Chapter 388 (Epilogue)

  After Skullface was dead, everything else was easy.

  Jake first allowed the freedom fighters to use the elevator to reach Level A. After that, he took the elevator system offline again so the remaining bandits on Level A couldn’t use the second elevator to get to the hangar and escape.

  He then instructed his crawlers to go to Level A as well. In the process, they completely wrecked the elevator car connected to the mines. That was fine, though. Now that the freedom fighters and the survivors they had freed were on Level A, there was no reason for them to return to the mines.

  Afterward, his arachnids and the survivors checked every room on Level A, taking out every bandit in their path until none were left.

  After that, the survivors began boarding the helicopters to leave the base. There were too many survivors and only a handful of helicopters, so instead of making several trips to the city and back, Jake suggested they use the Store to purchase a few more choppers. Since there were plenty of mana crystals stored in the storage room, they had more than enough to purchase a few more helicopters.

  Samantha and her closest allies were the last to leave the base. Before they departed, a bit of an argument broke out between her and Jake. She asked him to let her have the base, reasoning that the survivors could significantly benefit from such an advanced facility.

  However, knowing that now that Los Demonios were gone, his allies might eventually turn against him, he was reluctant to give them such a fortress. Additionally, he had intended to destroy Los Demonios’ main base from the very beginning and was determined to see it through.

  In the end, Samantha and her group, clearly displeased by his decision, boarded the final helicopter and took off.

  During the conversation with Samantha, Jake was in his mutant form, using his electrolarynx to speak. So far, everyone who had ever known about his ability to assume a human form had been killed. Skullface was the only one who had learned about his ability to speak while in a human form, but now he was dead as well.

  Jake intended to keep his ability to take a human form and speak without a special device a secret. For that reason, he used the electrolarynx when he spoke to Samantha.

  He had acquired the ability to speak while searching the tunnels beneath the bottom level of the mines for the resistance hideout some time ago. While exploring, he had killed so many underground bugs that he even leveled up from 149 to 150, allocating points into Magick and increasing it from 265 to 269.

  He invested the final point in his Morph Disguise ability, advancing it from Rank I to Rank II. After that, he took a moment to experiment with the ability and discovered that he could now speak while in a human form.

  Once all the survivors had left the base and he was finally alone, Jake sent his crawlers back to the resistance hideout and instructed them to return to his main lair via the Transfer Maw he had created earlier.

  Afterward, he made his way to the room containing the Store. It looked like a six-foot-long blue crystal hovering above a cylindrical platform that was half a foot tall, positioned in the center of the room.

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  The Store had a self-destruct function. To activate it, it needed to be fed mana, and the more mana it received, the more powerful the explosion would be. So Jake fed the Store all the mana crystals from the storage room, ensuring the explosion would be powerful enough to completely obliterate the base.

  He set the timer for a few minutes before making his way back to the bottom level of the mines. Not long after that, the ground shook violently, and a rumble reached his ears from above.

  Curious, Jake decided to assess the damage. As it turned out, most levels of the mines had collapsed. As for Level A, it had to have been reduced to complete wreckage.

  After that, Jake made his way to the resistance hideout and used the Transfer Maw to teleport to his main lair. He then headed up to the roof. The helicopters were nowhere to be seen, which was understandable. After all, he knew he had arrived at the city well before Samantha and the other survivors.

  He decided to head for Base Catalina to let her know that Skullface was dead and Los Demonios no longer existed. When he arrived, he found Melissa there as well, visiting her friend. He shared the news with them, and after their initial expressions of joy and congratulations, they asked how he had managed to pull it off.

  He told them he had infiltrated the base but omitted the part about assuming the identity of the pilot. He also mentioned that he had teamed up with Samantha and the other resistance fighters, then summoned his crawlers, and together they captured the base.

  He finished his story by telling them that Samantha and her other survivors were currently on their way to the city. Catalina and Melissa were excited to meet Samantha, the brave leader who managed to escape from Skullface and his thugs and even organize a powerful resistance group.

  It was known that anyone who had ever been sent to the Los Demonios main base was never seen again. However, Samantha and her people not only managed to break free from their captors but also occasionally launched successful attacks on them, rescuing and recruiting more survivors along the way.

  It was definitely a remarkable feat. Catalina and Melissa agreed that the returning survivors would be welcome at their bases.

  Despite their high spirits, Jake could tell that something was bothering Catalina and Melissa. Just as he was about to leave the base and go about his business, Catalina asked how he managed to transport his creatures from his lair to the Los Demonios main base.

  He simply replied that he had a special ability to do so, without giving away any details about this ability. Their disappointment was palpable, not only regarding his vague answer but also about the entire situation of him breeding an army of monsters. Catalina then asked if he was going to stop doing so now that Los Demonios was gone.

  Jake knew he needed to continue developing his lairs. Both of them were currently at Rank VII, and he knew that he needed to develop at least one to the final Rank X before he would be allowed to evolve into Rank IV.

  He was also interested in creating a variety of creatures with different abilities. He had achieved a lot so far, but there was still much more to accomplish, so he was determined to continue developing his lairs and creating new types of creatures.

  So Jake told them he wasn’t going to stop what he was doing. He planned to keep developing his lairs, creating more creatures, and evolving them. Catalina and Melissa obviously weren’t happy about that, but Jake didn’t care.

  As he made his way out of Base Catalina, he could feel the weight of the humans’ gazes on his back. He knew that now that Los Demonios was gone, it was hard to predict whether his allies would remain loyal or eventually turn against him.

  Time would tell.

  End of Volume 1