Chapter 2 Mortal Desperation & Primordial Light

"Pain... Stop... Damn it, this hurts so much"!

An unbearable pain slammed into the back of Killian’s head. It felt as if someone were driving a red-hot nail straight through his skull, right behind his eyeballs. Killian wanted to scream, but the sound caught in his throat. His body arched violently, the veins in his neck bulging as the pressure grew stronger.

Within the darkness of his mind, a pure golden light began to emerge. It was not the pale blue glow of the System he had always seen. This was something far older, heavier, and utterly alien. The light spun slowly, forming a vortex of energy that began pulling at his consciousness.

[Warning: System Master Protocol has detected an anomaly], a cold, monotonous voice echoed in his head. It was the standard System voice he had always hated. [Unauthorized access attempt into core structure... Attempting to erase foreign entity…]

"Get out..." Killian groaned, his teeth chattering. "Get out of my head!"

The pain did not stop. Killian felt as though his eyeballs were melting beneath boiling molten metal. He released the rusted iron in his hand and clawed at his face, his fingernails tearing bloody lines across his cheeks.

[Anomaly eradication failed], the standard System voice sounded again, but this time it carried panic, an emotion an artificial intelligence should never possess. [Fatal error... Data structure collapsing... Releasing administrator control…]

Suddenly, the monotonous voice cut off in a burst of deafening static. It was replaced by something far deeper, more authoritative, and ancient, as though it had risen from the darkest depths of the ocean itself.

[The eyes that see what is hidden... The will that defies written fate…]

[Welcome, Anomaly].

Killian collapsed to the ground. Blood streamed from his eyes. Yet the burning agony slowly transformed into a soothing cold sensation. The pressure inside his skull vanished, replaced by a clarity he had never experienced in his life.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

The world no longer looked the same. The dark underground tunnel was now filled with pulsating lines of energy. He could see the flow of air, fluctuations in temperature, and most shocking of all, he could see the atomic structure of the giant spider still looming before him.

The spider, which had once looked like an invincible predator, now appeared transparent in Killian’s eyes. In the center of its chest, a dark purple energy core pulsed slowly. Around its legs, Killian saw blinking red points, structural weak spots.

[Hidden Interface: Eyes of Evolution activated], a transparent dark-gold panel appeared before his vision. This was not the rigid System interface. It looked fluid, elegant, and radiated an aura of absolute authority.

[Name: Killian Moretti]

[Status: Cosmic Anomaly]

[Eye Power: Level 1 Basic Insight]

[Description: You can see evolutionary paths ignored by the System Master. You can perceive the truth behind matter.]

Killian gasped, trying to calm his racing heart. He glanced downward at the hand still holding Giz. Another information window appeared.

[Target: Soil Caterpillar, Critically Injured/Near Death]

[Standard Evolution Status: Death in 120 seconds]

[Hidden Evolutionary Paths Detected: 3 Paths]

Killian’s eyes widened. Dead in one hundred twenty seconds? No. I won’t let that happen.

"You hear that, Giz?" Killian whispered, his voice hoarse yet filled with newfound determination. "We’re not done yet. I’m not trash for them to trample anymore."

The spider seemed to awaken from some strange lapse in time. The creature shrieked, realizing its prey was now emitting a completely different aura. The delicious scent of fear was gone. The human before it now radiated something cold and threatening.

The Calamity Spider lunged again, this time at full speed. Its fangs shot directly toward Killian’s throat.

But to Killian, the movement looked painfully slow and clumsy. With a single calm motion, he shifted only a few centimeters to the left. The monster’s fangs slammed into the wall behind him, creating massive cracks as dust exploded into the air.

[Weak point detected: Third left leg joint], the Eyes of Evolution instructed inside his mind.

Killian wasted no time. He snatched up the rusted piece of iron he had dropped earlier. His hand no longer trembled. He held it like an executioner who already knew exactly where to strike.

"This is for Giz," Killian snarled.

He drove the iron into the blinking red point on the monster’s leg. Though the weapon was dull, the force behind Killian’s strike seemed empowered by the golden energy flowing from his eyes. The iron pierced the spider’s hardened shell as though it were paper.

Thick green fluid burst outward. The spider screamed in agony, its massive body stumbling sideways. The pack of Shadow Rats watching from the darkness squealed in terror and retreated deeper into the shadows. They knew the predator they feared had just been wounded by something far more dangerous.

Killian stood tall. He could feel a strange current of energy coursing through his veins. Every time he looked at the monster, information streamed into his mind, the speed of its next attack, its remaining energy, even the level of fear within the creature itself.

I can see it, Killian thought, a cold smile curling across his lips. I can see everything. The System Vax and the others worship... compared to this, it’s nothing but a tiny lie.

He glanced toward the hole far above, where Captain Vax and his team had likely already abandoned this place completely. He imagined the smug expression on Vax’s face when he called him trash.

Vax... Jax... all of you who threw me away, Killian clenched his fist. Just wait. Once I get out of here, I’ll make sure your lives are never peaceful again.

The spider, though injured, refused to surrender. Its predator instincts took over completely. The creature spat sticky webs mixed with acid toward Killian, trying to trap him in place.

"Too slow," Killian hissed.

He rolled beneath the web spray, his movements now far more agile than before. He could see the web’s trajectory even before the spider launched it. Killian continued closing the distance, his eyes locked onto the energy core within the monster’s chest.

[Analysis: A direct attack on the core will trigger an energy explosion.]

[Risk to user: High.]

[Suggestion: Sever neural connection at rear cranial section.]

Killian followed the suggestion without hesitation. He leaped onto the confused spider’s back, gripping its coarse hairs tightly to avoid being thrown off. The spider thrashed wildly, trying to hurl him away, but Killian strengthened his grip and held on.

"Stop moving, you filthy bug!"

Killian raised the rusted iron high above his head. He could feel the Eyes of Evolution pulsing, granting him x-ray vision that pierced through the monster’s armored skull. There, a bright purple cluster of nerves pulsed rhythmically.

Strike now.

Killian drove the iron down with all his strength.

"Stab!"

The monster released a horrifying shriek that shook the underground tunnel. Its massive body convulsed violently for several seconds before finally collapsing onto the ground with a thunderous crash. Acidic fluid began pooling around the corpse, but Killian had already jumped clear.

He panted heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Sweat mixed with blood streamed down his forehead. He stared at the lifeless corpse of the Calamity Spider. A mid-level monster that should have required an elite team to defeat now lay dead at the hands of a so-called trash.

[Warning: Eyes of Evolution energy running low. Active Insight Mode will deactivate in 30 seconds], the voice echoed in his mind.

Killian ignored the warning. His focus returned to the one thing that mattered most to him now. He knelt beside Giz, who lay weakly on the ground.

"Giz... hey, buddy. Wake up," Killian said softly again, his voice filled with deep sorrow.

The little caterpillar did not move. Its dull brown body looked even drier now. The green fluid leaking from it had completely stopped, a sign that nothing remained inside.

"Don’t do this to me," Killian whispered, tears beginning to gather in his eyes. "I just got this power. I just found a way to save us. Please... don’t leave now."

Killian touched Giz’s head with the tip of his finger, and the remaining energy within the Eyes of Evolution produced a different notification. This time it was not an information panel, but a complex visualization.

Golden lines spread from Killian’s hand into Giz’s body. In Killian’s vision, the caterpillar no longer appeared weak. He saw thousands of tiny points of light within it, immense potential locked behind invisible chains.

[Hidden Evolution Protocol: 'Void Devourer' Path detected.]

[Requirements: Blood of the Anomaly, Monster Core Energy, and the Will to Transcend.]

Killian fell silent. He looked toward the spider’s corpse beside him, then at his own blood-covered hand. The System’s standard evolutionary path would only allow this caterpillar to become some useless earth moth, but the Eyes of Evolution showed something else. Something forbidden. Something powerful.

"So this is the way?" Killian asked the void.

He stared at the nearly dead little caterpillar. Giz had always stayed beside him, even when everyone else mocked him. When Killian had no food, this caterpillar would dig through the dirt searching for edible roots for its master. The creature had never abandoned him.

"I’ll give you everything, Giz," Killian whispered coldly, his voice filled with unwavering resolve. "My blood, my life... whatever it takes. We’ll climb to the top together, or we’ll be destroyed together in this pit."

Killian watched the golden lines across the caterpillar’s body begin pulsing in sync with his own heartbeat. He felt a connection far deeper than that of a mere Tamer and Pet. This was a bond of souls forged under mortal desperation.

[Integration beginning in 3... 2... 1…]

Killian’s eyes gleamed gold once more before his entire vision was swallowed by a burst of purple light erupting from the little caterpillar’s body. The radiance was so intense it devoured the darkness of the tunnel itself, creating an aura that felt as though the surrounding space were being violently torn apart.

Within the suffocating silence, Killian Moretti realized one thing.

He was no longer the weak Killian. He was an error within the System, a bug that would grow into a virus capable of destroying the entire order of the world. And he had just begun his first evolution.

"Let’s show them, Giz..." Killian murmured. "Show them... what this ‘trash’ can do.”