Cryptomining Supervillain

280 THE MACHINES ARE COMING

[At the top of the well]

Acyros' twin blades scythed outward, anti-meta energy flashing in a violent X across the battlefield.

The summoned blood cheetahs were cleaved cleanly in half.

Their bodies hit the ground in wet ruin.

"Hah!" Acyros barked. "Your bloody beasts aren't much of a fight!"

The woman at the mouth of the well did not even look at him…. She was staring downward….

…. Into the abyss.

"It's impossible…" she whispered.

Her reflection shimmered in the dark surface below — but it wasn't her reflection she saw.

"Who is that person beneath the well?"

She had been warned.

When one gazed into the abyss of the well, they would confront their inner demon — the truest, most unbearable weaknesses in themselves.

She had prepared for that.

She had expected it.

But the face staring back at her…

She did not recognize him.

"How can someone I don't even know become my inner demon?"

"Hey!" Acyros shouted. "Don't ignore me when I'm fighting you!"

She still did not turn.

Behind him, the severed halves of the blood cheetahs trembled…. Then melted.

The pieces liquefied into crimson streams — slithering, reconnecting — reforming whole.

Four cheetahs stood again.

They were breathing and alive.

"What?!" Acyros spun around. "How did they regenerate?!"

The cheetahs lowered themselves and charged again.

"Acyros, you moron," Dr. Revive's voice crackled through the comm. "Dispose of them quickly. My calibration is nearly complete."

"You forced me to use this!" Acyros roared.

Dark tendrils erupted from his back — writhing, spear-like — lashing outward. They pierced the cheetahs and hoisted them into the air, suspended and thrashing.

"Next is you!" he screamed at the woman.

Only then did she finally lift her gaze.

However, she was cold and unimpressed.

"It seems," she said quietly, "I must deal with you first."

The impaled cheetahs suddenly dissolved into liquid blood — slipping through Acyros' tendrils like mist.The blood spiraled behind him…. then compressed and condensed.

And from it emerged a single, towering cheetah — larger, denser, its body etched with flowing crimson sigils.

It vanished.

Then—

"Argghhh".

Its jaws sank into Acyros' shoulder before he could react.He screamed.

"How can that thing bite me?! I'm Rank 5A!"

The woman extended her hand into the well.

The water surged upward.

It was not water.

It was the source of the well…. And it flowed into her palm and into her veins.

"Yes…" she breathed. "At last."

Crimson brilliance erupted from her body.

The blood veins around her thickened, bulging like iron cables. The blood constructs lashed outward like living spears.

They struck Acyros mid-scream.

"ARGHHH!"

He crashed against the stone, pinned to the ground.

"So much for Rank 5A," she said calmly.

"Acyros, you idiot!" Dr. Revive shouted. "She's far stronger than you. She's Rank S!"

Acyros' eyes widened.

"How the hell am I supposed to fight a Rank S?! Am I getting decommissioned again?!"

"Must I do everything myself?" Dr. Revive muttered.

He pulled out a crystal — black at its core, humming with compressed energy.

Then he crushed it.

The crystal detonated into raw power that streamed into Acyros.

His body convulsed.

Muscles swelled.

Bones thickened.

Energy howled around him as his aura spiked violently.

"Your rank has been temporarily elevated to Rank S," Dr. Revive said coldly. "But you will be decommissioned after this engagement. This is a one-time use enhancement."

Acyros froze.

"…What? I'll be reborn again? I wasn't even awake for a day."

His face twisted with fury.

Then he looked at the woman who was now glowing like a crimson star at the well's edge.

"This is all your fault!"

-----

[Gensyn basement HQ]

"This is very bad," Lander said, staring at the holoscreens.

His voice trembled despite himself. "All across the city, people are collapsing. Their blood is being drained by some unknown force. Millions of people… If we don't stop this, it'll be a massacre. A citywide cleansing."

On another screen, bodies littered the streets like fallen leaves.

"It's not just outside," Dorin said weakly from the medical bay. An android nurse adjusted the line in her arm, synthetic blood flowing into her veins. "We're all feeling the effects of the drain."

Kail flickered into view as a hologram beside her. Streams of data and medical charts unfolded in midair.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, scanning the readings.

Dorin flexed her fingers slowly. "Better. The dizziness is gone."

Kail nodded, analytically. "You are lucky. The drain only affects organic blood. It doesn't target synthetic substitutes."

Lander turned sharply. "Are you sure? Then that's it—that's the solution… the cure for the blood drain!"

Kail's expression darkened. "No. It's not that simple. We don't have enough synthetic blood to supply the entire city. Our reserves are barely enough for the people sheltered here."

The basement had been transformed into a refuge. Android nurses moved efficiently between rows of weak and pale.

Isabelline and her team.

Mirrose and the resued Syndic prisoners.

All of them were hooking to the transfusion lines in turn.

Lander clenched his jaw. "Damn it… We can't save them all."

"Everyone counts," Dorin said firmly, though her voice was still thin. "We save who we can."

Suddenly, light fractured in the center of the room.

Liorea, Fearose, and the Syndic priest materialized from the teleportation field—crimson liquid and abyssal residue still clinging to them. Guards immediately seized the priest and dragged him toward a holding cell.

"Sis!" Kail exclaimed, relief breaking through his composed tone. "You were gone too long. I was worried sick."

Liorea gave him a faint look. "We found something."

She transmitted the images.

Holographic projections of carvings spiraled into the air—the etched walls of the Well of the Unknown, covered in ancient symbols were displayed for scrutiny.

Lander stepped closer, eyes widening. "These are hieroglyphs… the language of Anu."

"You can read it?" Liorea asked.

"No," he admitted. "But I recognize the script."

"Why do we need this?" Kail asked, scanning the patterns.

"Because there may be instructions in those carvings," Liorea said. "Something that can reverse the Blackout."

Kail's projection flickered as he accessed database after database. Seconds passed.

Then more.

"This is impossible," he muttered. "There is no existing database that contains this language. It's not archived anywhere."

Lander went still.

Then his eyes sharpened.

"I once met someone who specializes in Anu linguistics," he said slowly. "An independent scholar. His name is Professor Arkon. He was a client."

"Where is he now?" Liorea asked immediately.

"I have an address…. But there's no guarantee he's still there."

Kail was already processing. Camera feeds across the city flashed past in rapid succession.

"Found him," Kail said at last. "Silver City Museum. He's barricaded inside."

"Good," Liorea said. "We're going."

Before she could move, Isabelline approached, her face pale but steady.

"Where is Damen?"

"He's gone to meet the woman in the well," Liorea replied.

A flicker of unease passed through the room.

"The people here are frightened," Isabelline said. "They want to know when we can evacuate."

Liorea turned to Kail. "Are they on schedule?"

Kail checked the encrypted military channel.

"Yes. Myrone Fortress has confirmed deployment. ETA—one hour."

Isabelline exhaled shakily. "Who is coming to save us?"

"The fortress soldiers," Liorea answered. "They'll extract us from the city."

Outside, on the holoscreens, another wave of citizens collapsed as the unseen force swept through the streets like a silent tide.

And somewhere beneath the city….

…. Machines were drilling.

-----

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