Ch.263Incarnations of Nightmare (1)

“What is that?”

The thunderous explosion and smoke rising in the distance.

Ino, who had just become an executive, was startled by the sight.

“What just happened over there?”

“We can’t contact them!”

“What? Try again!”

“Yes sir!”

The contamination source incineration operation was commanded by Deputy Boss Kadun, who possessed the most powerful force in the Martio Cartel. So he wasn’t particularly worried. He expected that any damage would end with just a few subordinates dying.

But things looked ominous from the start.

Before entering, they had heavily seasoned the area with toxic gas to easily eliminate the contamination source. They had removed the gas from the area upon entry, but toxic components still lingered in the air. Enough that Ino and all the pirates had to wear gas masks.

However, it didn’t seem to help much in weakening the creature.

“What happened to the Deputy Boss’s team?”

The pirate shook his head at Ino’s question.

‘…There was only one explosion. Deputy Kadun and his team should be fine.’

No matter how strong the monster might be, it would be impossible to kill Kadun without making any noise. The Deputy Boss’s group was probably moving toward where the explosion occurred.

If they headed toward where the contamination source was, they would naturally meet up.

“Let’s move in that direction. They must have engaged in combat, so we need to support them.”

“…Damn it. I didn’t expect this.”

Ino and the pirates moved toward the rising smoke.

Having experience sneaking onto ships for plunder, they were all skilled at moving stealthily. They loaded their weapons and paid attention to their footsteps. The pirates ran between abandoned buildings with careful movements.

Corroding Cult symbols and neglected churches looked down on them. Ino felt somehow intimidated by the gloomy atmosphere.

He had circled this area several times on patrol, but this was the first time he felt this way. The cold metal structures built on steel, which were nothing more than that, now seemed to constrict him like living creatures.

Ino wasn’t the only one feeling this inexplicable pressure. The breathing of his subordinates wearing gas masks was also becoming rougher.

“300 meters to target.”

The voice of the pirate at the front awakened Ino’s mind.

Just as they were about to turn the corner of a building, the pirate in the lead quickly raised his hand. The other members tensed up at the sight.

“Is it the target?”

“…There’s an unknown creature at the intersection.”

An unknown creature? He slightly poked his head out beyond the corner toward the street.

“!”

When he confirmed what was at the intersection, he felt his heart stop.

‘What, what is that?’

Could that thing even be called a creature?

The being he saw had eight legs and a tail. The long legs were covered with thick carapace, with pitch-black hooked claws and eerie white sickles attached. The body size was between 6 and 7 meters, excluding the tail.

That alone was sufficiently grotesque, but what truly shocked him was the head. Though it was hard to see clearly due to the long, thick cable-like hair hanging down, it was definitely a human head.

To put it as gently as possible, the creature was a scorpion with a woman’s head.

‘Hulk Mutant?’

Before joining the Martio Cartel, Ino had been a researcher for a Megacorp. So he was more knowledgeable about Hulk Mutants than most.

But even he had never seen a Hulk Mutant that looked so hideous.

At that moment, the creature suddenly raised its lowered head. Ino swallowed his breath when he saw its face.

As expected, the creature’s face was female. A beautiful woman with snow-white, flawless skin.

But Ino could guarantee that no one would like a woman with blood-red eyeballs that looked as if they were soaked in blood.

The creature’s red eyes swayed slowly with its head. Along with it, the thin cables under its chin swayed gently.

Ino, who almost made eye contact with the creature, quickly pulled his head back. Cold sweat poured down the back of his neck.

“Everyone, combat—”

Before he could finish his words, a navy-colored photon bullet flew toward the building where they were hiding. Despite not receiving maintenance, the buildings here were made of special alloys and boasted considerable durability. Yet the church crumbled like a sandcastle swept by waves when hit by the navy energy bullet.

“It’s a Demolisher!”

One of the members shouted.

Kesha Arma was the Cult’s space fortress. Everyone had seen the Demolishers kept in the First Command’s armory. They knew not only what they looked like but also how powerful they were.

“Damn! Why is a Demolisher here!”

“Everyone scatter!”

They cursed and scattered.

Another photon bullet flew through the dust rising from the ruins. One of the members retreating was hit. He turned to dust without even being able to scream.

“Shit!”

“Keep your heads down, you bastards!”

Ino and two members desperately returned fire. Meanwhile, the subordinates ducked low and ran into nearby buildings for cover.

“Coil gun! I’ll buy time, so blow that monster’s head off with the coil gun!”

“Yes sir!”

The pirate next to him put down his Gauss rifle and pulled out the long coil gun slung on his back. Meanwhile, Ino and another pirate fired their psychic rifles at the dust from behind the remaining wall.

At that moment, a pitch-black hooked claw shot out from the dust. The claw narrowly grazed above Ino’s head. He had ducked his head for just a moment to check the remaining psychic charge, which saved him.

“Ugh?!”

Then the red-eyed woman with pale skin revealed her face. Eyes that seemed to have camera lenses, showing not a hint of emotion, stared at him.

At that moment, the creature’s neck suddenly twisted. The pirate next to him had fired the coil gun at close range.

But no one cheered. Despite being hit directly in the head, the creature’s legs were still moving.

“Fall back!”

No one knew when it would regain consciousness. The three turned and ran immediately.

“Where did the others go?”

“They must be hiding in the build—”

The member running with him stopped mid-sentence. His gaze was fixed on top of a building.

“Are you crazy? Why did you stop… huh?”

Ino also looked at the building rooftop where his subordinate was staring. And he could understand why his subordinate was dumbfounded.

His subordinates were on top of the building.

Or more precisely, they were floating in the air above the building.

Dozens of subordinates were all hanging in the air in bizarre postures. Like flies caught in a spider web, they were bound by something invisible.

And behind the subordinates floated a yellow cloud. It looked very similar to the toxic gas they had sprayed before entering the area.

‘What is that…?’

The bizarre phenomenon that froze Ino wasn’t over yet.

“It” revealed itself from the yellow cloud.

A giant? No.

“It” was countless eyes. Hundreds, no, thousands of eyes all staring at Ino.

“It” was countless snakes. Hundreds of giant tentacles writhing like burning flames.

The eyes of this indescribable being stared at the subordinates floating in the air. The members struggled to resist, but before this entity, they were merely pitiful squirming.

Long, massive tentacles approached the subordinates. And they began removing the gas masks one by one.

“Keh, kehhh! Kueeeeeeek…”

Toxic gas still remained in this area. Moreover, around that blasphemous being just to look at, the gas was thickly concentrated. The members whose masks were removed began to foam at the mouth and tremble.

“Fuck! Die!”

The subordinate next to him aimed the coil gun at the creature and fired. Even the scorpion with a woman’s head couldn’t dodge a coil gun. The bullet fired at tremendous speed pierced through the creature’s tentacle.

No, it almost pierced through.

Just before contact, the bullet stopped in mid-air. Just like the other members floating above the building. The bullet, slightly crushed by an invisible force, fell to the ground below the building.

“Impossible!”

The subordinate who fired the coil gun was terrified by this scene that defied common sense. Then all of “It’s” eyes turned to him.

“■ ■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■!”

“Huh?”

“■■!”

Ino couldn’t understand what happened next.

A strange wind swept past him. Looking to the side, the subordinate with the coil gun had disappeared. Instead, only a red mass remained in his place.

What happened to him was being slowly demonstrated by the members captured by “It.”

“Ku, kuaaaak!”

“Sa, save me…!”

“Aaaaaaak!”

“Ugeeek!”

Like puppets hanging on invisible strings, the subordinates’ bodies were twisting in all directions.

Some began to twist counterclockwise from their fingertips, while others had their limbs stretched like rubber bands.

Looting, rape, murder. The space outlaws who had committed all kinds of crimes were nowhere to be seen. There were only small creatures overwhelmed by a fearsome predator.

“Hiiiiiiik!”

Seeing his members dying miserably, Ino stepped back.

He had to escape. He didn’t want to die here.

The last remaining subordinate seemed to think similarly and began running with him.

Taking this job was a mistake. When Kadun gave him this mission, he should have ignored it and left the fortress.

‘No, no! I just need to escape. There’s still a chance.’

He thought. There was a chance to make up for his mistake. If he could just reach the patrol ship, he wouldn’t return to headquarters but would immediately leave this fortress.

And he would flee to some planet somewhere in space. He could forget everything he had done and live quietly.

“Kwaak!”

Just as he was thinking this, his subordinate fell. A long white sickle-like object was embedded in his back.

As soon as he noticed this, something tripped Ino’s leg. It was the hooked claw that had tried to cut his neck.

The owner of the claw grabbed his fallen leg and lifted him up. The hooked claw was tearing at his leg, but he couldn’t feel the pain. The fear that gripped his entire body was greater.

A white face approached him as he hung upside down.

“No, don’t do this! Don’t do this!”

Did it understand his words? The red eyes like camera lenses scanned his face once, then put him down on the ground. Instead, it grabbed the member with a hole in his back.

“Uh, uh, why, why me… Kuaaaak!”

Ino’s subordinate didn’t survive. Now he was the only one left.

Of course, that didn’t mean he could relax. That monster hadn’t spared him because it liked him.

“The reason” approached him slowly.

“This one’s brain may contain useful information, I believe.”

“■■ ■■■■ ■?”

“The human brain is a delicate organ. You must be careful when opening it, or it will die.”

“■!”

“It,” which had been as large as a building until just now, had shrunk to less than 1m in size. Long tentacles protruding from its pink round body approached him.

“Ha, hahaha. Hahahahaha…”

A subordinate who died with his head shattered, members who died with their bodies twisted, subordinates who died from gas poisoning. And him.

Which would be the better death?

Whatever it was, it didn’t really matter to Ino.

Because he had no choice.

–

“Deputy Boss! We need to retreat!”

“Where is the attack coming fr—Kwaak!”

“Damn! How can we hit something faster than bullets!”

“Deputy Boss!”

Before being taken in by Montana Martio, Kadun had lived moving from one fighting arena to another.

Sometimes he killed those of his own kind, and sometimes he killed beasts overwhelmingly stronger than him. He had experienced life-threatening crises countless times, and it wasn’t once or twice that he had actually died and been resuscitated.

But now, his senses were warning him.

That this place would become his grave.

“……”

His subordinates’ voices were growing more distant. The high-speed flying object they encountered as soon as the patrol ship landed was separating them.

He wanted to go help his subordinates right away, but he couldn’t move carelessly.

There was a Volf standing dozens of meters away from him.

A female Volf with a white raptor head with two horns, beautiful amber eyes, and brilliant golden mane.

A being armed with a shining golden spear and a black dagger was blocking his movement.

‘…Strong.’

Thanks to his experience fighting numerous powerful opponents, Kadun could somewhat predict the strength of his opponent. However, he couldn’t gauge this female Volf at all.

It was one of two things. Either she was ridiculously weaker than Kadun, or conversely, overwhelmingly stronger.

The last time he felt this sensation was only once recently. Only with the female Cult that Montana revered.

“Gulp.”

Unconsciously swallowing, he activated the functions of the high-grade power suit he was wearing. He also injected all the built-in enhancers.

He knew the side effects of the enhancers, but now wasn’t the time to worry about such things.

“Grrrrrr.”

Kadun, whose physical abilities had dramatically increased, growled. The opponent also shook her golden spear once and took a combat stance.

He didn’t know how strong this unidentified female Volf was. Still, he believed in his victory.

“Kuheeeong!”

The white-furred tiger Volf roared loudly and stomped the ground.

The “journey to reclaim the divine status” that his tribal chief had spoken of in the past.

The battle that Kadun had dismissed as superstition began in the space fortress.