Chapter 301: O-Rank Incursion Record – 『GM』
Chapter 301: O-Rank Incursion Record – 『GM』
The massive fleet, led by the CVN-65 Enterprise, cut through the waves as it surged forward.
We, who had to conserve our strength, remained silent regardless of what was happening around us.
But the vibrations echoing even deep within the Enterprise, our heightened senses, and the real-time reports from others told us everything.
They told us that the world outside was a living hell.
The situation was so dire it made the Great Overflow of the Siberian Front look like child's play.
Even the mere fodder blocking our path were C or B-Rank.
Mutants poured out in endless swarms, though where they all came from was a mystery.
They possessed no will to live.
Their only purpose was to throw their bodies into the fray, doing anything to buy even a second of time.
That was what made this operation so agonizing.
The Otherworldly enemies were, with few exceptions, fundamentally living beings.
As such, their morale would usually drop, their offensive would scatter, or they would be seized by terror when their allies fell. Sometimes, they would even stop fighting when a commander-class entity surrendered after realizing the situation was hopeless.
But on this battlefield, there was no such thing.
Furthermore, it wasn't just humans who had mutated into giant flesh monsters.
A blue whale, possessing a colossal frame and wearing a twisted human face, rose from The Sea with a grotesque grin to tear into a destroyer.
Its sickening form flickered past the window beside me.
The destroyer, its stern bitten off and gone, fired its torpedoes in a final act of defiance.
Even as the torpedoes detonated and blew away more than half of its body, the human-faced blue whale Flesh Monster lashed its tail to strike the surrounding ships.
Even as its face was blasted away and it sank, scattering revolting chunks of meat, it did not let go of the destroyer's hull.
It vanished into the depths of The Sea, dragging the ship and its crew down with it.
"…."
"Endure it."
"We have to endure…."
Such words hung heavy in the room.
The urge to grit our teeth and rush out right this moment was likely shared by everyone here.
But we couldn't.
According to all records to date, the largest force to ever attempt an incursion into a Pillar of Light consisted of five S-Ranks and two high-tier A-Ranks.
Though the scale wasn't as large as today's, that force was the result of immense sacrifice.
Yet, even with those seven gathered, they couldn't put a single crack in the barrier of the Nautilus entrenched within the Pillar of Light.
Because the power required to break that barrier was completely unknown, we—the twenty members of the final assault team—could not afford to waste even a fraction of our strength.
"…If we fail to break the barrier because we exhausted ourselves on the battlefield, humanity is finished."
"…I know."
Stating the obvious for everyone to hear was a way to steady ourselves, to steady each other.
That was why no one spoke up against those cruel words.
"…Even if we break the barrier, don't forget that the final battle with that monster still remains."
"…I told you, I know."
These were words repeated countless times, words etched into our minds.
Normally, hearing them again would be irritating.
But the fact that we could do nothing right now was more miserable than anything else.
So we bit our lips and simply endured.
Meanwhile, the situation outside grew even more dire.
As we drew closer to the Pillar of Light, the density of The Enemy began to swell.
Winged entities and small creatures that seemed to be mutated birds began to shoot down the bombers providing fire support from the air.
Since no aerial entities had been observed before this incursion operation, they struck at the gaping hole in our anti-air defenses.
No, even if we had anti-air capabilities, it likely wouldn't have mattered much.
Aerial monsters with intelligence were nothing short of a nightmare, even at low ranks.
Because they were generally small, or even if large, composed of biological matter, they could ignore the tracking of standard anti-air weaponry.
They performed bizarre maneuvers that no aircraft could ever replicate.
Sudden stops, rotating in place without moving, hovering.
Usually, even low-rank aerial enemies were handled by Heroes capable of aerial combat.
But the monsters currently filling the sky were C-Rank at minimum.
Even the weakest C-Rank bird was a nightmare.
Even as its wings were torn by anti-air fire, it used its remaining body to glide, hurtling toward the fighter jets.
A bird strike from a monster with a body as hard as steel.
It brought down perfectly functional fighters.
There was no way to counter that final suicidal charge unless the creature was completely vaporized.
The Heroes capable of flight were doing their best to hold them back, but one by one, people were falling from the sky.
And then, there were monsters in the sky that simply could not be stopped in the current situation.
Whether it had hijacked a passing aircraft or not, it was a monster that retained the shape of a Boeing plane, its exterior plastered with layers of gore.
Countless humans sprouted from the flesh of its fuselage, laughing as they fired flesh guns and tossed flesh bombs.
The Colony Flesh Monster Plane.
The moment that thing appeared, it became a nightmare that filled the aerial units' communications with screams.
Its combat power, equivalent to a high-tier A-Rank, was a problem, but its appearance was beyond horrific.
As it drew close to an aircraft, countless humans would sprout on its surface.
They appeared on the exterior, flailing their limbs and screaming as if trying to escape the plane.
Screaming, weeping, writhing in agony.
And among them were even the forms of countless children.
In the brief moment the pilots hesitated to attack upon seeing that, the monsters would aim their muzzles with a grin.
They would lodge flesh bullets into the heads of the pilots who had pitied them, sending another jet spiraling down.
Though the sky was being stained with blood and metal, the people did not stop launching.
Without fear of leaving their mother ship, their relatively safe castle of steel, countless souls soared toward what would be their final sky.
The Enterprise was no different.
As the Enterprise was originally an aircraft carrier, countless planes were currently disappearing into the distance with a vibration, accompanied by their callsigns and final farewells.
A few returned, but for most, a single callsign was their last.
'This is Bullet, launching.'
'Roger, Bullet. You are cleared for launch. Good luck.'
Even now, another one soared away with a tremor.
And so, another weight settled upon our shoulders.
The weight of an infinite pressure—the knowledge that we absolutely could not fail.
* * *
Time passed.
How long had it been since the operation began?
A full day hadn't passed yet, but it had already been over eleven hours.
The Pillar was now so massive it defied belief.
The speed at which we advanced toward it gradually slowed.
Part of it was that our forces were being whittled away bit by bit, but The Enemy density had also increased significantly.
In this situation, each ship began to engage in melee combat.
Sailors who had learned to handle rifles but had rarely even practiced proper marksmanship ran onto the decks with guns in hand.
Though the decks were as high as fortress walls, the Mutants climbed them and began to infiltrate the ships.
Had The Enemy prepared them in haste?
Those mutated from the corpses scattered in The Sea weren't heavily transformed, possessing the danger levels of C or D-Ranks, but their numbers were overwhelming, and the situation was heavily stacked against us.
Even as ships engaged in melee combat with swarms of Mutants on board, the giant Mutants did not stop attacking them.
It was as if they didn't care if the ships sank along with the Mutants.
And so, one by one, ships sank into the ocean.
Even if they managed to kill the monsters and win the melee, The Enemy didn't stop.
They had no fear of using their own hard, sticky flesh.
They clung to the screws to stop their rotation.
They threw themselves into the water jets to clog the intakes.
Ships that lost their mobility became prey for other Mutants and sank.
It was a hellish sight.
However, this was a scenario that had already been anticipated.
Unlike the air battle, everyone had expected it to come to this in the final moments.
Everyone endured, praying for our final joker to be played.
Then, as time passed and The Enemy density reached a point where one could only laugh in despair, someone shouted over the comms to look at the sky.
We looked toward the horizon.
Countless metal pillars flew in, leaving red trails behind them.
Humanity's most powerful weapons slammed into their targets, spewing fire.
'Brace for impact!'
Knowing what was coming, all allied units that had stayed back at a safe distance took defensive postures at the shout.
Heat and flash.
And then, countless Type S of energy radiated outward.
After the wave swept through, a massive path opened in The Sea.
A path granted by The Hammer of power, forged from what humanity had dug up and refined from the earth.
However, the enemies also immediately noticed the path and began to fill the void.
We moved into the pre-arranged formation.
The surviving ships charged forward to form walls.
And in the path between those walls of steel and blood, we had to move forward.
Our safety zone.
Ships that had already reached their limits began to collapse.
But the great steel floating on The Sea performed its duty as a wall until the very end, even as it crumbled.
The path opened.
A path toward the Pillar of Light, paved with blood and steel.
As the Enterprise surged forward, everyone cheered over the radio.
The operation hadn't even succeeded yet, but they rejoiced simply at our incursion.
No one even considered the possibility of our failure.
We, too, stepped onto the deck and prepared for the entry.
But The Enemy was an intelligent existence.
It was only natural that they would leave a final line of defense.
Click, click, click, click.
A massive final Mutant rose from beneath The Sea, emitting a grating sound.
Everyone who saw it was lost for words.
A Giant Nautilus.
I'm not talking about the monster entrenched inside the Pillar of Light.
A Nautilus that had simply grown to a massive size, sprouted a few tentacles, and surged from The Sea amidst a spray of water.
It had never been caught by any radar, any sonar, or even any precognition. The final gatekeeper.
Was its form being a Nautilus some kind of joke on The Enemy’s part?
No one could laugh at such a sick joke.
That was the final sentry.
But there were no more allies around us to clear it away.
To buy a single moment for the Enterprise to break through, the rest of the ships had scattered.
And even the Enterprise could not go any further.
This location was the approach limit.
Considering the speed at which the Pillar of Light was expanding, the moment we crossed this line, the death of everyone aboard the Enterprise was guaranteed.
Once past the limit, even if they turned back immediately, they would inevitably be swallowed by the Pillar as time passed.
So, we drew our weapons and prepared to fight The Enemy.
'Full speed ahead.'
'Confirmed. Full speed ahead.'
Along with the calm voice over the comms and the equally calm acknowledgment, the Enterprise did not stop. It surged forward.
Startled, we tried to intervene over the radio.
But they silently did what they had to do.
And as we realized what they intended, we bit our lips until they bled.
Standing on the deck, we watched it draw closer.
The Giant Nautilus, silhouetted against the white Pillar of Light.
Click. Click. Click.
It made that grating noise, lashing its tentacles to strike the Enterprise.
But the Enterprise did not stop.
'Hit in Habitation Zone B!'
'Chasi, requesting launch clearance.'
'Chasi, launch cleared.'
Amidst countless screams, the last remaining carrier-based aircraft soared above us on the deck.
Every single one of them charged toward the Nautilus.
And in the final moment.
'Brace for impact.'
'Brace for impact!'
Spewing smoke and flames, the Enterprise threw itself at the Nautilus.
The Nautilus, colliding with one of the heaviest vehicles humanity had ever created, could not steady itself and began to collapse.
Through that opening, we were able to ride over the Nautilus and enter the Pillar of Light.
'Good luck.'
The last thing we saw was the Heroes.
Even as they were being crushed, they kept the Nautilus pinned with the bow of the ship as it lashed its tentacles. They continued to push forward to send us just a little further, even as they were swallowed by the light.
They were Heroes.