Chapter 144: The Third Phase World (7)

After feeding a measured dose of TP into Franc's spirit body, I set out for Mount Elephantros.

Whatever had come down there—avalanche or landslide, I couldn't tell—had churned dirt and snow into one slurry and left the ground as bare as open country, no place to hide a body. The detour would cost us distance, but I shifted the route to where the brush and the hills were still intact, and from there I crept along, trusting Franc's eyes.

That brought us to a point ten kilometers short of the mountain, and I flattened myself in the undergrowth. Carefully I parted the brush in my line of sight, and the crater the Mana Cannon had gouged came into view well enough, even for mine.

"I'll be back, then."

"Be careful."

Sending her off alone left a knot in my chest, but she was Franc. I trusted her to manage.

As if to tell me not to fret, she offered a small smile, shifted her clothes into a full-body suit the color of the sullen sky, and rose into the air without a moment's hesitation.

In a blink she slipped past the edge of my Spatial Perception. She paused out there, drifting, pacing the air... then started toward Mount Elephantros again.

H-huh? That's already past two kilometers, isn't it? Past two she's supposed to be yanked back to the Soul Stone. Wait—she's getting farther?

By the time she had shrunk smaller than a sesame seed and my nerves were fraying, a speck of dust blew into my eye. I blinked, and lost her.

I nearly sprang up. Instead I quieted the tremor in my chest and curled deeper into the brush. I had to trust Franc. If I didn't believe in her, who would?

Nothing bad is going to happen.

Thirteen minutes of that, and my patience was running thin. My heart wouldn't settle, so I pressed a hand to my chest and let out a sigh.

Had I really gotten this dependent on Franc? I wrestled down the urge to sprint for the mountain, but another ten minutes or so and my patience was gone entirely. Recon could go to hell. I wanted to throw it aside and run until I found her.

I was halfway to my feet, tearing myself in two over whether to go, when aqueous light burst from the pendant and Franc appeared before me.

"I'm back!"

"...Yeah. Good work."

I swallowed the urge to throw my arms around her that instant and answered with what composure I could find. My voice shook a little. Franc didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

She dropped down beside me in the same posture, and I asked the thing I most wanted to know.

"It looked like you got out past two kilometers. What happened?"

"At first I only meant to keep my distance and confirm the traces you mentioned, Seoha. I finished that as planned and pressed forward so the forced return would take me, but..."

She had flown for Mount Elephantros counting on that forced return—the pull that dragged her back into the Soul Stone once she passed a set distance—because covering the same route both ways might get her spotted. Yet even after she had clearly crossed the limit, the return never came, and instinct told her the distance itself had changed.

"So I tested how far I would have to go. I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand."

She must have sensed how worried I had been. Her brows drew up in that apologetic way, and the look on her face was pure regret.

"No, no. You did well. Things like that ought to be checked when they come up. So how far can you get now?"

"It seems to have stretched to four kilometers. Could it be because I have a body now?"

"That's what I was thinking too."

Being able to range farther from me could only be a good thing. Hardly a bad one. Franc went on and laid out what she had confirmed.

"Footprints I judged to be an Elephantros had appeared in the crater. They led into one of the anthill tunnels, and they were a little larger than the second-in-command's. I believe the owner of those prints is the real leader."

"Any sign of something crawling out of the passage that leads to the lava cavern?"

"No. Nothing had changed from when we fled."

So that thing hadn't been an Aberrant after all? Or maybe it was mild-tempered—knew we were there, and let us go anyway...

"If it left them alone even with an Elephantros nesting right above the lava cavern, it might not be the sort of nasty piece of work that shows up and wrecks the place, like the Rogue Imugi."

"Then... what do you intend to do?"

I stroked the cheek of the woman who had asked it with a grave face, then turned my eyes toward Mount Elephantros and sank into thought.

If only I could get a Phase Power reading on the one I think is the leader...

"Ah! Seoha! An Elephantros has shown itself!"

"What?"

"The crater! Left rim, toward the triangular cave!"

I strained my eyes and stared a hole through the crater's left edge, and something smaller than a grain of millet was squirming there.

"That's the leader, right? What does it look like?"

"Hmm... I would say about 1.3 times the size of a Mid-High Grade Elephantros. Overall it carries a dark red cast, and the mane-like hair sits somewhere between silver and white. Fur of that same color runs down the spine of the elephant body, and it grows thick from the knees to the hooves as well. It wears a necklace of bones and skulls at its throat, but I see nothing that looks like a weapon."

"No weapon... An elemental type, then? When you got close, did you check anywhere it looked like it had thrashed around? If it used an ability, there ought to be traces."

Dust had kicked up, so water was out. She had said the hide was dark crimson—fire, maybe? And the hair was silver-white... what attribute was silver-white?

Franc's face said she had just realized the slip. She hadn't looked.

"Ah, I'll go back and check—"

"No, forget it. It's out now. No reason to go inviting trouble on purpose. Hmm. If it's an elemental type, the hide follows the attribute color. Dark crimson would be red fire, and black would be darkness? You said the fur was silver-white, so maybe it can use lightning—or ice, which branches off water."

Four attributes. I couldn't believe the words had come out of my own mouth. Among humans, nothing beyond a Triple List wielding three attributes had ever appeared, and this was a Quadruple List? Franc's color wasn't much better.

A human elemental ability user took less damage from their own attributes the higher their proficiency climbed. Aberrants had to work the same way. Which meant, in the worst case, it might take no damage at all from fire and darkness, lightning and water.

Well...

"For now, let's wait for night. When it gets dark, we ambush it with the Mana Cannon like last time. Fire from five kilometers out, and I can get two shots off before it closes. We feed it both, and if that doesn't do it, we run. What do you think?"

"That would be best!"

Franc and I put our heads together and started working the plan down to the details.

What came of all that racking of brains was a simple one.

First we would confirm how far a High-Rank Variant could sense Phase Power. Franc would move four kilometers ahead of me, and I would close slowly to four—the distance at which I could guarantee a Mana Cannon hit. I didn't know the detection range of a High-Rank Variant, but it couldn't be more than two kilometers. If a Peak-Rank Variant's reach was four times that, then the moment I came within four kilometers it would notice me. In that case we aborted and ran at once. Fighting a Peak-Rank Variant in our current state would be suicide.

If we weren't detected, stage two. Franc would ease in to five hundred meters and read its Phase Power. The higher the reading, the stronger the thing, so we would know how much force to commit.

Stage three was the fight, and we had assumed two cases. If it was a Physical Reinforcement type, we would judge by the damage of the first Mana Cannon whether to send a second or flee. Fail to hurt it badly and a Physical Reinforcement type would chase hard, so the timing of the retreat would be everything. If it was an elemental type, the situation improved a great deal. Franc had said a High-Rank Variant's elemental attacks didn't reach four kilometers, which meant we could hammer it one-sidedly until it closed. My Phase Power had grown to sixty thousand; even holding ten thousand in reserve against the worst, I had enough for five Mana Cannons. Franc could call lightning down as well. The leader being ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an elemental type was best in every way that mattered.

Simple as the plan was, one slip and our lives were forfeit. The thought left my mouth dry.

I sat side by side with Franc in the brush, watching Mount Elephantros puff smoke in steady plumes, and I prayed. Please let the leader be High Grade. A High Grade elemental type.

Time passed. Clouds swallowed the moonlight, and a darkness settled so thick I couldn't tell what lay a step in front of my face.

We began the operation.

I started across the hills at a slow walk, the dark as absolute as a blindfold.

Luck was with us, maybe. Only the sky over Mount Elephantros was clear of night cloud, so the whole ridgeline stood bare in moonlight. On our side it was as if black paper had been pasted over the world; I couldn't see a pace ahead.

How far had I come, strung tight enough to bolt the instant Franc signaled? I reached the four-kilometer mark my Spatial Perception indicated—it laid everything out for me like an automap—and Mount Elephantros gave no reaction at all.

Stage one was a success.

"Haaaaah..."

"Huuuuh..."

Franc had sighed in the same breath, and now she grinned.

"All right. Be careful. I can't sense any Phase Power off you, Franc, but that thing's a monster. No telling how it'll react."

"Yes. I'll be careful!"

Wrapped head to toe in black like a thief, only her eyes peeking out, Franc flew for Mount Elephantros.

I counted under my breath and waited on edge, and before long she was back with the report.

"The leader Elephantros's Phase Power is a little over two hundred and sixty thousand. It is asleep in its den, not very deep beneath the surface of the crater."

"Perfect. I'll fire the Mana Cannon in five minutes, just like this. You get back to position."

"Yes!"

Take that thing down, and I'm C-Class on the spot.

I followed Franc's back as she shot high into the sky, then switched on the Certifier and started the timer.

"...297, 298, 299, 300."

Five minutes were up. I thrust my right hand toward the point Franc had marked and worked the Mana Sieve, condensing TP in my palm.

Focus. Accelerate. Rotate. Focus. Accelerate. Rotate. A fist-sized mass of TP packed itself in my palm to the very limit of my control, spinning until the TP inside churned like a vortex.

I drew a breath and held it. Checked the aim once more. And—now.

"Go!"

A sharp report split the air, as if dozens of zither strings had snapped at once, and the Mana Cannon tore free of my hand.

Had I packed the first shot too close to the limit? My right palm buzzed. This wouldn't do. I thrust out my left hand at once and started condensing TP again.

The vicious cannon, visible to no one but me, vanished without a sound into the dark. A brief stillness followed.

KRRRRRUMBLE—!

In the crater cut into the foot of Mount Elephantros, a deep blue-green rift of space burst open again and warped with terrible violence. A heavy roar like an earthquake broke loose. The ground shivered faintly under my feet, and I swallowed.

Is that the Mana Cannon's detonation effect? It looked like a black hole, the kind of sight that drags fear up out of a person, and a chill ran down the nape of my neck.

Chill or no chill, the next shot was coming together smoothly.

...No signal? Franc didn't signal, did she?

No sign that the leader was moving. I confirmed it, and fired the second Mana Cannon, already primed.

Tiiiiiing—!

...and then, delayed, a deep boom rolled back out of the dark.

"Krgh..."

Both hands were buzzing. I wanted one more shot, but like this it was impossible. Condensing a Mana Cannon demanded delicate control, and with my palms numb I couldn't do it.

Just in case, I triggered Healing Touch and rubbed both hands. The buzz didn't fade. Maybe it wasn't physical damage at all.

Nothing for it.

Franc not coming back seemed to mean she was waiting on a third Mana Cannon, but my hands were telling me I couldn't fire one for a while yet. Maybe not for a long while.

What now? Wait here? Or close in?

Waiting where I stood had plenty of risks, and closing in had plenty of its own. One thing was certain. The leader was not dead. And if I missed the chance to kill it now, there would not be another. A wounded beast's wariness always spiked to the extreme.

"...I'm going."

Mind made up, I readied Mana Mode — Acceleration and ran for Mount Elephantros. Franc came flying in from ahead, spotted me, and dropped to my side.

"Seoha. Wouldn't it be better to fire the Mana Cannon once more?"

"Can't. I condensed the TP to the limit and let it go, and now my hands are buzzing. I can't use it for a while. Don't even know when I'll be able to."

Hearing that, Franc's face hardened.

"Then please come a little more slowly. I'll go and see how the Elephantros leader fares."

"Got it."

I drew a deep breath, clenched both hands and opened them, and ran another two kilometers or so—when lightning suddenly began falling in streaks out of the crater.

"Franc?!"

Why isn't she coming back? Why is she throwing lightning?!

I broke into a dead sprint, and Mount Elephantros rushed up to meet me.

"Goddamn it!! Franc!!"

If this had been the eastern slope, the landslide would have scoured the trees away and the running would have been easy. Dodging these damned trees was killing my speed.

I kicked on Mana Mode — Acceleration, read the ground around me, calculated the shortest line that still avoided the trunks, and ran. In a relatively short time I reached the lip of the enormous crater three blasts had carved into the mountain.

The moment I hit the rim I found her—Franc, streaking fast above the crater, calling lightning down while she dodged the fire and darkness rounds a wrecked Elephantros was throwing.

"...!"

The leader was female, and in shape she was everything Franc had described. Fifteen meters tall—bulk on the order of a three-story building.

Two Mana Cannons had wrecked her. The left half of her upper body and part of the lower were crushed in, blood and organs spilling; her left eye had burst, and tears of blood ran in streams. A sickly yellow fluid leaked from the ear and nose that were still intact, and bloody foam boiled from her mouth. No leg remained whole. She lay prone, and from the two arms she still had she was hurling fire and darkness at Franc.

Spatial Perception showed me the inside, and it was pulp. Both breasts had been crushed past crushing, torn clean off, and the organs on the human half were badly ruined—though not so badly as the elephant half. That side was simply shattered. Every swing of an arm jetted thick bloody slurry from her genitals and her anus. And yet she looked far too lively for wounds like those. I held Acceleration and looked closer, and I understood. The wounds were regenerating.

So that's why Franc started the attack. She saw the regeneration.

I had the whole picture. I drove Mana Mode — Acceleration up to D-Class level and started down the crater's slope, wary of the leader's attacks.

D-Class Acceleration burned Phase Power at a rate that was nothing to shrug off, but with forty thousand left I could hold it for about half an hour.

Down the slope I kept roughly five hundred meters between us and started snapping off Mana Bullets at 50 TP. My hands still buzzed, but flicking a bullet clear was no trouble. Lucky.

They hit with a crunching crack.

"Kuuaahhhhkkkkk!! Iukli vaikas!!"

Struck, the leader whipped her head around and glared at me with eyes where ghost-fire kindled, and she screamed. A killing sense of danger rose until I could barely breathe, and I threw myself sideways with no thought for dignity.

KWA-GWANG!!

In that instant a bolt as thick as my torso struck where I had been standing. Gravel fried by the lightning flew and hammered my body.

Ghk—if I hadn't had Acceleration on, that bolt would have taken me clean!

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Franc shouted something, face twisted in shock and fury, but the thunder filled my ears with ringing and I couldn't hear her.

Then lightning spiraled down out of the sky and stabbed into the leader's back. She gaped her mouth wide and shuddered.

In that gap I sprang up and, juking back and forth in no fixed pattern, sprayed 50-TP Mana Bullets.

She was a High Grade Aberrant, but maybe because the wounds were already so severe, every bullet that landed tore them open again—blood spraying, chunks of flesh ripping away. And Franc, having seen me come under fire, flew into a rage. She poured out bundles of lightning, called bolts down, and began to drive ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a terrifying assault.

If her lightning carried ten parts of electrical damage, seven ran over the outside of that body, but the other three drove in through the wounds. Add my Mana Bullet damage on top of that.

How tough was this leader, to endure a baptism of bullets, bolts, and lightning and still look back and forth between me and Franc with eyes full of horrific killing intent?

"Kh! This much is nothing!"

Even in the middle of it a bolt or two fell out of the sky trying to find me, but I was on guard, so Spatial Perception told me where the leading stroke would land, and with Acceleration running I could slip them without much trouble.

That was Franc splitting her attention, too. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Otherwise her accuracy would never have fallen this far.

But my Mana Bullets weren't doing much real damage either. Blood burst from the wounds every time I connected, yet it was only just enough to hold her regeneration in check. Maybe that was why she seemed to treat Franc's lightning—the kind that locked muscle and ran current through the body—as the greater threat.

Watching her attention lock onto Franc, I ground my teeth.

Damn it! Even Mana Bullets don't work on something sitting at the top of High Grade, and they cost 50 TP a shot!

What now? The Mana Cannon was done. The numbness in my hands still hadn't cleared, for one thing. That left Mana Laser or Spatial Manipulation. Spatial Manipulation meant getting far too close, so rule it out, which left the laser... No. Get any closer and she would throw elemental rounds at me, and with my reflexes I could not dodge what she fired.

"Kaaaauuuuhhhh!!!"

"Krgh!"

Maybe her rage had climbed to the crown of her head from the two of us dodging like squirrels every which way. The leader let out a roar fit to split eardrums.

And my body buzzed. It seemed to carry an effect like the roar Franc had unleashed back in her giant form.

Fortunately Franc was far enough that the roar didn't seem to touch her, and I had eaten High-Tier roars twice before. I only twitched for a moment, and managed not to stop moving.

...Huh?

In the instant the leader screamed, in the slowed world, the thing—no, the bitch's—genitals spraying blood like a tide filled my vision.

That's it!

"Haaap!"

I had 100-TP Mana Bullets ready in both hands, and the moment her attention locked completely on Franc I fired them into the leader bitch's genitals.

A wet, meaty punch.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!"

Direct hit!

The bullets buried themselves in the swollen sex and blew with a bang, turning her rear and her genitals into rags. The inside really was weaker than the outside.

Man or woman, the genitals being a vital spot was an eternal truth...

...Ah. Aggro exploded.

"Aaaaaah!!"

Lightning and fire and darkness rounds poured down on me like madness. I dodged, focused the Mana Sieve on my skin as well, and gave everything I had to not getting hit.

I gave up attacking entirely and thought of nothing but evasion, scurrying and gasping like a cockroach, and the leader—ignoring Franc to hunt me to the death—exploded with a murderous gleam and began dropping elemental rounds and lightning even more fiercely.

"Neyms kirmin!!!!"

"Franc! The w-wounds! Lightning on the wounds—! Kagh!"

A bolt caught me mid-sentence, but because I had the Mana Sieve concentrated on my skin I didn't lock up, and I escaped the worst of it—eating the follow-up.

Around the time I started to feel as if I were stuck in a bullet-hell shooter, Franc's kiai cut through the crash of falling bolts and reached my ear.

Holy—what is she about to do?!

"Seoha! Get far away!!"

"Huh? Gyaah!!"

The terrifying mass of TP concentrating in Franc's body made me flinch. I turned my back and ran this way and that, trying to get clear of the crater, and the leader startled and looked around at her.

"Where the hell are you looking!!"

A thin whine, then a crushing impact.

"Khaaaauuuuhhh!!!"

A jump shot—two more 100-TP rounds into that rear, already torn, burst, and ragged—and every bit of aggro swung back onto me.

She roared with wretched pain and rage braided together and poured lightning and elemental rounds down on me, and I dodged them while I ran the crater's rim.

"Gyaaagh!!"

The bolts were catching my speed. When I couldn't slip them anymore and leapt off the rim to the outside, the lightning cut off dead. The elemental rounds, though, kept hammering the lip where I was hidden.

Stay down any longer and the leader bitch's attacks would turn on Franc. I leapt back up onto the rim and drove a Mana Bullet into her ragged genitals.

A splattering burst.

They blew past blowing. Rear and sex tore and scattered until not a trace remained. That she kept fighting through wounds like that was astonishing, and so was the horrific roar that put rage ahead of pain.

"Sorry. Did that hurt?"

"Nuudyk!! A jus nuudysiuuuuu!!!!!!"

The troll in me woke for an instant and I needled her, and capillaries burst in the leader's one remaining eye. Tears of blood streamed.

And Franc's cry cut across the crater.

KWAAAAANG!!!

Gyaah!! My ears—my eardrums are going to split!!

For an instant night and day seemed to trade places. A searing white light stabbed my eyes, thunder burst as if to tear my eardrums apart, and my body shook.

Spatial Perception confirmed that the pouring lightning and elemental rounds had stopped. I looked back at the leader. Silver skin, white fur, red hair—all of it gone. What met my eyes was a single elephant charred pitch-black.

Huh. Not dead even like that?

I kept firing Mana Bullets into the sizzling wounds of her lower body.

They hammered in, thud after wet crack.

Each time a bullet burst she jerked, whole body giving off a grotesque hiss of seared meat, and a moment later she toppled sideways with a ponderous crash.

She spoke it in a voice thick with bitter resentment, drew one short breath—the last—and let her head drop.

"...Did we get her?"

"Seoha~!"

Franc came flying toward me with a radiant smile, and that was confirmation. We had taken down a High-Rank Variant. We had really taken down a High-Rank Variant.

"Ahahaha!"

I caught her as she threw herself into my arms, spun us around and around, and laughed like a madman, and Franc laughed brightly too, kissing my cheek and my lips and my forehead and my nose all over.

Franc and I, just the two of us, had cleared a High-Rank Variant raid. I wanted to brag my head off to Hwayeon and Yeongeun.

Right—take pictures, and brag while I showed them later.

I was capturing the leader on a phone about to die when Franc urged me to hurry over and look at the corpse.

Snapping photos as I went, I approached through a foul gamey stench mixed with the smell of bad meat.

I had thought her big from a distance, but up close the size was beyond words. A dump truck is big. This thing was three or four times that.

I took one last shot of the leader, charred black by Franc's Thunderbolt of Judgment, and pocketed the phone—and Phase Power exploded outward from the blackened corpse.

If every Phase Power I had seen until now had been the quiet ripple a falling drop leaves on water, this was an earthquake spreading from the epicenter.

Exceptionally clear, densely concentrated water-light Phase Power poured from the leader's body and began to gather slowly toward me.

I swallowed, watching the water-light circle me, and turned the Mana Sieve. It drove into my body all at once, like clouds drawn into a typhoon.

Phase Power ran the blood vessels of my whole body, and with the feeling of it soaking me through, a sharp electric pleasure spread.

The more I absorbed, the more of it streamed for my heart, the more my chest trembled with a sensation I had no words for.

Past eighty thousand. Past a hundred thousand, a hundred and fifty, two hundred. And the instant my Phase Power reached three hundred thousand, the utmost a D-Class could hold—

Before my eyes, an explosion of water-light erupted.