Ch.203Flying Object (3)

The Cult Empire’s society and institutions are very different from those of Megacorps or the Star Union. This is natural, as they developed their civilizations in completely different environments.

For example, the knowledge manager aboard Cult Empire fleets is a concept that doesn’t exist in Megacorps or the Star Union. If one were to draw a comparison, they could be seen as a combination of other factions’ information storage systems and ship engineers.

Knowledge managers assist the captain during voyages using their exceptional knowledge, and handle ship repairs in emergencies. Due to the importance of their duties, knowledge managers are respected as much as war priests on any vessel.

However, even this impressive position couldn’t do much to resolve the current situation.

The intruder who killed the captain began massacring the crew in the control room.

That monster was an entity unknown even to the knowledge manager. A mechanical creature with eight arms of varying sizes, blades attached to their ends, the pale face of a woman, and a hideous tail. It was a form that seemed to belong in nightmares.

The knowledge manager, well-versed in the Empire’s competing factions, racked his brain but couldn’t identify the creature.

If there was any entity that matched its physical characteristics, it would be the Star Union’s cursed bioweapon, the Screamer.

However, as far as he knew, Screamers couldn’t use various weapons like this one. In contrast, this terrible hybrid fired deadly energy projectiles from its tail and mouth.

The knowledge manager recognized well what weapon produced the energy glowing with a chilling indigo light. It was the “Demolisher,” primarily used by Temple Guardians.

“Dodge!”

“Uh, uhhh?”

The creature’s tail made a full rotation. Following the tail’s movement, matter-disintegrating energy projectiles rained down on the Cultists’ heads.

Some were lucky enough to dodge, but others weren’t.

“My, my arm! My aaaarm…!”

“…gurk.”

A crew member whose arm completely disappeared due to the matter-disintegrating effect, a Cultist who unfortunately got hit in the upper body leaving only the lower half. The sight was truly eerie, without a single drop of blood flowing, as if it had always been that way.

“Aim for its tail!”

“It’s useless! It shoots from its mouth too!”

“Damn it!”

That was exactly right. The energy projectile that blew off the captain’s neck came from that head.

Even if the creature’s attack methods were limited to its tail, the situation wouldn’t improve much. Its movements were too fast for non-combatants like them to hit such a small target.

“Knowledge manager! Since the captain died, you’re the commander!”

“Do something!”

He would have liked to observe more, but the crew seemed about to be annihilated before that. The knowledge manager, who had been hiding and observing the enemy, finally gave instructions.

“Restraint or whatever! If you have any technique that can restrict its movement, just pour it on!”

Though it was a short time, from what he observed, the creature seemed to have lower resistance to psychic power.

The evidence was that it tried its best to avoid the psychic rifles fired by the Cultists.

The psychic rifles equipped in the bridge aren’t particularly powerful weapons. They’re merely items prepared for non-combatants to fight in urgent situations.

But the creature had been fighting defensively from the beginning. It should have noticed the lack of firepower on their side by now.

Therefore, one could assume the enemy had lower psychic resistance.

At the knowledge manager’s shout, the ram-horned Cultists began gathering psychic power. They were drawing upon techniques they had learned that could restrain the enemy even slightly.

The flow of energy, intense enough to fill the control room, entangled the creature. The wild movements of the creature slowed down.

“Kirik?”

Sensing something wrong with its body, the creature tilted its head. Its movements slowed and finally stopped.

The creature rolled its blood-red eyes. It was probably trying to examine what was wrong with its body.

Eventually, its eight arms began to tremble and try to move.

“Such tremendous power!”

“We need to finish it quickly!”

The control room became noisy with the rupturing sounds from the creature’s body and the groans of the Cultists trying to restrain it.

They needed to finish it off as quickly as possible. The rest, except for the Cultists using techniques, aimed their rifles at the creature’s head.

Just as their gun barrels were about to spit fire, the knowledge manager doubted his eyes.

Because something was standing at the doorway where no one had been before.

That being had horns on its head, similar to Cultists. Its height was also similar, and it stood on two feet. But the knowledge manager couldn’t feel any sense of familiarity looking at that figure.

He could instinctively tell. That being was just as dangerous as the mechanical creature they had captured.

The eyes of the being standing at the doorway moved. Clear amber pupils turned toward the knowledge manager.

The moment he made eye contact with it, the knowledge manager felt the amber pupils glow blue. He hurriedly tried to call his comrades.

However, before that, there was a voice calling him.

“Hungry!”

“?!”

He was startled by the words whispered softly in his ear. He turned his head, but there was no one behind him.

‘What was that just now…?’

“I’m starving to death!”

“!”

The voice that had been whispering until now resonated loudly enough to shake his brain. The knowledge manager threw down his rifle and covered his ears with both hands.

“I’m hungry!” “Please!” “Hungry!” “Meat! Give me meat!” “I want to tear into something!” “There’s plenty to eat around!” “Quickly!” “Bite it!” “Tear it apart!” “Entrails!” “I’ll rip out your liver!” “Blood! I want to drink blood” “I’ll strip your bones!”

Curses filled with resentment whispered to him even with his ears covered. Telling him to kill those beside him. To fill his stomach with their flesh.

He tried his best to endure, but the voices rapidly consumed him. His exceptional knowledge and reason faded with surprising speed. What replaced that void was an endlessly swelling madness.

“Knowledge manager! What should we…huh?”

“G-grrrr….”

By the time his comrades noticed something was wrong with him, it was already too late. The knowledge manager was no longer there.

There was only a victim possessed by an ice-cold evil spirit.

“Graaaaaaah!”

“Aaaah!”

The moment the knowledge manager, now a slave to the evil spirit, lunged at his comrades, the monster outside the control room also entered. The monster with golden fur with black stripes and horns on its head rushed at those restraining the mechanical creature.

Every time its sharp claws flashed, Cultists fell, bleeding. As comrades fell one by one, the restraints on the mechanical creature couldn’t hold much longer and broke.

Two monsters brutally tearing apart and killing Cultists, and the knowledge manager who suddenly went insane.

The number of Cultists in the control room rapidly decreased.

When exactly 9 remained, they stopped the slaughter. The bipedal monster went to the Cult’s computer and began touching something.

Meanwhile, the eight-armed monster was ‘absorbing’ the fallen Cultists.

This wasn’t a metaphor. It sucked the vitality from corpses with its hook-clawed hands. Every time its hands touched a corpse, the body instantly withered and soon twisted like a mummy.

The problem was that some of the Cultists lying on the floor were still alive. Those who were subdued due to severe injuries also became the creature’s sacrifices.

“S-stop! D-don’t do thaaagggghhhk!”

The creature’s hand touched a Cultist who was dying with his leg cut off. He screamed in agony as he was absorbed alive by the monster. How severe his pain was could be understood without hearing his screams.

When all the work was done, his body had shrunk to a third of its original size. The creature that removed its hand from the Cultist’s corpse stuck out its mechanical tongue and licked its claws.

Just as it was about to target new prey, the floor of the control room shook. Both the creature touching the computer and the one eating the Cultists stopped moving.

The vibrations echoing through the control room grew closer. It was a much larger vibration than when the creatures had broken down the door earlier.

The remaining 9 Cultists quickly realized who was causing those vibrations. A being crawling in to end this nightmarish time.

“Grrrrrr”

It was an even greater nightmare.

[Zzzzz (Good job)]

“What do you mean good job? It’s not like this is my first time.”

[Zz (True)]

The control room was literally a sea of blood. A delicious smell emanated from the scattered flesh pieces and blood flowing on the floor.

All were traces left by the Cultists. In the corner of the control room, 9 Cultists were trembling, disarmed.

“I thought we might need them to hide the ship.”

[Zzzzz Zzzzz (Thank you. Well done)]

We plan to use this spaceship when we leave the planet. Since I don’t intend to infect it right away, I’m thinking of hiding it somewhere.

‘For that, we’ll need crew members to manage it.’

I activated my “mimicry organ” after a long time. One of the five genetic information stored in my body spread throughout my body.

My vocal organ, located between my mouth and throat, was reconstructed based on the received genetic information, and the tiny holes in my synthetic scales, skin, and carapace prepared to emit new pheromones.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“Come here.”

When the voice of their kind came from my mouth, all 9 were greatly surprised. Their faces, which had been looking at me, gradually turned pale.

Due to the pheromones from the mimicry organ, I would appear as a Cultist to them. However, they would feel a strong sense of discomfort due to my size. A being that was a monster suddenly transformed into an ominous-feeling kinsman—they certainly wouldn’t want to come close.

‘But they have no freedom.’

There’s nowhere for them to escape on a cruiser floating above the clouds. The Cult survivors approached me like prisoners being dragged to execution.

I, lying down in the corridor outside the control room, implanted parasites in them. The first target struggled wildly, so I devoured him with my infection tentacles, but after that, they all obeyed well.

“Land this ship.”

“…Yes.”

I instructed them to land near the location of my nest. The Cultists, all with ashen faces, began the calibration work for the cruiser.

‘It would be better if I did it myself, but…’

Currently, I’ve grown much larger than when I became a subadult. While my length hasn’t changed much, my carapace has grown thick due to the bone beast trait, and my wings, though folded, still take up a lot of space.

I can barely fit in the corridor while lying down, let alone enter the control room. If I forcibly entered and tried to control the computer, I would only end up breaking it.

Lying down like that, I called PS-111.

[Zzzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz (I brought the Demolisher thinking you might need it)]

“Thank you. But I need another tool that the AMorph is holding.”

[Zz (This?)]

PS-111 looked at the spoils held by my small arm near my chest. After hunting Temple Guardians, I collected their equipment.

In my hand are Gallergorn’s claw sword, a type of reinforced armor called dragon scale armor, and various other minor armaments.

After fighting with Muriel previously, I’ve been keeping important equipment separately in my backpack. Things like Blood River, Golden Spear of Shaman, or the Calibrator, and so on.

I’m currently benefiting greatly from the “God’s Whip” obtained from devouring the Lightning God, so I haven’t changed it, though.

I was thinking of taking these newly acquired equipment back to my nest, but it seems PS-111 has developed an interest.

[Zzzzzz Zz (Is there something you want?)]

“I need a silver tool containing psychic power and genetic information of a specific organism.”

What it chose was Gallergorn’s claw sword. It picked up the weapon with its finger and swallowed it whole.

Soon after, the arms with sickle-shaped claws began to change. The black sickles rapidly turned silver from the tip, and their thickness increased. The newly changed appearance looked very similar to White Gallergorn’s claws.

After replacing the sickle part with Gallergorn’s claws, it swung its arm once. A transparent blade made of psychic power shot out and cut the wall of the control room.

“Now I can utilize psychic power.”

It nodded with satisfaction at the mark it had made.

‘So it’s a new model.’

Despite speaking of it casually, this is by no means a trivial level. Its identity is an intermediate terminal model of Mutant Screamer. It’s like a prototype of a combat weapon.

Meaning it can be mass-produced.

I had already heard that players were involved in the development of Mutant Screamers. Perhaps when fighting them, I might face hundreds or thousands of Screamers at the level of PS-111.

‘…Though I think that possibility is low.’

Among all the Screamers I’ve seen so far, none had power similar or close to PS-111’s level. If other individuals were at a similar level to PS-111, players would have already conquered the universe and more.

‘Finding its superior model will make things clear.’

When we found PS-111, it wasn’t in good condition. Thanks to that, No. 26 was able to reboot it as an ally, but a significant portion of the information stored in its memory was damaged.

For instance, it doesn’t remember the operation when it first entered this planet, or strategic objectives. Those parts would be known by the highest model that controls the intermediate terminal models.

‘Pyrrha Eleven, was it?’

The commander-in-chief of the Mutant Screamers. Whether it’s also a Screamer or an android is currently unknown. While thinking about future plans looking at PS-111, Sky Mother approached me.

“I just searched the computer and found some interesting information.”

[Zz Zz (What information?)]

“A creature presumed to be a Green Gallergorn approached and then retreated.”

[Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz (Retreated? Was it out scouting?)]

“I don’t think so. Seeing that it approached to a close distance and then withdrew, it was clearly trying to hunt.”

It’s rare for a Gallergorn with an aggressive nature to retreat after seeing prey. They only avoid confrontation when scouting or when encountering a formidable enemy they can’t handle.

‘Was it because of me?’

With my black skin, large size like a Gallergorn, and tentacles, an inexperienced Gallergorn might misunderstand. While there are differences in detailed appearance, when seen obscured by clouds, I would look exactly like a Black Gallergorn.

‘It’s fortunate we didn’t fight, but…’

Currently in this area, White Gallergorn Ham Oort’s group with Adhigh, and Odd Grad’s group that was here before are competing. It’s unclear which faction the opponent belongs to.

‘Whichever faction it is, they’ll be very wary once they learn about me.’

And Gallergorn doesn’t like strong enemies operating in front of their eyes. They will certainly try to eliminate me.

It seems I need to expedite preparations for battle with Gallergorn.