Chapter 19

Chapter 19

- As the price for trampling my tower, I will turn your bodies into fertilizer for my creation as well...!

Blood-red mana expanded, filling the interior of the tower.

RUMBLEEEEE-!

The entire tower let out a tremendous scream.

The scene created by Malach's final desperate struggle was nothing short of hell made manifest.

Blood-red mana poured down from the top of the tower, melting through the floor of the tenth level and indiscriminately swallowing even the walls of the floors below.

Into that vortex of mana, the thousands, tens of thousands of bones and chunks of flesh filling the tower were sucked upward like a waterfall flowing in reverse.

GRRRRRGH! CRUNCH!

"E-Everyone, fall back!"

Rena shouted urgently as she pulled the mercenaries back.

Before our eyes, an enormous monster beyond common sense was taking shape.

Fragments and flesh, beast skeletons and human bones tangled together and began forming a gigantic body. As the fusion progressed, its size swelled exponentially.

Before long, the incomplete giant—finished, or rather only half-formed while rampaging out of control—mercilessly smashed through the tower's ceiling and outer walls, revealing its overwhelming form.

[Giant Fusion Chimera(Lv.???)]

[Status: Rampaging / Uncontrollable]

"What the hell is that..."

Toby collapsed to the ground, his hand trembling around his sword.

I clicked my tongue as I looked at the creature emerging through the rising dust.

'Crazy old bastard. He really decided to go all the way.'

Because Malach's control had collapsed, it was an incomplete creature that couldn't even form a proper body.

But its sheer size was practically a disaster.

Its bulk pierced through the laboratory ceiling.

Its grotesque appearance looked as though dozens of magical beasts had been tangled together.

Hundreds of bones clung together to form an enormous rib cage, while limbs of wildly different thicknesses protruded grotesquely from its body.

It could only be described as a heap of trash formed from the grudges of everything that had died inside this tower.

On top of that, unstable mana raged around it, pressing down even the surrounding air so heavily that it was difficult to breathe.

"KUOOOOOOOOOO-!"

A grotesque roar like hundreds of vocal cords tearing apart at once.

The tower's outer wall crumbled like a sandcastle from a single roar.

As the mercenaries were helplessly pushed back by the violent wind, Rena charged forward and brought her enormous greatsword down toward one of its forelegs.

"Don't retreat! Attack!"

CLAAANG!

Rena's full-powered strike smashed into the creature's leg and shattered its thick bones. The mercenaries also raised their fighting spirit and unleashed magic, arrows, and sword strikes.

The physical attacks definitely dealt damage.

But.

CRACKCRACKCRACK.

Red mana swirled around the wounded area, then sucked in the tower debris and bone fragments scattered across the floor like a vacuum cleaner and filled the wound in an instant.

"Damn it! That regeneration speed makes no sense!"

"P-Platoon Leader! Physical attacks are useless!"

Desperate shouts echoed throughout the tower.

It might have been a half-finished rampaging creature beyond Malach's control, but against its overwhelming mass and nearly limitless regeneration, tactics themselves were meaningless.

Reacting to the attacks against it, the Chimera flashed dozens of red eyes and turned its head toward Rena and the mercenaries.

Then it raised a massive forepaw as large as a building pillar.

If that much mass crushed down on them, human bodies would be flattened instantly.

"Everyone, defensive formation...!"

Rena turned her greatsword sideways, preparing to deflect its forepaw, but if she took that mass head-on, the outcome was obvious.

I sighed and strode forward through the formation.

"Are you insane? Get back here!"

Rena shouted in shock.

But I didn't stop. With Rena's group behind me, I stood tall directly beneath the center of that enormous shadow.

Then I raised my head and looked straight up at the massive forepaw falling toward me.

'Isn't this exactly when I'm supposed to use that title?'

My gaze shifted toward the new title quietly sitting in the corner of my vision.

WHOOOOSH-!

The enormous forepaw came crashing down toward the top of my head like lightning.

Just before Rena squeezed her eyes shut and Toby nearly fainted foaming at the mouth.

[Title: 'Heir of Multiple Bloodlines' effect activates!]

[The cross-species composite(Chimera) feels a strong sense of kinship and goodwill toward you.]

CREEEEAK-!

Right in front of me, less than a handspan away.

The Chimera's enormous forepaw stopped as if it were a lie.

As though it had struck an invisible wall of glass.

"...Huh?"

A dumbfounded sound escaped Rena's mouth.

The mercenaries held their breath, unable to believe their eyes.

The hundreds of skulls making up the Chimera all tilted their heads toward me at once.

Within the chaotic mana where hundreds of different wills were entangled, only the intent to attack me had been switched off as though someone had flipped a switch.

If anything, there was even a faint sense of familiarity in the mana circling around me.

'So this is what "friendly" meant.'

I let out a dry laugh as I looked at the huge claw frozen before me.

The gigantic beast that had been craving slaughter only moments ago was now hesitating, unsure what to do.

"H-Holy..."

"Just what did you do, Sir Arcanus...?! To overwhelm a monster with sheer presence alone...!"

Toby muttered as though worshiping me, nearly in tears.

Even Rena stared at my back with an expression of utter shock.

In reality, rather than submitting, it was more like the Chimera had encountered an attack target it inexplicably liked and started buffering.

There was no time to correct the misunderstanding.

The title [Heir of Multiple Bloodlines] merely excluded me from its attack targets. It didn't mean the creature was under control.

The Chimera only hesitated to attack me. It was still completely uncontrollable, smashing the tower's remains and radiating killing intent toward the other mercenaries.

"KUOOR!"

Having stopped its attack toward me, the Chimera jerked its head away in irritation and swung its enormous forepaw toward the tower's outer wall.

BOOOOM!

The wall shattered like paper, and the debris was once again sucked into its body.

It merely refused to attack me. It was still rampaging.

At this rate, the tower would completely collapse and either bury all of us beneath the rubble or simply make the creature even larger.

[Precise Observation(EX) activates.]

[Skill: 'Mana Sensitivity(Lv.3)' activates in conjunction.]

My vision flashed as the Chimera's outer layer became transparent.

And I clicked my tongue.

'What is this, spaghetti code?'

Hundreds, thousands of red mana circuits were tangled together without any pattern whatsoever.

Apparently Malach had crammed everything together in a hurry, because the quality of the fusion was atrocious.

But deep within that tangled mess.

Far inside the abyss of the Chimera's chest, I could see a core that was binding this hopeless mass into a single entity.

That core had to be its weakness.

The problem was that it was safely protected at the deepest point beneath the Chimera's thick outer layer and hundreds of layers of bone.

No matter how much we slashed at it from the outside, it would simply absorb debris and regenerate over and over.

Then there was only one answer.

"Platoon Leader."

I called quietly without turning my head.

Rena flinched and answered.

"Do you have a way?"

"Yes. When I give the signal, strike the lower-right side of that thing, the joint of its shoulder blade, with everything you have. You need to draw its attention completely over there."

Rena didn't ask why.

She looked at me with complete trust in the insight of someone who appeared to be controlling this overwhelming monster.

"...Understood."

I gripped the hilt of my bastard sword and stared at the Chimera's threatening maw.

"Now."

At my command, Rena and the mercenaries simultaneously unleashed magic, arrows, and sword strikes at the Chimera's right shoulder.

The sudden concentrated barrage made its enormous body stagger violently.

"KUWAAARGH!"

Its attention, which had been confused by me, instantly shifted toward them.

The Chimera roared furiously and opened its enormous maw wide as though intending to swallow Rena's entire group whole.

A horrific mouth like the gates of hell, formed by dozens of skulls fused together.

A vortex of pitch-black mana began swirling inside it.

At that exact moment.

[Skill: Shadow Leap(Lv.3) activated!]

I sprang into the air as though launched.

There was only one target.

The Chimera's wide-open mouth aimed toward Rena.

"SIR ARCANUUUUUUS-!"

Leaving Toby's scream behind me, I was sucked straight into the Chimera's gaping maw as though voluntarily becoming its prey.

"Grrrluk? KUOOOOR!"

When a foreign object invaded its mouth, the Chimera thrashed violently in confusion.

The chunks of flesh serving as its esophagus and stomach walls writhed and tried to crush me.

[The cross-species composite(Chimera) recognizes you as one of its kind.]

[Internal compression attack canceled.]

"Ha! Yeah, that's what I thought!"

The flesh that had been closing in from every direction suddenly recoiled just before touching my body.

While the Chimera twisted its jaw in confusion, I slid deeper inside along a structure resembling its esophagus.

'Ugh, this smells fucking awful.'

Pitch-black darkness filled my vision, surrounded by the slimy interior of flesh.

The stench of rot and blood was overwhelming.

At this moment alone, having my sense of smell restored felt like a curse.

Standing in the middle of the bizarre interior space dripping with mucus, I cleared my throat experimentally and spoke in an authoritative voice.

"Ahem. Sit! Roll over!"

"Grrrluk."

Naturally, nothing happened.

Apparently feeling goodwill toward me and obeying me as a master were completely different things.

'...Well, whatever. Not attacking me is good enough.'

I began cutting through the sticky flesh as necessary and descending toward the creature's depths.

Even with [Precise Observation] active, the interior of the Chimera was far more horribly tangled than it had looked from outside.

'Where the hell is the core?'

Because debris was being absorbed endlessly, the internal structure was changing wildly in real time.

It was like being trapped inside a maze whose terrain constantly shifted, making it difficult to pinpoint the location of the core I'd seen earlier.

Then.

Clatter. Rattle.

Amid the grotesque pulsations filling every direction, I heard an oddly familiar scraping sound.

'Hm?'

I turned my head toward the sound.

The Chimera's inner wall.

In the middle of that revolting wall of flesh where countless bones and chunks of meat were tangled together.

A large skull with two protruding horns was half-buried inside it.

"...Orc Skeleton!"

I'd neutralized him and left him lying in the third-floor storeroom earlier, but it seemed he'd been sucked in along with the tower debris when the fusion vortex swallowed everything.

His skull was firmly fused into the Chimera's inner wall, but his jaw alone had somehow remained free and was desperately clacking.

Clatter! Clatter!

As though calling me.

I approached and spoke to him.

"You're alive! Well, I wouldn't exactly call this being okay..."

His skull clacked with difficulty as he turned his gaze toward the deep darkness inside the wall of flesh.

As though trying to show me the way to something inside.

"You know where the core is?"

Nod!

His skull gave a tiny nod.