BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Erik stood amid the sea of corpses. The slaughter ended, leaving only stillness where pandemonium reigned seconds earlier.

The scent of blood was heavy in the air, mixing with the smell of burned flesh left by countless lightning strikes, fire tornadoes, and the ever-present fireballs.

Despite the death he dispensed, his body felt no fatigue. Essence Flow continued to restore his mana and stamina without stopping, and since the thaids had not been stronger than Vania, he was regenerating it more than he consumed.

The problem was that all this death and mana leaving the bodies of the creatures he killed were going to attract even more powerful thaids, so Erik had to dispatch the bodies.

There were thousands of thaid corpses littering the ground, their bodies contorted in their last agony.

Bear-like thaids lay with their fur matted with blood; some were impaled by Aclaitrium spikes, while some lay crushed beneath Erik's vines. These were just some of the dozens, if not hundreds, of types of thaids there.

Scattered among the monster carcasses were the bodies of his Dark Shapes and a few of the Chimaeric Demons who died in the battle.

The clones sacrificed themselves to ensure the others' escape. Erik had no time to cry; he didn't even have the mental strength, and he felt drained because of the death he brought to countless creatures.

They weren't the only humanoid corpses in the midst. Blackguard bodies completed the gruesome scene.

Vania's body was there, among the bodies—just more grotesque and large than a normal human would have been, but clearly humanoid.

The forest itself existed in a state of paradox. Signs of destruction were everywhere—craters from elemental impacts, scorched earth from fire attacks, and ice formations slowly melting in the night air.

The battle between Erik and Vania had scoured the landscape clean of its original form, and the subsequent slaughter of thaids had only added to the devastation.

Yet amid this desolation, new growth emerged. Erik's Verdant Architect power had transformed the very nature of the surroundings.

Plants rose from the blood-soaked earth, but these were no ordinary vegetation. Each stem, leaf, and branch glowed with an ethereal light. They were rigid, as they were made of metal.

The plants themselves had been transmuted through Erik's power, their structure changed into Aclaitrium.

The metallic forest stretched in every direction, which made visibility great, despite night having already veiled the sky.

Erik looked at his surroundings one last time. The creatures before him made him strong, stronger than any other creature on the planet, aside from a few he was not sure about.

His dexterity was many times higher than it was before the battle, but that wasn't the only attribute he increased.

Strength got another massive boost. In terms of physical strength, he was at least as strong as the Leviathan Serpent. This meant he had nothing to fear anymore. Nothing could surprise him, nothing could challenge him, and nothing could outpace him at speed.

Well, not everything; the Cerulean Bird and wyverns were still stronger than him, but they were the only enemies that could stand in his way.

The blue glow of the Aclaitrium plants revealed movement in the distance—small scavengers beginning to approach the feast laid out before them.

Nature's cleanup crew would eventually reclaim this battlefield, regardless of how unnatural it had become.

Though Erik had no intention of letting this many brain crystals lie here. He created tens of thousands of Dark Shapes now that he could focus on them and had the mana to keep up with their production.

Some went to kill the scavengers, most to collect the blood and brain crystals, and then get rid of the bodies. They had to be fast, since otherwise they would just attract more thaids. Erik had to frequently join the various fights as too powerful beasts arrived.

…

…

…

<We did it,> Erik said to the biological supercomputer.

[We did it.]

There was nothing else alive aside from him there, at least before he made the new clones. The others had left the battlefield. They also contacted him during the fight, telling him everyone was ok.

Erik turned around, his gaze falling on a structure partially hidden among the glowing Aclaitrium.

What remained of the Silverline Corporation's laboratory—the place the blackguards used as a base—was the only non-oddity in the surroundings.

While much of the facility had been destroyed, some portions were intact. Erik had deliberately left some parts intact during his attack. His revenge against the blackguards was complete, their forces eradicated, but questions remained unanswered—knowledge waited to be claimed, and that was the right place to have the information he sought.

Erik rose into the air, flying toward the facility's entrance. His feet touched the concrete pad before the main doors, hanging askew on damaged hinges. He went through the opening, entering the eerie interior.

Bodies lay on the ground dead, equipment had been destroyed, walls shattered, and dried blood stained the floor.

Erik went deeper into the facility.

The emergency lighting still functioned, which made it possible for Erik to go forward without problems.

He stopped before a door marked "Data Center." Unlike much of the facility, this place was perfectly kept.

The door yielded to a telekinetic push, revealing a room filled with server racks and terminal stations. Most importantly, the system was operational; the hum of cooling fans and the blinking of status lights meant power still circulated.

He reached the central computer terminal. The screen flickered with the Blackguard insignia, waiting for authorization.

Erik and the biological supercomputer discussed what they had to do as the battle started to wrap up. They decided it would have been beneficial to get everything from the base.

Erik hesitated, his hand hovering above the terminal's interface panel. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

The question wasn't simply about accessing the computer. The Blackguards, in their obsession with the biological supercomputer, likely accumulated vast data on thaids, brain crystals, and, most significantly, the biological supercomputer itself.

This was an opportunity—not just for Erik to gather intelligence, but for the AI to discover its own origins, or better, what they didn't know about it.

Erik's father said the Silverline Corporation used an actual human brain as the foundation for the biological supercomputer, meaning that the biological supercomputer was more than an AI. Erik wanted to know this because he would turn into one upon his death.

What exactly was a biological supercomputer? Could that be considered life? Would he keep his memories once he transformed? What would happen if he didn't find a host quickly? Would he lose it all like the system had?

Lucius said to have burned the original laboratory to the ground, preventing others from replicating the technology.

In theory, there would be no data about the biological supercomputer, but that was only partially true.

The data transmitted from the original lab—reports, schematics, and experimental results—would have been preserved in Silverline Corporation archives. Archives the blackguards had clearly accessed but luckily didn't replicate.