The next twelve hours were the longest of Jonah's life. He couldn't sleep, couldn't focus, couldn't do anything but sit on his floor and stare at the wall, feeling the heavy thrum of the cocoon in his Workshop.
It felt like a ticking time bomb planted in his soul. Vanessa stayed with him, the two of them working through research datapads in silence.
Then, exactly twelve hours after the synthesis, Jonah felt it. A violent *CRACK* that echoed not in his ears, but in the very center of his mind.
He got up to his feet quickly, his heart pounding. "It's hatching."
He didn't need to close his eyes. He could see his Workshop as clearly as his own room. The massive, throbbing cocoon of flesh convulsed one last time and then split open, bloody and messy.
Something new clawed its way out.
Jonah's breath caught in his throat. It wasn't Shard. It wasn't the Raging Boar.
It was a terrifying, perfect fusion of the two.
It had Shard's six-legged insectoid body, but it was no longer a scuttling bug. It was now huge and walked on its four back legs, like a terrifying centaur. The two front limbs had evolved into brutally thick arms ending in razor-sharp claws. Its body, which used to be slim and fast, was now packed with heavy muscle from the Boar essence, stretching its hard, insect-like armor to the limit.
The plates themselves were no longer just tough; they were thick and stone-like, an ugly, mottled brown. And jutting from its mandibles were two vicious, curved tusks that dripped with a corrosive saliva. Its many eyes burned with a deep, furious red.
This was no scout. This was no sentinel. This was a brute.
A monster built for one purpose: destruction.
A new system prompt, the one he had risked everything for, burned itself into his vision.
[Progeny Evolved: Rage-Hide Brute (Grade 3)]
Skills: [Tusken Gore], [Stone-Hide Plating (Passive)]
[Synergy Skill: Unstoppable Fury (Passive - ability power increases as health decreases)]
The Synergy Skill. Unstoppable Fury. It was even better than he'd hoped. Not only did it get stronger when it was hurt, but its base power was now immense. This creature was in a completely different league from Nyx.
Jonah reached out with his mind, trying to connect with his new creation, to give it its first command, a name.
He was met with a wall of pure rage.
It was a loud, endless roar in his head. A mental scream of rage even stronger than the boar's essence. He hadn't just trapped the beast's fury, he had given it a more powerful body to unleash it.
"Jonah? What is it?" Vanessa asked, seeing the look of shock on his face.
"It's… angry," Jonah managed to say, his head throbbing from the psychic assault.
"Really, really angry."
He needed to see it, to test it. He reached out to Seraph on his communicator, his voice tight. "Sergeant. The project is complete. I need a secure training room. One of the reinforced ones."
There was a pause, then Seraph's clipped voice replied, "Room 7-gamma. It's yours. Don't break it."
The reinforced training rooms were concrete bunkers designed to withstand artillery fire. When they arrived, Vanessa stayed by the heavily armored door, her hand glowing with protective magic. "Are you sure about this?"
"I have to be," Jonah said, taking a deep breath.
He stepped into the center of the empty room and focused his will.
"Come."
The Rage-Hide Brute appeared in the real world with a ground-shaking thud.
The air immediately felt ten degrees hotter. The creature towered over him, its red eyes locking onto the nearest object. A hardened steel training dummy bolted to the floor.
Jonah hadn't given a command. He hadn't even had time to think one.
The brute lunged.
It moved with a speed that defied its massive size, crossing the room in a blur of brown chitin and raw muscle. It didn't use its claws or its tusks. It simply smashed its shoulder into the dummy.
The sound was like a thunderclap. The dummy, which was designed to withstand a direct hit from a manifested greatsword, was torn from its bolts and sent flying across the room.
It crashed into the far wall, leaving a huge, cracked dent in the reinforced concrete before falling to the floor. A bent, broken chunk of metal.
Vanessa gasped from the doorway.
Jonah stared, his mind reeling. The power was unbelievable. It was everything he wanted. And it was completely out of his control.
The brute turned, its red eyes scanning the room for its next target. For a terrifying second, they locked onto Jonah. The psychic roar in his head intensified, a wave of pure killing intent.
CRUSH!
Jonah threw every ounce of his mental strength into a single, desperate command.
STOP!
The brute stopped mid-step, muscles tensed and shaking. It let out a low, angry roar—not just aloud, but straight into Jonah's mind. It was pushing back, like a wild animal fighting the leash.
He felt a sharp, stabbing pain behind his eyes as he fought to maintain control, to pull back the monster he had created.
This was the cost of power. Creating a powerful beast and commanding it were two very, very different challenges. He had built a weapon, but it was a weapon that might go off in his own hand, taking him with it.
He stared at the wild, shaking beast in front of him, a creature of his own design. It was a maelstrom of power, a maul of pure destruction.
A name finally clicked into place.
He pushed it into the creature's raging mind, a command wrapped in an identity.
"Maul."
The psychic roaring didn't stop, but it wavered for a fraction of a second, as if acknowledging its new name.
Jonah knew, with dawning horror and a hint of pride, that this was just the beginning. He hadn't just created a Progeny. He had created his greatest success, and his biggest, most dangerous problem.