Super Gene

All the races that sent Marquise teams to Metal World were growing worried. Their elites had been waiting outside the planet, but after half a month went by, not a single Marquise had returned. They sent a few more Marquises to find out what might have transpired there, but none of them came back either. All of the elders were growing angry at the threat to their people.

The first scouts that they sent to Metal World had gone in and then come back out without issue, but now, not a single Marquise seemed able to return. It confused them a great deal.

They were very disturbed. Although one hundred Marquises was nothing to those higher races, they were fighting for territory. They had sent out their best elites of Marquise rank. Having their fighters trapped inside dealt a lot of damage to those races.

The white Metal Beast told Han Sen how he could leave Metal World. The storm that plagued Metal World cycled between blue and red, and most of the time, leaving was impossible. Every tenth swap of color, however, there would be a brief pause in the storm. It was only during that time that the planet could be escaped.

When the Demons and the Buddhas first traveled there, it was during that small window. That was how they were able to enter and leave.

Now, they needed to wait for ten red and blue storms to pass before trying to leave the surface. In total, that would be a month and a half. There was still a while until the window opened again, so Han Sen wasn’t in a rush to move just yet.

Han Sen was enjoying the benefits of being friends with Metal Eater, and he was able to consume the metal xenogeneic fluid each and every day. He actually didn’t want to leave the cave for the time being. He wanted to drink as much as he could so he could level up The Story of Genes.

Han Sen went to search for Yuya and the others. They were staying with the remainder of the Dragon, Buddha, and Demon. They were surviving under the protection of a secluded cave. They weren’t really in any danger, but their supplies were swiftly dwindling. Thus, they were becoming desperate to find a way out. Unfortunately for them, they’d yet done so.

Han Sen didn’t meet with them, though. He stayed close to the white Metal Beast and kept drinking its metal xenogeneic fluid. As he waited for the tenth cycle of the storms, he spent most of his time practicing The Story of Genes.

For some reason, the white Metal Beast had no interest in leaving the metal city. Han Sen couldn’t lure or take it away from there, either.

Han Sen kept refining the metal xenogeneic fluid, and after a whole month, The Story of Genes finally began to change.

It was becoming Marquise.

“Is it finally happening?” Han Sen was excited. He had used so many resources to level it up, and he had always wondered what new powers he might achieve upon leveling it up to Marquise.

“I wonder if it will develop a new shape. Of course, if the power doesn’t increase proportionately, then this geno art wouldn’t be very well-balanced. The resources consumed thus far would be a waste, and I’m not even sure if there would be any point carrying on with its practice.” The Spell armor began to glow with holy light. Spell was now shining as brightly as a sun.

Boom!

Han Sen’s body shook, and then the armor disappeared. It took on the shape of a lady standing directly in front of Han Sen.

The lady was covered in a holy light, and her hair waved like sunbeams. The two pistols Spell wielded became bright, too. They gave off so much light that Han Sen couldn’t look directly at them.

Han Sen’s body felt like a fast-flowing waterfall was rushing through it. His body connected with Spell’s energy and began glowing extremely strongly.

Boom!

Finally, Spell’s light started to explode like a volcano, and a holy light fired into the sky. Spell’s body floated in the midst of that holy geyser of light, and a strange Spell symbol appeared on her forehead.

Han Sen did not know what changes the flower-like Spell was experiencing. She was shining, but not very brightly. But she was inside the stream of light, and the shadow of her form was clearly visible.

The holy light focused on her forehead, and it gathered up the powers of Spell. All of that light was beaming down into Spell’s flower. The flower had not changed, and Spell looked just like she always did.

“Spell’s battle body has increased to Marquise class.”

Han Sen heard this announcement in his head. His body had also gotten a whole bunch stronger.

His physical form now made him invincible amongst all the other Marquises. Even a top-class Dragon Marquise wouldn’t have a body that was remotely comparable to Han Sen’s.

What confused Han Sen was that Spell did not gain a new form; her forehead was just imbued with a strange Spell symbol. He had no idea what the symbol even meant.

Yuya, Kahn, and the others all looked glum. They had been looking for a way to leave Metal World for the longest time, but their efforts had all failed. They were on the verge of running out of supplies. It was usually safe when they left the cave during a blue storm, but this time, they met a few metal dragonflies. They killed the insects, but more appeared and chased them back to their camp.

They relied on the constricted entrance of the cave to fight off their enemies, and at first, it worked. But there were some Dukes among their attackers, and as a result, they were unable to hold the enemy off.

“D*mn! We are losing men! Should we retreat?” A dragonfly sank its teeth into a Buddha, and a whole chunk of his arm’s flesh was torn out. He let out a blood-curdling scream.

“All of our resources are here. If we lose those, we won’t survive long no matter what we do. Plus, there are too many xenogeneics for us to risk splitting up. That would just get us all killed,” Yunyi coldly said.

“If we don’t run now, we will surely die here!” the Buddha Marquise shouted back. “There are too many xenogeneics in the blue storm this time. And there are Dukes amongst them. We cannot fend them off forever.”

Dragon Eight and Yuya remained silent as the others argued. At this stage, there could be no falling back. They would settle for either getting out of Metal World or dying.

The group kept killing what they could, but some Marquises fled the cave. They wanted to take their chances outside the cave.

But the dragonflies, upon spotting the deserters, came from everywhere. There was nowhere they could run that the dragonflies wouldn’t follow. They would have to fight until exhaustion claimed them, and when that happened, their bodies would be devoured.

Dragon Eight roared, and the rest of his Dragon followed him to abandon their camp. When he saw what was outside, however, he felt hopeless. Not even his gold dragon body could keep up this fight forever.

Yuya brought the Sky Palace students out with him, too. All those dragonflies swarmed them, and they had nowhere to flee.

As despair came to claim their hearts, something weird appeared inside the swarm of xenogeneics.