CHAPTER 127: SUBJECT #009 NEXT MISSION 1

The demonized mage nickname Subject #009 gasped — pain flooded her nerves — but instead of retreating, she grabbed the serpent tail with one hand and yanked it forward. Her claws slashed with ruthless precision, gouging its eyes before stabbing directly into its brain.

The floor was painted in gore.

Breathing heavily, she fell to one knee. The wound on her side throbbed, green venom oozing, but her body began reacting instantly. The monster DNA inside her recognized the threat. Black feathers covered the wound like a cocoon, sealing it as her flesh began regenerating. Her scream echoed through the dungeon — a mixture of pain and transformation.

More enemies approached.

From the ceiling crawled arachnid horrors, each the size of a bear, with humanoid faces twisted in eternal agony. These were failed fusions, remnants of old experiments — their screams were maddening.

She leapt upward, grabbing one mid-air and crushing its skull with her bare hand. Another spat venom — she dodged mid-spin and slashed through its abdomen with a crescent blade of wind conjured by her harpy wings. Each flap of her wings generated shockwaves, decapitating weaker monsters caught in her wake.

Her claws slashed, kicked, tore.

The dungeon was alive with her wrath.

She fought like a fallen goddess — elegant, terrifying, merciless.

But she wasn’t untouched.

A mutated ogre, four meters tall with arms the size of tree trunks, stepped into the arena. Its skin was fused with stone, a failed fusion with an earth elemental. Roaring, it pounded its fists into the ground, creating a tremor that broke the floor.

She was thrown back, smashing into a wall.

Rubble buried her.

Silence.

Then — explosion.

Feathers and blood erupted from the debris as she emerged again, half her face drenched in blood, one wing damaged and dragging behind her. But her eyes were wild with fury.

"I. Will. Survive."

The ogre charged.

She inhaled, and the Law of Wind answered. She merged her bloodlust with the monstrous instincts within. Her body blurred into motion — she zipped past the ogre, slicing at its legs repeatedly. Deep gashes opened. The ogre howled.

She jumped onto its back, climbed its shoulders, and plunged both claws into its skull. The beast thrashed violently, smashing her into the walls again and again. Bones cracked.

Still she held on.

With one final scream, she unleashed a harpy sonic shriek directly into its skull.

BOOM.

The ogre’s brain exploded. Its body collapsed.

And she fell with it, panting, kneeling atop its corpse.

Her hands trembled. Her wings twitching.

Yet her eyes held no fear — only fire. She rose shortly later, moving into the next floor.

°°°

~Underground Dungeon – Level 2: The Howling Abyss

The heavy gate behind her slammed shut with a deafening boom, sealing her into the next trial chamber. Dust and bone fragments scattered from the impact. The demonized mage—Subject #009—stood in eerie silence, her bloodied body hunched slightly, wings shredded at the edges, one talon dragging behind her.

The chamber before her was massive—unnatural in size, shaped like a coliseum forged from blackened steel and jagged obsidian. High above, glowing blue surveillance glyphs blinked like unblinking eyes. Wind whispered through the darkness in unnatural patterns, almost alive.

On the far end, the gate groaned open once more.

From its shadowed maw, they came.

Six monsters—grotesque quadrupeds fused from various fallen experimental creatures. Their forms twitched with instability: some had multiple heads, others eyes where there should be none. Their skin pulsated, stitched from flesh, scale, and armor. The largest, a hulking chimera with the upper body of a gorilla and the lower half of a mantis, let out a distorted screech that made the very air ripple.

Above in the surveillance chamber, the ghost-like scientists leaned in closer, murmuring like priests awaiting a divine miracle.

"She’s losing too much blood."

"No... look at her stance."

Below, the demonized mage rolled her neck slowly. Something had shifted. The wild gleam in her reptilian eyes had focused into something sharper. Cold. Intent.

"Let’s begin," she whispered, a smile creeping onto her face. Her voice had a wind-like echo now—unnatural, airy.

She raised her right claw, swirling with faint green threads of energy.

Suddenly, the air changed.

The monsters roared and charged—five darting toward her from every direction, the sixth leaping high with intent to crush her from above.

She didn’t move.

WHOOOOOSH!

A pulse erupted from her outstretched claw. It wasn’t wind—it was pressure incarnate. The air itself bent to her will, twisting into slicing arcs that blasted outward.

"Gale Spiral.

"

The five monsters were struck mid-charge. Their skin peeled back from the shockwave; limbs snapped as they were tossed across the chamber like dolls. The ground shattered beneath them. The leaping chimera crashed down with a roar, but it was too late.

She vanished.

Wind carried her in a blink—a short-range teleport using air compression. She reappeared above the chimera’s shoulders.

With a savage cry, she brought down both her taloned hands.

"Tempest Fang!"

Twin blades of hyper-condensed wind erupted from her claws, shaped like the curved scythes of a harpy’s wings. They slashed across the chimera’s neck, digging deep. Blood sprayed as it roared in pain, reeling back—but she was already gone again.

Blink. Reappear. Strike.

She moved like a ghost on the breeze, riding the Law of Wind in bursts of impossible acceleration. One moment she was above, the next behind, then vanishing into gusts again.

The scientists were stunned.

"She’s applying spatial manipulation... using the vacuum gaps in air flow as conduits..."

"She’s not just channeling wind—she’s becoming the wind."

Below, the monsters adapted. Two regained their footing and began to coordinate. One released a torrent of toxic mist. Another hurled bone spikes with precision.

She didn’t flinch.

She raised both hands high, her fingers curling inward.

"Scream, storm of my soul—Roaring Maelstrom!"

The wind obeyed.

From her body erupted a swirling vortex of green and silver, a vertical hurricane crashing down from the ceiling of the chamber, devouring everything in its wake. The bone spikes disintegrated before reaching her. The toxic mist was sucked away into the spinning void.

Meanwhile, hidden deep within the darkness observing everything was the mysterious leader of the organization, everything about them seemed to be shrouded in mystery, even their eyes seemed to suck darkness into themselves, blending with it.

’’Not bad seed, she would be sent on the next mission. We lost four valuable assets after all and I’m sure our remaining spy must have been dealt with by now. That old geezer is sure ruthless as always.’’

The leader’s voice was neither male neither female, everything about him was indeed mysterious.