The calm off the coast of Lanshiang was torn apart by the shriek of air-raid sirens.
Inside the Star Fire fleet's command hall, the massive holographic display wall was blanketed in dense crimson alerts.
South America's map was shifting from green to a sickening dark gold, the mark of life being forcibly converted and restructured.
"Ryan, South America's completely gone." Jill's voice echoed through the silent hall, heavy with exhaustion. She looked back at Ryan, and beyond the worry in her eyes was a kind of all-or-nothing resolve.
"Europe. Italy and Spain are in the worst of the urban fighting. Coalition tanks might as well be roadside toys against those things. They're fast enough to leave afterimages. They're not just tough, they can rip apart a main battle tank's composite armor with their bare hands."
"Monitoring data confirms the broad-spectrum vaccine only suppresses biological mutation. It can't counter molecular crystallization on a physical level. Only a switch to high-tier deep-layer vaccines can fully resist the Ouroboros spores' assimilation effect."
Jill pointed to a blinking red dot on the screen, the last distress signal. "Without real support, southern Europe goes dark in forty-eight hours."
"Even worse than I expected. Wesker really went all in this time." Ryan stood, his coat snapping in the airflow.
His voice carried through the ship's comms, hitting every terminal across thousands of Star Fire soldiers simultaneously.
"There's no room for dead weight in this fight. All combat units, Dawn Type III injections, effective immediately. I need every single one of you fast enough and hard enough to tear those things apart head-on. That's your ticket onto the battlefield."
"Yes, Boss!" The roar from the deck shook the entire carrier.
Ryan turned to the core team behind him, his expression softening. "As for you guys, come with me. Regular tickets aren't good enough for you old-timers."
Star Fire command ship. The laboratory.
The air carried a faint chill. Two sets of serums sat waiting. The Abyss Enhancer, pulsing with a purple glow like a deep-sea void, radiated an energy that set your teeth on edge.
"Jill, Leon, Chris, Carlos, Piers, Sherry, Becky..." Ryan picked up a vial and looked at each of them in turn. "This stuff hasn't cleared clinical trials. The pain's gonna be ten times worse than standard doses. Maybe a hundred times. Its ceiling blows the Dawn series out of the water. If you're scared, you can walk away right now."
"Scared?" Carlos laughed, strode forward, and unclasped his tactical vest, baring a shoulder covered in scars. "I should've died back in Raccoon City. Every day since then's been a bonus. Hit me with the strongest shit you've got, Ryan."
Jill said nothing. She walked up to Ryan, rolled up her sleeve, and let her eyes do the talking. Life or death, she was in.
"I've got no reason to turn down a chance to get stronger." Leon shrugged, looking at Ryan. "Besides, if I don't level up, I'm afraid I won't even be able to keep up with you anymore."
The needles went into their necks, and the lab flooded with a suffocating pressure.
Chris let out a guttural snarl like a caged animal. His already massive frame shook violently under the serum's effect, veins bulging like cables beneath his skin. Bones were being forcibly replaced, muscles torn apart and rebuilt. He gripped the reinforced alloy handrail so hard he left fingerprints crushed into the metal.
Leon braced himself against the lab bench with one hand, sweat instantly plastering his bangs to his forehead. His pupils kept dilating until they settled into a deep, dark blue.
"Ryan... I feel like the world just slowed down." Leon raised his head. His face was pale, but his eyes were blazingly bright. He flicked his hand casually and the air cracked with a faint sonic snap. "I can feel every heartbeat on this deck. This feels... fucking incredible."
Sherry and Becky clung to each other. Their small frames radiated a pressure that had no business coming from bodies that size. Dark patterns flickered briefly across their faces.
"This isn't just evolution, this is being rebuilt from scratch." Carlos clenched his fist, then looked at Ryan. "Boss, give the order. My gun's itching to go."
Ryan looked over his transformed team and nodded, satisfied.
They filed out of the lab and back into the command hall. He pointed at the global map and began the final deployment.
"Jill, you're staying here. You're Star Fire's brain. I need you watching every hotspot on the planet. Can you handle that?"
Jill straightened up, deep blue eyes sharper than he'd ever seen them. "Don't worry, Ryan. This ship and everything above it, I'll hold it down."
"Sherry. Becky." Ryan turned to the two girls. "Take half the Dawn Type III supersoldiers and head straight for the Asian front. Donna will deploy her flower sea to support you. Lady Dimitrescu's daughters will handle perimeter sweeps. Your mission's simple: hold the line. Anything with dark-gold crystal on it, you smash it. No survivors."
"Leave it to us, Uncle Ryan!" Sherry and Becky said in unison, exchanging a grin, eyes full of confidence. "If a single monster gets through the Asian front, we'll come back and take whatever punishment you've got."
"Leon, Chris, Piers." Ryan clapped Leon on the shoulder. "The deep-sea leviathans and monster commanders in the Americas are your proving ground. Don't let me down."
"Proving ground?" Chris scoffed and slammed his new tungsten-steel greatsword into the deck. "Wrong word, Ryan. They're not a proving ground. They're a whetstone. I'm gonna chop Wesker's lapdogs into chum, one by one."
Finally, Ryan looked toward Miranda and Heisenberg in the shadows. "Miranda, Heisenberg, Ethan. Take the full mechanized division to southern Europe. Start there and push the front line back."
"No problem at all, Boss!" Heisenberg answered without hesitation. Miranda and Ethan nodded.
"Good." Ryan looked at all of them. "Then we split up."
"What about you?" they asked together, eyes full of trust.
"Me? I'm gonna pay their headquarters a little visit. See if there's anything worth picking up." Ryan grinned.
"All of you, come back alive. We've still got a party to throw."
Ryan left them with nothing but his back, his figure streaking skyward like a bolt of light before vanishing over the horizon.
"Move out!" Chris roared, and the horn of the counterattack sounded at last.
[This novel is now COMPLETE. Read the entire series right now on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]