That enemy had originally been our comrade. It went on a rampage, ate its allies, and caused much damage.
However, there were also inexplicable points. Its way of fighting was based on orderly martial laws, not the beast-like use of power.
Yet, despite having the reason and the martial arts that multiplied its immense power manifold, the enemy had walked right into the line of fire of '[Cyst Burst]'. There was no way the enemy didn't know its power.
Perhaps, like Katroi's evasion techniques, only the body remembered the way of fighting while the head wasn't thinking of anything. That's what we thought.
But what if that wasn't the case?
'[Cyst Burst]' was unleashed. The epicenter changed the terrain, becoming a massive crater. Nothing remained. Neither the armored enemy nor the many comrades—not a single thing was left.
Within that emptiness, a single point of red appeared.
I thought I misread it. I stared until my eyes were wide. Something was trying to be born from the place where everything should have been annihilated.
Someone fired '[Cyst Burst]'. They fired again and again into the same spot in succession. But somewhere inside, I felt it was useless.
No matter how many times it was destroyed, it was born time and again. Red metal grew into the shape of a human. Neither Quinn nor the main body was anywhere to be found. It was being created from nothing.
What is this? What are we fighting?
The anger and sadness that had filled my heart until then receded, replaced by a pressure that felt like it would crush me. I felt an inorganic aura from that armor. At first, I thought it lacked emotion, but no. It was so different that it felt transparent and invisible. That transparency overlapped hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times—innumerable layers—attacking me like water filling the sea, like the water pressure of the deep ocean.
I'll be crushed by the pressure of the aura. I'll drown. Just as I truly thought that, a large shadow fell from above.
It was a Kraken's tentacle. The monster rampaging on this island wasn't the only one. Even while we were fighting like this, it had been slowly advancing inland.
An attack from completely outside our awareness. It was swung down near the crater. The red armor didn't even try to avoid it, and was pinned beneath the giant tentacle.
But I didn't think the situation had improved. In fact, the aura emitted by the armor didn't waver in the slightest, and things developed into a situation that went far beyond our expectations.
The tentacle that had struck the armor began to be covered in red crystals.
I thought it had infected the Kraken with the Almeiza Machine and caused an acute outbreak. But looking closely, that wasn't it. The Kraken's regenerative power was still intact. No matter how much virus was sent into its body, it would be instantly regenerated and expelled.
Therefore, it wasn't an acute outbreak. Instead, "red armor" was simply multiplying and covering the epidermis, as if wrapping it.
It wasn't using the power of a virus to rebuild the Kraken's body. But then, where was the aura to create that red metal being squeezed from? How could it produce such a massive amount of aura that it could erode the Kraken's giant body? An abnormality was occurring that was unthinkable by the common sense of Nen abilities.
The Kraken thrashed and went wild, trying to rip off the armor. Though some armor peeled off from the impact, the erosion didn't stop. Finally, the entire body was covered in armor.
The Kraken can neutralize the Almeiza Machine. With its regenerative power, it can remove the affected area from its body before the acute outbreak spreads. However, that is a result of regeneration, not immunity to infection.
What would happen if it were wrapped in armor as if to hide its outer skin, and the affected area was sealed inside so it couldn't escape?
Gradually, the Kraken's form began to change. With a sound like breaking fresh wood, the giant body—vast as an island—transformed. It was a sight that made me doubt my sanity, like a child kneading clay.
The tentacles twisted, several of them braided together, becoming four. The torso narrowed in the middle, and protrusions appeared at the top. It rose up like a beast walking on four legs, then stood upright on two.
It had a head, a torso, arms, and legs. A giant red statue that barely formed a human shape.
It ate the Kraken whole. Perhaps it even obtained its regenerative ability.
The colossus slowly held out one hand. On that palm, a flower bud grew. A flower as large as a castle began to glow blue as it spun.
I, who had been staring blankly as if watching a movie, was pulled back to reality. My main body was being pulled. It was magnetism. A powerful magnetic force was sucking me toward that flower.
I clung to a nearby rocky area. But not all my comrades could deal with it the same way. The comrades on the beach flew into the air. An immense number of dots were "falling" toward the flower. In reality, they were flying into the sky, but they were being pulled by a force so strong they lost even their sense of up and down.
I realized that it had intended to do this from the start. The enemy didn't need to fight seriously. No, it didn't even need to fight. No matter how the situation transitioned, the final plan was to suck us all in like this.
The arrival of the Kraken and the timing of the rampaging individual were no coincidence. Most likely, the enemy had been waiting for a long time. It had been lurking inside us until the time was ripe. It probably didn't matter if the opponent it ate was a giant squid. It simply showed its face because an appropriate development occurred. Or perhaps it thought to collect the main bodies before they were killed by the squid.
It was an inescapable fate.
"AAAAAAAAAA!!"
Everything is useless. The thread snaps. The wind stops. The sand falls.
A vortex swirls.
"Gragg! Chel! Toku!"
It was the surge of clashing magnetic fields. That bud-like organ creating the magnetism wasn't just a powerful magnet. It pulled in not only ferromagnetic metals like iron but other metals without discrimination. It was the influence of the complexly intertwined, swirling magnetic fields and the electromagnetic induction they generated.
A flashback occurred. My vision was stretched. The beach, the sea, the sky, me, my comrades, and the colossus—they all lost their original forms as if mixing paint. They began to swirl around the blue flower. Swallowing the screams of agony, they disappeared into the center point.
I have seen this. I have seen this vortex many times. Is it possible he... his true identity is...
My thoughts wavered. I was at my limit. My hand slipped. I fell. I was swallowed. I was no different from a small piece of trash flushed down a drain. I spun around as I headed toward the end.
However, my body didn't get sucked into the vortex; instead, I fell to the ground. Like waking from a dream, the hallucination vanished. What happened? I looked around timidly.
The flower had stopped spinning. Wrapped around the red colossus, as if to restrain it, were several tentacles. They were the tentacles of a giant squid.
It was the intrusion of a new Kraken. Furthermore, it was clearly larger than the individual I had seen earlier. Its appearance was also bizarre. Its giant body mostly took the form of a squid, but there were unnatural lumps and bumps all over. Looking closely, countless squids were swimming inside the epidermis.
Regenerative squids that could fill the sea had fused into one body. It was no normal structure. Numerous eyeballs writhed about, beaks that should have been hidden at the base of the legs grew from various parts of the body, and far more than ten tentacles stretched out at random.
It was truly a grotesque monster. The red colossus writhed to shake off the tentacles, but there was no sense of resistance. In terms of strength, the colossus was superior, and it didn't look like its movements were sealed by the restraint. Yet, as if it were a ghost or a 3D hologram, the clinging tentacles wouldn't leave.
Such was the power of its regeneration. Just as before, the colossus stretched out its hands to erode the Kraken with armor to eat it, but this time it didn't work. The armor was ripped away along with the skin, and the erosion didn't progress at all. On the contrary, the colossus was the one being absorbed.
With the power of regeneration, it was 'healing' the colossus back to its proper form. The colossus slowly changed shape, returning to the form of a squid as if rewinding time.
Strong. As expected, its rank as a Calamity's ability was above the Almeiza Machine. It was of the highest class of strength among the enemies we had encountered so far. That's why it was reliable.
The red armor misjudged the enemy's strength. It was a being born from within us. No matter how much common-sense-defying power it possessed, there was a limit to the information it could know. Even if it was an absolute powerhouse from our perspective, there are countless Calamities that surpass it. That is the common sense of this land, this sea.
Once the squid monster defeats the colossus, we will likely be the next to be attacked. We weren't saved by any means, and it wasn't an ally. But for now, defeating the colossus had to take priority over everything else. That is something that must never be allowed to exist. If it can be killed, I could even worship a mass of countless squids as a god.
The shape of the colossus was collapsing. It raised a hand as if asking for help. From there, a pillar of light rose up, piercing the heavens.
It was '[Sacrificial Cradle]'. It wasn't a technique that would work on the regenerative squids. Furthermore, it was firing in a completely irrelevant direction. Had it stood in such a predicament that it could no longer make normal judgments?
Piercing the clouds, the pillar of light that straightaway bored through the sky "turned red."
'[Sacrificial Cradle]' is a type of Nen bullet, and since its beam is composed of aura, it is theoretically possible to metallize it using the Almeiza Machine. However, the scale was ridiculous; it seemed realistically impossible.
It was a tower that soared infinitely high, and it was a spear. The spear fell in a way that would involve the colossus itself.
But no matter how giant a spear pierced it, it wasn't enough to kill the fused regenerative squids. It was certainly an attack of an extraordinary magnitude, but if it was only that, I might have just been stunned.
When I saw the tip of the spear, I realized the true aim of that attack. The point of the falling spear had become a flower bud.
This wasn't a spear. A caliber like the sun. An endless barrel. A giant, pale blue glowing bud. A dark crimson weapon that makes destruction bloom.
"Rail... gun..."
The muzzle pierced the earth, and only light remained.