Ch.464The Monkfish (2)

The Queen of the Outspacers was once human.

In her human days, her name was Joy Spencer.

Her lover, the Empress of the Outspacers, calls her Joy. That name was one of the few elements that reminded her of her time as a human.

But now, a new being connected to her past had appeared.

‘AMorph ranker…’

Joy narrowed her eyes at the monstrosity that had invaded the battlefield.

The only AMorph ranker in Space Survival, a game she once enjoyed. The most vicious ranker, known by the derogatory nickname “Morph-freak,” Rank 5 was right in front of her.

“New entity. Dangerous. Must be careful.”

“I know.”

Three heads with abnormally developed carapaces, hideous pouches attached to the neck, and multiple long legs.

It looked nothing like its appearance in the game, but that was possible. AMorphs change their appearance depending on which genetic essences they consume.

In fact, Rank 5 was notorious for disguising himself in all sorts of outlandish forms to deceive others. That appearance was certainly intentional.

‘Tsk! Why is he here?’

This place, the NEO-3 star system, while considered a strategic stronghold, isn’t particularly attractive to AMorphs.

NEO-3 is famous for its military factories that produce high-performance warships. There are many other places to obtain genetic essences.

Her lover had warned her to be careful of Megacorp rankers, but never mentioned anything about AMorphs.

‘Could he be after that research facility?’

Joy came here to raid a secret research facility on NOX-02, commonly called Nox. Perhaps the AMorph came for the same purpose.

‘…No. He couldn’t possibly know about that.’

She quickly dismissed her suspicion.

Very few people even within Megacorp knew the importance of the secret facility.

Even her lover only discovered it by chance while spreading parasites.

While the AMorph is extraordinary, he’s not omniscient. With so few people knowing the facility’s location, how could he possibly know?

It’s more likely that their timing just unfortunately overlapped.

‘The research facility is a lost cause because of him.’

Though Joy’s power is formidable, her opponent is the infamous “Morph-freak.” With him blocking the path to the research facility, her lover’s mission is impossible to complete.

Yet she didn’t leave. She still had something she wanted to do.

‘I need to bring something back for my love.’

This large-scale invasion is extremely important to the Empress. Given her hatred for variables, she would be quite disappointed if the plan went awry.

Joy’s affection for Rank 4 is as deep as her love for Joy. She didn’t want to disappoint her beloved.

‘Instead…’

Joy glared at the red Gallergorn that the AMorph had with him. It was a mutant the size of a Blue Gallergorn but with the abilities of a Red Gallergorn.

‘The hive doesn’t have Red Gallergorn essence yet, does it?’

If she could steal the Red Gallergorn from him, her lover would be delighted.

The Gallergorn’s master wouldn’t just stand by and watch, but that wasn’t a concern. With the power of “Chicheon’s Wings,” capturing an enemy or escaping wouldn’t be difficult.

Joy’s gaze turned toward the AMorph in flight. The power of Voltex One, which dominates space, activated, and a hole opened in the empty void.

But the AMorph skillfully avoided the black holes. It was as if he could sense in advance where the power would take effect.

“Tsk. How annoying.”

Voltex One is a being that transcends physical laws and logic. Its power cannot be detected by conventional methods.

It seems the opponent has prepared special detection capabilities in anticipation of fighting Voltex One.

‘No choice then.’

Fortunately, his flight speed wasn’t particularly fast. Joy decided to target that weakness.

“Toders. Entangle him with the swarm.”

In response to the Queen’s command, the cyan-yellow Outspacer Toders responded silently.

The swarm under the Queen’s control spread out like a net. The swarm’s net rapidly closed the distance with the AMorph.

The only thing the lower entities could do here was serve as meat shields, but that was enough. They just needed to hold him in place for a moment.

Outspacers drove the AMorph from all directions. There was no escape.

He struck down the lower entities blocking his path with his hideous tentacles. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, and a hole was blown in the encirclement. The AMorph, having successfully created a path, tried to escape through it.

‘Got you.’

A massive hole leading to another dimension formed in front of the AMorph’s tentacles.

Once trapped in the wormhole created by Chicheon’s Wings, escape is impossible. Knowing this, the AMorph hastily withdrew his tentacles.

But that was her trap.

Originally, Chicheon’s Wings can create only one wormhole at a time, but not for her. While her activation range is shorter than the original, she can create more of them.

Joy concentrated on the Red Gallergorn riding on top of the AMorph’s head.

The Red Gallergorn, belatedly realizing this, tried to dodge. But she was one step faster.

Just as the newly created wormhole was about to grab the Gallergorn’s wings, there was interference. The AMorph pushed the Red Gallergorn away with tentacles protruding from his back.

The small Gallergorn was knocked away, and the tentacles touched the edge of the wormhole instead. Simultaneously, the Sea Demon cradled in the AMorph’s arms transformed its pink tentacles into blades. Then it swung the blades, cutting off the tentacles caught in the wormhole.

‘What?’

The severed body parts were sucked into the wormhole. She quickly added another wormhole, but the AMorph had already escaped with the Red Gallergorn.

‘Damn it! Another mutant?’

She knew Sea Demons could transform their bodies using psychic power. But this was the first time she’d seen one weaponize its tentacles like that.

‘That crazy bastard, has he been collecting mutants?’

Like a proper Outspacer, she had devoured many creatures, but the number of mutants she’d encountered could be counted on one hand. Yet he was dragging around mutant apex creatures as slaves.

‘Does he think he’ll get rare genetic essences?’

Eating mutants had never produced characteristics that didn’t exist before.

But her opponent was the infamous Morph-freak. He was surely keeping them around for some terrible purpose.

‘That mutant needs to die.’

Unlike the Gallergorn, they had enough Sea Demon genetic essence. That annoying pink monster was useless.

Joy continued to attack the AMorph. Wormholes created by Voltex One appeared and disappeared wherever he tried to flee.

Contrary to her expectations, he proved difficult to catch. Having been caught once, the AMorph moved more cautiously than before.

“Toders, how far have the other queens come?”

“They still need more time.”

Seeing the AMorph commanding his subordinates made her miss the absence of the queens even more. If all of them had been here, the situation would have been very different.

‘Turan is dead, and of all queens, only support-specialized Toders remains.’

Toders, specialized in energy manipulation and ally enhancement, shines when fighting alongside other queens. In terms of direct combat power, he’s the weakest of the four queens.

Moreover, due to interference from the robot resembling Prometheus, he can’t even properly use his energy manipulation abilities.

“Great Queen. I will support your power.”

“No. That’s our last resort.”

Toders’ support is very powerful, but it has a fatal flaw. It requires sharing control of the body. If variables arise during battle, it becomes difficult to respond quickly.

“For now, focus on pressuring with the lower entities.”

“Understood. Hmm?”

Suddenly, Toders emitted a questioning wave.

“What is it?”

“The entity interfering with our movement has stopped responding.”

“What?”

Hearing this, Joy checked the AMorph’s status.

He was still evading at high speed, but somehow seemed anxious. Seeing this, she understood his intention.

‘He’s trying to use the humans.’

This star system belongs to Megacorp. To them, both Outspacers and AMorphs are just invaders. He plans to draw them into the battlefield to create chaos.

Chicheon’s Wings has no special defensive techniques. The standard strategy is to distract with numerous troops and attack the main body in the gap.

‘Ha. How foolish.’

That’s only a weakness of the original. Joy’s body doesn’t just contain Voltex One’s essence. She’s long supplemented her lacking defenses with genetic essences from other creatures.

“That’s good. Call in all the queens.”

Besides, what he doesn’t know is that there aren’t just humans here.

As Toders waved his tentacles, blue light flashed from all directions. Shortly after, the reinforcements she had been waiting for crossed through the light.

“Grrrr! Great Queen! How dare you leave without me!”

“I felt the death of a brother born of Mother. What has happened?”

The red monster Krieger growling roughly as soon as he crossed over, and the bat monster Hungersnot, whose body had doubled in size since she last saw him.

Behind them, Outspacers scattered throughout the star system began to appear one after another.

“Those creatures over there are the enemies our Empress hates most. Krieger and Hungersnot, focus on fighting them.”

“Grrrr. I smell a strong one.”

“Those who harm Mother shall pay with death.”

“Toders, enhance them both right now.”

“I will follow the Great Queen’s command.”

While Joy was giving instructions to the newly arrived Outspacers, Megacorp’s ships also jumped in. Light as overwhelming as approaching a star enveloped the battlefield.

The light soon faded. In its place were countless ships.

Man-made alloy vessels and biological weapons born solely for combat rushed toward each other.

Amid the chaotic tangle of green heat rays and spine-like projectiles, the AMorph also jumped in. His figure was quickly obscured by ships and Outspacers.

“Go catch him.”

As soon as Joy’s order fell, the enhanced Krieger and Hungersnot sprang forward.

Krieger is the fastest and most defensively capable of the four queens. With enhancement on top of that, he’s nothing short of a super-weapon with self-awareness.

Krieger flew at terrifying speed and collided with the Megacorp fleet. The impact greatly shook the fleet’s formation.

The ship he directly hit vanished without a trace, and ships caught in the aftermath were instantly rendered combat-ineffective.

What stopped Krieger, who was advancing with enough momentum to pierce through the entire formation, was another red comet. The Red Gallergorn controlled by the AMorph collided with Krieger.

“Grrrk?! Strong!”

Since his creation, Krieger had never been wounded. But now, a tiny crack appeared in his nearly immortal carapace.

Krieger wasn’t the only one surprised. The Gallergorn, wrapped in an indomitable barrier, was also bewildered to see its opponent relatively unscathed.

Unlike Krieger, it wasn’t injured, so it quickly regained its composure and fled among the other ships.

“I shall help.”

“Grrrr! It’s my prey! Don’t interfere!”

Hungersnot, who had been following, ignored Krieger’s words and opened his mouth toward where the Gallergorn was hiding.

Just as the powerful black lightning was about to be discharged, a fighter jet from somewhere flew into his maw.

“How dare you!”

Hungersnot crushed the fighter jet with his teeth and turned his head.

He saw a pink Sea Demon clinging to the outer wall of a battleship nearby. It had grabbed and thrown the launching fighter jet.

“Enemy of Mother!”

The enraged bat monster spewed black lightning. Not just the battleship, but all other vessels around it were reduced to dust. But the Sea Demon’s corpse was not among them.

By the time he realized this, the Sea Demon, wrapped in blue light, sprang out from far away.

“I shall not let you escape!”

Hungersnot spread his massive wings wide and began pursuit.

And Joy was watching it all from the rear.

Her goal was to capture the Red Gallergorn. On top of that, this was a golden opportunity to kill the Sea Demon.

Yet despite this, there was one reason she wasn’t moving.

‘The AMorph is gone.’

The intelligent AMorph wouldn’t leave the Gallergorn and Sea Demon out without a plan.

Those two are bait. The real threat is hiding somewhere in that chaotic battlefield, waiting for her to move.

“Great Queen.”

As she maintained her vigilance, Toders called to her.

“Dangerous steel is preparing to attack.”

“Gigacrackers? How many?”

“Two.”

Just after those words, two cyan heat rays flew from far away from the battlefield.

Just one has enough power to easily split an asteroid. Two is more than enough to erase all Outspacers present and then some.

Of course, even such powerful heat rays are meaningless if they don’t hit. Joy created two wormholes in the path of the incoming rays. The unknown space created by Voltex One completely devoured the incoming energy.

At that moment, the hiding AMorph appeared. As if he had been waiting for this, he charged at her at high speed.

‘As expected!’

It was as she anticipated. On guard against his attack, she responded immediately.

A large wormhole formed above Joy. From it, the cyan heat ray fired by the Gigacracker shot out.

The AMorph tried to dodge hastily. Toders restrained him.

The AMorph was also protected by an unknown energy field, but it wasn’t as dense as the Red Gallergorn’s.

For a very brief moment, Toders’ interference wave succeeded in holding that powerful being.

It was an extremely short time, not even a second, but it was enough. The Gigacracker’s heat ray blew off the AMorph’s head.

‘Got him!’

An AMorph doesn’t die immediately even if its head is gone. She removed the wormhole above her head and created a new one behind him.

The headless monster was sucked into the wormhole, flailing its tentacles grotesquely.

‘Huh?’

She had finally killed the AMorph. She had achieved a feat that even her lover couldn’t easily accomplish. Just as she was about to rejoice, something strange caught her eye.

Earlier, the Sea Demon had cut off one of his tentacles. But all the tentacles of the headless monster were intact.

‘Could it be?’

“Great Queen!”

Joy suddenly looked up.

There was the AMorph where the wormhole had been until just now, blocking her view. He was looking down at her with a snake-like robot on his back.

‘The wormhole…’

Joy can create a maximum of four wormholes. To place one at a new point, she must remove one of the existing ones. Naturally, this takes more time than simply creating a wormhole.

While she was removing the existing wormhole, the AMorph opened his mouth wide. Two maws spread open as if they would tear.

The moment she faced the abyss within that mouth.

Infinite darkness descended upon Joy’s vision.