Chapter 340
Chapter 340
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 340
Chapter Title: Clash with the Ring of Agony
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Putting aside my interest in Alshas for the moment, I focused on the enemy right in front of me.
The bastard who'd shoved me aside was trying to use his gravity manipulation ability again, just like before. As the palms facing each other pulled apart and then came back together, I aimed the tip of my central head straight at him.
I opened my mouth wide, and No. 26, which had been hiding inside, shot out. It leaped down while rapidly enlarging its body and charged at the Ring of Agony. Thousands of serrated tentacles sprouted from its form, wrapping around the ring's arms.
｢-｣
The arms No. 26 couldn't grab clapped together. An invisible force crashed into me and No. 26, but it was much weaker than before. With all its arms restrained, the power had diminished. Thanks to that, No. 26 was holding up just fine.
While No. 26 kept it busy, I prepared my Psychic Breath. Psychic power gathered into the monster tentacles attached to each of my heads. The tentacles, brimming with immense energy, flickered like roaring flames.
The moment I'd gathered a sufficient amount of power, I unleashed the breath. No. 26, sensing the buildup, quickly shrank its body and dodged.
Purple heat rays shot out from all three heads and slammed into the black ring. The impact of the breath sent the ring staggering backward. Even as its arms burned while clasped together, they shifted into a new position.
That's when a small light flickered behind it. The red-and-white mixed glow belonged to Adhai.
While I drew the Vortex One's attention by charging in first, it and the Mother of the Sky had slipped inside undetected.
As the Ring of Agony focused on me as the intruder and attacked, it had circled around to the enemy's rear and finally launched its assault.
A red lightning bolt, too fast to follow with the naked eye, pierced the black ring.
No matter how tough the Vortex One was, it was useless against the ultimate defensive technique, Red Armor. Adhai, cloaked in Red Armor, punched straight through the enemy's body.
The Ring of Agony couldn't withstand this attack and froze mid-counterstrike.
I didn't miss the opening and charged. The moment I collided with it, a short shockwave erupted, and its body lifted slightly into the air.
'Here we go!'
I seized the airborne bastard with my erosion tentacles and wing arms, slamming it against the opposite wall from the surveillance station. The towering command spire in the center, the large docked ships nearby—all sorts of obstacles exploded on impact with it.
｢---｣
Having taken repeated damage, it twisted its body.
'It's finally starting for real.'
This wasn't just from pain. Unlike before, this was the signal that it was about to fight properly from now on.
The half-remaining circular ring body twisted, its ends crossing over. Normally, it would form an infinity symbol—a Möbius strip—but with only half its flesh left, it looked like this.
｢----｣
'Danger!'
Its arms crossed in an X-shape, palms facing outward.
The moment I saw it, I urgently released my grip. Right after I pulled away, black beams of light erupted from its body in all directions.
It was a simple attack of spewing abyssal power from the mouths in its palms, but the results were far from trivial. With thousands, even tens of thousands of mouths firing energy blobs that made up the Vortex One's flesh, it was inevitable.
Black energy projectiles rained down like a storm, obliterating everything around. Whether it was ships covered in thick armor or outer walls dozens of times tougher, nothing survived.
Aside from me, No. 26 and Adhai actively used their abilities to evade the barrage. Adhai dodged the incoming attacks with ease using its signature high mobility. No. 26 shrank to an extremely small size to avoid being hit altogether.
But I couldn't dodge like them because of my massive bulk.
Countless energy rounds raked across my entire body. Even my trait-enhanced carapace wasn't enough to fully block the Vortex One's assault. Holes were punched through my wing arms, back, abdomen—everywhere.
Pain Mitigation
Activated!
Blood gushed from the shattered and pierced wounds. The Pain Mitigation trait kept sending warning messages, as if pleading for me to be careful.
'I can endure this much!'
As long as my heads and heart weren't damaged, I could recover anytime. Right now, I had to trust in the Aimorph's robust vitality.
I endured the rain of death while preparing my next weapon.
'There are still plenty of Cults left in here.'
Cults were hiding in the docked ships and defensive facilities of the surveillance station. They were frozen in panic from the giant monsters suddenly smashing the building.
'If you can't snap out of it, I'll help you along.'
｢-｣
The Ring of Agony stopped its energy barrage and tried to use gravity manipulation again. Since it was using it in this altered form, the destructive power and intensity would be far greater than before.
｢Don't bully big baby!｣
At that moment, No. 26 extended its tentacles toward it. Purple strands from the tentacle tips expanded into a massive membrane, trying to envelop the ring.
｢--｣
The ring's arms shifted from clapping to a prayer-like clasp. It repelled itself backward, dodging No. 26's membrane.
In the meantime, I activated the powerful mental domination trait Herald of Great Chaos. As the trait kicked in, invisible psychic waves burst from my body.
Herald of Great Chaos could distort the cognition of all intelligent beings within a maximum radius of 500 meters. It would be hard to control Cults skilled in psychic power, but right now, they were gripped by terror and had lost their reason.
At this point, it wouldn't be difficult to drive them into near-mad recklessness.
As expected, some of the docked ships began to move. Their minds were probably filled only with the urge to kill the demon right now. The ship cannons on the launching vessels opened fire immediately.
The target was, naturally, the giant monster hovering in the air: the Ring of Agony.
As a few ships took the lead in attacking, others gained courage and joined in. The station's internal defense turrets supported the ships.
｢--｣
With even the previously silent ships turning on it, the enemy switched to defense and counterattack. Psychic heat rays from the ships bounced off its body—some hitting other ships, others slamming into the station's inner walls.
While it dealt with the ships, I lowered my body and crept around to its rear.
'This should do it.'
Positioning myself at a suitable spot, I plunged my wing arms, combat arms, and both legs into the floor of the structure. With my body firmly anchored to prevent shaking, I drew out my erosion tentacles and grabbed it.
｢-｣
'Too late!'
It tried to manipulate gravity on me, but this time I was a step faster. I tensed the limbs embedded in the surveillance station and yanked the tentacles hard.
The monster, more than 1.5 times my size, was helplessly dragged toward me. The half-broken infinity-shaped ring flew past my heads toward the wall opposite my tail tip.
The moment it crashed into the wall, a massive roar echoed as the entire structure tilted sharply. Turning my head, I saw it punching through the outer wall and tumbling out into space.
'Good.'
Phase one of the plan was complete.
I pulled my arms and legs from the station's floor. Then I quickly caught No. 26 as it rolled down the slanted surface.
[Zzuzzu (You okay?)]
｢That was close!｣
｢Me｣｢Fine｣
Adhai flew over to me and landed atop my central head.
I exited the devastated surveillance station alongside them.
｢----｣
The thoroughly pissed-off bastard prepared to fire energy rounds at us.
Just as the arms on its surface began crossing into an X...
A black heat ray from the far reaches of space incinerated its body.
The weapon that struck the Vortex One was called the Black Cannon.
Like the Cosmic Bolt, it was one of the imperial mothership's secondary armaments powered by dark matter.
The imperial motherships, responding to Berzan 02 and the surveillance station's call for aid, had gathered here to eliminate the "main threat."
'Perfect. Time to move to the next phase.'
[Zzuzzu (Take care of it)]
｢Yes｣｢Me｣｢Protect｣｢Little｣｢Adult｣
I handed No. 26 to Adhai and released the Bone Beast form, whose duration was nearly up.
My body, which had grown over three times larger, shrank rapidly. The white carapace covering my entire form lost its vitality and crumbled away.
A considerable sense of fatigue washed over me, but now wasn't the time to rest.
I spun my body once and pulled out my next card.
'Emblem of the Hunt.'
The transformation completed immediately after.
The Adult Aimorph's body evolved once more.
There were two imperial motherships bombarding the Ring of Agony.
One was probably Alshas's ship, the Defender of Berzan 02, and the other was likely from another planet in the Aur system.
Normally, imperial motherships deployed with a full mothership battle group, but here there were only a handful of destroyers. When fighting at Berzan 02, Alshas had included the battle group in the surveillance station's elite fleet.
It was meant to bolster the assault on me, but it backfired. The Black Devourer Cannon wiped out not just the elite fleet but the battle group too, along with several additional imperial motherships.
With its strategy failed, these two motherships were its last bastion. If even they were destroyed, the Aur system would be left utterly defenseless.
'Still going according to plan so far.'
While the motherships bought time against the Vortex One, I checked my evolved body.
This wasn't the first time I'd used Emblem of the Hunt since becoming an Adult.
I'd used it several times when visiting the dragon's nest where Adhai's kin had migrated. Back then, to implant traits into PS-111's mini screamers, I'd made heavy use of Emblem of the Hunt.
'But this is the first time using it in a fight against a strong opponent.'
And it had been a long while since I'd transformed specifically for combat use. I'd always used it to permanently acquire traits.
'So I should inspect my condition.'
Starting with my heads: just like before, my eyes were gone, and the auxiliary organs under my jaws had upgraded. The central head now had its eye sockets covered in carapace like the left and right ones, topped with sharp horns.
The auxiliary organs under the jaws weren't slender tentacles anymore; they were protected by razor-sharp bone blades like tusks flanking the mouth.
The rear head carapace and horns had grown to an incomparable size. Through the auxiliary organs' senses, they felt like a jagged fusion of carapace and horns. Like wearing a throne made of swords from a classic fantasy novel on my head.
The side heads, simpler compared to the central one, had become more ornate and vicious.
Another major change was that all three heads' craniums and oral structures had altered. Their jaws had shifted to a form similar to my Near-Adult mouth, like a snake or crocodile.
Of course, not identical. A second jaw had formed inside the lower one.
｢Grrr｣
As I opened my mouth, the second jaw between my jaw and throat—the pharyngeal jaw—shot out. The tentacle-like tongue from the Harvester's Jaw trait had been replaced by this jaw.
Not just inspired by, but truly resembling an ex-ali-en in appearance.
'Closer to a moray eel than an xeno, though.'
Next, my body: overall much larger, like my heads. My normal, unenhanced length was only 60 meters, but now it easily exceeded 100—probably around 120 meters.
Besides the size increase and missing eyes, one more Emblem of the Hunt trademark remained.
The bone scythe arms sprouting from my back.
Previously, they emerged near the scapula—like shoulder blades on a human—making them ideal for attacking while biting or grappling.
But perhaps due to my Adult body structure changing, the emergence point had shifted.
No longer from the back, but from around my waist below the combat arms. They'd grown extremely long, nearly matching my usual wing arms.
I specified "usual" wing arms because they'd become even larger in Emblem of the Hunt form.
Wings so massive they seemed disproportionate shook above the black sea. Vivid red wave patterns on the inner membranes evoked constellations shining in the night sky.
With my heads, arms, and everything else massively enlarged, my muscles had bulked up enormously too.
Even though their length had roughly doubled, the added muscle made my body so thick that the proportions barely changed. If anything, I felt plumper.
Muscle mass had exploded, so my weight had surged too. If I'd been inside the surveillance station, just standing would have collapsed the floor.
'This overflowing power... I like it.'
From Berzan 02 onward, nonstop battles had drained my stamina. Add the injuries from activating the Tyrantroid, and the energy spent on the Black Devourer Cannon hadn't fully recovered.
But with Emblem of the Hunt temporarily upgrading my body, it felt like some of that lost power had returned.
｢Big｣｢Adult｣｢Horns｣｢Lots｣｢Very｣｢Big｣｢Cool｣｢As｣｢Expected｣
｢Big baby cute.｣
This was the first time the two had seen me shift from Adult to Emblem of the Hunt. At the dragon's nest, Adhai was busy leading, and No. 26 was occupied with the Galleron hatchlings.
｢Deny｣｢Cool｣｢Thing｣｢Cute｣｢Thing｣｢Different｣
｢Cool and cute!｣
｢That｣｢Agree｣
As always, Adhai gave an evaluation based on Galleron instincts. Meanwhile, No. 26 offered a surprisingly cute assessment.
'Cute, huh. Because of this mouth shape?'
My guess was the moray eel-like snout. Deep in the ocean, one could encounter creatures with similar oral structures. Seeing my changed head probably reminded it of animals from home, hence "cute."