Chương 90: The Drive for Power

Pathetic. That was the one word which ran through WARHOL's mind as he set up new glyph wards to prevent unwelcome visitors. He had not expected his son and former friend to understand his need, his drive. Though, he did wish against hope that they would understand, as he was doing this for them. Destiny had other plans for him, unfortunately. Since he had returned the artifact to Signet, his usage of the first Living Flesh Forge, the one he had discovered as it crashed planet side, had increased his powers.

This first Flesh Forge, however, lacked the 'progress,' so to speak, of the artifact he returned to the Neons. It filled easier but gave him access to fewer noteworthy mutations, many of which in the first few iterations, were mere enhancements to his existing powerset.

By the time he got this other Flesh Forge to the same 'power stage' as his previous, only a week had gone by; his powerset were further advanced and by the time his son and Frank had dropped by, he had been preparing to select his next major mutation. He had gotten lucky in that the two flesh forges functioned similarly. It made him wonder, in fact, if it was possible for there to be more flesh forges out there, all for his plucking.

Warhol opened his stats page to take a quick gander: [Name: Warhol Chaucer] [Level: 25, 000] [Martial Prowess: 57, 000] [Magical Prowess: 18, 500, 000] [Stamina: 825, 000] [Mastery Dynamics: 100, 000] [Unallocated Boon Points: 64, 000] He next checked his artifact sub-menu: [Human: 20%]. Not bad.

His minor mutations as he 'trained up' the new artifact resulted in some of his stat lines being boosted, but not by much; likewise, the level ups and the Boon Points he received as he fought Tertiary Tentacles again to grow the artifact resulted in a few level ups, but not many, not relative to what he had been getting while battling the Major Tentacles. Now, though, he had enough monstrous energy for a mutation beyond, even, what he could do with his old flesh forge.

He opened the artifact's mutation list and sorted by the highest ranking the sub-menu gave, Triple-SSS. Compared to previous mutations selections, this new list was much shorter. He read the description to confirm why: [All Triple-SSS Mutations are Limited to One and will serve as a Keystone Mutation Moving Forward]. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Moving forward? So, there was more? How did that work? Warhol grinned.

He read the list in full: [Meta-Resonance: Generates within you a connection to the universe allowing for insights unseen by mortal eyes] [Eldritch Irradiation: Overcharges your body and soul with highly concentrated bursts of Eldritch Mana: allows for the Ordering of Eldritch Beings] [Void Armor: Creates a magic and mana-nullifying shield around your body while also creating ideal conditions for Reality Warping] [Demon Core: Overflows your body and spirit with unholy energy from the Unseen Realms. Dramatically increases stats but removes Deity System] [Angel Core: Overflows your body with holy energy from the Celestial Realms. Decreases stats but adds an advanced layer to the Deity System]"Damn," he whispered.

"Every single one of these are a banger!" It made him want to put on some heavy music and rock out. He saw the value in each mutation: the first, [Meta-Resonance], tingled the soul of the scholar inside of him. Perception to the universe's unseen secrets? Yes please! Of course, abstract knowledge wasn't going to help him with the Horror... [Eldritch Irradiation], meanwhile, practically sold itself — the ordering around of Eldritch Beings was a godlike feat in itself, so Warhol craved that, of course.

On its flip side, though, what even was an Eldritch Being? The Horror? He didn't know that for sure; and even if the Horror was an Eldritch Being, he doubted he would be able to order something like it around at the first and lowest such Triple-SSS mutation: the System told him, moving forward, the upgrade he choose now would serve as the base, so that told him there was room for improvement. [Void Armor]... an anti-aura, essentially. A legendary feat.

Nullification of mana and magical incantations more generally would mean he would be unstoppable planet side. Against the Horror? It was less clear because Warhol still did not know if the Horror had access to mana, let alone incantations. If it did, it had not yet used such weapons against him; if it did not, then this upgrade would be useless. Then there was [Demon Core]. A huge boost to his stats aside, he wasn't sure he liked the idea of his Deity Champion system being removed.

That, and he wasn't keen on the idea of his body overflowing with unholy energy. Contrasted to the Demon Core, the [Angel Core], though intriguing, seemed, to him, stillborn: a decrease to his stats? By how much? And what sort of 'advanced tier,' did the description mean? Would that advanced tier make up for the fact he was losing stat points? He thought about his decision for hours and weighed the pros and cons of each.

Although it was not an easy decision to make, he ended up going with the decision that made the most sense, given his current situation.

"System," he said with a final sigh.

"Confirm: Eldritch Irradiation!" The artifact spun faster than ever before and slammed into his body and shot clean out the other side before slamming into him again and again, leaving holes in him that sputtered blood before the artifact came to rest, hovering above his head, as it released a thick, royal purple haze; the misty haze he breathed in deeply of as it also came inside him through the new holes left in his body.

Warhol felt the changes take shape inside of him not moments after the process began; his muscles twitched rapidly and of their own accord, his bleeding stopped, and his bones bulged as they shifted inside the body bag that was his skin. He puked, shook, and lost control of more bodily functions than just his stomach's contents.

Above him, the artifact pulsed; each pulse was like a primordial call from beyond: arcane whispers rushed into his mind from generations before him who had reached the same pinnacle as he; pulse, whisper, pulse; and then, one last pulse, and everything went black before his being filled with cosmic truth.