[Current Evolution Benefits:]
[Regeneration Sequence Integrated (Lv 1), Electroreceptive Perception (Lv 2), Bone-Crushing Bite (Lv 3), Cranial Shock Reinforcement (Lv 1), Abyssal Oxygen Conversion (Level 2), Forward Jaw Protrusion (Level 1), Deep Pressure Endurance (Level 2), Distributed Neural Processing (Level 3), Barbed Suction Arsenal (Level 2), Tentacular Power Surge (Level 3), Tetrodotoxin Immunity (Level 3), Neurotoxin Secretion (Level 2), Toxic Dispersal Burst (Level 3), Breath Retention (Level 3), Dual Respiratory Adaptation (Level 2), Dermal Armor Plating (Level 2), Beak-Tusks (Level 1), Kinetic Quill Expulsion (Level 3), Surface Morphic Adaptation (Level 2), Prey Ensnarement Flaps (Level 1), Thermal Shock Gland (Level 1), Cognitive Node Expansion (Level 2) Muscle Mass Density (Level 2), Hydro-dermal Cooling (Level 1), Self-Circulated Cooling (Level 1), Radiogenic Regeneration (Level 2), Adaptive Radiotrophy (Level 1), Chitinous Flex-Skin (Level 3), Compatible Trait Fusion (Unlocked), Ink Cloud Defence (Level 1), Tentacle Dexterity (Level 1), Neurochemical Resistance (Level 1), Longevity Boost (Level 1), Cold Environment Adaptation (Level 1), Extreme Heat Tolerance (Level 2), Anaerobic Metabolism (Level 1), Toxin Filament Deployment (Level 1), Photoreceptor Expansion (Level 1), Secondary Jaw Projection (Level 1), Muscle Coiling Power (Level 1), Chitinous Flex Armor (Level 2), Rapid Limb Regeneration (Level 1), Charge Kinetic Amplification (Level 1), Ledge Cling (Level 1), Balance Correction Reflex (Level 1), Low-Light Vision (Level 1), Muscle Density Upgrade (Level 1), Jaw Compression Strength (Level 1), Bone Digestion Adaptation (Level 1), Bacterial Coating Resistance (Level 1), Heat-Sensing Pit Organs (Level 1), Amphibious Lung Exchange (Level 1), Scale Fortification (Level 1), Terrestrial Stability Matrix (Level 1), Reproductive Reconfiguration; Oviparous Protocol (Level 4), Primate Combat Intuition (Level 2), Muscular Density Reinforcement (Level 3), Bone Marrow Hyper structure (Level 2)]
Mark's new form rose from the depths with monumental presence, eclipsing all previous incarnations of his own self, and perhaps, even the monsters who had once walked the earth as legends.
Now standing 1.5 times the size of Godzilla, his twelve eyes, arranged in three arc-like bands around the crown of his now wide, armoured body, remained hidden beneath the same reactive black exoshells found in the MUTOs perfectly defensive against blinding attacks, yet able to open at will with no delay.
His once unarmoured flesh was now completely wrapped in a flexible, overlapping chitin-armour, grown and fused from the MUTO's own DNA, dark and metallic in hue, with shifting plates that could bend, stretch, and harden as needed.
His tentacles were now longer, denser, and wrapped with barbed channels, each capable of launching poisonous spines at range or slicing through reinforced concrete like butter.
From his back, steam hissed from internal cooling vents, which now opened and closed autonomously to regulate heat when on land, allowing his muscular systems to maintain peak performance.
And within his chest… the faint, steady thrum of radiation. He was not simply a predator now. He was a nuclear engine wrapped in ancient flesh, a walking extinction, a new god of evolution born in the abyss.
Mark opened his twelve eyes, one set at a time, and looked to the horizon of the deep sea, where a faint shimmer marked the world above.
Now, he needed radiation, and lots of it! Immediately, he turned his gaze towards a nation with the highest number of nuclear material. He could sense them, and the United States would regret having them.
[AN: This chapter took a lot longer than expected as I had to find all the abilities. Anyways, soon this will get simplified a bit as he will be able to merge abilities, hope everyone is enjoying the story. Do leave reviews so I can remove the temporary ones I have written. Thank you.]