Oliver immediately started running back home as soon as he heard the order, leaving Alex alone in the alley while honestly wondering why the hell he had just spoken like Sukuna. Maybe getting beaten so much inside that strange space within his soul had changed something about him, or maybe he was simply becoming more like Sukuna because, technically, he was part of him.
But Alex honestly didn't care.
He was Alex, and Sukuna was Sukuna.
Nothing anyone said would ever change that fact for him. Alex wanted to walk a different path, and that was exactly what he was doing.
It didn't take long for Alex to arrive at the destroyed part of the city while carrying Peter over his shoulder. Despite Peter's disproportionate size, and the fact that his tail had been dragging across the ground the entire way, he was recovering at an incredible speed.
Even his severed arm had almost completely regenerated.
It still wasn't fully developed, but it had recovered enough for him to use it again.
As Alex approached the base, he stopped running.
This place was practically his kingdom.
Anyone hiding within this area had either been driven out or had become part of Alex's group.
So he slowed to a walk as he made his way toward the base.
As soon as he reached the entrance, Alex noticed everyone gathered in the middle of the construction site, which immediately confused him.
He stepped through the barrier and could hear everyone arguing about something.
The discussion stopped the instant they sensed Alex's presence.
Every pair of eyes turned toward him, their expressions filled with concern.
As he approached, Alex began to feel something deep within himself.
A strange pressure.
Not the kind that made him feel like he would yield, but rather the feeling of another creature trying to assert its dominance.
Confused, Alex walked closer.
The architect was the first to speak.
"Boss, we've got a huge problem. We were finishing the first underground floor, but when one of the excavators started digging for the second level... he found something terrifying."
The architect immediately gestured for Alex to follow him toward what would eventually become the underground headquarters.
As they entered, Alex was honestly impressed by what the architect had managed to accomplish despite having so few people.
The floor was already tiled, and the entire place had an almost clinical atmosphere.
It was still dirty, of course.
Construction wasn't finished yet.
The closer Alex got to the area the architect had mentioned, the more obvious it became that there was still an enormous amount of work left before anyone could actually live there.
The underground air was incredibly stuffy.
It was breathable, but remaining there for long periods without controlled breathing would be difficult.
Eventually they reached the staircase leading to the next underground level.
Everyone except Alex instinctively held their breath.
The pressure radiating from below felt like standing before an enormous dragon.
Alex simply walked straight through it and began descending the stairs, leaving everyone else frozen above, unable to properly react to the overwhelming pressure pouring from the bottom floor.
Alex quickly reached the bottom.
The moment he saw what was waiting there...
He froze.
It was only a bone.
Normally, Alex wouldn't have cared about a bone.
But this particular bone...
It was the size of an entire elephant.
It was unmistakably the gigantic skull of some colossal creature.
Without knowing how to react, Alex slowly approached it.
It was absurd.
A strange mystical energy continuously seeped out of the skull like an invisible fragrance diffuser.
It never stopped releasing that bizarre aura.
An aura that constantly tried to oppress everything nearby.
The worst part, at least for Alex, was the impossible-to-ignore feeling that the skull was actively trying to drive him away.
It was almost as if it were alive...
As if it simply refused to allow Alex to remain there.
But in the end...
It was only a skeleton.
And Alex was stronger than the overwhelming majority of living beings.
At that moment, he found himself genuinely irritated by a mere pile of bones trying to assert superiority over him.
Even if he wasn't Meruem...
Or Sukuna...
He simply couldn't accept that this pile of bones believed it could force him away with nothing more than a trace of mysterious energy.
The pride Alex had built over the last few months would never allow something like that to mock him.
So, almost as if accepting a duel...
Alex released an enormous amount of cursed energy.
He forced it forward, literally pushing against the mysterious energy surrounding the skull until he completely isolated it.
Once the skull was entirely wrapped in cursed energy, Alex continued advancing, releasing even more power as he forced his energy against it.
The mysterious aura was weak.
But it was unbelievably resilient.
It refused to retreat past a certain point, clinging stubbornly to the surface of the skull itself.
Growing irritated, Alex stepped within only a few centimeters of the massive skull.
He reached out his hand.
His intention was simple.
Touch it...
And shatter it into hundreds of thousands of pieces.
But just before his fingers made contact...
The mysterious energy suddenly exploded.
It became hundreds of times stronger, violently attempting to repel Alex.
The sudden pressure forced Alex to stagger backward five full steps.
In response...
He unleashed nearly an entire river of cursed energy.
The underground floor was almost flooded by the overwhelming torrent of cursed power.
Then...
Something unexpected happened.
The cursed energy and the skull's mystical energy began devouring one another, forming a vortex that looked like a black hole trying to swallow everything around it.
Alex instinctively tried to stop it by controlling his cursed energy.
But just as he did...
Something caught his attention.
His cursed energy wasn't simply colliding with the mystical energy.
It was corrupting it.
It looked almost like a form of mutual destruction.
Like a fusion...
Yet completely different.
The two energies were merging while simultaneously changing what they fundamentally were.
It was incredible.
Alex watched with genuine fascination.
He became extremely curious about what this phenomenon would eventually become.
After all...
He couldn't sense even the slightest hint of danger coming from whatever was forming where the skull once stood.
Instead, the giant skull continued shattering apart second after second as both energies consumed one another.
His curiosity only grew stronger.
Within seconds, a true transformation began.
The enormous skull started melting into a thick black sludge that immediately began consuming both energies like an endless void.
Before long...
The entire skull had completely liquefied.
Seeing this, Alex slowly stepped closer, intending to inspect what had happened.
Then he noticed something.
The cursed energy filling the area had disappeared.
The strange liquid had absorbed everything.
Even the mystical energy had been completely consumed.
Still...
Alex could somehow sense that the fluid itself was strange.
Almost alive.
It was begging for more.
As though desperately pleading for Alex to feed it additional energy.
Alex stood motionless for several seconds, both surprised and confused.
He had assumed he was the one responsible for this.
But now it seemed that wasn't entirely true.
Whatever had destroyed the skull...
He had merely supplied it with energy.
His curiosity only intensified.
Alex approached the black sludge and reached down to touch it while pouring a tremendous amount of cursed energy into it.
Nothing happened at first.
Still, Alex continued injecting more and more cursed energy.
Then...
Without warning...
Something like a scream erupted from the sludge.
The black mass began gathering itself together like a freezing child curling into a ball.
The cry sounded almost like a predator declaring its dominance.
Yet the moment it sensed Alex's overwhelming energy...
It quieted.
It simply continued silently absorbing everything he gave it.
It didn't take long before the sludge finally began changing shape.
Slowly...
It transformed into a pitch-black egg.
Completely silent.
Completely still.
Its shell was covered with strange patterns stretching across its surface.
Alex stared at it in surprise.
He had expected almost anything.
The sludge merging with his body.
Attacking him.
Mutating into some horrifying monster.
But this...
This had never crossed his mind.
It had been a gigantic skull.
How in the world had that thing turned into an egg?
Regardless, Alex picked up the egg and began examining it, only to notice the obvious along with something interesting.
The obvious part was that the egg was about the size of an ostrich egg and, for some reason, incredibly durable.
What truly surprised him, however, was that the strange mystical energy was still leaking from it, almost as if the cursed energy hadn't been able to completely overpower it.
That didn't make much sense considering the mystical energy had clearly been losing ground before.
For now, Alex decided to ignore it and investigate everything later.
Right now, he wanted his people to get back to building the base. After those strange robots with bizarre powers had attacked him, he needed to be better prepared to protect and shelter more people while also creating a backup plan in case he failed to carry out the first stage of his plan.
Returning to the upper floor, Alex found everyone still frozen by the burst of energy that had erupted on the level below.
No one could even move. The vortex created by the clash between Alex and the skull had been overwhelming for anyone present, even for those already accustomed to the constant pressure Alex constantly emitted.
The moment he stepped onto the upper floor, he looked toward where he had left Peter and noticed he was still unconscious and trapped in his monstrous form.
The sight made Alex visibly dissatisfied.
For the time being, however, he simply handed the egg to Tyon, who was standing at the front of the group, before lifting Peter once more and carrying him toward the warehouse on the upper level.
He left everyone else behind, still frozen by what they had just experienced.
"What the hell was that?"
Surprisingly, the first person to recover was the architect himself, who had been frozen ever since reaching the staircase.
This time, it was Tyon who answered him.
"Well... I think you just witnessed a fraction of Father's power."
Alex quickly reached the warehouse and laid Peter on the floor before carefully examining his body to see if he was beginning to return to normal.
Unfortunately, there were no signs of that happening, which left Alex more than a little worried. For now, however, all he could do was wait.
If Peter never returned to normal, Alex would have to find another solution. Fortunately, he knew quite a bit about genetic manipulation.
When he was younger, he had desperately searched for a way to change his own body, only to discover that even if he somehow removed the mutant gene, he would still remain the same.
Realizing there was nothing more he could do for now, Alex sat down on his couch and began meditating.
At the same time, he divided his focus so he could immediately sense if Peter moved. It was good training, even if it didn't help much with the new ideas he had for his powers.
There were still many things he wanted to test, but all of them required volunteers, and everyone was far too busy at the moment.
The following day, after finishing his meditation, Alex stood up and looked over at Peter, who was still unconscious.
Fortunately, Peter was breathing steadily and his condition was stable. Unfortunately, he still hadn't returned to normal.
He was still a reptile.
Alex walked over, placed a hand on Peter's head, and gently tried to shake him awake.
For nearly a minute nothing happened, but eventually Peter's body slowly stirred before he lifted himself up and looked around.
A moment later, his eyes landed on Alex, and he immediately shrank back.
It was obvious this wasn't the Peter Alex knew. He hadn't recognized Alex as his friend.
He recognized him only as the one who had beaten him.
Realizing the problem, Alex decided to try a different approach.
If violence wasn't going to work, then he would treat him the way someone would calm a frightened dog. That was essentially what Peter was right now—something driven by instinct rather than reason or logic.
This wasn't the Peter Alex had known.
Without overthinking it, Alex slowly extended his hand toward Peter—or rather, the creature—and gently rested it on his shoulder.
A faint smile filled Alex's face, carrying a warmth that had been absent during the fight.
"It's good to have you back, Peter."
A moment later, Alex wrapped the giant lizard in a hug.
Even knowing the creature might attack him at any moment, there wasn't much it could do to seriously hurt Alex from this distance.
However, contrary to his expectations, the lizard simply froze and didn't react for several seconds.
Alex didn't move. He simply embraced what was supposed to be his friend.
Peter had become Alex's greatest regret. It was the day Peter turned into this creature that Alex lost all hope in the system and in the world that had done nothing but kick him while he was down.
At first, Peter tried to resist the embrace.
But after a few moments, he stopped struggling.
Slowly, he returned the hug, tightening his arms around Alex like a small child.
___________________________________
Let's go, another late chapter, but hey, here it is.
I'll keep this short: I'm happy I managed to write today. Yesterday I ended up donating blood and felt kind of weird afterward, so I couldn't get any writing done.
Sorry about that, and see you later!
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And if you have any constructive criticism or anything that could help me improve, don't hesitate to say it, I always read everything.
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Good night.