Regrouping (1)
'What is going on?'
Mother of the Sky, hidden away in her concealment, lifted her head only after confirming that they had gone. Barely any time had passed since she began watching the nest when the Gallagons had started pouring out in massive numbers. The creatures had erupted from the cliff as if some urgent matter demanded their presence, then hurried into the sky and vanished from sight.
'Why would the Gallagons... don't tell me—'
She looked up at the gloomy heavens. It was still a sky packed solid with dark clouds, but one thing had changed. Within the clouds that shed snow and hail, a golden light flickered at intervals — as if the lightning wasn't striking the ground, but flowing between the clouds themselves.
She realized something had gone terribly wrong. That something had broken.
That lightning — no, that psychic power that merely resembled lightning — was something her comrade had created. His trump card, brought out only when he faced a formidable enemy. The fact that he had used it meant he was in danger.
She weighed whether to go help him, and what to do if she did, before finally making up her mind.
'I'll do what I can do.'
Rising to her feet, she broke into a run toward the cliff where the nest lay.
Thanks to the Gallagons' mass exodus moments ago, there were no White Gallagons left guarding the nest. Precisely speaking, none except Ham Ort, who was held captive by the others.
'If it's not now, extracting her will be nearly impossible.'
Morph-fucker had already told her how valuable Ham Ort was. With every enemy eye drawn to him right now, this was her one and only chance to rescue the creature.
'And she's Adhai's birth mother, too.'
She thought of the small-framed Gallagon. Adhai harbored a tangle of love and resentment toward the mother who had abandoned her.
If Ham Ort perished like this, the girl would lose forever the chance to untangle what festered in her heart.
'She's a pain in the ass sometimes, but...'
For some reason, she didn't want to see Adhai grieving.
'If it's only Green Gallagons, I can punch through.'
That is, if she made proper use of her privilege, the Hunt God's Disguise Husk.
'The Wendigo is the better choice.'
It wasn't the strongest of the phantom beasts she could become, but for disrupting an enemy position and extracting a key figure — as in this situation — the Wendigo was far better suited.
She also had to account for the possibility of a prolonged fight. Once she transformed using the Hunt God's Disguise Husk, she was locked out of every other form for a full month; if she wanted to change again, she had to return to her Gryphon shape and wait out thirty days. Facing what might become a war of attrition, the Wendigo — with its five full days of transformation time — was the obvious pick.
Galloping on all four legs, she activated the Hunt God's Disguise Husk.
At once, the black wave-patterns across her body spread wide and engulfed her entire form. Her skeleton wrenched and twisted, the dense muscles seated throughout her frame shifting and stretching. As her bones reshaped themselves, her spine straightened upright while her hind legs grew thicker and longer than her forelimbs — and the creature that had run on four legs was now bounding on two alone.
Running on those two legs, she tore savagely at the pelt of fur still clinging to her body. Golden fur and flesh peeled away in strips, revealing obsidian-black bone and thin, taut skin beneath. Last of all, she ripped the skin from her face. What remained was the black skull of a bird crowned by enormous, imposing horns — which should by rights have taken the shape of a stag's skull, had not a trace of her Gryphon form lingered within.
Deep inside the hollow, empty sockets, her signature amber eyes burned like will-o'-the-wisps.
In her Wendigo form, her body structure — built for bipedal movement — was similar to her beastman shape. Of course, her appearance was now overwhelmingly more nightmarish and grotesque.
Glancing down at herself even as she ran, she let out a small sigh.
｢The looks still leave a lot to be desired.｣
Transformed into the Wendigo, Mother of the Sky began climbing down the cliff face with both hands and both feet. The nest had not yet noticed her intrusion.
The cruiser's main gun had wreathed Od Grad in fire, and his shape was lost from view. While the creature burned within the flames, I flew toward the cruiser that carried PS-111.
The other Gallagons, too, turned on the ship that had struck their leader. The ivory vessel opened cannon fire on the approaching enemies. The medium and light cannons studding its hull spat fire in unison, violet-glowing rounds streaking toward the Gallagons in flight.
The White Gallagons evaded the barrage with practiced ease, but the younger Green Gallagons could not. Several of the green-scaled creatures fell from the sky with their wings punctured through.
A White Gallagon, enraged by the sight, began charging its breath. The moment I saw its tentacle cluster flood with purple, I accelerated and slammed into it body-first.
｢!｣
Caught completely off guard by the ambush, the White Gallagon wrenched its head around toward me.
Its psychic breath slammed into my head carapace. What it had expected, no doubt, was the sight of me plummeting riddled with holes — but reality, regrettably for it, betrayed that expectation. The reflected heat ray bored straight through its throat. The light dimmed and died in those eyes like amethysts, and I opened my jaws right there and began to chew through the Gallagon's skull.
'I'd love to save this for Adhai, but...'
I'd already tried once; their interdiction was too heavy to manage it out here. I flung away the headless corpse and began charging my psychic breath.
Midway through the conversion of the energy stored within me into psychic power, a voice came from the cruiser.
"I am relieved to confirm all parties unharmed. Do you have an operation for me?"
The reason I had summoned PS-111 here was none other than the cruiser she rode in. That ship was the only means by which we could slip out of this place alive.
I was in the middle of transmitting my thoughts to her when a high-output psychic breath came screaming in from behind. I ducked my head just in time.
The target of that dark-purple breath was not me, but PS-111, positioned at the far end of my flight path.
The ship under her control threw itself into emergency evasive maneuvers. The ray traveled too fast, however, and the evasion fell short — the cruiser took a hit near its tail.
As the diamond-shaped cruiser lurched violently, I felt Od Grad's psychic blasts hammering out from behind me.
｢Pathetic little runts!｣
It went without saying that a cruiser's main gun could not kill a Black Gallagon. As befit a psychic organism, the thing possessed a natural resistance to Cult weaponry, and a creature of Black Gallagon caliber had hide grown fantastically thick besides.
That wasn't to say it had escaped unscathed, though. Look at the thing's left flank where the main gun had struck dead-on: the scales there had been torn away, and blood dripped in fat, slow drops.
In truth it was little worse than a deep graze, but the creature seemed utterly furious at having been wounded by a surprise attack. Foam drooling from its jaws, its eyes promised to tear the cruiser apart on the spot.
｢Traitors!｣｢The crime of striking Od Grad｣｢Shall be repaid in death!｣
'Perfect.'
The more attention it lavished on the cruiser, the better.
[Zzzzt zzzt zzzzt (Draw their eyes for me, just for a while)]
"Five minutes. Amending my earlier estimate due to the hit we sustained. Enduring beyond three minutes will be difficult."
That was more than enough.
While PS-111 pulled the Gallagons' gazes toward the cruiser, I flew toward where Adhai and Nel Germa fought.
The two of them were moving in perfect concert, as if they were twins.
Adhai threw her characteristically small frame and blistering speed into every opening in the enemy line. Each time she shook the Gallagons' formation apart, Nel Germa — bristling with firepower — picked off the creatures that had drifted out of position.
｢Small one｣｢Trouble｣｢Big one｣｢First｣
After falling for the same trick several times over, Od Grad's mates finally moved to eliminate Nel Germa.
'Not a chance.'
I had no intention of allowing that, and I unleashed the psychic breath I had been holding in reserve. This time it was an ordinary breath, stripped of the Color of the Abyss.
The Gallagons scattered in haste to evade, but one of them failed to clear the blast — the very mate that had been acting as bait. It tried to gain altitude and escape, and instead its lower body was blown clean off.
[Zzzz (Grab it)]
｢Black kin｣｢Command｣｢Confirmed｣
Hearing my psychic blast, Nel Germa darted over and seized the corpse — all that remained of it was a torso.
With one mate dead so absurdly, the remaining six fell into open panic. While they reeled from the shock, I called Nel Germa and Adhai to me.
[Zzzzt zzzz zzzt zzzz (We finish here and fall back)]
｢Enemy｣｢Many｣｢How?｣
To the two of them asking how we would break out, I laid out the plan.
｢Difficult｣｢But｣｢Only way｣
｢Agree｣｢Big Adult｣｢Possible｣
｢Don't worry! I'll protect Big Baby!｣
It was an operation with an enormous amount of risk, honestly speaking — but they put their faith in me. I took the mate's corpse from Nel Germa and withdrew. Leaving behind the sight of them re-engaging the Gallagon pack in the aerial fight, I flew for the cruiser.
Only a few minutes had passed since the battle began, and the cruiser was already half-destroyed. It was hovering on thrusters alone, barely clinging to the sky.
As I flew, I sent a wave to PS-111.
[Zzzzt zzzzzz zzzzt (You can overload the engines, can't you?)]
"The ship's computer architecture is more complex than anticipated, but it is sufficiently possible."
[Zzzzz z zzzz zzzzt (Overload them, then prepare to run)]
"Confirmed."
In this respect, you could say being half machine had its advantages. Even facing a dangerous order that could blow her sky-high at any moment, she obeyed without a heartbeat of hesitation.
'Not that I intend to let her die.'
As I drew near, Od Grad turned his head. And only then — belatedly — did the creature register that I had killed one of his mates.
｢You｣
Od Grad showed no great reaction to his mate's death. The dark-purple flame smoldering in his eyes simply burned deeper.
I bit the head off the female Gallagon's corpse and hurled the body straight at him. His gaze flicked toward it for an instant. And the moment No. 26 puppeted the corpse to blind his line of sight, I unleashed the Gaze of Horror, sheathed in the Color of the Abyss.
The foam bubbles blooming across my head carapace shot toward him, hidden behind the flying corpse. This time too, his danger sense must have glimpsed the future, for he frantically tore open the distance between us.
Seizing that opening, I fired off a wave to PS-111.
[Zzzzz zzzzzz (Now. Jump)]
A few seconds after my wave went out, the ship's hangar bay ground open, revealing PS-111. Hearing my command, she leapt from the hangar platform without a moment's hesitation.
A Mutant Screamer plummeting with no auxiliary equipment whatsoever. I adjusted my wings to snatch her out of the air.
My wings folded, and my body dropped into a steep descent. And the very instant I was about to close my grip on her, a second sun rose into the planet's atmosphere.
The clouds my God's Whip had split apart were swept up into the massive detonation and swallowed from view once more.
I clamped my wing-arms tight around No. 26 and PS-111 on my back. A heartbeat later, the blast wave crashed over the spot where I hung.
The shockwave piled on top of my falling velocity, and my body hurtled toward the ground at accelerating speed. Then the impact hit — a ferocious, full-body collision with the earth.
'Where's Od Grad?'
Messages announcing that Pain Mitigation had activated flooded my vision, but I ignored them and snapped my gaze upward. In that cloud-choked sky there was nothing left but a sphere of light so fierce it seared the eye.
And outside that sphere, small dots were visible. There were not many of them — those tiny specks beyond the blast's boundary.
｢Black slaughterer!｣｢Slaughterer!｣｢Unforgivable!｣｢Unforgivable!｣｢Unforgivable!｣
A psychic blast strong enough to be felt even from the ground. The author of those messages, their vocabulary stripped down to nothing by sheer, incandescent rage, was Od Grad.
How much damage he and his subordinates had taken was an open question, but I judged they had suffered no small amount. Adhai and Nel Germa, whom I had warned in advance, scrambled out of the blast radius the instant they felt the tremor through their bodies. The Gallagons had not.
[Zzzzt zzzzt zzzzzz zzz zzzzt (Now we hide and slip away. Help me out here)]
｢Okay! Big Baby's hurt, so I'll help with everything!｣
The crash had ground the bones of my wing-arms into powder, and a section of my head carapace had shattered. Fortunately, No. 26 and PS-111, cradled against my chest, had come through without a scratch.
No. 26 emerged from me, puffed her body up, and used her psychokinesis to float me just above the ground. Then, following my instructions, she began boring a tunnel with her Demon Crash.
[Zzzzz zzzzt zzzzt zzz zzz zzzzzz zzzzt (We're gathering up corpses along the way. PS-111, you handle that part)]
"Understood."
The area around here was littered with Gallagon corpses — the ones that had fallen fighting us. Salvaging even a portion of them would feed Adhai's growth.
PS-111 moved to carry out my order, then abruptly stopped.
"I have something to report."
[Zzzz (What is it?)]
"I was modified to withstand atmospheric descent without significant damage. What was the meaning of your earlier action?"
Her question left me without an answer — because I genuinely didn't know the reason myself.
'Wait. Now that I think about it... I feel like I've heard something about that before...'
As I sat there in silence with nothing to say, No. 26 answered in my place.
｢Big Baby helped because he was scared his friend would get hurt! A friend is Big Baby's family. Right?｣
"Is that so?"
It had been an unconscious act, but there was no particular need to say so. I kept my mouths shut, and PS-111 bowed her head toward me in thanks.
"Thank you for your consideration, Amorph."
[Zz (Right)]
After that, we hid ourselves from the enemies' eyes in the tunnel No. 26 had carved.
The enraged Od Grad cursed my name as he raked psychic breath across the forest again and again. He showed every sign of not stopping until every last one of us was hunted down and dead — and yet, surprisingly, his offensive ended almost as soon as it began. Something had gone wrong back at the nest, and his subordinates went hurrying back the way they had come.
｢Black slaughterer!｣｢I swear upon the name of the Great Od Grad｣｢You will die by my hand!｣
With that final psychic blast, the creature vanished along with his followers.
'Was that Mother of the Sky's doing?'
Just as PS-111 had come running the moment she saw the God's Whip fire, perhaps she too had realized I was in danger and launched a diversion.
'She'll be fine.'
It would be a lie to say I felt no worry at all — but she was a ranker, same as me. She'd slip out of there safely enough.
And so the first round against the Black Dragon came to an end.
This time it had ended in something close to a draw. Next time would be different.
The moment we met again, he would die by my hand.