76
Ch.76 The Aftermath of a Dead City
Trapped in a place with nowhere to run, infected humans were being exterminated at a rapid pace. Now, a pile of parasites, crushed above the nose and up to the knees, resisted with telekinesis and spoke in a desperate voice.
"Wait, Kage. If it’s you—if it’s you, you’ll understand me. Join hands with me. Help me devour the Black Cat!"
"Hoh… Should I say this is a monster speaking?"
An intrigued voice. As Kage paused momentarily in shrinking the containment field, the lips formed by the gathered parasites let out a frantic cry.
"In this world, humans must be led by superior Transcendents. You must think the same! Leading humans who won’t listen must be exhausting. I can help you."
"Is that so… Indeed, human domination by parasites. Leading humans who’ve lost their will would be simple. An efficient management method."
Kage’s genuine admiration as he quickly grasped what the parasite was suggesting.
A moment later, the speed at which the containment field shrank accelerated as Kage clenched his fist again.
"My answer is no, you filthy monster. Humans should be led by superpower humans, not Transcendents who are no longer human."
"Ghk, Aaaagh! Why?! I could have made you a god of this world!"
"God is dead in this world."
"God exists. No—God will exist! We…!"
Crunch, crunch, crunch. Like a can crumpling under high pressure, the containment field shrank until it was the size of a ping-pong ball.
Within the monster’s senses, the consciousness of Test Subject Number 3 vanished.
All that remained was a tiny core.
"A talking monster… The research department would’ve regretted losing this sample if they’d heard about it."
Kage’s ability completely severed the boundary between the inside and outside of the containment field.
Unable to activate its consciousness-transferring trait, it died.
Confirming that the master of the hive mind was dead, I shifted my gaze to the core tossed by Kage.
Thud. Kage caught the core again, looked at me, and raised his ability.
"Well then, Black Cat… If you want to fight, come at me."
Kage, looking sturdier than when we last met, drove a spear into the ground and reached a hand toward me.
Ready to clench his fist and form a containment field around me at any moment.
Behind me, Electress, who had blasted through all the infected humans, crouched on the rubble of a shattered building, pulling up steel beams.
"I’ve already prepared countermeasures against telekinesis. It won’t be like last time."
"It’s different from last time. A-City’s strongest spear and shield… Though the last one is missing, with two of A-City’s S-rank heroes here together…"
So… Kage traps me in his containment field, and Electress attacks from the outside with her railgun. Is that the plan?
Until I break through the ability-blocking barrier, I’d be helpless. Even if I broke free, I’d likely be trapped again.
But now, Kage’s ability was no longer a major threat to me.
Spatial Manipulation—an ability that pierces through reality, ignoring physical constraints to connect points A and B in space.
With that alone, I could move freely in and out of the containment field.
And… I had no reason to fight two S-rank heroes while using Spatial Manipulation.
Kage, driven more by curiosity than killing intent, and Electress, more fearful than willing to fight.
Sensing the emotions emanating from them, I yawned and returned to my usual form.
The monster core, furious at my choice, suppressed its rare excitement and seethed.
As I shifted from a chaotic, overlapping mass of monsters back to the form of a feline predator, Kage adjusted his stance, as if he’d expected this.
"No intention to fight?"
"Huu, huu…"
Seeing me yawn, Kage completely withdrew his killing intent, and Electress let out a sigh of relief.
"...As Starlight said, you really might be a monster that can be tamed."
An ordinary monster would’ve been wary the moment the heroes who’d tried to kill it assumed combat stances.
Confirming once again that I wasn’t an ordinary monster, Kage made a sudden proposal.
"Then, come to A-City."
Puzzled, I pricked up my ears as Kage exuded anticipation.
"Look at this situation. You suit A-City more than W-City."
He spread his arms as if gesturing to the ruined D-City around us.
"If necessary, even humans must be killed. Eliminating casualties to prevent further spread—that’s not a choice an idealist like Starlight can make. You must feel stifled there."
Well, I don’t think Starlight’s ideals are bad.
Striving to prevent even a single casualty—isn’t that what a hero is?
"Aren’t you afraid of what happens when you become an Annihilation-class? If you go berserk in A-City, we can definitely put you down. We’ll give you everything you want… A cat tower tailored to your body, toy balls, and beef. Even humans, if necessary."
"Grrr…"
What does this guy take me for?
Baring my teeth at his offer, which treated me like nothing more than a giant cat, Kage chuckled.
"A refusal… Heh, what a shame. So you do treat Starlight specially."
Flick. Kage tossed me Subject Number 3’s core.
"Eat it."
"Are you sane? You’re just giving it to it?"
"This is the Black Cat’s prey. I only delivered the final blow to an exhausted creature. Stealing it would be unsportsmanlike."
"You’re ridiculous. You’re just making that monster stronger—"
"Are you scared?"
"S-scared? Ha! Fine! Do whatever!"
Catching the writhing parasite core, I wrapped myself in flames and bit into it.
The parasites spreading inside my mouth struggled to take over my body, only to burn away.
Even in a near-dead state, they still resisted… Truly, parasites.
Had another monster swallowed it, they would’ve surely taken over its body and revived.
As I consumed the core, I felt my rank as a monster rise another level. Slowly, I opened my eyes.
Rotting, decaying—my condition wasn’t great, but… I’d accumulated a considerable amount of curses, fear, and despair.
Annihilation-class. I could feel I was close to that stage.
While I consumed the core, Kage meticulously shrank the containment field.
The barrier’s properties shifted, blocking only those carrying the monster’s fluids as it scraped together the remaining parasites.
Precisely adjusted to slowly let only me pass, the barrier shrank to the size of a palm, becoming a transparent, square case.
"As expected, they don’t die just by touching the ability. The parasites distinguish between the wavelengths emitted by human hearts and those of monsters. With this, we’ve secured research samples just in case."
A barrier that blocks wavelengths. Kage, holding the case filled with parasites that had lost their host, spun it idly as he spoke.
"If you’re done in D-City, head back, Black Cat. We’ll be investigating what happened here."
Hearing that, I scattered an electromagnetic field around me, creating a guide toward the underground facility where survivors were trapped.
A hero’s extrasensory perception—something an electricity manipulator would sense even more keenly. Electress paled.
"...So there are survivors trapped there. Electress, the Black Cat seems to detect them more clearly than you."
"This guy… He’s completely…"
"Among the traces left in the city, there were destruction marks similar to a railgun. He must’ve replicated that too… The direction—the government building?"
Whether it was because I’d pointed out the survivors’ location or because I was digesting Electress’s abilities one by one, she stared at me with a look that screamed, What kind of monster even is this? Then, with a crackle, she vanished toward the government facility.
Well, there’s nothing left for me here. Should I return to W-City?
After all that rampaging, I’m hungry.
To wash away the taste of rotten meat, I want something delicious.
"Monster weaponization…"
Kage’s muttering carried a bitter, unpleasant emotional scent.
Leaving the two S-rank heroes behind in D-City, I vanished.
***
News about the parasitic monster plaguing W-City was a sensitive topic for citizens of all cities.
According to W-City’s announcements, it was barely a Terror-class monster, yet its extermination count had already surpassed 100,000.
Transmission through beetles as vectors, infection through physical contact—once infected, death was all but certain. Worse, the monster didn’t even trigger alarm systems.
The fear of a monster that could infect you at any moment.
For citizens who could only hide in shelters and wait for the situation to end whenever a monster appeared, the parasitic monster instilled terror surpassing even that of Annihilation-class monsters just by reading about it in the news.
Yet, at the same time, there were those who mocked W-City for struggling against a mere Terror-class.
A level that couldn’t even qualify as Terror-class—physical strength weak enough that an ordinary human could kill it with a hammer. W-City’s casualty count was barely double digits.
Among them, the complete lack of hero casualties led many heroes, drunk on their sense of superiority, to scoff.
Then, all of them froze when they saw A-City’s emergency announcement.
[…D-City is gone?]
[1,200 survivors? How many died?]
[Wasn’t D-City’s population around 110,000?]
[What the hell; when was the last time casualties on this scale happened? Even Annihilation-class monsters rarely surpass 1,000 these days.]
[Is this really the same weak-ass monster that’s not even Terror-class?]
The very same monster they’d mocked as barely Terror-class had already infected an entire city.
Even an S-rank hero had been infected.
Shocked by the news, anyone who had ever been to D-City—hero or civilian—was urgently quarantined in their respective cities.
[Breaking News: A suspected infected individual has been discovered in B-City.]
[Announcement from C-City: Citizens are advised to refrain from going outside. Full-city disinfection will commence, after which heroes will visit each household for inspection. Please stay indoors.]
[Respected citizens of G-City, our city is safe!]
Every city was exhausted just searching for the traceless parasites.
Only now realizing just how troublesome the parasitic monster was, people busied themselves talking about W-City, which had been handling disinfection, tracking the infected, and exterminating vectors all along.
[So W-City’s been doing this the whole time?]
[This is so fucking frustrating.]
[Why was my food ration skipped? How am I supposed to eat today?]
[No, this is terrifying; if the parasites sense they’ve been detected by a hero, they melt away, killing the infected person too.]
[What the fuck, G-City mayor? Are you serious? Having heroes go door-to-door, spreading their ability wavelengths to check for infections—that’s just sentencing the infected to death.]
[No cure? I’m scared.]
[What the hell do I do? A manager at our client’s company melted to death.]
In some cities that had chosen extreme measures, infected individuals were discovered and melted away, driving citizens’ fear to its peak.
The only consolation was the news that the parasites would no longer multiply.
Once quarantines ended and citizens escaped their fear, they busied themselves discussing that, too.
The reason the parasites wouldn’t multiply anymore was rumored to be W-City’s strange monster, Black Cat, who had completely destroyed D-City.
An unbelievable story in many ways, public opinion varied wildly across cities.