Omen (1)

The ships of the Cult were renowned for their elegant designs. The Imperial Carriers dispatched on purification missions in particular, resembling cut diamonds, were hailed by some as the jewels of the cosmos.

In a way, the nickname might be only too accurate. The production and maintenance costs of an Imperial Carrier were astronomical.

Beautiful jewels of space and treasures of the Cult Empire—the Imperial Carriers. One of them, the Judge of Damos 08, a ship devoted to the security of the Cult Empire, now faced a grave crisis.

"Cosmic power flow is reversing! Overload has exceeded 200 percent!"

"At this rate the ship will break apart!"

The situation room shook as though it would shatter to pieces at any moment. The ornaments that had once lavishly lit the interior had all crashed to the floor and shattered, and the computer terminals and machinery spat sparks in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an endless rain.

Amid the chaos of shrieking alarms and flying debris, the Cult crewmen who somehow managed to keep their footing urgently reported the state of the battle.

"What's the status of the escort fleet?"

"Thirty percent of it has been silenced by the enemy's psychic power attack!"

"From a single strike?! That's impossible!"

Even through the turmoil, the captain did not lose his composure, his gaze fixed on the holographic images at the center of the situation room.

The dark matter wielded by an Imperial Carrier was a delicate yet dangerous force. The advanced modules attached to the carrier did not exist merely to charge and fire the Cosmic Bolt. They were also the means by which the dark matter—a beast that could turn feral without warning—was controlled and harmonized.

Having surveyed every aspect of the ship's condition, the captain made his decision. Spreading his psychic power through the vessel, he sent a message to every crewman aboard.

｢To all crewmen aboard. Withdraw to the escape pods immediately.｣

"Captain!"

"B-but sir!"

The crew was stunned, but the captain remained perfectly calm.

"I will stay here. The rest of you will leave this place."

"Sir?!"

"The device that regulates the Cosmic Bolt's output is destroyed. Someone has to hold the station until every last crewman escapes."

With those words, the captain stepped down among the crew and began operating the computer himself. Taking control of the psychic projections directly, he worked the ship's systems and wielded his psychic power in tandem.

The crew members who watched him fell silent all at once.

"What are you doing? I told you to evacuate!"

"……."

The crew exchanged glances as they beheld their captain preparing to sacrifice himself for their sake.

"I'll handle things here, so hurry and get out!"

"…Forgive us, Captain!"

"Ugh?!"

One of the younger crewmen drew a pistol from his coat and struck the captain across the back of his neck.

A short groan, and the captain slumped unconscious. Another crewman caught him carefully before he could hit the floor.

"Take care of the Captain."

"We'll buy as much time as we can so you can reach the pods."

"Come on, no time to waste. Everyone, to your stations!"

"That kid, always singing about how he wanted to be captain someday."

"Kuk-kuk-kuk."

The Cult crewmen wore cheerful expressions. Rather than let their beloved captain die in their place, they had chosen to offer up their own lives.

The young Cultist carved each of their backs into his memory one last time, then lifted the captain onto his back.

As he left the situation room behind him, the shouts of the crew rang out at his back.

"Brave Cultists all! May Providence gather us in!"

"May Providence gather us in!"

Having sworn to the Empire that their noble sacrifice would not be forgotten, the young Cultist murmured quietly to himself.

"May Providence gather them in…."

Before long, countless escape pods launched from the Imperial Carrier. Some were handed off to the escort ships standing by in the vicinity; others vanished into the far reaches of space.

The Imperial Carrier endured until the final pod was away, but at last it could hold no longer and began to come apart.

The outer armor that had maintained perfect balance like a cut diamond warped violently and shattered, and the situation room at the upper center of the ship oxidized in a burst of flame.

At the heart of the vessel, the Cosmic Bolt launcher crumpled inward rapidly, as if being swallowed by something.

Just as the dark matter began leaking out through the gaps in the ruined armor—

A golden bolt of lightning, hurled from Sigil 08, struck the black energy dead-on.

Moments later, a light so immense it recalled a supernova swallowed the carrier and its entire escort fleet.

'I won.'

The moment I confirmed the Imperial Carrier's destruction, I blacked out. Plenty of enemy ships still remained, and I knew I couldn't afford to lose consciousness—but there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn't something my will alone could control.

'The fact that I'm still alive means they must have pulled back… huh?'

My body, presumably still wracked by the aftereffects of King of Monsters, couldn't muster any real strength—and yet something kept forcing its way into my mouth, bit by bit.

The thing jolting my dulled sense of taste back to life was the meat of some creature. Someone was feeding me all manner of flesh, Horned Giant included.

The charred, roasted meat slid down my throat and was swiftly digested, and vitality began to return—slowly, ever so slowly. Even my Monster's Tentacles and auxiliary organs, which hadn't reacted at all to outside wavelengths, started to stir back to life.

Only then could I get a rough picture of my own condition. My body had returned to its Young Adult state, the effects of the Psionium having worn off. The two heads that had assisted me were gone, and the lowest combat arm that had served as a leg had reverted to an appearance like the others.

The body that had briefly evolved into an Adult through the Psionium had come back to its original form.

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

Even as my senses recovered, the stream of unidentified food into my mouth never stopped. I swept my surroundings with the auxiliary organs that lay pressed beneath my jaw.

Only then did I see who was feeding me.

｢You might be low on energy! Gotta keep feeding you!｣

｢Big Baby! Don't die!｣

｢Me｣｢Pray｣｢Big Adult｣｢Survive｣

They were all clustered around my head. Whenever Mother of the Sky or Adhai brought food over, No. 26 would slice off an appropriately sized piece and stuff it into my mouth.

'Where are they even getting food this fast?'

I opened my eyes to find out what was going on. No. 26, who had been dicing up some pitch-black animal corpse with her tentacles, and Adhai, laden with little animal carcasses, both froze the instant they saw me.

｢Big Baby woke up!｣

｢Big Adult｣｢Survival｣｢Confirmed!｣

No. 26's body flared with bright light, and Adhai flung aside the small animal corpses clutched in her mouth-tentacles and came racing over to me.

｢Don't get up! Your strength hasn't recovered yet!｣

｢Yes!｣

｢Agreed｣

As the two of them rejoiced over my survival, Mother of the Sky sent a thought-wave my way.

Through the trees blazing in the distance, I could make out her figure. Fur singed all over her body, she was hauling the carcass of a large creature on her back.

'Fire?'

I raised my gaze skyward.

A burning sky stretched above me.

After the Imperial Carrier's destruction, its wreckage had become a meteor shower, still raining down upon the planet. Judging by the sight of it, it wasn't just this area that was burning. The entire Saintopia 02 continent—no, every continent on PH-101 must have been turned into a sea of flames.

'So that's it.'

The food going into my mouth had tasted odd—like barbecue, like charred meat—and now I understood. They had gathered the flesh of creatures that had burned to death in the forest and brought it to me.

Even after I came to, the three of them kept feeding me without pause. I wanted to tell them they didn't have to, that I was fine—but everyone present knew perfectly well that I wasn't.

Docile as a hatchling, I accepted the food and thought.

'If corpses hadn't been so easy to come by, that could've been bad.'

The King of Monsters effect was extraordinarily potent, but its backlash was anything but trivial. Like Psychic Breath, which knocks you unconscious if overdrawn, or Hunter's Avatar, which sends you berserk when residual energy runs too low, it carried side effects that were genuinely dangerous.

'To think a single transformation would cost this much.'

Once an Amorph reaches the Adult stage, the energy efficiency of its reserves increases dramatically. Had I not transformed into an Adult, King of Monsters would have drained my energy in an instant and killed me.

In fact, until I woke up, my auxiliary organs had been too depleted to function properly. If I hadn't become an Adult—no, if I'd been alone—I would have been finished even after taking down the Imperial Carrier.

'I owe my life to the kids and Mother of the Sky.'

The only reason I was still breathing was because they had fought so hard to keep me alive.

'Allies, huh.'

Things had been too chaotic earlier for me to look properly, but the message had definitely said ally.

Who exactly that ally referred to went without saying, but that wasn't the important part.

By the system's design, Amorphs are beings incapable of interacting with other lifeforms. A species that exists solely to hunt and slaughter—a killing machine, nothing more.

And the system had now acknowledged an Amorph forming companions. What did that mean?

'I—no, the Amorph is evolving.'

It varies case by case, but sociability generally works in favor of survival. Animals that live in groups can effectively defend against attacks from stronger enemies. For predators, numerical superiority allows the subduing of dangerous, high-risk prey.

Look no further than humans, beings of high sociability. Humans carry countless traits disadvantageous to survival, and yet wasn't it precisely that sociability that allowed them to flourish?

'No such message ever appeared when I used Symbiote Spores, though…'

Which meant that something fundamental had changed between then and now—and I had a suspicion what.

'Space Monster Type.'

I opened the semi-transparent text box and checked the Type at the very bottom.

There sat 'Perfect Organism' and 'Night Horizon'—traits previously classified under the physique-related and nest-related Types respectively, now gathered together under one banner.

Every one of them had been obtained through Transcendence Stage 1—that is, through the 'Unique Trait Synthesis' system.

'…I would have been in serious trouble if I hadn't stockpiled those nest-related traits in advance.'

Each time a new Type is unlocked, the number of traits required to acquire the next Type doubles from the previous requirement.

Say, for instance, that Nest Reinforcement Type and Special Defense Reinforcement Type each require 8 traits. If you unlocked Nest Reinforcement Type first, the number of traits needed to acquire Special Defense Reinforcement Type would jump to 16.

The real problem arises when, with the trait requirement already inflated like this, a trait belonging to an already-acquired Type is removed.

Used as fusion material for a trait belonging to another Type, or consumed as material for a Unique Trait—those are the situations where a trait is lost. When that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠happens, the already-acquired Type is retroactively treated as unacquired, and its reinforcement effect is forfeited.

The cruel part is that the trait requirement never reverts to its former number.

Suppose 8 traits sufficed to gain a Type, but after acquiring it the requirement rose to 16. You would then need to fill all 16 slots before the Type's reinforcement effect returned.

'Not like anyone's trying to screw me over. And yet it changes things around however it likes, without so much as a notification.'

If my stockpile of traits had been even slightly short, I could have lost Nest Reinforcement Type and suffered a catastrophic setback.

The saving grace was that before entering Transcendence Stage 2, I had spent fourteen hours sweeping the Great Swamplands and secured a large number of miscellaneous traits.

Back then, besides the Pincer trait, I had picked up several infection-related and nest-related traits. Thanks to that, even with traits shuffling around of their own accord, I hadn't lost any Type effects.

'At the time I just figured they might make decent material someday. Talk about a blessing in disguise.'

At any rate, the fact that only the traits acquired through the Unique Trait Synthesis system had migrated into the new Type was meaningful in every way.

'Perfect Organism', which transforms the user into an even more terrible monster. 'Nightmare Horizon', which erodes and dominates ships. 'Organic Evolution', usable by swapping between the Giant Organism and Dwarfism traits.

'Traits that cross beyond the Amorph's limits.'

And among the Types, this 'Unique' type was something I'd never even seen in the game.

'And there's never been a Type that came with a description attached, either.'

Not a single Type an Amorph acquires ever explains what effects it grants or what categories of traits belong to it. It's a principle of the system that players must verify everything with their own two eyes.

Yet despite that principle, the Space Monster Type—presumably because it was Unique-grade—came with a readable description. I opened the text box attached to it.

Reading the contents, I understood why a description was necessary. True to its nature as a Transcendence Stage 2 reward, the Type's effect was quite extraordinary.

'A Type that strengthens in stages—first time I've ever seen one.'

Ordinarily, a Type grants no effect whatsoever upon mere unlocking; only after conditions are met and it is properly 'acquired' does it begin to function. There is no such thing as a Type that bestows special effects for simply gathering a few traits, the way Space Monster does.

'As for what those effects actually are… of course, it doesn't say.'

With no clues whatsoever, it was too early to say for certain—but I suspected it granted something enormously powerful.

'Now all that's left is the Trait Enhancement System…'

I wanted to check it right away, but overwhelming fatigue was crashing down on me. My belly was slowly filling, and the ground was warm—probably from the fires raging all around—and the desire to sleep came gushing up like a spring.

｢Big Baby, if you're sleepy you can sleep.｣

｢Big Adult｣｢Tired?｣

｢…The urgent fire's out, but you should rest. That trait never existed in the game, so who knows what side effects might hit you.｣

Even though they were the ones worn out on my account, they urged me to rest.

｢Zzzuz….(Thank you…)｣

Unable to properly express my gratitude, I plunged headlong into sleep.

Mercury.

The planet closest to the Sun and the smallest in the Solar System was, officially, under the dominion of Garmelda, one of Mega Corp's Noble Capitals.

The Yujin Family, which owned the Moon; the Garmelda Family, which ruled Mercury; T&C, which wielded influence over Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos; the Prime Capitals competing over Ganymede—and so on.

Thus the seven families of Mega Corp each owned the various planets and moons of the Solar System.

When a Noble or Prime Capital purchased a new world, the usual practice was to send a family member as governor to rule by proxy. The Garmelda Family did things a little differently.

Chloe Garmelda, the current head of House Garmelda, had shut herself away in the weapons research facilities on Mercury and refused to come out for over a decade.

She had earned the nickname 'Queen of Mercury' for good reason.

With the family head neglecting the household, her position might well have wavered—yet remarkably, no such thing ever happened. Because the influence of the equipment she developed was nothing short of colossal.

Weapons. Reinforcement suits. Even special drugs that augmented soldiers themselves.

Thanks to her churning out a new weapon of murder every single year, House Garmelda maintained the greatest wealth in its history. And so, despite her youth and her total indifference to family affairs, she enjoyed the staunch support of the elders.

The Queen of Mercury, weapons developer of that caliber, had—for once in a great while—taken a day off.

"The family head certainly takes her leave often these days. She only just took a few weeks off not long ago."

Researchers strolled the corridors of the bio-dome-shaped Garmelda weapons research base. Their gazes turned toward the center of the dome. Beneath it lay the head-of-household residence of Chloe Garmelda.

"Good for her, I say. She throws herself into her work far too much. If she ruined her health at this rate, that would be a real disaster."

"While the family head is away, why don't we run another round of tests on the new equipment ourselves?"

Chloe, beloved even by the underlings of her own facility, was at that moment inside a certain chamber within the head-of-household residence.

In that dim chamber lay fallen diamond-shaped monuments, trailing cables. Of them all, only two were lit, floating in midair.

Seated in a specially engineered anti-gravity chair, Chloe spoke toward the two monuments.

"Big Brother Jason, what happened with the Imperial Carrier dispatch? My satellite got split in two halfway through, so I have no idea how it went."

｢I'm curious about that myself. The escort fleet has made reconnaissance impossible.｣

Jason, Chloe, Jubaka.

Powerful figures of the Cult, Mega Corp, and Star Union respectively, they had conspired weeks ago to eliminate the infamous Rank 5 player, Amorph.

They spread false intelligence that PH-101—the planet where the Rank 5 player was presumed to be hiding, known to the Cult as Sigil 08—had been contaminated, and maneuvered the Cult's Council into issuing a purification order. The result was that the Imperial Carrier 'Judge of Damos 08' set course for Sigil 08.

But because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the escort fleet guarding the carrier had obliterated every Mega Corp and Star Union satellite in the vicinity of Sigil 08, Chloe and Jubaka still had no way of knowing how things had unfolded.

That was why, now that considerable time had passed since the purification order was issued, they had called on Jason to confirm the outcome.

"It's only a Young Adult, so it couldn't have been too difficult, surely?"

｢With a Morph-fucker, one never knows. The escort fleet may well have taken substantial losses.｣

"They're all just toys anyway. Why even bother worrying? If one breaks, you fill the gap with another."

｢A remark utterly brimming with that signature Mega Corp disregard for human life.｣

"What was that, dictator?"

The reason Chloe and Jubaka could jest so leisurely was their unshakable conviction that Amorph had surely been exterminated.

No matter how skilled the Rank 5 player might be, victory against an Imperial Carrier capable of annihilating every living thing on a planet was impossible. There might have been some resistance, but without question the beast would have been reduced to a handful of ash by the Cosmic Bolt.

Except.

That an unthinkable outcome might, in fact, have become reality—

A clear woman's voice, sounding without warning, awoke them to the cruel truth.

｢It has been some time, Lady Chloe, Grand Leader Jubaka.｣

"Huh? Cynthia? Why are you coming through Big Brother Jason's monu—"

｢…….｣

Chloe, who had been filing her nails, froze at the woman's voice flowing from the monument. Jubaka, rather than startled, seemed to sense an ill omen, and let out a low hum.

｢Under ordinary circumstances I would have used my own monument, but the situation was too urgent, so I borrowed Lord Jason's in his stead.｣

"Urgent? What could possibly be urgent?"

｢…Surely not?｣

｢The purification order spearheaded by Lord Jason has failed completely. The Imperial Carrier and its escort fleet have been annihilated. Because of it, the Council is currently condemning Lord Jason for violating Providence by attacking a holy world. Lord Jason has defied his summons and is now in hiding.｣

"……."

｢…….｣

｢As for myself, I was dragged before inquiry hearings all day on charges of misinterpreting the Prophecy, and only just barely made it here. I beg your understanding.｣

The worst of all the futures they had imagined had come to pass.

The moment the realization struck her, Chloe dropped the nail grinder from her hand before she even knew she was doing it.