As we walked up the stairs to the vault I noticed that there was a volcano just further past the broken stone structures of Eridian make seeping lava constantly. The area of the vault itself was wide open and exposed to the sky at the foot of this volcano. There was a sort of stone dais that had the pieces of the vault key floating over it and Steele standing next to it protected by nearly five royal guardsmen. She addressed us as we arrived with a smug look as if she had already won.-

“You have failed to listen to commandant Steele. The contents of the vault are the property of the Atlas corporation. But you? You belong to me.” she said as she reached out and a pulse of energy left her hand and the pieces of the key came together before sinking into the slot in the dais meant for it.

I tensed up and readied my guns as the broken pieces of the vaults archway floated up and snapped into place before the portal opened… oddly. See the portal is supposed to be confined to the inside of the archway.-

But this time it seemed to flow in an unstable manner past it’s edges as if it was unable to hold whatever was in it. When a long tendril with a sharp point snaked out and ran Steele through while she screamed in shock and pain I found out why. The ruins were pushed aside by another two long tentacles as the beast within pulled itself out of the vault and into the world. It was a hideous beast with two red and blue tentacles that throbbed. It’s main body sat at the edge of the portal as if it couldn’t fully leave it which was strange but not important right now.-

That same body was this odd mix of pockmarked red flesh and grey snaking bone like lines. At the center of the body was a large vertical mouth that was the source of the tendril that skewered Steele and dragged her into it screaming. The mouth seemed designed less for chewing and more for grabbing as the massive fangs had gaps between them that perfectly lined up with the other sides fangs. Above this mouth was a massive glowing blue and purple eye that I could feel nothing from but an overwhelming sense of hunger.-

Finally at the top of this bulbous body was another two tentacles that were black and looked incredibly hard. I was not a huge fan of the introduction that the world gave me to the thing as it was not a very fun name at all.

{The Destroyer, Hunger incarnate!}

The first thing it did was crush the royal guardsmen before roaring loudly.

“Don’t give up! This creature might be immortal in it’s own realm but in this one it needs a host to survive and that makes it vulnerable. When it becomes flesh and blood it can be hurt, even killed. You just need to keep hitting it!” The angel said over our echoes and I somehow got the impression she knew this damned thing was in this vault, mighta just been me though.

“You heard the lady, if it bleeds we can kill it and we are damned good at killing things!” I yelled as I raised my guns and started unloading on that big ass eye.

My friends all spread out as the monster roared in pain and fury at the damage as purple blood shot out of it’s eye with every pull of my trigger. To retaliate six more black tentacles shot out of it’s body with purple glowing bulbs and slammed towards me forcing me to leap to the side in a hurry. Roland’s turret rattled off one bullet after another while he, Mordy, Lil and Brick fired at the monster themselves while on the move. Thanks to my powers I could feel the vitality of the beast and knew we weren’t do much damage to it in truth. I made a snap decision on the spot and activated {BURN}. The power flowed into me and the eye of the monster immediately narrowed on me with a new sensation that I recognized from so much prey I’ve killed, fear!-

The beast ignored my friends despite the damage they were doing and all eight of it’s tentacles swung at me but I was not the same weak creature that needed to dodge as before. I fully flared my elemental powers causing a massive crater to evaporate around me before the in motion tentacles hit me and split. My body was likely one of the most corrosive and destructive points in the universe at this moment so when the tentacles approached my elements simply erased the parts that were touched.-

The monster screamed in genuine agony at the loss of these limbs and I felt a chunk of it’s vitally get removed. I was about to make another move when the beast screamed with a look of bitterness as the vault portal closed and it spat out a pale and clearly dead Steele. It thrashed about for a moment but I noticed immediately that the thing had no more light behind it’s eye and no more vitality, it was dead.-

I cut off {BURN} with a wince at the loss of that 345,711 lifeforce but ignored it to regroup with my friends.

“There’s something off about the way the thing died. Even with the damage I did I still felt it had a vast amount of vitality left and then suddenly it didn’t.” I said seriously.

“The angel said it needed a host right? Maybe the damage it took killed Steele who it was using as it’s host?” Roland suggested and I had to admit that it made some sense.

“Hey isn’t the vault supposed to open again after we kill the monster though?” Mordy asked gesturing to the now back in it’s broken state archway.

“Actually I can explain that. This vaults reward is not mere technology but the emergence of Eridium across the planet in time. I apologize that I couldn’t tell you about this before now but I needed you to be here when the vault opened to stop the monster within it. Don’t let the others know I am speaking to you as I have a business proposition for you. We will talk more when you are alone.” the Angel sent to my echo.

‘Color me interested if kinda annoyed at being played so easily.’ I thought with a sigh.

“Looks like theres no loot this time, sorry guys. Tell ya what, how bout I make each of you a custom weapon free of charge using all that Eridian metal waiting for us back the way we came?” I offered feeling a little bad there was no grand reward after all the effort we put in.

“Better than nothing.” Brick said with a shrug and the others agreed.

“Alright well now that that is over time to see what traits these two have for me.” I said with an eager grin as I reached out with my powers to the two corpses.

{Siren

Lifeforce: 0

Traits: [Clever mind-Uncommon grade]- 2000 units, [Athletic body-Common grade]- 1000 units, [Beautiful form-Rare grade]- 7000 units, [Energy projection-Epic grade]- 30,000 units, [Energy reservoir-Epic grade]- 30,000 units, [Siren(Phasetrance)-Mythical grade]- 1,700,000 units}

{Destroyer(fragment)

Lifeforce: 1,782,993

Traits: [Supreme body-Legendary grade]- 270,000, [Entropic consumption(Fragment)-Legendary grade]- 270,000, [Agelessness-Legendary grade]- 270,000}

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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro

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Alexander Drake

Lifeforce: 1,966,188

Integrated Traits: [Gun mastery-Rare grade]X3, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Lesser dragon breath-Epic grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade], 

Stored traits: [Flame breath-Uncommon Grade], [Tinkering instinct-Rare grade], [Minor regeneration-Rare grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]X2, [Supreme Armored hide-Epic grade], [Hard bones-Rare grade], [Sword expertise-Rare grade], [Gun mastery-Rare grade]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep