Shadows (3)
‘No. 26?’
The pink jellyfish that had erupted through the asphalt of the road was No. 26.
‘What on earth happened to it while I wasn’t looking?’
For a moment, I could barely recognize the creature. Its appearance had changed so drastically that it was almost unrecognizable from before.
First, the iridescent colors flowing faintly across its pink body were entirely new. A radiant energy shimmering in every hue flickered and shifted constantly across its surface, and the effect was uncanny — like countless eyes keeping watch over everything around it.
It was the result of Fear of the Deep Sea, one of the Sea Demon’s signature traits. Anyone without resistance to psychic attacks who approached a Sea Demon under the influence of this trait would lose their mind outright or spiral into blinding panic.
‘And on top of that, it can weaken the support-type psychic techniques used by nearby enemies.’
In the lore, the Sea Demon was a creature harboring an immensely powerful psychic energy — so potent that it occasionally leaked out of its body. That leaked energy inflicted negative effects on surrounding organisms, and the trait known as Fear of the Deep Sea was the manifestation of that phenomenon.
So when a psychic user attempted long-range support techniques like Soul Link or spirit attunement near a Sea Demon, the techniques simply failed to function properly.
‘Not to mention that horrifying visual is famous in its own right.’
Just imagine it: a monster over twenty meters long in the deep sea, staring you down with hundreds upon hundreds of eyes. It was so terrifying that foreign forums used images of a Sea Demon with its Fear of the Deep Sea activated as shock content.
Of course, the aura No. 26 wore didn’t look nearly as vicious as the original’s. It was probably deliberately toned down for my benefit.
‘Come to think of it, its looks have changed a lot too.’
Fear of the Deep Sea was so striking that it overshadowed everything else, but other parts of its body had changed considerably as well. Beneath its torso stretched a bundle of twenty long, slender tentacles, and between them, thick fins serving as legs were scattered here and there.
The tentacles resembled the Sawtooth Tentacles I used to have. They were thinner than mine, but the sharp serrated blades bristling densely along their entire length were threat enough.
The creature, fully revealed on the road, pulsed a wavelength toward me.
｢Big Baby!｣
No. 26 stretched out a tentacle and stroked me affectionately. Thanks to the effect of the Paragon of the Hunt, I had grown larger, but No. 26 was no small presence either. Its fins were curled, but fully extended it would measure around seven or eight meters, and its tentacles stretched well over ten.
[Zzzzt(How did it go?)]
｢Just like Big Baby taught me! I ate lots and lots and grew up big!｣
Something was off. I distinctly remembered telling it to hide. Was it the evolution? No. 26 seemed to have grown far more intelligent than I’d expected.
｢I’m not the only one who grew. Little Baby got so, so much bigger too.｣
[Zzzzt(What?)]
From the pit behind No. 26, a green shape shot into the air. It carved a circling path through the space city’s atmosphere before alighting lightly in front of me.
｢Elder｣｢Glad｣
Adhai bowed its head to me in greeting.
‘It evolved into a Green Gallagon?’
No. 26 had changed a great deal, but Adhai’s transformation was nothing short of cataclysmic. Most of its scales had turned green, with the occasional blue scale mixed in. Its body had grown to well over a meter in length, and its wings were far larger than before.
It wasn’t just its body and coloration — its entire form had transformed. Where it once resembled a skink with its plump frame and stubby little legs, it was now an utterly different creature. Four long, powerfully built legs brought deer to mind, and its slender, supple figure carried an almost graceful allure. Its tail, by contrast, looked comparatively thick and plump against that slim body.
Its head, too, bore the same bundle of tentacles in place of a mouth, but the skull had grown longer than before, and the horns had multiplied to four.
‘It’s tiny compared to a Green Gallagon, but the shape is nearly identical.’
And given how its tail had thickened as it matured, Adhai was unquestionably female. In the lore, Gallagons were a species with pronounced sexual dimorphism — males and females looked entirely different. Males had slender tails but thick, ornate horns, while females had thick tails and plainer horns.
‘The lore said the more spectacular a male’s head-horns, the more handsome he was — and the plumper a female’s tail, the more beautiful she was considered.’
Looking at that sturdy tail, I’d have to say Adhai was well-built even by Gallagon standards.
‘What has it been eating to grow this fast?’
It wasn’t that I had no guesses. The sewers were full of the corpses of the knights and soldiers I’d killed, and the employees who had died when their signal chips activated had been left where they fell. Plenty of others had presumably plunged into the sewers when the Commercial District’s foundation collapsed.
‘And it ate all of that?’
Without getting caught by the soldiers patrolling the sewers, no less.
‘Then this is a staggering rate of growth.’
If my guess was right, then it hadn’t just grown physically — its combat ability must have improved by leaps and bounds.
No. 26 preened, as if demanding praise. Even in an emergency like this, I couldn’t bring myself not to oblige, so I stroked its body. It shivered with pleasure, and the energy flowing across its surface shifted into soft, fluffy colors that reflected its mood — a disheveled look almost impossible to reconcile with Fear of the Deep Sea.
｢Me｣｢Grew｣｢Me｣｢Cool｣｢Elder｣｢Praise｣
Adhai, too, nudged itself forward asking for praise, so I stroked it as well. Watching Adhai swish its tail happily, I thought to myself:
‘It’s learned my hunting methods.’
Since Adhai hadn’t spent nearly as much time with me as No. 26 had, No. 26 must have led most of the hunts. It was always a fast learner to begin with. It must have picked up my signature style — digging traps, lying in wait, striking from ambush.
‘I’ll think about that later.’
Code Black would be here any moment. Under any other circumstances I would have hidden these two somewhere and fought alone, but the situation had changed.
‘I’ll fight alongside them.’
There were two enemies, and there was plenty I couldn’t handle alone. I needed to make full use of No. 26 and Adhai.
[Zzzzt zzzzt zzz(I need to tell you something.)]
｢Hm?｣
｢?｣
[Zzzzt zzz zt zzzzt(We have to fight a powerful enemy. Help me.)]
At my words, their gazes — such as they were — turned to my severed arm and the wound along my flank. No. 26 had no eyes, but its emotions bled into the psychic energy flowing across its surface, making it easy to tell where its attention lay.
｢The ones who hurt Big Baby? I won’t forgive them!｣
｢Elder｣｢Attacked｣｢Enemy｣
No. 26 flared with fury and slammed its tentacles into the ground. The asphalt caved in, and the surrounding road split apart with a resounding crack. Adhai, too, kicked up the earth with its hind legs to voice its displeasure.
‘Combat shouldn’t be a problem.’
No. 26 hadn’t just grown in size — its strength seemed to have increased as well. The Sea Demon was a formidable life-form treated as a sub-boss; in sheer danger rating, it ranked half a tier above even the Black Gallagon.
‘Its growth doesn’t seem finished yet, but—’
It was more than enough to support me. Adhai still had traces of blue among its scales, but with most of its body covered in green, it was fair to say it possessed the power of a Green Gallagon.
‘If I’m right, even a Green Gallagon’s power should be enough to intercept these enemies.’
The Green Gallagon was still only at the Juvenile stage, so it couldn’t match the overwhelming destructive force of a White or Black Gallagon. Instead, its combat abilities had developed along a different axis.
‘And with No. 26 able to use Fear of the Deep Sea, if the three of us work together well—’
A Green Gallagon and a Sea Demon. And Amorph. All three of us here were still immature, incomplete beings. But if we synchronized as one, even a strong enemy would make easy prey.
After calming the two of them down, I laid out the plan.
—
Code Black had been an orphan.
In Mega Corp, orphans were the lowest of the low, beyond salvation — the dark side of society made flesh. Most of them fell into the fate of Employees before they were even grown; the lucky ones ended up among the Spacedogs.
By that measure, Code Black was a unique case. She had entered the Eugene family as an Employee and become raw material for the Shadows project. Like countless test subjects before her, she should have withered away and died.
But she survived.
She possessed a psychic aptitude far beyond that of an ordinary human. Because of it, she became the first success of the Eugene family’s Cult gene transplantation experiments. Prototypes were usually inferior to their mass-produced counterparts, but she existed entirely outside the normal spectrum — even among the Cult-human hybrids created afterward, her power was peerless.
When her conversion into a Shadow was complete, the family head, Akira Yujin, granted her a name. Code Black. The title reserved for the most superior of all the Shadows.
“Code Red. Where has the target gone?”
｢Residential District, 32nd Street. Caution advised.｣
“Caution? Explain.”
｢Psychic energy flow unstable. Unidentified presence has infiltrated the Psychic Control Web.｣
“The target is capable of using Psychic Breath. Is that its doing?”
｢Unknown. The unidentified presence has established its own Psychic Control Web. Precise status cannot be determined.｣
“Understood. Continue surveillance.”
｢Acknowledged.｣
Severing the connection with Code Red, she set off toward her target’s location. As the exchange just now illustrated, most Shadows were machine-like beings with barely a self to speak of — their minds had been utterly destroyed by unspeakable experiments. Among the Shadows, only Code Black and the already-dead Code White had ever been capable of free speech.
‘Now I am the only one.’
Code White had been slaughtered mid-mission, which meant the greatest of the Shadows was her, and her alone. The thought exhilarated her.
Though she herself didn’t realize it, every Shadow carried a deep psychological instability. Code Black’s obsession was her own superiority and perfection. Her constant talking during combat wasn’t for communication — it was a display of her own specialness.
‘Once I obtain that monster’s genes—’
If she succeeded in transplanting its genes, she would ascend to a higher order of existence than she occupied now. Her mood soaring for the first time in ages, she caught sight of her target.
The target had punched an enormous hole in the middle of the road. Despite having gone to the trouble of digging it, the creature hadn’t fled — it lay prone, all four of its massive arms flat against the ground.
“Not running away?”
｢Grr, No·Need·To·Run·｣
“...You could speak?”
Code Black was startled to hear the creature talk. Its voice sounded strange, like a woman’s recorded voice run through a modulator, but it was unmistakably using human language.
‘Remarkable.’
She had assumed it was a monster requiring strict confinement — intelligent enough to evade surveillance and escape. But she hadn’t imagined it was intelligent enough to actually converse with a person.
Her mission was to capture it. A monster with a mind capable of dialogue would surely understand the situation it was in.
She opened her mouth.
“If you’re intelligent, then you understand. I advise you to surrender.”
｢We·ll, Grrr, Let’s·See·Shall·We·｣
Hearing the insolence in its tone, she frowned.
‘A beast, and yet so insolent.’
“I’ll be taking only your head and torso back with me.”
She drew two Psychic Whips from her hands. The instant she raised them to strike, the ground beneath her split open and tentacles erupted outward.
‘An ambush!’
So that was why it had been pressing its hands to the ground. She leapt into the air in haste. The tentacles, their ambush failed, sank back into the earth.
Mid-air, she cracked her whips wide. Her target wasn’t the tentacles but the monster’s main body. The tentacles were connected to its arms, and its arms were pinned — it was immobilized. Just as she predicted, the creature couldn’t move.
The moment the violet serpents lunged to rend its flesh, the monster twisted its head and blocked the whips’ trajectory. The whips of pure psychic energy slammed against the thick carapace of its head, throwing off a violent spray of sparks.
‘Just as I thought.’
She realized the shield-like carapace plating on the monster’s head and wrists was the hardest part of its body.
‘I must aim elsewhere.’
The moment she landed, the serpent in her left hand flicked its tongue and came hurtling at the monster. But the creature had already retracted its tentacles and retreated a considerable distance — her whip did nothing more than score the road’s asphalt.
It didn’t end there. Even as it retreated, the monster tore up great slabs of the road and hurled them at her.
‘Reflection!’
An intangible barrier materialized before her, deflecting every last fragment. But it was too soon to relax. A split second behind the debris, a rain of barbed spines came flying in.
It was an attack timed to the instant Reflection, having repelled one wave of physical assault, briefly deactivated.
“Tch.”
Her whip swept in a hasty arc, brushing aside the hail of thorns.
‘Targeting the gap when Reflection releases, is it.’
Reflection could perfectly defend against physical attacks of every kind. Even sustained fire like machine-gun barrages was entirely blocked while it remained active. The catch was that maintaining it required intense concentration — she couldn’t simply keep it up at all times. So she had no choice but to release it when moving or acting otherwise, and after deactivation there was a very short cooldown before it could be reused.
‘This enemy is clearly accustomed to fighting Cultists.’
She didn’t know what it was, but that monster had struck precisely at Reflection’s weakness.
‘I’ll have to change tactics.’
She had intended to end things with the Psychic Whips alone, but that clearly wasn’t going to be easy.
‘I’ll finish this with a barrage of Psychic Breath.’
Code Black raised both hands and spread her palms wide toward her enemy. A black orb materialized before her hands, then stretched into a long, long beam of black heat that split the air.
The monster, apparently judging it couldn’t block this either, flattened itself low. The black heat beam didn’t stop at scorching the crown-like carapace of its head and the arm atop its back — it went on to smash the buildings far in the distance to rubble.
The creature crawled swiftly along the ground, arms and legs pressed flat, evading the beam. The heat scorched the road and the houses, sending debris rising from the ground into the air, and the crawling monster leapt from fragment to fragment, springing through the air — even firing barbed spines in counterattack as it went.
Even while firing Psychic Breath, she simultaneously cast Reflection to block the spines.
“Enough! The games end here!”
Firing Psychic Breath with her right hand, she drew a Psychic Whip with her left. The whip flew out and coiled around the airborne monster’s leg, and a heartbeat later the black heat beam seared off its tail.
｢Grrraaaaah!｣
The monster wailed in exquisite agony. Its tail — one of its principal weapons — was now neutralized.
Code Black, a smile playing at her lips, yanked the creature in and slammed it into the ground. She was moving in to finish it with the heat beam when the monster refused to yield — it sprang back up and lunged straight at her.
Its elongated arm swept down to cut her in two, but she had already cast Reflection. The arm was flung violently backward, and as the creature’s stance broke, she swung her Psychic Whip and coiled it around its neck.
“It’s over. I advise you to surrend—ghk!”
Mid-sentence, the creature’s maw split wide open. A torrent of searing flame erupted from it and poured across her face.
“Aaagh!”
Reflection spared her the injury itself, but nothing could stop the sheer temperature of the flame. The immense heat crashed into her face, and her eyes suffered severe burns.
“You cursed monster—!”
Even through her shattered focus, she fired her Psychic Breath. The heat beam blasted away one of the monster’s arms, but the creature was far from finished.
The scythe-clawed arm mounted on its back. The grotesque biological weapon drove into her shoulder.
‘I’m going to lose like this!’
She frantically signaled Code Red. Violet light burst from her ruined body, and her form rapidly disassembled. The arm the monster swung passed clean through empty air and buried itself in the ground.
In her spirit-state, she reassembled behind the monster in the blink of an eye, utterly unharmed. The instant her body rematerialized, she hammered it with her Psychic Whip. The monster failed to evade and was flung away, helpless.
“You are the first to inflict damage of this magnitude upon me.”
Her tone was calm, but she was half out of her mind. She had nearly lost her life once, fighting something weaker than herself.
“Even if I return with only the brain extracted, Akira will understand.”
As she stretched out both hands, the black orb regenerated. She was poised to finish off the creature as it staggered upright—
“Hk—urgh?!”
She coughed up blood.
Only then feeling the excruciating pain in her abdomen, she dropped to her knees without meaning to.
“Wh-what is this?”
She pressed a hand to her stomach. The surface was unmarked, but inside she could feel a hard shard of steel rebar.
｢Spirit·State·Has, Grrk, A·Weak·ness·｣
The voice came from above her bewildered head. The monster, having closed the distance without her noticing, was murmuring down at her.
“How... how did you—?”
｢Grr, If·There·Is·An·Obstacle·In·The·Way, Grrr, It·Fails·｣
When rematerializing from a spirit-state, nothing whatsoever could occupy that space. If something did — an object would embed itself inside her body, exactly as she had just experienced.
Of course, she knew the weakness of the spirit attunement technique perfectly well. What she could not comprehend was how a shard of steel rebar had evaded both her and Code Red’s perception and appeared out of nowhere.
‘No. N-no, the spirit-state comes first—’
She frantically signaled Code Red. To go into spirit-state again and put distance between herself and the creature.
But the reply that came back defied her expectations.
｢Under attack by unidentified enemy. Defense prioritized. Spirit-state unavailable.｣
‘What?’
An unidentified enemy? Her gaze drifted, unbidden, to the pit that had been carved into the road earlier. Several violet-glowing tentacles stretched out of the pit, swaying gently.
‘Psychic energy!’
Come to think of it, Code Red had said so. That someone had infiltrated the surveillance net woven from psychic energy. That an independent Psychic Control Web had been established, making an accurate picture impossible.
At the time, she had assumed the target was using psychic power to evade surveillance. She had been wrong.
‘There was more than one enemy!’
As if in answer to her realization, the monster spoke.
｢We·Are·Not·One·｣
The monster’s arm sliced through her throat.