Chapter 335
Chapter 335
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 335
Chapter Title: The Black Devourer Cannon
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Green, purple, and countless other paints tangled together, dyeing the black carapace. Blasphemous colors that seemed to embody chaos itself crept slowly up onto my head.
｢Hiss...｣
｢Sss...｣
The collector bugs hurriedly retreated upon seeing me emit an ominous glow. As always, those greedy 'colors' paid no mind to what their enemies were doing.
The predatory light resembling an Aimorph wrapped around the monster's tentacles. The gathered energy was far less than when I'd been enhanced into a 'Tyrantroid,' but that didn't mean it could be ignored. The psychic breath bolstered by abyssal hues was more threatening than anything else.
Like water droplets trailing down stalactites, the energy gathered at the tips of my three extended heads took on spherical form.
Given my massive size, the abyssal-hue-enhanced psychic orbs were enormous. Specimen 026 riding on my back manipulated their trajectory right on cue.
The enhanced psychic breath hurtled forward at tremendous speed. It detonated above the collector bugs like soap bubbles bursting against an object.
There was no intense explosion like before. The iridescent foam silently sucked in the bug swarm. Any bug that tried to flee would only invite more death.
'Good. This should finish them off.'
The moment that thought crossed my mind.
Something unbelievable happened before my very eyes.
The bugs touched by the enhanced psychic breath's foam turned blue before vanishing from my sight.
A gap opened in the swarm where some bugs had disappeared, revealing the queen. Her myriad eyes still held traces of blue afterimages.
Alshas, perched atop the queen, smirked mockingly at me.
'That was Warp Boy's ability just now.'
By lore, Outspacers hailed from another universe. That meant their faster-than-light travel methods differed from other species.
Outspacers required a bio portal to move. No matter how many Metallic Gremlins they devoured, they couldn't steal Warp Boy's teleportation ability, 'Warp Guide.'
So there was only one answer.
Player perks.
Unlike the game, they could enhance their legion without restrictions—or perhaps they'd acquired FTL capabilities through some method I didn't know.
'...The good news is it's not exactly like the original.'
If they could perform FTL travel without penalties like Warp Boy, there'd be no need to send troops through bio portals. They could just bring their entire legion with multiple queens.
The queen with Alshas might be specialized for mobility, or there could be limits on FTL for the whole legion.
'Either way, I need to deal with that thing first.'
I'd originally planned to destroy the pit's bio portal, but circumstances had changed.
The queen was more dangerous than the portal. I had no idea the extent of her abilities or their effects.
I released the abyssal hues and prepared a standard psychic breath. My plan was to clear the enemies in front with it, then close in on the queen in one go.
The moment I moved to execute that plan, a powerful energy reaction flared from outside the bio dome. It was the divine lightning—Thunder God—that I'd taken twice before and knew well.
A golden beam pierced the dome's outer wall before slamming into my wings. My body lurched, sending the psychic breath veering off course. The purple blast punched a new hole in the dome still sheltering the water fortress and dissipated.
I lifted my central head to check above.
Beyond the gaping hole floated unwelcome enemies.
Numerous ships filled the red sky. They were the Surveillance Bureau's elite fleet, the same ones I'd seen before infiltrating Berzan-02. Mixed among them were the Thunder God and imperial motherships.
'Alshas!'
He hadn't just been spectating from the queen's back. He'd likely contacted the Surveillance Bureau off-planet using a clone.
"MPS-05's situation is dire. There are too many enemies on the surface as well."
｢There's a bad flappy thing up there that bullied the big baby.｣
Outspacers below and in front, elite fleet above.
This was the first crisis since becoming an adult.
'How do I break through?'
The imperial mothership had Cosmic Bolt, but it needed charge time and couldn't fire immediately. My carapace could withstand their other attacks.
'Lure the Outspacers and Cults into fighting each other?'
The idea flashed briefly, but I dismissed it.
Alshas and the Outspacer queen weren't idiots. The odds of them falling for my disruption here were low.
'Enlarge with Bone Beast and fight? Or use Hunting Specter now?'
Neither was bad, but they lacked the decisiveness to turn the tide. With enemy numbers so vast, even I had limits on how many I could kill alone.
Besides, the foes weren't rabble. Even without fully grasping my intent, they'd adapt somehow.
'To counter that, I need a decisive blow.'
Like how the collector bugs recoiled from the abyssal hues out of instinctual fear.
I needed overwhelming terror.
'What could... Wait.'
A certain trait flickered through my mind as I pondered.
A trait I'd acquired from the pirates' fortress but never used.
'Black Devourer Cannon!'
I summoned the text box while clashing against the charging collector bugs.
Black Devourer Cannon: Infinite power lies in your grasp. Fires a shell consuming 50% of your total stored energy.
*P.S.: Proceed with caution.
The Black Devourer Cannon was the sole trait I'd created after escaping the pirate space fortress. The bio-cannon on my left tail existed solely for this trait.
Among traits made with the transcendence system, its tooltip was the simplest. Consume energy to fire a shell—that was it. The only caveat was the 50% max energy cost.
'Looks fine so far, but...'
The reason I felt I shouldn't let my guard down while reading it was that P.S. at the bottom.
In the game and this world, I'd seen countless traits, but none with just a warning to be careful.
'I considered using it against Gigacracker once but held off.'
I'd skipped testing because stealing Gigacracker seemed more profitable. No chances since, so I'd forgotten it.
'Perfect timing.'
I tore apart incoming collector bugs and flew out of the bio dome. The flying monster swarm, including the queen carrying Alshas and Isabel, pursued me.
Outside, a multitude of warships welcomed me. The Thunder God activated, and battleship main guns blazed.
The red sky, like a sunless night, filled with gold and purple. In response, I deployed my ultimate shield.
Intangible haze flowed from my body, coalescing into a flat tray shape. The completed transparent tray refracted and dispersed natural light like a prism.
The sole trait that could reflect energy: 'Complex Spectrum Disperser.'
The sky-filling energy beams collided with the finished Complex Spectrum Disperser.
Not one pierced the transparent tray. The lights meant to kill me returned whence they came. Energy clashed with the elite fleet's ships, illuminating the sky.
"Estimated losses to the Cult elite fleet from this attack: 1% to 3% of total forces."
PS-111's voice came from above my head. Minimal damage for such a spectacular barrage. Alshas must have ordered countermeasures.
'Doesn't matter.'
The real attack hadn't even begun.
After blocking the salvo, I charged straight at the elite fleet. The pursuing Outspacer swarm shifted targets toward the fleet.
To protect against my assault amid their disrupted formation, they'd made that choice.
'Not a bad call, but...'
In this situation, a grave mistake.
Cults and Outspacers—bitter foes in the game—now clustered together.
I maneuvered my left tail, aiming at the target. With the cannon barrel trained on the enemy, I activated the unknown trait, Black Devourer Cannon.
The instant it triggered, crushing fatigue overwhelmed me. Like when I'd first fired psychic breath as a subadult.
My head went blank, followed by a torrent of energy. Vast power surged to my left tail. It felt like all the blood in my body rushed to one spot. I nearly halted my wingbeats and plummeted.
Just before 'it' launched from my tail, my auxiliary organs detected an anomaly.
The surrounding space warped strangely. As if some unidentified 'something' was distorting space itself.
The moment I registered that, 'it' fired from my tail.
How to describe it?
If abyssal hues exemplified excess color and light, this was the opposite. True to its devourer name, 'it' sucked in all color and light.
'It' devoured light, air, color—every element of nature—as it flew. In its wake lingered only deep darkness vaguely akin to the mystery shell.
And when 'it' became invisible to the eye.
Calamity struck the gathered foes.
I'd mistaken it for a tiny dot at first. Small enough to dismiss as an illusion.
But no.
It spread like ink dropped on rice paper.
Like nightfall swallowing the sun.
The black ink stripped color from ships and Outspacer swarms.
No one resisted the black 'it.' Not the Cults' prized shields, the Thunder God's lightning, or the Outspacers' blue glow. None escaped 'it.'
'It,' which seemed poised to devour even the sun, vanished in an instant.
The black that had invaded the canvas of the sky receded, red filling the void.
Everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened from the start. Everything except the ships and Outspacer swarms consumed by 'it.'
The surviving collector bugs and elite fleet amounted to about 20% of before. The queen carrying Alshas and Isabel was among them.
They didn't attack me.
No—more precisely, they couldn't muster the will to.
What would it feel like to watch comrades vanish in mere seconds?
One emotion surely dominated their minds.
Overwhelming terror.
'Bone Beast activation.'
Time to drive that terror home.
｢...My god.｣
The Mother of the Sky stared blankly at the sky beyond the dome's hole.
Standing motionless amid battle was unthinkable for her usual self, but in this moment, it didn't matter.
The Outspacer stake bugs fighting her were in the same state.
A single drop of ink on red paper had spread uncontrollably. That mere black speck had devoured the sky's ships and Outspacers.
No blasts of war, no screams of terror—utter silence.
It was a quiet massacre.
'That's almost Vortex Core level.'
As a ranker, she'd hunted many raid bosses. The destruction unfolding in the sky rivaled fights with Vortex Cores or Red Gallerons.
The Coldbloods she'd saved reacted much like when facing a Vortex Core. Trembling behind her, they seemed more terrified than confronting a giant monster up close.
She fired pressure-manipulating particles at them, half-delirious from extreme fear. A slight stimulation via the particles made their bodies shudder.
｢Snap out of it, everyone!｣
“!”
｢Now's our chance! Get to the airships over there!｣
The 40 Coldbloods regained their senses and fled to safety. Mini Mutant Screamers and MPS-05 followed.
The nickname 'safest city on the planet' was now a thing of the past. Hiding in the sandy desert outside seemed far safer.
｢Grooooaaar!｣
'Tch!'
As the Coldbloods and MPS-05 boarded the airship, the stake bugs began moving again.