Several days had passed since Mark had crushed the first great white shark beneath the coiled fury of his evolving body. In that time, the Atlantic had remained quiet, but it was no longer the peace of emptiness. It was the breath before the scream; a calm so dense it carried weight.
In these days, he had grown stronger. Not just larger or faster, but hungrier in a way that had nothing to do with flesh. He had felt something stir deep within his mind; a strange, almost magnetic pull, faint but unyielding, always pointing northeast through the murk. It was not a command, nor a voice, but it gnawed at the edges of his awareness with an unspoken urgency.
He chose to ignore it. There would be time to listen later. For now, he hunted. He prepared. He evolved. Not physically; not yet, but he had been collecting the necessary pieces of what would come next.
The shark had been the beginning, but it had not been enough. One predator's death could not reshape the laws of nature. But five? That might be closer. The great whites had come in waves, each one more aggressive than the last.
Whatever had infected the first had spread like rot through the others. He had torn through them one by one, leaving trails of blood that vanished into the abyss. And with each kill, the system had responded in that same sterile voice, indifferent to violence, deaf to suffering.
[New Genetic Material Acquired: Carcharodon carcharias (Great White Shark)]
[Assimilation Complete — 100% Genetic Profile Stored]
[Pending Evolution Benefits:]
[User will be able to perceive electrical impulses emitted by living organisms.]
[User will develop immensely powerful bite force exceeding current muscle density limitations.]
[User's cranial structure will reinforce to withstand impact trauma during attack surges.]
The great whites had been only one chapter in a much larger anatomy of consumption. He had also encountered the bluntnose sixgill shark; a relic from another age. It was slow, massive, and unbothered by his presence, until it wasn't.
It had tried to flee into deeper waters. He had pursued it without hesitation. The fight had not lasted long.
[New Genetic Material Acquired: Hexanchus griseus (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark)]
[Assimilation Complete — 100% Genetic Profile Stored]
[Pending Evolution Benefits:]
[User will be able to extract oxygen more efficiently at extreme depths through modified haemoglobin adaptation.]
[User will develop partial jaw protrusion allowing forward-projecting feeding capabilities.]
[User's musculature will support prolonged anaerobic activity at crushing pressure.]
Then had come the colossal squid; far more violent than he had expected. It had coiled around him in silent, desperate terror, but he had outmatched it in speed and control. He remembered the way its barbed suckers had raked across his mantle, the slashes deep enough to leave muscle exposed.
It had nearly escaped; but not quite.
And as soon as he killed one, more swarmed him from the depths, and he took them all on.
[New Genetic Material Acquired: Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni (Colossal Squid)]
[Assimilation Complete — 100% Genetic Profile Stored]
[Pending Evolution Benefits:]
[User will be able to achieve distributed neural processing throughout all major appendages.]
[User will grow hardened, retractable barbs in each sucker capable of shearing flesh and armour alike.]
[User's tentacular strength will surpass previous biological limits, granting exponential grip pressure.]
He had consumed many things during those days; small crustaceans, deep-sea jellyfish, even fragments of whale carcass, but none had mattered quite like these three, and neither were any of them at 100% which meant they would not be able to contribute to his evolution.
Then came the final opponent he would face. It was a group of three. They hovered now in his memory like a warning etched in fire. They had not attacked him. They had made no attempt to flee.
Three creatures, small and luminous, had floated near one another beneath the shelter of a jagged trench wall, pulsing gently with that unmistakable bioluminescent rhythm he had seen once before.
Blue-ringed octopuses; or some species related to them, evolved for the deep, more silent and more deadly. He had watched them the first time, had held back the instinct to strike, because the plan had not yet been complete.
Eating them without the system at threshold would have meant death, not transformation. Tetrodotoxin killed too quickly, even for him. The ability would not manifest in time to save his body. His brain would shut down before the first gene shift began.
But now, his body hummed with quiet readiness. He could feel the pressure mounting behind the curtain of his skin, as though his cells were waiting for permission to rupture and reform.
The system had grown quiet again, not from absence but anticipation. This was the moment he had prepared for. He found them again, drifting in formation, their soft chromatophore flashes barely breaking the dark.
Without hesitation, he surged forward. One tentacle snapped outward and seized the first. It never had a chance to respond. His beak sank into its core, shredding the glands within as venom flooded into his tissues.
The pain was instant and unbearable; a hot, splitting rupture that ripped through every nerve like burning wire. But he was already moving again. The second creature darted upward in a desperate spiral.
He followed.
His tentacles lashed forward, coiled, and squeezed until the delicate shell of its body crumpled. He ate it whole.
His vision was already beginning to blur. His heart rate had doubled, then tripled, now thudding wildly in his chest like a failing engine. His muscles began to seize, spasms running up and down his arms.
He fought through the pain. The third tried to hide. It vanished into the rocky shadows beneath a shelf of basalt. He reached after it with a slow, precise strike. His sucker-lined appendage found the soft curve of its body and crushed.
He devoured it in seconds.
And then he began to die.
His limbs curled involuntarily. His eyes rolled back. His consciousness shuddered beneath waves of poison far more lethal than anything he had ever experienced. He began to drift again; not falling asleep, but falling apart. And in that moment, the system finally spoke.
[Evolution Threshold Reached — Primary Structure Qualifies for Composite Advancement]
[Initiating Evolution Sequence...]
[Stored Genetic Templates Identified:]
[Enteroctopus dofleini (Base)]
[Ambystoma mexicanum (Axolotl)]
[Carcharodon carcharias (Great White Shark)]
[Hexanchus griseus (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark)]
[Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni (Colossal Squid)]
[Hapalochlaena abyssalis (Deep Sea Blue-Ringed Octopus Variant)]
[Current Evolution Benefits:]
[Regeneration Sequence Integrated (Level 1) (Axolotl): User can regenerate major tissue and limbs over prolonged periods.]
[Pending Evolution Benefits:]
[Electroreceptive Perception (Level 2) (Great White Shark): User will be able to detect electrical impulses emitted by living organisms.]
[Bone-Crushing Bite (Level 3) (Great White Shark): User will be able to exert devastating bite force exceeding current biomechanical limits.]
[Cranial Shock Reinforcement (Level 1) (Great White Shark): User's skull will be reinforced to absorb high-impact trauma from ramming or burst attacks.]
[Abyssal Oxygen Conversion (Level 2) (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark): User will be able to extract oxygen efficiently in extreme depths and low-oxygen zones.]
[Forward Jaw Protrusion (Level 1) (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark): User will be able to extend jaw structure forward for rapid strike feeding.]
[Deep Pressure Endurance (Level 2) (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark): User's musculature will operate under prolonged anaerobic strain in crushing environments.]
[Distributed Neural Processing (Level 3) (Colossal Squid): User will be able to achieve autonomous limb control through a multi-core nervous system.]
[Barbed Suction Arsenal (Level 2) (Colossal Squid): User will develop hardened, retractable barbs in each sucker for enhanced grip and laceration.]
[Tentacular Power Surge (Level 3) (Colossal Squid): User will possess immense constrictive strength in tentacles, capable of fracturing armoured bone or hull plating.]
[Tetrodotoxin Immunity (Level 3) (Blue-Ringed Octopus Variant): User will be completely immune to neurotoxins of similar structure and molecular weight.]
[Neurotoxin Secretion (Level 2) (Blue-Ringed Octopus Variant): User will be able to secrete tetrodotoxin through dermal tissue, saliva, and blood plasma.]
[Toxic Dispersal Burst (Level 3) (Blue-Ringed Octopus Variant): User will be able to emit a cloud of neurotoxin into surrounding water via controlled muscular expulsion.]
[Evolution Cycle Initiated — System Entering Dormant State]
[Biological Reconfiguration In Progress. Estimated Duration: 17 Hours, 38 Minutes]
[Warning: Full Motor Functions Suspended Until Cycle Completion]
The last thing Mark felt was a strange calm, not born of comfort but of acceptance. His massive body curled slowly against the wall of a trench, nestling into stone like a wounded god retreating into the Earth.
There was no terror in him. No fear of death. This had always been the plan. Not to survive the poison; but to become it.