The Cult's High Priest (4)
I looked down at the dot pinned into the field of white snow.
Jason, whose leg wound had already healed thanks to his Black Galagon carapace, was staring up at me.
Compared to the six-meter golden construct, he might have seemed small, but objectively speaking, it was hard to call Jason's height anything short of imposing. At nearly two meters, he was among the taller Cult males.
Not that it means anything in front of me.
Two meters or six, neither mattered the slightest when facing me. Thanks to stacking the King of Monsters — the special state of Organic Evolution — on top of my Bone Beast form, my body had swelled to a truly colossal size. My full length reached nearly three hundred meters, and my lower jaw alone surpassed several dozen.
At the risk of exaggeration, I was practically a mountain on the move.
To think I could grow this large without even reaching the Adult stage.
If even I — a player with no gaps in his knowledge of the Amorph — hadn't anticipated this, Jason certainly couldn't have. Even with my jaws gaping open right beneath his eyes, he never noticed a thing.
Of course, he had guessed I was hiding, which was why he'd struck with the golden construct. One of my combat arms had taken heavy damage as a result, but I was actually relieved.
That should've been strong enough to blow off a third of my body.
His killing blow had done nothing more than wound a single arm. And through that attack, one thing had become certain to me: the transformation of the golden construct required time.
It was never a long wait, but that didn't matter. In the middle of a fight like this, even that brief cooldown could become a fatal weakness.
"Wh-what the fuck is this?! I've never heard of anything like this!"
Jason, who had been so composed mere moments ago, no longer looked it. Faced with my far more massive form, he seemed to have lost his footing entirely.
Though honestly, my own situation isn't exactly comfortable either.
King of Monsters demanded an enormous amount of energy to sustain. Even at this very moment, the reserves inside my body were being shaved away at a staggering rate.
If I hadn't devoured the Ice Horror, this would already be over.
Thanks to consuming vast quantities of energy-rich meat, I was sitting on a tremendous stockpile. Unless I burned it on a trait as ravenous as God's Whip, I could hold this form for the full ten minutes.
I brought one of my combat arms crashing down on the space where Jason stood. As a limb the size of a small park plummeted, he hastily threw both hands up.
The moment my fist struck the ice, a colossal shockwave erupted and tore the snow apart. Beyond the whirling whiteout, his figure vanished from sight.
Where did he go?
"...You goddamn Morph-fucker!"
As if answering my question, his voice reached me from a distance. A moment later, a greatsword of golden light came flying, aiming for my auxiliary organ.
I raised my other combat arm to shield it. The blade carved into my forearm.
But my arm was simply so enormous that the golden blade only split the carapace plating over my wrist. Realizing his strike had barely scratched the surface, Jason spat out a short curse.
"Damn it!"
Jason was now wearing a headband I hadn't seen before — a cross-shaped halo radiating violet light. The Harmonizer, the reward for clearing Stage 9.
So that's one use spent.
The spare lives the Harmonizer granted totaled five. He'd used one already, leaving him four.
I stretched out my combat arms to seize him. My limbs swept across the snow piled on the ground as they closed in — and just before my hand could close around him, he raised his left.
Instantly, my hand wrenched aside against my will. He must have blended Gravity Control with Reflection to shove my arm away.
While Jason deflected my attack, the golden construct wrapped around him transformed once again. The particles composing it broke apart into streaks of light that scooped him up and soared into the air.
So that's how he got out from underground.
I deployed my erosion tentacles to snatch at his retreating tail.
Normally, the six erosion tentacles were coiled away inside my hollow dorsal carapace. On my command, the thin membranes covering the six holes would rip open and they would burst out at high speed.
Even without any trait bonus, these tentacles were the longest parts of my body. Now that my entire frame had grown more than tenfold, they had swelled to an utterly absurd size in turn.
Through this raging snowstorm, the six erosion tentacles stretched out along the golden light like a dragon ascending to heaven.
The golden streak dodged my tentacles with aerobatic grace — but how long could it keep evading tendrils closing in from every direction?
Perhaps thinking the same thing, Jason hurled his Purification into the air. The silver hilt trailing a blade of black fire spun like a pinwheel, slashing at my tentacles.
Purification was a weapon modeled on a famous sword from classic space opera media. Whatever the original had been, its defining trait was an attack power that cut through anything — and Purification inherited that in full.
Sure enough, the blade under his control was slicing through my tentacles with ease. The problem, though...
They're just too big for the cuts to matter.
A single erosion tentacle was thicker than Jason was tall. With a blade barely a meter long, no amount of effort would inflict a fatal wound.
His attacks right now were like an ant stabbing at a man with a toothpick. Unless it found a vital point, an ant doesn't kill a person easily.
And even if the wounds ran deep, I possessed the Regeneration trait. Unless a tentacle was severed outright, this level of damage healed in moments.
Not that it comes cheap in energy.
Every deep gash in an erosion tentacle shaved seconds off my remaining time as King of Monsters, but I gave no sign of it.
My task was simple.
To make it look as though sheer size was overwhelming him.
In other words — the violence of scale. That was the weapon I had prepared.
"Kgh!"
Judging that attacking with Purification was pointless, Jason recalled the blade, and the streak of light returned to the golden construct clinging to his back.
Hovering on Gravity Control, he swung his arms, and the construct's assault began.
The glowing golden blade bit into one of my erosion tentacles. It succeeded in cutting more than halfway through — but not in severing it completely.
The pain was enough to trigger my Pain Mitigation, but I didn't show it. Instead, while the construct was locked in place, I aimed my other tentacles at Jason's actual body.
The moment he saw the tentacles bearing down on him with their subsidiary maws spread wide, he thrust out his left hand in a panic. Reflection activated and knocked the tendrils back.
But repelling tentacles converging from six directions — each one hundreds of meters long — was no easy feat, no matter how skilled a ranker he was.
"Ugh!"
The sharpened tip of an erosion tentacle raked across his leg — the very spot my teeth had torn open once before, only for him to heal it.
"You son of a bitch!"
When I kept attacking the same spot, Jason roared in fury, and from his left hand erupted a massive violet whip that lashed my tentacles away.
While he vented his rage on the tendrils, I closed the distance rapidly. A body of several hundred meters in a full sprint shook the ice sheet beneath me until it simply shattered.
Within the wall of snow spray kicked up by my charge, I opened my jaws wide. My lower jaw split into two branching mandibles, exposing the rows of teeth packed tightly inside.
I'll swallow you whole.
Any other human would have trembled before the grotesque maw of the abyss. Even Jason let out a clipped curse as a mouth several dozen meters across came crashing down on him.
"Shit!"
As if reacting to his curse, the golden construct dissolved into streaks of light, and Jason slipped out of my jaws by a hair's breadth. Watching my mandibles slam shut with a thunderous crack, he shrieked.
"You insane bastard!"
The instant his scream rang out, an invisible force clamped down on my neck and head. Gravity Control, Binding, and several other psychic techniques layered onto my skull and throat all at once.
Ugh!
Immense power. Skill aside, the raw output of his psychic energy surpassed even No. 26's.
My Psychic Reflection Carapace was deflecting it, yet he was reflecting the reflected force right back at me with his own Reflection, dealing damage all over again.
"Die—wha?!"
He was shrieking, wrenching at my throat — when suddenly his body went rigid like a puppet with its strings cut. Unseen threads had wound around him before anyone noticed.
There was no need to ask who had spun threads of energy compressed to such density.
｢Don't you dare hurt Big Baby, you bad person!｣
Beyond the intensifying snowstorm, a creature of violet-tinged pink came into view.
A notoriously brutal adversary from the game — a being I'd once believed could never become my ally.
And the very first friend I'd made since arriving in this world.
Sea Demon No. 26.
While No. 26 spread her binding threads at full power, a dragon rose into the air behind her.
｢Me. Cold. Endure.｣
Vivid green wings and a long, plump tail — the little Galagon, Adhai. Perched on her back was a beastman with an eagle's head and a lion's body.
｢Damn bastard, think I'd miss twice?｣
Mother of the Sky, in her griffin-beastman mode, rumbled low and let her killing intent bleed out. These two had synced their breathing countless times before, and they had come prepared to strike as one.
At the sight of the Galagon and the Volf closing in at tremendous speed, Jason's eyes went wide.
"Oh, shit—"
Violet flame ignited in his gaze. Violet energy poured from his body and split into a forest of needle-like spikes.
Morta — an advanced psychic technique designed to nullify the effects of any other psychic power.
｢Huh? It broke!｣
The moment the spikes touched the invisible threads, No. 26's bindings dissolved instantly.
Freed, Jason twisted his waist to the side in a hurry — because Mother of the Sky, now close enough to touch with an outstretched hand, was already swinging the High Priest's Golden Spear.
｢Tch!｣
The spearhead carved through his carapace by the narrowest of margins. The plating over his abdomen shattered, spraying fragments of Black Galagon scales into the air.
"You dare...!"
Enraged, Jason bellowed and whipped his arms toward Mother of the Sky. The golden construct synced to him transformed its arms into blades and flailed wildly in the same rhythm.
Adhai, carrying Mother of the Sky, performed an astonishing aerial maneuver to evade the attacks. Even as he blocked my erosion tentacles with Reflection, Jason kept his eyes locked on her movements.
"Insolent little—!"
｢Danger! Danger!｣
The instant Jason extended his hand, Adhai froze in midair as if pinned to the void. He had used Binding on her, just as he had on No. 26.
Seizing that opening, the golden construct drew its blade in a straight line to bisect Adhai and Mother of the Sky.
As if I'd just stand and watch.
I spread every glide membrane on my combat arms wide and swung them violently toward the space where Jason hung.
Size, weight, and raw strength — the fusion of those three factors produced something truly terrifying. A gale charged with monstrous force slammed into Jason.
"Urk—?!"
Apparently Reflection couldn't bounce the wind itself, and he took the full brunt of the phenomenon I had manufactured.
The air ripped from his lungs; snow grains stung his face, and he squeezed his eyes shut. The golden construct, which responded to his sight, crumbled into fine particles the instant it was about to cleave Adhai in two.
｢Don't hit Little Baby or Middle Baby!｣
No. 26's psychic power surged from the snowfield into Adhai. The strength of two mighty psychics collided, and the bindings on Adhai weakened.
｢Thanks!｣
Freed, Adhai banked her wings once and vanished behind me at her signature lightning speed.
"Morph-fucker! What kind of trick have you pulled to control a Sea Demon and a Galagon?!"
Jason snarled as his eyes opened on the sight. Being caught in the coordinated assault seemed to shock him less than the simple fact that I was moving alongside other monsters.
Control, he says.
He apparently believed I was dominating them with parasites — an impossibility. Parasites could never command multiple beings with this degree of precision.
And my companions numbered more than three.
There's still one more.
The ice sheet bleached bone-white beneath the unceasing snow held more than just No. 26. The special friend she'd brought along waited in hiding beneath the snow.
[Zzzzz (Now!)]
At my signal, the Screamer — no, PS-111 — burst up through the snow.
A spider-bodied horror with four pairs of legs and the head of a human woman, PS-111 had once been nothing but a jumble of machine and flesh. But now something new had grown from her rear.
A tail. Curved up over her body like a scorpion's, its tip bore something other than a stinger.
The sharp point, shaped like the head of a harpoon, brought the Demolisher to mind.
She managed it, then.
I had slipped her a secret order while I kept Jason's subordinates occupied: absorb a Demolisher and forge something new from it.
Having consumed the photon cannon to birth a fresh weapon, she now activated what she had prepared.
An indigo energy round streaked out, vaporizing the falling snow as it flew. Its target: the ground directly beneath Jason's feet.
"!"
Belatedly noticing, he twisted his body to dodge — but once again, his paralyzed thigh betrayed him.
The Demolisher's matter-dissolving power swallowed everything below his left ankle.
"G-gaaaargh!"
His left foot sheared away cleanly, and Jason screamed. With him plunged into panic, I swung a combat arm to deal maximum damage while I could.
I distinctly felt the impact at the tips of my fingers, but I never saw him fly.
Eventually, far away from us, violet light flickered and his body reconstructed itself. His lost ankle returned to its original place — but the memory of that pain clearly had not faded.
"I'll — I'll kill every last one of you!"
With his roar, a single violet line burst from above his head and shot up into the sky. I knew exactly what that meant.
The Thunder God!
Like Muriel, he had brought a Thunder God of his own.
If he fires that here, he'll be caught in it too.
Even if he escaped with the Harmonizer, the Thunder God's strike radius was vast — a complete escape was impossible. As a Cult ranker, Jason knew that better than anyone present.
Either he's got something he's counting on, or...
his reason had simply boiled away in rage.
Either way, he seemed to have judged that the Thunder God could kill me.
In the game, his judgment would have been correct. Here, it was not. Stacking King of Monsters and Bone Beast together, I could survive a direct hit.
But the kids can't.
[Zzzz Zzzzz (Everyone, gather to me)]
I stretched out my combat arms and scooped up No. 26 and PS-111. Cradling the whole company against my chest with smaller limbs, I began to withdraw — and Jason lunged.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Dozens of psychic techniques poured from him and clamped down on my lower body.
"Morph-fucker! You die here!"
Jason's face was twisted like a demon's. The golden construct's blade behind him hurtled down onto my carapace.
—
...A Morph-fucker through and through. Absurdly strong.
Jason clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had known full well the notoriety of that devilish skill. But he hadn't imagined it would translate this well into reality.
Among all the rankers he had killed, none had been as much of a headache as the Morph-fucker.
Damn it. I should have just waited for the Black Galagon.
Strength-wise, the Coldblood ranker had been no pushover either — but back then, the man had allies. With Chloe and Cynthia at his side, victory had come easily.
In truth, if the Black Galagon were here right now, the Morph-fucker would already be a corpse.
Tch. Never expected him to have companions.
Akira, who understood the Morph-fucker better than anyone else in their group, had sworn up and down that the man was a lone wolf. Jason had fought him plenty of times himself; he knew his temperament.
In the game, the man had been an absolute hermit. Forget cooperation — he never so much as spoke to another player.
Like the Amorph that devoured all life, every living thing had been his enemy.
It had gotten so bad that the community whispered he might be an AI built by the developers.
Which was precisely why seeing him drag NPCs around had rattled Jason so badly. Whether they were slaves dominated by parasites, or some perk of the man's own, he couldn't tell.
If I can't finish this with the next attack, I retreat.
A deeply humiliating conclusion, but there was no help for it. Today, gaining information on the man would have to be enough.
"Die! Just die already!"
His interior lay cold and settled, but outwardly he shrieked as though consumed by fury. The manic, relentless assault was pure theater.
With a target grown so monstrously huge, he had no other way to pin it in place.
Not that it matters. I have a way out.
His third perk. The ability taken from the Metallic Gremlin ranker could slip him free of this battlefield with ease.
And so, while the monsters and Jason traded blows, the Thunder God completed its final preparations.
Kill him.
"Die!"
The instant Jason's inside and outside spoke as one, yellow fire fell from the heavens.
A transcendent force conjured by the orbital weapon called the Thunder God.
Before that sacred fire — fit to be called the manifestation of a god's will — the Amorph dared to raise its head. Like a demon mimicking and blaspheming divine authority, the same yellow flame roared out of the monster's maw.
The twin powers of the Thunder Gods entwined and shook the sky. Snow and ice, and psychic force given shape as thunder. A dance of matter and energy both sublime and terrible.
It was a spectacle of such awe that even Jason, who had anticipated it, couldn't help but admire it for a breath before he wrenched his focus back.
It's weaker than I thought!
Compared to the shots fired at the Imperial Carrier, this attack was undeniably feeble — as if the energy output simply wasn't there.
Of course. Double gigantification plus the Thunder God's power. He can't sustain both.
When the monster had swelled to mountain size, Jason had reasoned it out: growing that large, that fast, would drain energy catastrophically.
His prediction proved true. Cracks were spreading across the monster's armor even as it poured out the Thunder God's light.
The product of double gigantification had thickened that armor to a horrifying degree — but it had finally reached its limit.
Now! The chance is now!
Jason concentrated, and the golden construct began to shrink. In exchange, its blade grew without bound.
A moment later the construct was gone entirely, and nothing but a single colossal mass of light covered Jason's body.
He had kept the construct in its light-streak form until now under the pretense of evasion — and set his true target.
The evasion act had been a feint. The streak form was, in fact, one of the most devastating offensive weapons he possessed.
My own body becomes the bullet.
The Amorph's carapace began to fracture, its bulk shrinking. The thunderbolt from the Thunder God, too, was falling away in power at a steepening rate.
Just a little more... now!
The instant the Thunder God's light died, Jason gave the construct its command.
Fly forward. Crush his skull.
He had barely formed the thought when his body was no longer standing in the snowfield. The black blood drenching the golden construct was swallowed up by its particles in the space of a heartbeat.
He turned his head and looked back.
There stood the colossal monster — with a gaping hole punched through its neck. The creature had twisted aside from his strike at the last instant, and so the blade had pierced its throat instead of its head.
Even so, the wound it had suffered was unquestionably fatal.
Like a puppet with severed strings, the monster's body slowly toppled.