She rested for a few seconds, allowing her mind to get used to the evolution of her body before she finally stood up and returned to eating.
The following mutant on her list to eat was the man that had the horns and odd skin.
Eating him was easy; what came next was the odd part.
Usually, when she devoured a mutant, her body would replicate their X-Gene and alter it to fit her needs.
However, this time it was more like her body was devouring the entire coding from the man, purging the X-Gene, and isolating a very diluted coding from within the man.
Suddenly as her body replicated the coding, her eyes turned completely black, and her mind blanked.
She felt as if her consciousness was suddenly pulled into another place; however, she was still anchored to the many hive units on Earth due to the hivemind.
She found herself staring out onto a place that could only be described as hell.
The land was filled with fire and stone, broken and dry as if rain had never graced the ground, and yet it also had tall buildings and castles that decorated it. Showing that life had lived here.
The sky was greyish with a tint of red as if reflecting the flames and lava of the hell below. A thick smog of smoke clogged out the space above.
She could hear the roars and screams of what she could only assume were monsters or some form of demonic creature.
People, if they can be called that, could be seen walking or even flying along the area; they had abnormal looks.
Horns and tails, some looked like they were made out of slime, others had tentacles coming out from their bodies, and some even looked like dwarves or horsepeople, like from tales of fantasy.
Her eyes glanced over the people around her, them walking by her as if she wasn't there until suddenly she felt a figure sitting near a window turn to look at her.
Before she could make out who the figure was or even get a good view of their cloaked figure, she was suddenly pulled back to her body, the vision fading into nothing but a memory.
Finding herself back in her body in reality, she looked around, confused as to what had just happened.
"What was that?"
She questioned aloud but expected no answer.
She glanced inwardly and observed the X-Gene she had just acquired, only to be surprised upon the revelation that she hadn't gained a new X-Gene.
Instead, she had gained an entirely new Physiology from an entirely new species.
Demon.
Less Demon, to be exact.
It seemed like the man was actually the descendant of some sort of Demon, and the X-Gene most likely attached itself to his latent demonic lineage, which triggered it to activate along with the X-Gene, which made it seem as if his mutant powers were his demonic form.
But that wasn't the case; his X-Gene negatively affected his true capabilities in his situation, so when she devoured him, her body purged it.
'Then was that one of the many Hells Marvel has?'
She thought to herself that the prospect of visiting one of the hells was intriguing.
Especially since it would have so much she could devour to grow.
But she wasn't strong enough for that yet.
Especially whatever the figure was, it felt very powerful.
Shaking her head, she decided to put that on the back burner for now.
She didn't have the power to figure out anything about it, nor the time, so she moved on to eating.
Moving on to the next body, she ate the woman that had the ability to create acid from her body, devouring her entirely.
She felt the adaption happening quickly, her body replicating and changing the X-Gene to fit her needs until, finally, it was finished.
It didn't take too long, but once it was done, she could feel the acid in her pores; it felt like she could create and excrete them at any time.
It was interesting, but there was a better place and time to test it.
Instead, she moved on to eating another person, the girl that was called Cara.
She devoured her and could feel the X-Gene being replicated at a rapid speed. It seemed as if her current body had something that was similar to the ability the girl had.
When it was done, she was able to find out why.
The girl had the ability to harden her skin, turning it into some sort of organic armor like that of a crab. This increased Lily's durability to an extent while in that form, but it wasn't very useful.
She moved along and ate one of the other people that were with her as well, the black-haired lady that seemed relatively normal, devouring her.
When she finished eating her, and the X-Gene was replicated and adapted to fit her needs, she suddenly felt a burst of energy following within her body.
It was a mixture of the mental energy she felt when she was attempting to read minds, but something else was also mixed in.
A different type of energy, if it was even a type of energy, to begin with.
Soul Projection?
The mutant ability of the lady was to project her soul outside of her body and survive independently from her body, meaning even if her body died, so would she if her soul survived.
It was interesting, but Lily didn't plan to use it yet, not until she was sure she didn't have to worry about the Ancient One at least.
Only a few bodies left.
Next up was the girl with the energy blast ability.
Lily ate her and replicated the mutation rather quickly, her body adapting it to fit her.
It was a rather odd ability because it allowed her to tap into some sort of energy within the air, condense it, and send it in a direction in the form of a wave.
It wasn't very strong, but she was sure it could improve with time, so she was pleased with it.
Moving on to the old lady, she decided to eat her quickly and move on.
When she did, however, she felt an odd change to her mental projection, like rather than creating a new X-Gene using the replicated gene, it was simply altering the existing X-Gene she got before.
Adding a new ability, and it did just that.
She could feel the change to the mental energy now; it was a good change, a change in quality rather than quantity.
She was now able to not only read the minds of others that her mental energy infected but also forcefully make them feel the emotions she wanted them to.
It obviously had limitations, such as their will, mental strength, and range, but it was advantageous.
Next up was the man with the superhuman body; he was someone Lily looked forward to eating the most since it would allow her to get a significant boost in her physical capabilities without wasting mass.
Eating him took a while; his muscles were quite dense and hard to chew on, but she eventually finished him.
When her body had finally finished adapting to his X-Gene, taking quite a while, she could feel the change in it.
She had grown slightly taller, not by much, just a little, but her body was more muscular than it was before.
She could feel the density of her muscles and bones, her strength had spiked by a large margin, and for the first time, she fully understood how much the man held back while fighting her.
To say it kindly, she could kill herself easily if she fought herself before getting the X-Gene based purely on physical strength.
She wanted to test it; it felt too good to not try.
With a smile on her face, she stood up and punched the wall; the banging sound it created upon impact echoed out like a thunderclap, the wall shattering into pieces from the impact of her blow.
And that was her holding back.
"This is dangerous."
She said.
She might squish anything she hit if she didn't hold back properly while using this strength.
That would be a waste of food.
Only two bodies were left, so she went to quickly eat them.
She ate the masked man first, her body quickly adapting to his mutation.
She could even feel part of his mutation being adapted to fit along with her Mental Projection X-Gene rather than forming on its own.
However, it seemed the man had two mutant abilities because an X-Gene still formed.
Ink Creation, it could have been more outstanding, but it could definitely be helpful for things.
What interested her most about the man was the mental ability she got from him, the ability to enter other people's minds and find their guilty secrets.
It sounded weird, and that was because it was.
It did literally what it said; she could find out things about them that they felt guilty about and wouldn't want others to find out.
Like things they would take to the grave, things they did that they regretted a lot, kinks they were ashamed of, and more.
It was interesting and could be helpful when fighting people that hide well.
But now she was onto the last person and the one she looked forward to the most.
Dreamer.
Lily devoured her quickly as if someone else would take her food from her.
And as soon as the ability was finished adapting, being added to her mental projection ability again, she could feel just how powerful it was.
It was perhaps the most remarkable change the ability had undergone so far, increasing in quantity and quality simultaneously.
It was potent enough to now affect much more people at once, and she could alter their memories.
That's not all; she could see, change, erase, or even implant her own memories into their minds.
It had its limitations, but to put it lightly, it was broken.
'This massively changes the game.'
She said with a smile, her mind already working on new plans for which she could use this ability.
She had finished eating. Finally, everything she could gain was gained, and she was happy.
She would finally head home, but not before checking her stats.