Rescue Fantasy (18)
The scenery changed. The veil covering our eyes was being lifted.
'Where are we?'
After securing Celestia, I quickly scanned my surroundings to figure out where we were.
First, some of the creep that had filled the area was gone. The massive biological mass that had filled the lowermost sector was the same.
But it wasn't completely gone. While its size was different, a similar lump of flesh sat at the center, rooting itself to the floor and opening and closing its circular mouth as if it were breathing.
Entering the clone incubation room wasn't a complete lie either. Tanks made of special glass lined the walls, and multiple monitors were displaying complicated data even at that moment.
Moreover, some tanks were still intact. Inside, they contained human figures. Even though Heaven itself was embroiled in chaos, their seals remained. Or perhaps new mutants were being created through the clones.
It seemed that the monster had mixed some truth in with its lies to deceive us. So, what did it want? Its original goal might not have been to make a deal with us, but simply to play with us.
'I don't see the biocell material.'
Was it never there in the first place? Or was it removed once I showed a change of heart? Personally, I hoped for the latter—then I could kill the monster and take it.
Even though I told myself I wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, I knew things rarely went my way.
Before I got fooled again, I needed to find the mutant that must be hiding here somewhere. But it wasn't visible—not at the moment.
I hid Celestia between the tanks and shouted,
"Carry, burn everything for now!"
「(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─」
Carry sprayed blue flames with a flamethrower. The fire surged out, instantly sweeping across the space.
Important equipment like the console, which might have contained vital data, was damaged by the heat, but I simply told Carry to increase the firepower even more.
It was a harsh thing to say to Celestia, but right now, pinning down the location of the mutant was more important than the data. Whether we killed it or not would decide everything.
After a short while, the sensor picked up something. It was at the ceiling. When I looked up, I met eyes with a bizarre, all-white mutant. It was the first time I saw its whole body.
Elongated limbs, a tail longer than its torso, eyes with pitch-black pupils, teeth that looked like they would never let go once bitten, and the name 「Whiteout」 carved into its shoulder.
'A bud...!'
I'd hoped not, but a bud-type special mutant had been born in the medical sector, freely manipulating the clones housed in the lab.
'I'm not a fan of this.'
Strangely, I didn't feel afraid. Even though I was face-to-face with a named mutant like Blue Eye, I didn't feel the suffocating pressure I felt the first time I encountered Blue Eye. Still, I didn't let my guard down.
This one tampered with the mind. It was best to trust only what I could see and hear directly. I stared at the monster, assuming it had a mind-control ability.
Then, I hurled my metal spear at where it was.
Whiteout easily dodged the spear that lodged itself in an instant and dropped from its vantage point above, landing-nimbly on its lengthy limbs, its tail drawing a circle in the air.
Its cross-shaped tail looked razor sharp, gleaming as if clad in special armor, not ordinary hide.
"Now you seem ready to talk."
「Why do you reject us? You should keep your promise.」
Whiteout opened its mouth. This time, I could tell the words weren't coming out as sound—they were being punched directly into my mind.
Its body structure didn't seem incapable of producing vocal sounds, yet perhaps because I'd experienced it once before, I wasn't that surprised that Whiteout was 'speaking'.
The only thought that crossed my mind was that there was more data to send Carrot.
"What promise? You never intended to make a fair deal. If I handed over Myosotis, would you really have given me the biocell material? No. Judging by the look of you, you planned to kill us both. Am I wrong?"
「It's a misunderstanding. And it's not death. It is merely the casting off of an unnecessary body. It's just a stage toward purity.」
"We call that dying, you monster."
「It's a pity you don't know how cursed it is to possess a false body. Don't you wish to reclaim your true self?」
"Oh, you're even speaking more naturally now. You should've done that sooner. I might have listened more seriously."
I showed by my actions I had nothing more to say. I tightened my grip on the plasma cutter and readied myself.
The blue flames Carry had spread began to die down. As the fuel ran out and the fire weakened, it felt like a countdown. As the flames receded, the surface layer of creep burned away, revealing what had been hidden.
The area was filled with corpses. People in white coats, presumably researchers, were being digested by the creep, breaking down, and security robots were contaminated.
Some looked like they had died only recently—judging by the markings on their suits, they were pureblood supremacists. All of them had puncture wounds, as if stabbed straight through.
'So the tail is its main weapon.'
It appeared to be Whiteout's nest. The only weapon that could deal such clean puncture wounds was the creature's tail.
I had no idea why it killed pureblood supremacists, its supposed allies, but it was certainly dangerous. I decided I needed to fight as close to it as possible and watch out for its ambushing tail.
The problem was, I still didn't know what role the lump of flesh at the center of the sector played. Even after the blue flames washed over it, it never twitched.
Did "the big friend" refer to that, or was it all an exaggeration to trick us? Either way, it kept bothering me.
Communication was still down, and I was standing in the heart of enemy territory. We were on the brink of a direct clash. As I subtly shifted my right foot back to launch myself, Whiteout seized the moment.
Because I never took my eyes off it, I immediately reacted to its movement—or rather, I would have, had Whiteout not chosen to escape rather than attack.
'It's running?!'
After the mutant slipped away from the waste disposal sector and returned as Blue Eye, I'd made myself a promise. If something like that ever happened again, I would never let them get away.
If I hadn't lost it then, we wouldn't have had to fight so desperately in the cargo sector.
It wasn't hard to imagine what kind of disaster would result if I let another named entity slip away now. It would surely come back to threaten our lives.
'I can't regret things again.'
Without hesitation, I threw the plasma cutter in my hand. Because I'd already been ready to fight, the motion flowed naturally and powerfully.
Bang!
With a burst of sound, a blue line split the air. The plasma blade at max output pierced straight through Whiteout's back.
Despite its lithe appearance, it was extremely tough—I couldn't impale it all the way through. Only half of the plasma cutter's staff sank inside.
「Kyaaaaaaah-!」
Unable to dispel all the force of the spear, Whiteout tumbled wildly across the floor. The successive spears I threw struck a beat later along the path it rolled, successfully blocking some of its escape routes.
After asking Carry to take care of Celestia, I pulled out a spare plasma cutter and sprinted forward. The drumbeat of my heavy footsteps lasted only a moment before I reached Whiteout, who was menacingly whipping its tail.
I couldn't see what was happening around me. All I could see was the monster I needed to kill. My entire focus locked onto it.
The plasma cutter embedded in its body was surely useless now. Whether from the force of the fall or the monster pulling it out with its hand, the nozzle section snapped cleanly off.
Despite being an all-white mutant proclaiming purity, its true colors showed in the black blood that dripped from it.
I pounced at Whiteout from above, pinning it down. The monster tried to resist, grabbing onto the nozzle portion. Just as the spearhead was about to pierce it, it barely twisted its head aside with a ssskk! hiss.
Seeing its maw stretch wide made it absolutely clear this thing was a monster. Whiteout tried every trick to widen the distance, while I did whatever I could to close it. Our mutual desperation made our tenacity almost adhesive.
We rolled across the floor, limbs tangled. With debris everywhere, every roll delivered more than a little impact. After only a handful of crashes, we both looked a mess, our blood mixing on the ground.
「Foolish thing...!」
Whiteout reached for me, trying its signature mental assault—a move that pushed my alertness to the maximum. There's nothing more dangerous than losing focus at a critical moment.
But instead, it used the opening to attack from a blind spot with its tail. My instincts screamed a warning.
Crunch!
Just as Whiteout had done, I barely twisted my head away and dodged the tail. But I didn't avoid it completely—my suit's helmet was partially damaged. The sharp tail tore through the metal as it grazed me.
Luckily, the shrapnel flew forward. If it hadn't, I might have lost an eye.
The long tail whistled through the air. This time, it was coming up from below, aiming to skewer my head. The wind slicing past my ear felt like a blade.
My helmet took even more damage, starting to malfunction. Sparks flew from the smashed parts.
Taking advantage, Whiteout retreated. It stood in front of an intact tank, which it smashed with its tail.
I frowned at its antics—then cursed as I saw what spilled out of the tank.
A mutant in the middle of ghoulification splattered onto the floor with suspicious fluid. At first it didn't move, but when Whiteout grabbed its head, it slowly started to stir.
No, it was less regaining consciousness than having consciousness forcibly occupied. Whiteout was controlling the raw mind completely at will.
There was more than one tank. Whiteout smashed the rest with its tail, all at once, leaving no chance to intervene. The extending tail swept across, shattering them all instantly.
The ghouls that emerged from the broken tanks, under Whiteout's command, targeted where Celestia and Carry were. They scattered and charged.
"Carry!"
Carry tried to block them with the flamethrower, but couldn't do it alone. While the flames covered a wide area, the firepower was too dispersed. In the end, if I wanted to protect them, I had to go myself.
'Wait.'
It wasn't a necessity for me to go. Didn't I still have the weakener kept for emergencies? If I used it to debuff the mutants, Carry's flamethrower might be enough to handle them.
I didn't like exposing that trump card to the bud just yet, but now wasn't the time to hold back.
Feigning a distraction, I hurled my spear and activated the weakener on the mutants rushing Carry. An invisible wave swept the area.
「Kkirrk?!」
Sensing something was wrong, the ghouls froze momentarily, realizing I'd done something. Before they could turn to me, the blue flames swept over them. The resulting burning was just as intense as before, but this time the outcome was different.
The previously undaunted ghouls began to flail, shrieking in agonized pain. The smell of burning flesh was intense. Fortunately, it seemed they'd weakened enough for Carry to handle.
At that moment, a sphere of light formed at the tip of Whiteout's tail. It began pulling in the ambient light, compressing it to a single point.
Something was definitely off. Was it going to fire a beam like Blue Eye? Or launch the sphere and explode it? Either way, I didn't like it.
A hit from that wouldn't just hurt—it'd be lethal. I decided to close the distance instead. For beams or explosions, getting up close was the right play. That kind of power didn't discriminate friend from foe.
Whiteout knew that too, trying again to shake me off and escape.
Its underdeveloped hands weren't much, but the tail could pierce anything like a whip, and its abnormal elasticity made it impossible to judge how far was safe.
Especially since that suspicious energy sphere was attached at the tip, leaving white afterimages in the air, much like the plasma cutter.
When the sphere passed some threshold, it emitted a strange pulse. As I felt the humming sensation, searing white beams raked across the area indiscriminately.
'So now lasers are standard, huh...!'
A multi-shot laser, not a single one, volleyed at me repeatedly. Beams that missed vaporized the floor, walls, and ceiling without hesitation.
Golden heat shimmered in their wake, radiating intense heat. Fast. Definitely fast. But manageable.
Whiteout's attack was fierce, but not enough to reach me. While its movement was hampered by the spears I'd scattered, and as the angle narrowed enough for the weakener to hit, I pushed off the ground with all my strength.
'Where's your core?'
A blue spearhead drove into Whiteout's torso as it tried to cool its overheated tail. The creature screamed in agony as I tore through its insides. While I took more injuries overall, handling Whiteout itself wasn't all that hard.
It really was easier than expected. I wasn't stronger—this bud was just weaker than expected. This time, instead of dodging, I grabbed the lashing tail with my hands.
Gripped tightly, the tail tried to wrench free, tearing at my suit gloves. In a desperate struggle, it finally pierced my shoulder. Lightning-shot pain crashed through my head.
I only squeezed harder. Planting my foot on it, I wrapped the tail around my arm, determined to rip it off completely.
Finally, with a tearing noise, the tip came away. The forming energy sphere fizzled out and vanished. The stench of foul blood filled my nose.
No matter how much I tore through inside, I couldn't find a core. I didn't think I was just failing to find it—at this point, it should have been visible. An idea suddenly struck me.
"... You. You're a fake. It doesn't matter if you die, right?"
「Shedding the shell. I told you, it's a process toward purity—an ending that is also a new beginning.」
Whiteout glared at me, eyes full of murderous intent. It didn't confirm my suspicion directly, but my instincts told me I was right.
So, why run away?
Because it still felt pain?
Because even a fake's death would harm the main body?
Because rejoining the original was more important?
This was bad. If this was an avatar, the main body remained—killing it wouldn't matter. That was the same as letting Whiteout escape.
'Deal with it for now.'
No matter what, I couldn't waste this chance to eliminate the bud. After all I'd done to get here, I wasn't about to let it go.
I debuffed it again with the weakener and grabbed its head to rip it off—but right then,
「Kiaaaaaaaah━━!」
Sensing its end, Whiteout scrabbled at my suit with its claws, letting out a piercing death scream. For the first time, the lump of flesh that hadn't moved suddenly reacted to Whiteout's scream.
It gaped its mouth wide, as if to swallow everything. Almost simultaneously, I felt myself being pulled in.
"What the hell...!"
Naturally, I tried to resist, but the force was not something that could be denied. Carry and Celestia were the same. Carry tried to keep Celestia from being sucked in, but failed.
Still hanging on to Whiteout's ripped-off head, I glimpsed the darkness inside the lump of flesh. It was as if it connected elsewhere—a wind blew from the darkness.
There was an unfamiliar scent. It was similar to that air freshener I'd bought once. That air freshener smelled like grass.
'Connected to another passage...?!'
Before I could finish that thought, all of us in the clone incubation room—Carry, Celestia, and I—were sucked into the lump of flesh. My consciousness snapped out.
I didn't know whether I lost consciousness, or if I simply closed my eyes and opened them again. What was certain was that when I opened my eyes, I had fallen into an unfamiliar place. It wasn't the clone incubation room.
Nearby, Carry and Celestia were collapsed, unconscious, and in my hands were Whiteout's torn-off head and tail. Their viscera were grotesquely exposed.
"... Where am I?"
With my heart still pounding from battle and breath coming in pants, I muttered in a daze. All around, there were bizarrely-shaped plants.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Boss fight, phase 2!
That's why it felt like the fight against the Whiteout is too easy.
【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】