Black and White (1)
The Skywhale is a popular hunting quarry.
Its photon-cannon-wielding wings serve as weapons-grade material for the Mega Corps, while its innards—gallbladder included—are used in the Cults' sacrificial rites and ceremonies. The oil accumulated within its body is said to be ideal for cleaning delicate machinery: android brains, shipboard computers, and the like.
Because it benefits so many species, wherever a Skywhale appears, bloodshed is never far behind.
Worse still, the Skywhale is a mouthwatering meal for species that grow stronger by absorbing traits, like Amorphs and Outspacers. Among the traits the space whale carries, there are hardly any duds. Spaceflight, Giant Organism, the ability to generate and fire photon cannons—every single one is valuable.
If anything deserves to be called a dud, it would be Energy Absorption. Then again, even that one has its uses under the right conditions. For a creature that has already mastered plenty of useful traits and no longer needs new ones, its advantages would outweigh its drawbacks.
In any case, the Skywhale is a Christmas present to every player. But the trait it had given me was neither Energy Absorption nor Spaceflight nor Giant Organism.
I didn't expect that one to come up.
What I'd actually hoped for was the Skywhale's photon cannon trait, but this one was hardly bad either. It fused with one of my existing traits, granting me a brand-new fused trait.
Still, what was astonishing me right now had nothing to do with traits.
The Gallagon—a species whose ecology remains almost entirely shrouded in mystery—was molting right in front of me.
We had been in the middle of devouring the Skywhale when Adhai's scales began to loosen and drift free, one by one. At first I assumed they were simply old scales shedding, but that wasn't it.
What began as one or two soon came off in clumps, and beneath them new scales emerged, white as milk.
That was the beginning.
She stopped eating and spread her two folded wings, wrapping them around her body. Though the wings enveloped her frame entirely, I could trace her transformation through the sounds alone. That crisp tak, tak, like popcorn popping, was the sound of her bones lengthening joint by joint.
Her wings swelled in step with her growing body. The green scales along their outer edge flaked off like dead keratin and rained to the ground, fresh scales taking their place. Over the thin membrane they bloomed a pristine white, as if dipped in pale paint.
｢Big Baby, Little Baby is acting weird.｣
[Zzzzzzzzz(She's growing up)]
｢Little Baby is getting bigger too?｣
[Zzz(Yep)]
"Little, Baby's total, energy is, surging. Rapidly."
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Adhai kept growing. Even as her body swelled in the span of a breath, she seemed to feel little pain.
Is some special substance being secreted?
When an Amorph evolves, the entire body reconstructs itself inside a cocoon. The slime that fills it deadens the agony of the change entirely.
Perhaps Gallagons undergo something similar—secreting a substance in the brain that dulls the pain of growth.
First a Sea Demon, now a Gallagon.
No player but me had ever witnessed the growth of two such rare creatures up close.
And then, how much time had passed?
A white lotus bloomed wide upon the pool of blood. Every metamorphosis was complete.
Her freshly molted wings looked like flawlessly cut diamonds. As beautiful as they were, they would be every bit as hard.
So this is evolution.
Adhai had matured into a White Gallagon. Her body had lengthened considerably, and yet she was still far smaller than her kin. Not just next to other White Gallagons—she was smaller than even an ordinary Green Gallagon.
Four meters? Just a touch smaller than the Mother of the Sky.
She was shorter than the Mother of the Sky in her griffin form. Of course, if you counted the wingspan, Adhai would come out ahead.
Her body's changed, so the whole feel of her is different.
Before, she had carried the fragile air of a young fawn. Now she radiated a far greater maturity. It might simply be that her body had grown while her head stayed the same size.
Beneath that small head, her slender frame now carried just the right amount of muscle, giving her a healthy look, and the sensual curves unique to Gallagons were all the more pronounced along her long neck and waist. Her tail, once adorably plump, had grown longer and fuller. Not fat, mind you—flesh laid on in all the pleasing places.
Small as she was, she boasted a beauty far beyond any other Gallagon. And she bore one feature none of her kin possessed.
There are red markings on her body?
Vivid crimson wave-patterns ran from the crown of her head, down the back of her neck, across her spine, along the inner side of her wing membranes, and all the way to the tip of her tail. Against scales of unblemished white, the scarlet patterns leapt out at the eye.
A being of destiny.
Ham Ort had called her the savior. And seeing those red markings, something stirred unbidden in my memory.
The strongest of all Gallagons—a pinnacle of life that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Vortex One. The Red Gallagon.
...No, that can't be it.
I had hunted Red Gallagons in the game myself. If I remembered right, they dwarfed every other Gallagon in size—utterly unlike the runty frame Adhai had been born with.
Besides, Red Gallagons wielded their own unique energy system, just like the Vortex One. I sensed nothing of that unknown power from the Adhai standing before us.
And in that state, she couldn't beat a Black Gallagon anyway.
Call her a White Gallagon, call her special—whatever she was, the gap in weight class between the two was simply too vast. On top of that, Adhai had only just finished growing; she hadn't even learned how a White Gallagon fought. I had no idea what Ham Ort had been thinking, but if she fought as she was, defeat was certain.
I can just ask her directly.
Capture Ham Ort, and everything about Adhai would become clear.
｢Never thought I'd see a Gallagon grow with my own eyes.｣
｢Little Baby, you've changed somehow.｣
"Registered sub-controller 2, 'Little, Baby.' Compatibility at, 72%. Modifying, target charac, teristics."
Sensing our gaze, Adhai slowly folded her newly spread wings. The sight of those long, elegantly aligned wings settling against her back was graceful beyond any comparison to her kin.
To stretch the analogy a little, she resembled a young bride in a wedding gown.
｢Me｣｢How｣｢Look?｣
｢Gorgeous.｣
｢Yep. Little Baby got big, so proud!｣
｢Thanks｣
Apparently pleased by the shower of compliments, she let a hint of contentment bleed through her thought-waves. Then she turned her eyes on me, and toward those amethyst mirrors reflecting my form, I sent my ripples.
[Zzz Zzzzz Zzz(You've grown up beautifully)]
｢Really?｣
[Zzz(Really)]
Delighted by my praise, she swayed the tip of her tail back and forth.
With Adhai's growth complete, we set about finishing off the rest of the Skywhale meat. She had expended tremendous energy growing, and afterward she drained down a great deal of blood as well.
That left me chewing through dry, desiccated flesh from which every drop of juice had been wrung, but it hardly mattered. Not a single APEX had disappointed me yet, and the Skywhale was no exception.
That was a remarkably unusual flavor.
To put it in terms a human might grasp, it was like a firm jelly made from a blue Hawaii soda with an extra-strong hit of lemon. The texture was nearly identical to chewing gum—actually rather fun to gnaw on.
Not that it felt like a proper meal.
In any case, once the feast was over, I called Adhai over. I wanted to ask her to guide us to the nest.
｢Me｣｢Nest｣｢Location｣｢Know it｣
[Zzzzz(Perfect)]
I was thinking how smoothly things were going when she cautiously sent out a thought-wave.
｢Big Adult｣｢Me｣｢Request｣｢Have one｣
[Zzz(Hm?)]
｢Nest｣｢Young kin｣｢Many｣｢Water-colored kin｣｢Sparing them｣｢Possible?｣
Adhai gazed up at me with eyes that trembled almost imperceptibly. I did not answer right away.
...Hm.
No. 26 had shown compassion for her own kind on many occasions before—not only toward the Bubble Amoebas, but she'd even doted on PS-111, claiming she smelled of kin.
So I had always assumed Adhai would act the same way eventually. Abandoned by her own kind though she was, she felt less kinship than No. 26 did—but she possessed delicate emotions all the same.
The Blue Gallagons.
Every Gallagon belongs to the APEX category. Which is why, when I first contracted with her, my plan had been to wipe the nest out to the last scale.
Not that I expected to grow this attached back then.
Now, I harbored genuine affection—great or small—for everyone at my side. However many times I turned it over in my mind, on that point at least I was certain. So long as it posed no threat to my survival, I wanted to grant their requests.
But this case was different.
Whether or not to exterminate the Gallagons was a matter bound up directly with my survival. I needed to kill them—for the traits, and to meet my evolution requirements.
Even if I filled the evolution quota with adults alone, that would be no reason to spare the young. Not while there were still traits left to harvest from the Blue Gallagons.
Adhai had spent no small amount of time at my side, either. She'd have long since read my intentions—she is a remarkably clever creature. Which meant she knew full well the rest could die without consequence, and was proposing a compromise: spare only the young hatchlings.
From her position, it was a perfectly reasonable offer. Unlike the kin who had cast her out, the children born afterward were innocent.
And if I refuse here?
She had resolved to become kin with me, and our contract bound us besides—so she would not refuse my demand to bring her to the nest.
But the shock would be unavoidable. If I slaughtered the Gallagons, my relationship with her would fracture beyond repair. Not only our bond—I could forget counting on her to fight for me in battle the way she once had.
Which way pays off more?
Sacrifice my bond with Adhai and exterminate the Gallagons?
Or honor her request, and settle for meeting the evolution requirement and nothing more?
The instant I neared a decision after all that deliberation, Adhai's eyes flew wide open and she launched herself into the sky.
What now?
In a heartbeat she was so high she looked like a pinprick. Barely moments after she'd shot upward, No. 26 came bouncing over in great hops.
｢Big Baby! The bad people are here!｣
[Zzzzz(Bad people?)]
｢Yeah! Flappy bad people!｣
Only after I caught her thought-wave did my auxiliary organs belatedly report the disturbance unfolding around us.
A mighty psychic power was echoing down from the heavens.
[Zzz Zzzzzz Zzz(Hold on, I'll go up and be right back)]
｢Huh? Hey, where—!｣
I hoisted No. 26 onto my back and shot into the air. Only once I'd climbed high enough could I finally see what was happening above.
Gallagons!
The sky was clouding over again.
Across that ashen battlefield, one white Gallagon and ten green ones were waging war.
—
The old Black Dragon, the Great Oude Grad, was in quite a good mood.
The thorn that had so long irritated his mind had finally been plucked out. The packs that had risen against him lay broken, and the ones who fled would soon be hunted down by his underlings as well.
Ham Ort, leader of the traitors, would never lay eyes on the outside world again. Until the day she died, she would do nothing but lay eggs in a dark cavern, over and over, forever.
At last, everything had returned to its proper order. From now on, Oude Grad's flock would move once more along the perfect current he had ordained.
He sprawled himself across the glittering minerals blanketing his cavern. Just as he was sinking toward sleep, cradling that pleasant warmth, a vision appeared before his eyes.
A black-scaled kin lunged at him and cut his throat. He could not resist in the slightest. All he could do was fall helplessly toward the ground.
The vision ended with the shattering impact against the hard floor.
Sleep torn utterly away, Oude Grad bolted upright.
｢Future?｣｢Why?｣
Oude Grad glimpses the future through dreams and visions. That future usually comes to him as a dream. It is exceedingly rare for it to appear as a waking vision, as it had just now.
A future that manifests as a vision is a future of terrible danger. In all his experience, he had only seen such visions of what was to come when death had drawn very near.
｢Traitors｣｢Ended｣｢Are they not?｣
No kin capable of maturing into a black-scaled one remained. Ham Ort came closest to the black kin, and she was locked in a cavern even now, dying.
He was still wrestling with the incomprehensible when a subordinate rushed in from outside.
｢Great Oude Grad｣｢Report｣
｢Speak｣
｢Black-scaled kin｣｢Discovered｣
｢!｣
A report from a green-scaled kin.
The vision he had seen was no lie.
An ominous death had taken one step closer to his side.