The cave was no longer just a hole in the mountain. Over the last month, it had become a workshop of horrors.
Cables stripped from Red Ribbon vehicles snaked across the stone floor like copper vipers, hooking into a central generator I had salvaged from the wreckage of the hover-tanks. The hum of electricity battled the silence of the cave.
I sat in the center of this technological web, my legs crossed, floating three inches off the ground.
"Status," I whispered.
Power Level: 420, Saibot replied, his voice a mental echo. Plateau reached.
I opened my eyes. The glowing white slits narrowed in frustration. 420. It was a respectable number for early Dragon Ball. I could probably beat Goku as he was right now. I could certainly crush the Red Ribbon Army. But against Nappa? Against Vegeta?
I was an insect.
"My biology is the bottleneck," I said, standing up. I walked over to a steal beam I had set up as a test dummy. I struck it with a casual backhand. The steel bent, but didn't shear. "I am a reanimated corpse powered by dark magic. Muscles tear and repair, but they have a limit. I don't have Saiyan Zenkai boosts. I don't have Namekian fusion."
I needed a multiplier. I needed a cheat code.
I walked to the edge of the cave, looking out at the blizzard. My mind drifted back to the lore of Mortal Kombat. I was Bi-Han, but I was borrowing from everyone. I had Sub-Zero's ice, Scorpion's spear, Smoke's intangibility.
But there was one entity in that universe who understood power better than anyone. The Conqueror. The Emperor of Outworld.
Shao Kahn.
"Shao Kahn didn't just train," I mused, my breath misting in the cold air. "He consumed. He merged realms. He absorbed souls to increase his mass and density."
I couldn't merge dimensions—I wasn't a god. And if I started eating human souls, Kami would teleport down here and vaporize me with a glance. I had to walk the line between anti-hero and villain.
"But the mechanics..." I turned back to the generator. "The mechanics of the Soulnado. It's just energy transfer. Taking external energy and forcing it into an internal vessel."
I looked at the pile of green glowing canisters I had stolen from the convoy. Exo-Skeletal Battery Cells. The Red Ribbon Army used them to power their Battle Jackets. They were concentrated chemical energy.
"Saibot," I called.
The shadow peeled off the wall.
"We are going to build a Soul Chamber," I said. "But instead of souls, we are going to feed it raw energy. We are going to see if this body can act as a capacitor."
The Experiment
It took three days to rig the setup.
I arranged the battery cells in a circle around a central dais. I used the copper wiring to create a conduction field, inscribing symbols of the Netherrealm into the stone floor using my own black blood as a conduit. It was a blend of Earth science and dark sorcery.
"This is going to hurt," I muttered.
I stepped into the circle.
"Activate."
I used a small spark of static Ki to ignite the circuit.
The batteries flared. Electricity arced through the copper wires, hitting the blood runes. The runes hissed, turning the blue electricity into a sickly, vibrant green.
Shao Kahn's Green Energy.
It wasn't exactly the same, but it was close. It was kinetic force made manifest.
The energy spiraled inward, slamming into me.
"GAAH!"
I fell to my knees. It felt like being microwaved. My grey skin sizzled. The darkness inside me—the void that was Noob Saibot—roared in protest. It wanted to consume, but this was force-feeding.
Absorb it! I commanded my own body. Don't just let it burn you. Eat it!
I visualized the Emperor. I visualized the way he grew in size when he laughed, the way he coated himself in impenetrable green force.
I opened my mouth and inhaled.
The green lightning was sucked into my lungs. The pain shifted from burning to pressure. I felt my muscles swelling. My veins bulged, turning from black to a glowing, toxic emerald color.
I stood up.
I felt heavy. Massive. My perspective shifted; I was physically taller. The armor I had scavenged creaked as my shoulders broadened.
"Power..." the voice that came out wasn't a rasp. It was a boom.
I looked at the steel beam in the corner.
I didn't use a technique. I didn't use a shadow clone. I just walked over—each step cracking the stone floor—and punched it.
CLANG-CRUNCH.
My fist didn't just bend the steel; it punched clean through the thick metal girder, shattering the stone wall behind it.
"Yes," I breathed, looking at my glowing green hand. "Temporary augmentation. I can store energy and burn it for a stat boost."
But then, the sickness hit.
I vomited black bile. The green glow faded instantly. My body shrank back to its normal, lithe size. I collapsed, shivering.
Inefficient, Saibot whispered, hovering over me. Leakage is 90%.
"I know," I wiped my mouth. "My body isn't a battery. It's a sieve. I can hold the charge for maybe ten seconds before it tears me apart."
I needed a better vessel. Or a constant source.
Shao Kahn had the Soulnado—a constant stream of souls feeding him. I couldn't walk around with a generator strapped to my back.
"Wait," I sat up. "The Battle Jackets. They run on these cores. But the really big ones... the ones Dr. Gero is designing..."
Androids. Infinite Energy Models.
No, that was too far away. But Muscle Tower... Muscle Tower had a massive reactor in the basement to power the heating systems and the labs.
If I could learn to tap into a source remotely... or if I could create a weapon that stored the energy for me...
I stood up, my mind racing.
"The Wrath Hammer," I said.
Shao Kahn's hammer wasn't just a hunk of metal. It was a magical construct. If I couldn't hold the energy in my body, I would forge a weapon that could. A battery on a stick.
"I need better materials," I said, kicking a spent battery canister. "This human junk won't hold the charge."
Suddenly, the ground shook.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Dust fell from the ceiling of the cave.
"Something big is outside," I noted.
Life force, Saibot hissed. Huge.
I smiled behind my mask. "Test Subject Two."
The Apex Predator
I emerged from the cave into the blinding white of the snowstorm.
Standing in the valley below was a dinosaur. A T-Rex, but adapted for the North. It had shaggy white fur, blue scales, and it was massive—easily forty feet tall. In the world of Dragon Ball, dinosaurs were common, and they were tough. This one had a Power Level of maybe 50. Weak for a fighter, but a mountain of vitality.
It roared, spotting me. It saw a small snack.
"Perfect," I said.
I didn't draw my sword. I didn't summon my clone.
I held out my hands.
"Let's try the absorption again. But this time, organic."
The T-Rex charged, shaking the earth. Its jaws opened, ready to swallow me whole.
I waited until it was twenty feet away.
Technique: Soul Steal (Shang Tsung Variant)
I couldn't steal the soul—that was too advanced. But I could steal the stamina.
"Your strength is mine!"
I thrust my hands forward. Green energy tendrils, mixed with black smoke, shot from my palms. They wrapped around the dinosaur's snout, its legs, its chest.
The beast stopped, confused. It tried to bite, but the green energy acted like a physical restraint.
I pulled.
Visibly, wisps of white light began to tear away from the dinosaur's body, flowing down the green tendrils and into my palms.
The dinosaur shrieked. Its fur began to grey. Its muscles atrophied.
I felt the rush. It was smoother than the batteries. This was life energy. It was warm. It filled the cold void in my gut like hot soup.
My power level swelled. 420... 450... 480...
"More," I gritted my teeth. "GIVE ME MORE."
I clenched my fists. The green tendrils tightened, crushing the beast.
SNAP.
The dinosaur collapsed, a dried husk. It wasn't dead, but it was in a coma, completely drained of vitality.
I stood there, glowing with a faint green aura. I felt... incredible. Aggressive. Arrogant.
"You suck," I shouted at the unconscious dinosaur, channeling the sheer disrespect of Shao Kahn.
I looked at a boulder the size of a house.
I summoned the energy I had just stolen. I shaped it. I didn't make a spear or a sword.
I manifested a massive, translucent green war hammer in my hands.
Wrath Hammer.
I swung it.
BOOM!
The house-sized boulder didn't just crack; it disintegrated into dust. The shockwave cleared the snow for fifty yards.
The hammer faded as the stolen energy ran out.
I stood in the clearing, panting.
"Okay," I said, a dark grin forming. "That works."
I had a strategy now.
Weaken the enemy.Drain their energy to buff myself.Summon the Hammer.Crush them.
It was the Shao Kahn loop. And in a world where everyone threw fireballs, bringing a giant magical hammer to a gunfight was surprisingly effective.
But I needed a bigger source. The dinosaur gave me a boost for maybe one attack.
I looked North, toward the steel silhouette of Muscle Tower.
"General White," I whispered. "You have hundreds of soldiers. That's a lot of batteries."
I turned to Saibot.
"We're done hiding in caves. It's time to take the throne."
The Ascension
I spent the next week refining the technique. I hunted the mountains. I drained wolves, bears, and lesser dinosaurs. I learned to regulate the flow so I didn't burn out my veins.
I also realized something important: Fear spiked the flavor.
When a target was terrified, their Ki fluctuated, becoming easier to rip away.
"Scare them first," I noted in my mental journal. "Then feed."
I was ready.
I stood at the base of the cliff looking up at Muscle Tower. It was night. The searchlights swept the snow.
"System," I mocked myself. "Quest Added: Conquer Muscle Tower."
I didn't use stealth this time.
I walked to the front gate. The two guards saw me.
"Halt! Identify yourse—"
I raised my hand. Telekinetic Choke.
I lifted the guard on the left into the air.
"I am the landlord," I rasped. "And rent is due."
I slammed him into the other guard.
The alarm sirens began to wail. Red lights flashed. The heavy steel doors began to grind open, revealing a squad of soldiers and a large mech.
I cracked my neck.
"Excellent," I said, my eyes glowing green. "Fuel."
I summoned the Wrath Hammer, the green energy crackling around the head of the weapon.
"Come and die."