Ch.109109. Chomfantlus (1)

After the brief encounter with the warrior Reptilians was complete.

We set out toward the habitat of the ‘Chomptantlus’ that the Reptilians had told us about, intending to hunt it down and subjugate it.

According to the Reptilians, the Chomptantlus’s habitat would be obvious at first glance, but I was somewhat skeptical and drove the Tarask in travel mode toward the location they had indicated, half in doubt…

“…My God.”

“Are these… all corpses?”

Only after seeing the Chomptantlus’s habitat with my own eyes did I realize just how accurate the Reptilians’ information had been.

The scene before us was a mountain formed of countless shattered animal skeletons piled high.

Almost nothing remained intact. Most of the bones were shattered to pieces, presumably to access the marrow inside, and the center of this mountain was distinctly hollowed out.

What shocked me most was that despite the enormous pile of bones, there was almost no necromantic energy to be felt.

Considering this world’s rules, where undead are born from abandoned corpses, it was extremely strange… But there was a reasonable explanation for this.

In short, the mystery of the ‘Chomptantlus’ that had likely collapsed in the middle of that bone mountain was powerful enough to completely suppress the death energy emanating from the bones.

“…Can you feel it, Sophia?”

“Yes. The Prophet feels it too.”

Judging by the overwhelming life energy powerful enough to blanket the entire area, such extraordinary behavior was certainly possible for the Chomptantlus.

But… that didn’t mean we would back down.

“Sophia, could you prepare in advance?”

“…Yes.”

Sophia nodded in response to my call and began chanting a spell while holding a special staff specialized for aggressive celestial magic support.

[I call upon you, come! Power of the heavens, you who shine brilliantly…]

Since we essentially had the initiative in this situation, there was no need to abbreviate or simplify the incantation.

[…then shine! Pour down and shatter! Light of the galaxy, flash, starlight of the heavens! You sparkle as death, and shall surely target the enemy!]

As I had suggested we deliver the most powerful strike possible regardless of how long it took.

Sophia began frantically chanting her spell… and naturally, we couldn’t just stand by idly waiting.

[Be released, power! Explode from within!]

I cast various buff spells on our entire party, starting with “Wild Explosion” magic primarily for our animal friends who would be on the front lines, while Astra, who had specialized as a professional buffer, cast support magic on everyone to enhance their physical abilities.

Meanwhile, Minerva assisted Sophia who was attempting to cast a massive spell.

As everyone prepared for battle in their own way using their specialties, Sophia’s spell was finally completed.

[—Now!!]

—KUGUUUGUUUGUUGUUNG—!!!!!

The sky visible through the dense jungle canopy literally ‘opened,’ and from the gap in the heavens, masses of white energy came pouring down.

“Celestial Meteor,” the pinnacle of celestial magic. Its expanded version, “Celestial Meteor Shower,” is a spell that transforms the original “Celestial Meteor” into an area-of-effect attack.

In terms of sweeping a wide area in one go, no other celestial magic can compare…

But importantly, “Celestial Meteor Shower” can also be imbued with the guaranteed-hit effect through fate observation, just like the original “Celestial Meteor.”

Dozens of celestial energy meteors rained down, targeting a single mark—the Chomptantlus at the center of that bone mountain.

Each attack possessed power befitting the pinnacle of magic, and they all concentrated on the single Chomptantlus in a massive barrage.

But then, an unbelievable sight unfolded before our eyes.

—WOOONG!!!

With a strange sound like something moving, a purple flash erupted from the center of the nest.

Suddenly, all the “Celestial Energy Meteors” pouring down from the sky completely vanished.

“—Sophia?!”

“The Prophet is fine! It’s just that the spell was canceled!”

I quickly turned my head, worried that it might be using dispel to damage the caster, but fortunately Sophia was fine and explained that the spell had merely been reset.

While dispel forcibly tears away the magical power constituting a spell to nullify it, a spell reset simply returns the state to before the spell was cast.

Considering the time invested, it could be seen as a loss, but since the mana consumption was also reset, it wasn’t entirely bad.

Anyway, right after the “Celestial Meteor Shower” spell was canceled by this rare “spell reset” ability.

[—■■■■■■■!!!]

A thunderous roar filled with magical power and fear echoed loudly enough to be heard throughout the area.

A roar that could affect us if I didn’t neutralize it with fear—after it resounded once…

“…That’s it!”

“Everyone, prepare for battle!!”

The creature that left Sophia aghast and shocked us all—the ‘Chomptantlus’ finally revealed itself.

※ ※ ※

The appearance of the Chomptantlus was utterly horrifying.

Its body length was roughly 30 meters, and its height easily exceeded 6 meters.

While it somewhat resembled a theropod dinosaur like a Tyrannosaurus, seeing it in person revealed that its forelegs were quite developed and its hind legs were longer and more flexible than expected, making it move in a manner closer to quadrupedal locomotion.

The Chomptantlus’s head had a terrifying form that looked as if a single piece of skin had been draped over the skull, and its matte-scaled hide was a grayish color with a faint purple tint.

However, the real reason we were shocked by the creature before us was something else…

‘…How many has it killed?’

It was the various translucent purple skulls attached all over the Chomptantlus’s body.

Those things, which anyone would recognize as magical constructs, were indeed the result of the creature’s magical special ability.

The magical beast known as Chomptantlus could absorb the power of creatures it devoured, “storing” them in the form of skulls, and then use them for its special abilities.

In other words, the Chomptantlus could use as many special abilities as the number of skulls attached to its body.

…Of course, there were clear limitations to these abilities, the most notable being that these absorbed and stored special abilities were essentially one-time use.

Additionally, the output of each special ability was several levels weaker than when used by its original owner, meaning additional skulls had to be consumed to compensate for this weakness.

The Chomptantlus—certainly threatening but not an impossible opponent—showed empty spaces where skulls had been consumed to reset the spell casting.

And then…

[■■■■■■■■■■—!!!]

In the next moment, with its purple eyes blazing brightly… it activated its own unique special ability, not one obtained through predation.

From what I’d heard, the Chomptantlus had two main special abilities.

One was the ability to devour living creatures and extract their power, specifically one special ability from each creature.

The other was what the Chomptantlus was activating now—the “Corpse Control” ability.

The Chomptantlus’s “Corpse Control” ability differed from the undead-raising powers of cultists.

It was more like manipulating corpses, specifically only bones, to create simple humanoid golems.

The simple golems created by this special ability had no special powers of their own, and their combat effectiveness was determined by the strength of the bones used as materials, making it a somewhat ambiguous ability in many ways.

But the Chomptantlus before us demonstrated this ambiguous ability in a way we hadn’t predicted.

—KUGUUUGUUUGUUGUUNG—!!!

The mountain of crushed bones began to rise under the influence of the Chomptantlus’s power and its authority as master of this otherworld domain, “Chomptantlus’s Nest.”

There were about 80 of them.

Individually, they barely qualified as mid-tier entities due to their size, but when there are 80 such creatures, the situation changes dramatically.

Entities that barely met the minimum requirements to participate in mid-tier combat, and there were 80 of them. No matter how you looked at it, this was clearly an unfavorable development for us, but…

[Bite them—!!]

When you know what’s coming, it would be strange not to prepare.

I formed about four virtual hydra heads through incantation and began firing projectiles imbued with “magic-breaking poison spell” through them—

—PASUK!

The temporary golems, maintained by magic or more precisely magic-based special abilities, instantly collapsed, and the situation returned to square one.

And so, our full-fledged battle with the Chomptantlus was about to begin.