The God-Tier Beast Architect

Chapter 6 Shadows Behind the Luxury

Blue spotlights swirled across the night sky of Neo-Berlin, piercing the toxic sewer fog like the eyes of a predator hunting for prey. Underground, the screech of a Mechanical Falcon, an elite-class guardian beast, bounced off the wet concrete walls, creating an echo that set Kenzo’s ears ringing.

Kenzo Julian collapsed onto a rusted magnetic waste barge, gasping for air, his chest tight. Beside him, the silver wolf he had named Fenris groaned weakly. Blood seeped from a gash on its leg, dripping into the black sludge below. In Kenzo’s lap, the stolen eggs pulsed, emitting a faint purple hue that felt as cold as death.

"Hang in there, buddy," Kenzo whispered. His hand touched the wolf's neck, channeling Void energy through Nihilus to slow the infection. "We don't have time for drama right now."

Suddenly, the air in front of them shattered. Blinding golden light sliced through the darkness. A plasma spear slammed into the waste water just meters ahead of the barge, exploding and sending a plume of toxic sludge three stories high.

Lieutenant Erik, leader of an elite security unit with a fiery Falcon beast that tore through the smoke clouds, landed on a hanging platform above the canal. He wore gleaming silver armor, a contemptuous smirk etched onto his face.

"Rat's nest located," Erik’s voice echoed through a magical megaphone, cold and arrogant. "Don't die just yet, Zero-caste trash. I have questions about how you slipped past the sensor gate without a mana signature."

Kenzo didn't answer. He rose, wiped the sludge from his face, and stood firm in a combat stance. Nihilus began to creep out from his shadow, slowly enveloping Kenzo’s right arm in a thin, light-consuming armor.

"Erik, right? That’s a name that sounds expensive for someone whose only job is chasing trash collectors," Kenzo taunted, his tone casual, even as his brain worked overtime to calculate an escape route.

Erik chuckled. "The trash-born speaks. My Falcon will tear out your heart and show you how dark the blood inside really is."

The Falcon beast in the air let out a shriek, a high-frequency sound that made Kenzo feel like his eardrums were about to burst. The creature dove, its beak glowing with mana fire ready to incinerate anything in its path.

"Nihilus, open domain!" Kenzo commanded.

Just as the bird's beak hovered an inch from Kenzo's head, reality folded around them. Nihilus spread a thick, black fog across the canal. Erik and his Falcon were suddenly blinded. It wasn't just light that was absorbed, sound and auric vibrations vanished as if that part of the world had been erased from existence.

"What the hell is this?!" Erik’s voice squeaked in frustration, followed by the sound of metal colliding with the canal wall. The Falcon, disoriented, crashed into its surroundings, deprived of spatial perception.

Kenzo leaped to the steep edge of the canal, hauling the stumbling Fenris with him. Kenzo’s Eye of Origin flashed with lightning speed. He saw the mana structure shrouding the Falcon; the fire swirling around its feathers was an automatic cooling system linked to Erik’s thermal detectors.

"You see that, Nihilus?" Kenzo muttered.

Nihilus responded with a black shockwave that pierced the domain. The shadow slipped onto the Falcon’s wings, biting into the aura conduits that powered its flames.

The Falcon screamed, not the sound of a normal eagle, but the screech of a machine short-circuiting. The golden fire on its feathers dimmed, slowly turning into cold, black flame.

Erik, who had just managed to trigger his thermal goggles, widened his eyes. "Wait, that fire, it's mine! How did you—"

"I didn't steal it," Kenzo replied, his voice sounding cold behind his shadow armor. "I just took a small bite."

Kenzo didn't want to kill them yet. He still had the eggs and the wolf to save. He threw a shock grenade toward the ceiling of the canal, triggering a collapse of iron debris that blocked Erik’s pursuit.

CRASH!

Rusted metal rained down, sealing off the passage and creating a barricade the Falcon couldn't quickly bypass. As he retreated into the deeper darkness of the canal, Kenzo heard Erik’s frustrated screams from behind the rubble.

Their journey led them to the deepest area of the underground city, where massive ventilation systems vented hot steam from Neo-Berlin's power plant core. In this silent sanctuary, Kenzo finally let himself collapse, his breathing ragged.

Nihilus returned to its original form, a small shadow dragon that looked far more energized after devouring the Falcon’s flames. Traces of black fire still danced on the tip of its tail.

Kenzo looked at the Fenris lying on the ground. The wolf wasn't dead, but its energy was critical. The Eye of Origin flickered slowly, displaying the damaged and imperfect genetic profile of the silver wolf.

"Data incomplete. Evolution halted at initial phase," the system voice sounded mechanical and emotionless.

"I don't need your data to know he needs help," Kenzo whispered, tearing a piece of his cloak to bandage Fenris’s leg. "We’ll fix him ourselves."

He turned to Fenris. His red eyes locked onto the wolf, attempting to infuse his own Void energy to patch the torn aura fibers. Fenris let out a low whimper, then slowly, its silver fur began to take on a dark hue. Lines of Void energy carved patterns into its body, stabilizing the wounds with a new molecular structure.

Fenris opened its eyes. No longer the pleading, pale blue, the wolf's irises now glowed with a dark, sharp, and cold gray gradient. It rose, standing with a majesty it had never possessed before.

Kenzo smiled with satisfaction. He retrieved the genetic data he had accidentally scanned when Nihilus attacked the Falcon. Pieces of golden fire, flight characteristics, and the Falcon's energy system were neatly stored in his system memory.

"You're not just a Shadow-Stalker anymore," Kenzo told the wolf. "You're going to be something much bigger."

At the end of the corridor, a dead end opened into a vast underground warehouse, a former train station abandoned hundreds of years ago. Kenzo checked the digital map in front of him, this location was safe. Far from the reach of the Goldenthorn clan’s cameras.

Kenzo pulled out the medical equipment he had raided from the research facility. Syringes, a Mana-Synthesizer, and several samples of pure genetic fluid. He no longer cared about the exhaustion gnawing at his nerves. Under the dim neon lights of the station, he changed. From a fearful fugitive to someone obsessed with perfection.

He wasn't just hunting for power. He was hunting for evolution.

"If the clans above want to maintain their caste and their systems with golden dragons and Falcons, let them have their dragons and birds," Kenzo muttered, preparing the evolutionary solution for Fenris. "I will give them an enemy that doesn't even exist in their history books."