Ch.145The Three-Headed Devil (4)

The name of the drug in the ampoule I’m holding is Psyonium.

It’s a drug that gives enhancement effects to the user each time it’s used, but in exchange, its duration decreases randomly.

I’ve used it before when fighting Siheyon Yujin, a genetically modified human from House Yugin.

Back then, as a Morphlet, I consumed Psyonium to temporarily gain the power of a Juvenile and fought against her.

Anyway, I’ve already used it once. Normally, the duration should decrease.

‘But this is the improved version that Muriel used.’

She enjoyed enhancement effects for a much longer time compared to regular Psyonium. Therefore, I don’t know how long the effects will last.

‘Whatever the case, the duration won’t be very long.’

I should assume at least 5 minutes, at most 8 or 9 minutes.

In other words, the Psyonium effect will end earlier than the maximum duration of the ‘King of Monsters.’ Logically, I should use the King of Monsters first, but there’s an issue I need to consider before that.

‘If all energy is consumed, the state will be canceled.’

The description of ‘Organic Evolution’ states that transforming into the King of Monsters consumes an enormous amount of energy.

‘God’s Whip must also consume a lot of energy.’

Both ‘God’s Whip’ and the King of Monsters consume the bio-energy stored in my body.

‘The total amount of energy shouldn’t be a major problem.’

Before entering Transcendence Level 2, I ate the Swamp King and swamp creatures to my heart’s content, and just now, I swallowed a Horned Gigant whole.

Both creatures are powerful predators that rule the Saintopia02 continent. Moreover, AMorph is a very energy-efficient organism, so I don’t think I’ll lack energy.

‘Of course, I can’t be 100% certain.’

Both abilities are new and didn’t appear in the game. Naturally, I’ve never used them myself.

However, I’ve faced similar crises in the game several times. I’ve conducted mass slaughters against Outspacer invasions, and I’ve flown to the atmosphere to intercept Nova, Megacorp’s planet-destroying weapon.

If anything, I have more cards to play now than I did then, so the situation is better.

‘With AMorph’s excellent senses and my intuition…’

I can overcome this obstacle just as I’ve done until now.

‘The remaining question is when the Cosmic Bolt will fall.’

There’s no way for me to figure this out in the current situation, but there is one method.

My predator sense that warns me of danger. The moment a fragmentary future appears before my eyes is when I should attack.

Having made my decision, I took out the Psyonium ampoule from Muriel’s kit.

Then I put the ampoule in my mouth for safekeeping. This was to avoid struggling to hold the ampoule with my enormously enlarged body.

‘It’ll be hard to eat once I become the King of Monsters.’

I was ready, but my predator sense hadn’t sent any signals yet. I activated the Organic Evolution trait and selected the King of Monsters.

And then.

“The location is not suitable. Please maintain distance from allies.”

‘Huh?’

The transformation didn’t happen.

‘It won’t work here?’

There are many trees around, but this place where I’m standing is flat ground. The special state description only mentions needing a 100m radius space, with no other specifications.

‘Maybe obstacles aren’t allowed… Ah. Wait, could it be?’

Distance from allies.

In front of me are No. 26, Adhigh Orr, and Sky Mother.

[Zzz zzzzz zzzzz (Wait here for a moment)]

After telling the kids, I left that place.

I headed toward the riverside. There are no obstacles like trees there. And it’s far from them too.

Since I don’t know when the orbital bombardment will start, I ran with all my might. Six combat arms, tail, and blunt claws. All my body parts pushed my body forward, using muscles to their limits.

Upon reaching the riverside, I activated the trait again.

“The location is not suitable.”

And once again, the message saying it’s not suitable appeared.

I looked around. This place is a riverbank, but trees are growing sparsely enough that it could be considered the edge of the forest.

Since there’s no mention of allies but only about the location, it seems the King of Monsters description omitted the part about obstacles.

I quickly jumped into the river. Only after reaching the center of the river did I receive a message saying I could transform into the King of Monsters.

‘This must be well over 100 meters?’

This river isn’t particularly narrow. It easily exceeds 100m from the center to the bank.

Just as I was wondering how large I would become…

Something passed through my field of vision.

‘It’s here!’

Black flames that tear through the atmosphere and devour all things and life—the scene of the Cosmic Bolt falling. The moment I recognized that scene, I immediately transformed into the King of Monsters.

‘Urgh?!’

“Pain reduction activated!”

Unlike other evolutions, tremendous pain washed over me. It was extreme pain unlike anything I’d experienced before.

Even with pain reduction activated, it was this severe. If I hadn’t experienced full-body burns as a child, I would have lost consciousness immediately.

And the pain wasn’t the only issue. The energy consumption rate was monstrous even during transformation. It felt like an unimaginable fatigue, as if I had fired Psychic Breath three times in succession.

‘Kuh, kuuugh! I, I need to eat it now…!’

Somehow maintaining my sanity, I bit into the thing in my mouth. The tiny ampoule broke, and the Psyonium inside poured down my throat.

“Grr, grrrr, ■■■■■■■■■■!”

Unable to endure the pain any longer, I howled loudly.

As the river water evaporated and trees on the bank were uprooted, a wave of intense energy obscured my vision.

–

“Cosmic Bolt firing preparation complete.”

“Energy output 500% charge complete. Dark matter regulator operating. Purification process initiated.”

“Coordinates input complete.”

“Expected damage assessment complete. Comparing with purification mission.”

In the situation room where preparations for the Cosmic Bolt launch were underway, the captain secretly bit his lip.

In the end, his subordinates didn’t return before the launch. Whether they were alive or dead, what they experienced on Psygil08—he didn’t know.

‘I’ll probably never know.’

Thinking of his fallen subordinates, the captain squeezed his eyes shut. Meanwhile, the countdown continued to drop rapidly.

“Huh? Captain! A powerful energy wave has been detected!”

At that moment, the Cult crewman monitoring the planet’s energy flow shouted. The captain opened his eyes at his words.

“Energy wave? Could it be a magnetic storm?”

“Unknown! This, this?! It’s not spread across the entire planet but concentrated at a specific point!”

“What?”

The crewman displayed an image using psychic power. An entire continent on the planet was covered by a massive energy storm. Everyone in the situation room was shocked at the sight.

“G-good heavens!”

“I’ve never seen energy flow like that!”

Magnetic storms occur across the entire planet, so they don’t artificially concentrate at one point like this. In other words, this energy wave was artificially created by a specific entity.

‘Could that be the contaminant?’

The order received by the ‘Judge of Damos08’ was to purify the contaminated Psygil08. That abnormal storm must have been created by the entities contaminating the planet.

‘Damn! So that’s why they were all annihilated!’

That continent is where the Volf natives reside. Surely the warrior unit went to capture the Volfs and unfortunately encountered this contaminant.

A contaminant with influence on a continental scale. No matter how excellent the warrior unit’s combat power, survival against such an absurd entity would be impossible.

“Can we observe the contaminant with the ship’s cameras?”

“Th-the energy flow is so intense… But I’ll try!”

The Cult crewmen operated the computers in the situation room while using their psychic power techniques. A few seconds later, an image of the ground appeared above the center of the situation room.

The Cult members all screamed when they confirmed the appearance of the contaminant.

The captain didn’t reprimand them. Because he too almost screamed when he saw ‘it.’

For some unknown reason, the image quality was very poor, but everyone present could easily identify ‘its’ form.

This was because ‘it’ was enormously large. Roughly comparing it to nearby trees, its length was estimated to exceed 200m.

The contaminant had a total of three heads. Of the three heads, the two heads other than the middle one had identical appearances.

The two heads on the right and left resembled carnivorous dragons with pointed snouts like the native “Manuk Arma” of Psygil08, but they had no visible sensory organs. Instead, horns grew in their place.

In lieu of eyes, long, thin tentacles under the jaw seemed to serve as sensory organs. Even in the image on screen, the two heads were constantly twitching their tentacles.

And the middle head. That head had six massive horns and a long, wide posterior carapace reminiscent of a crown. Unlike the heads on either side, this head had eyes. Those eyes were constantly scanning the surroundings like a cunning snake.

Horns, posterior carapace, eyes. The captain thought this head had the highest authority.

The necks supporting the three heads were quite long and thick, reminiscent of snakes. Where the long necks connected to the heads, there were bundles of tentacles hanging down like hair.

Even this much was a sufficiently repulsive appearance, but the body was even more grotesque.

A pitch-black carapace, as if made of the dark matter used by the Cult, covered its back. On that back were eight spiral-shaped pits. And in the center of those pits were pipe-like tubes arranged in a row extending to the tail.

An unknown gas continuously poured from the tubes and rose into the sky. Those gases were probably why the image quality captured by the ship’s camera was poor.

Going down from the back carapace, six legs were visible. Or more precisely, four front legs that seemed to function as arms, and two much larger hind legs.

Perhaps it was crouching, making its arms appear as legs.

All the legs were covered with carapace similar to the back, and the joints seemed more numerous than in ordinary creatures. That appearance evoked instinctive disgust, reminiscent of long-legged insects like spiders.

Especially between the legs, there were many folds of flesh that were not pleasant to look at. Whatever their purpose, if it was to cause revulsion in viewers, they achieved that goal admirably.

After the terribly formed legs, finally the tail. The three-headed creature also had multiple tails. Its tail, which accounted for about one-third of its body, was split into two branches from some point in the lower body.

In other words, it had two tails. The right tail had a giant pincer at its end, while the left tail had a sting resembling a scorpion’s poison stinger.

“Th-three-headed demon…”

Someone muttered, looking at the contaminant on screen. The captain thought his expression was appropriate.

Its appearance was truly like the evil dragon from Cult mythology.

The “three-headed demon” mentioned by the crewman, a contaminant threatening the security of the Cult Empire.

The captain shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Incinerate that blasphemous entity immediately!”

“Understood! Adjusting coordinates!”

The muzzle of the Cosmic Bolt aimed at the blasphemous entity.

Soon that contaminant would be eliminated. As always.

No. It had to be.

–

I gained a new body, but I couldn’t examine the changes.

Thinking that the energy reserves wouldn’t be a concern was a complete misjudgment. An enormous amount of energy is draining in real-time.

It can’t be helped. After becoming the King of Monsters, the detection range of my auxiliary organs has expanded tremendously. I can monitor an area covering about one-third of this Saintopia02 continent.

In addition to energy consumption, I barely maintained my sanity amidst the massive amount of information. I filtered out useless information as much as possible and focused only on the Cosmic Bolt falling from the planet’s atmosphere.

Finally, I sent a message to them with the monster’s tentacles.

[Zzz zzzzz zzz (Everyone get away on your own!)]

Sky Mother would probably understand what I meant. No, she must understand.

I’m sorry to the kids, but I don’t have the leisure to worry about them, as I feel like I’ll collapse if I lose focus even slightly.

And finally, the time came.

As if time had slowed down, the Cosmic Bolt slowly falls here. The sky splits, the air vibrates, and the ground beneath my feet shakes.

In the seemingly frozen spacetime, I raised my head toward the sky.

‘God’s Whip!’

The pitch-black back, the pipes arranged in a row there glow golden one by one. The golden wave climbs up my long necks.

The moment the light passes through the monster’s tentacles and reaches my throat.

Through me, a god swings the whip of punishment.

It looked like lightning, or like hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of thin heat rays merged into one.

What’s important is that the lightning-like heat ray emanates from three places.

The black flames descending to scorch the ground clash with the brilliantly golden lightning.

At that moment.

The sky was torn.

This is not a metaphor—the planet’s atmosphere is literally being torn. This is because the lightning shot by the three heads and the Cosmic Bolt created a massive shockwave as they collided.

The clouds disappeared, and auroras suddenly appeared in the sky where the magnetic field was strangely distorted. Along with the weather anomaly, dozens of fiery whirlwinds descended from the sky to the ground.

The ground where I stood shook as if an earthquake had occurred, and the river water evaporated rapidly. Trees within a radius of several kilometers around where I stood all burst into flames.

‘Kuk!’

Adult form plus King of Monsters, and on top of that, God’s Whip containing the power of the Lightning God.

I thought this would be enough, but it’s not easy. Even while spewing lightning, I gauged the remaining energy.

‘At best, 3 more minutes!’

The Psyonium effect won’t wear off, but the King of Monsters and God’s Whip are different. When the energy level is depleted, they’ll be canceled immediately.

‘Just a little more!’

Slowly, very slowly, the lightning began to push back the black flames, the Cosmic Bolt. If I push a little more here, the Imperial Mothership will also overload, and the Cosmic Bolt will be forcibly terminated.

Just as I thought I needed to hold out a bit longer, suddenly dozens of heat rays poured down on me from the sky.

‘Mothership fleet!’

I was too focused on the Cosmic Bolt to notice, but Cult warships were already floating in the sky. Realizing that the Imperial Mothership was engaged with me, warships from the mothership fleet had come to support.

‘It’s difficult to split my attack here!’

Thanks to the King of Monsters effect, the heat rays they fired didn’t inflict fatal wounds on me. It hurts, but I can endure it.

However, it’s also true that the continuous barrage of heat rays makes it difficult to maintain concentration.

‘Some method… Ah!’

Suddenly a good idea occurred to me, and I calculated the remaining energy.

‘It’s possible!’

There’s a means to deal with those annoying fly-like ships while firing God’s Whip. The downside is that the duration of the King of Monsters will be slightly reduced, but…

The monster’s tentacles move according to my will. As there are three heads, the monster’s tentacles at the back of the head and neck are generated from three places.

‘So I can fire Psychic Breath in three directions too.’

Until now, I’ve never particularly controlled the direction of Psychic Breath. There was no need to.

While there’s a constraint that I need to maintain concentration, I should be able to control the direction itself.

The only problem is that I’ve never actually tried it.

Having to gamble again is not to my liking, but there’s no choice.

If I lose here, it’s total annihilation. Now is the time to make a decisive move.

The pipes that were glowing golden just before now flashed purple. Similar to using God’s Whip, the purple light advanced upward from the tail tip in sequence.

Meanwhile, I struggled to aim the monster’s tentacles toward the targets. Controlling the monster’s tentacles on all three heads simultaneously was by no means easy.

It was such a delicate operation that I would have failed immediately if AMorph’s excellent senses hadn’t helped me. Blood flowed from my eyes and mouth without me realizing it, but I ignored it.

Despite the pain that felt like my brain was burning, I finally succeeded. The monster’s tentacles obeyed my command and aimed in the direction of the enemy ships.

‘Got it!’

The monster’s tentacles, having absorbed all the purple psychic power, sway gently like a conductor’s baton.

Following the conducting, purple spheres appear in front of the dragon heads spewing lightning.

When I used Psychic Breath before, its size was quite large, but now it was enormous, seemingly scaled to my body which had grown to over 200m.

Sensing the essence of psychic power I created, the enemy ships frantically tried to retreat.

‘How dare you try to escape!’

The dragon’s breath struck at their fleeing tails. Where the purple heat rays extending several kilometers passed by the ships, only massive explosions remained.

Ships that escaped the range of my heat rays quickly fled beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Those that couldn’t became a rain of alloy falling to the ground.

‘Now I have maybe 2 minutes, no, about 1 minute left?’

Having forced the ships to retreat, I poured all my mental energy into firing God’s Whip.

As the remaining energy approaches the bottom, my vision blurs. My arms and legs that firmly supported my body weaken and tremble.

Only the auxiliary organs under my jaw, which have always survived with me, continue to report my energy consumption.

‘Please!’

“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!”

Finally, I roared like a scream while pouring out lightning.

Perhaps it worked.

The Cosmic Bolt that was descending to annihilate everything.

The black heat ray with a radius of several hundred meters flickered like a broken lamp and then vanished.

Like a serpent ascending to become a dragon, the lightning I shot flew high into the sky without any obstacles.

Then a second sun rose high in the sky.

Confirming that it was the final flash of the Imperial Mothership destroyed by God’s Whip, I lost consciousness.