Chapter 125 Behind.

Chapter 125: 125 Behind.

"Easier said than done," I gasped, forcing the Octoporian to upright itself, only for Delirium to make his reappearance.

He slammed his massive bulk directly into the machine’s underbelly, driving us backward.

I hastily plunged four of the tentacles deep into the frozen earth to brace us, digging massive, trenches through the lawn as Delirium’s momentum carried us toward the edge of the property.

"Just give me three seconds!" I yelled, every muscle in my body quivering as I funneled my magnetic powers into the Octoporian’s limbs, wrapping the remaining four tentacles tightly around Delirium’s torso to hold him in place.

I mentally gripped the heavy layers of scrap aircraft paneling I’d bolted over the Octoporian’s central sphere.

With a violent wrench, I tore the makeshift armor apart, peeling it back like the petals of a metal flower to completely expose the main plasma emitter to the open air.

Inside the central sphere, the heavy plasma coils began to glow a blinding, furious violet, crackling with the whirring whine of gathering energy.

"Get out of there, Miles!" Rhea screamed over the comms.

"Might... be a problem," I grunted, my teeth gritted as Delirium thrashed against my metallic grip, his jaws snapping inches from my exposed alcove.

Suddenly, a localized blizzard of freezing blue slammed into Delirium’s side. The creature shrieked, rearing back as a thick layer of permafrost instantly grew across his scales.

I spotted Glacia soaring above him, one hand unloading her powers onto the monster while her other arm held Psyren tight.

"Now, Miles! Clear the firing line!" Rhea shouted.

For a fraction of a second, I hesitated. But no. I had to trust my team.

At once, I completely released my magnetic hold on the Octoporian’s scrap armor.

I let my makeshift pilot alcove fall apart around me, and with a concentrated magnetic push off the machine’s heavy chassis, I launched myself high into the night sky.

I looked down just in time to see dozens of Delirium’s erratic eyes lock onto my form.

He snarled, snapping the ice holding him, and razor-sharp bone-tentacles burst from his back like popped zits, rocketing upward to skewer me.

"STOP!"

The sheer psychic power of Psyren’s command slammed through the air with physical, concussive force.

My own head rang like I’d just taken a right hook from a heavyweight champion, but the effect on Delirium’s scrambled brain was devastating.

It was clear she still couldn’t hold it, but those few seconds were all we needed.

The monster froze completely, his massive body seizing and quivering helplessly under the weight of that single word.

And then, Rhea hit the firing sequence.

A blinding beam of super-heated violet plasma erupted from the Octoporian’s central sphere, slamming point-blank into Delirium’s chest.

The creature shrieked with unimaginable pain, extra mouths ripping their way into existence all over his body just to properly express his torment.

The shockwave of the blast shattered every remaining window on the chalet’s facade, raining glass down like falling stars.

Delirium’s body roiled and bubbled. The radiation of the plasma looked like it was actively fighting the mutagen in his blood. His flesh cracked, red lightning buzzing and snapping like bullwhips across his boiling form.

I dropped back down to the ground, watching the monster writhe in absolute agony.

Before my eyes, he literally began to rot. The rapid regeneration couldn’t keep up with the cellular destruction; his mutated flesh melted like hot wax to reveal smoking, charred bone.

Ah. Now that was a sight to bring a warm smile to my face.

But sooner than I’d have liked, the blinding beam from the Octoporian sputtered and faded.

The machine’s central sphere went dark, completely tapped out. The creature howled, crackling red energy still buzzing over his melting flesh, but his massive bulk was visibly diminished.

"The emitter’s dry. That’s all the juice I had," Rhea panted over the comms. "Sorry, Miles."

"Don’t be," I said, stretching my hand out and lifting dozens of sharp, heavy scraps of the discarded aircraft armor into the air around me. "I’ll take it from here."

Delirium swung his horrific, half-melted head down toward me, and I rewarded his attention by sending a barrage of jagged metal into him like a hail of industrial razor blades.

He shrieked, staggering backward as the heavy steel ripped right through his chest cavity.

"Not regenerating anymore, are you?" I noted aloud, watching thick, viscous green blood ooze from his wounds and sizzle on the snow. "Good. It’s about damn time."

Delirium raised a massive, rotting foot and tried to bring it down on me, but I easily skimmed backward, my magnetic powers gliding me effortlessly out of range.

He tried to lunge after me, but I threw another violent storm of metal shards directly into his cluster of eyes.

The monster screamed, rearing back on his hind legs, clutching his ruined face.

I took that precious moment of distraction to rise back into the air.

I gathered the heaviest, sharpest pieces of remaining metal from the battlefield—shards of the warbots, twisted support beams, and the jagged edges of my discarded armor—locking them tightly together with my magnetic field.

I compressed the mass until it formed a massive spear of solid scrap steel.

I could already see that Delirium wasn’t long for this world. Huge chunks of him were actively sloughing off, rotting away as whatever unstable chemistry fueled the serum finally lost its cohesion.

I hovered in the air, waiting patiently until he lowered his hands and looked back up at me with his remaining, hateful eyes.

I drew my arm back. The massive metal spear quivered in the air beside me, its jagged tip glistening in the pale moonlight.

Ah.

I truly lived for moments like this.

I threw my arm forward, and the spear followed. The massive metal slamming directly through Delirium’s cluster of eyes and burying itself deep into his brain.

Delirium swayed where he stood, frozen in shock. I gave the end of the spear one final, light magnetic tap.

Like a felled titan, Delirium finally toppled backward away from the chalet. Dirt and ground bellowed up as the beast hit the ground and solidified my bill.

Oh my God, this was gonna be expensive.

I let my arm drop to my side, exhaling heavily as Delirium’s colossal corpse continued to rapidly decay, his flesh aggressively melting into a puddle of toxic green sludge and smoking bone.

Well, that was either going to do wonders for fertilizing the lawn, or it was going to ensure absolutely nothing ever grew there again. Oh well. Nothing to be done about it now, I supposed.

I felt the brush of a freezing wind and turned my head to find Glacia gently descending to my side.

"That was most impressive, sir," she said, her posture rigidly formal despite the exhaustion in her eyes.

"Yeah. That worked out," I sighed, turning to look back at the chalet. I grimaced, floating slowly back down to the earth. "Kind of..."

"Aw, c’mon, boss," Psyren said as she hopped out of Glacia’s icy grasp and landed lightly on the scorched lawn. "What’s a bit of property damage to kill a knockoff Godzilla? Besides! Now we have a great excuse to remodel the lobby!"

I wasn’t exactly jumping with joy at the prospect, seeing as I’d be the one footing the contractor bills. But given the alternatives, I’d gladly trade some structural damage to the building to keep the girls safe.

It was then that I noticed the massive, warty throgg waddling happily along right behind Psyren.

"Psyren!" I barked, instantly grabbing a heavy chunk of jagged metal with my magnetic powers and raising it like a baseball bat. "Behind you!"