章 78: Chapter 78 - Devouring

It took around a few minutes in order to do it properly and painlessly, but Lily had killed all the mutants and Inhumans within the group— she, however, did leave the humans alive— albeit unconscious.

The reasons she didn't outright kill the humans would be important later, but for now, she needed to quickly devour the bodies of the mutants in order to gain their abilities— she was in a rush because of the gunshot from earlier.

With her scout units, she could see the authorities were on the way— furthermore, people around the area were already curious about what had happened and were starting to gather.

None would enter for now out of fear for their safety— but time would only tell if they would get brave enough to do something foolish.

Currently, there were a total of 24 people before her; 10 of them were mutants, which she had killed, and another 2 were dead Inhumans. The remaining 12 humans she had left alive.

Before she began to devour them, however, she had one important thing to do. That was to use her scrying ability on their bodies in order to find useful information pertaining to the group or anything that may help her find other locations.

Scrying took time and didn't always show what you wanted to see— as the information was often random, and since she didn't have any time, she had to pick a few key figures from them to scry.

Firstly, she did the man who was acting as the Leader of the group, the Reptilian man.

Touching his body, she used her scrying ability to try and see where he had been, see what he had experienced, gain any information she could— but hopefully, information she could use to find the other bases or even people linked to them.

Lily's consciousness delved into the depths of the Reptilian man's experiences. She wasn't reading his memories, not directly, that is.

Her scrying ability wasn't mind reading— it didn't allow her to enter the memory of others; rather, it allowed her to see the experiences that things have been through.

Touching the man's body, she was able to see the experiences the man's body had been through, at least snippets of it. She could see bits and pieces of the man's life— people he had talked to, food he had eaten, activities he had done, crimes he had committed; she even saw some more private activities the man had done.

The stream of information that flooded her mind was chaotic; it happened all at once and so quickly— each scene breaking down from one to another without any clear indication of it happening, some scenes melting together to cause even more confusion.

The ability was messy— but she could control it better than the mutant it belonged to. She had an advantage that mutants didn't: she was a Hivemind.

Her mental capabilities were beyond most mutants, and thanks to this, she wasn't overwhelmed by the information flooding her mind. Thanks to the hive, she was able to process the information all at once, breaking apart the pieces that shouldn't be together and piecing the ones that should.

Thanks to this, she was able to gain a clear understanding of the information she had gained by the time it had stopped, and from it, a few key points caught her attention.

They were fragmented visions, but she was able to see the Repiltian man meeting with a few people in hidden locations, and from the way, the man made sure he wasn't being followed, it was clearly important.

Thanks to this vision, she was able to see the face of the person the man was meeting, another male— and while he had no key features that made him stand out to her, the meeting alone was enough to make him important.

She also saw another vision; this one was interesting because it was a vision of the Repiltian man meeting someone who seemed like a government official.

Whether this was connected to the group or something else, she wasn't sure, but it was definitely interesting information to gain— one that she could use later on.

Aside from that, the other information she gained from the man wasn't very useful— as such, she moved on to the next significant figure within the group that she decided would be a good person to scry.

The mutant with the fire elemental abilities.

Using her scrying ability, she was disappointed to learn that the man had no useful information for her— he was merely a criminal who went out very often. But that was it— petty crimes.

Lily decided to do one more person before she stopped wasting time and just devoured everyone; this one was the doorkeeper that she had seen when she had first entered here.

This man would have seen all the faces of everyone entering and leaving this base; thanks to this, he would have a wide range of useful information that she could use.

Touching the body of the doorkeeper, the scenes began to unfold within her mind with another rush— the doorkeeper's experiences revealed a multitude of faces, people moving in and out of the underground base.

The doorkeeper rarely left the base— in fact, out of all the visions she saw, the man only left the base once. Thanks to this, most of the visions consisted of the base and the happenings of the base.

Sifting through the visions, she noted any key individuals that entered or left the facility— people that weren't amongst the ones she had killed, people that had distinct markings or outfits that stood out. She also tried to see if she could recognize any of them.

Unfortunately, she didn't recognize anyone from the memories, but she did gain a few faces that weren't amongst the people here, ones that she could hunt down and deal with separately.

Aside from just the faces of the people entering and exiting the base, she was also able to gain the times they entered and left— creating a pattern that hinted at the group's activities and the times they were most active.

It was important to piece together a proper mental map to try and figure out the group's plans or purpose— if she could do that, finding the entire group would be easier.

The last person she decided to use the scrying on was one of the older Inhumans— unfortunately, she wasn't able to find anything interesting.

With that, she had concluded her scrying period, and she was satisfied with the knowledge she had gained.

Lily then shifted her focus to devouring the mutants and Inhumans as she was running out of time with the sirens growing closer in the distance.

Each consumption brought a surge of power, her body naturally breaking down and integrating the DNA she gained from each of them in order to create or improve existing information— transforming her own capabilities to a new level.

She could feel the strength of the Repilitian man, the elemental powers of the mutants, and the other abilities fusing with her very being, new XGenes being created, and existing XGenes adapting or fusing with them to be better.