Chapter 283 ·Turning point (46)

Turning 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󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄁󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄀󠄁󠄀󠄂point (46)

Cystus's grotesquely mutated body was left with only his lower half after losing his upper torso. At the raw stump, thick blood intermittently spurted out.

Sticky bodily fluids, flying through the air still tinged with sweltering heat, oxidized into black streaks before raining down onto the permafrost that was starting to freeze again. Next, the lower half lost its balance and toppled onto the ground.

In a semi-conscious state, I stared blankly at it. My vision was red. It kept turning redder, the outlines blurring.

For a short while, my mind wasn't working; I didn't even know what I was doing. Then I began to sense something strange. And soon, I realized what it was. I wasn't breathing. As if someone was strangling me.

The instant my brain registered that, I vomited out everything that had clogged my throat.

"U-uek—!"

Chunks of flesh from who-knows-where, mixed with blood, hit the ground with a wet smack. I should have been able to breathe now that I'd spat it all out. But I still couldn't draw breath.

Only then did I realize that I still felt time moving slowly. I felt my heart still pounding like mad. My hands were shaking so violently they moved on their own, beyond my control.

Even the sounds I heard seemed odd. When my field of vision abruptly tilted, I realized I had lost my footing and collapsed. With my suit's functions down, I couldn't see how much time was left on the HUD for the stimulant. I wasn't sure, but it should have run out by now.

'An... antidote. I need to inject it right away...!'

Unlike Canna's battle stimulants, which had virtually no side effects, mine forcibly heightened my senses, so I had to use a neutralizer afterward to eliminate the residues left by the battle stimulant.

Having taken two such stimulants, it was only natural for my body to be wrecked. With trembling hands, I barely managed to retrieve the auto-injector filled with the neutralizer. I nearly dropped it several times but somehow managed to get it out. Now that my glove was gone, all I had to do was press it against my exposed skin.

Just before I pressed the auto-injector to my chest, the tip snagged on my tattered suit. I ended up dropping the injector.

'... No, please.'

Thud. Clatter. I watched in dismay as the neutralizer slid away, scraping along the floor. I desperately reached out, but couldn't reach it.

As I gurgled and tried desperately to crawl, someone grabbed me and forcibly turned my body. My vision was nearly blacked out, so I couldn't tell who it was.

A monster? A mutant that had crawled out from the Nest? Anything but that.

In my current condition, I couldn't even take down a Lamprey from a creep, let alone a ghoul. While ominous thoughts overtook my mind, suddenly I sensed the tightness in my chest ease.

My fading consciousness abruptly rebounded, my scattered senses coming back together, and time, which had seemed stuck, started moving properly again.

When my blackened vision snapped back into focus, I saw her. Celestia, clutching the auto-injector she'd just emptied into my chest, urgently shouted:

"Hyun-woo! Hold on just a bit! I injected the neutralizer! So please...!"

"Krrgh...! Augh...!"

I couldn't respond to Celestia. Just before I could say anything, a burning — no, searing pain slammed into me.

The best I could do against the blinding pain, intense enough to cloud my mind again, was clutch my chest over the core radiating direct heat and curl up.

As the neutralizer began to purge the residual battle stimulants from my system, my breathing eased, but the price for having borrowed energy from the future was hitting me all at once.

Beyond just feeling twisted, it was like I was being torn apart, and on top of that, an unending sensation as if my entire body was burning enveloped me. I would've rather lost consciousness, but I held onto my fading senses out of fear I might never wake up if I did.

"We need to administer advanced medical supply...!"

Celestia's voice trembled with anxiety.

"If we do it now, it'll make things worse!"

I heard the cover of a mechanical device opening and a light jump. Nadia's urgent voice pleaded.

"Your body's not in a state that can be fixed with medical supplies. Your nervous system's been badly damaged. If you use advanced medical supply now, your system will be stuck like this forever. Wait until you've recovered a bit more. Medicine isn't a cure-all."

I sensed someone sitting beside me. Likely Nadia.

"Hyun-woo, it's okay. I'm here. I'll stick a bio-tissue cell to your arm as a stopgap, so just focus on your breathing and rest. You don't have to fight anymore."

My heart hurt so much I hadn't even noticed how much my arm hurt. When the bio-tissue cell was patched on, a chilling, refreshing sensation spread through me.

Only then did I realize — my arm hurt just as much as the rest. Apparently, they'd also taken down the Nest, which meant more people were approaching me.

"Celestia, please get in touch with the orbital fleet. You're the only one with authority, so I can't get through on my comms. We need to confirm things so we can get out of here."

"... Yes. I'll check right away."

While Celestia issued orders, Nadia stayed at my side, trying to reassure me. The tension that seemed never-ending gradually eased in her voice. Mentally, at least. My physical state showed no sign of recovery, no matter how much time passed.

'... Recovering immediately would be stranger.'

I was a body beyond my limits. Complaining about not healing quickly after pushing myself to the extreme would be greedy. But my mind was calming. Being with others was definitely better than being alone.

As I lay there, I felt like I was about to fall, so I tried deep breathing, pushing against the floor with my hand. When I tried to get up, my trembling arms couldn't support me.

Thankfully, Nadia was waiting by my side and helped me, so I didn't end up slumping helplessly.

"Don't strain yourself, just rest. Roxy is coming from Albatross with a container. Once we board it and get on Albatross, it'll be over. We can go to Earth."

"... Earth."

"That's right, Earth. We said we'd start over there, remember?"

I nodded with some effort. Nadia was right. Everything we'd endured so far was for that.

I glanced around. In a cracked voice, I asked:

"... Cystus...?"

"He's dead. I confirmed his life reading was totally gone. Just in case, Eric and the soldiers finished him off for good."

Nadia shifted aside so I could see. Beyond where she'd moved, the remains of what once was Cystus lay in pieces, even more shattered than in my last memory.

A literally shattered state. The staff that was the cause of his mutation and source of his supernatural power was destroyed as his upper body burst apart, leaving only fragments. The eyeballs attached to the staff had turned to black ash, swirling in the wind.

'... I won. I actually won.'

There was nothing particularly meaningful about having survived. I just thought, so I survived, huh. I couldn't feel much because it was so unreal — I didn't know what emotion to show.

I knew I should be happy, but it felt like I'd run out of fuel for that sort of emotion. So I just kept affirming that I survived, and Cystus was dead.

There are people who act as if they're gods. But they only play at it. Cystus was no different.

"Hyun-woo, have some water. That bio-tissue cell still needs time to work, so let me help you."

Nadia poured sips from a water pack into my mouth. My parched insides, chilled by the external temperature, welcomed the water with a cheer. Every swallow tasted strongly of blood, but that quickly faded.

As Nadia wiped my mouth, she looked around. Wreckage of the flagship, bio-tissue covering the floor, molten and cracked terrain, and craters. What was once level ground had become rugged terrain.

"...... You didn't just use one battle stimulant, did you? You used two. Carrot kept telling you to only use one."

I looked at Nadia at her words. Only then did I see her face. She was barely holding back tears, biting her lip hard to stifle her sorrow.

Nadia's own condition wasn't normal either. She sported marks of emergency aid all over, most tinged with blood. She, too, seemed to have used a stimulant—there were marks where a neutralizer had been injected.

"... If not for that, I wouldn't have won. Even after being hit by a rail cannon, I survived—Kuh, cough...! Whew... I survived. Because Cystus mutated suddenly, that was the only chance I had to kill him...."

Every time I coughed, my body screamed with pain; I swallowed my groans. Cystus's abilities, none of which could be underestimated, included precognition, a black grasp, and the power to copy and overlap objects as afterimages.

If I hadn't turned aside that energy blast at the end, it would've been me left with only a lower half, not Cystus.

"... How did you win? I was in combat so I barely saw, but I did see something like a beam shooting up into the sky. You weren't aiming at the sky from the start, so... did you deflect it?"

"I put everything I had into bending it. I couldn't repel it. Just bending it ruined my hand like this."

My hand had been burned to the point of being charred black. If you even brushed it, it would've crumbled, blood welling from the cracks.

With bio-tissue cells attached, it was healing now, but before that, it looked horrific. No, even now it was ghastly.

"... It doesn't make sense that you could do anything at all."

Nadia muttered blankly, her arms still wrapped around me and refusing to let go. She didn't actually disbelieve me. What I'd done simply far exceeded her threshold for immediate reaction, resulting in a delay. She had no grounds to doubt — the evidence was everywhere.

Just as Nadia opened her mouth again, Carry popped out from the wrecked power loader. The guy came flying straight toward me wearing an expression like he was about to burst into tears.

「(☍д⁰)」

"Carry."

Carry spun around me in a frenzy. Rather than just spinning, he was scanning me with his visual sensors. Each pass triggered more alerts, finally flashing red and then blacking out. That meant I was in critical condition.

As Carry's number one fan, I wanted to pet and reassure him for all his hard work, but, unable to move a finger, all I could manage was silent praise.

Apparently that wasn't enough for Carry, who started scolding me in a fiery show. When he saw how much pain I was in, he panicked and stopped scolding me. Then he went to Nadia and opened a transport box.

Inside were emergency medical tools and supplies for contingencies. Still parched, I hydrated with another water pack. Multipurpose Unit 1 and 2, perched on top of Carry, clicked their pincers as if to say, "Let us know if you need anything."

As I took a breather, the others began to gather. Canna, Eric, soldiers, engineers, and Celestia too. Roxy and Orca were coming down from the Albatross storage bay with a giant cargo container.

Nobody had escaped unscathed. We were all in rough shape. I looked to where the cause of our condition lay. The mobile fortress-type giant mutant, the Nest. It had collapsed, immobile in a crawling posture.

Around the huge chunks of flesh that had burst from it, the bodies of various mutants that must have lived inside the Nest were sprawled out. Oddly, all the bodies lay facing the same direction, as if they'd died while trying to reach us.

"These things suddenly charged toward Hyun-woo's location. They ignored everything we did to stop them."

Eric, his head bandaged, approached. Having retrieved my spear from the distance, he stuck it into the ground next to me and continued:

"It seems Cystus, the leader you defeated, ordered them directly. We desperately stopped them so they wouldn't interfere."

"Ah."

I nodded. No wonder Cystus kept screaming. He was howling to call the Nest.

Thanks to Eric and the others holding them off, I managed to deal with Cystus. Had the mutants swarmed while I fought, even with my amplified senses, I wouldn't have been able to handle them all and would have been killed by Cystus's attacks.

"You saved me, Eric."

"That's what I should say. Thanks to you, Hyun-woo, we're alive. We couldn't have stopped Cystus without you."

Cystus. He was dead. He met his end, true to his reputation — destroying everything around him, including himself. Burning everything to a crisp, just to protect his pride.

"I just got through to the fleet in orbit. The pureblood supremacist fleet has retreated under Myosotis's counterattack, and the warp gate construction is almost done. All that's left is to set the coordinates."

Celestia shared the good news, easing some of the tension in everyone's faces. Nadia stood up with Carry.

"That's a relief. Hyun-woo, wait here. I'll bring back the power loader. It's missing an arm, but it'll carry someone your size. Let's go, Carry."

Carry looked back at me, seemingly worried, then gave me a "stay put" gesture and followed Nadia.

Canna and the soldiers didn't lower their guard for a moment. Even though they'd taken down the Nest, they couldn't be sure every mutant inside was dead. Sporadic gunshots and death cries continued.

Celestia resolutely stayed by my side, as if she wouldn't leave until Nadia returned. Though her expression had relaxed, she never really let her guard down — ready to aim her Linear Rifle at a moment's notice.

Roxy, piloting the Orca, set the container down heavily on the ground. *Thud*. That weighty sound was as good as a rally signal. Those who'd spread out to deal with mutants began to regather.

- Friend, let's get going. The Albatross's medical team is on standby, so once you board, they can treat your injuries.

Roxy sounded worn out from the battle too, though he still maintained his usual light tone. That was his specialty.

Nadia powered up the power loader from standby, prepared to lift me, and as the others gathered at the container's door, Celestia offered me her hand.

"Hyun-woo, take my hand."

I smiled at Celestia's kindness and reached for her—then, at that moment, a strange sensation swept over me, and my face stiffened. It wasn't my imagination. Right after feeling something off, I heard a voice that should never be heard.

「...... I told you over and over. You cannot leave this ice moon.」

"... Cystus?!"

Could he still not be dead? I hurriedly checked the surroundings, but sensed nothing. All my perception picked up was an echo. The echo was created by the black ash left as the eyeballs burned.

I realized instinctively. Cystus was already dead, but the energy he contained hadn't fully dissipated yet.

That energy was now just residual particles, not enough to trigger any new event. But it was enough to leave a lingering thought, a voice echoing with his last will.

「Worship. Worship our god. Praise the new master of the era. Kneel. The times have changed. Offer up. Offer your impure lives as tribute.」

With those words, the black ash vanished without a trace. Instead, a disturbing tremor began to travel through the ground.

Drrrrrrrr—!

A sudden earthquake struck, sending all of us reeling for balance. Just before I toppled pathetically, I grabbed the spear Eric had stuck beside me and managed to steady myself.

"Hyun-woo!"

"Everyone, get back!"

The ground split with a jagged crack, slabs of earth shifting and jutting out wildly like the face of a cliff.

I didn't need a scanner to know where this anomaly originated. No, it would've been impossible not to notice. Some overwhelmingly colossal presence was forcibly drawing everyone's gaze.

「Warning! High-energy source detected at depth 9, Archive sub-level! Immediate withdrawal strongly recommended! Right now!」

Orca relayed the alert with atypical urgency, broadcasting to everyone present. Underground area, depth 9, high-energy source detected. Every one of those terms drummed dread into my ears.

- ...... Oh, hell.

Roxy sighed, genuinely serious. It was the first time I'd seen him react like that. The rest of us felt the same. The reason became clear as we saw the source of the earthquake—no, the thing causing it.

The Mithrim Montes mountains, where the Archive was. That was no longer recognizable Titan terrain. Now dominating the landscape was something so gigantic the word "giant" didn't suffice.

What new horror is appearing now? I cursed bitterly, gripping my spear—then let my grip go slack. Just seeing it killed my will to fight.

- ...... What the hell is that?

Worship. Our god. For a moment, Cystus's last words rang in my mind. There was only one thing he would call a god.

"... The holy tree."

A colossal tree-like form burst through Titan's surface, revealing itself. I'd seen something like it before. At the crossroads I saw in a vision.

-

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