The Three-Headed Demon (3)

"Captain, the Cosmic Bolt is fully charged."

"……."

"Captain?"

Inside the situation room of the Damos 08's Arbiter, the crewman announced that every preparation was complete, but the captain issued no order whatsoever.

Because all contact with the warrior detachment he had sent planet-side had gone completely silent.

What's going on down there? Why aren't they answering! Wraith!

Wraith was his favored warrior. The odds of that man ignoring his captain's orders without a reason were practically zero.

What's more, the other warriors who had descended alongside Wraith were unreachable as well.

Which meant something had gone gravely wrong down on that planet.

…What do I do?

He had two options. One was to fire the Cosmic Bolt as planned; the other was to send down a fresh search party.

But the captain knew full well that the second option was, in practice, impossible.

In the Cult Empire, contamination was arguably the single most dangerous threat to imperial security. He was here to carry out a purification operation, and he was supposed to delay it to rescue his subordinates? Subordinates he had sent down on his own authority to retrieve slaves, no less?

The ships gathered here weren't only the Imperial Mothership. The vessels of the escort battle-group dispatched to protect the mothership would hardly sit idle while he dawdled.

The moment he stalled, he would be stripped of command, and another captain would take this ship and fire the Cosmic Bolt in his stead.

"Captain? Your orders, please."

"…Fire in ten minutes."

"Understood."

In the end, the captain chose to fire the Cosmic Bolt. Ten minutes was a razor-thin window — but it was the last sliver of hope that his men might make it back alive.

｢So? What's the situation?｣

Mother of the Sky asked me, her eyes grim.

"The launch time has already passed."

｢What? Then why hasn't it fired?｣

"No way to tell."

Mother of the Sky knew all about my Human-Faced Beast trait, which was exactly why she'd deliberately left one Cultist corpse behind. After taking the body from her, I had used the trait to read the memories of the Cultist who'd come here — Hamine.

There were plenty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of gaps in the middle of the memory, but I'd gotten the information I needed.

This planet had been designated a contaminated world and sentenced to purification.

And the Cosmic Bolt was scheduled to fire — five minutes ago. Those were the two facts.

Why it still hadn't launched, neither Hamine's memories nor I could say.

The delay was a genuine stroke of luck, but I couldn't afford to relax.

｢…It's coming down soon enough.｣

Mother of the Sky scowled and clicked her tongue.

She was right. A Cult purification order was almost never rescinded. Even if the captain of the Imperial Mothership himself cracked and refused to carry out the mission, a replacement would step up and execute it.

At the shortest, a few minutes; at the longest, within the hour, the Cosmic Bolt would come down over this continent.

We're already too late to run.

By its lore, the Cosmic Bolt was a kind of condensed energy warhead made from a fusion of dark matter and psychic power. Its instantaneous firepower rivaled the sun itself, and the moment it struck a planet, the atmosphere and all the water across the entire world evaporated.

Even hiding underground was useless — the blast reached tens of kilometers into the crust, making evasion all but impossible. I might somehow endure it, but No. 26, Adhai, and Mother of the Sky had no chance of escaping death.

A spaceship won't work either.

The research base the humans had brought was located far from here. Even with my body stronger than before, crossing that distance within a window of anywhere from minutes to an hour was a stretch.

And even if we were absurdly lucky and the Cosmic Bolt launched tens of hours from now, it wouldn't matter. The moment we left the planet by ship, the fleet escorting the Imperial Mothership would intercept us.

So I stop it here.

If evasion was impossible, then there was only one path left: defending against that Imperial Mothership's attack, whatever it took.

The moment I committed to that thought, the first thing that surfaced in my mind was the trait I'd forged with the Plunderer's Amorphous Polyhedron.

The polyhedron's power: devouring a piece of equipment and converting its abilities into a trait of my own.

I had used that ability to consume Muriel's Unique-grade equipment and claimed a weapon of devastating power.

Specifically — I had devoured the Thunder God, the Cult's orbital bombardment weapon.

No. That ability alone can't beat the Cosmic Bolt.

The new power I'd gained fell slightly short of the Thunder God in output. When I'd absorbed the Plasma Launcher, my body's output had exceeded the original — but with the Thunder God, it was the reverse.

Even the original Thunder God fell far short of the Cosmic Bolt's output. Trading fire with an attack even weaker than that wouldn't accomplish much. At best, I'd buy myself a few minutes.

Still, it's the strongest weapon I have.

So I had to find some way to raise that output — by any means necessary.

If I could use the Paragon of the Hunt, I could boost my output dramatically, but…

The Paragon of the Hunt's cooldown was supposed to be 24 hours.

Breaking through Transcendence Stage 2 was supposed to have restored its cooldown to normal, but for some reason, it was still ticking down.

Oh, come on! It counted the transformation I used during my evolution!

Seeing eighteen hours remaining on the Paragon of the Hunt made it certain. The Nightmare Horizon was likewise showing seven days of cooldown left.

The transcendence had freed them to run on separate cooldowns at last, but right now that did me no good — neither one was usable.

It was infuriating, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Damn it!

My trump card, the Paragon of the Hunt — unusable.

…The new message windows. I never checked those, did I.

Grasping at straws, I pulled up the new message windows that had flown in and read them through.

Huh?

I'd assumed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the rewards for Transcendence Stage 2 began and ended with the new Type and the removal of the restrictions on my traits.

I'd been wrong.

Oh, right — perk unlocks require the associated traits, so they bundled it in for me.

As if in a trance, I read down through the text window's explanations.

Well, well.

Only a moment ago I'd been cursing the game company, but now I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Organic Evolution. This could be useful.

I couldn't say exactly how it would change me, but there was something here that looked like it could carry me through this crisis.

The special state called King of Monsters.

According to the description, it grew and reinforced the body.

If that's true, I can raise my output.

In a situation where the Paragon of the Hunt was off the table, being handed a similar card was more than welcome.

Still, an element of doubt remained.

The whole question is how much this trait actually strengthens me.

With all those cooldowns and restrictions, it put me in mind of the Paragon of the Hunt and the Nightmare Horizon. It was easy to guess that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this trait's effects would be considerably potent.

But gambling is bad.

One misstep and we all die right here. To block that Cosmic Bolt, I needed to pull in every advantage I could reach.

Output. Output. A way to raise output…

There was no telling how much time remained until launch. Activating that trait ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would take time as well. I couldn't deliberate forever.

…One more minute of thinking. That's all.

I racked my brain desperately for any other option.

｢Little Baby, does it hurt a lot?｣

｢Hurts.｣

｢Toy? Wanna play with this?｣

｢Is okay.｣

Before my eyes, I could see No. 26 and Adhai. At some point No. 26 had fetched the loot bag and was laying its contents out one by one in front of Adhai.

It felt as though the Cosmic Bolt's black radiance could come falling down on us at any moment. With the power that weapon carried, they would all burn to death without ever feeling a single moment of pain.

While I watched them, one minute slipped past. No new idea had come.

I guess I have no choice but to go with— wait. Hold on.

Looking at the bag No. 26 was holding, an important fact suddenly struck me.

That bag held the equipment and supplies I'd taken after killing Muriel. The High Priest's Golden Spear, the Blood Reavers, and so on.

And among them was the potion she had used. I hurried over to No. 26.

｢Hm? What is it?｣

[Zzzu zzu-zuzzu zuzzu (Can I borrow the bag for a moment?)]

｢Big Baby need toy too?｣

[Zzu (Yes.)]

Taking the bag, I fished out a small kit from inside. When I opened it, a single vial glimmering violet sat within.

Yes! There's still one left!

The truth of this potion was Psionium — a drug that temporarily raised its drinker's state by a full stage. If I drank the Psionium, I could become an Adult immediately.

Becoming an Adult came with two enormous benefits.

The first: my power would grow immensely compared to now, rising to a level capable of matching the Cosmic Bolt.

And the second: I would grow two additional heads.

To be honest, sprouting extra heads isn't exactly a pure upside.

The point of additional heads was to amplify the utility of the Essence Harvester's Jaw. Three heads made collecting an enemy's skull that much easier.

Out here in reality, not in a game, the Erosion Tentacles had dulled that advantage considerably.

But in this one moment, growing more heads mattered enormously.

The trait I'd forged by devouring the Thunder God was called God's Whip — the ability to fire an energy heat ray of condensed Thunder God lightning.

And where did it fire from? The mouth, and only the mouth. Just as when I'd absorbed the Plasma Launcher and fired plasma heat rays, the ray emerged exclusively from my mouths — never from the Erosion Tentacles or any other part of my body.

Which means, if I become an Adult with three heads…

I could pour energy heat rays rivaling the Thunder God itself from all three heads at once.

An Adult body. The King of Monsters. And the trait forged from devouring the Thunder God.

With those three things—!

I could stop the Cosmic Bolt — the Cult's absolute weapon of planetary purification.