Word Bearers Battle Barge
Light of Faith
Inside the Battle Barge's gene-laboratory, the air was cold and heavy. The only sounds were the low hum of the Life Support System and the faint whisper of air stirred by circling Servo-skulls.
The enormous cultivation chamber stood silently in the center of the laboratory, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, like a sarcophagus—or an altar leading to new life.
The intricate pipes and ports on its surface resembled steel vines entwined around it, connecting it to an array of precision monitoring instruments and nutrient delivery systems.
Hercules, the aspirant who had proven his matchless courage and unwavering resolve in the trials on Tenerum, now stood before the cultivation chamber.
He wore only a simple white robe. His immense, 2.3-meter frame looked as though it had been carved from granite. After the preceding series of brutal genetic enhancement procedures, the contours of his already formidable muscles displayed an inhuman, almost perfect biomechanical beauty.
His breathing was steady and deep, but in the depths of his hawk-sharp eyes flickered an excitement he could not entirely suppress.
"Hercules, how are you feeling?" Frank stood beside him, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.
Although Frank's physique also far surpassed that of an ordinary human, he looked much more "delicate" beside Hercules.
He had already completed his own seventeenth procedure. Now, filled with awe and anticipation, he watched his closest comrade prepare to take his place on the operating table for the eighteenth.
Hercules slowly turned his head and met Frank's gaze. "I feel... incredible..."
Hercules could distinctly feel surging power rushing through his newly formed blood vessels. His senses had sharpened to an unprecedented degree, and the entire world appeared richer in detail and depth.
Yet this nearly perfect body still lacked the final two pieces