[442] The Day of the Full Moon (6)
20 minutes earlier.
After breaking out of the glass tube in the quarantine room, the Garas tried to mate with every living thing inside.
It fit perfectly with Plu's plan, but there was one thing she'd overlooked.
Even she, who knew how fearsome the Garas were, couldn't accurately measure the intensity of their breeding drive.
Having been trapped in a cramped glass tube for days, the Garas were at the most desperate state of their lives, and when they found freedom their lust to breed surged to two hundred thousand times that of a human's.
The genetic information the Garas had forced into other species normally developed from embryo to adult in about fourteen hours.
But gripped by the panic of possibly never passing on their line, the time to birth had collapsed to a mere three seconds.
"Kiaaang! Kiaaang!"
As the huge creature screamed in labor, dozens of Garas burst from its belly.
The fetuses that had been sluggish moments before grew into adults in under ten seconds and immediately leapt onto other beings.
It was literally exponential.
Garas were born in every dormitory unit, and soon the quarantine rooms reached saturation.
With a clang the iron doors flew open, and like a dam breaking, Garas of every form poured into the corridor.
The torrent smashed into junctions regardless of intent, split along the flows like fluids, and began to flood the entire headquarters.
* * *
"Huff! Huff!"
All that remained in the corridor the Garas had swept through were gruesome traces of victims.
Only a bald man who had been attacked by a Garas leaned against the wall, gasping.
His belly was swollen as if filled with fluid, and the distension was increasing at a rate of more than doubling every second.
"Ugh! Ugh!"
His trembling hand clutched a dagger from the floor.
He raised both hands, turned the blade around, and aimed it at his own belly; his face was frozen in terror.
"Crrrgh!"
He had to stab it. It was the only reasonable choice left.
But the man grimaced and flung the dagger away.
"Aaaaargh!"
His belly exploded, and a black monster slid out, curling into a ball.
When its crooked spine straightened, the body reached a full meter in length; with gaunt arms and reverse-jointed legs it pressed itself to the floor and licked its long tongue out.
Its face was smashed as if struck with a hammer; it had no eyes, and its brain bulged from the top of its head.
"Kik, kikiki!"
A Garas prowling like a cheetah sniffed the creature's scent with its keen nose.
"I… am… the king of all species…"
Patak!
Four cracks split the floor and the Garas' body vanished.
* * *
Shirone and Plu didn't even dare look back as they sprinted down the corridor.
Wherever they went, Garas appeared; the space to escape was narrowing, and they felt it in their bones.
"Senpai! What do we do? We're going to be surrounded!"
A pack of Garas surged from the direction they were headed.
Plu stopped and swung the Phoenix; a vortex of flame erupted.
"Kiaaah! Kiaaah!"
Under the heat the Garas' skin melted like porridge and slid away.
But thanks to Kensor's ability, their wounds began to regenerate almost immediately.
"Tch! Regeneration this time?"
The Garas weren't inherently powerful creatures.
But a grotesque reproductive capacity that could produce offspring within ten seconds combined with a lab filled with every isolated organism had produced an absurd species.
With explosive population growth in a confined space, some mutants even tried to breed with their own kind; the more that happened, the stronger the Garas evolved.
Shirone clenched his teeth in disgust.
From the Garas' forms alone he could tell most of what Laysis had collected so far.
"I'll handle this."
Dark orbs formed before Shirone's eyes and crushed every Garas that charged.
He'd learned that dark orbs were perfect for Kensor traits, but that, too, had been luck.
Every creature has a natural enemy, and the Garas were running wild in an environment that allowed infinite mutation—delaying would only make things worse for them.
"Kirik! Kirik!"
Mucus dripped from the ceiling and transformed into dozens of pouch-like sacs, hanging down.
Each pouch split horizontally in the center and an eyeball popped out; when the antithetical power activated, both of them froze.
"Gah!"
At the same moment, a Garas with the transparent-eared Hororos' trait bit Plu's calf.
Seeing the clear bite marks on her pale skin, Shirone raised his mental transcendence and counterattacked.
He crushed a snake-shaped, transparent Garas with Armand's tentacles while slamming the Photon Cannon into the ceiling; the walls sagged and the exit was blocked.
With no time to spare, Shirone checked Plu.
If Hororos' trait had been mixed with a venomous creature's, it would have been a disaster.
"Senpai, are you okay?"
Plu looked at her bleeding leg. She could still move.
But seeing the Garas strengthening by the second, she'd already made up her mind.
"I'll lure them away. You find Laysis. If you can't stop her, the mission fails."
Shirone couldn't answer.
He knew it had to be this way, but leaving Plu as Garas' prey felt monstrous.
"Senpai, I—"
"Hurry! You promised me! That you wouldn't hesitate when it's time to choose!"
Shirone shouted, clenching both fists.
"How can I leave you! I'd rather—!"
Slap!
Shirone's head turned.
Plu's cold eyes took him in.
"Go. You can go. You know that, don't you?"
Shirone felt no pain where her hand had struck him. The ache in his chest was worse than any bruise.
"Defeat Laysis. Then come back to rescue me."
Both of them knew there would be no coming back.
That truth made Shirone unbearably sad.
"The more you hesitate, the less time you'll have to rescue me. If when you come back I'd died five seconds before, could you bear it?"
"Senpai—"
"Two seconds have passed."
Shirone squeezed his eyes shut and rose. For the first time in his life he lied about another person's life.
"I'll definitely come back."
He pushed off the ground and ran, rounding the corner.
Almost simultaneously, a pack of Garas charged from the opposite direction.
Plu no longer felt fear.
On the contrary, the relief of having sent Shirone away made her expression calmer than it had ever been.
'Thank you. You're a good kid.'
A dry smile touched her lips.
"Goodbye, Shirone."
Plu rose, gripping the Phoenix; her expression was sharper than ever.
Smoke curled from her as if she might erupt at any moment.
She amplified her mana to a level that would let her burn herself out without caring—then thrust the Phoenix forward.
The strongest magic the certified Grade-8 mage Plu possessed.
Hellfire!
Blazing flames, roiling like clouds, filled the corridor.
* * *
Tears wouldn't stop streaming from Shirone's eyes.
But the grief that felt like his chest would collapse hardened into cold fury when he reached the lab with the Physics Machine.
Staring at the room with eyes that could cut steel, Shirone slowly opened the door.
Silence reigned except for the sound of bubbles boiling.
All he saw were the researchers' corpses.
Beings were trapped in the glass spheres of the Physics Machine that Laysis had shown with Memory Vision.
Shirone stopped in front of one globe.
Inside was Ikael—her body torn into pieces as if chewed by teeth.
Staring at her upside-down face, bitterness filled Shirone's eyes.
'Ikael.'
He'd failed to keep his promise.
But he pushed the thought aside for now.
Without looking back, he spoke.
"Do you feel better now? Is this the result you wanted?"
Laysis approached casually, blood-red lips curling in a smile.
"You've boxed yourself in. You really shouldn't have touched the Garas."
Shirone turned slowly.
"You'll end up the same. Give it up now. The headquarters will be shut down."
"Ha ha ha! If you truly believe that, you're far too naive. Do you think I did this because I was weak and only dreamed of strength? Not at all."
Crack! Crack!
Laysis' bones twisted and her muscles ballooned.
"I am already the strongest creature."
Her height shot past two meters, three meters, until she neared the ceiling.
Her skin was red all over, intestine-like tails tangled in bundles, and strange organs—eyes, noses, mouths, teeth from unknown beings—were plastered across her muscular body and moved.
Indescribably grotesque.
Functionless, devoted only to absolute evil, it was a hideous body.
"Shirone, become one with me."
As Laysis' androgynous low voice resonated, Shirone's Photon Cannon reflexively fired.
But he didn't aim at Laysis—he aimed at the Physics Machine.
Bang! Krrak! Krrak!
Laysis moved faster than the Photon Cannon and blocked the Physics Machine.
Despite the impact, her hulking body didn't flinch.
The Law of Satan—the embodiment of evil.
For a human, divine transcendence would have shattered the body, yet Laysis, fused with all manner of creatures, had durability that rivaled angels.
"Kraaaah!"
Laysis spewed powerful flames; Shirone teleported aside and countered with Armand's tentacles and the Photon Cannon.
The lab turned into chaos in an instant.
Laysis never left the Physics Machine, and yet Shirone was driven back.
Flames and lightning mixed, leaving nowhere to hide; Laysis lunged, grabbed Shirone's neck, and slammed him against the wall.
"Ugh!"
If not for Armand, his neck would have been broken.
Tentacles from her robe lashed out but couldn't even pierce his teeth.
"Kukukuku, did you think you could win? Because you're Nephilim, because you're the light of Section 73, that you could defeat me?"
Laysis' eyes glittered gold.
"I am Satan, the incarnation of evil!"
A new consciousness pressed into Shirone's mind.
In the blazing space, incarnations of Satan and Shirone rose before him as vividly as reality.
Shirone's golden wings trembled as if about to snap; Satan shoved his hideous face close.
"Poor little lamb, Nephilim are no match for me."
"Rrrrrgh!"
Shirone amplified his avatar's power with mental transcendence.
Satan's face briefly contorted, but then he concentrated strength in his arms as if bored.
"Gah!"
Shirone's waist buckled as if about to break and his legs flailed.
Only the extreme of good can stop the extreme of evil—the level at which Satan's avatar stood was beyond human Shirone's reach.
'Is this how I die?'
The avatar's presence blurred and his strength ebbed.
In reality his body was probably bent to the point his neck was about to snap.
'Plu senpai…'
What was she doing, surrounded by Garas?
'I won't end like this!'
Gritting his teeth, Shirone summoned his avatar again.
He had to fight to the end, at least for the senior who'd thrown herself into that hell.
"How dare you!"
As Shirone's resistance strengthened, Satan's arm muscles swelled as if about to burst.
Flash!
At the same moment, Shirone's body was wrapped in pure white radiance and another avatar overlaid his own.
It was Armand, integrated through the Ultima system.
Mind and body converged into a single signal and poured into the avatar, pulling Shirone to a place he hadn't reached before.
Mental Transcendence—Total One-Mind.
"Kraaaaang!"
As a hundred-thousand cries erupted from Satan's mouth, Shirone's body turned to light and exploded.