Ch.149Omen (4)

The Cult members assigned to the Angra-class fast escort ship of the mothership fleet were relatively fortunate.

Five days ago, they had crashed onto an island after being hit by a psychic power heat ray fired by a three-headed demon.

Psygil08 was a place like a demonic realm crawling with dangerous creatures. It was certainly not an environment where those with physical abilities barely below human level could easily survive.

Had they fallen onto the continent, they wouldn’t have lasted even a day.

“Will a rescue team really come?”

“Once that magnetic storm subsides, we’ll be able to contact the satellite. We just need to hold out until then.”

Cult members with various horns sat around a campfire, tearing into roasted fish. Some had horns broken from the impact of the crash, while others were wrapped in bandages.

Though they looked no different from defeated soldiers, the eyes of all 25 members were filled with determination to survive somehow.

“Looking at the sky, the magnetic storm has weakened compared to yesterday.”

“The communication equipment is mostly repaired. We’re just short on some parts.”

“Let’s try again tomorrow morning. Technicians, check if there’s a way to salvage parts from the damaged carrier aircraft.”

The Cult members nodded at the instructions from the warrior unit member with goat horns.

“I know it’s tough for everyone, but we need to endure somehow. Many have departed guided by Providence, but it’s not our time yet.”

Although Cult members are a race blessed with psychic power, it wasn’t much help in this situation.

Most psychic power techniques consume a lot of the user’s energy. If they used psychic power to catch fish or pick fruit, they would quickly run out of energy and collapse.

Knowing this, the warrior unit member took great care to ensure the Cult members moved within limits that wouldn’t cause them harm.

The crew followed his instructions, knowing his intentions, despite their dissatisfaction with the situation.

After finishing their meal, they moved to handle their assigned tasks. The leader, the warrior unit member, went around without rest, helping his comrades with their work.

As time passed, the sixth night on the island arrived.

The warrior unit member had confirmed while patrolling that there were no dangerous creatures on this island. Still, they decided to post sentries in case something unexpected happened during the night.

Except for the three sentries, everyone else had fallen into deep sleep.

“The fire’s getting weak.”

“I’ll gather some when I go to relieve myself.”

One Cult member took his rifle and entered the forest.

“Whew, that was close.”

He relieved himself at a spot slightly away from the campfire. After adjusting his pants, he gathered branches from around the area.

Just as he was about to return, thinking he had enough, he heard a rustling sound.

The sound of leaves and branches being stepped on. He quickly dropped the branches and raised his rifle.

“W-who’s there?”

He called out, but there was no answer. Another sentry rushed over, having heard his shout.

“Why are you suddenly shouting?”

“I just heard footsteps from the forest.”

“What?”

The two sentries pointed their rifles in the direction of the sound, but no footsteps were heard.

“I think you misheard.”

“Maybe?”

As the two were about to return to the campfire.

At that moment, another unidentified sound stimulated their ears. This time it wasn’t just footsteps.

“Did you hear that just now?”

“……”

The two held their breath and listened carefully.

The faint sound of waves beyond the forest, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

And then.

“Is anyone there?”

That small but clearly audible voice was definitely that of a female Cult member. It was clear that one of the Cult survivors had found her way to this island.

“W-what should we do? Should we help?”

“Wait a moment. Something feels off.”

They had been on this island for more than just a day or two, and it wasn’t large enough to be called a continent. It was small enough to circle in half a day, so there was no way there could be a Cult member they hadn’t seen.

“We’ve been here for days. There are no other ships here.”

“What if they came from somewhere else? M-maybe they’re better off than us and came by aircraft.”

“That’s…”

It wasn’t wrong, but there was one overlooked fact.

Despite it being the middle of the night, there was no sound of any aircraft approaching.

“At times like this, we need to stick together! Hey! Over here!”

“Wait!”

Before his comrade could point out this fact, the Cult member ran toward the direction of the voice, shouting loudly.

“What are you two doing?”

“We just heard a woman’s voice from over there.”

“What?”

The two sentries considered for a moment but decided to wake the warrior unit member instead of following their comrade. The voice had seemed too suspicious.

As they were about to move toward the campfire, their comrade’s voice came from behind the bushes.

“Hey! Help us out!”

“Huh?”

“These are friends from the Jassville02 escort ship! Don’t worry!”

“That’s right! We had some trouble with our aircraft.”

“Please come help us.”

The voices coming from beyond the bushes weren’t just from one person. Multiple calls came simultaneously, as if many had arrived.

There was no sign of threat in their comrade’s voice. Rather, only joy at meeting fellow Cult members after a long time.

“Strange. We didn’t hear any aircraft sounds?”

“I guess we missed it. Let’s go check it out.”

So the remaining two sentries also relaxed their guard. They pushed through the bushes, following the voices.

The trees on the island weren’t very large, but it was the dead of night. Even with the lights attached to their rifles, it wasn’t easy for non-combatants to navigate through the dark forest.

As if understanding their situation, the Cult voices emerged at just the right moments.

“This way!”

“Over here! Over here!”

“Just a little further!”

It was as if they were making every effort to ensure they wouldn’t get lost.

At the end of following the voices, they reached not the forest but the beach. A female Cult member in reinforced armor stood alone in a wide, deep depression in the sand, possibly caused by the waves.

“What’s going on? Where are the others, ma’am?”

The female Cult didn’t answer the sentry’s question. She just stared at them with an expressionless face.

The owners of the voices that had been heard simultaneously just moments ago were nowhere to be seen. Nor was the aircraft they supposedly arrived in.

As the situation took a strange turn.

One of the sentries looking toward the rolling waves noticed something odd.

‘Huh?’

The waves, which should have been washing up onto the beach, were hitting something invisible in midair, as if blocked.

The moment he recognized this unnatural phenomenon, the Cult member sensed a strange smell in the air.

There was a peculiar odor subtly permeating the air. A pungent smell fundamentally different from the salty sea air.

He wasn’t the only one who sensed something wrong; his comrade next to him took a step back. His gaze was fixed on the shadow of the woman standing alone on the sand with her strange face.

Following his gaze to the shadow, the Cult member felt all the hair on his body stand on end.

At first, he thought it was just wet sand appearing black, but that wasn’t it.

All the black sand in front of them was shadow.

“Leaving?”

The female Cult’s form wavered like a mirage. At the same time, the shadow writhed and moved.

And then came the voices.

“Where are you going without us?”

“Don’t leave us behind.”

“Stay with us.”

“Stay with us.”

With the voices of their kin, the shadow engulfed them.

–

The warrior unit member of the Angra-class fast escort ship woke up with an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

Generally, goat-horned Cult members are known to excel in psychic power techniques related to physical enhancement. He had joined the warrior unit based on his aptitude, but he had one special ability that set him apart from others.

An exceptional ability to sense danger.

Thanks to his ability to sense danger faster than his comrades, he had avoided death on dangerous battlefields more than once.

Because of this, he planned to retire from the warrior unit after this mission and prepare for the prophet test. His ability was far inferior to real prophets, but with his talent, training shouldn’t be a problem.

Anyway, his near-prophetic danger sensing ability had suddenly activated.

The warrior unit member quickly grabbed the weapon placed beside him. He enhanced his senses with psychic power.

His enhanced ears picked up small sounds coming from outside the makeshift tent.

“So I separate this part?”

“Yes. Combine it with this component, and it can be activated immediately after attachment.”

“I see. Anything else needed?”

“If you’re taking it, you should take this too.”

What he heard was the conversation between a male and female Cult member.

‘The sentries?’

Seeing his kin conversing calmly, it seemed far from a crisis situation. But his brain’s danger sensing ability continued to sound the alarm.

Get away from here immediately.

Plus, there was one important fact.

There were no female Cult members in this survivor group.

‘……’

After deliberating, the warrior unit member decided to check the situation himself. With his heart pounding and hands trembling, he slightly lifted the covered entrance of the tent.

And he regretted his action.

“Good. This should be sufficient.”

Not far from the tent was a partially destroyed ship. There was something so massive there that it was difficult to take in its entire form at once.

The monster with a terrifying appearance he had never seen before was in the process of disassembling the ships with its elongated arms.

“S-so you’ll spare me?”

“I-I worked hard too! Please spare me as well!”

“Damn it! Me too!”

Even more horrifying were the ‘things’ on its back. Five pale Cult faces were embedded like boils on its back, continuously crying out to be saved. Among those faces, the warrior unit member recognized some.

“I’ve told you everything I know! Please…!”

“Quiet.”

When a smooth female voice flowed from the monster’s mouth, the wailing faces became docile. The monster’s white eyeballs moved and turned toward the warrior unit member’s tent.

“You saw?”

As the warrior unit member’s eyes met with the creature, he wished everything was just a dream.

–

‘I’ve got everything I need.’

There was still plenty of time before the Nightmare Horizon cooldown ended. So I went around the ship crash sites checked by Sky Mother to gather parts that could enhance the armaments of the new escort ship.

‘There’s nothing wrong with having higher armament levels.’

The stronger the ship becomes, the more weapons I can utilize through infiltration.

‘Today is the sixth day. We can depart tomorrow.’

I’m returning to the Saintopia02 continent with newly acquired parts and ship weapons on my back. This is the last target. The other ships crashed on entirely different continents, too far away.

‘It’s been a while since I used the mimicry organ and face stealer combo.’

Both are characteristics I mainly used in the game. In reality, these two characteristics have an important synergy that isn’t officially known.

‘With the face stealer trait, I can choose which victim to apply with the mimicry organ.’

Originally, the mimicry organ discards previously stored genes and replaces them with new ones when consuming new genetic material. So the target implemented through pheromones changes with each feeding.

‘That’s the weakness of the mimicry organ.’

The inability to change the target I want to implement through pheromones by my own will.

The discrepancy that occurs as size increases, and the limitation of pretending to be a specific target to deceive enemies make the mimicry organ difficult to use continuously until the late game.

‘That would normally be the case, but…’

When the face stealer trait comes into play, the story completely changes.

The face stealer trait works by copying an enemy’s genes and storing them internally. The reason I can question them and extract information is because I also take some of their memory information when absorbing them.

The important thing here is that the mimicry organ can use that stored genetic information.

I can select one of the stored genetic information in my body and create pheromones that disguise me as that target.

‘Almost no one knows this fact.’

As far as I know, I’m the only one who has used both traits simultaneously. Since the mimicry organ itself is a trait that very few people acquire, there would be extremely few who have attempted to use both together.

‘I’ve tricked so many people with this.’

I’ve fooled so many people with the mimicry organ that some of them have come up with countermeasures. They ask for passwords only known among themselves, or they throw bait knowing that if I eat new prey, I can’t disguise myself as the previously disguised target, and so on.

But they didn’t know I had the means to disguise myself as multiple targets.

‘Of course, this has its drawbacks too.’

The face stealer trait can store genes from a maximum of 5 individuals. So the number of people I can disguise myself as using the mimicry organ is also limited to 5 in total.

‘It would be nice if there was a way to increase this somehow.’

In the game, no matter how much I searched, there was no way to increase it.

‘It might be different in this world.’

Since elements that didn’t exist in the game are appearing one after another, there might be a means somewhere in this universe to increase the limit of the face stealer.

While thinking about this as I swam, I felt a familiar wavelength.

「Big sis!」

No. 26 was already approaching me, wiggling its fins. In the distance, I could see the small figures of Sky Mother and Adhigh Orr on the moonlit beach.

[Zu zuzu zuzu zuzu (Why did you come all the way here?)]

「I was swimming because I was bored.」

It replied with a bright wavelength. As expected of a marine creature, it seems to enjoy swimming.

‘We’ll be leaving this planet tomorrow.’

When we reach our next destination, there will be few opportunities to swim for a while. It’s probably best to let it enjoy swimming as much as it likes now.

[Zuzu zuzu zuzu (Then let’s go together)]

「Yes!」

I enjoyed the last swim in this planet’s night sea together with No. 26.

–

In the middle of the pitch-black universe.

A small ship was crossing the infinite space.

Anyone interested in spaceships would immediately recognize that ivory-colored, oval-designed vessel as a Cult escape ship.

And those with deeper knowledge would also notice that the rear part of the spaceship, specifically near the FTL engine, was severely damaged.

In this vast universe, the inability to travel at FTL speeds is a very serious problem. Especially for an escape ship loaded with only minimal food and medical supplies.

The two people inside the beautifully designed escape ship were waiting for death day by day.

“Captain, this is the last of our food supplies.”

“I’m not hungry, so you eat it.”

“I can’t do that. You haven’t eaten anything for three days already.”

They were the captain and a crew member who had escaped from the Imperial Mothership “Judge of Damos08.”

When they made their final escape, the FTL engine was severely damaged by the aftermath of the mothership’s explosion. Currently, they were stranded in the middle of space.

Although this escape ship’s flight speed is very fast, without the FTL engine, it would take at least half a year to reach Cult territory. Far too long for an escape ship with only a week’s worth of food.

In other words, they had two choices left: starvation or suicide.

“Captain. I promised the others. I said I would ensure you wouldn’t die in vain.”

“……”

“Please help me keep my promise.”

“…I’ll eat half.”

Just as the crew member was about to hand half of the combat ration to the captain, the ship suddenly stopped.

“What’s happening? Could it be Space Dogs?”

“I’ll check!”

They quickly operated the instrument panel to see why the ship had stopped.

“Captain!”

“…Someone is forcibly pulling our ship.”

They might have been lucky enough to be discovered by a Cult ship, but the possibility was low.

The star system through which the escape ship was passing was an empty space not occupied by any faction. It was a suitable place for Space Dogs, who are hostile to all factions, to hide.

“Haha, it seems Providence is about to take us.”

“…I’ll fight to the end.”

They gripped the weapons stored in the escape ship. Soon, they heard the sound of a plasma cutter operating at the door of the escape ship.

“Gulp.”

“…Now!”

The moment the door was cut and fell, they rushed out.

Despite having starved for days, the captain had traversed countless battlefields in the past. He tried to attack the enemy by drawing up all his remaining psychic power.

But the enemy was more skillful than he expected. The enemy, wearing a white suit with a slender build, easily deflected the attack fired by the captain and transformed their arm into a blade, aiming it at his neck.

“Kuk?!”

“Stop.”

“Captain!”

Meanwhile, the other crew member had already been subdued by an enemy wearing a bizarre suit that looked like a combination of a walker and reinforced armor.

“We do not surrender to Space Dogs.”

“Space Dogs? Do I look like a Space Dog to you?”

The opponent who had subdued the captain asked coldly in a soft voice. Only then could the captain properly observe his opponent.

The opponent with excellent combat skills was surprisingly a woman. A woman with a long horn on the left side of her head.

“You’re not… a Cult. Identify yourself.”

The woman answered the captain’s demand.

“My name is Siheyon Yujin. Captain Nern of the ‘Judge of Damos08,’ I’ve come for you.”

“Yujin? Could it be the Yujin family of Megacorp?”

Siheyon Yujin, former shadow of Megacorp’s Noble Capital and the Yujin family, had come for those who had failed their purification mission.