Port District (4)
"Gahk!"
The sniper who had fallen from atop the container retched up a mouthful of blood. His heart had been pierced through and his body slammed into the ground, yet what surfaced on his face was not pain but bewilderment.
He couldn't understand how he'd ended up like this. Where the attack had come from, who had shot him — he would never know.
The sniper who had been such a nuisance to me died without ever solving the mystery.
｢What just happened?｣
｢...Dewayne's link just dropped.｣
Once I confirmed the sniper had stopped breathing, I approached Jade.
Between my neurotoxin coursing through him, Jade could barely manage to move his eyes. Which meant he'd been forced to watch his comrade die, filtered through nothing at all.
How would he take the fact that his friend had died right in front of him, because of him?
Would it hurt more than broken limbs? Would he burn with a thirst for revenge on his comrade's behalf? Or would he simply resign himself to it — I'll be following soon enough?
'Not that he's dying anytime soon.'
His suffering wasn't over yet. I intended to hunt down every last one of the comrades he'd brought with him before killing him too.
I turned Jade's body so his field of vision faced another direction, then went over to the sniper's corpse.
The armor of the sniper who had remained invisible right up until my bone spike found him had returned to its original state.
'High-grade powered armor, huh?'
Going by the names alone, high-grade and mid-grade powered armor didn't sound so different, but in reality the gap was considerable.
If mid-grade armor still looked close to ordinary clothing, high-grade was practically a full armored suit.
The sniper's equipment was indeed a sleek, high-tech suit of armor.
'Looks like he sacrificed defense to stack a bunch of option modules.'
I'd have liked to examine it further, but we were in the middle of a fight. I put the armor out of my mind and grabbed the corpse.
'The right hand should do.'
Gripping the corpse's right hand with my combat arm, I pulled hard. Perhaps thanks to Amorph's transcendent strength, the hand tore free along with the wrist.
Holding the bleeding wrist in one hand, I picked up the sniper coilgun lying beside the corpse with the other.
'Fingerprint scanner... ah, there it is.'
A sniper coilgun had no separate trigger. Instead, a fingerprint sensor on its right side meant only a registered user could fire it.
'So that's the design — security first.'
I pressed the sniper's finger against the sensor beside the coilgun. A moment later an electronic chime sounded and the weapon powered on.
'Let's check the ammunition first.'
Touching the terminal mounted on the coilgun with a finger brought up a list of rounds on the display. Among them, only the AP rounds were glowing yellow.
'Excellent.'
AP rounds were special munitions developed jointly by Mega Corp and the Star Union for anti-psychic warfare. Anyone hit by one would be unable to use psychic power for a set period of time — a special substance embedded inside blocked psychic energy outright.
Even a miss was dangerous: the round shattered on impact and scattered the substance in every direction, making psychic power difficult to use across the entire affected area.
'No wonder No. 26 and Adhai had such a rough time.'
Gripping the coilgun, I focused my senses on my back. My dorsal plates split apart, and from within them spread a massive pair of wings like an insect's, reaching out into the open air. One powerful beat and my body shot sharply upward.
'Second target: the Cultist.'
From high above, I aimed the coilgun at the distant cluster of enemies.
Behind them, I could see the Cultist wearing the tiara.
I pressed the sniper's finger down hard on the coilgun's sensor.
Perhaps thanks to my psychic power — a sense of foreboding seemed to strike her, and the Cultist turned her head toward my position in the sky.
Having spotted me, she opened her mouth to shout a warning. At that very moment, the coilgun fired.
—
Lately, she had been remembering the past more often.
They weren't memories she particularly wanted to recall. Not because they were bad ones.
Whenever she thought of her childhood, the deaths of her family surfaced along with it.
In that place reeking of a vile stench, she had been forced to watch her beloved family die.
Those memories — the last twitches of her family — had become knives that stabbed into her.
It had felt like pain that would last forever, but at some point she had begun to feel it less.
She still had nightmares from time to time, but it was better than before.
She knew exactly what had healed the wound.
A new family.
The family she had failed to protect in the past was now soothing her pain.
Of course, she knew too. She knew the children at her side now and the ones who had died and vanished were different beings entirely.
And yet, for some reason, a hunger had begun to stir in her lately.
A hunger to grow stronger, to protect her family.
In truth, high-order ways of thinking like "desire" or "longing" were still unfamiliar to her.
She had certainly felt the need to protect her pack before, but that feeling had been closer to pure instinct — the same kind as eating when hungry, sleeping when tired.
A need ends the moment it's satisfied. A hunger never does. And that unquenchable thing leads to something better.
She could feel herself being changed by some unknown force. It was change — no, something beyond change.
The obsession, the urgency, the affection, the longing to somehow protect her newfound family.
In other words, she was transcending the limits of her species through the medium of emotion.
She both feared and actively embraced that astonishing transformation.
Because she instinctively sensed it was making her stronger.
"Got every last one of those fucking Mountain-Rollers!"
"Finish up quick and let's go save Jade!"
｢Graaaaagh｣
A baby beast wailed before her.
Here were attackers preying on this poor child.
They looked nothing alike her kin, yet they all carried the same smell.
The reek of those who had ruthlessly slaughtered her own kind made her displeasure burn all the hotter.
The aching memory needled at her, and her fury stoked her power.
"Yes! Final kill's mi— huh?!"
"Frost!"
For the second time since the battle began, her power had successfully latched onto that smelly thing over there.
Throughout the fight until now, her power had been malfunctioning. A wavelength eerily similar to the one she used to speak with her beloved child had been jamming her.
The fact that those bad people were using the very means that had given her such precious memories soured her mood even further.
Her six-segmented tentacles all snapped toward the smelly thing at once. Six purple tendrils seized the creature's limbs and began yanking them with all their might.
"Kehk!"
"Shit! Jennet, you goddamn bitch! What the hell are you doing?! The tin can's about to die!"
｢Son of a— just wait!｣
Still gripping the smelly thing, she called for the little child. The little child was far weaker than the big child, but she was a good girl who worked hard to grow stronger.
｢Big Adult｣ ｢Help｣
The little child didn't let her down. She vomited up a purple power much like her own from her mouth.
The purple power shot toward the smelly thing and severed one of its limbs clean off.
"Gyaaaargh!"
The smelly thing, its limb severed, sprayed a foul-smelling liquid everywhere. The stench resembled the meat she had eaten many times before, and yet it was different. She never wanted to eat prey that reeked like that.
"Frost!"
｢Grrrrrrr｣
"You fucking Mountain-Roller bastard! Jennet!"
When the smelly thing took the hit, the bad people began to waver. The baby beast, still clinging to life, bit and tore at the smelly thing with the last of its newborn strength.
｢...We're all going to die at this rate. Hope, forget the plan — survival comes first.｣
"What?"
｢Whether the Galagon lives or dies, let's beat the hell out of these things first.｣
｢Wait! We're heading to the boss right now, just stay calm—｣
"Dewayne! My arm just got ripped off! Calm be damned, do SOMETHING!"
The bad people were muttering among themselves. They'd been doing it for a while now, but that kind of murmuring was never a good sign.
"Ah, fuck it. I don't know anymore."
｢...We'll check on the boss and support immediately.｣
The one with little hair on his head pulled out something like a thick, blunt rod. She had never seen one before, but she knew instinctively that the thing was dangerous.
She tried to respond, but they were one step faster. The short-haired one loaded the blunt rod into a thick cylinder and fired it at her.
The rod that burst from the cylinder's tip came rushing at her at terrible speed.
She spread her purple tendrils like a net to defend herself, but they were useless against what he had fired. The purple tendrils vanished like smoke, and the rod tore straight through her tentacles.
｢Big Adult!｣
The agony nearly knocked her unconscious, but at the little child's cry she barely held onto her mind.
She tried to force the purple tendrils out again, but perhaps the pain was ruining her focus — her unknown power refused to obey its master.
Then she remembered.
What had happened before, when the purple power failed to aid her at the moment of absolute desperation.
She could not lose her family again.
The nightmare she longed to forget was creeping back into reality. That truth crashed down on her as a crushing pressure.
｢Wait — it's doing something!｣
Driven by that feeling called desperation, she was climbing yet another step higher. The desperation spread through her whole body, and a gradual change began to overtake her tentacles, her outer skin.
But the bad things would not let her change.
"Frost!"
"You're a monster, so stop playing tricks!"
Before she knew it, the smelly thing that had felled the baby beast charged at her and kicked her with its limbs. A dizzying pain slammed into her, and the transformation welling up from her body ground to a halt.
"Goddamn monster bastard. I'll skin you alive."
｢Hope! Now! Capture the Galagon!｣
"Got it!"
The smelly thing rumbled and drew out a sharp rod. As it advanced on her, the hairless one took aim at the little child.
Frantic, she pulsed a wave at the little child — run. But the little child wouldn't move a muscle, reluctant to flee alone.
｢Run!｣
｢Me｣｢Big Adult｣｢Without｣｢Flee｣｢Refuse｣
｢Hurry!｣
Only when she screamed with every ounce of her strength through the wave did the little child finally move. Unlike her, the little child could fly even over land, so escaping would be easy.
But the bad people trampled her hopes.
"Where do you think you're going?!"
The short-haired one fired something like a net that snared the little child mid-air. She tried to fire her purple power, but it was no use — the strange wavelength emanating from the net was suppressing the little child's strength.
"Let's cut off those damn tentacles first."
She thought.
She had failed again. She and the little child would both die here.
The only difference from before was that the big child had escaped this place safely.
The big child, who was greater than her, so much stronger than her, far more magnificent than her.
The big child would surely live on and thrive, even if she died.
Thinking that, she felt an inexplicable pang of regret.
She had wished she could be there beside him, on the road where he grew up so splendidly.
A pity, but it would never come to pass.
The smelly thing closed to point-blank range and raised the sharp rod high.
"Die... huh? What the—"
｢Dewayne? Dewayne's link is gone!｣
At the very moment death closed in, a miracle happened.
"What?"
｢No way... huh? KYAA!｣
"Jennet?!"
"Tin can! The link's been severed!"
The bad people muttered back and forth, but the mood had shifted completely from moments ago. Something had gone wrong — there was an urgency in them now.
"Check on Jennet... tin can! TAKE COVER!"
"Huh?"
And then, it fell from the sky.
The monster with eight limbs and a long tail crushed the smelly thing flat beneath it, then rose to its feet.
She knew that being well.
The magnificent child who had once been as small as the little child, and who had somehow grown into something so proud and imposing.
The big child she cherished more than anything in the world.
[Zzzt zzt zzt (Took me long enough, huh?)]
The one she called Big Baby spoke to her.
Big Baby's wave carried something that seemed a little sheepish — and a little embarrassed, too.
If only she had known what emotions were.
She would have identified, at a glance, the nature of this feeling rising up inside her right now.
It was exhilaration.