I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 254

As I realized that I wouldn’t be able to get out of this without battling Dr. Mengele, I had started to prepare. I had never fought someone as strong as him. Not only was he in the King realm and had a bestial support of roughly the same power, but he was also of Antecedent origin. Still, when it came to the exponential increase of evolution, his status wouldn’t come close to mine. Yet, where I was still wandering around, trying to figure my abilities out, he was supported by countless skills and techniques developed by the antecedents before him.

I recognized my own shortcomings, and I wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to be caught off guard because I allowed myself to become cocky. In truth, I was pretty confident I could abandon this body and regrow from one of my sentinels. Yet, I wasn’t prepared to do so, both because there were some things I still wanted down here, and also because those sentinels were on the surface, and while I had already tested distance before, I still didn’t know if whatever separated this place from the surface could have other effects.

In short, I wasn’t willing to gamble on my life. I also knew that I needed to defeat this antecedent, or he could cause unknown trouble to the world above. He was a relic from another time, overpowered and willing to overthrow the entire country and cause countless deaths. If that happened, the chances of helping Mara were slim. There were also the other people I had started to like. It was best to just defeat him now.

As for how, I had figured that out when we entered the prison storage lock-up. When I noticed the relationship between the Gibb’s Lantern and the mycelium that seemed to dominate this space, I couldn’t help but realize the mycelium could function as far more than a sensory expansion. I had been using Parallel Processing to gain control of the mycelium network, not just in sensory input, but motor output. In short, I was turning the entire environment into an extension of my own body.

This was actually a common thing when it came to organisms. We once had single-celled organisms, but two organisms from the same genetic lineage started working together and increased each other’s survivability as a unit over a single-cell that was on its own. Over time, these cells kept differentiating, and you eventually had a multicellular organism. However, even multicellular organisms continue to make alliances with other species, such as the relationship between dogs and people. Similar relationships occur at the single-cell level all the time.

Our skin and guts are covered in bacteria. This bacterium is essential to how our skin and gut function. Imbalances can lead to rashes, acne, and upset stomachs. Proper gut bacteria can affect weight, health, and even go so far as to affect behavior to some extent. In short, these bacteria affect our behavior, and our behavior affects the bacteria. This is why someone with a particular diet struggles if placed on a diet someone else is used to.

In short, our bacteria and the genetic code that controls it acts as an extension of our own genome. Except that, where we’re born with most of our genome, and science can’t alter the DNA of multicellular organisms, the hologenome created by the bacteria in us can be altered and controlled. Every time you change your diet, you’re changing the genome inside your stomach. I merely did this externally, altering and taking control of the mycelium network until it now acted on my command.

Everything leading up to this had just been a means of giving me time to practice and gain a better understanding of it. However, it seemed like my stalling had finally come to an end.

“Die!” Dr. Mengele roared, unwilling to give me any more time.

The skeletal beast lunged forward. Because of its size, it only needed two steps before it reached me. It immediately attacked, its massive claws scything through the air with a sound like grinding stone. I didn’t move. Instead, I willed the mycelium. Thick, fibrous tendrils, each as thick as a man’s arm, erupted from the ground. They created a barrier directly in front of me from which the claws struck. The mycelium had been reinforced with chitin, and it had a sticky, fibrous appearance that made it shockingly resilient to the strike, clearly catching the old man off guard. I didn’t give him time to recover. I summoned more tendrils, which wrapped around the beast’s legs, anchoring it in place. The creature strained and pulled against the restraints.

“Your tricks are useless!” Dr. Mengele roared, raising his hands. “Decay of Ages!”

I didn’t know what spell he cast, but I could see the wave of green energy spread out from his fingertips. Every living thing it touched quickly began to blacken and melt like he was putting out a ghastly poison. When it reached the feet of the skeletal beast, the tendrils immediately began to decay, freeing the beast. I had leaped away as I could tell my barrier would only hold the miasma away for a short time. However, I made sure not to give him time to recover.

While he was focused on his spell, I retaliated. A forest of razor-sharp fungal spikes shot up from the ground beneath the old man. They didn’t strike him, though. He seemed to have noticed and flew up into the sky. I had seen this flying once before when I encountered the elder freak at the Blanche territory. I really wanted to know how they did that. If this could be learned as a skill, I definitely wanted to be able to fly.

“You irritating insect!” Dr. Mengele floated high up, looking down on me with rage. “You think a few mushrooms can take on a Sage King? Let me show you true power! Soul Devourer’s Grasp!”

Tendrils of black, shadowy energy, thick with malice, shot from his outstretched hands. They didn’t appear to be a physical attack, nor would I define it as using energy. If anything, it felt like the inverse of energy. I instinctively dodged it, only to find the beast racing at me once again. It seemed like I wouldn’t be able to defeat him easily. Instead, I poured my will into the mycelium network. The entire cavern seemed to groan in response.

A colossal tidal wave of raw fungal matter, a slurry of decomposed organic matter and pure life energy, rose like a living wall to intercept the shadowy tendrils. The two forces collided with a deafening shriek of energy and destruction. The shadowy tendrils sizzled and dissolved against the tide of life, and for a moment, the cavern was illuminated by the chaotic clash of green and black. Meanwhile, the area the skeletal beast was running collapsed, causing it to fall into a crater. Undeterred, it leaped forward and opened its jaws wide, unleashing a beam of green power.

I couldn’t help but notice the green lantern sitting on Dr. Mengele’s hip. He seemed to be using it directly to control the beast. This lantern didn’t just absorb the power of the undead but seemed to have a means of controlling them. I was starting to feel regretful that I tossed it away earlier. It had seemed like the best way to get Tiffany out of harm’s way, but if I knew it would make this guy so tough, I probably wouldn’t have done it.

I could do nothing else but try to dodge the beam of destructive force, yet no sooner had I moved than a voice shouted out.

“This is the end for you! Oblivion’s End!”

He managed to create a second shadow beam that shot in the direction I was planning to escape. In short, I was trapped between two powerful beams, and they were closing together to crush me. He was truly skilled at fighting. He was far better than I. I had only one choice. I reached down and brought a ton of mycelium up around me. I encapsulated my body and then draped it in fungus just as the beams struck.

When they struck each other, they reacted like a bomb, causing a massive explosion directly where I had been. The eruption blew out like a snap, blowing away everything in a massive sphere of destruction. When it was gone, all that was left was the crater and discarded biomatter. There was no longer a single remaining mushroom. The entire realm had been flattened, and not a beast or plant stood. Even the bioluminescence had drastically dropped, making the place considerably darker. The panting old man dropped to the ground and fell to one knee.

“Too… powerful,” he muttered. “At least, he’s dead.”

“Am I?” I asked.

There was a rumbling sound, and all of the biomatter began to rise from the ground. All the old man could do was stare in shock as dozens of pillars exploded into the air. The skeletal beast attempted to shoot another beam at one, but another pillar exploded directly under it, bisecting the creature. It was lifted up into the air as tendrils of biomatter grew around it, slowly encasing it into the pillar like a tree might grow around an abandoned object over countless years. A massive monstrosity rose into the air, its body so large it nearly touched the ceiling of the subspace. Its eyes opened, revealing two red centers of energy.

“What… are you….” The old man forced himself to stand, his hands clenching.

The massive beast opened its mouth. “I do not know, but today was always decided. Die.”

“Nooooo!” He tried to shoot out another light.

At the same time, the bestial skeleton stopped struggling, and the air around it began to crackle.  The very space around the creature began to warp and distort. He was causing it to explode. However, I didn’t stop him. Instead, all of the biomatter is shot directly at the antecedent. The beam struck just as the beast exploded. Another shockwave shot out. This time, it was a hundred times greater than the last. The very chamber they were in began to shake and crack. Rocks began to fall from the ceiling unceasingly.

As the damage cleared, the mycelium avatar crumbled, its form dissipating back into the earth. The fungus network had taken too much damage. It would end up dying, but to me, it had only ever been a tool. I disconnected with it and allowed it to whither away. Soon, I was all that was left, standing alone in the center of a new, deeper crater. Dr. Mengele was lying on the ground a dozen yards away, his body broken, his aura flickering like a dying candle. The world around us was groaning; the entire underground structure, weakened by our battle, was finally beginning to give way.

I walked over to him, my footsteps crunching on the settling rubble. He looked up at me, his eyes no longer burning with hatred, but with a strange, hollow acceptance.

“My dream… was to become an Emperor…” he rasped, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. “To reclaim what was stolen… But I never imagined… I never imagined I would encounter a God.”

“A God?” I tilted my head. “I’m no God.”

“I was wrong.” He sighed. “You’re not an abysmal. You must be… a primordial. The evolutionary pathway of an old god. Even in my time, they were but legends.”

“A primordial?” I thought about it. “Maybe… but not a God.”

He let out a wet, choking chuckle. “What else would you be?”

I looked down at my hands, at the pale skin and human form. I had chosen to evolve into a human.

“For the moment, my status reads as human. And that’s enough for now.”

I didn’t hear a response, so I looked back up to see the light had left Dr. Mengele’s eyes. I knelt, placing my hand on his corpse. I sucked the energy out of his body. He had used a lot in the battle, so it wasn’t as much as I would have liked, but it was till something.

[You have leveled up to Level 7.]

[You have unlocked the skill, Adrenaline Release.]

I wanted to ponder my newfound level and my new skill, but the collapsing world around me was becoming more violent. I picked up the Gibbs’ Lantern. It had also been significantly drained from where it had been. It was still a very useful item, but only for someone at level five and under unless a source of undead energy was put into it. As I looked one more time at the desiccated corpse of the living antecedent, I couldn’t help but shake my head. In this world, you either had to evolve or you died, but some evolutionary pathways would always be a dead end.