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The integration finished.
Then the System showed him what it had left behind.
Ren read it.
He read it again.
His mouth opened slowly. The mask told him nothing back, because it was a smooth white oval, but the tilt of his head said the rest.
What.
Law of Skin: Second Evolution.
Identity Theft: By making physical contact with a target, the user may steal their identity. Perfectly copies appearance, aura, voice, scent, soul fluctuations, fingerprints, and DNA. Gains 80% of the target's combat power, abilities, knowledge, and physical capabilities. All identification methods, mundane or supernatural, recognize the user as the target. If the target is completely consumed, synchronization rises to 100%.
Ren stopped reading. Started again from the top.
"This is," he said, to no one in particular.
Replace: The user may consume a target and permanently inherit their identity. The user may freely switch between stolen identities. Even while using their original appearance, others may still perceive and acknowledge them as the stolen individual. The distinction between original and replacement becomes increasingly impossible to determine.
He got to the end.
Identity Death: After establishing sufficient contact or connection with a target, the user may erase their identity from reality. The target's identity is completely removed from the world. Friends, family, enemies, and loved ones forget their existence. Historical records lose meaning or are altered to accommodate the absence. Divination, prophecy, fate, and memory-based abilities cannot find traces of the target.
The victim may continue to live physically, but becomes a nameless existence with no place in reality.
"Their body remains. Their name is gone. Their story has ended."
Ren sat on the clinic floor and did not speak for a moment.
Okay, he thought. Let me think about this clinically.
Identity Theft alone was the kind of ability that ended careers. Eighty percent of a target's combat power, on contact, plus perfect biological replication across every identification system that existed. He could touch Gregory Hood and walk away with eighty percent of a Divine Hierophant's combat output. He could touch Malvick Siven and temporarily become the strongest conventional hunter in the Azareth Empire. The words "mundane or supernatural identification methods" covered everything from DNA testing to divine oracles to fate-reading, which was specifically Gregory Hood's entire toolkit.
He could touch Gregory Hood and become someone Gregory Hood's own causality manipulation could not locate, because it would be reading him as Gregory Hood.
The full-consumption variant brought that to one hundred percent.
He sat with this information.
"This is extremely overpowered," he said.
I know.
"This single ability invalidates approximately forty percent of all security systems, identification protocols, and counter-infiltration measures in this world."
Forty-three percent, by my estimate. I was being conservative.
"I can become anyone."
Anyone you have touched. Yes.
"And if I consume them," he started.
You become them. Permanently. On file, in memory, in prophecy. The world agrees.
"And if I use Identity Death," he continued.
The world forgets them. Completely. While they are still alive and watching it happen.
Ren was quiet for another second.
"That's monstrous."
It is a Law comprehended from the King of Madness and Depravity. Were you expecting something cheerful?
He had a thought about Gregory Hood, specifically, and the causality string that had been declared against him in Azareth. A string that named him by identity, Ren Hector, and fixed the outcome for that specific person. If he was no longer recognizable as Ren Hector by any identification method in existence, the string would be reading for someone who did not exist.
Yes, the System said, before he finished the thought. You are already thinking about the Hood problem. I'll give you a moment.
He took the moment.
Done with the moment?
"Give me another."
You have two seconds.
He used both of them.
If Gregory Hood's causality manipulation is identity-anchored, and every indication from their encounter in Azareth suggested it was, then Identity Theft at full consumption would make his declaration structurally incoherent. A string fixed to a name that does not map to a living person has nothing to pull.
He filed this under weapons to examine properly later, when he had not just spent an evening dying and being rebuilt from a mask.
Then the second notification appeared.
Father Skill: New Upgrade.
He read through it.
Father's Authority: The Father may freely use any ability possessed by his Abominations. All skills, mutations, biological adaptations, and supernatural powers developed by an Abomination can be manifested by the Father without restriction.
He thought of Viktor Qin's colon-based assassination methods, which he was going to use very selectively.
Mind of the Collective: The Father establishes a permanent telepathic connection with every Abomination under his authority. Instant communication across any distance. Shared sensory perception.
He thought of Wei Liang embedded under Gregory Hood's faction in Victoria's civil service, currently operating alone. That, he thought, changes the tactical picture considerably.
Immortal Vessel: The Father cannot truly die while an Abomination remains. Upon death, the Father's consciousness immediately transfers into a chosen Abomination. Resurrection occurs instantly without loss of strength. As long as one child survives, the Father endures.
He sat with this one for longer.
He had died tonight. Three times now, by his count, in various configurations, the most recent being a complete cellular detonation with a two-second vacancy before reconstruction. Every one of those deaths had required something specific to bring him back. The mask. The Law of Skin knowing the route. His own system stabilizing him.
Now there was a backup. As long as any one of his Abominations existed, he could not be permanently removed.
Domain of Endless Flesh: When the Father is present on the battlefield, all allied Abominations enter a state of pseudo-immortality. Endless regeneration. Fatal wounds lose meaning. An Abomination can only be permanently killed if the Father is slain or removed from the battlefield.
Blessing of Madness and Depravity: The Father may grant fragments of the Law of Madness and Depravity to his Abominations.
He reached the end of the notification.
"The Father is many. The Father is one. So long as a single child remains, the lineage of madness shall never perish."
Ren sat on the clinic floor at four in the morning, having recently been dead, and read that last line again.
His mouth opened. His head tilted back. The sound that came out of him was not the controlled kind.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA."
It echoed in the empty clinic.
"I'm a lord of cockroaches," he said, to the room, to the System, to no one. "You kill me? I come back through one of my children. You kill all of them? You had to kill all of them first, which means I was giving you pseudo-immortal regenerating Abominations on an endless loop the entire time you were trying to reach me." He was still laughing. "See how you kill me now, Gregory Malvick."
His name is Gregory Hood, the System said. Malvick is a different person.
"Gregory Malvick Hood. Both of them. Either of them." He waved a hand. "I don't care. The point stands."
The point does stand, the System acknowledged.
Though I would note that 'lord of cockroaches' is perhaps not the legacy title you want to lead with.
"It's accurate."