Rescue Fantasy (19)
"What is this?"
I only muttered hopelessly for a moment before springing to my feet. I knew the causality clearly, but for some reason, I couldn't make sense of what had happened. This was a matter not of recognition but of understanding.
'The lump of flesh responded to the monstrous shriek Whiteout let out.'
The huge lump of flesh split open as if a door was swinging wide, sucking air in with the force of absorbing everything around it. That suction was not something one could resist by simply wanting to endure.
Since I was obsessed with killing Whiteout at that moment, I tried to resist by all means, but I was torn from the space itself and swallowed up by its maw. Carry and Celestia were no different.
Whiteout, who was in my grasp, as well as fragments of the clone incubation tank and part of a creep from the clone lab, also fell with us. The head remained in my hand, but the body, separated from the head, was nowhere to be seen—perhaps it fell somewhere else.
Should I consider it a failure for missing it, or a success for handling it up to that point?
'I didn't manage to destroy the core, though.'
Even if I wanted to destroy it, I'd need the core present—and I had no idea where it was. After tearing through the insides that much and still not seeing it, it either meant that it was located elsewhere or that the main body was never there in the first place.
I'd poured in everything I had, but ended up with nothing, which made me feel sick inside. To top it off, my body actually hurt all over. That was because Whiteout's tail had grazed me, slicing my skin.
Fortunately, most of the blows were cushioned by my armor, so I hadn't suffered any penetrating wounds. After moving a bit, it also seemed there were no fractures.
'Hoo...'
With a deep sigh, I let go of my lingering regrets. I kept my guard up, thinking that Whiteout might be nearby, but even as time passed, the creature did not show itself. There wasn't so much as a trace of its presence.
Now was the time to check on my own people. After laying Whiteout's head roughly to the side, I brought over Celestia and Carry, who had toppled nearby, and laid them down properly. Thankfully, they were breathing—at least Celestia was. If Carry started breathing, that would be truly insane—he's a robot, after all.
"Celestia, Carry."
I called out to both of them, gently shaking their shoulders as well. While neither seemed badly hurt, they weren't coming to their senses easily, with little response even to my shaking.
I wondered if I should look for a safer place, but that's when it happened: Carry, who had reverted to box form, suddenly made a beeping noise and stirred. It promptly sprang up and extended his sub-arms.
「ヽ ( ꒪д꒪)ﾉ」
「ヽ (꒪д꒪ )ﾉ」
"Carry...!"
「(☍д⁰)」
The moment Carry recognized me, it flew over. Its circling motion seemed to be asking what on earth had happened.
It looked around with its eyes shining, clearly searching for something. Thinking it was looking for Whiteout, I showed Carry the creature's head, restraining it.
"Carry, calm down. I've handled Whiteout. ... At least, I think I have."
「(⊙_⊙)」
Hearing me add that last part, Carry's eyes went round as if to ask why I'd say such a thing. I glossed over my words.
"That's not what's important right now. Do you remember how we ended up here?"
Since Carry, unlike me, was a robot, perhaps it felt something while passing through the darkness engulfing the lump of flesh. It would have been enough, even if only a fragment of data had been recorded. I could figure the rest out from that fragment.
I couldn't stop wondering about that lump of flesh. We had definitely been in the clone lab at the bottom layer of the medical sector.
But after the darkness forcibly swallowed us, we woke up in a completely unknown place, not anywhere we had come through before. This seemed like some kind of teleportation.
I knew the technology for warp had been invented. But I'd heard it couldn't be installed on the surface due to technical limitations.
A massive surge of energy is released during a warp event—if that happened on the surface, it would devastate the surroundings as if a missile had exploded.
'I only heard as much, but...'
Carry shook its head after thinking for a moment. It seemed Carry's memories were no different from mine. Disappointing, but there was nothing I could do.
Still, Carry regaining its senses did relieve my anxiety. I had worried about what I would do if it never woke up.
'God, this hurts.'
Belatedly, I gulped down some high-grade medicine and carefully checked Carry's condition. Even though it'd taken a blow from the weakener, it had fought off several ghouls on its own. There was a chance a module had been damaged.
"One of the wings is completely broken—you'll need a full module replacement. And one of your thrusters has been scratched. Carry, try boosting this side's output. Let's see if it runs stably."
The thruster began to glow. It could still be used for now, but if it overheated the output would probably become unstable.
"We'd better move carefully."
「( ´ ᐞ ` )」
"With things like this, it's pretty minor. You're the one who saved Celestia. You did really well. Thanks to you, I was able to do this to Whiteout, too."
When I made a throat-slitting gesture, Carry finally dropped his sullen expression. Even without my expressly telling him, he showed that Celestia should be carried on his back. Gesturing with his sub-arms, he seemed to be suggesting we find a safe place.
"Is it better to move, then...?"
Every time I moved, the ground, grown over with brush, rustled. Mist hung thick in the air around us.
A faint light source was visible overhead, but I couldn't tell whether it was an artificial light moving along Titan's orbit or some other kind of illumination.
Seeing plants around made it clear that this was either the central sector nexus or the hydroponic cultivation sector inside Heaven. Those were the only two places on Titan where such plants existed.
'Not the nexus. The structure was different there.'
The area was wide open on all sides. Though obscured by the mist, I could just make out not only underbrush but also something with the shape of a tree. We were right in the middle of a forest.
One thing stood out: the external appearance of these plants looked slightly off—a negative sense rather than a positive one. Instead of feeling mysterious and fresh, the atmosphere around us was uncanny and ominous.
Maybe it was just my perception. I wanted to ask Licorice for advice, so I turned on my comms device, but communications were still down.
'What's the problem?'
Even after opening up the circuitry, I couldn't identify what was broken, so there was nothing I could do—frustrating indeed. If Nadia were here, she would have said, 'Leave it to me, Hyun-woo!' and fixed it. I really felt Nadia's absence.
Regardless of whether or not we decided to move, putting Celestia on Carry's back was the right call. That way, if we needed to get moving quickly, we wouldn't be delayed.
Just as I lifted Celestia to put her on Carry, she moaned faintly and stirred—her eyelids twitching. Soon, she was coming to her senses.
At last, Celestia slowly opened her eyes.
"Ugh... Hyun-woo...?"
"Celestia!"
"My head hurts... especially the back..."
"Ah."
She was complaining about a headache, and for a moment I wondered if it was an aftereffect of Whiteout's tricks—but that wasn't it. The spot she was holding in pain was the exact spot I struck when I knocked her out earlier. I must have hit too hard.
When I apologized, Celestia shook her head. She immediately assessed the changed environment.
"I must have passed out. You knocked me out, right, Hyun-woo? And on the ground... is that shrubbery? Are we in a hydroponics bay? How long have I been unconscious?"
"It hasn't even been an hour. As for how we got here..."
I calmly explained what happened with the special clone pod in the clone lab.
Most of what we saw had been hallucinations, induced by a mutant named Whiteout.
At one point Celestia fell victim to some kind of mental attack and tried to act out, so I rendered her unconscious by hitting her neck—again, sorry for hitting too hard.
After its location and appearance were discovered, Whiteout tried to escape, and I did everything I could to stop it.
I succeeded in cornering the creature, but when Whiteout let out its monstrous shriek, the lump of flesh at the center suddenly opened like a door.
That led to now. We were ejected from the clone incubation lab, ending up somewhere else. I separated Whiteout's head from its body, but couldn't be sure the creature was dead. Communications were still out.
"I was too weak. We were almost there, but then suddenly we got sucked in... At least I should have gotten some data."
"Hyun-woo, you don't have to say that. The fact that we're alive is enough. I'm the one who should apologize. I said I'd help, but all I did was pass out."
Rubbing the back of her neck, Celestia wanted to discuss what to do next. She didn't know anything about the space-warping lump of flesh, so she left it aside for now.
Just then—
「( °ᗝ° ).ᐟ.ᐟ」
Carry suddenly flashed a lightbulb as if he'd remembered something forgotten. He rustled around a compartment where it sub-arms folded, then pulled out a device that looked like a personal terminal. Carry made a big fuss, handing the device to us.
"Carry, this... was attached to the incubation tank, right?"
Carry wiggled as if to say yes, so I immediately ruffled its head roughly. I thought we'd gained nothing, yet here it was doing something impressive. That was so like Carry.
"Well done!"
「(≧∇≦)/」
Carry simply rejoiced. Unfortunately, it looked like he hadn't been able to obtain any biocell source, or maybe there just hadn't been any. It seemed Whiteout had only used us as bait.
Celestia immediately focused on extracting information from the device. She had decided it was better to stay put for now.
Here's what we learned from the terminal: the clone incubation lab we'd seen was something of a warehouse, and there were many similar spaces. The place served mainly as a goods collection point.
According to the device, rummaging through that place wouldn't yield any significant info. It wasn't a place where important data would be stored in the first place.
'Well, I guess that's a small mercy.'
Once we had recovered somewhat, we started exploring our surroundings. We couldn't very well stay here forever.
We needed more information: where exactly were we, how could we get out, and where could we find biological cells?
By now, it had been ten hours since we left town.
***
At the same moment, somewhere underground in Heaven's central sector—
「Screee...」
A mutant, its whole body battered and broken, crawled along the ground. It had barely managed to regenerate its head, but the slow recovery of its tail left it looking pitiful. This monster's true identity was Whiteout.
It slithered along with a clear purpose. Streams of black blood trailing behind left long tracks where it passed.
It was during this endless crawl that the sound of clacking footsteps echoed down the dark corridor. Soon, a woman appeared, wearing an outfit so light it seemed impossible for a base swarming with monsters.
Red hair and crimson, blood-like eyes. The woman's name was Lobelia, who now lowered her gaze. A flicker of emotion crossed her otherwise impassive stare.
Following behind her was another black mutant shaped just like Whiteout—a creature that looked like its twin.
This being, seeing the vanquished Whiteout, spoke first.
「My poor brother. Why didn't you listen? I told you, now was not the time to act.」
「... I only wanted to check the possibility.」
「That's sophistry.」
On the shoulder of this creature, which brushed aside Whiteout's words, was a name: Blackout—that was the name given to this monster.
「You should have taken me with you, brother. Then things wouldn't have become such a mess. You know that we are one together.」
「...」
「You didn't even make use of your own abilities. And you also revealed the existence of the displacement device. Be grateful that we share a core. Otherwise, I would have disposed of you by my own hand.」
"Blackout, enough. He's your brother. Play nice. Besides, I found this all rather amusing. Things get boring if they always go according to plan."
When Lobelia raised her hand, Blackout bared his fangs at his brother, then concealed them again. Unlike the disappointed Blackout, Lobelia's gaze carried an air of expectation.
"So, did you confirm the possibility? Did it look like he remembered the promise?"
「No. He hated us. Myosotis rejected us.」
"Aha? Rejected, huh... Hmm, so he forgot. Or is he deliberately trying to forget? If he forgot the promise, then that's a breach of contract, Ian. The time is drawing near."
Lobelia, arms crossed, recalled the contract she made with Ian—to become a sword that would kill a god when the promised hour came, in exchange for a new body.
'I thought he remembered, given how diligently he's been killing mutants...'
It appeared now that he did not remember. Maybe I left him alone for too long.
Lobelia closed one eye. Then, the marionette's line of sight began to appear. The panel reflected a frustrated face, unable to reach the others in Heaven.
As she bit her lip and turned her head, the snowfields spread out outside the window.
Nestled between white glacial mountains was a small colony town, encircled by thick outer walls topped with several laser cannons.
This was the place where Titan's first breakthrough tunnel had been made—the location where the sleeping tree's first root was hidden. The town. Or rather, the Tree.
The marionette still hadn't caught on, but all around the base, forces were moving to target that place.
Despite deliberately leaking false information to create confusion, the distraction was over. In the end, the pureblood supremacists had discovered the existence of the town. More precisely, they had noticed one truth hidden in the town.
The pureblood supremacist forces scattered across Titan were beginning to converge. Those who had destroyed various military bases now gathered to break the unfinished colony and seize the treasure hidden beneath.
The town's defenses were being strengthened day by day, but it seemed unlikely they could stand against the pureblood supremacists.
"It'll be destroyed soon. Maybe I should prepare a new marionette. There's no doll as entertaining to watch as this one has been."
With an exaggerated face of feigned regret, Lobelia let her eyes linger on the fragmented information floating on her terminal.
The destruction of Earth's government faction on Enceladus; activation of security protocols, Europa completely wiped out; Mars, half-destroyed by power struggles; civil war erupting inside SSTC; surviving forces converging on Earth.
The Reformist group rising to the surface; warp gate terror incidents; the outbreak of war; the appearance of a colossal tree swallowing an entire satellite; indestructible objects popping up across space; a stranded Reformist ship adrift in Titan's orbit.
"A dazzling fireworks show, with the fate of the race and civilization on the line. Boom, boom, let it all explode. Ah, I wish I could see it up close... How disappointing~."
While Lobelia giggled, Blackout scooped up Whiteout. They mingled as if they had always been a single being.
Though she had been attached to the pureblood supremacist group, she was looking at a completely different target. Not for the cause, but simply for her own amusement.
She could feel the countless gazes watching her—gazes she'd sensed since she'd come into contact with the shard of the tree. They wanted a story—one that would be truly captivating.
Maybe she'd been influenced by those gazes herself. At some point, she had started to feel the emotions those gazes experienced.
If it could evoke interest, Lobelia could do anything. For instance, as a prank, she could snatch up the first bud before it completed its transformation, just like now.
Her perception expanded, and the scene around her became clear. Mountains of gunpowder-era weapons, military arms, and power loaders taken from military bases, all in huge piles—pureblood supremacists were amassed.
But the situation looked off. It wasn't that they'd united to defeat a common enemy; rather, factions had divided, fighting each other indiscriminately and finally destroying themselves. This was Blackout's doing—he had tampered with their minds.
Under deadly watch, the first bud, once protected, now fell into Lobelia's hands. Imagining Cystus raging furiously over this made her cover her mouth as she laughed.
Myosotis, not realizing his nemesis was right before his eyes;
A dependable ally, actually someone's plaything;
Pureblood supremacist factions converging;
The truth about the blue crystal gradually being revealed;
And the ever-growing number of buds.
Lobelia couldn't wait to see how things would unfold. Everything was like a ticking time-bomb.
When the merged mutant gestured, a lump of flesh on the ground opened its mouth wide. Just before being swallowed, Lobelia murmured softly.
"Ian, the tree here will awaken soon. It's inevitable—that's fate. I wonder what you'll choose to do then."
Then, the flesh-made displacement device swallowed Lobelia and the mutants. In their wake, only silence and corpses remained.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Too many things happening.
Licorice is Lobelia's clone, that's pretty much guaranteed.
Also, Licorice doesn't know that Lobelia could see what she sees.
Hyun-woo is Ian, and Ian is Celestia's brother.
Lobelia creating chaos everywhere and snatching the first bud.
Also twin buds, with psychic abilities and are able to merge?
Fuck.
「(╯°□°)ຈ҉̛༽̨҉҉ﾉ̨」