The Crossroads (3)
In the VIP shelter beneath the Monument, the departmental team leaders and their androids scrambled to make sense of the situation.
"The Monument, under attack?! What in God's name is the defense fleet doing? Where did the enemy even come from?"
"Unknown, sir."
"Useless hunks of junk, the lot of you!"
Shouts erupted from every corner of the shelter, and everyone inside prowled about with bloodshot eyes. Layla watched them blankly, her thoughts adrift.
Is this a dream?
The Monument, where the Board of Directors meeting had been in full swing, had been thrown into chaos by the unexpected airstrike. The instant the explosion tore through the building's fiftieth floor, the household guards of every family had stormed the conference hall and swept away the family heads and their retainers.
Layla had tried to explain herself to the fleeing dignitaries, but events had already spiraled far beyond her control. The Board meeting was a total failure. Even if she somehow managed to salvage the aftermath, her downfall was now a foregone conclusion.
I have to fix this, somehow….
Perhaps it was the shock, or perhaps the illness that had been gnawing at her for days, but the mind that normally ran sharp as a blade was moving today with an almost unnatural sluggishness. And it wasn't just her mind. Her senses were drifting loose from reality itself. The noise she had found deafening now seemed, at some point, to be drifting in from very far away.
"General Manager. Your orders on how we should respond?"
"……"
"General Manager?"
Someone — a team leader, a guard, a secretary, she couldn't tell — touched her shoulder. That tiny jolt turned her stomach inside out.
"Uuu—urghhk!"
"Good heavens! General Manager!"
Layla wanted to believe this was all a dream. But the thick copper smell of blood on her lips and the tearing agony inside her body proved, beyond any doubt, that it was real.
What is… this?
By the time she registered that she had vomited blood, she was already crumpled on the floor. The people around her were shouting something at her, but their voices reached her ears like the drone of an enraged swarm of hornets — incomprehensible. Before long, even that sound faded away.
"…How is the General Manager?"
"Examinations show internal hemorrhaging in the lungs and multiple other organs. There is nothing we can do for her here."
"Organ hemorrhaging? Why on earth?"
"We believe she has been infected by an unidentified virus."
When Layla had suddenly collapsed vomiting blood, the atmosphere in the shelter had darkened at once. She was no mere administrator of the city. She was a woman of the T&C family — one of the seven heads of MegaCorp — Layla Chamberlain herself. If she were to die, everyone in that room faced a fate too terrible to dare imagine.
"W-we can't just stand here! Central Hospital is right upstairs!"
"Q-quite right! We have to move her at once!"
"Nonsense! There's no telling when the enemy might strike again."
"To hell with the airstrikes! If the General Manager dies, we're all finished!"
Even with Layla's life hanging by a thread, the team leaders hesitated — for exactly that reason. What if moving her to the hospital made things worse? If anything happened to Layla, whoever had proposed moving her would bear the full blame.
Between MegaCorp's characteristic rigidity and the prospect of a Noble Capital's brutal retribution, the Monument's leadership found itself utterly incapable of responding to the crisis. While they dithered, wasting precious time without reaching a decision, the Crisis Management Team Leader, having just finished a transmission with the defense fleet headquarters, approached.
"I've had a medical ship prepared at the defense fleet headquarters. We'll move her there."
"Wouldn't a hospital in the Administrative District be the better option?"
"…The defense fleet just contacted us. The Administrative District is under invasion as well — an unidentified enemy is killing people there right now."
"Good God!"
The team leaders sucked in their breath as it became clear that the city's situation was far worse than any of them had imagined.
"A patrol vessel has been dispatched, but safety is not yet guaranteed. Defense fleet headquarters is more secure than this location. She should receive treatment there."
"Your argument holds water, but how exactly do you propose to move her?"
"A transport shuttle is standing by in the plaza in front of the Monument, and a patrol craft is holding position overhead to provide escort. We simply move her by shuttle."
In the end, it was decided to send Layla to the medical ship, just as the Crisis Management Team Leader proposed. Combat androids carried her out of the shelter and sprinted for the plaza where the shuttle waited.
Barely moments after the androids cleared the first-floor lobby, a bald black man emerged from the emergency stairwell.
"Your Highness, this is Jacob. There's no trace of its corpse here. Yes. Yes. The culprit behind this incident is most likely…."
The man, speaking with someone over a comm channel, was Jacob — the deputy commander of the Silver Lion Knights whom Denver had newly appointed.
｢Little Baby, are you okay?｣
｢Me｣｢Not hurt｣｢Perfect｣
Beside the burning wreckage of the patrol vessels we had brought down, my children and I paused for a brief reunion. No. 26, worried by Adhai's blood-splattered body, kept prodding and checking her all over with her tentacles.
Watching Adhai shrug her off as if it tickled, I found myself thinking: so that's the kind of side effect Super Acceleration carries.
Debris was wedged between the scales across Adhai's body — human blood, shards of glass, fragments of rebar from the buildings she'd smashed through. Her wings were torn in places, and one of her magnificently grown horns was cracked. Every injury had come from ramming enemies at Super Acceleration.
Ordinary Green Galagons can ram things at full acceleration without any trouble, but…
Adhai's body was simply too small and fragile, which was why these mishaps kept happening. If she grows bigger, it'll improve — but I shouldn't count on that.
She was already far smaller than any other Green Galagon. Even after maturing, the odds of her becoming sturdy enough to offset the side effects were slim. Until a solution presents itself, Super Acceleration is off the table. She could use it for evasion if she absolutely had to, but never again for charges like today's.
｢Me｣｢Big Adult｣｢Gift｣
Just as I was mulling that over, Adhai called to me. She padded over and spat out an object she had been holding in the tentacles of her mouth. It was someone's severed hand.
｢Trophy｣｢Big Adult｣｢Gift｣
Of course. The hand's owner was almost certainly Code Red. When a Green Galagon goes into Super Acceleration, it moves fast enough to produce a sonic boom with every stride. Unless Code Red possessed defensive capabilities as formidable as Black's, stopping Adhai's charge would have been impossible. The enemy's body was probably pulverized — lucky to have left behind even a hand.
I stroked Adhai's head and took the hand from her.
"Zzeu zzeuzzeu zzeuzzeu — the trophy's yours. You earned it."
｢Gift｣
She looked ready to throw it away if I didn't eat it.
"Then let's share it."
A single hand couldn't trigger the Predation Effect anyway. Better that the wounded Adhai and No. 26 get the nutrition. I tore off one finger for myself and handed the rest to the kids. Adhai watched me carefully for a moment, then drained every last drop of blood left in the palm; No. 26 disposed of the remaining scraps.
Watching them eat, I turned my mind to what came next. Three patrol vessels went silent. They won't be careless anymore.
The battles at the Monument and in the Administrative District — and the destruction of three patrol craft on top of it. From now on, this space city would no longer see us as merely strange intruders. This was an invasion. In the eyes of our enemies, we were invaders who had struck at the Board itself, and from here on, warships would certainly come hunting for me personally.
Three patrol vessels were something we could defeat together, but if dozens of them came after us, or a battleship deployed, not even I could do anything about it.
Hiding in the city is no longer an option either. Our enemies wouldn't stop hunting until they found the thing that had wrecked their city. And the moment they do, it's over.
Once the defense fleet located me, they wouldn't waste marines — they'd simply obliterate wherever I was hiding, whole. Their forces weren't stupid; they'd learned by now that ground troops alone couldn't bring me down.
I have to leave this place.
I hadn't yet met all the conditions to evolve into a Young Adult, but there was nothing for it. Survival came before evolution.
Still, every cloud has its silver lining — the situation has shifted. In my favor, no less.
The enemy is mired in complications right now — too tangled to spare me any real attention.
The city's brain was under attack, and they had dispatched only a handful of small patrol craft. What did that tell you? That the defense fleet's internal situation was so dire they could barely mobilize personnel — and that was entirely thanks to the space bacteria I had spread.
Not that I have unlimited time. The command structure had neglected the outbreak because of the Board meeting, but now that the Board lay in ruins, I couldn't expect that neglect to continue. Once they developed a vaccine and established quarantine protocols, the opening the bacteria had given me would close fast.
Fortunately, a perfect escape route has presented itself. I have to use it.
Distinguished guests had been visiting the city when war broke out inside it. And where would those VIPs go?
They'd try to get out of the city.
I lifted my head and looked up at the sky above the space city. Countless transport shuttles were streaming toward the Port District. When those guests boarded their ships to leave, I would sneak aboard one of them. Under normal circumstances, even departures were subject to inspection because of the Board meeting — but in a situation like this? Really? Especially with ships belonging to MegaCorp's most honored guests?
All we have to do is hide well.
Decision made, I called the kids over.
"Zzeuzzeu zzeu — let's go, kids."
｢Where?｣
"Zzeuzzeu zzeuzzeu — the place we came from."
｢Me｣｢Cannot understand｣
No. 26 caught on instantly, but Adhai tilted her head — understandable, since she'd arrived by a different route.
｢The place where Little Baby and I first met.｣
｢Me｣｢Understand｣
While Adhai nodded at No. 26's simple explanation, I went around gathering corpses from the surrounding ruins.
Too badly mangled to get Genetic Essence from these.
So many of the bodies were missing lower halves, or nothing but an arm or a leg remained — expecting the Predation Effect from them was hopeless. Still, they're useful.
The wounds from my fight with Black — the severed arm, the lost tail — hadn't finished regenerating. To recover quickly, I needed to eat and replenish nutrients. And the kids took plenty of damage too.
There was no telling whom we might run into in the Port District, so we'd have to top up our nutrition along the way. I swallowed whole the limbs and small fragments that were beyond use, and collected only the relatively intact corpses.
Returning to the kids, I handed over two of the bodies I carried.
"Zzeuzzeu zzeu — eat these on the way."
｢Okay!｣
By now No. 26 had Adhai perched on top of her head, and she stretched out a tentacle to snatch the corpses I offered. Watching Adhai lying flat on No. 26, wings wrapped around herself, it looked almost natural. So that's how they got around when I wasn't looking.
Provisions secured, we left the wreckage of the patrol vessels behind and headed for the crater where No. 26 had first burst out of the ground.
Taking the surface route would have been faster, but the odds of running into a warship were high. Better to take the long way around and travel safely underground.
When we reached the crater, I used my auxiliary organs to check for any threats lurking inside. Nothing. All I could detect underground was the stirring of Corpse Catfish.
I went down first, and No. 26 followed with Adhai on her back. She drew her tentacles and fins inside her body, transforming back into the balloon shape she'd worn when we first met. Shrunk down that way, she was small enough to navigate the sewer tunnels.
So that's how she got around on that bulk of hers. Clever.
Right now the two of them looked like Adhai riding a pink rubber tube down a drainpipe. It was a fairly ridiculous sight, but so efficient that I couldn't help admiring it inwardly.
And so we entered the sewers and moved toward the Port District. As expected, the tunnels were empty of enemies.
Along the way, I asked No. 26 and Adhai how they'd managed to grow, and the answer No. 26 gave was a surprising one.
"Zzeuzzeu zzeuzzeuzeu zzeuzzeuzeu — you went after the corpses and the newcomers?"
｢Yep. People who didn't smell like metal? They're weak prey. So I only ate those.｣
They hadn't limited themselves to the bodies of dead Employees inside the sewers. They had also ambushed and devoured the new arrivals — vagrants, for instance.
She can tell soldiers apart from vagrants.
In this space city, people useless to its operation — the so-called homeless — couldn't normally exist, but this time had been the exception. When the Commercial District collapsed, its workers lost their jobs and joined the ranks of the unemployed. Those who lived hand to mouth couldn't pay rent, and so had no choice but to hide out in the sewers and the ruins of the Commercial District. No. 26 and Adhai seemed to have targeted precisely those people.
Impressive, honestly.
Hunting easy prey that carried no consequences was exactly the method I myself favored. I'd thought Adhai had grown a great deal, but if anyone deserves to be called my star pupil, it might be No. 26.
We traveled on, chatting as we went, and before I knew it we were closing in on the Port District. Thanks to finishing off every corpse along the route, my body was nearly fully recovered as well.
We're here.
I told the kids to wait a moment, then positioned myself beneath a manhole close to the Port District's docks. I wanted to check for enemies outside before lifting the cover.
Concentrating my senses in my auxiliary organs, I observed the movements around me. The busy patter of footsteps reverberating through the ground above, the distant thrum of engines as ships came and went — and nearby, a familiar metallic smell drifted into the tips of my auxiliary organs.
A familiar metallic smell?
The instant I registered that something was off, my auxiliary organs reported that something new was approaching at high speed. And what was approaching was something smell and sound could not describe.
Danger!
Scarcely had I thrown myself back when a mass of green energy obliterated the manhole. The alloy cover vaporized on the spot, and a gaping hole was blasted through the sewer ceiling nearby.
"I knew you'd come this way, you damned monster!"
The voice rang out from above the ground. On its heels, plasma bolts came raining down into the sewer where I had just been standing.
The Edgerton Knights!
Waiting for us in a remote corner of the Port District was the Edgerton family — a Prime Capital of Mars.