Chapter 76
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Invader II
Shin No-a
The aircraft carrier proudly boasted by the Magical Girl Council (40 tons, equipped with kitchen and recreational facilities, formerly used as a fishery purification vessel before being commissioned as an aircraft carrier, launched in 1996) arrived at the target waters in less than two hours.
The magical girls immediately struck poses and began fishing. They displayed the skills of seasoned fishermen.
"Myaah~ We were running low on food anyway, so I was thinking about going fishing meow."
"By the way, Undertaker. I've heard rumors that there's an awakened one with prophetic abilities in Korea. Is that true? You're moving with certainty that anomalies would appear at sea this time too."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"That's a secret. But at least this time, it wasn't a prophet who told me—it was a Constellation."
"A Constellation...? Ah, those gods that only exist on the Korean Peninsula."
The magical girl nodded as if she understood.
It might seem surprising, but the Japanese awakened ones didn't harbor any particular suspicion about why Constellations were so actively operating only on the Korean Peninsula. They seemed to think of them as a kind of land deity.
Though right now they were wearing strange outfits and immersed in magical girl cosplay ecstasy, before the Void fully erupted, everyone had been people with strong 'spiritual sensitivity.' Spirit mediums or shrine maidens.
"......!"
While enjoying their fishing, the quiet magical girl perked up her ears and pointed at the sky.
"Myaah? What's wrong meow, Ciel?"
"Hm?"
The people aboard the aircraft carrier looked up. Before long, their eyes all grew wide.
A UFO was falling from the sky.
"Myaah?! W-what is that meow?"
"...Good heavens."
Kwarurururuk!
The UFO tore through Earth's fragile atmosphere as it fell. However, from an altitude of 600 meters, its speed rapidly slowed. As if to welcome the alien visit, waves churned violently from the sea.
With a tremendous splash that shook the surrounding area, the UFO landed—no, made water contact with the sea.
The tsunami generated by the UFO rocked our aircraft carrier.
"Myaaaah! Save the cat meow!"
"Deceleration—Balance—Defense."
Tilt—
The hull that had nearly capsized regained its balance thanks to the group's magic.
Amidst the spray of water obscuring our vision, the massive form of the UFO slowly emerged on the surface.
"My god. Undertaker's words were true. An anomaly really did descend from the sky."
"......! ......!"
"Astonishment. Evidence for the hypothesis that the origin of anomalies may be space. Necessary. Prepare paper."
"There's no academic society to review it even if you publish a paper meow! Or rather, we should question whether it's really an anomaly meow. Isn't it an actual alien?"
I wiped the seawater from my face and spoke calmly.
"First, prepare for battle. We need to roll the gacha to see if they're good aliens or bad aliens."
"Hm."
"Ah, that's true meow."
The shock was brief. Including myself, the other party members immediately assumed battle readiness.
"Warning. Presence detected."
At the moment the blind magical girl, specialized in reconnaissance and detection, murmured those words, a hissing sound came from the UFO as steam billowed out.
Unlike the previous iteration where all the aliens inside the UFO had already been annihilated, this time there was clearly a sense of life.
"......."
"......."
Everyone held their breath at what might be humanity's first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Beyond the water vapor and steam, shadows stirred.
The smell of gasoline suddenly wafted from somewhere and clung to our faces.
The blind magical girl murmured.
"Approaching."
Kuuuuuung!
Before those words even finished, the enemy beyond the steam leaped into the sky in an instant and landed on the aircraft carrier.
Tremendous leaping power. And if the other party had intended to have a friendly conversation, this was certainly an approach they should have avoided.
"It's an enemy!"
"I-it was a bad alien meow!"
Aboard the violently shaking hull, the lifeform presumed to be an alien extended its arms.
-Kyaaaaaaaak!
Perhaps that was the alien's way of saying 'hug me' with both arms spread wide.
However, the alien didn't have two arms but eight, and where fingers should have been, one-meter-long scythes were attached. There were quite a few issues with interpreting that as an embrace of good will.
Consequently, even if I made the following judgment, it wouldn't be an overreaction.
"Engage in combat!"
Chaaang! My blade carefully deflected the eight scythe strikes the alien swung. More accurately, I tried to carefully deflect them.
'Wait, what kind of strength is this?'
A heavy blow. I had assumed it would be at the Ten-Legged level at best, but I nearly lost my sword from just one of the alien's scythe strikes.
What was amazing wasn't just its strength.
-Kyaaaaaaak!
The eight large scythes naturally attached to its eight arms launched a dazzling and rapid barrage of attacks. It was difficult to grasp the exact principles, but the alien's scythe work undoubtedly contained a highly developed martial system.
One strike, two strikes, three strikes. Just when I thought I'd blocked, a scythe came from the side. I raised my aura to slice off an arm entirely, but it didn't work at all.
"Damn it."
It wasn't easy to draw such an exclamation from me in the 99th iteration.
The extraterrestrial lifeform was clearly more powerful than the Ten-Legged. Not just ordinarily powerful, but six times, seven times—no, beyond easy calculation.
"U-Undertaker? Are you okay meow?"
"Not really! This bastard is strong!"
"This is serious. Ciel, turn the ship around. We need to retreat and request reinforcements. I'll join Undertaker—."
The magical girls' judgment was correct, but such is the world—just because one is right doesn't mean others will follow reason.
Kung! Kuuung, kung!
Extraterrestrial lifeforms rained down from the UFO onto the aircraft carrier like a squall. That alone made the hull shake uncontrollably, and waves surged in from all directions.
-Kyaaaaaaaak! Kyak!
Just the extraterrestrial lifeforms in my immediate vision numbered seven. Their skin was melting like candle wax. Right there, from their melting, liquefying skin, a gasoline-like smell was wafting intensely.
"Shit."
Cold sweat ran down my neck muscles, seasoned through dozens of regressions, for the first time in a while. Dealing with one was already challenging, and now seven more were added?
But sweat alone wasn't enough to convey the urgency of the current situation. Suddenly, the corridor scene I had seen inside the UFO during the 98th iteration flashed through my mind.
The corridor covered in corpses.
'Then, doesn't that mean there are at least about 120 of these bastards?'
At that moment, screams erupted from the magical girls' side.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
Assessing the situation with a sidelong glance, the magical girls were being helplessly slaughtered by the aliens' attacks.
A festival of scythe strikes. A child whose characteristic speech pattern included 'meow' had her limbs severed and sent flying into the air. Along with the black umbrella she always carried.
"Damn,"
"......!"
Even at their comrade's death, the magical girls tried to maintain composure. Sparks flew everywhere, and magic ran rampant. However, every 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 7 seconds, their bodies were sliced apart, scattering blood in all directions.
[Undertaker, flee—.]
Thud! Even the blind magical girl who had survived until the end to send a telepathic message had her upper body pierced by a tail that burst through, and her breath was cut off. Blood poured from the extraterrestrial lifeform's sharp tail.
Time until total annihilation: merely 11 seconds.
They hadn't been negligent in their vigilance. The awakened ones' level wasn't low.
Though not as much as me, a regressor, they were all awakened ones who had been through enough to be trusted by the Council. Veterans who had survived until now in Japan, one of the non-human realms.
Yet they were wiped out. In 11 seconds.
"Goddamn it—."
Coarse curses spilled from my mouth in succession after a long time. A nostalgic sensation. Yet a feeling that was certainly not welcome. Yes, that same fucked-up feeling I used to experience every day when fighting those goddamn octopus-headed Ten-Legged creatures spread from the capillaries throughout my body and filled my mouth.
"You bastards!"
Somehow, I raised my qi to the maximum and swung my sword. With the party annihilated, if I stayed here even one second longer, I'd be surrounded. I had to take down at least the one in front of me right now.
-Kyaaaaaaak!
Pouring all my qi at once, I thrust everything into my blade. Kwaaang! Rather than a sword strike, it was a brute force attack, and the extraterrestrial lifeform was scattered into chunks of flesh.
-Kyak?
-Kyaaaaaaak!
Was the death of their comrade a shock to them? The extraterrestrial lifeforms on the ship, now numbering in the dozens, all turned to look at me at once.
A clear sign of wariness.
They began to surround me slowly... very slowly, as if driving prey into a corner.
Slither.
I also stepped backward, trying to keep the angle of the encirclement below 180 degrees.
As if displeased by that, the extraterrestrial lifeforms chattered "Kyak" "Kyaaa" but didn't immediately charge at me. I had essentially gained a concession.
-.......
The sound of waves echoed quietly. Maintaining distance from each other, leaving behind the corpses of four magical girls and one extraterrestrial lifeform between us, a tense silence flowed.
"......."
If I wanted to retreat here, I could.
The extraterrestrial lifeforms were certainly strong and fast. But they didn't seem capable of keeping up with my speed. The magical girls must have also felt that difference at the end, which was why they told me to [flee].
However.
'I can't let these monstrous bastards, 120 of them, loose in the world.'
Grip.
I tightened my grip on the sword handle. I adjusted my stance. Only one word repeated in my head.
Mutual destruction.
'I'll rather collect as much information as possible in this iteration and aim for the next.'
Above all, the decisive reason I couldn't decide to retreat was that there existed 'something that had annihilated all 120 of these powerful extraterrestrial lifeforms.'
'I must confirm that being's face. If possible, their characteristics and abilities too!'
Whether it was a queen of this extraterrestrial lifeform group, or an entirely different entity, I currently had no information collected.
It was rather fortunate that I had finally realized the existence of such an unprecedented anomaly. In previous iterations, that anomaly had crashed into the East Sea and vanished without a trace, meaning it had been lying dormant somewhere without my knowledge.
At the very least, it would be a Continent-class, with a high probability of Five Oceans-class danger level.
I couldn't even imagine how many civilians and awakened ones it must have killed during all that time outside my sight.
'No matter how many iterations it takes, whether it takes decades or centuries, I will definitely slaughter them all!'
Just as I was steeling myself with desperate resolve.
-Kyaaaaaak....
-Kyak, Kyaaak. Kyak......?
Hesitation.
The extraterrestrial lifeforms that I thought would attack at any moment faltered. It would have been nice if they were suddenly intimidated by my spirit, but that didn't seem to be the reason.
Their eight arms trembled, and their tails thrashed back and forth chaotically.
They stretched their necks long like deer, looking up and crying "Kyak! Kyaaak!" while twisting their limbs and scratching at their own skin.
In other words, they were acting as if.
'...they're in agony?'
Thud. One extraterrestrial lifeform flipped over and lay down. Just as a moon bear rubs its back against a tree, that strange lifeform also rubbed its entire body against the aircraft carrier's deck.
The difference from a bear was that it was rubbing while screaming in excruciating pain.
-Kyaaaaaaaak!
-Kyaaak! Kyak, Kyaaaaaak!
Subsequently, other extraterrestrial lifeforms also began to thrash about. Some slammed themselves into the bridge, and others even used the scythes on their arms to thinly slice and peel off their own skin.
"Wait, what on earth......?"
Why were the creatures that had just exuded the presence of the strongest lifeforms suddenly acting like this?
I lowered my sword tip in confusion. When I approached one and poked its belly, it slumped without any reaction.
"Ehh......"
Looking closely, the skin that had been melting like candle wax earlier had now evolved beyond candle wax into a chocolate fountain.
Flesh was streaming down. As if doused in acid, the skin was literally melting away.
-Kyaaaak, aaaaaak......!
They writhed their bodies and went berserk, but the extraterrestrial lifeforms' chocolate fountain show only accelerated. Muscle tissue was exposed, bones that should have been four times thicker than humans' were starkly revealed, and finally, grotesque internal organs were laid bare.
And all of that also melted and flowed away.
After only 2 minutes had passed, only slime-like clumps remained blackened on the aircraft carrier deck.
"Ehhh......"
Just in case, I even went inside the UFO hull, but there was no plot twist. Only the number had decreased, but corpses of aliens were lined up in the corridors just like in the 98th iteration.
The strange lifeforms that might have been the universe's strongest species... were all... dead.
When humanity hadn't done anything yet.
"......."
Splash.
As a test, I scooped up seawater in my palm and sprinkled it on a relatively intact corpse.
Then something amazing happened. The extraterrestrial lifeform's skin tissue instantly melted and flowed away.
"Eeeeehhhh......"
I tested once more. This time, instead of seawater, I brought bottled water from the aircraft carrier and splashed it.
The test result was identical. The extraterrestrial lifeform's skin, bones, and internal organs turned into a viscous liquid.
"Ah......"
And I realized. Why these monstrous lifeforms had been annihilated. Why these creatures hadn't shown their faces in previous iterations.
"These bastards' weakness is 'water'......?"
Then they shouldn't have come to Earth. You crazy bastards.
5
I named this extraterrestrial lifeform the 'Battle Race.' And after the 99th iteration, I completely stopped caring about the UFO and Battle Race that fell into the East Sea.
Even if the Battle Race was powerful, even if they were vicious enough to challenge even me, a regressor, it didn't matter at all.
Their weakness is water.
It might seem obvious, but 71% of Earth's surface is covered in water. And while this might be strange from the extraterrestrial lifeforms' perspective, on Earth, H₂O falls from the sky quite often. Sometimes it even continues for days on end.
Ah, you don't know? You aliens. This is called the 'summer rainy season.'
'How can a lifeform's weakness be water?'
It was truly bizarre, but considering that water is a very rare substance in this vast universe, perhaps humanity and lifeforms on Earth were the strange ones.
"Ah, G-Guild Master! Look over there! A shooting star......!"
"Hm."
There were iterations where I occasionally witnessed meteor showers when near the East Sea, and I would watch the night sky with rather complicated eyes.
The fact that these anomalies, which might have become the greatest enemies of my regression life, were diving into the East Sea and getting massacred en masse every iteration was, well. A somewhat strange feeling.
'...But what if the Battle Race aren't actually anomalies but real aliens?'
What if that UFO was merely a tiny scout ship of the aliens and there's a main force?
What if they realize their weakness is water and create some high-technology raincoat, wrapping themselves up completely and invade again?
And then humanity and anomalies on Earth together get destroyed by the Battle Race's invasion?
"M-Make a wish. Quickly make a wish on the shooting star, Guild Master. If you pray before it falls, it comes true!"
At Sim Ah-ryeon's special skill of wheedling, I raised both hands in surrender.
"Fine, whatever. Let's pray."
If a full-scale alien invasion does happen, what can be done? I'll just have to regress again and film a space war this time.
Praying that such an unfortunate event wouldn't occur, I respectfully joined my hands together.
'Just skip over Earth, alien friends. I don't know what planet your home is, but I guarantee it's less shitty than our neighborhood.'
Twinkle—
As if acknowledging my wish, a shooting star sparkled in the East Sea of Year 9.
- Invader. End.
I'm an Infinite Regressor Spinning Tales