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Yes.
Right here. Beneath the cliff connected to the mountain.
Hawk could feel it. He was certain.
Because—
He could see it.
The entire interior of the mountain beneath his feet had been hollowed out, forming a massive dome roughly a hundred meters high.
Platforms and corridors crisscrossed through the space like a spiderweb, connecting one zone to another.
No windows. No natural light. Only artificial cold light illuminating everything.
Even sound was absent. Just the breathing and footsteps of the people moving within.
One after another, white-coated personnel clutched tablets, walking without exchanging a single word with each other. Not even eye contact. They simply stared at the nurturing chambers in front of them, recording data like machines.
And inside those countless cloning chambers—
Hawk.
So many versions of Hawk.
Every age. Every stage of life.
Hawk's Sixth Sense swept through the facility without a ripple of emotion. No anger. Just a profound sense of absurdity.
The next second, He didn't hesitate.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The moment Hawk lowered his gaze, searing Phoenix beams erupted from his eyes, blasting into the ground beneath him and carving out a perfectly circular hole.
The tunnel expanded as the Phoenix beams continued drilling downward.
Hawk's body plummeted in free fall, following the path his beams had burned, until—CRASH—the dome ceiling of the mountain laboratory shattered. Accompanied by the descending Phoenix beams, Hawk appeared, hovering in the vast interior of the facility.
A deafening alarm pierced the air.
Below, one after another, expressionless lab workers heard the commotion and instinctively looked up at Hawk floating above them.
Their faces remained blank. But the moment they saw him, faint smiles appeared on their lips. Then, in perfect synchronization, they turned back to their stations and pressed the self-destruct buttons on the cloning chambers in front of them.
Blinding orange light erupted as flames, no longer containable, burst from the chambers.
Explosions followed.
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
BOOM!!
One after another, orange flames detonated with precision timing, obliterating the cloning chambers while consuming the emotionless lab workers standing before them. The fires connected, merging into a single, terrifying inferno that began tearing through the massive cloning nurturing zone.
In the blink of an eye, the entire area was engulfed. The flames found a vent—the tunnel Hawk had just drilled—and roared upward, howling as they burst out into the open air.
At the summit of Wailau Valley's highest peak, a column of fire blazed like a torch.
Hawk didn't stop any of it.
Even if they hadn't triggered the self-destruct, he would have done it himself. Their actions just saved him the trouble.
Besides—
A bunch of low-level nobodies. He had no interest in talking to them.
Surrounded by flames that couldn't harm him in the slightest, Hawk hovered within the inferno. His gaze swept across the blast doors that had slammed shut around the nurturing zone the moment the alarm sounded. After scanning the perimeter, he locked onto one specific door.
"Eye Blast!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The blast door shattered. The flames raging through the nurturing zone found another outlet and surged forward like a dragon, roaring through the newly opened passage.
The next second, Agonized screams echoed from within. Eight security personnel, armed and rushing toward the passage when the alarm went off, were met head-on by the oncoming inferno. They instantly became human torches, screaming as they dropped their weapons and ran back the way they'd come, desperately trying to escape the flames consuming them.
This passage led to the Clone Memory Imprinting Zone.
Row after row of clones sat in specialized chairs, helmet-like devices covering their heads. Their eyes moved rapidly beneath closed lids, facial muscles occasionally twitching.
Like the nurturing zone, this area also had white-coated personnel.
But these workers were more... human. Even after hearing the alarms and explosions from the nurturing zone, they continued chatting and laughing as if nothing was happening.
Until—
Six burning figures came stumbling through the blast door, screaming as they tumbled into the room. The sudden horror finally got their attention.
The first one to emerge had already collapsed. His flaming right hand reached upward weakly, his throat working as if trying to call for help.
But no sound came.
More importantly, Hawk had arrived.
WHAM!
The searing Phoenix beam struck the would-be victim, vaporizing him instantly. Hawk—still dressed in his suit, looking every bit the gentleman—stepped into the Memory Imprinting Zone and smiled at the shocked lab workers staring at him.
"Surprise!"
Suddenly—
Hawk's eyes flared crimson again. The Phoenix beams flooded the already bright zone, bathing everything in a scarlet glow.
Ten seconds later, The Memory Imprinting Zone was pristine. No clones. No lab workers. No bodies. Only rows of empty chairs and scattered electronic devices on the floor proved anyone had been there at all.
So many people.
Gone!
Hawk picked up one of the helmet devices from a chair—something that looked disturbingly like a VR headset. He raised an eyebrow, then placed it on his own head.
Instantly, Images flickered through his mind like a slideshow. A newborn baby abandoned at a church entrance. A small child singing in a church choir. A kid living in a foster home. Then a boy kneeling in rubble, screaming helplessly, swearing to become stronger—
These were his memories.
But they'd been altered. Modified. Like someone had carefully researched his past, collected data, and then fabricated their own version.
Hawk removed the helmet and tossed it aside.
He had only two words for this fabricated memory.
Garbage.
Just then, blinding red lights flooded the entire Memory Imprinting Zone.
Hawk's mind flickered. His body vanished from where he stood.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A massive explosion erupted, obliterating the entire zone like a volcanic eruption.
...
"Did we get him?"
Inside the most concealed silver chamber within the facility—connected to everything like a spider at the center of its web—a tall, thin man in a white coat and glasses spoke urgently.
Dr. Merrick. Nervous. Yet hopeful.
The technician at the computer didn't respond immediately. Instead, he pulled up the omnipresent surveillance feeds from the Memory Imprinting Zone, capturing the moment of the explosion. Frame by frame. One second, Hawk was there. The next, he wasn't.
The technician turned to Dr. Merrick and shook his head.
"No."
"Where did he go?"
"...The Hibernation Zone."
The technician's hands flew across the keyboard, switching between camera feeds until the main screen locked onto the Clone Hibernation Zone.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of clones stood silently in transparent chambers, completely naked, like exhibits in a museum. Or tools waiting to be used. Their breathing slow. Heart rates maintained at the bare minimum to keep them alive.
And there, Standing in the center of it all—
Was Hawk.
The real Hawk.
He moved through the warehouse-like Hibernation Zone with terrifying speed, weaving between rows of chambers before finally stopping dead center. His gaze swept across the endless rows of hibernation pods—and the sleeping versions of himself inside them.
CRACKLE.
Hawk looked up instinctively toward the source of the sound.
The next second, Dr. Merrick's voice echoed through the overhead speakers, filling the Hibernation Zone.
"Mr. Hawk Phoenix. I must say, I'm surprised you actually found this place."
"...Merrick?"
"Indeed."
"Heh."
Hawk let out a dry laugh, glancing toward the direction of the voice. "I'll give you credit. I figured by now you'd be running for your life."
Dr. Merrick chuckled.
"Why would I run? You may be terrifying, Mr. Phoenix, but I have God's favor. I SERVE GOD."
"Is that right?"
"Yes. Otherwise, how do you think my cloning technology succeeded where everyone else's failed? Because I received divine revelation and guidance. This world is corrupted. God has come to evolve it."
"Then you'd better pray your God shows up when I get my hands on you."
Hawk's Phoenix beams lanced out, obliterating the wall-mounted speaker in one shot. He then swept the beams downward, beginning an indiscriminate purge of the entire zone.
One hibernation chamber after another vaporized under the Phoenix beams, along with the clones inside—barely alive, sustained at the lowest possible survival threshold.
In the blink of an eye, the warehouse that had been packed with countless chambers was now empty. You could race horses through it.
...
"Jesus—"
In the command center—which Merrick had pompously dubbed "Eden Base Control"—the doctor sucked in a sharp breath as he watched Hawk standing in the now-empty warehouse on the main screen. Without hesitation, he barked an order.
"Activate Hydra Captain."
"Yes, sir!"
"And get him into the replicated Iron Armor."
"Understood."
Hydra Captain was their most successful Hawk clone to date. Originally, there had been six prototypes before him, but all had died the moment they were activated—exploding from cloning parameters that were either too low or too high.
Every clone after that had been based on Hydra Captain, the only one they'd managed to perfectly replicate.
Soon—
Just as Hawk finished clearing another zone and was about to leave, the ground in front of him suddenly split open. A hidden hibernation chamber rose from below.
Mist poured out as the chamber opened, and the figure inside—Unit Seven—opened his eyes.
As Unit Seven stepped out of the chamber, the ground split open again. A full-scale suit of armor rose up and opened, enveloping him.
Hawk paused, watching the scene unfold. His gaze settled on the clone—now fully armored—whose green-glowing eyes stared back at him from behind the faceplate.
Dr. Merrick's voice returned.
"Mr. Phoenix, allow me to introduce you. Hydra Captain. My Hawk."
"Hydra Captain?"
Hawk looked up toward the source of Merrick's voice. "So you're working with God and Hydra?"
Dr. Merrick chuckled. "I know what you're thinking, Mr. Phoenix. You believe Hydra is evil. But God doesn't see it that way. My partnership with Hydra has God's blessing."
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? And what did God tell you?"
"God said Earth has been occupied by demons. It must be evolved. He has forgiven Hydra's past sins."
"Is that so?"
"Absolutely."
"Again—you'd better pray your God shows up before I reach you."
"You should pray you can defeat our Hydra Captain first."
"Heh."
Hawk scoffed, his gaze settling on the clone Merrick called Hydra Captain.
"This? This is what you've been working on for half a year? This is what you think can beat me? A knockoff?"
"Kill you, and Hydra Captain becomes the real thing."
"Really? I don't buy it."
"Show Mr. Phoenix your strength, Hydra Captain."
HUM!
The moment Merrick's command fell, the vibranium energy in Hydra Captain's chest plate surged. His knees bent, the metal floor beneath his feet cracked, and his entire body shot toward Hawk like a missile.
Hawk raised his right hand.
CLANG!
With a focused pulse of Sixth Sense telekinesis, the blur charging through the air froze mid-flight.
Hawk flicked his wrist. Instantly, Hydra Captain was launched backward like a cannonball, slamming into the metal wall with a thunderous crash.
The next second—
Hawk clenched his fist.
Before Hydra Captain could even fall from the wall, he was yanked forward like a kite on a string, pulled directly in front of Hawk's face.
Hawk smiled.
He looked up toward where Merrick's voice had come from. "Say that again?"
...
In the control center, a technician stared at the screen, eyes wide, turning to Dr. Merrick in disbelief.
"That's impossible, Doctor."
"Hydra Captain's strength matches sixty-five percent of the original's stats."
"And he's wearing the armor."
"According to our data, Hydra Captain in the armor should match Hawk's power output when he's not wearing his Surplice."
"But—"
"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"
Dr. Merrick stared at the screen, watching the clone he'd placed so much hope in—the one he thought could at least put up a fight—get subdued in a single move. He couldn't help but gasp in disbelief.
Hawk looked at the clone hovering in front of him, meeting those familiar yet alien eyes behind the faceplate. He chuckled softly.
The next second.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Under Merrick's horrified gaze, the Hydra Captain he'd pinned all his hopes on—along with the custom-fitted armor—turned to white smoke and vaporized on the spot.
"Do you have any more tricks, Dr. Merrick?"
"If you do, I'll give you a chance to use them."
"After all, I gave you half a year to create something that might actually impress me."
"But if your ace in the hole was that piece of trash—"
"...You can start praying to your God now. Ask him to save you."
After vaporizing the clone, Hawk casually slid his right hand back into his pocket. He looked up toward Merrick with a calm smile, offering polite advice.
"..."
Merrick's voice cracked, shrill and desperate. "The data doesn't lie! Without your Surplice, you shouldn't be able to beat my Hydra Captain!"
Hawk scoffed, hearing the panic in Merrick's voice. He understood immediately.
The man had no more tricks. Or rather, his only trick had been Hydra Captain—the one Hawk had just erased with a flick of his wrist.
Data?
What a joke.
Clearly, Dr. Merrick had been comparing Hawk's physical body to the clone's abilities.
But Hawk's power didn't come from the Surplice. It didn't come from his physical body.
It came from his Cosmo.
The stronger his Cosmo, the stronger he was.
So—
Hawk didn't bother responding to Merrick's breakdown. A mocking smile touched his lips. "You can start praying to your God now, Dr. Merrick. I'll give you time to pray. But you'd better hurry. I'm on a schedule."
With that—
Hawk's form vanished.
Dr. Merrick and the Hydra agents in the command center watched the main screen as Hawk—who had been in the Hibernation Zone one frame—appeared in the Iron Armor Development Zone the next. In the blink of an eye, every agent in that zone vaporized. Then Hawk moved to another zone.
A massacre. Bloodless, but absolute.
It spread rapidly through the secret base.
The entire command center fell silent, watching the screen as Hawk systematically cleared zone after zone, rapidly approaching their location.
One Hydra agent standing at the back pulled out his phone, typed a quick message, and—seeing that everyone's attention was fixed on the screen—quietly slipped out the door.
Until—
CLICK.
The sound of the door closing snapped everyone out of their trance.
Every Hydra agent in the room bolted toward the exit.
Would God come to save them?
They had no idea. But they knew one thing.
If they didn't run now, by the time the Devil reached them, there wouldn't even be ashes left.
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~# 70 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
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~# Bonus Chapter every 300PS