Ch.182Cult Priest (1)

The echo reverberated through the tunnel like a distant memory, carrying the enemy’s shout. His voice contained only one emotion: fierce rage.

‘Good.’

This reduced the possibility of the enemy retreating. The enemy player wouldn’t think of turning back until he killed me.

‘AMorph hunter.’

This opponent was the third player I’d encountered, after Sky Mother and Muriel. It wouldn’t be an easy fight.

‘But I don’t plan on losing.’

As I ran across the solidly frozen ice, I recalculated the cards I held.

I’d already used the tetanus vine I’d prepared to ambush the enemy.

The tetanus vine was an infection-related trait modeled after the man-eating plants often appearing in classic horror films. The infection method was similar to using parasites.

Inside my combat arm was a space where parasites and tetanus vine seeds could live. Just as parasites escaped through small holes in my arm when needed, tetanus vine seeds emerged from a hole in the palm of my hand.

The difference was that unlike parasites that entered the opponent’s body on their own, tetanus vines couldn’t do that. They existed as seeds while in my body, so I had to inject them into the opponent directly.

Once inside the opponent’s body and after consuming nutrients, the tetanus vine grew at an extremely fast rate. It would fully mature in as little as 5 minutes, no more than 10, and then prepare to reproduce.

‘That’s when they become human bombs.’

The tetanus vine, spreading through blood vessels, would self-destruct when a new host appeared nearby. It was similar to how some plants grow anew when their branches are cut and planted in soil.

Needless to say, the host died during the explosion process. It was like having a grenade detonate inside your body.

Thanks to these characteristics, I mainly used parasites and tetanus vines together in large-scale battles or for ambushes like earlier.

Even players with extensive experience fighting me often immediately killed players controlled by parasites to prepare for such situations.

So the Cult player chasing me wouldn’t fall for it again.

‘It served its purpose well as provocation and bait.’

Besides the tetanus vine, my other trump cards included the recently acquired Bone Beast and Revenant Organ.

Both traits play crucial roles in AMorph combat. They were traits I frequently used in the game as well.

Bone Beast can be considered a trait that bundles the effects of “King of Monsters” and “Symbol of the Hunt” that I acquired.

Of course, it doesn’t make me dramatically stronger like when using King of Monsters or Symbol of the Hunt.

The effects of Bone Beast can be summarized in two main points.

‘Gigantification and defense enhancement.’

Since it’s a trait created using the Giant Creature trait and Bone Axe trait as materials, it inherits the effects of both.

When the Bone Beast trait is activated, my body becomes slightly larger than when using the gigantification trait. My current body length is about 28m, and it grows about 3 times larger from there. Naturally, my strength increases proportionally to my size.

Up to this point, it’s similar to regular gigantification, but in the Bone Beast state, one more thing is added.

Hard bone armor is overlaid on the surface of my body. It’s similar to when carapaces grew all over my body when using Symbol of the Hunt. Because thick armor and spike-like bones are added, I can inflict damage by ramming my body against enemies of similar weight class.

‘But there’s no speed increase effect.’

Considering that my speed increased rather than decreased when using Symbol of the Hunt, this is a disappointing aspect.

‘But if it were as good as Symbol of the Hunt, that would be problematic too.’

The unique traits obtained through the transcendence system are, as the name suggests, ones that transcend AMorph’s limits. Expecting that much effect from Bone Beast, which is “merely” a fusion trait, would be excessive greed.

Though not at the level of Symbol of the Hunt, the powerful Bone Beast is still a trump card I’ve been saving. I can use it when facing the enemy player. Additionally, I now possess the special state King of Monsters that can transform with the “Organic Evolution” trait.

‘Thanks to eating the Ice Horror, I have plenty of energy.’

With a creature hundreds of meters in size in my stomach, I have sufficient energy to maintain Bone Beast. I’ll decide whether to use the energy-intensive King of Monsters based on the situation.

‘And then there’s the Revenant Organ.’

As the name suggests, the Revenant Organ is a trait related to resurrection.

‘Though it doesn’t actually resurrect you.’

This fusion trait, created using “near-death state” as material, functions completely differently from other traits.

Most of my traits are either passive, always-on types, or ones that provide special effects when I activate them.

In contrast, the Revenant Organ only works conditionally.

Though invisible from the outside, a tiny secretory organ is attached to my heart. If the conditions are met, this organ activates on its own and secretes a special hormone into my heart.

Even as an AMorph capable of actively regulating internal bodily activities, I couldn’t control the Revenant Organ. It must be a trait that only works when conditions are met, just like in the game.

That’s not all. The effect of the Revenant Organ varies depending on how powerful I am and what “state I’m in.”

If I don’t properly meet these conditions? Even if I activate it, it’s completely useless.

‘Plus, the cooldown is incredibly long.’

Because of these difficult conditions, hardly anyone in the game properly utilized this trait. At most, only I and the 4th-ranked Outspacer benefited from this trait.

‘But looking at my current situation, there’s no better joker card.’

The Revenant Organ is a powerful weapon that can immediately reverse the tide of battle if “properly activated.” If used well, I can really make the Cult player suffer when fighting.

‘Well then, let’s prepare the Lightning God’s Whip first…’

While checking my final card, I felt a familiar yet strange sensation in front of me. Like watching a video at double speed, countless images appeared and disappeared before me.

Simultaneously, the auxiliary organ under my jaw trembled.

「Unknown danger is approaching.」

「■■■■■■ is ■■ing my ■■ ■■■.」

‘Predator sense!’

Running through the passage, I quickly pressed my body to the floor. An ominous ball of energy narrowly grazed my back and the carapace on the back of my head. When the energy bullet hit the passage wall, the impact site evaporated with an eerie sound.

“Fucking Cunt! Where do you think you’re running!”

An angry voice from behind. It was the Cult player. Following that, I sensed ominous energy bullets flying toward me.

‘…Tsk!’

The Cults protecting the player were shooting Demolishers at me.

The Demolisher bullets were precisely targeting my auxiliary organs. As if they knew it was my weakness.

I turned my head sideways while quickly covering my auxiliary organs with my combat arm. Most energy bullets missed, but not all—several hit my arm.

「Pain reduction activated!」

The synthetic scales and carapace near my wrist melted like ice on a hot plate when they contacted the substance fired by the Demolisher.

‘…This is why I ambushed them earlier.’

With my size, it’s not easy to dodge small energy bullets. That’s why I dealt with them by ambushing before they could fire the Demolisher.

I raised just my upper body, turned my head backward, and opened my mouth. Then I fired acidic fungi toward the Cults standing behind me.

The green liquid flying through the air stopped as if fixed in midair.

A faint purple light appeared in the darkness filling the passage. The enemy player had used psychic power to catch the liquid.

‘Tsk.’

“AMorph hunter, you killed Elijah because of you.”

Without responding, I struck the ceiling of the passage with my tail. Leaving the collapsing ceiling behind, I ran again.

Unable to shoot the Demolisher easily due to the ice and rocks covering the passage, the enemies fired psychic techniques at me. Gravity Control, restraints, and more rained down behind me, but I was one step faster.

Some psychic techniques hit the tip of my tail, but my tail had Swampking’s pincers attached. Since it had the best defense against psychic attacks in my body, I was safe.

‘Even so, their coordination is extraordinary.’

The Cults who entered the underground space of the ice plain were divided into three groups to target me.

I had directly fought two of these groups, excluding those protecting the player. Apart from the Cult leader who died from the tetanus vine, none of the others were particularly impressive.

However, the movements of those attacking me alongside the enemy player were clearly different. Their coordination flowed as naturally as if their minds were connected.

‘It doesn’t seem like a buff technique.’

There is one technique that comes to mind in this situation.

Among high-level psychic power techniques, there’s one called “Ultra Control.” It’s a crowd control technique that dominates and completely controls the mind of a specific target.

It has similar effects to parasites but allows for more detailed control, and the victim cannot resist.

‘And there’s no time limit.’

Unlike AMorph, which needs to constantly replace parasites, Ultra Control doesn’t break until either the user or the victim dies once it’s applied.

The downside is that it doesn’t work well on enemies prepared for psychic attacks, and only one person can be controlled at a time.

‘So it’s unlikely to be that…’

Or it could be an effect of his unique perk. It might be a trait that gives widespread buffs to other Cults.

While running, I heard a loud noise behind me.

It was the sound of the Cult player breaking through the collapsed passage. Following that, the footsteps of multiple Cults vibrated through the passage.

But it didn’t matter. I had reached my destination.

I broke through the half-collapsed narrow passage and entered a large cavity.

Ahead, I could see a white skeleton hundreds of meters in size. It was the place where I had fought the Cults after luring them—the Ice Horror’s grave.

As soon as I entered, I quickly turned my head and prepared for the next attack.

Long monster tentacles covering from my back head carapace to my neck moved toward the front of my head. Purple energy streams starting from the tip of my tail gathered toward my head along the synthetic scales.

A large sphere with a diameter of 6 meters, bigger than my head, formed at the tip of my snout. This sphere, burning with purple flames from inside to the surface, flew toward the passage where the enemies were running.

The sphere, which had maintained a perfect circular shape, became a single beam of heat like the horizon. Though it became thinner, its destructive power wasn’t reduced.

The Psychic Breath, with power that even ships couldn’t withstand, tore through the underground cavity’s passage as it moved forward.

But this time, the result I wanted didn’t happen.

The purple spear that was shattering the ice passage suddenly stopped in midair. Then the beam naturally changed direction, as if that was how it should be.

The target of the artificially manipulated Psychic Breath was not the Cult but me.

‘Oh no!’

I quickly pulled my tail in front of my body and raised my pincers upward. The Psychic Breath flying with fierce momentum collided with my pincers.

「Pain reduction activated!」

‘Ugh!’

The tremendous impact nearly broke my tailbone. I grabbed the pincers with my combat arms and used them as a shield to block the Psychic Breath.

Due to the psychic reflection armor applied to the pincers, the Psychic Breath began to reflect again. Continuously reflecting, the purple energies lost their target and flew into various nearby places.

The large underground cavity received a major shock and shook again. The cracks in the ceiling and walls grew incomparably larger than before.

Amidst ice fragments too massive to be called icicles falling from above, the enemy player and Cults revealed themselves.

“How annoying.”

A male Cult with antlers wearing full-body black armor muttered as if irritated. He wore a small silver rod at his waist and carried the axe “Judgment” that the female Cult leader had been holding on his back.

I knew immediately. That he was the Cult player targeting me.

In front of the player stood 11 Cults with the same equipment as the other groups. All wore ivory bodysuits and carried Champion Shields. Six of them held Gallergorn’s Claw Swords, and five held Demolishers.

Just by looking at that, they weren’t different from other Temple Guardian groups, but I immediately noticed something strange about them.

Their eyes were dull like those of insane people, and their breathing timing was identical among all 11 without the slightest difference.

Moreover, I could see it with my auxiliary organ that detects psychic power.

Each of the 11 Cults had a purple stem inserted into the crown of their head. All these purple stems were connected to the back of the player’s neck.

“Fucking AMorph bastard, you killed Elijah because of you. Shit, do you know how hard it was for me to approach her…”

The player with the handsome face twisted into a vicious expression spewed curses. The antlered Cult, treated as royalty in Cult society, spoke like a thug, but the Cults in front didn’t react at all.

Seeing this, I was certain about the enemy’s perk.

‘Upgrading the effects of psychic power techniques.’

Reflecting my Psychic Breath just now, the purple stems attached to the Cults’ crowns—I could tell what ability they both derived from.

‘Definitely Reflection and Ultra Control.’

The reflection ability is probably Reflection. Originally a technique that only reflects physical attacks, but for some reason, it can now reflect psychic attacks as well.

Ultra Control is also originally a trait that can only control one person at a time, but he’s controlling 11 people simultaneously.

Given this, the enemy’s perk is most likely greatly enhancing the effects of psychic power techniques.

The reason I make this assumption is because I felt he was similar to me.

‘Though I can’t hastily conclude.’

What’s important here is that he can reflect energy attacks as well. That makes it much easier to execute my plan.

To buy time to prepare my next card, I opened my mouth.

“Because of me? I don’t understand.”

“You don’t understand? You planted the tetanus vine and completely destroyed her!”

“You could have treated her, but you killed her.”

“How could I know what else you’d do? You probably set up nests or traps around. Or maybe that Volf slave was there.”

“What do you mean?”

“You think I don’t know? Griffon Volf, you ate him, right? Ah, whatever. I’ll deal with you first and think about it later.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the Cults in front of him raised their weapons. The Demolishers targeting my auxiliary organs looked ready to fire energy at any moment.

But I had also completed my preparations. I lay down on the spot and lowered my upper body close to the ground. On my back, the face-beasts were preparing to attack.

When not transformed with Symbol of the Hunt, the face-beasts are located on my back. Due to my body structure, I have to lie down like this to attack small-sized enemies.

‘Fire.’

「—–!」「—–!」「—–!」「—–!」「—–!」

The face-beasts opened their mouths wide. The sound waves emitted by the small monsters shaped like Cult heads were fired toward the Cults holding Demolishers.

“Tsk.”

The player clicked his tongue lightly upon seeing this.

The controlled Cults hurriedly dodged, but not all could. Three Cults holding Demolishers were hit by the paralysis attack and collapsed to the floor like puppets with cut strings.

‘So they can’t reflect sound waves.’

I stored that fact in a corner of my mind. Meanwhile, my body continued to move diligently.

The tip of my tail aimed at the Cults who had dodged the sound waves. As soon as I opened the pincers at the end of my tail, the thorn needles densely packed inside were fired toward the Cults.

“Futile struggle.”

As if they had anticipated this, the Cults holding Champion Shields moved with nimble movements. They quickly approached the Demolisher gunners and blocked the thorn needles with their shields.

Then other Cults cast Gravity Control on me. As the gravity around where I was standing changed significantly, it put strain on the entire cavity.

The output was tremendous, as if he had removed all limiters from the Cults with Ultra Control. With my body lowered, I had no choice but to bury my head in the ground.

“You acted like shit in reality, and you’re doing the same here. Know that you’ll never die peacefully.”

The player paid no attention to his subordinates who were bleeding from their eyes, nose, and mouth while casting Gravity Control.

Seeing him act as if he had already won, I painfully uttered one sentence.

“I thought you cared about your subordinates?”

“You damn AMorph bastard, this much is cheap to catch you!”

“Really?”

“Still, that Elijah was a good kid. Thinking about it makes me angry again.”

The irritated player gestured, and a Cult holding a Demolisher shot an energy bullet at my head. Some of the monster tentacles hit by the energy bullets that decompose everything shattered into pieces.

「Pain reduction activated!」

「Grrrr!」

“Does it hurt? Little shit acting big.”

I involuntarily screamed from the pain beyond imagination. The player sneered at the sight.

“You know, my record for the longest I’ve kept someone alive is 1 year? Let’s see how long you can last.”

The player seemed pleased at the thought of capturing and torturing me.

But there’s one thing he doesn’t know yet.

I’m not staying still because I fear him or have no way to deal with him. While he was off guard, the preparation for that trait was complete.

“Remember those words.”

“What?”

Instead of answering, I slightly raised my head.

And opened my mouth wide.

The power of the Lightning God, which I had been preparing since firing the thorn needles, boiled up from my chest. The massive energy that had been sleeping in my chest like a leashed beast received the signal and charged. A golden beam of light that brilliantly illuminated the dark underground cavity, the Lightning God’s Whip, spewed from my mouth.

“What the?!”

The player, startled at the sight, spread both arms. It was his intention to deploy Reflection as he had done to block the Psychic Breath.

However, the Lightning God’s Whip I fired flew not toward him but toward the wall far above them. The powerful force, strong enough to destroy an Imperial Mothership, created a huge hole in the ice ceiling.

The remaining energy spread across the ice walls and ceiling of the cavity like lightning spreading across the night sky.

The underground cavity shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred after being hit by the Lightning God’s Whip.

“Ha, haha. Hahahahaha! You crazy bastard! You missed that!”

After expelling the Lightning God’s power, strength drained from my body. The player laughed maniacally seeing me drop my head.

‘Missed, you say?’

Well, is that really so?

“Anyway, I can block your lightning attack… huh?”

The player who was mocking me closed his mouth. He realized it too.

That the vibration occurring in the cavity was not ordinary.

‘I wasn’t aiming for you in the first place.’

He wouldn’t know why I deliberately fought here. He should have found it strange when he saw the Ice Horror’s corpse behind me when he first entered this place.

This place was in a quite precarious state after fighting the Ice Horror. Above our heads is a vast ice plain with a thickness of hundreds of meters.

The reason this underground world could be maintained until now is simple. No shock large enough to disturb the balance had occurred.

But after I started fighting the Ice Horror, that delicate balance was completely broken. The ice walls that supported the massive ice chunks like Atlas were all in ruins, and the ice ceiling above had more cracked parts than intact ones.

In such a state, there was no way it could withstand the Lightning God’s Whip.

“I’ll deal with your subordinates first before leaving here.”

“You fucking bastard?!”

The panicked player cursed and used Reflection, but it was insufficient to block the shower of enormous ice chunks.

Watching him struggle desperately to block it, I drew my next card.

‘Now’s the chance.’

Bone Beast, which transforms AMorph into a giant monster. That trait was activated.

In the collapsing cavity, my body began to grow rapidly.