HISD Chapter 42: The Descent of Gods into Reality and Dreams
At this moment, in the real world.
Tianhe City, inside the Department of the Supernatural.
"Incredible!"
A young female agent widened her brown eyes, staring through the one-way glass at the silver-haired boy lying alone on the bed in the top-level isolation chamber.
"It's been half a day already. Not only does he show no signs of weakness, his condition actually seems to be improving. His body is still steaming with heat though…"
"Wait—did I see that wrong?"
The young agent suddenly froze, staring at the boy's right arm. Under the fluorescent lights, a strange silvery glow shimmered across his skin.
"It's an exoskeleton," came a calm, sudden voice from behind her.
"C-Captain!"
She almost jumped out of her skin, whirling around in fright before seeing that it was the stern-faced middle-aged inspector. She exhaled in relief. "Exo…skeleton?"
She looked back at the boy in the chamber. From shoulder to fingertips, his arm was sheathed in a thin but undeniable biological exoskeleton. Gray-white, replacing his skin entirely.
The young agent's scalp tingled in terror.
Was this still even human?
"It's becoming clear—he's been invaded by an alien species like a xenomorph."
The inspector narrowed his eyes as he reasoned. "But…different from other victims. Normally, xenomorph embryos nest inside the host. In his case, it's as if his entire body is evolving toward becoming one of them."
The young agent swallowed nervously. "Captain, what's the situation at the school and hospital sites?"
Most of the Department's manpower was tied up at the school grounds where the alien ship had crashed, leaving only this sub-division to guard Yi Meng, the "high school student" now in containment, and to relay communications with headquarters.
"It's largely resolved," the inspector said in a low voice. "Thanks to intel provided by a high schooler, the teams there eliminated six adult xenomorphs and over twenty facehuggers. The surrounding district has been completely sealed off. At the hospital, all survivors were tested—eighteen xenomorph larvae were surgically removed from their bodies."
"My god…"
The young agent covered her mouth with both hands, nauseated and horrified. The rate of infestation and reproduction was far worse than she had imagined.
Head bowed, the inspector added gravely, "Headquarters has classified the xenomorphs as a Category C threat."
"Category C?"
The agent shuddered. She had only been on the job a week and already encountered something this high-level. A C-class incursion meant no unarmed contact was allowed—capable of wiping out entire villages. And with multiple xenomorphs present, this incident already qualified as Category B: a town-erasing crisis. Mishandled, it could easily kill tens of thousands.
Of course, what they didn't know was that the true source—the Black Water bioweapon Yi Meng's Doomsday power had already destroyed completely. Without that, the threat would have escalated far beyond C or B.
By comparison, Yi Meng himself had been provisionally classified as Category E. A shame to the containment system…
"No matter what, he carries secrets we cannot fathom," the inspector said, his heavy gaze locked on the boy behind the glass. "That exoskeleton must have blocked the X-ray scan earlier, preventing us from seeing his internal condition."
"We must get a Guardian to perform a second test immediately—to confirm his real danger level, and then decide whether he should be imprisoned, executed, or transferred."
The inspector's voice hardened. "Has the Guardian's appointment time arrived?"
"It should be soon," the agent replied, but then her consciousness suddenly froze.
As something unseen descended, even time itself seemed to pause. Silence swept the isolation chamber and the monitoring room outside.
"I am here."
A calm, neutral voice echoed directly into their minds.
"Dragon Maiden…" the inspector whispered reverently. He gestured toward the silver-haired boy. "That is your target for this evaluation."
…
In the dreamscape, Doomsday-Yi Meng knew nothing of his real-world situation.
He was returning to the island where the child of Krypton resided.
As usual, Doomsday Yi Meng dropped from a kilometer-high sky into the sea like a depth charge, detonating a tower of water. But this time, before he could kick off and surge upward, the ocean itself surged back in, engulfing him like the maw of an abyss.
Yi Meng froze. Whoever dared ambush him now had courage bordering on madness. For a moment, he failed to react.
Then it came.
From the raging sea, three gleams of cold light shot forth like lightning—a golden trident, blazing with divine power. Its points pierced straight into the unguarded chest of the bone-spiked monster!
Yi Meng's red eyes snapped open. Through the sea, he saw a figure emerging: an old fisherman in appearance, clutching the trident's shaft.
"Die!"
It was none other than Poseidon, Olympian god of the sea, one of the Twelve of Olympus. With his sacred trident, he drove the weapon deep into Yi Meng's chest.
Just like the myths where he subdued countless oceanic beasts, Poseidon once again unleashed his full might. The ocean itself lent him strength as he pinned the monster, water pressure crushing Yi Meng downward.
Boom!
With divine power surging through the trident, the sea roared, dragging the monster deep. Within moments, Yi Meng's Doomsday body was nailed against a stone wall ten kilometers beneath the sea.
Rumble!
Golden ripples spread outward, tidal waves surging in their wake.
The pressure alone was more than ten thousand times Earth's normal gravity, enough to crush a modern submarine into a sheet of metal. And the divine might focused through the trident was sufficient to pierce even a god's flesh.
Poseidon struck with the full intent to kill.
The ocean boiled. The deep sea shook. The hidden civilizations of Atlantis and beyond quaked violently. Countless denizens of the deep shivered in instinctive terror—this was not a power of mortals.
Even the aftershocks alone sent massive waves crashing into coastal villages, obliterating them.
On a lonely island, Atlanna, clutching the Kryptonian infant, hesitated at the chaos tearing across the sea.
"What is that…"
Her eyes widened. She remembered the legend of Atlantis' founding weapon—the lost Trident of the Sea God, last wielded by an emperor a millennium ago. To control the sea so absolutely…only that weapon could do this.
If she knew the truth—that it was Poseidon himself, the ancient god returned after thousands of years—she would have been even more shaken.
For Poseidon was a true god who had vanished from Earth ages ago.
…
As if destined, in both the real world and the dreamscape, Yi Meng now stood against gods.
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