Frozen Planet (1)
｢Ugh, th-this is way too cold?｣
｢Cold｣｢Cold｣｢Cold｣
Just as I'd expected, Adhai and Mother of the Sky began shivering violently in the savage chill. It might have been more bearable on a full stomach, but every one of us was running on empty right now.
Maintaining heat in this ship is going to be impossible.
After the Erosion Tentacles released it, the ship was completely wrecked. The engines, of course, but even the metal walls that made up the hull had corroded through without a single intact panel left. If a storm hit us in this state, the ship would be torn to shreds in an instant.
I need to find food and shelter, fast.
[Zzzzt zzzzt (Take care of the kids)]
｢Leave it to me!｣
I entrusted the others to No. 26, the healthiest of the bunch, and stepped out of the ship.
Snow-covered ground of solid ice greeted me. I flexed my combat arms, and thick drifts of snow swept away to reveal the ice beneath.
Pristine, mirror-smooth ice, without a speck of dust on it. Reflected across its surface was my unmodified form, the one that hadn't used the Organic Evolution trait.
Six imposing horns atop a long, crocodilian head that brought large theropods to mind, with countless Monster's Tentacles flowing beneath it like a mane in the wind.
Under the tentacles swaying in the wind, I could see my body wrapped in a mix of hard carapace and Synthetic Scales, six combat arms, and two small auxiliary arms at my chest.
And finally, though the ice reflected none of it, the long, massive tail that replaced my lower half lay half-buried in the snow. Only the Pincer at its tip, along with the barbed spikes set inside it, poked up above the snow's surface.
Dragging my enormous body, somewhere between 27 and 28 meters long, I tore across the snowy plain. The falling snow and hail erased my trail within moments of my passing. Without my auxiliary organs, I would have been hopelessly lost in no time.
A mountain range in the distance — should I head that way? No. Too far. Instead….
I stopped running and looked down at my feet.
Among the creatures native to this ice planet, there are species that live beneath the ice. Even under ice this thick — so thick you couldn't guess its depth — life persists.
There's a hollow space under this ice.
Once my auxiliary organs confirmed it, I raised the Pincer at the tip of my tail high. Holding it there, I concentrated, summoning the sensation of tensing every muscle in my body.
The scales and carapace covering me began to glow a deep red. It was the effect of Heat Dissipation, the trait I'd acquired from that Star Union labor supply ship.
It was originally a Coldblood thermoregulation trait.
Where the original ability did nothing more than warm the body, in Amorph's hands it converts internal energy into searing heat, radiating fierce warmth like this.
The ice here was tens of meters thick and unimaginably hard. With my physical capabilities, digging through barehanded wouldn't be difficult — but it would take far too long.
We're low on energy, but….
Since I needed shelter and prey as quickly as possible, investing energy now was the best call.
The ice beneath me began to melt, steam rising in wisps. The Pincer, where my carapace was thickest, and my cranial plating both glowed red-hot like heated iron.
That should do it.
I slammed my tail's Pincer, now superheated to a golden glow, down onto the ice. The moment the blazing pincer struck the ground, tremendous heat and vapor erupted upward.
With a sizzling hiss, the thick ice melted away rapidly. Somehow the sound reminded me of meat hitting a hot grill.
Tsk. I must be hungrier than I thought.
Licking my lips, I pulled my tail out of the hole. Nothing but darkness lay inside the deep bore I'd cut.
Using my combat arms and the blunt claws scattered across my body, I dug my way down into the shaft. Thanks to the heat radiating from my body and the half-melted ice walls, widening the hole as I descended was no trouble at all.
After burrowing down several hundred more meters, the space suddenly opened wide.
I had arrived at the underground hollow beneath the ice. Clinging to the icy ceiling, I scanned the space below.
No light reached this place, and though I could see nothing, my auxiliary organs painted the structure of the cavern clearly in my mind. The temperature down here was warmer than above, and the floor of the hollow was strewn with soil and ice.
There are living creatures here too.
From the far side of the darkness came the faint sound of something stirring. Using the suckers on the inner sides of my fingers, I crawled along the ceiling, upside down.
Not far from where I was, a colony of creatures had gathered. They were firing off distinctive ultrasonic pulses, warily scanning their surroundings.
Cavegoyles.
Cavegoyles are creatures that dwell in underground hollows and very deep caves. They look something like a bat and an ape fused together, then scaled up to around three meters in size.
Their vision had degenerated completely, so like bats, they identified objects by emitting specialized ultrasonic waves. By now, they'd almost certainly noticed that something was in this cavern with them.
They're on high alert.
Hardly surprising — a monster nearly thirty meters long was crawling across the icy ceiling above them. If I got even a little closer, they'd bolt in a heartbeat.
But.
Right now, I had a way to catch them.
The five faces sleeping on my back — the Human-Faced Beast trait.
I mostly used the Human-Faced Beast to gather intelligence on enemies and deceive them, but its power was useful in combat too. It could fire a devastating sonic blast capable of paralyzing prey.
The more acute a creature's hearing, the more lethal the damage.
Against creatures without ears it would be useless, but in a lightless space like this, such a beast was unlikely to exist. I woke all five of the faces.
The five faces bound to my will snapped their eyes open in unison. Dark veins of blood surfaced across their pallor-stricken features.
Then, as their mouths gaped wide, a spiral-shaped secondary maw pushed its way out. From those tooth-ringed orifices, a powerful sonic blast erupted.
Because the space was enclosed on every side, the sonic attack struck far harder than it normally would. My own scales trembled from the recoil of emitting it — the effect on the targets must have been catastrophic.
Exactly as I'd planned, chaos broke out among the Cavegoyles below.
"Keak! Keeeak!"
"Kek!"
"Keeeak!"
The organs they used to detect sound waves had all ruptured; the air reeked of thick blood.
For them, it was as if their eyes and ears had been destroyed simultaneously. The Cavegoyles plunged into panic and began attacking one another.
Confirming the enemy was in disarray, I leapt down toward the floor. My nearly thirty-meter body hurtled through the air and crashed down on top of them.
"Kwak?!"
"Kik!"
Six of the Cavegoyles were crushed beneath my body and died instantly. The rest threw themselves at me. I couldn't hear them, but no doubt they'd sensed the impact of my landing.
One Cavegoyles scrambled onto my back and hammered both fists down on my dorsal carapace.
A Cavegoyles is strong enough to tear mid-grade combat armor apart with its bare hands.
Which is why they're such a common ingredient in Hulk Mutants.
A blow that would have crushed another creature's entire body on contact — but not a single scratch appeared on my carapace.
"Ke… keak?"
It had clearly expected blood and gore, and the strange sensation at its fingertips made the creature tilt its head in confusion.
I folded my lower half and tail up over my back. The Pincer at the tip seized the creature.
"Kek!"
I clenched, and its body snapped limply in two. Steaming blood and entrails spilled across my back.
From there, it was a rout. All ten of the Cavegoyles met their end within minutes.
The scent of blood spread through the underground hollow, but no creature showed itself.
Only after judging the place safe did I finally let my guard down.
The smell of hot blood and fresh raw meat rode the frigid air, tickling my auxiliary organs. Catching the scent of delicious meat while starving, I couldn't help the saliva pooling in my mouth.
Should I eat one before I go?
Nobody was chasing me. Surely it wouldn't hurt to have a meal first?
The temptation was enormous, but I forced my head away. Climbing back up the wall, I retraced my path.
Emerging from the long icy shaft, I found everything exactly as I'd left it. The ceaseless snow and hail, and wind so sharp it wasn't a metaphor at all — it genuinely felt like it could slice flesh from bone.
In a world where nothing had changed, I relied on my auxiliary organs to find the direction of the ship.
Mixed into the blade-like wind came a faint thread of metal scent. I ran, following the smell drifting from the ship.
I hadn't been running long when I spotted a shapeless mound of snow. Barely any time had passed, yet the snow had already buried the ship past all recognition.
As I drew close, No. 26's wavelength flowed out from inside.
｢Big Baby?｣
[Zzz zzzzt zzt zzz zzz (Yes. I found food and a safe place)]
｢Wow! So fast! Amazing!｣
[Zzz zzz (Follow me)]
Shortly after, the sound of crumpling metal came from within the snow mound, and then the pile exploded outward in a burst of white. Emerging onto the snow was No. 26, her bulk swollen to ten meters.
｢Uuu, please tell me it's not far.｣
｢Cold｣｢Hungry｣｢Cold!｣｢Hungry!｣
Looking closely, she was clutching Mother of the Sky and Adhai tight in her embrace. The two of them were sunk deep into No. 26's slime-soft body, only their heads poking out as they shivered.
In my experience, No. 26's body temperature stayed constant regardless of the ambient air. When I carried her on my head or shoulder, she always felt pleasantly cool.
In a place this cold, would she actually feel warm instead?
At this rate, dragging things out any longer might genuinely make the two of them sick. I led the group toward the hole I'd drilled into the ground.
So No. 26 and I were cutting through the blizzard when, without warning, Adhai fired off a warning pulse of thought.
｢Big Adult!｣｢Little Adult!｣｢Danger!｣
[Zzzzzzt (Adhai?)]
｢Me｣｢Kin｣｢Sense｣｢Sky｣｢Flying｣｢Chasing｣
｢Huh? That way feels kinda like Little Baby. Weird.｣
Adhai's thought-pulses scattered as she trembled. Then No. 26 said something similar.
Kin?
I raised my head and looked at the sky. Beyond the relentless sheets of snow and hail, nothing but heavy gray clouds were visible.
I urgently called for Mother of the Sky.
She, too, seemed to sense something was wrong; her head tilted upward. Her amber eyes drifted slowly across the sky until they reached the mountain range — then snapped wide open.
｢It's a White Galagon! And it's flying straight for us!｣
[Zzt zzz zzt zzz (Move. Everyone onto my back)]
Watching the shivering Adhai, I could tell the Galagon was not approaching with friendly intent. I loaded No. 26 and the children she held onto my body.
Once I confirmed that No. 26's tentacles had gripped me tight, I shot forward at full speed.
[Zzzt (Hold on tight)]
｢WaaAAAAH!｣
All three pairs of combat arms and the blunt claws scattered across my body launched in unison, hurling me forward like a shell fired from a cannon.
As I ran, I asked Mother of the Sky a question.
[Zzt zzzzt zzt (How close is it?)]
｢At that speed? Five minutes — no, it'll pass right over us inside three.｣
A White Galagon could spot us even while flying high. The distance was still too great for it to know we were here, but if it kept circling this area, it would find our position in no time.
The snow will erase my trail fast enough, sure.
But the hole was another matter. Its mouth was so wide that covering it would take the snow a very long time.
I have to block it myself.
Reaching the shaft in an instant, I first pushed No. 26 inside.
[Zzz zzzzt zzt zzzt zzz (Once you're down, eat first — fill up before anything else)]
｢Big Baby not coming down?｣
[Z zzzzt zzt zzt zzzzt (I have something to do. I'll be down soon)]
Having reassured her, I sealed the mouth of the pit with my own body. Then I stretched out my Erosion Tentacles, dragged in the snow piled around me, and heaped it over myself.
Only after a full blanket of snow lay atop me did I retract the tentacles.
I was holding my breath, everything squared away, when a strange sound of wind drifted down from above.
It was faint, barely a whisper — but it was unmistakably the beat of wings.
The sound swelled slowly, then faded, then swelled again.
It's here.
The great beast they called the Dragon of Space was circling around me.