Chapter 264: Stone Giant

After withdrawing Nun, Adam deliberated for a very long time before finally choosing Sludge.

If it weren't for the threat being posed by Hebi no Miko, there was no way that he would've chosen Sludge, but right now, he had no choice but to prioritize his own survival above all else.

He had only managed to survive Hebi no Miko's last attack thanks to some massive strokes of luck, but he wasn't going to be so fortunate next time. At the very least, Hebi no Miko wasn't going to make the same mistake of wasting time torturing him.

The next time she attacked, she was definitely going to choose a better hiding spot that would make it more difficult for Mechguard units to find her, which meant that he would need to survive for even longer to be saved.

Thus, it seemed that Sludge was the only option.

I'm counting on you! Don't let me down!

With that in mind, Sludge was promptly invoked, and it didn't even require an instruction from Adam before instinctively pouncing onto the feast laid out before it.

Adam watched as Sludge devoured the anomalic power, and he was feeling a little concerned about whether it would be able to digest so much power.

He recalled that back when Mummy and Hellhound were devouring Scarecrow's anomalic power, they were only able to absorb a small portion and evolve once before reaching their limits.

However, that was perhaps due to the massive level disparity between them. After all, it made sense that a level one anomaly would struggle to devour the power of a level four or level five anomaly.

On this occasion, there was a gap of two levels, and Adam had no idea if this was going to work.

If you can't eat it all, then I'll have to split some of it with other anomalies. However, splitting the anomalic power wouldn't be ideal, so I'm counting on you!

With such a massive influx of anomalic power entering its body, Sludge quickly began to swell up like a balloon.

Thankfully, its body was extremely pliable, so it didn't burst even though it was looking severely overfilled.

Finally, it was able to devour the last shred of anomalic power without exploding, much to Adam's elation.

You did it!

Adam was ecstatic to see this, and he continued watching as the anomalic power was digested.

Unlike its previous evolutions, this time, Sludge was making extremely slow progress, evolving while digesting. During the next half hour, its body was warped into all types of different forms before finally, it completed its evolution amid a flash of black light and a fierce eruption of force.

Adam was barely able to keep his eyes open in the face of the immense wind pressure, but he was still eager to see the outcome.

As the dust settled, he was greeted by the sight of a stone giant.

In terms of physical appearance, it bore a slight resemblance to Diamond, except instead of a transparent, crystalline bodily structure, the surface of the stone giant's body resembled a meteorite, looking extremely hard and sturdy.

"Stand still! I'm going to test out your defenses!"

Adam pulled out his gatling gun before firing a barrage of bullets at the stone giant. All of the bullets ricocheted off its body, leaving only trails of sparks behind.

Adam was very encouraged by this, and he pulled out a rocket launcher before blasting a projectile straight into the stone giant's chest. The resulting explosion was finally able to inflict some damage onto its body, and some stone shards fell away, leaving an indentation roughly the size of a washbasin on its chest.

"Can you still protect me if you're this hard now?"

As if to answer Adam's question, the stone giant's body instantly softened, and the indentation on its chest was also quickly filled.

After that, it made its way over to Adam before enveloping his body with its own.

Just like before, its body was still as pliable as ever, except this time, it was able to harden into a stone fortress around Adam.

In its current form, not only was Sludge able to transition between a solid and liquid form, its regenerative abilities had been enhanced even further, and its defenses were even sturdier than Mummy's at the height of its powers. In addition to that, with its five-meter-tall frame, it was essentially a moving fortress.

It looks like I made the right choice!

Adam stepped out of Sludge's body, and the more he looked at it, the more fond of it he became. Through their psychic connection, he was able to determine that Sludge had no special abilities aside from its ability to change forms and states at will, but Adam wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

Firstly, he had accomplished his objective. If Hebi no Miko were to attack him again, he would be able to last a few minutes with no issues even against Yamata no Orochi under Sludge's protection.

Furthermore, not only was Sludge going to keep him safe from Hebi no Miko, it was also going to be extremely useful for him when carrying out other missions.

Clown had a whole host of incredible abilities, but its offensive prowess was rather lackluster, and it struggled to kill opponents quickly, especially when they were bulkier in stature and possessed high levels of defensive prowess.

A perfect example was the two-faced anomaly. It was clearly weaker than Clown, but it had still posed quite a few problems.

However, with this stone giant at his disposal, Adam's offensive prowess was undoubtedly going to be significantly elevated.

"Show me your destructive capabilities!"

Sludge was a level two anomaly to begin with, and now that it had absorbed all of the two-faced anomaly's power, it should've theoretically been more powerful than the two-faced anomaly.

The stone giant began to crash through the forest at Adam's behest, and even the thickest and sturdiest trees in its past were felled with ease.

Sludge hadn't attained any of the two-faced anomaly's abilities. Instead, it had a very simple yet effective combination of characteristics, which were its immense strength, defensive prowess, and regenerative ability.

It really was beginning to resemble Diamond in the traits that it possessed.

If Diamond were still alive, Adam had a feeling that Sludge in its current form alone would've been able to put up a very good fight against him.

"Alright, that's enough. Dawn is about to break soon."

Adam withdrew Sludge, then made his way over to Shaun. He had made sure to keep Shaun's psychic body alive this entire time. As a police officer, he had a reputation to look after, so he couldn't just carry out executions. On top of that, he had to stitch together a cohesive story to present to the general public.

After withdrawing Sludge, Adam invoked Hellhound and began to explore more of Shaun's psychic modules in order to collect his memories, trying to put together a complete story of how he had reached this point in his life.

Only then would he be able to blow up this story as much as possible to draw attention away from the smear campaign being launched against him.

First, Adam collected many memories of Shaun's murders. In Sandrise City, Shaun had used his status as a convenience store owner and the close proximity of his shop to a school to his advantage, approaching many students before selecting targets among them.

He was very careful in his target selection, always making sure to pick out students who were living on their own away from their parents.

These students didn't have much of a connection with society, thereby making them easy targets, and most importantly, killing them satisfied certain twisted fetishes of his.

After searching through Shaun's memories, Adam finally stumbled upon the memory of his first kill, which explained why he always targeted children.

To Adam's surprise, it wasn't to satisfy his sexual fetishes. Instead, as a coward, he reveled in the sense of complete control and power that he had over vulnerable children.