Side Story: The First Monster War
The place known as PH-101 to the Mega Corp was called Saegil-08 in the Cult Empire.
Designated a holy site by the Cult, the planet boasted a mysterious and dangerous natural world, complete with a dazzling array of ecosystems. Rare creatures found nowhere else roamed its entire surface, and Wolf native tribes dwelled there, maintaining their own civilization in open hostility to the outside world.
The simplest way to define the place was as a 'dangerous paradise.'
With barely a footprint of external civilization having ever touched this planet, it had enjoyed the Cult Empire's strict protection. Pirates and smugglers had occasionally cast covetous eyes on the paradise, and the Mega Corp's deranged researchers had made attempts at infiltration, but success stories were vanishingly rare. The vast majority were blasted to pieces by the Empire's defense fleets before ever entering the planet's atmosphere.
That said, the claim that this was a well-preserved natural world was already a thing of the past.
Black flames raining down from the ends of the sky, and golden lightning fired up from the ground by a demon. The fallout of a war between transcendent beings was washing over the entire planet.
The planet's sky was a complete mess of magnetic storms and the debris of the annihilated mothership fleet. The trees that had dyed the surface green burned fiercely, and the countless creatures living within them were roasted alive.
Some creatures had the luck to escape with their lives, but they were hardly better off. The fire spread wider with every passing hour, and their territory was shrinking in turn.
Beasts that normally lived in an endless cycle of eating and being eaten were, for this one moment, sheltering from the flames together.
The Nightstalker, a predator with the body of a black panther and the legs of a spider, snuck a lick of its lips as it eyed the Wood Devil fleeing alongside it.
The singed body of the other beast carried a distinctive smell. That delicious scent was driving the Nightstalker insane.
It knew full well that evading the fire came before attacking each other, right now. But that smell was maddeningly, irresistibly alluring.
“Grrrrr.”
Dominated by overwhelming hunger, the Nightstalker drooled as it ran. The Wood Devil had no idea what the creature behind it was thinking.
“Grr… grr?!”
The moment the Nightstalker lunged at its prey—
its body froze in midair as if nailed in place. Panicked, it tried to break free of the unseen force, but it was useless.
That invisible power crushed its bones without giving it so much as a chance to resist. The Wood Devil in front of it met the same fate.
In an instant, the two creatures, their skeletons shattered from head to tail, floated up into the air and drifted away somewhere.
Flying between the burning trees, they came to rest in front of a pink creature.
The pink creature resembled a jellyfish, but its size made the comparison laughable. Even the corpses of the Nightstalker and the Wood Devil combined would have failed to match half its bulk.
Countless fins and tentacles extended from beneath its rounded body, and the inner sides of those fins and tentacles were packed with small claws reminiscent of saw blades.
It was a creature that should never, under any circumstances, have been seen in a forest like this. The monster's habitat was not the land, but the deep, deep blue sea.
A monster among monsters, bearing the title of Demon of the Deep Sea — the Sea Demon.
The creature stretched out its tentacles and wound them around the corpses.
｢Gotta hurry and bring these to Big Baby.｣
Sea Demon No. 26 began to move, hauling the corpses with her.
The firestorm that had swallowed the whole forest lunged to scorch her soft, pliable skin.
Each time the flames drew near, she released a burst of psionic power. Each time, not only the fire but the trees around her blew apart — and she couldn't have cared less.
As No. 26 scorched her way through the forest, a wide clearing opened up before her. Truthfully it was less a clearing than a small plain, and there, close by, lay the being she cherished most in all the world.
The colossal monster that had burned the sky itself had spent every last ounce of its strength and fallen into a deep slumber.
Before the monster's elongated snout, the meat of every manner of creature lay piled up like a mountain. All of it had been gathered to feed the sleeping beast.
No. 26 approached the corpse pile to arrange the food into easy-to-eat shapes. Just as she was laying a piece down, something small tumbled from the sky.
Small beasts and insects that lived in the forest.
｢Food.｣ ｢Brought.｣
Soon the being that had dropped the little morsels landed in front of No. 26.
A long, sleek body, a bundle of small tentacles in place of a mouth, and wings as large as its body — a rare creature from a place far, far beyond this planet. A Galagon.
The green of its scales marked it as a fairly matured individual, yet its size was minuscule compared to other Green Galagons.
Adhai, the mutant female Galagon, nodded to herself in satisfaction as she gazed at the prey she'd caught.
｢Me.｣ ｢Lots.｣ ｢Brought.｣
Her tone clearly demanded praise, promptly — but No. 26 had no intention of giving it. Because what Adhai had just done had thoroughly soured her mood.
｢?｣
｢I stacked it up so it'd be easy to eat, and you ruined it, Little Baby.｣
｢Food.｣ ｢Stomach.｣ ｢Digests.｣ ｢Same.｣ ｢Shape.｣ ｢Doesn't.｣ ｢Matter.｣
Adhai's logic was that everything tasted the same once it hit the mouth. But No. 26 couldn't agree.
Sleeping Big Baby was picky when it came to meals. Unlike her, who happily ate any and all prey, Big Baby carefully weighed which morsels would taste best, and which part of the prey to eat first.
That was exactly why she had laid the food out the way Big Baby liked it — and Adhai had wrecked it.
｢Put it back.｣
｢Comprehend.｣ ｢Cannot.｣
｢I'm going to serve Big Baby's favorites first.｣
Adhai looked disgruntled, but obeyed without a word. The two of them shared the same heart: wanting to give the best food first to the one they loved.
Adhai lifted the corpse of a boar bristling with dozens of head-spikes and placed it on the very top. When she perched her own catch at the peak of the pile, No. 26 bristled.
｢What are you doing!｣
｢Big Elder.｣ ｢Likes this.｣ ｢More.｣
｢No! He likes THIS more!｣
｢Deny.｣
As No. 26 tried to move the food with her tentacles, Adhai blocked her halfway. No. 26 flowed psionic power out like she was brushing away a flying insect and shoved the Galagon aside.
｢Cheater!｣
She had used psionic power first. So Adhai decided to do exactly the same. When No. 26 swept the boar away and put something else on top, Adhai whipped into motion with her Super Acceleration and restored the pile to its original state.
｢Why'd you move it!｣
｢This.｣ ｢Better.｣ ｢More.｣
Just as the two of them stood glaring at each other, a griffin emerged from the burning forest, its back heaped high with prey.
A beast with the head of a white-haired eagle, a golden mane, and the body of a lioness — and around the phantom beast's neck hung a sapphire necklace.
It was Mother of the Sky, comrade to the monsters gathered here. Like No. 26 and Adhai, she had been gathering food in the forest, and she cocked her head at the strange tension in the air.
｢What's this? You were both already he— why's the mood so weird?｣
｢Little Elder.｣ ｢Bullies.｣ ｢Me.｣
｢Little Baby started it!｣
｢Comprehend.｣ ｢Cannot.｣ ｢Little Elder.｣ ｢Food.｣ ｢Moved.｣ ｢On purpose.｣
｢Big Baby doesn't like that.｣
｢Wrong.｣ ｢Little Elder.｣ ｢Doesn't know.｣ ｢Knows.｣ ｢Nothing.｣ ｢At all.｣
“Hold on a second. You're fighting over what to feed the Morph-f… ahem, Big, Big Baby first?”
｢Yes.｣
｢Agree.｣
Mother of the Sky was speechless.
The colossal monster lying before them right now — the Morph-fucker — was a being that saw every living creature as nothing more than Genetic Essence. If it was edible, it would devour it without a second thought.
“That thing'll happily eat anything you put in front of it. Can't you just stack it all together?”
“No. If it gets cold, it tastes bad.”
｢Little Elder.｣ ｢Wrong.｣ ｢About other things.｣ ｢But.｣ ｢Her words.｣ ｢Correct.｣
“Little Baby, that was mean! Mean children need to be scolded!”
｢Fight.｣ ｢Not.｣ ｢Avoiding.｣
“Wait wait wait—!”
As the air between the Sea Demon and the Galagon turned murderous, Mother of the Sky hastily intervened.
If those two actually came to blows, Adhai would be finished on the spot. That pink slime might have an adorable way of talking, but it was a monster capable of hurling a house-sized boulder hundreds of meters. One flick of that power at Adhai, and she'd be ground to paste without even a bone left to rattle.
“Why don't you just pile them up in two separate stacks instead?”
“Separate?”
“Yeah. Th-then when Big, Big Baby wakes up, he can just eat whichever he's in the mood for.”
｢Cumbersome.｣ ｢Useless.｣
“You both want to give him what you brought first, don't you? This way's much cleaner. No?”
As she desperately pled her case, the tempers of No. 26 and Adhai cooled just as fast. Their anger toward each other died away — only to be replaced by a slowly rising tide of competition.
“I'm going to bring back more!”
｢Little Elder.｣ ｢Slow.｣ ｢Me.｣ ｢Fast.｣
Adhai spread her wings wide and shot into the air at full power. She streaked off toward the far side of the forest at a speed far beyond anything she'd managed while fighting Pale Mask at sea.
“I won't lose either!”
No. 26 busily paddled her fins and plunged into the fire-filled depths of the forest.
Once the two small monsters had vanished, Mother of the Sky let out a long sigh. Her amber eyes turned resentfully toward the sleeping giant.
'That Morph-fucker bastard. You're going to be the death of me one day.'
First he'd had her explaining how eggs were laid, and now the two of them were competing over who could serve him better meals. Either one alone would be unremarkable among ordinary creatures — but these were two beings that each sat at the very apex of their respective ecosystems.
If those two ever truly came to blows someday, a bloodbath of apocalyptic proportions would follow.
'And here I was planning to gather more food too….'
Mother of the Sky stacked the prey she'd carried on her back in one corner. Then she flopped down onto the bone-dry earth, a small morsel of freshly caught food clamped in her beak.
'Doesn't seem like there's any real point, though.'
She waited, tearing at her food the way one might strip a squid, and before long Adhai reappeared first. Flying in at blistering speed, she dropped her prey from the sky without ever touching down.
Having carpet-bombed the ground like a strategic bomber, the Galagon wheeled around and flew off again.
'If she doesn't tidy up, they might fight over it.'
Mother of the Sky stacked the prey Adhai had left in front of the Morph-fucker.
By the time Adhai had made about ten round trips, No. 26 emerged from the forest. At the sight of her, Mother of the Sky dropped the morsel right out of her mouth.
'Holy crap?! What the hell is THAT?'
The corpses of five fully grown Plant Lizards and another three or four monsters of equally enormous bulk floated through the air, drifting in formation. Beneath them, No. 26 was ferrying the monster carcasses with her psionic power.
｢Where do I put them?｣
“…Over there.”
The creature dumped the corpses where Mother of the Sky had pointed, then bounced away on her fins and vanished beyond the trees.
The moment she was gone, Adhai appeared. The Galagon, who had refused to land even once this entire time, finally touched down on the ground.
Her beautiful amethyst eyes locked unerringly onto the food pile No. 26 had built.
｢That.｣ ｢Little Elder's.｣ ｢Food?｣
“Yes.”
Adhai gave her head an irritated shake and took to the air again.
'…Damn it. Did I just make a mistake?'
Something told her this rivalry between the two was far from ordinary. And she was right.
Their competition continued until Adhai could no longer fly at all. As it happened, No. 26 had also burned through so much energy that her body had shrunk considerably.
Before Amorph now lay a mountain of corpses, built from countless creatures. Some had died in the flames, but the vast majority were the pitiful casualties of the two small monsters' rivalry.
'…Terrifying creatures.'
It would have been nice if things ended there, but now a different dispute flared up.
“My food is bigger!”
｢Me.｣ ｢More.｣ ｢Brought.｣ ｢Me.｣ ｢Won.｣
“No! Big food is better food!”
｢Deny.｣ ｢Little Elder.｣ ｢Doesn't know.｣ ｢Doesn't.｣ ｢Know.｣ ｢Anything.｣ ｢Nothing.｣ ｢At all!｣
Adhai was so exhausted she couldn't so much as twitch a wing, but her mouth was still very much alive, and it was grating on No. 26's every nerve. No. 26 clearly wanted to smack her with a tentacle, but her strength had drained away, leaving her reduced to fuming impotently.
And then the sparks flew at a third party.
｢Middle Baby, who did better?｣
“Huh?”
｢Good friend.｣ ｢Correct answer.｣ ｢Please.｣
As both monsters turned to stare at her, Mother of the Sky panicked.
'Why are you asking ME that?'
Taking either side right now wouldn't cause an immediate problem, but the future consequences terrified her. One was a semi-raid-boss-class creature; the other was a being with the potential to become something truly horrific.
Earning the grudge of either of them was a crushing burden for someone who had only just joined the Morph-fucker's group.
“Uh, th-then why don't we just call it a tie? She'd probably want that to—”
“No. Big Baby likes big food too. He won't be happy even if you give him lots of small, tasteless prey.”
｢Little Elder.｣ ｢All.｣ ｢Wrong.｣ ｢Big Elder.｣ ｢Food.｣ ｢Count.｣ ｢Important.｣ ｢Amount.｣ ｢Not. ｣ ｢Important.｣
Given the atmosphere, brushing the question off was simply not an option.
Just as she was agonizing over how to answer—
“Grrrrr.”
the voice of a savior rang out.
She whipped her head around to find the sleeping monster opening its eyes.
Having slept almost straight through for two days, the monster rose, stretching out its many arms in a long, luxurious extension.
[zzz zzzz zzzz zzzz (Something smells delicious)]
“No. 26 and Adhai brought you food! Eat up, quick.”
[zz zzz (Hm? Right?)]
Mother of the Sky deftly tossed the decision into his lap. Freshly woken, he scratched beneath his chin with one arm as he looked down at the piled food.
Then, apparently having made up his mind, he extended his arm.
“Huh?”
Amorph used the membranes beneath his combat arms to sweep up the entire food piles and pour them straight into his mouth. It happened so fast that determining whose prey had been eaten first was simply impossible.
｢Big Elder.｣ ｢Ate everything.｣
“So who won?”
Having devoured it all and left behind barely a few scraps, Amorph stretched out his arms and pulled No. 26 and Adhai into an embrace.
[zzz zzz zzzzzz zzzz (Thank you for taking care of me, both of you)]
｢Big Baby, does it still hurt?｣
｢Big Elder.｣ ｢Okay now?｣
[zzz zzzz zzzzzz zzzz zzz zzzz zzzzz (Yes. It would have been disastrous without you two. This is all thanks to you)]
Was it exhaustion, or was it the feeling of being wrapped in the carapace of the one they loved?
No. 26 and Adhai wanted to ask whose food had tasted better, but they couldn't. An unbearable wave of drowsiness crashed over them both. Before either could ask the question, they had already sunk into sleep.
[zzz zzzzzzzz (They must have been really tired, huh?)]
“…You really have a lot of sins to answer for, you know.”
[zzz (Hm?)]
“Never mind.”
Mother of the Sky let out a small sigh.
With the sky and the earth both burning around them, Amorph — blissfully oblivious to all of it — gently patted the sleeping No. 26 and Adhai.