SSS Class Awakening: Start With A God-Level Choice System
Chapter 80: Meeting Dr. Elias Grimhart

Chapter 80: Meeting Dr. Elias Grimhart

"They bypassed the perimeter shields completely," another replied, his fingers flying across a touchpad. "There was no spatial displacement warning. No pulse trails. Nothing."

Then came the sound. Not from the speakers but from the world itself. Like a low bell tolling in the marrow of the Earth.

"They’re here," muttered a technician, pale-faced.

The security feed outside the compound crackled for a moment, momentarily corrupted by the energy surge. Then it resolved.

They saw them.

Fifty High Priests of the Church of Evolution, each draped in their religion cloaks, each standing impossibly still.

And at their center, two figures whose mere presence contorted the video resolution, distorting their silhouettes in flickering light.

Silence took the room.

Then, chaos. One of the operators shouted into a headset. "We need containment teams on full alert. Override Gate Protocols 3 through 9. Dispatch all active Evolvers!"

But the orders came too late.

The teleportation was near-instant. No grand light show. Just the sudden presence of 52 beings where there were none before.

The 50 High Priests, each an Evolver King, stood tall in their ceremonial cloaks woven with virus-resistant fabric and adorned with symbols of the Church of Evolution.

At their center, the two Evolver Emperors radiated a pressure that bent the air around them. The Earth itself seemed to remember who stood on it.

One High Priest stepped forward. His original superpower was flame manipulation, but with Ainsworth’s divine touch, he now possessed pyroplasmic binding. They were flames that did not just burn flesh but could also immobilize foes by crystallizing around their nervous systems.

Another cracked his knuckles. A sonic Evolver enhanced with vibrational control. With every step, he sent micro-vibrations into the ground, mapping out the enemy positions hidden beneath the compound.

A third walked beside them, his eyes glowing with an eerie green light. Originally gifted with minor healing abilities, his second power allowed him to absorb cellular decay from his enemies to enhance his vitality. The longer he fought, the stronger he became.

The Evolver Emperors didn’t speak.

One raised his hand, and space fractured slightly—an effect of his teleportation superpower now paired with short-range kinetic redirection. Any projectile that approached him would find itself diverted, warping its path before contact.

The other Emperor stood still, cloaked in a windless void. His presence alone crushed ambient sound around him, a side-effect of his vacuum-based pressure control. He could turn the air itself into a weapon or a shield depending on his will.

From the surveillance towers of Noctyra, four figures dashed out, responding to the alert. They were Evolver Kings enhanced by internal research and genetic adjustments made possible by their understanding of the Erebos Virus.

One wielded a freezing mist, rapidly lowering the temperature to sub-zero across the battlefield in hopes of slowing the invaders.

Another launched bursts of condensed air blades, slicing through the trees and scattering rubble in clean arcs.

The third summoned crystalline barriers from the ground, forming defensive outposts as he barked orders to the guards to fall back.

And the fourth ignited his body in bright, volatile plasma, burning away any projectiles sent his way as he charged forward with reckless intent.

But they were uncoordinated.

Despite their power, the 4 Evolver Kings of Noctyra were overwhelmed by the sheer synergy of the High Priests.

Each of the 50 High Priests were handpicked, their roles established like pieces of a living machine. Elementalists, kinetic controllers, sound disruptors, molecular binders, shockwave burst types—every High Priest played a part.

One team formed a temporary barrier using light refraction, blinding the defenders.

Another group teleported directly inside the outer compound’s corridors using pin-point jumps.

Within minutes, three of the Noctyra Evolver Kings were either unconscious or critically wounded. The fourth tried to retreat but was caught by a High Priest who manipulated fluid density, trapping him in a mass of quicksilver-like sludge.

The gates were torn open with a combined effort of a density manipulator and a corrosive touch Evolver. The alloy yielded after seconds of continuous pressure.

Inside the facility, alarm sirens screamed.

The personnel still present in the labs began executing evacuation protocols. Security bots activated taser cannons and energy nets, but even those were disabled when a High Priest with electric field suppression marched through them like they were outdated toys.

As the High Priests fanned out to secure the perimeter and begin the sweep for Dr. Elias Grimhart, the two Evolver Emperors finally moved.

With one step, the air around the tower’s entrance twisted and buckled. Glass cracked. The main lobby collapsed inward as the kinetic redirection warped the gravity around it.

The vacuum Emperor reached out, and oxygen was drained from the main corridor, causing automated fire-suppression systems to activate by mistake. Entire defenses malfunctioned due to pressure-based errors.

It was no longer a raid but a damn one-sided invasion!

As the tremors subsided and the smoke from the breached lobby settled, the High Priests began their sweep. Each group moved with military precision, clearing labs, security nodes, and auxiliary halls with minimal resistance.

A squad of three took the lead in navigating the facility’s digital infrastructure. At its head was a High Priest named Arkan, an Evolver King whose original superpower was technopathy, the ability to interface with machines through direct neurological signals.

With Ainsworth’s superpower augmentation and superpower bestowal, he had evolved into a neuro-digital dominator. He could override encrypted systems, deconstruct firewalls, and download entire networks directly into his mind.

They reached the central server room. The door was sealed, reinforced.

Arkan pressed his gloved hand against the biometric scanner. Sparks flickered.

Inside his mind, code unraveled.

"You built your firewalls like stone walls. Sturdy. But slow."

His voice echoed through the facility’s speakers. The lights dimmed, then pulsed in rhythmic flickers.

Seconds later, every screen in the facility rebooted.

Lines of data streamed across Arkan’s iris as he tilted his head. "Project: Aegis Cure. Project: Halcyon Sleep. Project: ReGenesis. Cloning sequences. Bio-enhancement trials. Neural mapping. It’s all here."

One of his team stepped forward. "Upload to the Hive Archive?"

"No," Arkan said. "I’ll send everything directly to the Lord God."

Above them, the internal defense network shut down. Automated security drones dropped from the air, crashing to the floor with metallic thuds.

Elsewhere in the facility, a group of High Priests stood before a sealed elevator embedded deep in the north wing. The name etched on its reinforced plating read: Pinnacle Vault, Restricted: L-9 Clearance Only.

"The rat’s hiding in a hole," muttered one of the High Priests, his hands crackling with magnetic energy.

Another stepped forward, reached for the control panel, and in less than a second, it blinked green. Arkan’s override had reached them.

The doors slid open with a hiss.

Inside, the elevator was reinforced with graphene-laced polymers and bio-insulated walls, a portable safehouse. But that wasn’t enough.

They descended in silence.

When the doors opened again, the temperature dropped. A cold, sterile laboratory stretched out ahead, its lights flickering as backup power systems struggled to hold.

At the far end stood a lone man in a white coat, blood smeared across the front of his uniform. His hair was disheveled, his glasses cracked. Behind him, a half-packed duffel bag sat on a metal examination table, vials of luminous blue serum still rolling inside.

He was none other than Dr. Elias Grimhart.

He didn’t look surprised.

"You finally found me," he said quietly, voice dry. "Let me guess. You want the virus back."

The Evolver Emperor of vacuum pressure stepped through the doors, his presence draining all ambient sound from the air.

Grimhart didn’t flinch. "Of course he’d send you. I should’ve expected the Church of Evolution wouldn’t leave loose ends."

The other Emperor moved beside him, gravity warping faintly beneath his feet.

Grimhart set the duffel bag down and raised his hands. "If you’re here to kill me, at least let me say this. I didn’t create the virus to destroy humanity. I created it to control what comes next."

One of the High Priests stepped forward. His eyes were cold, almost pitying.

"You overestimate your worth," he said. "The Church does not need you. If it were only about stabilizing the mutations or creating a cure, the Lord God would find another way. But it is a problem if others use you. So either no one will, or only we will."

Another High Priest, robed in silver-threaded cloth, moved closer and began to speak in a solemn voice.

His words echoed in the sterile lab like a sermon, drawn from one of the sacred texts of the Church of Evolution:

"From entropy comes design. From design, transcendence. Blessed are those who shed their false skins and walk as more than man, for flesh is clay and thought is the fire that bakes it anew..."

The scripture bled into the air like a psychic toxin.

Even Grimhart, a man of science, felt something twist behind his eyes.

His breath hitched slightly. His thoughts, once razor-sharp, became muddy at the edges.

The words tugged at his mind, bypassing logic and slipping directly into places reason could not guard.

He shook his head, blinking. "What... is that?"